Chapter 737: How Beautiful the Blood

The charred figure, covered in bite marks, flailed and struggled wildly beneath Xue Zhuo's foot like a bug. It was stripped of even the courage to fight back.

Blood qi pressed down, and a terrifying blood aura filled the air. A sudden red glint flashed in my eyes; under Xue Zhuo's control, my entire presence underwent a radical transformation.

Fixing an eerie, wicked gaze on the obsession beneath his foot, Xue Zhuo suddenly stomped down. With a heavy crack, he crushed the obsession's head until it burst!

Black threads splattered in all directions like blood. The headless body continued to thrash, having sensed an unprecedented threat from Xue Zhuo.

He gently raised a hand. The highly aggressive blood aura frantically devoured the obsession on the ground. Xue Zhuo spread his arms wide, as if bathing in a rain of blood.

"It's been a long time since I felt something like this."

The black threads rapidly withered. Xue Zhuo absorbed the obsession of the tragic dead woven within them. To an ordinary person, an obsession was something to avoid at all costs, but to Xue Zhuo, it was a potent tonic.

Gluttony and greed were the original sins buried deep in the human heart. They contained terrifying power that could fuel endless disasters. If the obsessions of tens of thousands of people fused together, even Xue Zhuo would have had to retreat. However, the obsession present right now was only a minuscule fraction of that. That was why Xue Zhuo could utterly crush it with nothing but his killing intent.

The blood aura quickly swallowed the charred figure, leaving not a single trace behind, as if the thing had never existed. Having devoured the obsession, I could clearly feel Xue Zhuo's strength growing even more formidable. The blood aura grew so thick it almost blocked my vision.

However, forcefully absorbing the obsession like this also had some negative effects on Xue Zhuo. The blood aura was no longer pure; faint, shallow threads appeared within it, squirming like parasites.

'Devouring an obsession definitely isn't this simple and crude. Once we reach a safe place, I'll probably have to carefully sort through it and slowly refine it. Otherwise, the obsession of the tragic dead from Pig Cage Apartments will be reborn in my body.' An obsession was different from a ghost; it inherently contained human emotions and memories. If left ignored, it would likely amplify certain thoughts in my heart, eventually causing me to be slowly assimilated by the obsession.

As the true master of this body, I carefully pondered this in my sea of consciousness. Xue Zhuo, however, couldn't care less about any of it. He carved his path with brute force. Anything that offended his eyes was met with a single word: kill!

Everyone in the rental apartment sensed the shift in the situation. Old Granny tightly shielded Junsheng. Clutter was scattered all over the floor. She was already blind, and with her belongings tossed into a mess, it was even harder for her to find what she was looking for.

Ever since Xue Zhuo appeared, Junsheng hadn't dared to move a muscle. He instinctively hid behind Old Granny, his hands trying to grab the hem of her clothes, but unfortunately, he couldn't grasp anything.

The blood aura raged and red light flashed. Xue Zhuo savored the joy of devouring, radiating a chilling wicked energy. He walked toward the door step by step, his gaze assessing the entities outside as if they were food.

"There are two more."

I didn't know what kind of footwork this old fox was using, but his speed kept increasing. Seeing the obsession and the Desire Ghost right in front of him, he didn't slow down in the slightest. Shielded by the blood aura, he slammed straight into them.

His combat style was astonishing, but I had to admit, it was the most effective method.

The Desire Ghost, which had been locked in a savage melee with the obsession, was forcibly separated. It turned its head and roared at Xue Zhuo. Covered in wounds with a mangled body, it didn't hold a shred of fear or dread in its heart.

"Interesting." Xue Zhuo only glanced at the Desire Ghost before focusing his attention on the obsession. To him, the allure of food was much greater.

The two obsessions, one fat and one thin, were knocked into the corridor. Operating purely on instinct, they immediately tried to retreat upon realizing that the person in front of them had shifted from prey to predator.

"There are two of you. Which one should I start with?" Just as he finished speaking, the charred figure turned and fled up the stairs at a rapid pace.

But Xue Zhuo's reaction wasn't slow either. He knew how to utilize this body even better than I, its actual master. He charged forward, stomped on the guardrail, and leaped high into the air, tapping the railing mid-jump for extra leverage. The entire sequence flowed seamlessly.

He moved later but arrived first, landing squarely in the obsession's path.

Watching from my sea of consciousness, I was also astonished. The acrobatics just now—whether it was my body's coordination or the height of the jump—far surpassed those of any professional athlete.

Opening my internal organ apertures had a massive impact on me, but I had simply never utilized them properly.

With Xue Zhuo possessing my body this time, I finally realized that my physical fitness had already reached such a terrifying level.

His gaze sharp as a knife, Xue Zhuo looked down at the obsession. "Keep running."

The obsession's thought process was very simple. If this path was blocked, it would just take another. It foolishly turned around to flee for its life, completely exposing its defenseless back.

Xue Zhuo's face exuded an aura of wickedness. His next action thoroughly exposed his extremely bloodthirsty nature.

From his higher vantage point, Xue Zhuo leaped and tackled the obsession to the ground, bringing a terrifying surge of blood aura with him.

"Die!"

His hands, radiating red light, clamped around the obsession's neck. Pinning its shoulders down with his knees, he let out a loud laugh and ripped its head

right off!

