The Pathway 31 The Xue Ku Introduction

Earlier that morning, she had been notified of Jufeng's presence through her divine sense that she spread over their side of the continent. As an Asura, her divine sense could cover a vast distance especially on their part of the world.

She didn't just wanted to be monitoring her son all the time but as a mother, she had been a bit worried when Jufeng was leaving for the sect but as long as Jufeng was inside the sect boundaries, it was fine with her. Therefore, she had spread her divine sense to know if and when Jufeng would be outside the premises.

Immediately she sensed her son, she had used her divine evasion to arrive at a safer distance from Jufeng's position in order to first determine the situation of things. After close examination, she had come to the conclusion that her son was in a group of something resembling adventurers.

Although she didn't want to appear to be obtrusing on the union, she still wanted to keep an eye on the situation since they were only young cultivators. She hadn't been aware of their sect elder who had been following them until that attack. She had overlooked the possibility of that probably because she hadn't sense any form of danger in the vast area her divine sense was covering.

Now that the sect elder was with them, their group was well covered. She would wait for a bit more time before returning home. She relaxed her mind and continue to meditate.

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Their journey had no disturbances since that event with the crystals. The presence of elder w.a.n.g Xiu gave them confidence but also brought reservation too. They had only planned on finding the forsaken palace on their own but now, they had an elder's eyes on their back. Although, elder w.a.n.g Xiu tried to mingle, they could still feel the intimidating discomfort afterall, she was a nascent soul elder of the Last-Sword sect.

But Jufeng was extremely happy for elder w.a.n.g Xiu joining them. At the least, anything seeking their death would have to pa.s.s through her. His mind felt much more peaceful and relaxed. He didn't know why he had been courting death lately.

Led by the group of the other kids, they came to an open area where they could see the outskirt of the village in the far distance and stopped.

"Is that JinJin?"

Asked DaXia as she pointed in the direction of the village.

"Yes, that is JinJin."

Replied s.h.i.+ Xiang as she glanced at her group.

"This is where we stop. We need to go and make our own arrangements."

They had only promised to take their group half-way towards the village which they had done anyways. They thanked elder w.a.n.g Xiu for saving their lives. They offered her the extra crystal which she refused saying it had no value to her since she was already at the nascent soul stage. They thanked Jufeng and others for their help before disappearing into the distance.

After the kids had gone, the group gathered themselves and happily intensified their steps knowing their journey was on course. As they got closer to the village, it became obvious that it was a rice farming village. Several farms of rice could be seen some kilometers away from the road leading to the village.

They reduced their speed as they were approaching when elder w.a.n.g Xiu noticed the steller straits eagle flying in their direction. The eagle was making a m.u.f.fled sound like a plea for help. This was a magical bird with no awareness or reasoning therefore it couldn't be making a plea on its own. And Chi cultivators wouldn't use magical beasts intricately like this. For a Chi cultivator, magical beasts were only pets. But this was no pet and it could only mean one thing.

Xue Wu.

The blood cultivators.

Xue Wus, blood cultivators, were powerful mortals that used the mystical life-force power of the blood to gain powers. They were mainly diviners that used this blood essence to power their oracle bones for seeing the past and future. Unlike Chi cultivators that formed cores in their dantians, blood cultivators didn't formed cores. They formed core bonds with magical beasts with the magical beasts serving as their cores. The more powerful among the Xue Wus would make pacts and then formed bonds with the divine beasts making the divine beasts their cores. Their power grew as the beasts grew in power.

The blood cultivators generally draws from the blood of their bonded magical beasts. But for them to grow in power and advance in their level, they had to draw from the life-force infused blood of the divine beasts the reason being that they were innate bloodline beasts.

Although, the divine beasts and magical beasts made them more powerful due to the fact that they could directly draw on their power, the divine beasts could also be their death. If the beasts died, they too would be bounded for death. Unless they found the Jade Dragon spirit fruit.

This was the only way for them to attract the heavenly tribulations. And both the blood cultivator and the beast would have to undergo the tribulations together.

Over the years, the heavenly tribulations had been incredibly strong against them especially the ascension tribulations . Most of them had died from the effects of the tribulations, only a handful had ever made it to ascension.

Due to the fact that here was no other way for them, many blood cultivators had decided against attracting the tribulations. This had led many blood cultivators to avoid making pacts with the divine beasts but to obtain the much less powerful magical creatures. No ascension tribulations meant no sudden death and no fright of death over their divine beasts dying.

Due to their scrying oracles, they had been an integral part of the cultivation world.

Elder w.a.n.g Xu sent out her awareness to intercept the bird.

"Who are you?"

"Immortal elder, my name is Yan Dai. Please help me."

"Where are you from?"

"JinJin village, immortal elder."

"Why do you need my help?"

"They are blaming me for what I didn't know about. First, they accused me of being Xue Ku and now they said I'm responsible for the disappearances of many children in JinJin and the surrounding villages."

"Are you? And you better don't tell lies. These crimes are serious offenses in a mortal world."

