Chapter 10: Good Luck Comes Too Suddenly (Part 2)

“What is this?”
Suddenly, a startling scene unfolded—countless threads of blood stretched out from the hollow mountain, rising with the ripples before swiftly merging into the black object. Then, a red glow appeared on the black object, which gradually disappeared in less than ten seconds, leaving everyone in awe.
The five of them hovered not far from the black object, staring in shock.
After a while, Guo Shier swallowed hard and asked, “Is this thing alive?”
Li Ran’s expression turned serious; it was unclear what he was thinking. Zhen Wuji and Hong Yuguang whispered to each other, both looking grave—clearly, what they were seeing exceeded their imagination.
None of them dared move, and for a moment, the five of them just froze in midair, not knowing what to do.
After a long pause, Guo Shier said, “We need to figure out what this thing is first; otherwise, we can’t proceed… First of all, I think it’s a good thing, even if it’s evil. What do you all think?”
Li Ran replied, “I can’t tell what it is, but… I feel it shouldn’t be from this world… It gives a strange feeling—probably from outside…”
Guo Shier exclaimed, “From the Greater World?”
Zhen Wuji had no idea what a Greater World was. He asked curiously, “What do you mean? What Greater World?” Hong Yuguang and Hong Mu were equally confused, their eyes filled with inquiry.
Li Ran waved his hand and said, “Shier, explain it to them.”
Guo Shier muttered, “You old guy sure know how to shirk responsibility.” But he only muttered it briefly before explaining in detail what a Greater World was. Seeing the three of them utterly bewildered, he realized it was pointless—they simply couldn’t grasp such an explanation. He understood well; if someone had told him about a “small world” in his past life, he would have thought they were an idiot and a delusional maniac.
Fortunately, this world itself was quite magical, so even though Zhen Wuji and the others didn’t understand, it didn’t stop them from rejecting the idea.
Zhen Wuji asked, “So you mean… this thing isn’t from our continent?”
Guo Shier snapped his fingers and said, “That’s right. I can’t figure out what it is either… There’s nothing about it in our ancestral memories. I believe you have more ancestral memories than I do. Do you have any memories of this thing?”
Li Ran shook his head. “This is the first time I’ve seen it in this world. There’s nothing in my ancestral memories. But… I seem to recall something similar in my past memories. Unfortunately… it’s been too long, and many things have faded. I can’t remember.”

Guo Shier knew that the so-called past memories were those obtained from the main soul. He asked, “Can’t remember anything at all?”
Li Ran smiled bitterly. “It must be related to blood… But I don’t know how this thing could end up here. If it grows, it will be extremely terrifying… I instinctively feel terrified of it. Even though I’m at the peak of this world, I still feel fear toward it.”
None of the five dared to move or act rashly. Li Ran said, “Let’s keep watching and see if there are any changes.”
The blood threads gradually diminished from the mountain pass. After a while, the fluctuations intensified. Guo Shier could even see ripples spreading across the surface of the black object. As those fluctuations spread and hit Li Ran’s altar, they were quickly repelled. Li Ran said, “This thing is truly evil.”
Guo Shier was worried about the mutated beasts below the mountain. He said, “If I had known… I wouldn’t have come up. We can’t fight it, nor can we leave…”
Li Ran said, “Don’t worry. Let me think more. The more I look at it, the more familiar it seems…”
Guo Shier asked eagerly, “Have you remembered something?”
Li Ran replied, “If I observe its changes more closely, maybe I can recall something.”
The five hovered there, carefully observing the black object. Guo Shier said, “It’s so big—its diameter must be at least a kilometer.” He always knew his estimation skills were average.
Zhen Wuji said, “A kilometer? It’s not that small. Something this big… its diameter is at least three kilometers—big enough, indeed.”
The black object resembled a giant olive, pointed at both ends and wide in the middle. If one paid attention, they could see it rotating slowly.
Its surface was uneven and pitch black, with red flashes appearing from time to time, giving off a fierce and bloody aura. The faint howls coming from below the mountain made people uneasy.
After a while, countless blood threads flew up from the mountain pass again. Li Ran observed them carefully and even cast a virtual talisman to capture some of the blood threads.
Guo Shier asked curiously, “What is this?”
Li Ran replied, “Essence blood. It’s actually essence blood… and extremely pure, even purer than the essence blood we’ve refined…” As the blood threads fell into his palm, they immediately turned into a bead of essence blood, spinning around in his hand.

Zhen Wuji could no longer hold back and also reached out to obtain some strands of essence blood, condensing them into essence blood beads. He held them in his hand and observed them for a while before saying, “This stuff can greatly enhance life force and physical strength. It’s countless times better than the essence blood beads refined from mutated beasts. I don’t know how it was refined—this is the purest essence blood I’ve ever seen.”

Li Ran nodded and said, “That’s right. Although this essence blood isn’t very useful to me, it’s extremely valuable to you guys. Especially for Guo Shier, it can increase his physical strength by more than ten times. As for Zhen Wuji, it can double his strength, making it easier for him to advance to a level beyond the ninth-tier altar.”

Guo Shier tried to collect the strands of blood and realized that while it seemed easy for Li Ran and Zhen Wuji, it was much harder for him. After struggling for a long time, he only managed to collect a few strands of essence blood and couldn’t even form a single bead. Frustrated, he used the tentacles of Gu Xi Bi to collect it.

