Chapter 367: Chapter 367: Dark Red Elixir Pills
Listening to what those two were saying, Chu Qingyun was almost certain.
Everything that Tier Four Martial Artist had said before was true.
The ones controlling Chu Family Village really were just eighteen Tier Three Martial Spirits.
They had no idea Chu Qingyun was right behind them, so their conversation was unguarded. There was no reason for them to lie.
Still, Chu Qingyun remained cautious.
He didn’t strike immediately. Instead, he quietly retreated, maintaining his Stealth and the Hidden Qi Technique as he began to search the area once more.
After searching nearly the entire area, Chu Qingyun had located a total of twelve Martial Spirits from the Martial Soul Hall. All of them were Tier Three.
They were all in pairs, sitting and waiting for Chu Qingyun to appear without even taking a break to rest.
Furthermore, from their conversations, Chu Qingyun was able to basically confirm it: there were only eighteen Tier Three Martial Spirits here, with no one in the Earth Spirit Realm or the Celestial Spirit Realm.
But as he passed a slope, a strange cry suddenly echoed from the distance. A Flying Demon Beast, over three meters long with a four-meter wingspan, took flight from the mountain, flapping its wings as it swooped aggressively toward Chu Qingyun.
"Damn it, a Red-headed Swallow!"
Chu Qingyun couldn’t help but curse under his breath.
The Red-headed Swallow was a Tier Three Flying Demon Beast, famous for the crimson feathers on its head.
This type of Demon Beast possessed an exceptionally keen sense of smell. Despite the distance and the mountain’s gale and torrential rain, it had still caught Chu Qingyun’s unfamiliar scent.
The Hidden Qi Technique could conceal his aura, but it was completely useless against his scent!
Red-headed Swallows were hot-tempered and extremely aggressive, so they were rarely used as mounts. Chu Qingyun had never expected them to have a Red-headed Swallow among their Flying Demon Beasts.
In the dark, rain-drenched night, the Red-headed Swallow descended like a colossal shadow, pouncing menacingly toward Chu Qingyun while letting out a stream of bizarre cries.
"Courting death!"
Chu Qingyun snorted. With a flip of his hand, he connected to his Devouring Martial Soul. Devouring Power shot out from his palm, thin black threads perfectly concealed by the darkness of night. They wove into a large net that flew up to meet the enormous Red-headed Swallow.
The Red-headed Swallow plunged headfirst into the net of Devouring Power, its entire body immediately ensnared by the tendrils.
’Devour!’
At Chu Qingyun’s command, the Devouring Power erupted.
Instantly, the Red-headed Swallow let out a series of sharp, ear-piercing wails as it fell to the ground. It began to struggle frantically, its thrashing obliterating swaths of trees and rock!
As the Devouring Power consumed it, every feather on the Red-headed Swallow’s body swiftly withered, turning to ash and flaking away. Then, its skin and flesh rapidly turned a cracked, grayish-white, sloughing off its body under the pounding rain.
It was as if time itself had accelerated for the Red-headed Swallow, causing it to wither and decay at a visible rate.
In just two or three minutes, its huge body of flesh and blood was gone, leaving only a few brittle bones that would shatter at a touch.
As for Chu Qingyun, he had absorbed all the Primordial Power from the Tier Three Demon Beast. The Devouring Martial Soul refined it all into Primordial Liquid, replenishing his Qi Sea.
Whether the Red-headed Swallow had a Demon Core was now impossible to know. Even if it did, the Devouring Power would have already consumed it and converted it into Primordial Power.
After all, besides that one time in the Illusion Realm, this was Chu Qingyun’s first time devouring a real Demon Beast. He was inexperienced and hadn’t even thought about the Demon Core.
Devouring the Red-headed Swallow also marked the first time Chu Qingyun had used his Devouring Power on a creature of flesh and blood.
Previously, he had only ever used his Devouring Power against the people from the Martial Soul Hall.
This time, although he didn’t receive any Martial Soul Power, streams of faint red energy had entered his body during the process.
Chu Qingyun could clearly feel his body absorb a small portion of that faint red energy. A warmth spread throughout him, and he felt a new surge of power.
But after absorbing only a small amount, his body felt saturated, unable to take in any more.
The remaining faint red energy followed the path of the Devouring Power and flowed into his Devouring Martial Soul.
A moment after the Red-headed Swallow was completely devoured, a stream of dark red energy flowed out from the chaotic mass of his Devouring Martial Soul.
This energy felt very much like the faint red energy he had absorbed earlier, only as if it had been purified.
Chu Qingyun’s body was still unable to absorb this dark red energy. However, it traveled through his meridians, flowing all the way to the palm of his hand.
The dark red energy emerged from the center of his palm and, to his surprise, rapidly condensed into a dark red, pigeon-egg-sized pill!
’What is this? An Elixir? No, that can’t be right... I’ve never seen anything like it...’
Chu Qingyun was dumbfounded. He had no idea what his Devouring Martial Soul was doing, nor did he know what this thing in his hand was.
However, he was almost certain it wasn’t an Elixir. He had received a complete inheritance of the Alchemy Dao, and in his memory, no such Elixir existed.
He brought the dark red pill to his nose and sniffed. It had a cloyingly sweet scent, with an underlying hint of blood.
’Could this be something the Devouring Power created by consuming the flesh and blood of the Red-headed Swallow?’
A guess began to form in Chu Qingyun’s mind.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. The commotion from the Red-headed Swallow had already attracted the attention of all eighteen Tier Three Martial Spirits from the Martial Soul Hall.
Right now, they had already gathered and were rushing up the mountain from below.
To deal with Chu Qingyun, they had even summoned the seventeen remaining Flying Demon Beasts.
They actually had little confidence in facing Chu Qingyun. Even Mu had died at his hands, which made them even more terrified of facing him alone. That was why all eighteen of them had gathered first, and only after summoning their Demon Beasts did they dare to charge up the mountain.
Flying Demon Beasts that could be tamed and ridden by just anyone were often the weakest among Tier Three Demon Beasts, and their temperaments were generally quite mild.
So, those seventeen Flying Demon Beasts were only large and intimidating in appearance. Their actual combat strength was likely inferior to even one of the Martial Soul Hall’s Tier Three Martial Spirits.
Eighteen Tier Three Martial Spirits and seventeen Tier Three Flying Demon Beasts.
Facing all this, Chu Qingyun suddenly smiled.
At that moment, he suddenly realized he no longer needed to hide any of his abilities. In any case, everyone on the other side, whether Demon Beast or Martial Spirit from the Martial Soul Hall, was now a target he was determined to kill!
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