Chapter 89: Qian Prefecture's Sacred Land

At this very moment, that surnamed-Long cultivator was filled with lingering terror, pouring all his strength into his streak of light, wishing he could sprout four wings and fly far away from this place. He kept glancing back, terrified that that Nascent Soul old monster might be chasing after him.

Just as his heart was pounding with dread, he felt a wave of inexplicable chill rushing up from behind.

He turned his head again and saw, in the distance, a blue ice phoenix gracefully flying toward him. The ice phoenix was completely crystalline and translucent, its twin wings spread wide, tracing a deep blue line across the sky. It was eerily beautiful and bone-piercingly cold.

The surnamed-Long cultivator was instantly stricken with terror. He could even feel that the moment his extended Divine Sense touched that ice phoenix, it was frozen stiff, growing sluggish.

But there was no time for him to think.

In the blink of an eye, the ice phoenix pierced straight through his body.

The chill erupted, frost spreading everywhere. Before the surnamed-Long cultivator could even let out a scream, his entire body transformed into an ice sculpture, all signs of life severed.

Jiuyou emerged from the gray light, raising a hand to beckon. He pulled the surnamed-Long cultivator's soul out and tucked it into his sleeve, not letting the man's physical body go to waste either. There was no expression on his face, as if he had simply crushed an ant underfoot.

Then, Jiuyou spun around, transforming into a gray streak of light, and gave chase in the direction that enchanting female cultivator had fled.

That enchanting female cultivator, unaware that the surnamed-Long cultivator was already dead, was still fleeing for her life in a frenzy. As she flew, she silently prayed in her heart, hoping that the surnamed-Long cultivator could hold off that Nascent Soul old monster for just a bit longer, so she could escape with her life.

Just as her mind was wandering, a burst of fierce wind whipped past her cheek.

In the next instant, gray light exploded before her eyes. A powerful blast of air directly severed her streak of light, sending her entire body tumbling through the air, spinning and flipping uncontrollably.

The female cultivator steadied herself in sheer terror, but before she could even take in her surroundings, a long, slender hand had already clamped firmly around her throat, hoisting her entire body up.

"Sp... spare me, Senior..."

The female cultivator's voice was hoarse, struggling to breathe. Her long, fair legs kicked wildly in the air. Both of her jade-like hands frantically clawed at the large hand gripping her throat, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree, utterly unmovable.

Jiuyou's face was expressionless, a faint glimmer of dark light flashing in his eyes.

He had no interest whatsoever in hearing such pleas for mercy. His powerful Divine Sense surged into the female cultivator's sea of consciousness like a tidal wave, unhesitatingly casting a soul-searching technique. The female cultivator's entire body convulsed, her eyes rolling back until only the whites showed, and garbled, hoarse moans spilled from her mouth.

After a moment, Jiuyou withdrew his Divine Sense and closed his eyes briefly to digest the information.

He then cross-referenced the memories of those two Golden Core cultivators from earlier with what he had just obtained, confirmed everything was accurate, and only then slowly opened his eyes.

As for that enchanting female cultivator, she had long since passed out from the impact of his powerful Divine Sense. Even if she woke up later, she would be nothing more than a walking corpse, spending her days in a daze.

Jiuyou's palm tightened slightly around her throat, ending her life, and stowed away her corpse. He pulled out her soul, tucked it into his sleeve, treating it all as replenishment for the soul power he had expended casting the Blood Soul Evasion.

But the souls of a few mere Golden Core cultivators were nothing but a drop in the bucket compared to the soul power he had consumed. They could hardly satisfy his greedy appetite.

Still, it wasn't as if he had gained nothing.

From the memories of these three people, he had obtained a great deal of information he had been wanting to know.

The region he currently found himself in was indeed that never-before-heard-of Qian Prefecture.

This Qian Prefecture was immensely vast.

Judging solely from the memories of these three Golden Core cultivators, a single kingdom's territory alone was incomparably larger than all of Lingchuan by who knows how many times. And that was merely the extent of what they could know. Just how large the true Qian Prefecture really was, how could mere three Golden Core cultivators possibly fathom it?

The entirety of Qian Prefecture was primarily divided into three great nations: Dayong, Dahan, and Dayan.

These three nations were extremely prosperous, with sect forces standing in dense clusters. Even among the imperial clans, there were many cultivators. Behind each of the three great imperial clans stood a Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator, their might pressing down upon an entire nation.

Jiuyou's current location was within the Yunmiao Mountain Range of the Dayong Dynasty, at a place called Qiaoling Mountain, which served as an entrance to a secret realm.

