Chapter 43: I Am the Sovereign of the Netherrealm

"In the past few centuries, has anyone else come to you for your blood?"

Chen Pingan put away the jade bottle with satisfaction, looked up at the beauty in the purple robe, and asked with a smile.

"No, Senior."

The beauty in the purple robe answered honestly.

No one had come for her blood?

Chen Pingan furrowed his brow, a sudden thought occurring to him as he continued, "Is there any difference between the prime blood you bestow upon the disciples of your sect and the blood you gave me?"

"There is no difference, Senior. The prime blood refers to the blood within my body, which serves as the catalyst for practicing the Purple Blood Return-to-Origin Art," the beauty in the purple robe replied.

Chen Pingan nodded.

Someone must have infiltrated the Purple Blood Divine Cult and secretly extracted the blood of the Purple Blood Leech.

"How many disciples are there in your Purple Blood Divine Cult in total?"

"Senior, there are a little over two hundred people."

Hearing this, Chen Pingan's gaze deepened. Although the Purple Blood Divine Cult did not have many disciples, investigating them would actually be quite difficult.

These two hundred-odd people were scattered all across the desolate wilderness.

Moreover, concocting the Seven-Star Soul-Breaking Poison did not require a large amount of Purple Blood Leech blood. The person behind the scenes could easily have obtained it in secret by some means from one of the cult's disciples.

"This is troublesome..."

Chen Pingan felt a headache coming on.

Finding the mastermind behind the scenes was as difficult as searching for a needle in a vast ocean.

However, fortunately, he had now obtained the blood of the Phantom Butterfly and the Purple Blood Leech, and there were also leads on the Ghost Shadow Insect.

Out of the seven great poisonous insects, he had already acquired three.

Rumble...

The entire Ruins Secret Realm shook with increasing violence, growing more and more intense. The seven stone tablets were on the verge of collapsing, disintegrating noisily as the demon sealed deep underground was about to break free.

Terror gripped the heart of the purple-robed beauty.

Regret was beginning to take hold of her.

At the time, driven to a dead end, she had thought of shattering the seal, adopting a "if we die, we die together" mentality to perish alongside this senior who stood at the peak of the tenth level of the Transcendent Realm.

Yet, this senior had no intention of killing her; he had merely come to extract her blood.

Seeing the panic-stricken beauty, Chen Pingan found it rather amusing.

In this world, who is not afraid of death?

Especially those with higher cultivation levels; they feared death the most.

However, death held no terror for Chen Pingan at all.

Over the past ten thousand years, he had died countless times and had long since grown used to it.

Even though the Longevity Coffin no longer protected him, he still possessed the Resurrection Card bestowed by the system, allowing him to come back to life.

Thus, he did not fear death.

Now that the sealed demon was about to be born, he was quite interested in seeing what kind of demon it was. The Return-to-Origin Sect that had set the seal in the first place was long gone, yet this demon had somehow survived.

"Did you create this Purple Blood Return-to-Origin Art yourself? Or did you integrate it from the techniques of the Return-to-Origin Sect?"

Chen Pingan asked casually.

In his view, this technique could well be considered a demonic art. Cultivating it required absorbing prime blood at the very beginning, and after mastering it, one could pass it on to others, subsequently utilizing the purple blood refined by those people to elevate one's own cultivation level.

"Senior, within this Ruins Secret Realm, I discovered an incomplete copy of the Three-Part Return-to-Origin Art. By fusing it with my own innate divine ability, I created the Purple Blood Return-to-Origin Art," the beauty in the purple robe said with an embarrassed smile.

"Heh..."

Chen Pingan smiled faintly.

His soft laughter caused the purple-robed beauty to break out in goosebumps. She hurriedly explained, "Senior, I know this technique goes against heavenly principles, which is why I strictly restrain the disciples of my cult."

As a lovely, deeply missed yet resented figure flashed across his mind, Chen Pingan's expression turned desolate. He sighed softly and slowly said, "Your technique may seem alluring, but in reality, the further you advance in cultivation, the harder it becomes, and your ultimate achievements will be limited."

"Indeed, Senior. Ever since I managed to break through to the Transcendent Realm with great difficulty, I discovered this flaw," the purple-robed beauty said with a bitter smile.

