Chapter 389 - 359: Bloodline Divine Techniques

On the Flying Boat, the projection from the Hunting Falcon Puppets still hovered in the air.

Wangcai was lying in front of the projection, staring intently at each screen, as if it could understand what it was seeing.

Chu Mu didn't know if it actually understood, but after being fed a bottle of Enlightenment Pills, combined with six years of Demon Hunting and consuming the flesh and blood of Demon Beasts almost daily, Wangcai's Spiritual Wisdom had clearly increased significantly along with its Cultivation.

If there was any anomaly on the projection screens, Wangcai could detect it immediately and give a warning, which was quite clever of it.

In their daily interactions, Wangcai had also grown increasingly intelligent. A single word, or even just a glance, was met with a near-telepathic understanding.

Chu Mu sat to the side, his Divine Sense delving into a stack of Storage Talismans to take stock of his gains from the past few years.

In six years, he had hunted and killed twenty-nine Tier Two Demon Beasts: ten at the Tier Two Late Stage, six at Tier Two Middle Grade, and thirteen at the Tier Two Early Stage.

The extra Demon Pills came from several Vast Sea Cultivators he had encountered. They had ill intentions, so he had struck them down with thunderous force, and their gains from the Outer Sea naturally became his spoils of war.

After a quick inventory, he slowly rose to his feet, his gaze fixing on the surveillance projection from the Hunting Falcon Puppets.

Over the past several years, even the Hunting Falcon Puppets used for reconnaissance had suffered a great deal of damage.

Now, only four Hunting Falcons were still operational.

'Force of habit...'

Chu Mu shook his head and sighed softly. His venture into the Vast Sea had been fruitful, but he had also made quite a few mistakes.

Although he had done extensive research on the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, without firsthand experience, his understanding was clearly quite superficial.

Moreover, having lived in the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World for so many years, his perception was inevitably shaped by its conventions.

But the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World was completely different. While the principles behind many of the methods, Magic Techniques, and Artifacts used by its Cultivators were similar, the influence of Demon Beast Bloodlines made them bizarre and varied.

Take the Flying Boat's Concealment, which he had thought was foolproof. In this bloodline-based system, it turned out to be anything but.

As he mused, Chu Mu waved his hand, and a corpse fell onto the deck of the cabin.

The corpse was humanoid, with a large hole pierced through its chest. Fragments of a shattered heart remained within the chest cavity.

Blood was still surging within it, but an invisible force seemed to contain it, preventing even a single drop from leaking out.

Chu Mu knelt down, his gaze on the corpse filled with a clear interest.

This was the corpse of one of the Cultivators who had tried to play the fisherman, waiting to profit while he was busy hunting a Demon Beast.

Given his cautious nature, he always used the Hunting Falcon Puppets to monitor a hundred-mile radius whenever he hunted a Demon Beast, allowing him to detect the slightest disturbance.

But that time, he hadn't discovered the group of Cultivators until after he had killed the Demon Beast and they launched a sneak attack.

The reason for this lay with the Cultivator before him—or rather, with the Demon Beast Bloodline he possessed.

Chu Mu lifted the man's eyelid. What met his gaze was not a normal human eye, but a field of scarlet. At the center of the scarlet Round Pearl were flecks of demonic black, like mottled stars.

'Ink-Eyed Beast...'

Chu Mu muttered to himself.

This person's bloodline was that of an Ink-Eyed Beast.

According to the Demon Beast Atlas, the Ink-Eyed Beast was born in the Deep Sea. Upon evolving to Tier Two, its bloodline would transform and awaken, causing a Bloodline Divine Technique to coalesce in its eyes.

The Ink-Eyes could see through illusions, Peep Truth, and also create illusions to bewitch the mind.

A Cultivator who transplanted the Ink-Eyed Beast bloodline also had a certain chance of awakening this Spiritual Eye Divine Technique.

The man before him had clearly awakened this Spiritual Eye Divine Technique, which was how he had been able to detect the Hunting Falcon Puppets and even evade their surveillance, leading to the final sneak attack.

In the end, under the effect of this Spiritual Eye Divine Technique, the man had even managed to evade his perception. If not for the Hunting Falcon Puppets monitoring the hundred-mile radius and the fact that Chu Mu had heavily wounded him, leaving him unable to flee far, he might have actually escaped.

Chu Mu silently observed every detail of the corpse, studying and pondering the principles and effects of this Spiritual Eye Divine Technique bit by bit.

Six years in the Outer Sea had been enough to completely change his perspective on the path of bloodlines.

No matter how great the negative side effects of bloodlines were, they couldn't obscure the bizarre, varied, and wondrous abilities they produced—some of which were even beyond his imagination.

This Spiritual Eye Divine Technique, for example, could be considered a top-tier life-saving skill!

The man's Cultivation was only at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, yet he was able to block and confuse even Chu Mu's Divine Sense Perception—a perception enhanced by his Sword Intent...

Such a wondrous ability was truly breathtaking.

Although he didn't cultivate bloodlines himself, he couldn't suppress his desire to explore and understand their mysteries.

All paths lead to the same destination. As they were both paths of Cultivation, it was impossible for there to be no common ground between them.

