Chapter 10: Earth Essence Spirit Liquid
“Heh heh heh…”
The masked man could only let out a hoarse rasp, but the mockery in his exposed eyes was unmistakable.
Xia Yunxue’s fury surged ever higher. Her voice was as cold as frost. “This is your final chance. Who ordered you? What was your goal?”
The masked man responded with a sinister smile. Without any visible action, his body began to tremble violently as foul, dark blood oozed from all seven orifices.
“Hmph!”
Xia Yunxue crushed his neck without hesitation and flung his body aside like a rag doll. The corpse dissolved into a pool of blood, his soul utterly annihilated.
“People from the Blood Demon lineage,” she muttered grimly. Her expression darkened like storm clouds. These remnants of the demonic path were becoming far too brazen.
It was the first time Song Changsheng had ever seen such a terrifying side to his mother. In his memory, she had always been a gentle and elegant woman.
“Sheng’er, are you alright?”
Only after ensuring that Song Changying was safe did Xia Yunxue turn to examine Song Changsheng with eyes full of worry and tenderness.
When she discovered that his wounds were only superficial, she breathed a sigh of relief and embraced him tightly. She had already lost her husband, she could not afford to lose her only son as well.
Song Changsheng forced a smile. “Mother, I’m fine… but Uncle and the others…”
“It’s all my fault. I came too late.”
Xia Yunxue was filled with guilt. If she had arrived just a bit sooner… would everything have turned out differently?
“This isn’t your fault. No one could have expected those demonic cultivators to target us. Let’s gather the bodies of Uncle and the others first, before more trouble arises,” Song Changsheng said softly.
Together with the unconscious Song Changying, they returned to the ambush site. The area was now in utter ruin, fallen trees scattered everywhere.
Several corpses lay alone amid the wreckage.
Song Luding had been cleaved clean in two at the waist, his treasured bronze cauldron shattered beyond recognition.
Song Luzi’s corpse still bore an expression of rage, his eyes wide open in death. A gaping hole yawned in his chest, his heart had been ripped out.
Song Changjiu’s body lay headless, his skull nowhere in sight. Even in death, his hand clutched a broken sword with unyielding grip.
Faced with this tragic and heroic scene, Song Changsheng felt the world spinning around him. His legs nearly gave out. Not long ago, they had still been laughing and talking together.
He could still see Song Changjiu’s silly grin in his mind but now, they were forever separated by death. He had been only fifteen, just at the beginning of his life...
“Sigh… they shed their last drop of blood for the clan. I will report this to the family and request honor on their behalf.”
Xia Yunxue gave a light sigh. She had seen far too many such deaths. The Song Clan had paid in blood again and again over the years.
“But they’re already gone. What use are honors now?” Song Changsheng said, his voice low.
“Their families need that recognition.”
The Song Clan had endured for centuries, through countless wars. One of the reasons it still stood united was because of its firm system of rewards and punishments.
Never once had the clan allowed those who shed blood for it to be forgotten or unrewarded.
Song Changsheng nodded silently. He reverently collected the fallen’s remains and tidied up the battlefield. Afterward, Xia Yunxue personally escorted the children hiding in the cave back to the clan grounds.
The family held a grand funeral for the fallen, awarding honors and compensation based on merit. But the dead were gone, this was but a small comfort for the living.
The demonic cultivator attack shook the clan to its core. Even the Patriarch came out of seclusion.
After the funeral, Song Xianming personally issued a decree, sending Third Elder Song Luoyao and Fourth Elder Song Luohuai, along with the Law Enforcement Hall disciples and demon-subduing magical tools, to scour the surrounding Wangyue Mountain Range.
They conducted a sweeping search and unearthed a dozen demonic cultivators, but none were major figures, and no valuable intelligence was found. Frustrated, they could only return in disappointment.
But none of this had much to do with Song Changsheng, who was now focused on healing his injuries.
Due to his outstanding performance during the mission, and discovering dual and variant spiritual root seedlings, the clan awarded him with two hundred spirit stones and a second-rank Rejuvenation Pill.
With the help of the pill, his injuries recovered very quickly.
...
In the courtyard, Song Changsheng exhaled a long breath of turbid air, still a bit shaken.
“That second-rank spirit wine really isn’t something I should be drinking at my current level… I was lucky this time.”
He had been forced to drink several gulps of the potent wine he’d previously begged for his Fifth Uncle Song Luzhou. At that time, his spiritual power had been nearly depleted.
Fortunately, his parents had laid a solid foundation for him since childhood. His meridians were both wide and resilient. Combined with the fact that he’d been in a high-consumption state, he’d survived.
Otherwise, the overwhelming spiritual energy in second-rank wine might have caused him to explode on the spot. Even now, the thought left him with lingering fear.
It was a classic case of the ignorant charging ahead, his first life-or-death battle had left him heedless in the heat of the moment.
If faced with the same choice now, he would never dare drink so recklessly again.
Feeling that his injuries had mostly healed, Song Changsheng retrieved four storage pouches from his person.
These were taken from the four demonic cultivators he had slain. He had only kept their pouches and some weapons, gifting the rest to Song Luding’s descendants and to Song Changying.
“Let’s see what spoils my first true battle has brought me,” he murmured with some anticipation, focusing on breaking the seals.
Since the pouches’ owners were already dead, the restrictions lifted with little effort.
He checked the two fourth-layer Qi Refinement pouches first. They were astonishingly poor, only fifteen spirit stones between them, and aside from a few useful pills and ores, most contents were worthless junk.
The one from the eighth-layer cultivator was slightly better: fifty-two spirit stones, some refining materials, and a few demonic cultivation manuals.
He burned the manuals without hesitation, such sinister things were best destroyed.
Finally, he opened the pouch from the ninth-layer demonic cultivator, clearly a small leader. This one had the richest haul: ninety spirit stones, plus pills, ores, and other resources worth nearly another hundred stones.
At the very bottom, a violet jade bottle caught Song Changsheng’s attention.
Violet jade was rare and precious, often used to store high-grade spiritual items because it preserved their potency for years without leakage.
His curiosity piqued, Song Changsheng carefully pulled out the stopper. A unique fragrance instantly wafted out.
With a startled expression, he immediately resealed the bottle and exclaimed in delight, “Earth Essence Spirit Liquid!”
This rare substance was formed deep within the earth’s veins. Consuming it could increase cultivation and even cleanse the body and meridians, it was an incredibly rare treasure.
“Most likely prepared by that demonic cultivator to break through to the peak of Qi Refining,” Song Changsheng said, his eyes shining as he gazed at the jade bottle.
There were four major bottlenecks in the Qi Refinement stage: levels one, four, seven, and the great perfection. Of these, the last was the hardest to overcome and could take years of effort.
Fortunately, rare treasures like Earth Essence Spirit Liquid could accelerate the process.
“Perfect. I’ll use it to take my cultivation to the next level.” Song Changsheng had no intention of saving it for the ninth layer breakthrough.
He was different from these demonic and loose cultivators, he had the clan to rely on. If needed, he could simply exchange for pills to assist breakthroughs.
That was the advantage of having a powerful clan at his back, his starting point was already a step ahead of the rest.
(Chapter End)