Book 6. Chapter 12: Fhesiah - Table Flipping

Book 6. Chapter 12: Fhesiah - Table Flipping

Fhesiah dumped numerous purifying herbs into the cauldron, the cursed blood being refined by her mixing. She almost wanted to sing a song and dance while she cooked, but had to keep the appearance that she was determined and distressed instead.

The captain was catching onto her game, at least slightly. He was becoming increasingly suspicious about how she hadnt fully succumbed to the curse yet, but only her usefulness as an alchemist stayed his hand.

In all, she thought it was kinda funny. Skilled alchemists were truly a privileged sort even for the unorthodox cultivators, and she was running roughshod all over these jerks.

Several pill furnaces worked and she finished yet another batch of blood essence pills. This game was nearly over, though it had been an interesting few weeks. Fhesiah had hopefully made a bunch of allies, reducing their suffering with her pills and preparing for her escape.

She had finally created a true antidote to the curse. Well, at least when caught early enough, or combined with her Torch or draconic flames to heal them. Secretly, she had already saved a few from the pits of despair. Unfortunately, she could not save them all.

This camp was just too big. Supposedly, there were a total of twenty-four spines heading to the base of the main mountain. This enemy sect actually comprised of half, or nearly half of them with the Alliance taking up the other half. In addition to that, they had succeeded in merging four groups of their larger sect into one, with a fifth on the way here to join them, containing one of their elite members.

The Tartarus unorthodox sect members had the advantage of all working together, in that they were from the same sect. Nearly each spine the Alliance was on was mixed between representatives of different worlds, whether cultivators or Framework members.

Which led to some infighting and doubting of allies, and greed besides. Thus, when the Bloodbeast Sect reached the base of the mountain, they attacked other groupsand had won three out of the four. The loss forced them to retreat, but they were gathering up for revenge, a renewed assault when the man known as the second in command, returned.VIsit n0(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Revenge Fhesiah would not allow to be carried out. In all, her best chance for rescue of those enslaved was before this second in command arrived.

She walked over to the blood urns and removed the lid. Peering inside with her divine sense, she monitored the creatures within the unique condensed space within. Two creatures covered in tainted blood battled for dominance, one a sort of scorpion and the other some kind of frenzied mole rat. Its claws were large and vicious, and seemed strong for both offense and defense.

But not good enough. The scorpions stinger pierced over the moles guard, sinking deep into its skull and killing it.

The scorpion won the battle, and drank the mole rats blood into itself. It became empowered, and the ritual inside the urn completed. Blood from all over the urn, the many fallen creatures, rushed inside the scorpion, strange heretical glyphs within the urns lining brightening with a sickly red light.

A weight bore down onto the scorpion, and it began screeching in agony. The creature was crushed and torn apart as the blood within the urn swirled, leaving nothing but a single drop of concentrated blood.

Her corrupted heart screamed to consume the tainted blood, but she covered the heart with her flames and ignored the annoying curse in her chest. With her Qi she grabbed onto the droplet of blood, and added it to one of the many cauldrons for additional refinementbefore she would add it to one of her furnaces along with dozens of other materials.

Carrying over the beast urn, she dumped a new set of creatures inside, and then sent a new drop of tainted blood into each of the creatures from the sects blood pool. Once again, her body screamed to consume more of this blood, wanting this essence to fuel its power.

The monsters began their struggle for dominance as they were filled with rage, and she closed the lid, moving onto the next. She then walked to the end of the line of urns to check on her favorite project.

Opening the lid, she found a terrifying beast of blood facing off against another. It was enormous and was a storm of claws, teeth, tails and even spines.

It was up against a more familiar, beloved figure. It had a scaled back that deflected the storm of claws, and it chuckled darkly at its enemys futile violence. Four front arms of its own countered the creatures assault, claws that were long knives of terror that inflicted punishment against its foe. Some kind of bloodbeast badgerdillo with mutated limbs, that she had ensured to only provide cleansed, condensed blood essence.

The blood essence for the others was from a tainted beast. A sort of blood parasite that was likely in the fourth Tier, its blood alone empowered the sect members and beasts alike. The creature would give off its blood, and just a little of it would infect nearly any amount of it, even from the smallest drop thanks to a powerful Intent of the near-divine-level creature.

The cultivators could use it and become more like this blood beast, getting various advantagesso long as they continued to feed it more blood essence.

