Grinding Cultivation Toward Martial Saint

However, just as Jiang Ning was about to reach the sky above the square, the aura around him suddenly surged.

"Buzz—"

An invisible force exploded outward, centered on him.

This force was not an attack, but a gentle push, like a spring breeze brushing the face, or a tide sweeping.

On the square, the people who were trading at the market, the vendors, the children playing, even the elderly sunbathing in the corner, were all involuntarily driven back by this force.

"Ouch!"

"What’s happening?"

"Who’s pushing me?"

Exclamations and voices of confusion rose one after another.

The people only felt helpless, their feet leaving the ground, wrapped in a gentle yet irresistible force, lightly floating toward the outside of the square.

Within a few breaths, the originally bustling central square was cleared out into a circular area more than a hundred zhang in diameter.

In the center of the open space, only the goods left by the vendors and market-goers remained.

Jiang Ning looked down at the square below.

He knew that beneath the square, there was another grotto heaven.

Then, he raised his right hand, flipped the palm over, and pressed downward.

Boom!!

An invisible force descended, causing the earth to roar and collapse.

On the outskirts of the square, many people swayed left and right, losing their balance; some even fell straight down.

In the center of the square, as he pressed down with his hand, the ground collapsed with a loud crash.

Dust soared into the sky, obscuring half of the heavens.

When the dust settled slightly, a giant pit with a diameter exceeding fifty zhang appeared before everyone.

In the pit was not soil or rock, but a rolling, dark red blood pool!

The blood pool was viscous like paste, with fist-sized blood bubbles constantly bursting on the surface, each emitting an overwhelmingly cloying fragrance.

The blood pool waters were not still, but constantly churning, occasionally erupting into crimson waves.

What was even more disconcerting was that above the blood pool floated an indescribable horrific creature.

The creature stood about five zhang tall, its entire body dark red, as if formed by solidified blood and twisted flesh.

It bore three heads, each facing a different direction.

The left head was vaguely human, agonized and distorted, hollow eyes bleeding.

The middle head was beast-like, exposing fangs, with a single horn on its forehead.

The right head was a mass of constantly squirming flesh, covered with eye-like protrusions, each eye rotating with a frenzied greed.

Six arms extended from both sides of its torso, each arm differing in form.

Some resembled human arms filled with bone spurs, some were beast-like claws covered in scales, others were simply masses of ever-changing flesh tendrils.

Its four legs, like pillars, were deeply embedded in the blood pool, as if absorbing nutrients from it.

Three heads, six arms, four legs!

This was the divine body of the Blood and Flesh God he had seen before.

Yet compared to what he had witnessed before, this body had clearly undergone new changes.

At present, the body was still being nurtured in the blood pool, not yet fully formed, but even so, it emitted an overwhelming terror.

This pressure mixed with divine majesty and filthy corruption; merely gazing upon it caused a violent shudder in the hearts of the distant onlookers, with many collapsing where they stood, foaming at the mouth.

What’s even more horrifying was the shifting corpses within the blood pool!

There were males and females, young and old, even the carcasses of birds and beasts.

Most of these corpses were incomplete, some stripped of skin revealing crimson muscles.

Some had hollowed internal organs, leaving gaping chest cavities.

Others seemed to have had their shapes forcibly twisted by some power, limbs folded at eerie angles.

Their eyes were wide open, frozen in fear and anguish before death, surfacing and sinking with the blood pool’s churn.

The sheer number of corpses nearly filled half of the blood pool, numbering in thousands or even more!

"I see now..."

Jiang Ning stood at the edge of the pit, gazing down at the terrifying divine body with three heads, six arms, four legs, and the countless corpses floating in the blood pool, a swift realization emerging in his mind.

"What I sensed was indeed the divine body of the Blood and Flesh God."

"It is not yet fully formed, incapable of fully hosting the Blood and Flesh God’s will, hence requiring the nourishment of this blood pool and the blood and flesh essence of these living beings to continuously enhance and complete this divine body."