The tragic victim's obsession fell apart. The gray emotions supporting the obsession, along with its jumbled, corrupted memories, all turned into fuel. Xue Zhuo tossed them into my sea of consciousness, making the blood-red fire blaze even brighter!

Rising slowly, he saw that the other fat obsession—the one we had just encountered for the first time—had already fled halfway between the first and second floors.

This time, Xue Zhuo was in no rush to pursue. He was waiting for the moment the blood aura burned at its fiercest. His eyes were bloodshot, reflecting a completely blood-colored world.

He didn't say a word as fresh blood flowed from my chest. I didn't know if it was an illusion, but the Blood Fox Tattoo carved into my chest seemed to be undergoing some kind of transformation. It was so lifelike, appearing as though it had raised its head and was about to jump right out of my body.

Its crimson eyes coldly watched the frantically fleeing obsession. That gaze was completely identical to Xue Zhuo's.

"Kid, watch closely. I will only show you this once." Xue Zhuo's voice suddenly echoed in my sea of consciousness. Before I could even understand what was happening, a blood aura far more intense than before erupted from a corner of my sea of consciousness.

"Letting go of obsessions allows one to become a Buddha, and that is because the power of an obsession is something even a Buddha fears!"

The obsession he had just absorbed erupted in this instant. A monstrous wave of red blood surged from behind me. I rubbed my eyes and stared hard, only to discover that it was actually nine gigantic fox tails completely formed from blood aura!

Every single strand of their beautiful fur was condensed with killing intent. Faint cries of dead souls could be heard from within. Those important figures who had died by Xue Zhuo's hands had all become a part of his power now.

Xue Zhuo's hands danced in tandem with the Blood Fox Tattoo on my chest. I memorized this entire set of complex hand seals. It was a special kind of talisman drawn using one's own blood.

"In life, undefeated even with the whole world as an enemy; in death, immune to entering the six paths of reincarnation. There is only one spiritual creature in heaven and earth that dares to say such a thing, and that is the Nine-Tails!"

As the final hand seal concluded, all the blood aura converged into the fox tails. Like nine giant, heaven-swallowing pythons, they caught up to the obsession under Xue Zhuo's control and constricted it tightly.

"My killing intent is too heavy; I can't stay awake for too long. I have passed the method for using the remnant obsession in my earth soul to you. As for how to use it, that's up to you." Xue Zhuo stood in the corridor, his eyes completely submerged in blood red. His world had always been a sea of crimson. He reached out a hand, and as his five fingers slowly closed, the obsession wrapped in the nine tails was squeezed tighter and tighter.

"No matter how much I vent, it cannot wash away my resentment. A blood debt can only be paid in blood! I am leaving my obsession in your hands. When I next awaken, I hope it will be atop the mountain gates of the Five Great Upper Sects, and the scene then had better look exactly like this one!"

His hand suddenly clenched into a fist. The nine fox tails squeezed the fat obsession at the corner of the stairs until it exploded!

Black threads mingled within the blood aura, like a firework of slaughter blooming in the dark night.

"Look, how beautiful the blood..."

The ancient, eerie voice echoed in my mind, slowly fading away. By the time I regained my senses, a piercing pain drilled into my brain like needles.

'I can control my body again?' Flexing my arms and legs, I watched the sky-blotting blood aura begin to disperse as Xue Zhuo returned to the spirit platform in my sea of consciousness. The nine ferocious fox tails behind me also faded and vanished after draining the fat obsession.

Everything just now felt like the Dream Realm, but only I knew what a terrifying slaughter it had actually been.

My chest was dripping with blood. I looked down and saw that, at some unknown point, eight extra long tails had appeared on the Blood Fox Tattoo on my chest. It was branded onto my skin like a blooming, blood-colored flower.

'This guy is a total lunatic.' All ten of my fingers were coated in my own blood. The Blood Fox had been incredibly heavy-handed; when he was using my blood to draw the talisman, he had even dug all the way down to my ribs.

If my Heart Aperture hadn't been opened, just this alone would have severely injured me.

During the hearse live stream, he had also used my flesh and blood to draw talismans in midair. That time, I completely lost the ability to move. But this time, I only felt pain, and my basic mobility wasn't affected too much. This meant my physical fitness had already massively improved without me even realizing it.

'Desperate situations really can change a person and make them stronger.' Soaked in blood, I simply tore off my shirt and gave my wounds a makeshift bandage.

'Xue Zhuo's obsession is indeed formidable, and I've also learned the method to control it. From now on, the initiative is in my hands.'

I glanced downstairs. The voice-activated lights on the first floor had turned on at some point, illuminating the messy footprints all over the ground.

'There really are quite a few monsters and demons in this building. Living in the Red Building and luring innocent people into becoming vessels for obsessions... people like them deserve to die!' The Blood Fox's methods were a bit extreme, but sometimes, what he said wasn't entirely unreasonable.

With all the obsessions devoured by the Blood Fox, my mind seemed to have indirectly benefited as well, becoming much more resilient.

I turned around and entered Old Granny's apartment. A faint candlelight radiated from the living room; the old woman had lit a red candle.

"Granny, those obsessions have already left." I didn't approach them, because my current appearance was indeed a bit terrifying.

I checked the door lock and, finding no major damage, finally let out a breath of relief. "The obsessions wouldn't attack you and Junsheng for no reason. Someone is definitely messing around behind the scenes. It should be Zhu Li..."