After a cultivator used the tainted blood essence, it altered themselves. They could then consume enemy cultivators blood and improve their own cultivation, stealing their fates. But there was a downsidethe original blood beast would slowly wear down their minds and souls, taking control of the members to eventually bring them back to the original beast for consumption.

At the top of the sect was not the blood beast itself. It was merely sect members using the beasts blood essence for power and controlor at least, thats what they believed. Perhaps their patriarch was nothing more than a puppet for the blood beast itself to control, to fool these cultivators into becoming food for its own strength.

Because it was inevitableonce tainted by the blood, they would kill and consume until the curse eventually took over, and brought them back to be devoured. Whatever they fed the corrupted heart would no longer be enough at some point.

The badgerdillo won, and the ritual was completed. It roared in triumph and satisfaction, consuming the blood from the ritual, though Fhesiah had certainly made sure to alter it. The beast absorbed the blood, and changes began to occur as it purified its bloodline, and advanced to near the peak of the first Tier. Gem-like protrusions began to grow on its body, the same color of red blood like its body.

Fhesiah made sure nobody was watching once more with her divine sense, and stowed away the urn in her Storage Ring. Finally, she had it. A purified, nine times refined blood badgerdillo for Jake. Of course, it wasnt the same exact thing as the ones they met, and it took her nearly twenty tries, but she finally had it.

It was strong, and she had an inkling that what she had done was likely what the bloodbeast sect members might do. She simply noticed that if she changed a few glyphs, she had a powerful beast that she could control using the blood essence.

And it was a female, for reasons. Why shut down possibilities before they even become one?

Between the creature, the antidote, and her plan to come to fruition, she only had a couple of requirements left. She would destroy this army dealing a devastating blow to the bloodbeast sect, and save a bunch of nice people. Also, to take all the lootthat was important, too. Fhesiah was such a good multitasker.

Suddenly, the curse energy within her began to boil, the blood through her veins raging against her flesh. Her muscles tightened and cramped, and she let out a grunt of pain. Fhesiah nearly rolled her eyes, but instead, let the pain wash over her, pretending to be in agony with her face scrunched up. She could just turn off the feeling of pain, but it was easier to act the part with it being real.

Black and red filled her veins as her corrupted heart beat, visible under her pale skin. Some blood even pierced her flesh, as if wanting to escape her body. It encroached on her dantian, and she made an appearance of fighting off the curse, barely holding on with light amounts of Qi as she stumbled to the ground.

A man entered her tent, the captain of the blood beast sectand the one that had made the beasts blood within her body begin boiling just from his proximity. His name was Arcus, and he was some kind of demon like herself, a son of a demonic beast lion that had reached the nascent soul level.

His fur had been stained red from the blood, and the man was pure wickedness. Fhesiah learned that like these very same urns, he had been baptized in battle against his brethren multiple times before reaching the Foundation Establishment realm. He was an elite of their sect, a chosen to become one of the strongest within the battleground.

Fhesiah wouldnt be surprised if these so-called captains would just consume all the participants if Tartarus succeeded, to go onto bigger and better thingsafter promising them all glory.

Do you have it? The pill you promised.

She began getting up, as she tried to restore her Qi with a crystal. Fhesiah was doing her best to appear weak, and the only reason she was allotted any of the Qi crystals at all was to perform her alchemy in the first place. Iyes. One moment please.

Now! Arcus roared.

Fhesiah retrieved the pill from the sack they provided her, and once again, her cursed heart screamed at her to consume iteven more than the drop of blood from previously. Blood spears grew from her veins out of her fingers in an attempt for her corrupted heart to grab it, but the captain just snorted and took it from her fingers out of the air with Qi.

Yes, I can feel it. With this, I can solidify my breakthrough and challenge for second in command. He laughed as he looked over Fhesiahs efforts across the room once more. Dozens of cauldrons were simmering, pill furnaces were slowly working at a slow burn, and the many urns were all functioning at full capacity.

Who knew we would find someone with such talent.

He scanned her with his divine sense, his eyes narrowing. Why do you still fight it?

Of course, this was a difficult point for her to overcome. If she were to be loyal to the sect, she needed for the curse to take over her dantianto discard her path. Her Qi would be taken over by blood Qi, and its compatibility with creating flames was low.

