Chapter 34: Bloody Rose sect

Several days had passed since the incident between Bloody Rose and the forces of Oghara, and quite some changes had happened in the region since then.

Now, everyone within Oghara knew about Bloody Rose, the new faction that had taken over the territory of the Dae Qu sect, and the leader being the former master of the assassin temple, the Invisible Killer, who was now a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!

It wasn’t a secret anymore that the majority of the top experts in Oghara had gone to attack her and had all been killed by her. The news had spread like wildfire after Feng Shuran paid a visit to their respective sects and guilds with the offer to either surrender or be destroyed.

It had taken Feng Shuran only a few hours to complete this task from her master. The sects and guilds she had visited that day quickly realized that they had no chance against a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator and immediately accepted the offer.

The Invisible Killer had easily wiped out several Core Formation Realm cultivators and hundreds of Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators; what difference would a thousand more make?

They didn’t hesitate to pledge their loyalty to the Bloody Rose faction while agreeing to the choice of paying tribute every year. Some were even more tactful and offered the Invisible Killer the position of grand elder or even ancestor!

This way, their sects would reap more benefits when dealing with others in Oghara.

Feng Shuran didn’t mind this simple matter and accepted; it wasn’t like she was going to do anything for them just because they gave her a title.

Just like that, more than half of the forces in Oghara fell under the control of the Bloody Rose faction. As for the remaining few, Gu Chen told Feng Shuran to let them be.

Since they didn’t come looking for trouble, he naturally wouldn’t attack them for no reason.

Nevertheless, after those sects learned what the others had done, their leaders personally came to the territory of the Bloody Rose to request permission to pay tribute, as well as inviting Feng Shuran to be their grand elder.

So what if they still had their Core Formation Realm leaders? The others could easily oppress them with a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator backing them!

Gu Chen saw no problem with this and told Feng Shuran to accept. More tributes were always welcomed.

With the reputation of the Bloody Rose faction growing rapidly, people naturally started coming with hopes of joining them. Many of them were ordinary people who hadn’t stepped into the path of cultivation, while some had already started training.

Amongst these people were cultivators from other sects in Oghara. They had abandoned their sects and hoped to join the Bloody Rose after the sudden power shift.

Feng Shuran informed Gu Chen of this, and the latter had instructed not to accept them.

People like this were very disloyal and only chased benefits; they would do the same thing to Bloody Rose if a higher power appeared in Oghara.

Following her master’s words, Feng Shuran only accepted rogue cultivators.

She had suggested turning the Bloody Rose into a female-only faction just like her assassin temple before it was destroyed. Gu Chen didn’t see anything wrong with the idea, so he agreed.

Feng Shuran started accepting only female disciples after her master agreed to her plan. In less than five days after the entire Oghara became aware of the new faction, the five peaks of the Bloody Rose already had over two hundred female disciples living on them, with the majority of them being in the QI Gathering Realm. Less than ten had entered the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Feng Shuran didn’t forget to inform the new disciples that the mountain behind the five peaks was a forbidden area and none of them was permitted to enter. She didn’t state a reason and only told them that if they needed to report anything to her, they were to stop at the foot of the mountain and state their reason for coming.

Anyone who disobeyed this rule and went up the mountain would have their meridians shattered before being kicked out.

She didn’t mention that it was her Master’s private mountain, so the disciples just assumed that the mountain was her private dwelling and she didn’t want anyone disturbing her training for no reason.

None of them knew about Gu Chen.

(A/N: I’ll be addressing the Bloody Rose as a sect from now on, hope it doesn’t cause any confusion!)

On the huge mountain behind the Bloody Rose sect. Feng Shuran stood silently with a calm look on her face. She was wearing a white robe with red ribbons around her waist and blue threads decorating the robe.

Her hair was held up into a single ponytail as the wind caused the other end to fly around.

Not far from where Feng Shuran was standing, Gu Chen sat on a boulder. He held a bag of chips in his hand, which he slowly ate from as he watched Feng Shuran train.

The black needle flew around the woman without her needing to control it with her hands. The black needle swiftly changed its flight path as it flashed around Feng Shuran without touching her.

The speed of the needle gradually increased until Gu Chen could no longer see it. Only the sound of it piercing through the air and the occasional black flash around reminded him that the needle was still there.

After flying around Feng Shuran for over ten seconds, the needle suddenly shot out. Its size increased at an astonishing speed as it arrived in front of a boulder that was several meters away almost instantly, while also growing into a large black pillar at the same time.

Bang!

The black pillar that the needle had transformed into slammed into the boulder and easily shattered it. The ground shook, and pieces of rock were sent flying in all directions.

Some of them flew towards Feng Shuran and Gu Chen; the needle swiftly flew back and blocked all of them.

The place settled afterwards, and Feng Shuran turned to look at Gu Chen, who was currently chewing a mouthful of chips.

"What do you think, Master?" She asked, but her expression looked proud. She was aware that she was progressing well and just wanted to hear it from her master.

Gu Chen didn’t speak right away, taking his time to chew and then swallow.

"Hmm, your learning speed is very impressive. Well done," Gu Chen nodded and said after swallowing what was in his mouth.

Feng Shuran beamed with a smile after hearing her master’s evaluation; she was happy with the praise.

Gu Chen stared at her with a slight smile. The truth was that his words were humble. Feng Shuran’s learning speed wasn’t just humble; it was freakish!

It had only been a few days since she started learning the Formless Needle technique; she still had to attend to the rapidly growing new sect, which reduced the amount of time that she could train. Yet, she had almost mastered the first Chapter of the technique he had given her!

She could already make the needle grow over fifteen meters; Gu Chen wasn’t confident that he could accomplish the same result in a few days when he was still a cultivator.

He finished his chips at this moment and jumped down from the boulder.

"When you finish learning the Formless Needle technique, I’ll teach you how to manifest your Nascent Soul. You still have to enter seclusion to reach the Spirit Transformation Realm; the Nascent Soul Realm isn’t the end." Gu Chen said and started walking back to the courtyard.

He was already thinking of having Feng Shuran hand over the control of the sect to someone else so that she could enter seclusion.

His ultimate goal was still the Seven Realms Alliance, and he needed his Villainesses to reach the peak of the Immortal Realms for that.

Gu Chen was secretly curious as to when he would find the next Villainess; was there another one in Oghara?

As for Feng Shuran manifesting her Nascent Soul, it was a special ability that only cultivators who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm possessed.

They could summon their Nascent Soul into the real world to deal devastating damage during fights. The Nascent Soul would look like a giant projection of themselves, but it cost qi to sustain.

However, a manifested Nascent Soul could also be dangerous to the cultivator, so it wasn’t advisable to do it every time one was in a fight, even though the Nascent Soul was capable of causing disastrous damage compared to the main body.

The reason was that the Nascent Soul was very fragile when facing attacks that targeted the soul and could easily be harmed.

Manifesting one’s Nascent Soul was a double-edged sword but still an essential part of entering the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Okay, I’ll learn the technique as soon as possible." Feng Shuran replied and followed behind Gu Chen.

Just then, both of them stopped walking and looked to the side.

Someone was at the foot of the mountain.