Aside from the three great dynasties, there were also the nine great sects, possessing utterly terrifying hidden foundations, distributed across the three nations.

Based solely on what these three Golden Core cultivators knew, each of those nine great sects had at least three to four Late Nascent Soul cultivators stationed within.

At least three to four!

Upon learning this, Jiuyou drew a sharp breath inwardly, though his face betrayed nothing.

One sect alone had at least three Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivators stationed within. In other words, any single one of them pulled out at random would be worth the entirety of all the cultivators in Lingchuan, or the whole Tianyuan Sea. And this was only what was openly displayed. The hidden foundations kept in the shadows would only be even more terrifying.

What was that business of the Abyssal Sea Allied Forces battling the Lingchuan Coalition Forces? Measured against the scale of all of Qian Prefecture, it was nothing more than two major sects grinding against each other. Utterly insignificant.

What shocked Jiuyou even more was that this world was not limited to just Qian Prefecture.

Besides the Blood Demon Valley to the east, there was the Northern Plains to the north, the Southern Frost to the south, and the Western Sea to the west.

Among these, apart from the Northern Plains and the Southern Frost, regarding the Western Sea, many of its sea regions had been occupied by Qian Prefecture cultivators and used as inner seas. These were rich in all kinds of sea-based cultivation resources, somewhat similar to the Tianyuan Sea, yet far vaster and far more bountiful than it.

These pieces of information were practically common knowledge among cultivators in Qian Prefecture, hardly any secret at all. That was why Jiuyou could easily obtain them from the memories of these three Golden Core cultivators.

As for deeper, more profound secrets, those were not things these three juniors could possibly know.

Jiuyou furrowed his brow slightly and dug through the memories once more, retrieving a piece of information that particularly caught his attention.

Among the nine great sects, the Blood Abyss Sect was also counted.

The Blood Abyss Sect was located in Dayong, being one of Dayong's three great sects. Its openly known Late Nascent Soul cultivators numbered as many as three. That middle-aged man who had pursued him back in Lingchuan was most likely one of those three. And that Elder Guhao, who had died in the Blood Demon Valley, also hailed from this sect.

The terror lurking behind this Blood Abyss Sect was truly not to be underestimated.

Before he had sufficient strength, it was best to avoid provoking the high-level cultivators of this sect as much as possible. Especially now, when he had yet to recover his peak strength. Every step needed to be taken with greater caution.

Jiuyou retracted his thoughts and turned back to return to his original spot.

He raised a hand and sent out a burst of magical power, extracting the souls of those Foundation-Establishing cultivators who had been frozen to death, and stowed away their corpses as well. Together with the remains of those three Golden Core cultivators from earlier, he piled them all together haphazardly. These things, he had great use for.

Finally, he lowered his head to glance at the pool of water beneath his feet. This was the entrance to the Qiaoling Mountain secret realm.

Jiuyou raised his hand and sent out a stream of magical power. A powerful spiritual light directly destroyed the formation runes at the entrance, completely sealing it off.

He had already learned about this secret realm from his earlier soul-searching. It was nothing more than a low-grade secret realm, only producing some spiritual herbs used for refining Foundation-Establishing Pills. Utterly useless to him. As for those low-level cultivators trapped inside, he naturally had not a single word to say about them.

After doing all these "good deeds," Jiuyou transformed into a pitch-black streak of light and vanished into the horizon.

Now, his most urgent priority was to find a way to recover his depleted Essence Blood and restore his peak state.

And in the Blood Soul Art, there happened to be recorded such a sinister secret technique, named the "Essence Blood Pull." This secret technique was utterly vicious and insidious, yet it was also currently the only way for Jiuyou to quickly recover his Essence Blood.

To cast this technique, one must have at least the corpse of a cultivator of the same rank. Refine their physical body, extract the Essence Blood within, and condense it into an Essence Blood Stone. Then, consume the Essence Blood Stone into the body and refine it a second time, and one could rapidly recover Essence Blood.

In this process, if one could incorporate the bodies of dozens of mid-to-low-rank cultivators into the refining, the success rate of producing the Essence Blood Stone could be greatly increased.

However, the Essence Blood extracted from a cultivator of the same rank would also suffer some loss during the refining process. Therefore, for Jiuyou to fully recover his Essence Blood, he would need at least the corpses of two Early Nascent Soul cultivators.

After calculating all these dark and malicious schemes in his heart, Jiuyou's icy gaze slowly drifted toward the depths of the Yunmiao Mountain Range.

The sect of those three Golden Core cultivators lay within that mountain range.