Ming He knew that such actions would attract others attention, especially Luo Hou, the Lord of Demons, the mastermind who stirred up war among the three clans. However, Ming He had come up with a strategy to disrupt his sensibilities so that Luo Hou would not be able to guess who had done this. The existence of Blood Sea was well-known, but Ming He was not.
What Ming He relied on was one of the skills he had created previously, the Blood God Transformation. The Clone of the Blood God and the Blood God Doppelganger he sent would first refine the Blood of Essence of the Hundred Clans of Untainted Land. They would travel Untainted Land as a member of these clans and collect treasures and dead bodies from them for Ming He.
Suddenly, Ming He felt like he was becoming slightly perverted! He had not been afraid of blood in his previous life, but now he was stealing dead bodies. It seemed that he had gotten used to Untainted Land and had become the true Lord of Blood Sea, Ancestor Ming He.
While the Blood God Doppelganger and Clones of Blood God were scavenging outside, Ming He quietly cultivated on Sacred Island. The emergence of Sage-to-be was a great burden and several hundred years later, he successfully broke through to the peak of Da Luo Golden Immortality realm, just one step away from the Sage-to-be realm.
The Sage-to-be Realm might or might not be a challenge for him, and he had two methods devised. One was quite simple, he would absorb merits and enter the Sage-to-be realm. Thereupon he could even do the Separation work through the Primordial Spiritual Treasures. The only disadvantage was that this method could cause an unstable foundation.
According to his prediction, Zu Long, Lord of the Phoenix and Forefather of the Kylin had entered the Sage-to-be realm through merits from the Way of Heaven, but they were only in the early stage. When calculating the Way of Separation, one Separation meant the secondary stage of Sage-to-be, two Separations the late stage and three Separations the peak level. Separation through merits could help Ming He reach the secondary stage of Sage-to-be, but skipping the early stage could lead to an unstable foundation and affect the future cultivation.
Another method was to cultivate through the Divine Law. Currently, Ming He's enlightenment on the Law of Killing and the Law of Spiritual Beings had reached 18% and 20% respectively. 20% was the maximum a Da Luo Golden Immortal could comprehend, and so as long as Ming He could comprehend any of the laws above 20%, he would be able to enter the early stage of Sage-to-be realm.
According to his prediction if Separation was not done, he could reach the early stage of Sage-to-be after understanding 30% of the Divine Laws, and 40% understanding would result in the secondary stage of Sage-to-be, 50% the late stage and 60% the peak level. Thus, to be a sage, Ming He needed to receive 70% of the enlightenment of the Divine Laws. The problem was that cultivation through the Divine Laws was as difficult as going to heaven.
The path of the first method was very simple for Ming He since he was endowed with half of the Merit of Creation, and the Blood River Formation had been constantly amassing merits for Ming He, ever since its creation. Every little bit counted, and it had collected 1% Merit of Creation. Adding onto it was the 1% Merit of Creation from his sermon tablets, it was enough for Ming He to make the Separation.
Nevertheless, Ming He was unwilling to take this shortcut because cultivation through merits was unpredictable. Moreover, all his merits had their own use. There was a Golden Wheel above Ming He's purusa in the center of Blood Sea, and this was a representation of all the merits that Ming He had obtained.
The purusa had always been the most important part for cultivators. When one's body was destroyed, it could be restored using the purusa. When the purusa was destroyed, one would be destroyed with no hopes of reincarnation. And a great number of Magic Weapons could cause damage to the purusa in Untainted Land, so Ming He had to be very careful.
Hence, he made the Golden Wheel of Merit by using the Merit of Creation as the core, and combining the post-celestial merits of the Way of Heaven that he had gotten. The Golden Wheel of Merit was above his purusa to protect it from any form of attack, even from demons. It acted as a simplified version of the Baraka Exquisite Pagoda, which was a post-celestial Treasure of Merits.
Ming He was not willing to destroy the Golden Wheel of Merit just for an unpredictable shortcut, and the Golden Wheel took a lot out of him before it was stabilized. Besides, cultivation was a path against the heaven, and only hard work and effort could lead to the Way of Dao. Any shortcut, while seemingly useful now, would surely be only a route for destruction.
