Patriarch Yuan Hua and Lu Buwei sat opposite each other in a secret room in the backyard of the Spring and Autumn Trading Center.
The interior of the room was very simple. It had only one cloud bed, two hassocks, and an incense burner shaped like a mountain. The air was filled with a strong fragrance that made people feel warm; but once inhaled, it turned into a cold stream that circulated through the body and freshened one's mind. It had the effects of keeping one's mind sharp and expelling all evils.
There was a faint glow of blood beneath Patriarch Yuan Hua's body. A beam of blood light shot out from the top of his head, forming into a sea of blood thirty feet across right above him. On top of it, three blood lotus flowers that were as large as pots could be seen bobbing around. In the center of the three lotus flowers floated eighteen lotus thrones, but they were all empty.
They were the Dharma Thrones for the Blood-draining Fiends which Patriarch Yuan Hua had formed after he began cultivating the Blood Sea Grand Magic, and there should be a blood fiend formed from the blood essence and souls of hundreds of millions of living beings on every one of them. In those years when Lord Blood Ocean was still in his prime, the weakest of the eighteen Blood-draining Fiends he had formed had the cultivation base of a ninth-tier Primordial Immortal; when the eighteen fiends joined forces, he even dared to break into the Heaven alone and abduct the fairy, who served the Great Celestial Emperor, for fun.
But now, Lord Blood Ocean had only a fragment of his soul left, which had fused with Patriarch Yuan Hua. Although Patriarch Yuan Hua had inherited the complete Blood Sea Grand Magic, he did not know who killed Lord Blood Ocean, neither did he know where the ancient celestial fiend, Lixue Zi, came from, or what the relationship between them was. Naturally, the eighteen Blood-draining Fiends no longer existed, and Patriarch Yuan Hua had to form them all over again on his own.
However, if he were to form them from scratch, it would cost him an astronomical amount of blood essence and souls, as well as a great effort. But, if he could get his hands on eighteen heavenly ghosts with substantial cultivation bases, then make them devour a great deal of the blood essence of their own kind, and finally refine them with the Blood Sea Fiend Flame; transforming them from corporeal form to incorporeal form, he would save himself a great amount of time and effort.
More importantly, Blood-draining Fiends refined from heavenly ghosts would have the ability to travel through the void, and if they were used with Blood Sea Grand Magic, their strength would increase at least a hundredfold. If he could obtain the strongest Undying Heavenly Ghost King in the Ghost Domain and use it to form a blood fiend, the mere thought of the power it could unleash was more than enough to drive Patriarch Yuan Hua crazy.
The sea of blood was rocking violently as the blood lotus flowers bobbed restlessly on it. Concentrating his mind, Patriarch Yuan Hua spoke out the essence of the Blood Sea Grand Magic word by word. Every time he uttered a word, a blood lotus flower the size of a thumb fell from the blood cloud above him, fusing into Lu Buwei's body and turning into a stream of pure energy that circulated inside him, then quickly merged with his immortal soul.
Lu Buwei felt so comfortable as if he was walking on clouds. The blood in his body was getting thicker and thicker, and the energy in it was getting stronger and stronger. Soon, his blood began to flow faster and faster, and his blood vessels began to swell. Blood rushed like dragons in his veins, generating a sound so loud that it rang in the secret room and caused the bronze incense burner to buzz.
Although he had only acquired the fundamental cultivation technique of the Blood Sea Grand Magic, Lu Buwei immediately noticed the enormous benefits involved. On top of that, as Patriarch Yuan Hua was trying to draw Lu Buwei to his side, he used his own Prime Blood Energy to elevate Lu Buwei's cultivation base. Lu Buwei had already formed the heavenly ghost body, and with the aura of the indestructible heavenly ghost body he now possessed, coupled with Patriarch Yuan Hua's help, he felt as if his body was ablaze. Hot air surged around him; an endless amount of strength was generating out of nowhere inside his body. Gradually, he felt a feeling that he was able to crush a star with a punch or flip the ground with a twist of his wrist.
Lu Buwei's cultivation base was not strong to begin with. But, with Patriarch Yuan Hua's help, it was surging at an incredible rate, and did not seem to have a limit. The Blood Sea Grand Magic was an evil and bizarre technique, and it was not limited by anything, including one's understanding of the Dao. For every portion one gained in cultivation base, the sea of blood would double in size; the understanding of the Dao would improve significantly, and the strength would skyrocket. All the energy was stored within the sea of blood, and it was not limited by the body of the person who cultivated it.
When the cultivation of the Blood Sea Grand Magic reached the mastery level, the fleshly body and the sea of blood would fuse into one. At that point in time, one would only have to crazily extract the blood essence and souls of living beings and use them to create a Myriad Beings Blood Pool; then, one would be able to increase the energy at a rapid rate. It was exactly the same as what Patriarch Yuan Hua had done on Myriad Immortals Planet. If one could create a Myriad Beings Blood Pool with the blood essence and souls of trillions of living beings, then use his own sea of blood to completely absorb it, he could step into the realm of Primordial Immortal in just one day!
Patriarch Yuan Hua kept teaching Lu Buwei the various essences of the Blood Sea Grand Magic, and the latter nearly burst into laughter as he absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. He listened attentively to the teachings; when Patriarch Yuan Hua put away the sea of blood and the blood lotus flowers, retracting his energy and uttering not a single word, Lu Buwei wasted no time and jumped off the cloud bed. He then knelt down and bowed reverently to Patriarch Yuan Hua.
