70 That Old Blue Man Wasn't That Bad After All

The scream seemed to cut the air into two and was followed by numerous painful wails.

'It's her!'

While Devassa was unsure of what was happening, she could tell to whom belonged the voice: the strange lady that came out from that green haired young girl. Her screams were filled with a power that made the Buddhist cultivator shiver: she couldn't tell the cultivation rank of the woman!

This wasn't a light matter!

Devassa had been in the cultivator world for many years and had encountered numerous high leveled cultivator back in her sect and roaming around the world with her master.

She could easily determine cultivation levels for most people, from simple beginners to Solid Alteration Cultivators... she could even tell if she was in the presence of a powerful Soul Inscription Experts!

However, this time she was completely unable to fathom the degree of the power behind hidden inside those screams.

Behind her, Darkscale suddenly gave off a joyful laugh, making her jump in surprise.

'Laughing?'

The fleeing cultivator trembled: what was happening now? She sent an energy wave behind her to check what was going on without having to stop. The Buddhist didn't dare to be careless dealing with the black serpent.

Her Energy Probe moved around, investing corpses and large white monoliths.

'There!'

Right on top of one of those strange eye-shaped rocks, she saw the demon that she was stupid enough to attack. The violet aura that surrounded the little snake was still there, making him seem like if he was burning inside a hellish flame.

The ferocious expression, however, was gone. Now, he was smiling with a delighted look on his little face.

The Buddhist Cultivator didn't sight in relief now that the black snake seemed to have regained his wits. On the contrary! She felt even more pressure on herself! If before he attacked her like a fool, now he would be able to plan and use his energy more wisely.

'How did he do it?'

Devassa never heard of someone that was able to gain control of his body so quickly after a serious Soul Contamination.

'Absolute freak'

She didn't know much about Bloodline Powers, but she knew that they were considered very dangerous and only clans that had researched how to control them for generation dared to try to raise people with bloodline.

"I will remember you, daoist friend Darkscale" said the serpent with respect, immediately starting to flee toward the south. She spat a large amount of blood, mumbling an intelligible chant that made her begin to gain more and more speed.

She used a secret technique that would make her incapable of cultivating for at least an entire year! However, now she understood that if she didn't go all out she would be killed by Darkscale.

Her views of the black serpent had completely shifted from the beginning of their interaction. First, she thought he would be useful to open a what she thought was a simple array, then she found him terrifying when he lost his mind, and now she felt he was so filled with mysteries that it wasn't a good idea to continue toying with him.

She didn't want to stay there anymore. While she wanted to gain power and energy as fast as possible, she didn't want to die. She needed to leave!

However, there was someone who wasn't ok with her escape. The violet serpent was certain that her technique would be enough to flee away, but a cold laugh broke her delusion.

"No, you won't."

Devassa felt a mortal sense of danger that made her increase again her speed using all the energy she had left. Yet, it still didn't matter.

She didn't even see him. There was only a flash, a streak of violet and silver light passing near her. The moment after, Devassa started to feel the pain. It was the worst feeling she ever felt in her life.

Her energy emerged from her body and scanned it, noticing that a large bite had appeared on her head. It wasn't a very serious wound per se, but it was dripping with white liquid.

'Poison!'

Even if she was in pain, the serpent immediately understood what was happening. He poisoned her! It didn't take long for her senses to start to become unreliable: her vision faded and her entire world started to move.

She felt pain like never before, something that made her feel like her innards were being cut in little pieces while they were burning.

Not too far from her, a silent snake was looking at her as nothing had happened at all. This wasn't the first time he saw what happened to those that were contaminated by his Soul Agony Poison.

"You shouldn't have attacked me. I don't forget and definitely, I won't forgive."

Then the serpent darted away, not in direction of the center of the place, but toward the outskirts.

The last thing that Devassa saw, was his shadow in the distance. She opened her mouth and spilled a large amount of black blood. The Buddhist didn't mumble about vengeance of cursed the cultivator that had fatally injured her. While she looked in pain and she was dazed by the effects that she was feeling due to the venom, she kept herself collected.

Not that Darkscale cared. The serpent that was in awe of another warrior's honor was long gone, the current Darkscale didn't even stop to watch his enemy die after an incredibly long chase.

Left alone, the body of the violet serpent slowly started to lose the last sparks of life, until it finally shook for the last time.

Then, it stopped still.

After a couple of seconds, something strange started to happen: grey lines began to emerge from the flesh of the dead serpent! Those lines gathered into a small grey snake figure that floated around the body. It sighed in disappointment, and gave a complex look toward the direction where Darkscale disappeared. Then, slowly, it also started to vanish in thin air, like if ti was made of smoke.

The only thing that remained was the small violet reptile's body. Now it was just another corpse in that large cemetery, another set of remains without a name or proper burial.

Meanwhile, Darkscale was moving fast towards a large creature that was feeding of a large corpse.

It was a bird of some kind, with two sets of wings and six large libs with sharp claws. The entirety of the creature's body was Ghost Energy, like that of the Insect that the snake had absorbed a while ago.

The beast wasn't eating flesh, it was extracting violet energy from the body of a pig-like creature and absorbing it.

"Here you are!" laughed Darkscale, not trying at all to conceal his presence. The creature felt the arrival of the snake and roared in rage. Then, she felt the Bloodline Power present inside of Darkscale and its expression changed to a maddened one. There was something irresistible that pushed it to try to devour him.

Even Darkscale felt the same sensation, but now he was able to keep it at bay.

He moved next to the creature that was trying to devour him, and the moment before its sharp claws could touch his skin he opened his mouth and created a large vortex with the help of the Pretorian's Breath and the Heavenly Battleground Technique.

The large ghost was immediately destroyed into simple and digestible strings of energy that Darkscale ate without thinking about it twice.

The bird didn't even get to try to escape and he was already completely gone, transformed into energy that was being devoured by an exited Darkscale.

Streams of energy started to pour inside the serpent's body. A portion of that energy moved directly towards the Natural Heart, directed there by the Heavenly Battleground Technique. Another part began to make its way all around the snake's body, doing the same thing that the energy of the Ghost Insect did: it seemed able to strengthen every single fiber of Darkscale's being.

"And Now, let's do it again!"

When the serpent stopped using the Heavenly Battleground Technique to purify the Ghost Energy, he concentrated all his effort to gather Bloodline Energy and push it towards his Natural Heart!

The violet energy didn't obey as smoothly as his Ghost or Blood Energy, but he was capable of forcing it to do what he wanted it to do.

When the violet energy touched the thin blue wrapping around his Natural Heart, a large amount of it disappeared!

Only a small, more clear amount remained. This Bloodline Energy didn't contain any defect at all! It didn't drive him crazy and it was at the same level as his Ghost Energy. No, maybe even stronger!

Plus, the changes that it made his body go through were even more amazing!

Without being able to contain his laughs, Darkscale continued to purify the Bloodline Energy thanks to the Blue Energy left inside him by the strange man that he met in the Blood Woods. Now that old geezer didn't seem that disgusting and odious anymore.

The snake was happily working on his inner energies, when another scream resounded all around the cave making him move his head towards the direction where he could sense his Blue Cave.

"STOP IT, YOU STUPID BEAST! STOP SENDING ME THIS CORRUPTED ENERGY!"