Cultivation Begins from Infancy - Chapter 317

Volume 3 - Chapter 53: The Supreme Haotian - Part 1

In the churning and surging Blood Lake, all of Li Hao's clothing had dissolved, leaving him completely bare.

The Qiankun Belt slid from his body, but he grabbed it and wrapped it around his arm, raising it high above his head.

However, the material of the Qiankun Belt was clearly inferior to Li Hao's own body. The mere contact with the blood of the Demon Saint caused it to become soaked and show signs of decay and damage.

The spatial realm within the belt partially revealed itself, appearing like a crack, allowing blood to ripple inside.

"Where... where is this?"

A crimson tendril extended from within, belonging to the Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King, who curiously probed the outside. However, it was splattered by the blood from the lake, eliciting a pained scream.

"Ow, that hurts!"

"My powers seem to be sealed—I can't fly anymore!"

The Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King attempted to escape from the spatial realm, only to panic when it discovered it could not summon any energy from within its body.

It saw Li Hao, who was holding the belt high above the lake's surface. His arm was tattered, with bloodied muscles and bone exposed. After a moment's daze, the demon seemed to understand something.

"Are we... going to die?"

Its voice trembled as it softly asked.

Hearing its words, Li Hao hadn't expected that, in his final moments, the only companion by his side would be a demon.

A bitter smile tugged at his heart as he scanned the surroundings. The vast expanse of darkness was endless, with no sight of rock walls anywhere.

Chunks of flesh rained down into the lake, creating violent ripples that pushed his body around on the surface. It was impossible to tell how far they were from the shore.

"I’ll try to see if I can find the wall."

With these words, Li Hao kicked at the water with all his strength, paddling single-handedly in a straight line.

But along the way, enormous chunks of dismembered flesh fell continuously, and the splashes pushed him back each time.

The Demon Saint's body seemed to have been held together by some unknown force. Now, with that force dissipated, it had collapsed into pieces of decayed flesh, long rotted for millennia, submerging into the foul and decomposing Blood Lake.

"Careful!"

The Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King called out urgently.

Li Hao looked up to see a massive chunk of flesh falling toward him. He swam to the side as fast as he could, but it still grazed his shoulder, dragging him deeper into the Blood Lake.

A suffocating sensation overwhelmed him as Li Hao quickly gripped the Qiankun Belt, struggling to swim back to the surface.

By the time he resurfaced, most of the flesh on his body had been eroded and stripped away, leaving only a few strands of muscle clinging to his stark white bones—a ghastly sight.

Li Hao raised his skeletal arm and looked at the Qiankun Belt held between his five bony fingers. The spaces between his fingers were so wide that blood easily seeped through. The belt was completely soaked and severely corroded.

"I never thought... I'd bring you to such a place of death."

As life and death teetered on the edge, Li Hao found himself strangely calm. He gazed upward toward the unreachable sky, where the massive Prison Sky Island now appeared as small as a sesame seed, occupying only a minuscule portion of his vision.

Staring into the void sky, barren of clouds or mist, he murmured to himself,

"The world outside actually has its beautiful moments. It's a pity I never had the chance to show you..."

"...Ow, it really hurts."

The Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King's tendril extended again from the spatial realm of the Qiankun Belt, despite its cries of pain. It coiled around Li Hao's arm.

"Eat me. Since we’re both going to die anyway, if you devour me, maybe you can hold on a little longer."

Li Hao froze in surprise. "You want me to eat you?"

"Didn’t you want to before? You were just afraid I’d self-destruct if you forced me, right?"

The tendrils of the Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King wrapped around Li Hao’s skeletal head and cheeks, like gentle hands cradling his bony face with care.

"If I am destined to be eaten, I would choose you..."

"Why?"

The Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King did not answer. Instead, its tendrils emitted a crimson glow, pouring directly into Li Hao’s skeletal mouth.

"Because earlier... we made a pinky promise..."

"I promised I wouldn’t leave you behind. So as long as I die before you, it doesn’t count as me abandoning you..."

Its voice grew faint, as its body slithered out of the spatial realm of the Qiankun Belt, transforming into a flood of crimson light that poured into Li Hao’s body through his head.

This wasn’t Li Hao devouring it—it was the demon offering itself as a sacrificial blood essence.

When the Scarlet Blood Vine Demon King saw the boy, broken and eroded yet still holding the Qiankun Belt high, it knew it had chosen the right person to follow.

Li Hao froze, stunned, as he floated in the Blood Lake.

He recalled the time when the demon had gently coiled its tendril around his pinky, silently making a promise. His eyes reddened at the memory.

Now, his head was enveloped by the crimson glow, and an immense wave of blood energy surged into his skeletal body, nourishing his bones.

Li Hao’s previously honed flesh, as strong as a five-forged divine weapon, began to show signs of breaking through some unknown barrier under the nourishment of this blood energy.

Meanwhile, the corrosive force of the surrounding Blood Lake slowed its attack on his bones. Li Hao could faintly sense a profound power emanating from the blood.

After a moment of hesitation, he began circulating the True Demon Art of Spirit Sacrifice, absorbing the deep energy within the blood.

