Chapter 4: The Red Shell Bloodworm

“What?” Ning Ji bent down to look at Yu Can’s forehead and wondered, “What bloodworm?

“My grandfather is not in a coma because of the fever. As a matter of fact, his energy is being absorbed by the Red Shell Bloodworm. It is taking away Grandpa’s Soul of Earth and bits of memory.” Yu Yuan pointed to the red string on top of the old man’s eyebrows, and said, “Look, that is the Bloodworm!”

Ning Ji was stunned. “What the hell is a Red Shell Bloodworm? Also, why are you so confident? How do you even know?”

He was also very doubtful Yu Yuan. A boy whose Souls of Earth and Heaven just awakened seemed too abnormal to be true.

The Yu Yuan that just woke up was too different from the boy he knew, almost like a totally different person.

“Red Shell Bloodworms are mostly from the Sea of Dark Clouds in the northern parts of the Land of Extinction. These worms are as thin as silk lines, and if they get attached to one’s eyebrows, it will be able to extract the Soul of Earth that contains memory.” Yu Yuan said in a cold tone, “According to what you said before, Yin Jue’s real intention is to take away my Grandpa’s memory and the Bloodworm is what he is using to do so!”

“From the Sea of Dark Clouds?” Ning Ji was horrified.

The northern part of the Land of Extinction was the most terrifying place in the world, home to the Demon Palace and Demon Temple.

Even some powerful cultivators from the Land of Genesis wouldn’t even dare to set foot in that land without extreme caution and trying not to disturb the demons and spirits that lived there.

The entire Vast World contains three main Lands and many other small regions within. Among those, the Sea of Dark Clouds from Northern Land of Extinction was known to be the source of the evilest creatures.

When Ning Yue heard that the Red Shell Bloodworm was from there, he figured that his old friend would more likely be dead than alive.

“Indeed, the Bloodworm is a species of poisonous insect from there and is one of the key components of the Soul Extract Pill. A real Soul Extract Pill can not only take out all the memories gathered inside one’s Soul of Earth, but it also can prevent the cultivator from dying. The not-yet-refined Red Shell Bloodworm, however, can only extract parts of the memory and the victim will die from its heat poison. ”

“As for the amount of memory, it all depends on how long the person who it is attached to can stay alive.”

As he spoke, Yu Yuan’s body trembled from his anger.

In the last life, due to his inability to open up his meridians naturally, he tried to use many poisons to force open his meridians that were naturally disabled.

The Soul Extract Pill was one of them that he tried. The pill could take out a cultivator’s memory that hadn’t yet transformed into Yin God and steal any information enclosed within.

After a cultivator’s Soul of Earth transformed into Yin God, it could no longer be affected by the pill. Instead, the cultivator could use the Yin God to kill the Bloodworms in the pill, and then it could even absorb the energy from the Bloodworms to further cultivate.

Those who had not yet reached the Yin God Realm could have a hard time dealing with a Soul Extraction Pill if they didn’t have specific methods or magical items to protect their Soul of Earth.

“How can we get rid of this poisonous worm?” Ning Ji asked.

For now, he put aside all his doubts about how Yu Yuan found out so much about Red Shell Bloodworm in the first place. He just wanted this boy to save his old friend.

The Red Shell Bloodworm was still taking away his friend’s Soul of Earth every second they were talking, and the poison was also spreading throughout the body.

If this continued, his old friend would not last long before death.

“Do you trust me?” Yu Yuan asked suddenly.

Ning Ji looked at him and hesitated for a moment before saying, “Even though it is quite weird that both your Souls of Earth and Heaven recovered, but I still believe that you will not murder your own grandfather. After all, you are the cause of all this.”

Yu Yuan felt a pain in his chest. He took a deep breath and said, “Alright, I need your help to gather some materials. I will not just keep my grandpa safe but also use the worms to teach the intruder a lesson!”

“Intruder? Don’t you just mean Yin Jue?”

“No.”

“Not him? Who else?”

“I think it should be someone from the Cold Shadows Sect.”

“What?!”

…

In a mountain forest just outside of the Dark Moon City…

A cave was dug out on a bare hill in a valley where no light can be reached. The cave can fit about three or four people and the entrance was mostly covered by small rocks and twigs.

It was cold inside the cave.

Lu Xuan sat with his back to the stone wall, quietly cultivating. After every cycle of breathing, she opened her eyes to check on the large piece of jade in front of her.

A bloodline displayed inside the transparent blue jade. If anyone could magnify the line by hundred times, she would see snippets of light were rushing toward the line.

The red bloodline was the Red Shell Bloodworm’s spirit projection. It was formed by a drop of Core Blood and the lights were Yu Can’s memories.

“Yin Jue is here to meet Master Lu!”

A voice suddenly sounded outside the cave’s entrance.

Lu Xuan frowned. She opened her eyes and said calmly, “Come in.”

Yin Jue quickly entered curled up as much as possible, afraid that she might be unhappy because he took up too much space.

“There are some powerful cultivators in the Dark Moon City. Even I have to be careful while traveling.” Lu Xuan didn’t seem to be pleasant about his arrival, “Just do what I tell you. Do not come unless there is something urgent. Your cultivation is still too low, which can make you easy to be found.”

“Master, why would I ever dare to bother you if there isn’t just a tiny problem…” Yin Jue replied swiftly.

“What problem?” Lu Xuan asked.