"Master, thank you for taking Lu Buwei as your disciple. I'll certainly serve Master with all my heart, and do my very best to make our sect thrive!" Lu Buwei smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed. Patriarch Yuan Hua was clearly a very powerful immortal, and with his support, Lu Buwei's venture in Pangu Continent would be much easier.
Patriarch Yuan Hua nodded with satisfaction. With Lu Buwei, a wealthy man with a big clan as his disciple, he could finally rebuild Yuan Hua Sect! When he had trained all his disciples to be immortals, his cultivation base should be restored to his peak. At that point in time, he would seek revenge from Wu Qi!
With a wicked smile on his face, Patriarch Yuan Hua began to fantasize about how he would rip Wu Qi to pieces and then snatch Princess Zhang Le over to torture and enjoy. As long as there was Lu Buwei's cooperation to constantly summon countless heavenly ghosts from the ghost domain and fuse them into his sea of blood, and with him constantly absorbing a lot of blood essence and souls in Pangu Continent to restore his cultivation base, he would soon be able to seek revenge on Wu Qi.
Lu Buwei was a smart man, so he could easily read the evil lust in Patriarch Yuan Hua's heart with that wicked smile. He left the secret room respectfully, then summoned a few of his grandsons. Before long, more than a dozen young and beautiful girls were sent into the room. Lu Buwei admitted to Patriarch Yuan Hua that it was only a small token of appreciation toward his Master.
The door of the secret room closed slowly, and Lu Buwei stood in front of it, listening. He laughed contentedly when he heard the tearing of clothes and the screams of girls begging for mercy. Flicking his sleeves, he chuckled and said under his breath, "Why are you crying and begging for mercy? You should feel lucky for being chosen to serve the senior Immortal! Hehe, if you can give him a son or a daughter... hmph!"
A bright gleam flashed in his eyes as Lu Buwei told his grandsons to cautiously guard the door before turning and striding away. In the great hall used to convene meetings in the backyard, he called upon all his sons, grandsons, and juniors in his clan, informing them that he had acknowledged Patriarch Yuan Hua as his Master. Then, he asked them to start counting the resources they had and to quickly change their current mode of operation from that of a trading business to an immortal sect.
Lu Buwei had an idea in his mind. Having become a disciple of Patriarch Yuan Hua, he was now able to use him to create an immortal sect, with Lu clan holding the true power behind the curtain. It would not only give him more power, but also add another layer of protection to his clan, which would greatly improve the safety of Lu clan.
"Wu Qi, you little b*stard! Hehe…I'll soon have you pay me back all the debts that you have owed me in the past!" Narrowing his eyes, Lu Buwei suddenly chuckled under his breath. After pondering for a moment, he gave various orders to his sons and grandsons. The whole Lu clan immediately operated at full speed.
Over the next few days, Lu Buwei consulted Patriarch Yuan Hua about all kinds of mystic arts every day, while the Lu clan began to pool resources and manpower. A large number of members of the Lu clan and their subordinates acknowledged Patriarch Yuan Hua as their Master. In just a few days, Lu Buwei had brought the rebuilt Yuan Hua Sect over three thousand disciples, including sixty Heaven Immortals.
The new Yuan Hua Sect was much stronger than the one in the past that Patriarch Yuan Hua had worked so hard to build for dozens of Periods. What made him even more satisfied was that Lu Buwei was indeed a wealthy man, as all the disciples were given the best magical artifacts, spirit artifacts, and immortal artifacts; the disciples with extraordinary latent potentials were given magical artifacts several levels above their actual realm, even when they were just the most ordinary Gold Core cultivators. Even the spirit pills, spirit talismans, and other personal tools provided to them were the best. How could the Yuan Hua Sect in the past compare with the army of cultivators that Lu Buwei built with money?
Patriarch Yuan Hua was pleased with the result. Without hesitation, he taught these disciples the various essences of Blood Sea Grand Magic according to their realms.
The Blood Sea Grand Magic was a supreme cultivation technique of the Fiend League in the ancient times, and it could be cultivated at a very fast speed, with almost no bottleneck except the danger of mental demons. However, even when one was struck by a mental demon, as long as the precautions were taken in advance, it could be devoured by the sea of blood and became one of the Blood-draining Fiends!
In just half a month, many disciples of Yuan Hua Sect had condensed their energy and blood to form a small sea of blood in their bodies. With that being done, unless all their blood was destroyed by someone at the same time, they were basically imperishable, as long as they still had one drop of blood left.
With such powerful ancient fiend technique, the morale in Yuan Hua Sect rose. The overconfident Lu Buwei began discussing with Patriarch Yuan Hua about how they could secretly occupy Gourd Immortal Market, preferably by killing Immortal Gourd and turning the whole cave abode into theirs.
The only thing to worry about was that they did not know who was behind Immortal Gourd, and the quality of the underground energy vein below the market was not very good. This place was actually not a good choice for setting up a base.
While Lu Buwei and Patriarch Yuan Hua were discussing the matter, Immortal Gourd's executing disciples suddenly sent a secret message to all the immortals in the Gourd Immortal Market; someone was offering a handsome reward for the head of one of King Yang Qiu's guards, and the person who could kill him would be rewarded with huge amount of immortal stones, energy stones, and other materials.
And if someone could capture that guard named Tan Lang alive and handed him to Immortal Gourd, he would get a cave abode with immortal energy vein as a reward!
A cave abode with immortal energy vein!
Lu Buwei and Patriarch Yuan Hua were tempted immediately!