Chapter 214: Staking Out the Blood Abyss Sect's Nascent Soul Cultivators

With the Blood Abyss Sect in mind, Jiuyou no longer hesitated. He transformed into a streak of golden light and sped toward Ganzhou.

The journey was quite smooth. He encountered no one, much less any Northern Plains Nascent Soul cultivators blocking his path.

A distance of hundreds of thousands of li was no longer far to him. With the Heaven and Earth Ring, he could replenish his spiritual qi at any time. It took only a single day's flight to reach the Ganzhou border.

In the past, even if he had reached the Nascent Soul Late Stage, he would never have dared consume his magical power so recklessly. But times had changed; with the Heaven and Earth Ring in hand, he had far more confidence.

Upon returning to Ganzhou, Jiuyou found the Blood Abyss Sect's mountain gate without much trouble.

After all, the sect was one of the Nine Great Sects of Ganzhou, a sacred ground of cultivation in the hearts of countless Demonic Path cultivators. Its mountain gate was massive, with spiritual light condensing like a heavy blood-red cloud that could be seen from afar, so it was not hard to find.

He stopped at the perimeter of the mountain gate. Rather than entering rashly, he observed from the outside for several days.

Although the Blood Abyss Sect followed the Demonic Path, its internal operations were not lax. It was heavily guarded.

Sneaking in with his methods would not be difficult. The truly tricky part was the array restrictions buried throughout the sect. In the outer ring alone, a cursory sweep of his Divine Sense combined with the Heaven and Earth Ring's perception detected no fewer than a hundred insidious, hidden restrictions.

These arrays were laid out with extreme ingenuity, tightly interlinked. Forcibly breaking them would inevitably waste a massive amount of time, not to mention that no one could guarantee they didn't carry markers. The moment he broke one, the enemy would instantly notice.

From what he knew, the Blood Abyss Sect had over thirty Nascent Soul cultivators on the surface, with three Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators holding down the fort. If he trespassed rashly and triggered the Protective Mountain Array, drawing the siege of dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators, even he might not escape unscathed. He decided not to rush, instead choosing to stake out the perimeter and wait for someone to wander off alone.

He waited for a full three months.

Finally, one day, a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator left the mountain gate alone. He hurried along, seemingly heading out on an errand.

Jiuyou didn't rush to strike. He waited until the man was about a thousand li from the sect before attacking suddenly. He killed the cultivator in a single blow, pocketing the nascent soul alongside the body, then quickly concealed himself and found another place to hide.

Before long, the Blood Abyss Sect dispatched three cultivators to investigate: two at the Nascent Soul Early Stage, and one at the Nascent Soul Late Stage.

Jiuyou didn't recognize the Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator and didn't know if it was Lu Luohan or the Blood Abyss Sect's Supreme Third Elder. He estimated that while he had the ability to slay all three, this location was too close to the Blood Abyss Sect. The shockwaves of a fight would inevitably alarm the mountain gate, and reinforcements would arrive in the blink of an eye. After weighing his options, he quietly retreated without exposing his tracks.

With their search yielding no results, the three had no choice but to return.

Several months later, Jiuyou caught the aura of another Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator. This person's concealment techniques were extremely advanced—an ordinary Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator likely wouldn't have noticed them—but to Jiuyou, they were as good as nonexistent. He waited until the cultivator was far from the sect before revealing himself, dispatching the man cleanly and efficiently.

The Blood Abyss Sect once again sent people to search. Jiuyou hid himself ahead of time, leaving absolutely no traces. After this repeated a few times, the Blood Abyss Sect finally realized they were being targeted and stopped sending Nascent Soul cultivators out alone.

It was only after a Middle Nascent Soul Stage cultivator was intercepted and killed by Jiuyou during an outing that the Blood Abyss Sect completely tightened their defenses.

After that, the Nascent Soul cultivators either patrolled in groups of three to five or traveled together, absolutely refusing to venture too far from the sect. Because Jiuyou exclusively targeted lone Nascent Soul cultivators, the Blood Abyss Sect elders—who normally dominated their respective territories—were plunged into a state of panic, leaving everyone fearing for their lives.

He waited in ambush for another half a year, but the sect acted with watertight caution, and he never found a suitable opportunity to strike.

