Chapter 638 - 345: Ranking Reset, Donglai’s Two Heroes! (Part 2)

"This is Fourth Grade... or even higher quality Demon Blood!"

Su Mu’s eyes lit up as he reached out to take it.

"Third Brother, your earlier perception wasn’t wrong. This Zong Buhui’s strength is above Sikong Li’s, but his whole aura carries a restless agitation—he must have recently had some stroke of fortune."

"Little Sister once told me that when you activate a certain Martial Arts you cultivate, a strange deer shadow appears. What’s in this jar should be some kind of High Grade demon deer essence blood."

Zong Buhui’s chance that caused his strength to soar—High Grade demon deer essence blood!

"Many thanks, Big Brother."

"This thing is useless to me, and we’re brothers—no need to be polite."

Su Mu lifted the jade lid, and the Demon Blood in his hand instantly became even more restless, surging as if it wanted to break free of the jade jar’s restraint. With a thought, Su Mu activated the Blood Transformation Technique, one of the signature arts of the Forging Workshop.

In an instant the Demon Blood in the jade jar became wildly violent, vaguely condensing into a small beast that rampaged about, but Su Mu was already prepared—Gang Force burst from his palm, suppressing the Demon Blood.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he entered Soul Incarnation state.

"Yooo—yooo——!"

A clear, melodious deer call tinged with a hint of pride echoed through Su Mu’s mind, and then he saw a demon deer, its whole body a pale cyan, with some kind of Ancient Wood pattern on its belly, a full six or seven zhang in size.

"Hm?"

This cyan deer was extraordinary. Though it was a Demon Beast, Su Mu couldn’t sense much ferocity from it; instead, it emanated a calm, carefree air, like a green pine.

But calm did not mean weak. On the cyan deer, Su Mu also sharply sensed that powerful and unusual aura, the same as the one he had felt from the Fire Sparrow and Dangling Eye White Tiger in the Land of Cyan Clouds.

With Su Mu’s current vision and knowledge, he already understood that was the aura belonging to an Upper Three Grades of Great Demon. The cyan deer possessed this special aura as well, though compared to the Fire Sparrow and Dangling Eye White Tiger it was much weaker.

"It’s not an Upper Three Grades of Great Demon... yet it has this aura. Most likely, in life this cyan deer was a Half-step Great Demon Level demon beast that had brushed against Third Grade."

"And this cyan deer is of the wood attribute—this Green Wood Deer is exactly the Demon Blood I need!"

Su Mu withdrew from Soul Incarnation state, his heart burning hot. Back in the Land of Cyan Clouds, Su Mu had tried to search for the Demon Blood needed for the Profound Demon Five Transformations; at that time he had learned that blood from deer-type demon beasts was rare and hard to find.

The cyan deer blood obtained from Zong Buhui happened to be wood attribute, simply tailor-made for Su Mu.

This single portion of Demon Blood was already an enormous gain—this trip was well worth it.

With this Demon Blood, Su Mu had now gathered the Fire Sparrow, Water Ape, and Wood Deer among the Profound Demon Five Transformations, leaving only the Golden Tiger and Earth Bear.

"Looks like this thing is useful to you, Third Brother. I also found one more item on Zong Buhui."

As Baili Feng spoke, Spiritual Light flashed from his hand as he produced a roll of beast hide. It carried the aura of cyan deer blood; unrolled, it proved to be a sea chart, with one island circled in Cinnabar.

After a brief moment of thought, Su Mu understood why Big Brother had taken out this item—the island marked on the sea chart might be the place where Zong Buhui obtained the cyan deer blood.

"Good, I’ll take this."

Su Mu did not stand on ceremony. The Profound Demon Five Transformations benefited from absorbing as much corresponding Demon Blood as possible; half a jar of cyan deer blood might not be enough, so he truly needed this item.

While they were tallying up the spoils, Baili Feng reestablished contact via the Cyan Fish Order with the Cyan Fish Gang disciples on the other warships, and the casualty report was quickly completed.

Of the ten warships, eight had suffered varying degrees of damage. Of these, three—including the Cyan Fish—were heavily damaged. Two other ships were fortunate; after breaking out and leaving the island they soon shook off the pursuing enemies. But even so, of the one thousand and five Cyan Fish Gang disciples, nearly seventy percent had fallen in two consecutive great battles—over six hundred died in this fight alone.

After receiving the exact casualty numbers, Baili Feng and his younger sister Baili Hongtang fell silent for several breaths. These were all loyal members of their faction, and the elite disciples of the Cyan Fish Gang.

"Any ship we can’t bring back—don’t leave a single one. Burn them."

"Return to port!"

Flames roared sky-high as over a hundred Cyan Fish Gang disciples steered six captured sea pirate warships and the heavily damaged Cyan Fish and other ships back toward the harbor.