Thankfully, she was a kitsune demoness, and also an alchemist. In order to form a proper flame from blood to continue her alchemy at the best proficiency, she would need a special environment.

Im not confident in forming a flame of blood on my own. Im building merit for time in the blood pits. Its a much better start that will make up for how I was cursed, besides.

I promised you plenty of essence to maintain the curse, and surely, you dont need perfect flames to continue your alchemy? You wont have to suffer like the chattel outside, and this place is a tremendous opportunity for us. This is what you can accomplish now, at Foundation Establishment. Forming your Core, you should be able to exceed what you can do now, even without the blood flame. The mans smile grew wide, as he looked her body up and down. I already told you how you could get the most blood essence.

Fhesiah nearly scorched him where he stood, but knew her plan would result in that soon enough. Especially if he took that pill. She just stared impassively, pretending to focus on recovering her insidesthe damage from the mans entry, his flex of power over her tainted blood.

Arcus sneered. Fine. Suffer a little more. If you wait too long, even I cannot protect you from the second in command when he arrives. Itll be a lot more painful and the result not as good if it isforced.

He was referring to how the blood curse took over the body and invaded the dantian. If he covered her in his blood and encroached her dantian himself, it would damage her spiritual temple significantly.

This was what happened to the many blood slaves, being cursed during combat. Those that were strong enough to let the curse in willingly would receive the benefit of a more intact dantian.

Of course, what Fhesiah did now to protect herself was not perfect. The spiritual temple was a metaphysical representation of the body. And how could the body be well when the heart and the blood within was cursed? Still, she kept things at acceptable levels, for when she took the antidote herself, this minor tribulation would have tempered her, instead.

Did you finally prepare the essence awakening pills? We need to be able to move soon, and I would rather the rest be awakened sooner rather than later.

Fhesiah nodded, and showed him the pill. Thats right. Thanks to my efficiency, these extra

Arcus snorted as he swept it, and her sack in his divine sense. Whatever. I should just force you to take this, and get it over with. Just hand them out so we can move against the enemy soon. We need more blood.

The awakening pills she devised at their request were not much different from the blood essence pills the sect members were meant to take, to improve the power of their blood curse.

The corruption levels were simply higher, and it would empower the corrupted heart even further to encroach their dantians and end their struggles nearly immediately. A decent start for them in truth, but she hadnt actually made the pill she promised.

He left the tent, leaving Fhesiah alone inside. She stealthily used her divine sense to monitor his activities as she continued healing her body and her work, but like the brutish oaf he was, he merely beelined for his tent to consume the precious pill.

Me? Controlling it with her Qi, a cosmos sack flew to Fhesiah, and she retrieved her fan with a smile. There wasnt much she cared about in her sack she had originally handed over, but she did want this back, at least.

Youll pay for this. The captains aura surged, his power rising as his anger did. He reached for his talisman, wanting to trigger its control runes. Holding it up, he pointed it at Fhesiahand nothing happened.

Fhesiah made herself look confused, tilting her head. Huh, that was scary. With how dramatic you moved, I thought something would happen? In the end, she was buying as little time as she could. Every moment she spent talking, her allies were recovering or making their moves.

You What happened? How is this possible?!

Xara was busy restoring some of her Qi, and her core spun and spit out cold Qi into her body. While consuming the antidote helped restore some, she was still dry from fighting the curse for so long. In all, most of the cultivators Fhesiah freed would not be of much use for the fight to come.

In fact, they only really stood a chance to escape rather than being killed outright because of her poison on the bloodbeast sect members.

Arcus watched the many Blizzardblade Clan sect members stepping out of their tents, ready for battle. Some even cut immediately into their captors, or began forming into ranks. It appeared many of them could form blades out of pure ice, or simply used their own claws.

Youcured them? This

Fhesiahs own energy surged, her might mostly restored. However, her reserves of Qi were a bit low, under 40 percentunless she used her dragon flames. She would only use them if she had to, but shed rather not until she really had the lay of the land.

Clearly, Tartarus wasnt able to communicate with this Sect about who she was, and what she might be capable of, unlike the Champions they fought previously who arrived knowing all about her.

It was entirely possible they had a means of transmitting information to their leaders if she went all out here. Fhesiah wasnt the only one capable of creating a recording on an information crystal, and there were many means of transmitting this nearly instantly.

