C208 You All Look Delicious!

Jin Fann stared into the miasma-filled half-sky, his face a ghastly shade of iron. Amidst the toxic vapors, thousands of flies buzzed and shrieked, desperately struggling to break free from the miasma's grasp. The miasma, vibrant with color, had become a viscous glue, ensnaring each insect in its sticky embrace. The incessant buzzing of the trapped flies was the only sound; not a single one could escape the poisonous cloud.

These flies, the strongest among them, had been nurtured by Jin Fann with his own blood essence. As their leader, the mightiest fly had gathered swarms of its kin from Jade Peak and across the Profound Sky Continent. Jin Fann had considered these thousands of flies his ace in the hole, a force to be reckoned with by the Medicine Sect.

Yet now, through the bond of his Qi and blood and the faint soul whispers of the few formidable flies, Jin Fann received news that left him stunned—the flies were perishing en masse. More specifically, they were being consumed by an unknown entity within the miasma.

"Chi! Chi!" Jin Fann bit his fingertip, squeezing out a drop of blood as crimson and clear as a ruby. He pressed the droplet firmly to his forehead. A burst of blood-red light flared from his brow, weaving into an intricate and eerie rune resembling a scarlet, grotesquely grinning face.

Suddenly, within Jin Fann's spiritual consciousness, a constellation of light spots flickered into existence—pale green, deep red, and azure blue. Eight peculiar points of light in total, each corresponding to one of the strange insects he had reared with his blood essence, insects far more powerful than the average fly.

"Only eight!" Jin Fann's face contorted with alarm, his temples throbbing as if pulsating with his rapid heartbeat. Before, when he invoked the Ghoul Glyph Sect's arcane method, he would see twelve such light spots shimmering in his soul. Now, with only eight remaining, it implied...

"Master!" Before he could examine the situation further, a piercing cry of terror interrupted him. Jin Fann abruptly turned towards the swamp, where one of his direct disciples was in distress. This disciple, a practitioner of the Profound Break Stage with robust Qi and blood, bore a jade pendant around his dantian—a gift from Jin Fann. The pendant, shaped like a dark red tiger's head, contained a scintillating blood cloud within, from which tendrils of mist perpetually escaped, seeping into the disciple's core.

The tiger head jade pendant served as an instrument to warm and nourish Qi and blood, aiding in the recovery of the middle dantian's mysterious gate.

At that moment, the pendant radiated a dazzling red glow.

Within the eerie light of the jade, a blood cloud coalesced into a ferocious, blood-drenched red tiger with expansive wings unfurled like serrated blades, poised to leap forth.

"Hu!"

In an instant, the essence of the two-winged red tiger burst forth from the pendant!

Even more astonishing was the sight of the direct disciple's middle dantian releasing its Qi and blood like floodgates opening, his rich life force pouring out uncontrollably.

In a mere moment, the disciple collapsed, life force drained, his body a limp husk devoid of flesh and bone, life extinguished in a breath.

"Little Li!"

Jin Fann cried out in agony, watching as the essence of the two-winged red tiger, along with his disciple's life force, was absorbed into the toxic miasma cloud overhead.

Countless flies buzzed with excitement, feasting on the fresh blood essence rising from below.

Yet, Jin Fann felt a chill of fear as he sensed two of the mightiest insects vanish without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"Ah!"

The remaining two disciples, a man and a woman, looked up, clutching their throats, faces flushed with red.

"Crack!"

Their cranial caps appeared to be forcibly opened.

In the next moment, two brilliant blood-colored streamers erupted from their heads, surging into the miasma cloud.

In just a short while, all three disciples lay dead.

Within the miasma, new flies seemed to undergo a metamorphosis, rebirthed, while others were rapidly spawned by the dense blood essence.

Some flies engaged in brutal combat, cannibalizing one another.

The flies Jin Fann had nurtured with his own blood essence perished one after another.

A presence so terrifying that it made Jin Fann's own heart quake began to stir within the miasma cloud.

As a practitioner of the Ghoul Glyph Sect, Jin Fann's keen senses were attuned to the myriad poisonous insects and oddities of the world. Instinctively, he knew that within the depths of the miasma cloud, a formidable and strange entity lay hidden.

After his three personal disciples met their untimely deaths, Jin Fann refrained from charging in for vengeance.

He paused, biting his lip in indecision before releasing his soul thought into the ether.

Like water, it rippled outwards, permeating the environment.

A gleam sparked in his eyes.

A cold, cruel smile played on his lips as he effortlessly ascended.

He glided directly toward Yu Yuan, Bai Shenshen, and the gathering of alchemists from various nations.

As he moved, the vibrant miasma clouds teeming with flies seemed to gain sentience, trailing after him.

He glanced back periodically, and with each confirmation that the miasma followed, his icy grin grew more merciless.

...

"Buzz! Buzz! Buzzing incessantly!"

While Yu Yuan conversed with Bai Shenshen, observing the young alchemists from across the Profound Sky Continent, it felt as though swarms of flies were shrieking in his head.

"Spirit Crystal! Where did you get that? You actually possess a Spirit Crystal!"

"Hey, kid, are you here for the alchemist trial too? Your robe isn't the standard alchemist attire, and there's no emblem on your chest! Is this your first time?"

"Brother, where did you find your Spirit Crystals?"

"You're quite the looker and so young, too. Hehe, I can look after you."

A throng of young men and women from the various empires of the Profound Sky Continent encircled them, each hailing from families with influence rivaling, or even surpassing, that of the Su family.

They swarmed in, chattering amongst themselves as they saw Yu Yuan and Bai Shenshen standing together.

Only Lau Zaihe, singled out by Bai Shenshen, remained aloof. The young man from the Divine Might Empire stood at a distance, observing with a discerning eye.

"Damn it."

Yu Yuan jolted as if abruptly roused from a nightmare.

He turned to Bai Shenshen and commanded, "Take everyone back to the Medicine Sect, now!"

Bai Shenshen looked at him, bewildered. "What?"

"A member of the Ghoul Glyph Sect has ushered in disaster," Yu Yuan explained urgently.

More than three centuries had passed since he had set his contingency in place. The window of opportunity had long since closed.

He had calculated that ten years after taking the Reincarnation Pill, he would be reborn, and within thirty years at most, he would be able to track down and retrieve his contingency.

However, he hadn't foreseen that, after being betrayed by his senior brother, his rebirth would be delayed by nearly three hundred years.

In three hundred years, that entity had likely grown to a level of terrifying power.

Now, he doubted whether he could successfully subdue it and quell its ambition after all this time.

"What are you talking about?" Bai Shenshen asked, bewildered.

"Ladies and gentlemen, future alchemists of the Boundless Land, my name is Jin Fann, from the Ghoul Glyph Sect."

A sinister laugh, brimming with malice, suddenly echoed from a distance. Before the group could even process it, Jin Fann drifted over and landed before Bai Shenshen and Yu Yuan.

He offered a slight bow to the crowd, then fixed his gaze on Bai Shenshen. "Are you with the Medicine Sect?"

With an icy demeanor, Bai Shenshen replied, "Senior, I've been observing you and your apprentice for quite some time."

"Heh, I'm aware of you," Jin Fann acknowledged with a nod, seemingly unconcerned. He turned his smile to the young men and women, eyeing them as if they were delectable morsels. "You all seem quite appetizing. That thing would probably take a liking to you."

Upon hearing this, everyone, Bai Shenshen included, was left in a state of confusion.

They couldn't grasp his meaning.

Only Yu Yuan was on edge, his nerves frayed, with not an ounce of certainty in his heart.

"It's been far too long."

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