"The God Worship Sect was previously driven out by me from Luoshui County, but with the Blood and Flesh God’s power, new members could easily be cultivated. In this short span of one or two years, they must have secretly captured and lured people, even hunting wild beasts, all to support the growth of this divine body."

Thinking of this, Cold Light suddenly flashed in Jiang Ning’s eyes.

Back then, his exile led this scourge to harm other people here.

In the past, he wasn’t strong enough to deal with it.

But now, having achieved the Primordial God Immortal Realm, things are different.

His power has grown exponentially, and his perception of the world is sharper.

His gaze swept around the Blood Pool.

There were some people in black robes, whose aura was obviously that of God Worship Sect followers.

These people had recovered from their initial shock.

Not only did they not fear, but they all kneeled on the ground, crazily worshipping the divine body in the Blood Pool, chanting:

"Eternal life in flesh and blood, all spirits return to the source!"

"Offer my flesh and blood, forge the divine body!"

"..."

Amidst the fervent prayers, they began to emit a faint blood glow, resonating with the energy in the Blood Pool, seemingly conducting some ritual to sacrifice their life force to the divine body.

They had already sensed Jiang Ning’s invincible power.

All sacrificed their power, hastening the descent of the Blood and Flesh God.

Watching the scene below, Jiang Ning couldn’t help but snort coldly.

"Since you wish to sacrifice, I shall grant it!"

At this moment, he was unwilling to say more; his goal was solely to resolve the Blood and Flesh God and understand his connection with it.

Also to make the God Worship Sect disappear from Great Xia completely, to prevent harming more beings.

The Blood Pool below alone already suggests at least thousands of people have been harmed by the God Worship Sect, likely more.

Leaving them here will only result in more deaths.

He raised his hand, fingers spread.

Simultaneously.

From the Blood Pool below, a person in a black robe looked at the figure in the sky, his pupils trembling.

He recognized Jiang Ning, the County Lord Li Hong of Luoshui County, whom he had lured into the sect back then, died at Jiang Ning’s hands.

Yet the aura emitted by Jiang Ning hovering above the small town now was completely unlike what he remembered.

He could clearly feel, as Sect Hierarch of God Worship Sect, exposed in Jiang Ning’s gaze above, the terrifying death aura surged over him like a tide, leaving him nowhere to escape.

"Die!" Jiang Ning’s words fell.

His five fingers clenched tight.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

A series of muffled sounds exploded like bursting beans, blood spattered from the black-robed followers’ bodies, their veins seemed to burst instantaneously.

In an instant, flesh flew, bone fragments scattered.

Their lives were deprived at that moment, remaining flesh essence was drawn by an invisible force, surging into the Blood Pool like rivers converging.

The Blood Pool thrashed more intensely, the divine body with three heads, six arms, and four feet quivered slightly, its surface flesh writhing faster, seemingly nourished greatly.

Jiang Ning was expressionless, as if just brushing off some dust.

He glanced over the remnants left by the exploding followers and suddenly furrowed his brow.

In the pile of bloody corpses, he sensed a somewhat powerful aura.

His Divine Thought swept and locked onto a partially mangled body.

That was the aura of Martial Arts Fourth Grade, a physique tempered exceptionally.

The corpse wore a dark red robe with gold trim, though shattered, its luxurious quality was still visible.

The head remained intact, face aged, eyes wide open, frozen in shock and unwillingness.

"Such power, such attire; could he be the long-rumored Sect Hierarch of God Worship Sect?" Jiang Ning wondered.

"Most likely!" He concluded, slowly retracting his gaze.

A slight ripple arose in his mind.

This one who once wielded power in Dongling County, secretly controlling a county, now died here like an ant, so easily, so unremarkably.

When he acted, he didn’t even pay specific attention to this person.

Time changes everything.

An enemy once treated cautiously, now in his eyes, is no different from weeds on the roadside.

Jiang Ning looked no more, waved his hand.

A gentle breeze swept over, clearing the followers’ remnants and dozens of yet-to-be-thrown bodies from the Blood Pool edge, all into the Blood Pool.

"Splash, splash, splash..."

The sound of bodies entering the water echoed one after another.