Arcus narrowed his eyes at Fhesiah. You cannot be allowed to live, having an antidote for our beast blood. You think youve won, but you havent been made aware of all of our tools.

Several urns landed in front of him, and the lids opened. Blood rushed from Arcus and into the urns, before dozens of powerful beasts surged out of each and toward Fhesiah, each at the peak of Tier 1.

Most likely, they used these and even earned them while opening the seals. Facing the spawned enemies, they gained additional fodder in every battle, even as they unraveled the seals.

In truth, Fhesiah was somewhat shocked at the numbers released. Nearly a hundred beasts filled with blood rage charged toward her, the talisman Arcus held having some control over them. It was a good thing she was prepared.

Still, Fhesiah gave a wide smile. Look at all your friends! I brought some too.

With a flourish, Hestias Torch, her pill furnace, the blood badgerdillo and the fire lantern appeared around her.

Now she finally understood Jake and why he liked this so much. Summoning a bunch of creatures to do your bidding was a ton of fun!

The sky above them brightened, a giant flame forming like a sun in the sky. The opulent shuttle appeared, and the dozens of Radiant Flame Sect members were working together to create a singular, powerful attack.

It began falling down toward the oncoming horde of beasts and near the center of the bloodbeast sect cultivators, though it looked like some friendly fire may occur.

Fhesiah used one of Jakes many prepared scrolls from her storage ring, creating a barrier over the recovering cultivators.

The ball of flames exploded within the camp, enveloping the beasts in an immense wave of fire. While it didnt kill all of them, the dozens of fire spirits were next to fly out of her lantern, sending beams of flames into the enemies. They swarmed the oncoming beasts, both sending flames into the blood beasts and drinking up the flames from the downed creatures.

Fhesiah looked over to the blood badgerdillo with a smile. Its extra set of forelegs made its upper body sit more upright during movement, almost like a humanoid or centaur might. Its scales almost looked draconic rather than just simple scales, but its draconic bloodline was weakshe had only given it a few drops of her own blood before the creature had been refined.

Your first feast awaits, Ruby. Consume and crush those with tainted hearts. Stick with my Clan, and you will never want for food or combat.

Ruby nodded, able to understand Fhesiahs meaning at least somewhat, thanks to her intelligence and the Frameworkthe dragon blood paying dividends. She chuckled, her eyes narrowed on the oncoming enemy. Ruby leaped into battle with her claws shredding the enemies with ease, the blood of the beasts boiling as she neared.

While the curse was not within her veins, bloodline superiority enabled an innate control over their blood. Combined with the superior dragon blood Fhesiah provided it, the blood badgerdillo was truly fierce.

The frenzied badger slashed and ripped apart beasts with its many claws as it bathed and drank the blood from its enemies. The tainted blood was cleansed as it was consumed, its power over blood crushing the encroaching curse and devouring it as fuel.

Tribal warriors leaped down from the shuttle, the shaman-like women adding a means of landing safely onto the ground and supporting them with spells. They took on the remaining creatures and the oncoming sect members in their formations, while the Radiant Flame sect members began their bombardmentsending beams of flames and fireballs down onto the poisoned sect members.

Arcus roared, and pointed his talisman at several of his own allies. They exploded in a shower of gore, their blood gathering into a large spear of it. However, despite Arcus being even more powerful than the previous squad leaders, the purple, infected blood moved sluggishly. He growled in frustration, and added even more of his own blood.

The much larger fire spirit emerged from the pill furnace, her smile beaming. She had only been nourished for a few weeks inside, but she had already grown from the size of a toddler to an older child. Fhesiah had named her Sati, and she now began to match the flames of Fhesiahs path somewhat, though it was only a slight amount.

The heaven and earth formation had filtered the transformed energies of the various treasures in the formation, two nascent soul cultivators energies, Fhesiahs bloodline flames and even Clan Harts hearth fire, into pure, completely new flames of each.

The fire spirit looked at her expectantly with a smile, though seemed a little confused about everything going on. Sati. Evil threatens us.

Sati nodded, and Hestias Torch released stored flames into the elemental. Fhesiah raised her fan with it spread open, several foxfires flickering into existence behind her as her tails danced. Adding the Curse of the Moon to Arcus, she imbued the flames with the power of her path, and directed the small elemental to meet the giant spear of blood.

