Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Elder Qingxue

The blood arts were lost techniques, due to so few people succeeding in them, so very few people in the cultivation world knew of the Blood Severing Technique. However, Yin Hanjiang had followed Wenren È for many years and was there when Wenren È obtained the manual for the blood arts. Therefore, he had some understanding.

Forgetting about the agony the Blood Severing Technique caused oneself, or how difficult it was to succeed in, the most important fact was that ten thousand years ago, the only blood cultivator in the world went mad and became a demon, needing the combined forces of the righteous and demonic sects to slay him.

This was not a demon as in the distinction between righteous and demonic cultivators in the cultivation world, but as in an inner demon.

If the heavens were an elder, a cultivator was a junior. Righteous cultivators would go along with the heavens in order to cheat spiritual energy out of it. They used their techniques to connect themselves to the heavens, trying to become one with the cosmos, so that the spiritual energy of the natural world recognized them and allowed itself to be absorbed by them. Righteous cultivators were careful to obey the principles of heaven and to accumulate merit in order to harmonize with the cosmos. In order to fool the heavens, they must first fool themselves. Thus, they walked the path of cheating heaven.

On the other hand, demonic cultivators were like brats who struck their elders and kicked their younger siblings. They directly stole spiritual energy from the cosmos, their methods greedy and quick, known as the path of robbing heaven.

The righteous cultivators had always disapproved of the demonic cultivators, not because of differences in their ideology, but because stealing was much faster than coaxing. While righteous cultivators spent much time and energy to obtain a tiny bit of spiritual energy from the cosmos, the demonic cultivators essentially stole most of the family inheritance.

If a righteous and demonic cultivator cultivated in the same spiritually-rich spot, more than 90% of the spiritual energy would be stolen by the demonic cultivator, leaving just some leftover scraps for the righteous cultivator.

This was the origin of both sides' conflict. One was deceivers and the other thieves, so there was no moral high ground either could claim. The whole reason righteous sects found trouble with demonic sects was that they couldn't beat them in stealing.

However, there were upsides to the righteous path's techniques. Since they harmonized with heaven, their tribulations were relatively easy to pass. The heavens went much easier on them, letting them off after throwing a few lightning bolts their way. As for the demonic path, the more they stole, the harder the tribulations they faced would be. It was said the immortal realm was full of righteous cultivators, while demonic cultivators were very few, likely having all died to heavenly lightning.

However, the type of demon that the blood cultivator had become wasn't referring to the distinction between schools of cultivation, but the distinction between gods and demons, demons referring to collections of all the negative energy in the cosmos.

When a cultivator underwent their tribulation, they could absorb the qi that came down from the immortal realm, transforming their own essence completely into immortal essence and ascending. But a blood cultivator was unable to transform immortal essence. They could absorb all kinds of energy in the world, spiritual qi, immortal qi, and even the primordial chaos of the divine realm, but it would all be transformed into blood qi within the body.

A blood cultivator had no limits and could cultivate to the power of a Golden Immortal while still in the cultivator realm. But at the same time, they could never ascend to the immortal realm, and could never become an immortal without immortal essence. None of the upper realms would welcome a blood cultivator, and if Wenren È dared to go there, all the gods and Buddhas of heaven would join forces to destroy him.