Unexpectedly, this tactic worked surprisingly well. When more strands of blood appeared, Gu Xi Bi’s tentacles moved frantically, instantly forming dozens of essence blood beads—more efficiently than Li Ran.

As the five of them desperately collected the strands of blood, the black object began to emit waves of vibrations, producing even more strands below.

Guo Shier exclaimed in surprise, “Hey, does it even know that someone is stealing from it?” The handsome old man poked his head out and said, “Is this thing alive? Strange… Kid, speed up and grab more!”

Not only did Guo Shier speed up, but Li Ran and the others did too. Li Ran had different intentions—he wanted to observe the black object’s reactions—while Guo Shier was purely focused on stealing the essence blood.

Gu Xi Bi was also quietly absorbing the essence blood, which was highly beneficial to it as well, allowing its body to become more refined.

Guo Shier and the handsome old man kept stealing continuously. The essence blood melted in their mouths without any taste, with only a faint fragrance. When swallowed, it sent waves of warmth into their bodies, giving them a very pleasant sensation.

Li Ran and the others were eating even more eagerly, stuffing it into their mouths in large amounts.

After all, Guo Shier had the lowest level. Just a dozen essence blood beads were already too much for him, so he stopped immediately and said, “This stuff is actually pretty tasty!” He began to feel changes in his body—a sensation he hadn’t experienced in a long time. It was similar to the feeling of rapidly growing stronger after his body was enhanced by a body-refining talisman when he was young. After all, he was already a professional at the sixth-tier altar, and with each advancement, his body became stronger. It was difficult for him to make his body even more powerful beyond that.

This Essence Blood Pearl actually enabled his body to strengthen rapidly, significantly boosting its strength. The benefits that followed left Guo Shieru overjoyed—he could now consume more Soul Beads. The strength of his body and the growth of his soul complemented each other; if his body wasn’t strong enough, an overly powerful soul could cause it to collapse, leaving only a soul entity, like the old man Shuai. Thus, being able to strengthen his body so much filled him with extreme excitement.

Li Ran had stopped collecting blood threads. His gaze was fixed on that black object, curiosity evident in his eyes. He still couldn’t figure out what it was, but he knew it must be a rare treasure. However, figuring out how to acquire it posed a challenge. After a brief attempt, he realized it couldn’t be stored in a sealed secret realm.

After a while, the black object finally absorbed enough blood threads and stopped. No more blood threads emerged from the mountain pass. Guo Shieru knew that if he waited a while, the black object would draw countless more blood threads from the pass. He had no intention of targeting it—too mysterious. There was an invisible layer of fluctuations on its surface, beyond his ability to interact with. Of course, he didn’t covet it much, as Li Ran and Zhen Wuji were present. In terms of strength, it would be up to them to take action if necessary.

Neither Guo Shieru nor the old man Shuai was greedy. They understood that some things could be taken while others couldn’t. Acting recklessly might cost their lives, so they patiently waited for more blood threads to appear—these were the truly valuable items.

Li Ran hesitated for a long time, even stopping the collection of blood threads, and simply stared at the black object.

Zhen Wuji was similar to Li Ran, also staring intently at the black object, even more hesitant. The moment his body got close, his soul began to tremble violently, as if warning him not to approach further.

Only Guo Shieru and the couple Hong Yuguang continued to focus on the floating blood threads. Whenever any appeared, the three of them would go all out to collect Essence Blood Pearls. Aside from occasionally consuming some Essence Blood Pearls himself, Guo Shieru urged Gu Xi Bi to capture blood threads desperately. He already had over 700 Essence Blood Pearls, each the size of a quail egg, containing extremely pure life essence—far superior to those he had collected and refined on his own.

The old man Shuai smiled and said, “Not counting what was obtained at the foot of the mountain, just these Essence Blood Pearls alone mean we’ve made a huge profit this time.”

Guo Shier said excitedly, “With the purity of these Vital Blood Beads, my body can quickly adapt to the discomfort of leveling up, allowing me to advance at high speed… Haha, no—we need to collect more of these Vital Blood Beads. In the future, we can help Uncle Eagle Demon and Uncle Luo level up quickly too. Their levels need to be raised; otherwise, they’ll be at a disadvantage in the Greater World.”

After staying at the mountain pass for over ten days, Guo Shier had gathered several thousand Vital Blood Beads. He said with emotion, “How many mutated beasts must have died to produce so much Vital Blood? I really don’t know what this thing is—it’s so bizarre.”

During those ten days, Li Ran kept probing. Sometimes he used illusionary talismans, sometimes soul sensing, or other special methods, continuously searching and experimenting to find the weakness of the black object and figure out what it was. Yet, he never obtained any useful information.

Guo Shier hoped Li Ran would continue his tests so he could get more Vital Blood Beads. But it was obvious that Li Ran was growing impatient.

Li Ran said, “Zhen Wuji, take those three of them downstairs. I want to try… attacking it to see what happens.”

Zhen Wuji nodded, also showing signs of impatience. He had been testing as well for so long without getting any useful information. He said, “Be careful. This thing is really strange. I feel… it’s alive!”

Li Ran nodded. “Mm, I have the same feeling. It’s alive, and it’s not from here—it must be an external entity.”

Guo Shier reluctantly stepped onto Zhen Wuji’s altar. He said, “It’s a shame. If I had more time, I could collect more Vital Blood Beads.”

Li Ran said, “If we figure out what this is, its value will definitely exceed that of Vital Blood Beads. Alright, you all get out of the way.”

Book 36: Soul-Stabilizing Cauldron