Happy to obey Fhesiahs guidance of flames, the elemental shot toward the spear with the foxfires, an immense aura of flame surrounding her. Crashing into the spear as it had only began to move forward, the flames both consumed but also shredded the spear into pieces.

Fhesiah covered herself in her armor, the storage ring allowing her to instantly protect her body. Filling the runes with mana, she dashed at Arcus.

He roared with rage, as he formed his claw and slashed at Fhesiah even as her curse burned away at the blood energy surrounding him. Despite having spent a lot of energy he was probably several levels into the second Tier, while Fhesiah had little to work with.

Meeting his claw with her gauntleted fist, several foxfires slammed into him, and her torch and the fire elemental blasted him from the sides. The bloodred aura covered him, dispelling the flames and keeping him from burning significantly.

In the distance, Fhesiah could see Xara dashing in with her blade, cutting various bloodbeast sect members down. The previous Core cultivator that found Fhesiah clashed with her, but weakened as he was, his core was frozen as he was stabbed in his chest.

Arcus met Fhesiahs fists with his claws, before a raging Ruby came after him with a storm of claws. Rubys eyes shone with a sanguine light, wanting to face this stronger enemy. While Ruby was only near the peak of Tier 1, the blood within her hungered for the superior blood within his veins.

Fhesiah used this moment to gather more flames with her fan and torch, spinning in place.

Arcus growled. What is this thing, how can it resist my control over blood? He appeared to gaze over the battlefield, and come to a decision. Clearly, his sect was losing as things were. The Blizzardblade Clan and Radiant Flame members, along with the many Adventurers, had already overcome most of the warriors of the bloodbeast sect.

The many fire spirits began to gather around Fhesiah, and she smiled as Sati began to direct them, to prepare a large attack of their own.

The remaining bloodbeast sect members exploded, and streams of blood headed toward and covered him. An apparition of a massive, terrifying beast replaced him with countless maws, claws, and stingers, poising to strike. A powerful, sickly domain was created of the tainted beast, its power weighing down on reality. Many of those who had blood, including the badgerdillo, groaned as they were inhibited.

It looked like it would attack even the downed cultivators, still in recovery.

Xara covered her blade with ice forming a larger sword over her head, preparing to meet the attack. Meanwhile, Fhesiah drew up the remains of her Qi, the elemental and torch adding the flames into her attack. In all, it didnt look like their efforts would be enough, and many would die against this giant beast.

It was then that Xu Weiyan and Elder Wang arrived with their fiery attacks, the halod angel of flames and fiery cauldron joining the assault. The many attacks met the giant apparition, they struggled against his terrible attack, but shoved it back as its size was expended.

Ruby even consumed much of the blood it sheared away with its claws, continuing its pursuit of Arcus.

It lashed out at a few cultivators, but the flaming sprites surprisingly shielded some with their flames, while tribal warriors and Radiant Flame sect members protected others.

The giant apparition was dispelled, leaving Arcus floating in the air with a large pool of blood around him. He activated a treasure, and the blood itself began to boil, before he shot at Fhesiah in a fierce rage.

Sati waved her hand, and the flames from her fire spirit brethren blasted into the oncoming attack slowing him, and Fhesiah snorted as she removed a shield from her storage ring. Shoving mana into the runes, she blocked his oncoming claw, despite his impressive speed and powerbefore her own flames slammed into him.

Fhesiah and Sati caused the flames to spread, consuming and burning away the barrier surrounding his body. It was then that Rubys blade-like claws pierced into his lower spine and kidneys from behind, her jaws biting around his shoulder and neck. Blood drained from his body as he wailed in agony, and Fhesiah was a little shocked by the violent end.

Ruby shook the lion mans body, snapping his neck as she continued to drink. Her aura rose as the blood energy was drained, and for an instant, it looked like she might actually be cursed. So Fhesiah used Hestias torch, purging the curse as she went.

Fhesiah smiled at Rubys chirps of gratitude as she continued her feast. Her scales became a more lustrous red, and the blood-like gem structures on her claws even fiercer.

Looking over the battlefield, there was only some minor cleanup left. The Blizzardblade Clan had been freed, and now her forces had grown significantly.

It would take some time to meet up with more Alliance forces, but armed with her antidotes and new allies, she was liking how things were headed. After all, it was time to collect the many treasures for her victory.