A Will Eternal

“Holy Land!” Without even realizing what he was doing, Bai Xiaochun walked over to the edge of the blood waterfall he’d just spotted, and could immediately sense the powerful blood qi. To him, blood qi was very important to replenish his vital energy.

Taking in a deep breath, he felt his spirits lifting, and just when he was about to begin to absorb the blood qi, a sensation of crisis filled him. He immediately backed up, whereupon a boom echoed out from the spot where he had been standing.

A beam of blood-colored light, almost like sword qi, had slashed into that very spot. The surrounding plants and vegetation whipped back and forth from the blast, and a huge furrow was hewn out in the ground.

“Eee?” someone said. Then, a young man strode out from within the blood waterfall. He wore all red, and had an icily cold arrogance to him as he stared at Bai Xiaochun. “Screw off. You’re not allowed in this area!”

Bai Xiaochun immediately recognized the young man. It was Song Que. Immediately after issuing his command, he turned and walked back into the blood waterfall, where he sat back down cross-legged.

“So, this moron is here,” Bai Xiaochun thought. “Humph. What makes you think you’re so special? Back in the Fallen Sword World, you were crying for your mommy and daddy when I beat you up. Just wait until I get famous in the Blood Stream Sect, I’ll show you a thing or two. Humph!” Glaring hatefully, Bai Xiaochun decided that he would definitely find an opportunity to call Song Junwan ‘Big Sis’ in front of Song Que. That would definitely heap humiliation onto his head! [1. In this passage, the word Bai Xiaochun uses to insult Song Que is a common word for “lacks intelligence” that also contains the same character ‘que’ from his name, making for some clever wordplay.]

Eyes flickering coldly, he left. He walked along to visit some of the places he noticed that had especially strong blood qi, but every time he got close, someone would attack him and drive him away.

None of them were very polite at all, three of them even attacked him with completely murderous auras. If he hadn’t fled fast enough, it seemed likely that he would have been killed.

Bai Xiaochun grumbled to himself louder and louder at how overbearing these people were. All he wanted to do was breathe in some blood qi, not stake a claim to their territory.

Eventually, he arrived at Middle Peak Pavilion, where newly promoted Dharma protectors were supposed to check in. Waiting there for him was an old man in the late Foundation Establishment stage. After sizing Bai Xiaochun up, and realizing that he was at Mortal-Dao Foundation Establishment, a condescending expression appeared on his face, and he took the jade pendant from Bai Xiaochun. Then he handed him a new identity medallion, along with a crimson jade slip.

“That jade slip contains Middle Peak’s secret magic, the Blood Annihilation World. If you don’t understand the cultivation method, you can attend one of the monthly training sessions administered by a prime elder. It costs merit points to ask questions about the Dao, but if you lack merit points, you could always request a personal audience with a prime elder.

“As for your immortal's cave, we have 37 vacancies for Dharma protectors at the moment. Pick any one that you want. If you don't like what you see, and you think you’re strong enough, you can simply take an immortal's cave from someone else. Alright, that’s it, you can go now.” Waving his hand, he closed his eyes to meditate.

It all seemed overly simple to Bai Xiaochun, who took the two pieces of jade. After sending some divine sense into the medallion, he saw a map of Middle Peak, as well as notations on all the immortal's caves.

Considering it was morning, he decided to simply walk around and take in the sights. By the time evening fell, he’d had a chance to examine all of the immortal's caves in the Dharma protector district. Taken on their own, they were actually pretty nice, but compared to the other occupied caves, they were quite deficient in terms of blood qi.

However, he had no choice at the moment other than to select the best one he could find, and move in.

Looking around at his new immortal's cave, he had to admit that it was much better than the cave in the Inner Sect. However, he still didn’t think it measured up to the Spirit Stream Sect. Having no other options, he sighed and produced the blood-colored jade slip, which he scanned with spiritual power.

“Eee? Use blood qi to form a sword, transform it into a world of annihilation? Whether you're injured or you injure someone else, the blood qi that spills out will make the blood sword stronger. Now this is a secret magic!” Feeling a bit shocked, he studied the information in more detail, causing his face to flicker with various reactions. In the end, he was even more shocked than he had been at first, and thought back to when Song Que had attacked him with a blood sword in the Fallen Sword World.

“This blood sword is a secret legacy of Middle Peak. On Corpse peak, they refine corpses, on Nameless Peak they raise gargoyles, on Lesser Marsh Peak they have devilblood body refinement, and on Middle Peak, they have this blood sword Annihilation World!” Bai Xiaochun was shaken, and had to admit that in this regard, the Blood Stream Sect was a bit better than the Spirit Stream Sect. Here, the secret legacy techniques were given out to all qualified disciples to cultivate.

