Chapter 14: The Blood of Deception and the Pervert's Dilemma
Private Courtyard, Cloud Rest Inn
The air in the courtyard was thick with the scent of night-blooming jasmine and treason.
Xiao Ding leaned over the table, his eyes burning with a desperate intensity. He pointed a trembling finger at the Eternal Spear lying between them.
"Although this method is akin to dancing on the edge of a blade," Xiao Ding whispered, "it is our only path. Young Master, look at the bloodstains on the spear."
Shen Xuan's gaze followed the finger. The dark, rusted patches on the spear shaft seemed lifeless to the untrained eye, but to him, they were echoes of dead gods.
"I see them," Shen Xuan said softly. "The blood of Titans."
"Exactly," Xiao Ding nodded. "Those beings possessed identities recognized by the primordial laws. Their blood carries the imprint of the Old Era. If we extract a drop... we can use it to coat your soul during the registry process. We will trick the Formation into scanning the blood of a dead god instead of your own."
Gui Ran, standing in the shadows, inhaled sharply. "You intend to deceive the Heavenly Registry Formation? Elder Xiao... if the formation detects a discrepancy of even a micro-second, the backlash won't just kill the Young Master. It will erase his reincarnation cycle."
"I know!" Xiao Ding snapped, his voice cracking. "That is why we need four drops of blood. Two from the Young Master, and two from the spear. We must perform a Soul-Swap Ritual at the exact moment of activation."
He looked at Shen Xuan, his eyes pleading. "It requires absolute precision. One mistake, and we are dust. Are you sure you want to take this risk?"
Shen Xuan remained silent for a long moment. He looked deep into Xiao Ding's eyes, seeing not just fear, but a burning, ancient hatred.
"How do you know this ritual?" Shen Xuan asked quietly. "This is not knowledge available to a mere Elder of a merchant hall."
Xiao Ding froze. His face contorted, twisting with grief and rage.
"Four thousand years ago," Xiao Ding rasped, tears welling in his eyes. "I met a woman. She claimed to be from a collateral branch of a Hidden Clan. She taught me this ritual to save her daughter."
He slammed his fist onto the table.
"And then I watched as the Heavens descended. A single Holy Realm executioner arrived. He didn't just kill them. He erased their existence. I watched a clan that once bowed to the Five Ancients reduced to cinders because their bloodline was 'unregistered'."
The raw emotion in his voice was palpable. It was the sound of a man who had lived with a ghost for four millennia.
Shen Xuan watched him. His gray eyes shifted, the iris vanishing to reveal a vertical, golden slit. For a split second, he looked less like a boy and more like a dragon peering out from the abyss.
"Very well," Shen Xuan said, his voice calm. "We will do it."
Inside the Inn
Xiao Ling sat in her room, cross-legged on her bed. She was attempting to stabilize her newly achieved Chaos Seed Realm cultivation.
Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine.
Hummm.
Her dantian trembled violently. It wasn't pain; it was resonance. The axis point of her body shook, causing beads of sweat to form on her forehead. She felt as if a terrifying, ancient existence had just locked onto her soul from across the cosmos.
"What... what is happening?" she whispered, clutching her chest.
She wasn't the only one. Across Heiyun City, sensitive cultivators looked up in alarm, sensing a ripple in the fabric of reality that vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Back in the Courtyard
"Give me three months," Shen Xuan announced, breaking the silence. "Tell the City Lord I have entered seclusion to stabilize my foundation. I need time to prepare my body for the ritual."
He stood up, his gaze cold and calculating.
"Also," he added, looking at Gui Ran. "I need resources. Heavenly materials. Medicines. If you have enemies... kill their descendants. Bring me their blood essence. But make sure they are talented. I need the blood of geniuses."
Gui Ran shivered. "Young Master... you intend to refine a Bloodline Masking Pill?"
"I will not follow Xiao Ding's path entirely," Shen Xuan said, walking toward his room. "I do not fear risk. But I prefer to stack the deck in my favor. If I am to gamble my life, I will cheat."
With that, he dismissed them.
Left alone in the silent courtyard, Shen Xuan sat by the pond. He pulled out a piece of spirit paper and a brush.
"Do I need to rebuild my cultivation?" he murmured.
It was a question that plagued him. His current body was weak. To survive the ritual, he needed to be stronger. But cultivating the Eternal Chaos Scripture now would shatter his fragile meridians.
He began to write.
Dragon-Blood Grass. Star-Core Dust. Essence of a Void Beast...
He listed materials needed to forge a new, temporary foundation. He planned to destroy his current bloodline and reforge it, splicing in the blood of other geniuses to create a chimera signature that would fool the Registry.
But a thought nagged at him.
If the formation checks every fifty years... what happens when I shed this disguise?
He shook his head. One problem at a time.
He finished the list and stood up. He needed a distraction.
He walked to the reception area of the inn.
The beautiful receptionist in red was busy organizing ledgers. She looked up as Shen Xuan approached, her eyes lighting up.
"Excuse me, Miss?" Shen Xuan asked, his voice polite but distant.
"Oh! Handsome Boy," she purred, leaning over the counter to display her assets. "What can this big sister do for you?"
Shen Xuan stepped back slightly, immune to her charms. "I wish to speak with Miss Xiao Ling."
The receptionist giggled. "Haha... it seems the Young Master has taken a liking to our little Xiao Ling. Very well. I will call her."
She winked and vanished into the back room.
Shen Xuan sat down at a nearby table and ordered a cup of coffee—a bitter, dark brew that reminded him of the void.
Moments later, Xiao Ling appeared. She looked nervous, twisting her hands together.
"I was told the Young Master requested my presence," she said, bowing stiffly.
"Miss Xiao Ling," Shen Xuan said, smiling faintly. "You do not need to be so restrained. After all, you have already slapped me. We are practically family."
"You...!" Xiao Ling's face turned bright red. "Young Master! Please do not mention that!"
"Haha... I like people with spirit," Shen Xuan teased.
The receptionist, watching from the side, whispered to a passing waiter. "Look at him. So young, yet already a flirt."
Shen Xuan ignored them. His gaze focused on Xiao Ling. He wasn't looking at her face; he was looking into her.
A silent hum resonated in his soul. Her bloodline was dormant, sealed by layers of mortal impurity, yet it carried a familiar, haughty scent. It was the scent of an era long thought dead.
Could she be...?
He leaned forward, staring intensely at her chest, where her spiritual center resided.
From the perspective of Xiao Ling and the receptionist, however, it looked very different.
Xiao Ling crossed her arms over her chest, stepping back in horror. "Young Master! What are you looking at?!"
"Sister..." the receptionist whispered via voice transmission to Xiao Ling. "He is a pervert. A rich, handsome pervert, but a pervert nonetheless."
"What?" Shen Xuan blinked, snapping out of his trance. He noticed their expressions. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Xiao Ling, let's go," the receptionist said, grabbing the girl's arm. "Even if he is a Young Master, we have standards. Do not let him corrupt you."
They hurried away, leaving Shen Xuan sitting alone with his coffee.
"Huh...?"
Shen Xuan sat in a daze. The absurdity of the situation pricked his divine pride.
"I was called a pervert?" he whispered to the empty room. "Me? The Scion of the Eternal Shen? A pervert?"
He rubbed his temples.
"Damnable luck," he cursed silently. "They ruined my reputation in few moments."
He sighed, standing up. "I need to find Xiao Yang. Perhaps he can help me find an Alchemist. If I have to refine these pills myself with this reputation... I will never hear the end of it."
He walked out, a lonely god misunderstood by mortals.