The moon hung crimson, casting blood-red light over the forbidden grounds behind Qingxiao Sect—an ancient land sealed for over a hundred years. Known as the Blood Sacrifice Pit, it was where generations of the sect's elders had sealed away "unruly" beings.
Lin Ce was never meant to come here.
But the sect had received a secret report: a foreign force had infiltrated the area, aiming to unseal a being known as the Blood of the Demon God. The sect's upper echelons saw an opportunity—to use this "foreign invasion" as a pretext to eliminate certain "troublesome" disciples and elders.
Lin Ce's name was on the list.
The system issued a new mission panel:
[Side Quest: Escape the Blood Sacrifice Pit Alive.]
Reward: +500 Vitality Points, Unlock Hidden Permission: "Spiritual Perception Surge."
Lin Ce didn't refuse.
He never refused any chance to stay alive.
So he volunteered to join the purge team.
Within the pit, miasma churned in the air, while sealing runes webbed across the stone walls like spider silk, faintly glowing.
"Is there really Demon God's blood here?" whispered an outer sect disciple.
"That's the rumor. But it's more likely the sect leaked that story to carry out a cleansing."
Lin Ce silently scanned the dozen people around him—among them were three who had previously tried to "recruit" him into their faction and held a grudge when he declined.
He knew: this mission wasn't just about purging a demoness. He was part of the purge.
But what they didn't know was that Lin Ce had already sewn two instant-teleportation talismans into his robe, hidden a vial of fake-death elixir, and carried three corpse puppets laced with deadly toxins.
"Hiss… What's that?"
One disciple pointed ahead. In the black mist, a crimson female phantom slowly rose—her hair like blood, face obscured, holding a bone flute from which came a soul-wrenching melody.
"It's the Bloodflute Enchantress!
Don't listen to her music!"
Lin Ce immediately plugged in the Sound-Sealing Earplugs he had prepared, while others—too slow to react—had their sea of consciousness implode on the spot, dying in a dream illusion.
"Everyone, form up!"
"Form your damn array," Lin Ce muttered, flicking a blood talisman.
Three corpse puppets burst from his sleeve and charged toward the enchantress. Amid the chaos, Lin Ce darted toward a side passage—he had already discovered that the core of the sealing array wasn't in the center, but hidden within a fissure on the left.
He raced through the rift, behind him the sounds of battle and screams echoing.
He never looked back.
—Survival Rule #7: Never save anyone unless their death means yours too.
Inside the fissure, he found a small divine statue. Its face was blurred—neither human nor beast—but it exuded immense pressure.
The system chimed:
[Divine Fragment Detected. Activate Devour Permission?]
"Activate."
[Blood Offering Required. Proceed?]
Lin Ce bit his finger, dripping three drops of true blood onto the statue.
[Offering Accepted. Unlocking "Spiritual Perception Surge." You can now sense hostile intent, spiritual flow, and array movement patterns.]
The statue shattered with a roar, and a surge of pure spiritual energy flooded Lin Ce's dantian. His face flushed red as he struggled to suppress the impact.
Behind him, familiar footsteps approached.
The three "teammates" had arrived.
"Lin Ce! Thought we wouldn't notice you ran off?"
"We killed the enchantress. Now it's your turn."
Lin Ce gazed at them with an icy calm… then slowly sneered.
"What you killed… was a puppet."
"What?"
"The real enchantress… is right behind you."
The three spun around.
Too late.
The phantom turned into a line of blood and pierced straight through two of them.
Seizing the moment, Lin Ce activated the teleportation glyph hidden within the fissure—and vanished.
Moments later, he reappeared beside an abandoned stone hut near the sect's back-mountain herb garden—his pre-arranged safe zone.
Bloodied but expressionless, he sat calmly.
—Survival Rule #12: Your enemy's enemy may not be your friend—but can be used as a weapon.
He had survived.
The sect, meanwhile, quietly dropped the investigation into the "total squad annihilation."
After all, who would care about a few dead outer sect disciples?
In the hut, Lin Ce sat again, quietly reflecting on the gains and losses of the bloodbath.
On paper, he wrote today's insight:
"Surviving isn't something to be proud of.
But if you're dead, nothing else matters."
—To be continued
[Cultivation Realm Hierarchy]
Body Tempering
Qi Refining
Foundation Establishment
Core Formation
Nascent Soul
Soul Transformation
Void Refining
Unity
Great Ascension
Tribulation
True Immortal
[Three Realms: Senior / Peer / Ant]
This unofficial classification was privately coined by Shen Changsheng to describe survival dynamics in the cultivation world:
Senior (前辈) – Overwhelming existences you must bow to survive.
Peer (道友) – Equal rivals; never to be underestimated.
Ant (蝼蚁) – The weak; can be crushed at will.
Lin Ce was well aware that he still stood within the Peer Realm.
But he never planned to stay there.
He would become what others called a Senior.