For a long time Wu Tianmo had cut his path through his enemies, regardless of unfavorable odds, he had always pulled through.
He was a sword cultivator, one whose drive to win pushed him forward through any situation. Even now, in the face of a tier two beasts as a Body Reforging cultivator. He felt no fear, only anticipation for a great battle to come.
He met the eyes of the beast, who was also surrounded by six tier one beasts of various levels. His heartbeat pounded like a drum, his blood began to flood like a river and a murderous intent spread around him like a domain of death.
The tier one beasts instinctively slithered backwards, this wasn't the fear that came from a high level enemy. It was a bloodline fear, one that made them feel, down to their very cores a sense of inferiority.
They were cats facing down a lion, a hawk staring in the face of a phoenix, a serpent staring up at a dragon.
Wu Tianmo felt their fear and pushed on, performing a specific set of the Crimson Sword Dance's movements.
Like a crimson flash he lunged forward simultaneously drawing his tier two sword.
Crescent draw
Two heads of the tier one beasts were severed with a swipe of his sword, its edge carrying a faint red glow.
This was his sword intent, causing the tier two blade's sharpness to surge.
The other tier one beasts broke from their dazed bloodline suppressed state and lunged towards him.
Wu Tianmo jumped into the air, narrowly dodging between two heads of the lunging serpents.
Blood Arc
Using the rotation from his spin, he spun his blade creating a red arc of bloody destruction, severing two snakes in half.
A shower of red caused their blue scales to be hidden and their lifeless bodies created a crimson wall around him.
Now covered in the blood of the serpents he licked his lips, tasting his prey.
The last of the tier one serpents, both at the peak of tier one attacked him together.
Before he could react, one of them swung their long body at him from the side, which he blocked with the flat side of his sword supported by his hand.
His own blood shot from within his mouth, he was careless and arrogant after defeating two of them in one motion.
The body of a spirit beast is stronger than that of a human, taking its full strike was a mistake.
Yet, he fared better than most humans would. Others in his shoes would have had all the bones in their arms broken by this strike.
This is bad.... The tier two hasn't even stepped in yet. I might be....
While still blocking the initial strike, other peak tier one snake smashed him from the other side with their thick tail that was covered in blue scales.
Wu Tianmo let out a roar of pain, yet this roar carried more than a yell of pain, subconsciously it carried the chant of a dragon.
The snakes recoiled their tails in fear giving him a moment to catch his breath, even the tier two serpent slithered back a few feet in disbelief.
It was then that it overcame this fear and felt a primal urge, to devour.
This human in front of it carried something..... something that could change its life forever.
It lunged its massive head down towards Wu Tianmo.
Wu Tianmo used the tip of his sword to propel himself into the air, narrowly dodging the serpents head. Its massive body sliding across the stone floor below him like a passing train.
Bastard... Falling Moon!
He drove his sword downwards, it should have just pierced the scales, this was a tier two spirit beast after all.
However, this blade was empowered with his tangible crimson sword intent, pushing the weapon beyond its original capabilities.
With a flash of crimson the blade pierced through the body of the tier two beast and plunged it into the ground.
The body of the snake was carried by its initial momentum and couldn't stop moving forward.
Causing the blade to slice it cleanly, splitting it into two halves, barely connected at the head.
The snake hissed momentarily in agony until the light left its red eyes.
Wu Tianmo, now covered head to toe in its blood looked at the corpses around him and fell to one knee propped up by his sword.
*Coughs up blood*
That was... close..
He wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth, looking down at his gains. He used his divine sense to scan the area. This time he was truly alone.
This area was now coated in the blood of serpents, those that still were on the mountain didn't dare to approach.
The blood was draining from the bodies at a quick rate, he looked all around and found a large cauldron that normally would be used for cooking large meals.
He sighed,
"Still better than the cave hole...."
He placed the cauldron into the hole he created on the ground, he then placed each of the snakes bodies around it with small channels extending from their bodies into the cauldron.
This way the blood would flow from them into it.
Even the large gourd he used before was opened, leaning on its side pouring into the large hole the size of a small pool.
He was fortunate, the tier two beast's blood was plentiful and filled half of the cauldron, even after losing 75% of it to the earth.
It was now time, he removed his tattered clothes and stepped into the cauldron of serpent blood. Still covered in the blood of his enemies, he sunk into the pool like a descending demon.
The cauldron wasn't as large as the blood pool within the cave, so he had to sit in the lotus position within it.
His face was then submerged and he started to channel the Crimson Lunar Blood Scripture.
The blood began to boil as the excess blood started to pool above him like a pond of crimson.
He was fully submerged.
Its time...
The blood pierced his body like threads of crimson, drilling into his bones and the marrow, it was the cleansing process.
Yet this was when something unexpected happened.
The origin blood within the marrow started to reject the low tier serpents blood.
Wu Tianmo's body started to shudder, his blood boiled and the serpents blood started to run wild within him, what was meant to devour was now being devoured.
*Dragon Chant*
His marrow's blood started to devour the essence within the serpents blood. Its vitality that was painstaking cultivated over a hundred years was absorbed.
Words started to appear within Wu Tianmo's Mindspace, yet they weren't the words of humans, but that of dragons.
Without realizing it he started to chant these words within the cauldron of serpent blood, with each word the blood surrounding him trembled and its level sank.
His origin blood within his marrow started to glow brighter as the snakes blood essence was devoured.
A burst of black was expelled from the blood and onto the ground nearby, it smelled of filth.
A second burst of crimson escaped the blood pool, he had broken through to the 8th Stage of the Body Reforging realm, Meridian Tempering.
There was still plenty of blood, and only the tier one blood had been absorbed so far.
Wu Tianmo was in pain, his bones ached, his blood boiled, and his skin felt like daggers were driving into each pore.
This was cultivation, he was preparing the vessel in which he would cultivate to becoming an immortal. How could it come easily?
He grit his teeth.
Continue!