"Increase defenses over the next while. Pass my order to deploy experts from the Five Great Halls to sit guard, to prevent those sea pirates from biting back like rabid dogs and raiding the harbor over the New Year."

Upon returning to the harbor, Baili Hongtang made this proposal, and Baili Feng nodded and issued the order on the spot.

There was no doubt that once news of this battle spread, all of Donglai County would be shaken. In this fight, the Cyan Fish Gang’s losses were truly severe—nearly seven hundred Middle Third Grade elite disciples were lost in one stroke.

Several thirty-five-zhang-class warships, including the Cyan Fish itself, were almost completely destroyed, and the hundred-meter-class ships were also heavily damaged. Yet the battle’s results were equally astonishing.

Led by Young Master Baili Feng, the Cyan Fish Gang alone fought three of the Five Great Pirate Gangs. After the battle, the Great Pirates ranked eighth, ninth, and twelfth among the Thirteen Great Pirates were directly struck from the rolls, and over two thousand sea pirates were slain.

At the same time, they seized six warships, including the hundred-meter main warships of the Jiao Blood Gang and Blackwater Gang. This battle shook Donglai, and within a few days spread to several counties neighboring Donglai under the name "Battle of the Four Pirates."

For a time, the name of the Cyan Fish Gang, as well as Young Master Baili Feng and Second Miss Baili Hongtang, eclipsed all others. After Tao Xinglie was crippled into a useless wreck, some busybodies even began advocating for a reshuffling of the Donglai geniuses.

Some people ranked Baili Hongtang among Donglai City’s Four Great Geniuses, replacing Tao Xinglie, but others felt this was improper and suggested it should instead be the Three Great Geniuses of Donglai and Two Great Heroes.

The Three Geniuses would be Song Jingyuan, Guo Zhen, and Baili Hongtang, and above the Three Geniuses, the Two Heroes of Donglai would be Wang Chan and Baili Feng.

This view gained acceptance among the Donglai cultivation circle and many Great Power cultivators. According to the Cyan Fish Gang’s reports, in the "Battle of the Four Pirates" Baili Feng alone successively slew three Great Pirates—Sikong Li, Zong Buhui, and Gongsun Liang—while Baili Hongtang alone pinned down and heavily wounded Quan Feng.

Such terrifying battle strength could be set side by side with Wang Chan, who had burst onto the scene in the previous Donglai Grand Competition. After all, the Great Powers of Donglai all knew that the sword with which Wang Chan slew the Tao Family’s two Ancestors was not entirely powered by her own strength.

Over this period, countless cultivators across Donglai County discussed the Battle of the Four Pirates with relish, and many cultivators and even commoners argued heatedly over which of the two was stronger.

While the outside world chattered, undercurrents surged within the Cyan Fish Gang. But none of that was something Su Mu needed to worry about—if it came to making a move, Big Brother and Second Sister would naturally inform him.

Within the Cyan Fish Gang, in a side hall of Tang Garden, Su Mu breathed in and out as eleven Immortal Golden Spots pulsed through his flesh, muscles, and bones. After returning to the Cyan Fish Gang, Su Mu had gone into seclusion.

Ever since the first Immortal Golden Spot had completely fused with his body, over the next few days Su Mu had successively completed the fusion of all eleven Immortal Golden Spots.

"The Profound Pattern Pills are used up. It takes about two Profound Pattern Pills to cultivate a single Immortal Golden Spot. Opening the Little Vajra Secret Realm and continuing the Immortal Body’s cultivation really is a bottomless Money-Burning Cave."

After a long while, Su Mu opened his eyes and lightly exhaled a breath. Profound Patterns were Sixth Grade Ancient Pills, and the medicinal ingredients needed just to refine one furnace were worth thirty thousand taels, with some ingredients being priceless even if you had the money.

Given Su Mu’s current thirty-percent success rate in refining Profound Pattern Pills, the value of a single pill was around ten thousand taels. The eleven thumb-sized Immortal Golden Spots all over his body now were worth a full two hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver!

Based on Su Mu’s estimate that seventeen Immortal Golden Spots were needed to open the Little Vajra Secret Realm, he still had to spend another twelve thousand taels of silver. Of course, as Su Mu’s success rate rose this cost would decrease, but the subsequent cultivation of the Immortal Body would still consume an astronomical sum.

"The medicinal ingredients I asked Second Sister to purchase on my behalf haven’t arrived yet. Next, I’ll start by devouring the cyan deer blood."

Just as Su Mu was planning to bury himself back in cultivation, two sets of footsteps sounded outside the side hall. One of them was very familiar—it was Second Sister Baili Hongtang’s. The other was unfamiliar.

But as the footsteps approached, the four strands of Martial Momentum in Su Mu’s sea of consciousness all stirred simultaneously. Though they did not sense any hostility, they all issued warnings.

"Dong, dong, dong!"

The heavy bronze doors of the main hall were knocked.