ninety thousand miles

Chapter 611 Wonderful Scenery
"How come they are two different things?" Li Chuan asked.

"Demon spirit." Wen Guying said. This time, without waiting for Li Chuan to urge him, he explained, "She has been awakening the underground existence step by step a few months ago, no, more than a year ago. The sacrifice and your comfort, perhaps the dream, made the blood pool temporarily dormant. But the arrangement of the demon spirit will definitely make it wake up as expected."

"That is to say, the state of the blood pool and the emergence of the secret realm are not completely related?" Li Chuan asked.

"Yes," Wen Guying confirmed Li Chuan's guess and said, "We have only glimpsed a corner of it. We have no idea what it is and how it works. However, I have another guess."

"Hurry up and tell me." Li Chuan said.

"The relationship between the sacred tree and the blood pool." Wen Guying said, turning to look at Yu Chen, "Are there any records or legends about half-demons?"

"Hearing what you said, I began to suspect something," Yu Chen smiled bitterly and said, "Perhaps every conflict among the half-demon tribes is a sacrifice to the blood pool. If the legend records it..." He shook his head, "The Ruiling tribe may know more, but not too much, there are too few of them."

"Why so little?" Li Chuan asked.

Yu Chen hesitated for a moment and said, "The half-demon is now in front of you, and there is no secret for him to keep. It's okay to tell you."

He was silent for a while before continuing, "Half-demons can reproduce with humans, demons, and different tribes. It's more difficult with demons. With humans, it will dilute the bloodline. Between half-demons, whichever side's bloodline is stronger will inherit the bloodline of that tribe."

"I know something about this." Li Chuan said.

"But the Ruiling Clan is not like that." Yu Chen paused again, "The Ruiling Clan was born from the half-demons in the newly awakened bloodline. It is the ceremony that every half-demon must participate in after awakening."

"So they were originally from another tribe?" Li Chuan asked.

Yu Chen replied: "Yes. But not every time, a Ruiling tribe member will be born. However, once one appears, after being born and inheriting the Ruiling tribe member's legacy, he will become a completely different person."

"The Ruiling tribe cannot increase its numbers through normal reproduction. The largest number of people has always been around a hundred, and the smallest number... at one point there were only a few left."

"So no matter how much the half-demon tribes fight each other, the annual ceremony will be held?" Li Chuan asked.

"Yes." Yu Chen said.

"Fire sacrifice and blood sacrifice are not only used by the half-demon tribe." Wen Guying spoke again, saying: "The details of the rituals are very different, but I think the meanings they represent are similar."

"What is it?" Li Chuan asked.

Wen Guying said: "At that time, the spiritual master disappeared from the real world and hid between dreams and reality, manipulating the power of dreams and causing the entire Dahe area to sink into it. At the same time... she traveled through the past, present, and even the future in dreams."

"That's the meaning of the Fire and Blood Sacrifice. At that moment, the spiritualist can see the dreams of future generations. Because of this, she can make predictions about the future. Is that right, Brother Yuchen?"

"Yes, the dreams of the Ruiling people predict the future." Yu Chen admitted, "But most of the time, they are just vague rumors. It is often not until after the event that we understand what the prophecy really means."

"So," Li Chuan's train of thought jumped back to the strange dream, and he said, "The Ruiling beast at that time also saw the future scene, so it recorded everything it saw at the end in the dream and passed it down through the generations?"

"Then there are only two questions left." Wen Guying said. "Ah? Which two?" Li Chuan asked. He still felt that everything was still confusing and he couldn't find the focus.

"Demons and White Walkers." Wen Guying replied.

When Li Chuan was about to continue asking questions, he felt a flash of light. He followed the light and saw many birds, birds perching in Qifeng Gorge, birds circling in the air... These birds flapped their wings and flew towards the sword-like morning light, until they flew into the light and were coated with a layer of shining gold.

A red sun was about to rise, and the birds stopped singing. In that moment of silence, Li Chuan heard a high-pitched and melodious clear song.

Something flew out from the red sun. It was a phoenix. It flew from the horizon to Qifeng Gorge and crashed into Li Chuan and his companions. Li Chuan felt a burning breath enveloping him. He wanted to dodge, but it was too late. The phoenix flew through his body before he could react and flew further away.

Only then did Li Chuan realize that it was not a real phoenix.

"It's the spirit of the phoenix." Wen Guying said.

The phoenix flew back into the red sun. The birds chirped again and flew in all directions. They fluttered their metallic wings and brought the morning light to the entire sky.

A jay landed on Li Chuan's head, stayed for a while, and then flew away again.

Li Chuan touched his head and asked, "It didn't poop on my head, did it?"

"No." Yu Chen said.

"That's good." Li Chuan breathed a sigh of relief. "I was worried about bird poop falling down."

"Faced with such a spectacular sight, you are actually thinking about this?" Wen Guying said.

"Not really, it was just a thought that flashed through my mind, and I couldn't forget it." Li Chuan explained. He still remembered what Wen Guying hadn't finished saying, so he asked, "What happened to the demons and the White Walkers?"

"Wait a minute." Wen Guying turned around, and Li Chuan followed his line of sight and saw two people approaching them quickly. Li Chuan recognized one of them as Jiang Mei, and the other was wearing a gray Taoist robe, probably the Elder Li that Wen Guying mentioned.

After the two men landed at Qifeng Gorge, Jiang Mei stepped forward and said, "The Great Ravine has completely recovered. All the Half-Demon tribes have left. Also, I saw some people from the Microbe tribe hiding among the mud and rocks. The Spiritual Master also noticed it, and she told me not to worry about it."

"Are you here to gather information?" Li Chuan asked.

"Probably." Jiang Mei said.

Then Wen Guying introduced Elder Li to Li Chuan and others, saying: "This is Elder Li. He has been guarding the medicine garden for the Four Gods Palace. He rarely..."

"Stop talking so much and get down to business," Elder Li interrupted Wen Guying impatiently. He said, "I have walked through the entire Cangwu Plain. I have also been to the Youxi Valley. I looked around and found a cave. I kept going down and when I reached the deepest part, I could vaguely hear some water sounds."

"I walked in the direction of the sound of water. After walking about a hundred steps, I found an exit. I walked out and found many animal skeletons there."

(End of this chapter)