Crack!

The moment Mu Chen placed his hand on the sarcophagus, its lid exploded. Mu Chen was showered with broken bits of stone as dozens of offshoots shot from the cavity and stabbed at him.

"Hmph!" Mu Chen narrowed his eyes and sneered. He was already prepared. Instead of avoiding the wooden limbs that attacked him, he stabbed forward with his hand.

Puff! Puff!

Inch thick protrusion made of wood punctured into Mu Chen's body. At the same time, the sword intent he had coalesced, burst forth like a dike and spearheaded towards the coffin.

"Eeeeek… " The thing inside the coffin shrieked and writhed in pain.

Mu Chen jumped back and the wooden offshoots withdrew leaving behind bloodied holes. Mu Chen groaned and coughed blood. When those offshoots stabbed into him, he felt that his blood was drawn. He immediately took out a healing pill and threw it into his mouth, then stared at the thing inside the coffin.

The thing inside the coffin struggled fiercely and fell out of the coffin onto the ground. In the dim light provided by the bright pearl, Mu Chen was able to see its appearance.

Humanoid in shape, it had hands and feet like humans. However, its body was gnarly and made of knotted wood. The eyes were emerald deep and it had a mouth, but no nose. When it stood up, it was over seven feet tall. It looked like a tree that had become human.

The demon hissed in pain, clutching its chest. Greenish blue-colored liquid oozed between its wooden fingers.

"Tch! What old man?" Mu Chen looked at the thing and snorted in disdain. "Clearly is a demon, but likes to pretend to be a senior."

"M-my heart… " The demon looked at Mu Chen in shock and fury. "H-how… "

Mu Chen remained silent. Facing the monster in front of him, Mu Chen didn't dare to be careless and drew his sword.

Seeing Mu Chen ready to pounce, the demon shrank. "Wait! I can—" But before the demon could finish, Mu Chen moved.

The demon no longer persuaded Mu Chen and roared. Inside the closed chamber, the sound of its roar was not lower than an explosion. It raised its hands and the fingers elongated and punctured the air towards Mu Chen's, the tips sharp as any spear.
 
Seeing them, Mu Chen narrowed his eyes but didn't stop. When they were about to touch him, he twisted his body and dodged the ones aimed at his vitals, ignoring the rest. The demon's wooden fingers pierced through his body, but at the same time, Mu Chen's sword penetrated the demon's temple.

"Y-you…" The light in the demon's eyes dimmed and its body turned limp.

"Hah.." Mu Chen gasped, his face pale. He pulled out the sword and the demon's body fell, almost dragging him down with it. Mu Chen stumbled as he removed the demon's appendages one by one. Exhausted, he slumped against the wall. He took out his wine pouch and drank a few mouthfuls. Although he only struck twice almost all his sword intent was consumed.

Looking at the corpse of the demon, Mu Chen shook his head. The pie fell from the sky, of course Mu Chen was skeptical. How could there be such a good thing?

When he first entered the chamber, Mu Chen immediately noticed one thing. It smelled of blood. When he probed the coffin, his sword sense wasn't able to penetrate it. But while he was examining the chamber, he heard the faint beat of heart from the coffin. He missed it in the beginning because the interval was too long.

Once he knew the person inside the coffin was alive. Mu Chen's first choice was to retreat, but it failed. Mu Chen could only pretend to be a clueless junior. But all the while, he remained vigilant. So when the 'senior' offered him his legacy, Mu Chen was excited on the surface but alert inside, ready to strike on a moment's notice. He used his extraordinary sense of hearing to locate the demon's heart. Fortunately, he was lucky and caught the demon off-guard and destroyed its heart in one strike. If not, the outcome of the battle would have been very different.

"But…" Mu Chen pulled Xiao Xue from his robes. "Why was it after Xiao Xue?"

When the demon had first attacked, it had tried to grab Xiao Xue but missed because it never expected Mu Chen to strike back.

Mu Chen checked if Xiao Xue was hurt. To his surprise, forget about getting hurt, she wasn't even stained by his blood. He had bled a lot, but Xiao Xue's fur was still spotless. Mu Chen sighed in relief.

Having recovered enough strength, Mu Chen picked up the bright pearl and stood up. He flipped the demon's body over and searched it. But he didn't find anything, there wasn't even a piece of clothing. Mu Chen was disappointed. But when he looked inside the coffin, he was shocked.

The coffin was filled with crystals that were sparkling red like rubies. Mu Chen picked one crystal and squeezed it. The crystal was hard, but it was smooth to touch and emitted heat of its own.

