Cultivation is merely the biggest factor in determining victory or defeat, not the sole factor. Otherwise, everyone would just reveal their cultivation before a competition; why bother fighting?
"Give me the treasure saber, I will find an even better treasure saber for you in the future." Gong Bai's voice was gentle, like a mother's soothing, shaking one's soul. Zhang Chen obediently raised his hand and handed over the Blood Transformation Divine Saber. The Blood God Child had already merged into the hilt of the Blood Transformation Divine Saber, hiding inconspicuously by leveraging the saber's aura.
Gong Bai looked at the Blood Transformation Divine Saber handed over, his old face blossomed into a smile, and he extended his wrinkled old hand to grasp the hilt of the Blood Transformation Divine Saber, carefully inspecting it. But at the next moment, he saw a drop of crimson blood wriggling on the hilt, and before Gong Bai could react, that drop of blood had already penetrated his skin, seeped into his body, merged with his blood, rapidly devouring the essence of his blood, and vying for control over his flesh.
"What in the world is this!" Gong Bai was horrified, a hint of panic appearing in his eyes.
To any powerful being, the physical body is critically important, even for Immortals. It remains the most important asset, not to be abandoned lightly.
At this moment, something suddenly intruded into his own body, causing Gong Bai to panic. He hurriedly mobilized power to suppress and confront the strange phenomenon within his body.
Zhang Chen sensed the struggle between the Blood God Child and Gong Bai. At this moment, facing Gong Bai's suppression, the Blood God Child clearly fell into a disadvantage, because one was merely at the seventh tier, while the other had already stepped into the ninth tier.
If this battle continued, even if the Blood God Child eventually possessed Gong Bai, by that time, Gong Bai's life span would likely have reached its end, rendering Zhang Chen's acquisition of Gong Bai's body useless.
Of course, Zhang Chen couldn't let this happen. He held a Wind Stabilizing Pill pinched between his right index and middle fingers in his sleeve, and, amid Gong Bai's panicked cries, Zhang Chen acted. He pinched the Wind Stabilizing Pearl and stuffed it into Gong Bai's mouth.
Gong Bai was alarmed, filled with terror, bewildered as to how Zhang Chen had awakened from his Dizzying Wind's influence so quickly. He hastily attempted to escape as a breeze to avoid Zhang Chen's fingers, but at the critical moment, the drop of blood within his body flared up, disrupting his body's Qi mechanism and causing him to freeze on the spot. This left him unable to exert any of his divine techniques, watching helplessly as Zhang Chen slipped the Wind Stabilizing Pill into his mouth, and with a tap on his throat, let the Wind Stabilizing Pill slide into his abdomen.
Zhang Chen then retreated rapidly holding an oil-paper umbrella, putting distance between himself and Gong Bai within a few breaths.
"Ugh~"
Gong Bai swiftly suppressed the Blood God Child's agitation, using one finger to jab his throat in an attempt to vomit the object that had entered his stomach, but the Wind Stabilizing Pill had its own spirituality; it couldn't be expelled just because he wanted to.
Gong Bai retched without success, and at this moment, he couldn't even be bothered with the Wind Stabilizing Pill because the Blood God Child in his bloodstream began to act up. Once it did, it was an uncontrollable surge, seizing control of his blood, meridians, and heart in rapid succession. He wanted to use divine techniques to suppress it, but his inner divine power, under the effects of the Wind Stabilizing Pill, became as stagnant as a dead pool, unable to be mobilized at all.
Now, he was like an ordinary person without divine power, watching helplessly as the control of his body was gradually taken over.
Gong Bai was a wise man; at this point, how could he not realize he had been tricked?
So he simply abandoned resistance, staring fixedly at Zhang Chen: "How did you awaken from my Dizzying Wind?"
"I had a Wind Stabilizing Pill, so how could I be harmed by your mere Dizzying Wind?" Zhang Chen laughed proudly.
"So you were acting the whole time?" Gong Bai glared angrily at Zhang Chen.
"Life is like a play; it all depends on acting skills. In the Martial World, when my strength doesn't compare to others, I must have some skills to rely on. Look at you, weren't you trapped by my trick?" Zhang Chen teased.
Upon hearing Zhang Chen's words, Gong Bai trembled with rage, but faced with reality, he had no choice but to concede: "What do you want?"
"I want to borrow your body for a while," Zhang Chen said.
Gong Bai's expression changed: "You want to kill me?"
"I'm not killing you; I'm replacing you to live on in this world," Zhang Chen corrected Gong Bai's words.
"I am a noble; you can't kill me! I wish to invoke the noble covenant and am willing to pay a ransom," Gong Bai quickly uttered.
The so-called noble covenant is similar to the tacit understandings among nobles in the 21st century. If opposing forces capture a noble during battle, they are not to execute them.
It's akin to during the Three Kingdoms era; when Guan Yu was captured, in theory, he shouldn't have been killed and was supposed to wait for Liu Bei to redeem him. But unexpectedly, he encountered a fool who directly chopped his head off, leading to his wrongful death.
Though Zhang Chen didn't know the specifics of this world's noble covenant, he could roughly guess its implications.
"Too late!" Zhang Chen looked at Gong Bai.
