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The moment Qing Sang entered the room, she sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy. As if sensing something, she quickly turned around and saw the door disappear behind her, along with the room number plaque she was holding. The rooms in this tower were actually individual spaces, accessible only once, never once exited.

Qing Sang couldn't help but scoff. The more mysterious it was, the more suspicious it was. She wanted to see what Chang Li was up to.

She looked around the room. Besides the usual items, there was a bookshelf. She casually flipped through it and found some ancient records of Gu techniques. Behind the bookshelf was another room. Qing Sang only peeked through the crack in the door before slamming it shut. Although the insects posed no threat to her now, she couldn't overcome her aversion to them, which extended to her dislike of the entire Gu lineage.

The room's furnishings seemed designed to provide a convenient environment for disciples to focus on their cultivation, but the one-way entry and exit system, along with Lan Hui's expression when the Flower Heart Gu was retrieved, made things more complicated. Therefore, she wasn't in a hurry. She simply sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and allowed her consciousness to return to her divine sense to digest the power of the retrieved Fusang Divine Wood, while leaving a wisp of her divine sense outside.

After an unknown amount of time, Qing Sang's remaining divine sense sensed a slight fluctuation in space. She quickly returned her senses and keenly recognized it as a spell to induce sleep. She immediately decided to play along, secretly making hand seals to appear as if she were "asleep," but leaving a sliver of her divine sense attached to the crown on her head as her "eyes." A moment later, the space fluctuated, and a figure completely shrouded in black robes appeared in the room, grabbed "Lan Jiefeng" from the ground, and led him out of the room.

The reason it's described as "leaving the room" is because a door appeared after the man in black appeared. However, as the man in black left the room, it wasn't the interior of the tower she had entered from, but rather a closed stone chamber, where a strong stench of blood filled the air.

The man in black then placed "Lan Jiefeng" on a platform and left. Sensing that more people were being brought in in the same way, Qing Sang realized that his disciples were likely serving a similar purpose as the "blood packs"—sacrificial lambs. Once the entire stone chamber fell silent, there was no more sound.

Just as Qing Sang was about to get up to check, she heard a rustling sound, like insects crawling. The sound gave Qing Sang goosebumps all over. A red light flashed in her hand, and the Gu worm silently turned into air before it could even get close to her.

Qing Sang quickly sat up and looked around. The sight before him made him feel nauseous. On each platform in the stone chamber lay a person, their clothing identifying them as the Gu disciples who had received their number tags earlier. Each platform had an opening, from which small red worms slowly crawled out, some already reaching the chests of the disciples lying on the platforms. These Gu worms were the "Heart-Stealing Gu" they had submitted earlier; he hadn't expected them to be used here.

Qing Sang quickly scanned the area but didn't find Lan Suyu. Suppressing her nausea, she coldly observed the reactions of the disciples whose hearts had been invaded by the Gu worms. With a sickening gnawing sound, the Gu worms, having devoured the hearts, crawled back along the passage, while the blood of the disciples whose hearts had been eaten slowly flowed down the grooves on the platform and disappeared, not a drop wasted. However, a small number of disciples remained completely still; their hearts hadn't been eaten by the Heart-Eating Gu, but rather merged into their bodies.

Seeing this, Qing Sang understood that this was a selection process. Those selected by the Flower Heart Gu would survive and await modification, while those who failed would become food for the Flower Heart Gu, their blood being recycled into "blood packs." As for what they would be used to modify, it was obvious that it would be for the modification of pure bloodlines. However, there were still about ten people left, which was not a small number. If it was Chang Li using Song Yunting to modify bloodlines, Qing Sang subconsciously felt that it wouldn't be that complicated; there was probably another conspiracy behind this Gu lineage.

Sensing the spatial fluctuations again, Qing Sang quickly lay back down on the platform. The man in black reappeared, leading the surviving disciples away from the stone chamber. As he was being carried away, Qing Sang silently placed a red leaf on his body. She sensed that although the man in black moved nimbly, his spiritual energy was depleted, like a manipulated puppet.

The men in black led them to another, larger stone chamber. In the center of this chamber was a higher platform, surrounded by dozens of smaller platforms. The disciples who had been brought with them were placed directly onto these smaller platforms. The instant they were placed on them, array lights illuminated the platforms, and a transparent dome rose up, enveloping the people on the platforms.

From the moment she entered the stone chamber, Qing Sang had been on guard. So, the instant the man in black placed her on the platform, she quickly switched places with him and used Yue Ran's ability to create an illusion. Anyone looking over would only see "Lan Jiefeng" lying on the platform. Thus, the one enveloped in the illusion became the man in black.

As the men in black retreated, Qing Sang quickly concealed himself by the door. He watched as the transparent light rose, and from the highest platform, strands of red "vessels" suddenly descended, connecting to the transparent covers of each smaller platform. The covers instantly turned blood-red, and blood-red patterns appeared, extending to the people inside. At this moment, Qing Sang also clearly saw that the central platform was actually supported by a blood-red pillar, like a thick blood vessel.

This is clearly a large-scale blood transfusion system. The "blood bags" they're talking about are supplying blood beneath that crimson pillar. The blood of these cultivators with spiritual power is then "filtered" on the central platform before being infused into the bodies of selected Gu lineage disciples below for pure bloodline transformation. Therefore, it's self-evident who's on that central platform. (End of Chapter)