"No, immortal elder. I'm not lying. It's not me but I believe the one responsible is still here in JinJin?"

"How did you know?"

"Before my parents died, I heard them talking about something they discovered. There's a powerful Xu Ku who has a connection to the villages allowing children to be taken from them. They were about to expose the roots of the disappearances when they were killed."

"Continue."

"Something powerful and extremely fast entered our house. But before he could enter, it had to pa.s.s through the defensive array. Although it took seconds for it to break the defense, but while trying to do that, my father used our ancestral heavenly artifact on me and I couldn't remember anything from there. By the time I came around, I found them decayed. Please immortal elder, I can no longer hold the connection."

"Okay go. If what you say it's true, I will see what I can do but if you are lying about the crimes, you must face their consequences."

A Xue Ku in the village?

A Xue Ku, rogue blood cultivator was the forbidden side of Xue Wu, true blood cultivator.

Rogue blood cultivation. Completely draining the life-force of innocent mortals thereby turning them to Spectres before bonding them. This gave Xu Kus more power than the Xue Wus due to the pure karmic virtues in innocent souls. The power of the spectres could also make the rogue blood cultivators to launch powerful soul attacks.

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu recalled her awareness, turned to the waiting group and explained what was happening to them.

"Elder w.a.n.g Xiu, should we be involved?"

Asked Chenric worryingly. They were only out for the forsaken palace and should be on their way. Why should they complicate things in this way?

"Something is extremely wrong here. Follow me, stay quiet and leave everything to me."

As they entered the village, they saw a young girl being tied to an Etcher tree with the spectral chains by the side of the village. A large number of the villagers were gathered in front of the three being held back by the guards.

Jufeng and the rest of the grouo were distraught by the scene. Who could tie a young girl to a tree like this? Was she the one elder w.a.n.g Xiu was talking about? This was truly an unfair and a strange world.

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu examined the girl with her ancestral inherited sense but she couldn't detect any form of Karmic sin in the girl. With her aura masked, elder w.a.n.g Xiu approached one of the gathered villagers.

"Excuse me, do you know what's going on here?"

The man turned to see who was talking to him. When he saw the scholarly robe of elder w.a.n.g Xiu, he respectfully replied with a slight nod.

"Yes Xiansheng. The girl is a rogue blood cultivator."

Another villager who was close to them also quipped in.

"She's a Xue Ku. Xiansheng."

"A Xue Ku?"

Asked elder w.a.n.g Xiu as she acted to be contemplating on the situation.

"Yes, xiansheng. Her name is Yan Dai. She was the daughter of the old village diviner, Wen Dai, a true blood cultivator and w.a.n.g Dai, an evanesce core cultivator."
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"Where are they now?"

"They are both dead. They died in mysterious condition on the same night, their bodies decayed and disintegrated before morning. She was the only survivor. At that time, many villagers were wondering if she was the cause of their death or not. But because she was too young then, the suspicion was overlooked. But now, with the happenings around now, all fingers pointed to her."

"What happenings?"

"There have been many disappearances and death of children in this village and sorrounding villages."

"Are you certain she's a rogue blood cultivator?"

"Yes xiansheng. The village headmen came together and consulted their diviners but they couldn't locate the problem. It continued like that until our village diviner confirmed it through her oracle bones that she was the one behind them."

"The village diviner?"

"Yes xiansheng."

The man pointed to the woman in black robe with half mask on her face.

"That's her over there in black robe. Wu Yu Cui, a true blood cultivator."

Behind the woman was a grim-faced man wearing a heavy grey robe. There was a dangerous presence with him that radiated sinister. She turned her attention back to the man who was addressing the gathered villagers.

"Is that the village headman?"

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu asked as she gestured toward the man wearing the yellow silk robe.

"Yes xiansheng. That's headman Xu Xinyi. He lost a son too."

"Alright. Thank you."

She left the villager's side and walked towards the center where the headman was still addressing the crowd.

"We have found her guilty of these crimes. As with the laws of the land, she would have to be put to death inside the infernal chamber."

"Greetings headman Xu Xinyi. Please forgive me for intruding but I believe we are a bit rus.h.i.+ng things? I think we thoroughly investigated the matter before making that decision."

"We have checked and confirmed it. And who are you?"

"I am w.a.n.g Xiu."

As she said that elder w.a.n.g Xiu dropped the Oculus Reaver seal she was holding in her hand and the light from the seal covered the whole area.

"Into the light and let it be revealed."

The s.h.i.+eld surrounding the grim-faced man s.h.i.+mmered and quickly faded revealing the true sickening aura of the man. Aura that had been moulded by karmic sins.

"You?"

Asked headman Xu Xinyi.

"Yes, me. And? Can you can be quiet for now? Thank you."

The grim faced man replied as he turned his attention towards elder w.a.n.g Xiu smiling.

"Now you have my attention, nascent soul w.a.n.g Xiu. I've been watching you since you arrived."

The grim-faced man shook his head a bit.

"Please forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Blood Blade."

The grey-robed man still smiling stared fixedly at elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

"Shall we?"