"Bloodstone?" Mu Chen took a deep breath. He had only heard their description and never seen it, but there could be no doubt. This was a rare treasure coveted by established sects and powers. It had only one known use, and it was to prevent the loss of vitality.

Old experts who were close to death could cover themselves in bloodstone and enter a slumber. In this way, they could halt their depletion of lifespan and delay their death. Although it was merely delaying the inevitable, it was still very useful. As long as those experts were alive, they could protect their sects in times of need. The existence of these dying experts was like old trees. Although withered, they could still provide a bit of shade and if necessary they could be used as firewood…

Especially, when bloodstones were coupled together with the longevity fruit, it formed a powerful combination.

So when he saw the bloodstones, Mu Chen wasn't polite at all and began to dump them into his ring.

"Huh? What's this?" While he was rummaging through the stones, Mu Chen paused. One of the stones was not like the others. Mu Chen picked it up. It was the size of a goose egg and looked like a bloodstone, but it was multifaceted with twelve five-sided faces. Glyphs in ancient characters covered its several faces.

Mu Chen probed the bead with his sword sense, and a stream of characters flashed inside his mind...

Essence Refining Art.

Mu Chen frowned and continued to read. But as he read, his expression changed.
From initial curiosity to astonishment, it became dignified.

What he read was a manual for a cultivation technique that relied on consuming the vitality of humans to maintain one's youth and prolong life. It went into extreme detail regarding the procurement of blood essence and other raw materials, processing and refining it to increase one's life.

"What a cruel technique." Mu Chen was shocked. It could only be described as demonic and evil. One section of the manual recommended using the heart blood of newborn infants since their vitality was complete and yet to be eroded by the passage of time.

But another section of the manual shocked him even more.

As per the manual, the bloodstones weren't formed naturally. Instead, they were the product of the crystallization of blood from countless lives. The practitioner of the art could use these bloodstones like ordinary cultivators used spirit stones. The fact that bloodstones could help lock the vitality was just an unintended effect.

To produce one bloodstone the size of a baby fist, it required the blood of over a thousand people. To gather enough bloodstones to cover a person, the blood of how many people was required?

A hundred thousand? Half million? Or was it a million? Mu Chen felt his head swim. He couldn't even imagine the number of people. No wonder bloodstones were so scarce. Behind every bloodstone was the sacrifice of innumerable lives.

"And here I thought the bloodstones were called that, because they were red in color," Mu Chen sighed. "I never thought there was a deeper meaning."

Mu Chen put the bead away and proceeded to empty the coffin. Every bloodstone he picked seemed to have become heavier. But even though he sympathized with the plight of several lives that went into making each stone, he didn't stop collecting them. Things had already happened and he wasn't the one responsible for it. At the end of the day, bloodstone was still a treasure.

When he had put away the last piece, Mu Chen found something he was looking for. It was a black bracelet.

A spatial tool.

Mu Chen's eyes brightened. "So what if you are a demon, you still need something to carry your luggage."

Unlike spatial rings, the spatial tools came in all shapes and sizes. And because they weren't limited by the dimensions of the ring, they were easier to craft and had more space.

But after he picked up the bracelet and probed it with his sword sense, Mu Chen frowned. The bracelet rejected his sword sense.

"A restriction?" Mu Chen was disappointed. He wasn't well versed in breaking restrictions. He only knew one way, which was also the simplest and direct way, to use force. But if he used it on the bracelet, it was likely the space inside would be destroyed along with stored items.

Mu Chen put away the bracelet for now and turned his attention to the chamber once again.

After going through the manual, he had a few guesses about the arrangement of the demon. The vitality of humans could be absorbed, then what about monster beasts? Recalling the carcasses of the monster beasts in the pit above, Mu Chen felt more certain about his conjecture.

The demon must be at the end of its lifespan, so it set up a formation to trap monster beasts to death and absorb their vitality while it slumbered. Once its vitality was fully recovered it would wake up. However, someone blocked the mouth of the pit. Since the demon was in slumber deep underground, it remained oblivious to the happenings outside. It was only when Mu Chen disturbed its sleep, it woke up.

As for who blocked the pit, there was no way for Mu Chen to know nor did it matter to him.

"How to get out of here?" Mu Chen looked at the closed exit and felt a headache. If possible, he didn't want to go through the process of boring through the stone. It was slow and very exhausting.

Mu Chen went to the wall and probed with his sword sense, but his head began to ache.

"Damn!" Mu Chen rubbed his head. His wounds had healed, but he had yet to recover his sword intent. He looked at the chamber and sighed.

Although this place was not inviting, it should be safe since the demon was already dead. Mu Chen took out a blanket and spread it on the floor. He picked up Xiao Xue, placed her by his side, and went to sleep.