After giving up the first method, Ming He had to take the second one. Luckily, he was assisted by numerous Clones of Blood God which would accelerate his enlightenment on the Divine Law. The Clone of Blood God could contribute a lot to the prediction of techniques, but little to the cultivation itself through the Divine Laws. Though minimal as it was, Ming He was quite satisfied. As the old saying went "a contented mind is a perpetual feast".
"Mmm?" Ming He suddenly hummed. He was currently in Closed Door Meditation to gain enlightenment from the Divine Laws; both the Blood God Doppelgangers and the Clones of Blood God were linked to him mentally, and they would not disturb him for any reason, unless the war among the three clans was about to end and the base camps were unprotected. But the war was not supposed to end so soon. It had only just begun!
Seeing the message from the Blood God Doppelgangers, Ming He was surprised at first, then exultant. "Hahaha! God has blessed me. I was always searching for you while traveling throughout Untainted Land, now you're right before me. I'll get you this time." Ming He stepped out and turned into a Cloud of Blood, flying towards Untainted Land.
Inside a Spiritual Mountain somewhere in Untainted Land, lived the Golden Lion Clan, one of the Beast Clans ruled by the Kylins. Most of the clansmen were on the battlefield of the war among the three clans. The person remaining with the highest cultivation was their Third Elder, who was in the late stage of the Taiyi Golden Immortality realm.
One day, Third Elder was cultivating inside the mountain. Suddenly, a gust of wind brushed past him. He was attacked by something and lost consciousness. Then, a flash of blood aura taking human form emerged, it was one of Ming He's Blood God Doppelgangers.
The Blood God Doppelganger was a Taiyi Golden Immortal. Adding on to his uniqueness and the ability to utilize the Power of Divine Laws, he would still stand a chance even if an Early Stage Da Luo Golden Immortal was here. In addition, there were tens of thousands of Clones of Blood God hidden within each Blood God Doppelganger which could form diverse tactical formations when necessary. Even if the Blood God Doppelganger could not defeat his opponent, he could escape easily by sacrificing some Clones of Blood God.
After Third Elder fainted, the Blood God Doppelganger walked towards the Golden Lion Clan's treasure vault furtively. The treasure vault was protected by some tactical formations. It would attract other's attention and war would break out if he tried to break them. Though Ming He was not afraid of killing, it did not seem reasonable to steal from others and kill them all. This was simply how he felt, his Core of Thoughts.
Ming He stunned Third Elder with a sneak attack, so he could steal treasure without attracting others. The tactical formations guarding the treasure vault was not as complicated as he had originally thought, so the Blood God Doppelganger went out with the formations silently and as easily as it had gone in.
After flying and submerging for a long time, the Blood God Doppelganger stopped and checked his gains. He was shocked to notice a small flag. This?! This was the Center Wuji Apricot Flag from the same origin as the Xuanyuan Water Control Flag! This was a Highest-Grade Primordial Spiritual Treasure, and it had been thrown in the vault and treated like trash.
Um? The Blood God Doppelganger found that the Wuji Apricot Flag had been sealed with a restriction. Damn! The Blood God Doppelganger wanted to scold the foolish Golden Lion Clan for sealing such a treasure. But frankly speaking, the Blood God Doppelganger was wrong about the Golden Lion Clan.
The Golden Lion Clan had just obtained the Wuji Apricot Flag. Ordinary treasures were spiritual, never mind the Highest-Grade Primordial Spiritual Treasure. The clan leader had tried to convert the flag, but since he was just at the peak of Taiyi Golden Immortality realm, he received resistance from the flag. It ended in a deadlock, so the clan leader had no choice but to seal it and continue cultivating until he reached the Da Luo Golden Immortality realm.
However, with the outburst of the war among the three clans, the clan leader had been called out by the Forefather of the Kylin. Hence the conversion was put aside, providing Ming He with ample opportunity to pick up from what was left behind. The restriction seal on the flag was not too complex. These kinds of seals had originated from Ming He's Enlightenment Tablet. Despite the small changes, it was a piece of cake for the Blood God Doppelganger to break the restriction.
Upon removal of the restriction, the Wuji Apricot Flag regained its vitality. Waves of spiritual air converted into ten thousands of golden lotuses, guarding the flag on both sides, and then the flag attempted to submerge into the sky. But there was no way the Blood God Doppelganger would let it go, for countless Clones of Blood God had made the Blood River Formation block its escape path. Upon the exertion of the Formation, the Blood Aura pervaded into the sky and absorbed the golden lotus gradually.