Not long after, a beam of blood-red light suddenly shot into the sky from within the Blood Abyss Sect's mountain gate. Seeing it from afar, Jiuyou understood: the sect also had a Teleportation Array, and its quality appeared quite high. It seemed his original plan to cut off their external resource supplies had fallen through.

Later, he discovered that the Blood Abyss Sect had called in outside help. Nascent Soul cultivators from the Demon Fiend Sect and Evil Valley Heaven arrived in succession. The Blood Abyss Sect had obviously paid no small price to escape their predicament. After these people arrived, they laid down an even wider patrol net around the perimeter. They patrolled in shifts, sealing off almost every gap.

As long as Jiuyou didn't want to be found, these people naturally couldn't uncover his tracks. But he was also well aware that catching lone Nascent Soul cultivators again would not be so easy.

He had staked out the sect for a full year. Though he had harvested the souls of several Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivators, he was still a long way from gathering enough for his goal. The arrival of those outside cultivators made the situation even more gridlocked. If he acted rashly again, he could easily fall into an encirclement.

Jiuyou wasn't in a hurry to leave. He found a hidden mountain col on the outskirts to settle in, gazing from hundreds of li away at the mountain gate shrouded in blood-red light.

He lay in wait for another half a year, but during those six months, he still couldn't find an opportunity. The Blood Abyss Sect was operating flawlessly, handling even material supplies and requests for reinforcements directly through the Teleportation Array. It was extremely rare for a Nascent Soul elder to pass through the mountain gate, leaving him completely unable to make a move.

Since picking off isolated targets was no longer viable, Jiuyou didn't feel discouraged. After mulling it over, he came up with a new plan.

He lingered no more, turning and flying toward the Northern Plains.

Since there were no opportunities, he would create one.

Upon returning to the Northern Plains, he headed straight for the Tribal Alliance Headquarters. He met with Graceful quite smoothly. The girl was as warm-hearted as ever, but over two hundred years had passed; she was long past being that naive girl from back then and wasn't so easily fooled.

Jiuyou fabricated a story, claiming he was originally a cultivator from western Ganzhou and had forged a feud with the Blood Abyss Sect while traveling. At that time, he was only a Golden Core Cultivator, naturally powerless to contend with a Demonic Path behemoth like the Blood Abyss Sect. Chased all the way to the Northern Plains, he had been severely injured and on the verge of death, only managing to keep his life thanks to Graceful saving him.

Later, after his injuries healed, he left the Lingxi Tribe and the Northern Plains—to avoid implicating her, to seek revenge, and above all, to grow stronger. The journey was harrowing, filled with countless near-death escapes, forcing him to fight desperately for even the slightest stroke of fortune until he finally climbed to his current height.

Passing through the Northern Plains again by chance, he happened to see Graceful surrounded by the Blood Abyss Sect, so he stepped in to help without a second word. Afterward, he went to the Blood Abyss Sect's Headquarters, intending to settle the old grudge alone, only to find that a single person's strength was ultimately too thin. Coming back to the Northern Plains this time was precisely to borrow the strength of the major tribes to jointly eradicate the menace of the Blood Abyss Sect.

His words were half-true and half-false. Some of it was genuinely his own experience, and his tone was perfectly natural when he spoke. Coupled with his thousand years of worldly experience, it was impossible for anyone to spot any flaws.

After listening, Graceful's eyes held both admiration and heartache. She agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Afterward, she asked about the world outside the Northern Plains, just as she had back in the Lingxi Tribe. She asked what the sea in western Ganzhou looked like, how the people there lived, how the wind blew, and what the demonic beasts looked like.

Jiuyou answered one by one. His explanations were neither too deep nor too shallow, just enough for her to picture the outlines. As Graceful listened, light danced in her eyes, just like when she was young. Only back then, she was just a small Qi Refining Stage cultivator full of curiosity about the outside world; now, though she had power, she also carried far more responsibilities on her shoulders.

As they talked into the evening, the two stood beneath the setting sun on the plains. Graceful said that in the future, she definitely had to visit the Western Sea to see with her own eyes what that azure ocean looked like, and how much it resembled the sky she looked up at every day.

Jiuyou didn't agree, nor did he shake his head. He offered a tacit silence.

The wind blew across the plains, bringing down the last fading light. The girl stood there, looking into the distance, then at the man before her. It was as if she had already walked a very long road in her heart, seemingly dreaming of a beautiful future.

And he stood beside her, thinking absolutely nothing.