Gong Bai was stunned: "Too late for what?"
"It would be best for you to willingly become my puppet; I will replace you and exist as the most elite master in the world," Zhang Chen intended to recreate a path once taken by Xiu Liu, to see if he could cultivate a top-tier master in the Fruit Realm. The current invasion by the Demon Race army presented a perfect opportunity for Zhang Chen to utilize the slaughter in the Northern Land to cultivate a Blood Dao master who could be at his command, solving various problems for him.
However, this time, he was not cultivating an outsider but his own Blood God Child.
Gong Bai's eyes were fixed on Zhang Chen, filled with despair: "Is there really no room for negotiation?"
Zhang Chen nodded, then shook his head and decisively uttered two words: "None."
"You will face retribution!"
Gong Bai felt his body gradually lose control, his face growing more and more ferocious.
Hearing this, Zhang Chen laughed: "Really? I don't know if I'll face retribution, but I know you're going to kick the bucket first, old man."
Zhang Chen sensed that the Blood God Child was mastering Gong Bai's body, gradually refining Gong Bai's Essence, Qi, and Spirit, and felt his heart slowly relax.
No matter what, possessing the ninth-tier strength, Gong Bai was an exceptionally top-tier expert, and having such a subordinate would certainly make things more convenient in the future.
As the last traces of struggle disappeared from Gong Bai's eyes, a Blood River completely submerged his pupils, and he gradually regained control over his physical form. Holding the Blood Transformation Divine Saber, he took one look and directly absorbed it into his body.
Zhang Chen gestured towards Gong Bai's palm, and the Wind Stabilizing Pill automatically returned to his Spiritual World.
Who said support skills were useless? At this moment, Zhang Chen felt that his support skills were comparable to Divine Artifacts at times.
Not to mention Gong Bai with his ninth-tier strength, even the Gong Family experts wielding twelfth-tier power were no different when faced with the Wind Stabilizing Pill.
Zhang Chen looked at Gong Bai across from him, and after exchanging glances, Gong Bai's figure flickered and vanished without a trace on the street.
Zhang Chen knew what Gong Bai went to do; his Blood God Child was about to embark on a massacre in the Northern Land, slaying the Demon Race, annihilating Prince Pingbian's army, growing stronger in the slaughter.
Zhang Chen walked on the street, holding an oil-paper umbrella and muttered: "I wonder how Zhou Chuan is doing and whether the old guy can bring down Gong Hei."
He felt that without Gong Bai's help, there was an eighty to ninety percent chance that Gong Hei wasn't a match for Zhou Chuan.
"Without the Blood Transformation Divine Saber, I still need to find another weapon." Zhang Chen thought a good weapon is extremely important, capable of turning Heaven and Earth in crucial moments.
Moreover, there will be a time when divine techniques are exhausted, and weapon combat is vital.
"I need to ask Xie Lingyun if there's an expert in this area." Zhang Chen wanted to refine Dragon Horn into a weapon, but although he was a cultivator, he wasn't proficient in weapon crafting.
The God-Beating Whip barely counts as a weapon but mostly functions as a Magical Treasure, taking people by surprise through attacking their Divine Soul was the proper path.
Zhang Chen returned to the inn, nowhere else to go, quietly waiting for Bai Cang's time of rebirth. Of course, he could switch perspectives to the Blood God Child, observe the Blood God Child's response, seeing him leave the city, arriving at the clash between the Inspection and Supervision Department and Demon Race army, and without a word, charging into the battlefield, pouncing on the Demon Race army.
Each spot where the blood shadow passed left behind a dried corpse, and the blood flowing on the ground was being absorbed by the Blood God Child, becoming its nourishment.
The city outskirts were about three hundred miles away, but it didn't affect Zhang Chen viewing the battlefield from a first-person perspective, as if watching an animated film, countless lives fell at the Blood God Child's hands.
"The Blood God Child is too suited for battlefield slaughter; the battlefield is its home." Zhang Chen thought silently.
The sudden addition of the Blood God Child intensified the Inspection and Supervision Department's offensive, the Demon Race fell into chaos, beginning a gradual retreat.
By the third day, all Demon Race armies were slaughtered, countless livestock corpses fell, Xie Lingyun looked at the Blood God Child in a snow-white robe unstained by blood, eyes showing a hint of respect: "I'm Inspector Xie Lingyun, may I know which side of our Human Race you're from? Please leave your name so we can request accolades from the Emperor for you later."
Blood God Child, upon hearing this, glanced at Xie Lingyun, ignored his words, and directly turned into blood light, vanishing from the spot.
"Really an odd person, killed so many people without a drop of blood on them, when did such a powerhouse emerge in the Northern Land?" Xie Lingyun gazed at the Blood God Child's departing figure, eyes showing a hint of astonishment.
"Go, tell them to investigate this person's background; it's strange that such a powerful being exists yet there's no information recorded by us." Xie Lingyun instructed.
Upon hearing Xie Lingyun's words, the guard quickly went down to prepare.
Inside the inn
Zhang Chen drank tea, bored, and at this moment, a scent of blood wafted from outside the door, attracting Zhang Chen's attention. Zhang Chen followed the smell and saw Xie Lingyun, clad in white and iron armor, stride in from outside.