As expected of a mighty figure who had touched the threshold of the Saint Realm, he had seen through the flaws in her technique at a single glance.

This filled her with boundless admiration.

"If you wish to make further breakthroughs in the future, you must forge a new path. This Purple Blood Return-to-Origin Art can no longer be practiced," Chen Pingan sighed.

He once had an ex-girlfriend in the Demonic Path who practiced a similar technique.

That ex-girlfriend of his had a cultivation level far surpassing the purple-robed beauty before him, and the grade of the technique she practiced was much higher as well.

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior."

The purple-robed beauty bowed at a ninety-degree angle, saying with utmost gratitude.

"Stand back. The big guy is coming out."

Chen Pingan's expression shifted.

Boom!

The seven Seven-Star Return-to-Origin Tablets shattered completely, the earth was violently upheaved, and sand and stones flew in all directions.

A massive black behemoth staggered up from underground.

Bang!

A terrifying, chilling aura swept across the surroundings, plunging the entire Ruins Secret Realm into darkness.

"This is... a black cat?"

Gazing at the massive black behemoth, Chen Pingan started slightly and murmured under his breath.

It was indeed a black cat, not a black tiger, for this black cat looked identical to the cats in his memory, only magnified to a monstrous size.

"Such a huge cat."

At the edge of the Ruins Secret Realm, the purple-robed beauty was also astonished as she looked at the mountain-like black cat.

She had originally expected some terrifying demon, not a mere black cat.

"Human, did you break the Seven-Star Return-to-Origin Tablets?"

The black cat stared at Chen Pingan, its turbid eyes ferocious and terrifying, while also tinged with a hint of madness.

"Indeed."

Chen Pingan nodded, asking calmly with a steady expression, "And what sacred entity might you be, my friend?"

This black cat gave him a very strange feeling. Clearly immensely powerful, it radiated no aura of cultivation whatsoever, as if the cat possessed no cultivation at all, resembling a mere mortal of the mortal realm.

"I am the Monarch of the Dark Realm—"

The black cat muttered in a low voice, its entire body suffused with a monarch-like aura at that moment.

Monarch of the Dark Realm?

Chen Pingan searched his entire memory, yet could not recall any place known as the Dark Realm.

However, the Xuantian Realm was vast. Although he had been to many places, there were still countless regions he had never set foot in.

"Human, you are not bad. Will you become my subject?"

The black cat said in a low, deep voice.

Hearing this, Chen Pingan immediately smiled as well. "Big cat, you're not bad either. How about becoming my pet?"

"Insolent!"

Boom!

Furious, the black cat shook its massive body, causing the entire Ruins Secret Realm to tremble.

Its pitch-black pupils, the size of millstones, suddenly turned ashen-gray, within which towering waves seemed to churn.

"Ah, ah! Damn it, who am I really? I shouldn't be like this. Who am I?!"

The black cat roared repeatedly, acting as if it had gone mad.

Chen Pingan rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that this black cat must have been locked away for too long, causing its brain to break as well.

Whoosh!

The black cat suddenly lunged at Chen Pingan, its razor-sharp claws flashing through the void.

Chen Pingan swung his sword.

Activating the Seven Luminaries Slaughtering Sword Art, seven bloody sword lights descended.

Boom! Boom!

The massive claws shattered the sword lights, and Chen Pingan flickered away, dodging just in time.

Appearing behind the black cat, he slashed down with another sword.

While swinging his sword, he observed the black cat's claws, noting not a single scratch upon them, which made him mentally marvel at the sheer resilience of the black cat's physical body.

In its frenzied state, the black cat reacted rather slowly, allowing Chen Pingan's sword to pierce easily into its flesh.

Hum!

The Blood-Devouring Magic Sword flashed, crazily sucking blood, yet after just one gulp, Chen Pingan noticed that the sword itself had also turned a pitch-black gray.

A bizarre energy had invaded the Blood-Devouring Magic Sword.

Sensing the terror of the Blood-Devouring Magic Sword, Chen Pingan instinctively channeled his spiritual energy into it.

Whoosh!

A stream of blackish-gray energy was abruptly regurgitated by the blade.