Previously, he couldn’t absorb it. But now, having crossed a certain threshold, he could barely manipulate the power of the saint-level blood.

The process was agonizingly slow, like drawing silk thread, but Li Hao suppressed his sorrow and focused entirely on cultivating the True Demon Art of Spirit Sacrifice.

Only by doing so could he grasp a sliver of hope and honor the demon’s sacrifice.

Another chunk of flesh slammed into him, dragging him deeper into the Blood Lake, but this time, Li Hao didn’t struggle. He sat cross-legged underwater, fully concentrating on refining and absorbing the energy.

However, his absorption was not fast enough to keep up with the erosion. His bones gradually wore away, fracturing into fragments, and his body grew smaller and smaller.

Yet the crimson light coiling around his head grew denser and more profound...

...

On the Arid Sea, a figure appeared in an instant and then vanished just as quickly.

When it reappeared, it hovered above the Desolate Abyss, unfazed by the anti-flight laws in place.

With long white hair flowing and clad in simple ancient robes, the elder gazed downward with a solemn expression.

His piercing eyes seemed to penetrate the abyssal darkness, observing the turbulent Blood Lake and the disintegrating flesh of Ji Wenren's body.

“That lingering obsession has finally dissipated?”

The elder's sharp gaze narrowed. Ji Wenren had once launched an attack against the Holy Ancestor, but the Holy Ancestor, mindful of their time together in the past, chose to shatter her consciousness instead of completely erasing her will. He sealed her lingering obsession within her body.

If the seal had not been placed, her remnants would have been absorbed by the River of Death, merging into its most dangerous depths.

Such an event would have posed a grave threat to all living beings and condemned Ji Wenren to eternal damnation.

But now, her obsession had unexpectedly dissipated.

"Was it because her wish was fulfilled, causing her to vanish naturally? Or has she transcended and departed?"

His gaze remained fixed on the Blood Lake, sensing the overwhelming toxicity and corrosive nature of the blood, as well as the unraveling remnants of Ji Wenren's laws lingering in her flesh.

These laws, once forged by the Great Dao, had degenerated into chaos upon their collapse. What remained were primal Dao principles, indiscriminately harmful to anyone near them.

Even without touching it, the elder discerned that Ji Wenren's cultivated Dao revolved around decay.

Anyone venturing close—even hovering above the Blood Lake—would experience rapid aging and withering.

It was precisely because of her terrifying laws that, after the battle that drained her power, Ji Wenren’s body was pushed to the point of complete collapse, leaving her flesh to rot in this state.

Under normal circumstances, a body at the Saint Realm would remain intact for millennia, far from succumbing to such corruption.

“Who dared to awaken her?”

The elder frowned, a hint of confusion crossing his face. His grandfather, the Holy Ancestor, had sealed Ji Wenren here countless years ago. The seal had remained undisturbed for ages. Why had it suddenly been broken?

Shifting his gaze, the elder focused on a chain dangling from the abyssal rock walls. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a shadow from the chain.

The figure that emerged was a frail, elderly woman, her hair white as snow, her breathing weak. However, as she was drawn out of the abyss, her energy slowly began to recover.

She looked at the elder in astonishment and stammered, "Th-Third Ancestor!"

This figure was none other than Ji Yun Yue, who had miraculously survived. Earlier, she had released Li Hao's hand, unwilling to burden the boy. Yet the Demon Saint's tendrils had not attacked her, instead chasing after Li Hao.

Clearly, the Demon Saint had been drawn to the saintly aura emanating from Li Hao's body.

Because of this, Ji Yun Yue had clung tightly to the chain, managing to preserve her life.

“What happened? Were you the one who awakened her?”

The elder’s brows furrowed as he questioned her. He did not recognize the old woman before him but knew she must be a descendant of the Ji Clan.

Hearing the Third Ancestor’s question, the grief in Ji Yun Yue’s heart surged uncontrollably. Earlier, she had seen the Abyssal Sky Monument topple and fall, and the sight had made her eyes burn with rage and despair.

That monument represented the Dao Seed of the Ji Clan, yet it had been abandoned by those despicable criminals!

If she could, she would have torn them apart on the spot.

“Third Ancestor, please, you must save our clan’s Dao Seed! He was devoured by the Demon Saint, and now I don't know if...”

She trailed off, desperation thick in her voice.

“Dao Seed?”

The elder paused, his expression shifting slightly. He quickly pieced together the situation, realizing that the Dao Seed must have been the one to awaken Ji Wenren.

The Dao Seeds of the Ji Clan were all bearers of Sacred Bones, and only the power of a Sacred Bone could possibly have affected Ji Wenren.

Still, no one had anticipated such an incident.

Moreover, the Dao Seeds held such esteemed status that they would rarely, if ever, set foot in such perilous lands—just as a favored crown prince would not casually visit a prison.

“The Demon Saint is already dead.”

The elder glanced at Ji Yun Yue’s anxious expression and said, “Other than you, there are no other survivors. Unless he is within the Blood Lake, but with the aura of the Great Dao masking the blood, it is impossible to perceive anything. However...”

“However, what?”

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