“Yu Yuan is not dead. Not only so, he somehow woke up,” Yin Jue lowered his head and said quietly. “He is not unconscious anymore and can also speak properly. Master, is there anything wrong with the strategy you told me? Did you accidentally mix up something?”

“How dare you to question me?”

Several silver-white halos appeared on Lu Xuan’s dark gray robes.

Looking closely, there were actually ten or so poisonous pythons.

“Hisss!”

All of their tails seemed to be attached to Lu Xuan, and their ferocious head raised up high.

The white scales on the backs of the pythons were like silver flakes, shining in a metallic tone. Their eyes were oily green, which made anyone that stared into them shudder in fear.

“Woosh!”

One of the poisonous pythons jumped out and wrapped around Yin Jue’s neck like vines, quickly starting to tighten.

“Master… Master, please spare my life!”

Yin Jue, who looked undefeatable last night in Yu’s Mansion, was now kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy. “It was all my fault! Please spare my life! If you give me a few more days, I will promise to bring you Yu Yuan’s head and guarantee you his death!”

“Rubbish like you don’t need to be alive anymore,” Lu Xuan said without showing any emotion. The pythons twisted tighter and tighter, taking away Yin Jue’s life bit by bit. “Don’t worry, after you are dead, Lin’s Clan will hire another house servent that I can freely commend.”

“Please, please……”

Yin Jue’s pleading bearly could be heard anymore.

Suddenly…

Bam!

The crystal blue jade placed in front of Lu Xuan’s knee showed the blood-red line started to burn in a strange-looking flame.

Crack!

As the line burned, the jade also started to shatter, and the inside seemed to be filled with black ink. The clear jade soon became turbid.

“Who did this?!”

Just as she was about to kill Yin Jue, Lu Xuan screamed like a monster in pain. The several other drops of Red Shell Bloodworm’s spiritual blood stored in her middle core started to burn mysteriously.

When the little bit of spiritual blood was burned, it caused great pain on her Black Door as if it was about to tear part of her core.

A cultivator’s lower core was the Yellow Hall, where the energy from the earth and sky could be stored and refined.

The so-called Black Door was part of the Middle Core, where blood and Qi energy were stored to heal injuries. This part was directly connected to the heart.

The Middle Core was where the three Souls were located.

The Lower Core gathered the Spiritual Energy from nature, the Middle Core developed the energy, and the Upper Core was the foundation of life.

When any of the three main parts of the core was harmed, it will bring the cultivator unbearable pain.

After the burn in her Middle Core-Black Door, Lu Xuan felt all her Qi and blood flow were disturbed. Under the immense pain, she spat out a mouth full of blood.

“Twist!”

Lu Xuan hastily shouted out a spell and immediately all the pythons around Yin Jue’s neck returned to her Middle Core as fast as lightning.

Bang! Crack!

The minimized poisonous pythons flew around Middle Core and finally killed all the disobedient spiritual energy in her body.

“That is the Red Shell Bloodworm that you attached to Yu Can!” Lu Xuan wiped away the blood from the corners of his mouth. she used her ghost-like eyes to stare at Yin Jue who almost died and said, “Whom else in the Yu Clan have you not reported to me that is capable to counter my spell? My bloodworm has not only countered but repelled!”

“Impossible! No one, no one in the Yu Clan is even close to every have such powers!” Yin Jue said frimly. “If there are such people, then how come they didn’t stop me when I went in?”

“So, you think I faked the blood on my mouth right now?” Lu Xuan yelled.

“I dare not.”

“Go back there! Find out exactly who else went to the Yu Clan aside from Ning Yue. Also, find out if there is anyone secretly supporting them!”

Lu Xuan swallowed a fragrant, red pill and her face finally returned some freshness.

Yin Ju quickly crawled out of the cave and disappeared into the distant woods.

He was scared that Lu Xuan will again deposit her anger on to him.

“Yu Clan…”

Lu Xuan moved to the entrance of the cave, looking at the direction of the Dark Moon City. She said gloomily, “A tiny Yu Clan. Who can be hiding in there? Why did the lady from the Lin Clan insisted on the marriage? No ordinary person can break my spells and hurt me in return! This is strange!”

…

The Yu Clan in the North of Dark Moon City.

Yu Can’s eyebrows were covered in a sticky back goo. Ning Ji smelled it closely and made a strange expression.

Next to him, Yu Yuan was holding a white porcelain bowl. It contained the “so-called” elixir that he blended specially to cure Red Shell Bloodworm poison.

The so-called elixir was a combination of twelve poisonous herbs that Yu Yuan asked him to collect, mixed with the corpses of centipedes, scorpions, and green bamboo snakes.

After the paste-like black “elixir” was applied to Yu Can’s eyebrows and fully covered over the red line, Yu Can’s fever magically faded away.

Under the black gooey paste, however, the small Red Shelled Bloodworm was burning in devastation.

When it was burned, the memories collected by the Bloodworm returned back to Yu Can’s Soul of Earth.

What Ning Ji didn’t know was that the spell caster Lu Xuan from the Cold Shadows Sect was also burning simultaneously.

“Should be done soon.”

After a long wait, Yu Yuan uncovered that layer of black paste from the Grandpa’s eyebrows.

The bloodline from Grandpa’s eyebrows seemed to be attached to the black goo now.

Yu Can’s fever disappeared, his breathing calmed, and his face returned to its natural color.

“All’s good. I’ll go back and have some rest. If anyone asks, just tell them that grandpa woke up and recovered by himself.”

Under the Ning Yue’s weird looks, Yu Yuan left the room by himself.