Clearly, the Blood Annihilation World was completely beyond ordinary. After further study, Bai Xiaochun came across a description of the origin of the blood sword.

“Long ago, one of the Blood Stream Sect patriarchs was studying the enormous hand when he suddenly received some inspiration. He created the blood sword Annihilation World, which was then amended and perfected by further generations. In the end, it became the secret magic of Middle Peak!”

After some more thought and study, he waved his right hand, causing all of his blood to suddenly stop flowing. Blood qi rose up from the ground around him, then began to form together into a shape in front of his finger. However, there was clearly not enough blood qi, and even after letting some time pass, there was no clear result.

Frowning, Bai Xiaochun dispersed the blood qi.

After some more thought, he studied the jade slip a bit more, and performed another test. However, the result was the same. There seemed to be some obstructions of some sort which were preventing a steady flow of blood qi.

“According to this jade slip, the first step in the blood sword is to extract all of the blood qi from your body, then transform it into sword qi, right in front of your finger. Then, you use the secret magic to change that foundation of sword qi into a blood sword....” He tried one more time, yet failed again.

“Why isn’t it working?” After thinking the matter through even more, he abandoned the method described in the jade slip and instead called upon the Undying Live Forever Technique. Instantly, the swirling blood qi in the area began to stream toward him and merge into his body.

In the space of a single breath, he then sent that blood qi toward the tip of his finger. There, it transformed into sword qi, one-third of a meter long.

It all happened very naturally and without any hindrance whatsoever. If any observer had been able to watch what was happening, they would have been struck mute. In the entire history of the Blood Stream Sect, there had never been a single Chosen who could form blood qi into sword qi in less than a day. Bai Xiaochun, despite having used an unorthodox method, had accomplished it in only a few breaths of time.

Bai Xiaochun examined the sword qi at the tip of his finger, and knew that he had succeeded by doing something outside of the box.

“The Blood Annihilation World is incredible, and is obviously a magic designed to control Undying Blood. However, nobody in the Blood Stream Sect has true Undying Blood, so they have to rely on blood qi, which they use to transform their own blood. Obviously, the result is an impure product. That’s why it requires extra blood qi, either by injuring someone else, or harming your own body. That’s the only way to increase the power.

“Perhaps after a very long period in which your blood is mixed with the blood qi, you might be able to eventually reach the final level of the Undying Codex, which is Undying Blood!

“However, that would be a very, very difficult method. The best thing to do would be to use one’s own Undying Blood to produce blood qi, then use that to form the sword qi. With that foundation, the strike of the blood sword would be strong enough to shake heaven and earth!

“Actually, my outside-the-box method wasn’t really correct either.” Taking a deep breath, he dispersed the sword qi, transforming it back into blood qi, which he absorbed into his body, then fused into his own flesh and blood. A tingling sensation washed through him. Then, instead of going on to practice the Undying Heavenly King, he performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and used the Blood Annihilation World mnemonic to try to extract the blood qi.

In that instant, his flesh and blood shrank down slightly, and at the same time, blood qi emerged!

That blood qi came from his Undying Gold Skin and his Undying Heavenly King, which he had carefully developed over time. Now, it was being used to produce blood qi that counted as Bai Xiaochun’s personal Undying Blood.

Based on his current cultivation base, it was impossible for Bai Xiaochun to actually create his own Undying Blood. However, by means of this secret magic, he was actually able to forcibly produce some blood qi.

It was scant, and yet, the summons from the enormous hand seemed to grow more intense as a result. Bai Xiaochun began to pant as he sent the stream of blood qi to the tip of his finger, where it transformed into sword qi!

This was the true Blood Annihilation World, or perhaps, the true Undying Blood sword!

Although it was only a sliver of the real thing, and perhaps couldn’t even compare to other Foundation Establishment cultivators, this strand of Undying Blood qi was crafted from countless ordinary bits of blood qi that had been refined into a state that could crush anything else as easily as dried weeds!

In the instant that sword qi appeared, all of the blood qi on Middle Peak began to seethe. Countless Foundation Establishment cultivators were shocked, and yet, had no idea what was causing the phenomenon.

Bai Xiaochun was panting with excitement, never having believed that he would actually succeed.

“This isn’t just a trump card, this is something I can use to form Undying Blood! With this, I should be able to make early contact with the Undying Blood level!!” Filled with excitement, he retracted his Undying Blood qi.

As he continued to practice, the days passed by.