Qin Yi didn't expect Ye Ling to rush in. He quickly jumped down and supported her, asking, "Why did you come in... how do you feel?"
Ye Ling was silent for a moment before answering, "It's nothing, I just can't turn back into human form. It feels like something is blocking me."
Qin Yi noticed that her voice sounded normal, which eased his mind a bit. It seemed that the monsters had fought fiercely in this formation before without feeling much pain, unlike the torturous demon-refining formation. It was likely that they only ended up dying and losing their blood essence.
But if that was the case, how would they deal with the monsters chasing after them?
Qin Yi's gaze fell on the stone tablet, examining it closely.
"Refining humans for self-cultivation, all nine chapters, only two remain."
The first chapter explained how to set up the demon-refining and pill-taking formation. It emphasized that ordinary people lose part of the life essence of the demon pill when they kill demons for pills, which is quite a waste. Instead, they should lure the demons into the formation and separate the demon pill from them. It didn't mention how to lure them, so it seemed that Dong Huazi's method of transforming demons was a different approach.
Just from this chapter, the cruelty and malice embedded in the words made Qin Yi shiver. Ye Ling's snake body trembled, as if recalling extremely painful memories.
The second chapter discussed the formation for refining the essence of demon blood, which was the formation they were currently in. It required a large amount of demon blood; perhaps a pool of it could only yield a drop of essence, meaning thousands of demons needed to be killed.
The refined blood could be used to cultivate demon lotuses, while the true essence was meant for the demons raised by oneself, similar to how humans refine their blood to strengthen their bodies.
The chapter particularly noted that if there were ancient rare species like the Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, or Teng Snake, taking their blood essence would have countless benefits.
Finally, it mentioned regretfully that only two chapters of this method remained, and the other seven were unknown.
Qin Yi understood why the peach was flying towards Ye Ling; the master of this place must have discovered that a Teng Snake was here and wanted to refine her!
Ye Ling trembled, and her eyes turned red.
An intense feeling of anger surged from her heart, coursing through her veins as if her blood was boiling. She wanted to kill.
Qin Yi felt a chill as well. He had thought Dong Huazi was a very malicious person, but compared to this master, he seemed like a pure novice. No wonder someone would so generously carve their methods for others to learn; they clearly had ill intentions!
This master was the true culprit behind everything. It wasn't an exaggeration to say he was the mastermind behind the Southern Li incident, and now he wanted to kill Ye Ling!
Malice rose in Qin Yi's heart. If you want to kill Ye Ling, then don’t blame us for turning the tables on you...
He scanned the stone tablet once more, remembered a key point, and smashed it to pieces with a stick: "We can't leave it to harm others."
Ye Ling whispered, "Thank you, brother."
"Do you want revenge?" Qin Yi asked quietly.
Ye Ling turned her head sharply, her eyes filled with a fierce determination that Qin Yi had never seen before: "I want to kill him!"
"You can't win." Qin Yi glanced back at the dust cloud from the monsters chasing them.
The time spent reading the inscriptions was short, just a few breaths, but the monsters were already very close. He urged, "Go get the blood lotus. If you have the chance, take the blood essence below as well, then run. Hide outside this area; that would be the best revenge. I’ll handle things here."
Ye Ling was taken aback: "Brother, you..."
"I'll control the formation. It’s not convenient for you to stay here. Go."
"Be careful, brother." Ye Ling gritted her teeth, turned quickly, and in the blink of an eye, she flew over the blood pool and plucked the blood lotus.
At the same time, a whirlpool suddenly formed in the pool, as if a dragon was roaring, and a powerful suction pulled Ye Ling into the water.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and Qin Yi couldn't get to her in time.
"Roar!" A demon tiger had already chased close, excited and fierce, lunging for Qin Yi's neck.
Countless demons were closing in!
Qin Yi had no time to check on Ye Ling. He ducked to avoid several spells and reached into a hollow at the base of a giant tree, where he found a core stone for the formation. Before destroying the stone tablet, he had already found what he was looking for in the text.
He had been learning about formations all along, so he grasped the key points very quickly.
With a creak, the formation's lines, like human meridians, suddenly began to bulge.
The demon tiger's claws were already resting on Qin Yi's shoulder, and he could smell the foul stench from its mouth.
There were countless demons surrounding him, not even giving him a chance to dodge!
In a critical moment!
The demon tiger suddenly let out a fierce roar, then stopped, its expression turning extremely painful.
Qin Yi slowly stood up and gently pushed, causing the demon tiger to collapse to the ground. All the surrounding demons, including the countless monsters gathering from all directions, rolled on the ground in agony, howling in pain.
Qin Yi gasped for breath. That was close! Thankfully, the formation had no delay; otherwise, he would have been doomed...
The peach was just an external object, not part of the formation itself, but something the master had created to use alongside it. The formation itself had some means of restricting the demons. Even the first chapter's pill-taking formation had this effect; the second chapter couldn’t be any different. The one who set up the formation had deliberately closed off this part of the function to let the demons fight each other, increasing the extraction of blood essence, replacing it with the peach's ability to confuse their minds.
Qin Yi could naturally activate that part of the function.
He picked up the wolf-tooth club and looked at the wailing demons across the mountains.
Such a scene of collective mourning was very moving, but Qin Yi found that he felt no sympathy at all.
These demons were not Ye Ling. Their first reaction upon seeing humans was to eat them. His speed was not great; if Ye Ling hadn't led him away, he would have been surrounded and eaten to the bone by now.
Just as Ming He said, they were not his kind, so there was nothing to feel sorry for.
Qin Yi rushed down the slope and quickly reached the edge of the pool. He saw a fierce whirlpool rising in the center, as if something was stirring up chaos below, accompanied by the sound of a dragon's roar and Ye Ling's painful groans.
There was a guardian below! Ye Ling was attacked while trying to take the lotus and was dragged down!
Qin Yi cursed himself for being careless. He thought the water was calm and that there were only demons outside, not realizing there was a guardian beast lurking beneath...
This was bad; how could he help? The blood pool was dark, thick, and heavy. If he jumped in, he would be blind, unable to see anything, and his movements would likely be sluggish. Wouldn't he just be adding to the chaos?
Liu Su said, "There's a blood flood dragon below. It should be a creature raised by the master here; the collected essence is to nourish it."
"What level is it?"
"Peak transformation stage, about to break through. It has the strength to fight Ming He, and Ye Ling is far from being its match. She can only rely on speed to survive..."
Qin Yi stomped his foot and shouted at the pool, "Ye Ling, lure it up! I can help!"
All he could see was the whirlpool swirling chaotically, and he could vaguely hear the sounds of a fierce battle below, blood splattering everywhere, and the thick blood even made a "splashing" sound. Ye Ling, drenched in blood, was swept up by the whirlpool, and at the same time, a blood-colored dragon head followed her, seemingly pulling her back down.
Qin Yi had just raised his wolf-tooth club when the dragon and snake tangled back together.
He had no other options; he could only hold up the club and wait, hoping the dragon head would pop up again so he could strike.
As he grew anxious, he suddenly felt something flying down from the sky.
Looking up, it was the peach.
What was going on with this peach?
"Whatever it is, this is your last chance," Liu Su urged. "I'll teach you a heart-clearing technique to avoid being influenced by this peach. After that, it's up to you!"
(End of Chapter)