Chu Mu firmly believed this.

...

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, nearly a month had passed. Inside the cabin, the corpse was now riddled with holes, and even its pair of eyes had been removed by Chu Mu.

The bloodshot scarlet eyeballs still hovered before Chu Mu, trembling slightly as his Divine Sense flowed through them.

The mass of the Ink-Eyed Beast's Bloodline Essence had also been extracted from the man's body.

The Bloodline Essence had already been put through Refinement by the man, and it was now tainted with the remnants of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit. This residue was so deeply ingrained that even with his Great Sun True Flame, Chu Mu's current Cultivation was insufficient to remove it.

Chu Mu estimated that unless his cultivation realm rose by another major level, this bloodline was essentially useless. It could only be used for Alchemy or other purposes; it could no longer be transplanted into someone else for Cultivation.

Of course, Chu Mu's current focus wasn't on whether the bloodline could be reused, but on the mysteries hidden within it.

In the past, he had tried to study the nature of bloodlines many times, but he had always reaped little reward.

This time, however, seemed... different.

'Is it because of... the Spiritual Eye Divine Technique?'

Chu Mu gazed at the mass of Bloodline Essence before him, lost in thought.

This mass of bloodline was not much different from all the others he had studied. He could sense the power within it, but its specific mysteries were shrouded in a thick fog, making it impossible to peer into its deepest secrets.

But these two eyeballs, formed by the Bloodline Divine Technique, seemed to have dispersed much of that fog.

Under the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, he could faintly perceive a direct connection between the two eyes and the mass of Bloodline Essence.

And this connection was very interesting.

It was as if...

'A Magic Model!'

Chu Mu's eyes lit up. The more he considered the possibility, the brighter his gaze became.

This Spiritual Eye Divine Technique was like a Magic Model formed based on a bloodline. Each time the technique was used, it required not only the operation of this Magic Model but also the support of the mass of Bloodline Essence to achieve its final effect.

This meant that if he wanted to understand this Bloodline Divine Technique, he just needed to figure out the structure of this so-called "Magic Model" he was hypothesizing.

Then, the Bloodline Divine Technique would become completely clear to him.

But then, Chu Mu's spirits fell. Merely perceiving this unknown connection was already the absolute limit of his ability.

A limit he had only been able to reach thanks to his Spiritual Radiance Blessing.

Without the leap in thought and wisdom granted by the Spiritual Radiance, he would never have been able to notice such a subtle change.

Trying to probe deeper to understand the structure of the "Magic Model" and its specific connections was essentially impossible at his current level of Cultivation.

'There's always a chance...'

Chu Mu shook his head, suppressing his discouragement.

If his theory was correct, then every Bloodline Divine Technique actually had a structure similar to a Magic Model.

As long as he could perceive that structure, it would be like having a completely unknown Magic Model laid out clearly before him.

And with the leap in thought and wisdom from his Spiritual Radiance Blessing, he should be able to modify these Divine Technique models to suit him, no matter how difficult it might be.

It would be just like his Artifact Refining Skill: progressing from blind imitation to true mastery, and finally to complete freedom...

What this would mean...

Just the thought of it made Chu Mu's heart pound violently a few times.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, profound Skills and Magic legacies were very difficult for him to come across, let alone obtain.

But here in the Endless Vast Sea, there were infinite Demon Beasts, countless Demon Beast Bloodlines, and innumerable Bloodline Divine Techniques inherited through them...

'To steal the fortune of Demon Beasts...'

Chu Mu muttered to himself, unable to hide his excitement.

Then, a thought seemed to strike him, and he froze. A look of confusion crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by one of understanding.

He realized that in the countless years of the Cultivation Immortal Realm's history, there must have been other geniuses who had discovered this great fortune.

All paths lead to the same destination. It was possible that the Secret Techniques, Divine Techniques, and Magic Models of the Cultivation Immortal Realm had actually evolved from these Bloodline Divine Techniques.

And based on his theory, if Bloodline Divine Techniques truly were similar to Magic Techniques, then modifying them to be usable by Cultivators would undoubtedly require a vast amount of time for experimentation and refinement.

Given the incredibly long history of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, this was not an impossibility.

He flipped his hand, storing away the eyeballs and the Bloodline Essence. With a wave of his sleeve, he tossed the corpse, which was now riddled with holes, into the Vast Sea. A school of fish converged, and within a few short breaths, the body was devoured completely.

He scanned the surrounding waters and was just about to determine his location when Wangcai's roar suddenly rang out.

Wangcai had jumped to its feet, its Demon Body tensed in alarm as it roared repeatedly at the projection screen.

Before Chu Mu could get a clear look, the rippling surface of the sea abruptly split open, forming a fissure dozens of feet wide. A brilliant light flashed from within the gap, and a terrifying wave of Spiritual Qi erupted.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the normally calm Divine Soul Blade began to vibrate wildly, giving off a frantic warning. A shudder that brought on terrifying Palpitations suddenly ran through him.

Chu Mu had no time to think. He grabbed Wangcai and leaped. His fiery Sword Intent flared to life, and in a state of Man-Sword Unity, he transformed into a streak of light, vanishing hundreds of feet away in an instant...

...