Blood God

When Gaofeng reached the bottom of the staircase, there was a short walkway with a stone dais at the end. On top of this stone dais, there was a golden cylindrical container, and by its side there was a small glass cube with a red substance inside.

He approached the stone dais with steady steps, and at the moment he arrived directly before it the voice sounded out again. The voice was clearer now, and contained an ancient aura, and although there was a bloodthirsty aura it didn't seem to have any cruel intentions towards Gaofeng. The voice explained slowly, "I'm already dead, so there's no need to worry about me wanting to hurt or take advantage of you. My moniker was Blood God, so you may also refer to me as so. Before my death I cultivated the Grand Dao of Blood to the peak of the Great God realm, only a single step from entering the ranks of the Ancient Gods… Anyways, enough about my past."

The voice stopped speaking for a moment before continuing, "This can be considered my true inheritance. Although it's sorely lacking in quantity, it excels in quality. Open the scroll." At hearing these words, Gaofeng nodded and opened the golden cylindrical container. He then shook it lightly and a scroll fell into his hand. After unfurling the scroll, he read the name of the technique, "Nine Blood Rebirths".

Gaofeng had completely expected to be let down before he had read the name of the technique, as he didn't believe that techniques he would randomly find along his journey could actually measure up to those he found within the Golden Tablet, but this technique actually destroyed such a notion thoroughly. This technique was actually on par with the Nirvana Rebirths of the Phoenix race, both in amount and quality of rebirths.

As the name of the technique implied, the peak of the technique was achieved after being reborn a total of nine times. And, because the cultivator cultivating this technique didn't have the sacred phoenix bloodline they had to use external elements to supplement this. However, this also meant that in theory anybody would be able to practice this technique. But, naturally, it wasn't that simple. This technique was actually very difficult to cultivate, and this was exactly because of what kind of external elements were needed.

Firstly, the cultivator would have to already have been reborn naturally once, completely and perfectly. A cultivator who hadn't reborn perfectly before cultivating the technique would never be able to even be reborn four times using this technique, as a smaller and smaller part of their being could be reborn. But, if one already had been completely reborn once, the cultivator would have their DNA, cells and atoms changed and enhanced in a way which promoted the potential of future rebirths. This kind of improvement was a bit contradictory, however, as one would only be able to be reborn once naturally. A natural rebirth consisted of any rebirth which wasn't done through a rebirth technique like that of the Nirvana Rebirth or the Nine Blood Rebirths.

Secondly, the cultivator would need to absorb the extracted blood-essence of a bloodline which at minimum was of the sacred level. The classifications of bloodlines were as such: mortal, earthly, heavenly, sacred, primordial. These classifications were based on the quality and potential of one's bloodline, and a sacred bloodline represented the potential of achieving the Great God realm. A heavenly bloodline represented the potential of achieving the Medium God realm, and an earthly bloodline represented the potential to achieve the Small God realm.

Any bloodline below this level was considered mortal, and these were also divided into a multitude of levels. They were called mortal because they didn't represent the potential of ever achieving the God realm, and instead would only express potential to achieve the Great Deity realm at most. As for the Primordial bloodline, it represented the potential to become an Ancient God. Ancient God's were also divided into three large realms, and thus there were different grades of Primordial bloodline. But each and every Primordial bloodline lineage represented the absolute peak.

When Gaofeng had completely read through the scroll, it disappeared from his hands and arrived beside the other manifestations within his Soul Space. Even these domineering and powerful manifestations of Gaofeng's other techniques actually backed away from the scroll, as if they feared it. This development made Gaofeng wonder, what grade was this technique really? Even the Blood God in front of Gaofeng had no clue about the true grade of this technique, however, as he hadn't even cultivated it beyond the second rebirth due to a lack of sacred bloodlines.

Gaofeng noticed something very peculiar in the technique, which was that it wouldn't let the cultivator retain their cultivation base. It would actually destroy one's entire cultivation each time one utilized it, and also completely reforge one's body such that one's body-strengthening laws would be erased. However, the tradeoff for this was that one's foundation, cultivation speed, and body's defenses would all greatly increase, to the point of being able to drive others insane due to how their progress would increase exponentially after each rebirth.

After another talk with the Blood God, Gaofeng was also informed that this was the Blood God's downfall. His rapid progress actually made multiple Ancient Gods feel threatened, and thus they banded together to completely kill the Blood God. Normally, a cultivator specialized in blood would be able to utilize a regular "Blood rebirth", not in the sense of improving fundamentally but rather to reform their body from a drop of blood, and thus they were notoriously difficult to completely eradicate.

Even a single Ancient God would likely be unable to completely finish off a Great God specialized in the Blood Dao. This have the Ancient Gods no other opportunities than to band together to kill this junior before he became powerful enough to topple them all. They knew that if they let the Blood God become an Ancient God, he would truly be unkillable. This was something which threatened their benefits and respective forces, which then resulted in the current Blood God being dead.

What Gaofeng was speaking to was not the Blood God himself, but rather akin to the Artifact Spirit of the Crimson Arena which was refined using a portion of the Blood God's soul. The soul had long since completely merged with the Crimson Arena, but it still shared its memories and experiences with the true body of the Blood God.

The Artifact Spirit of the Blood God also revealed that the glass cube contained the blood-essence of a true Sacred bloodline. It had been prepared by the Blood God for his third rebirth, but he didn't immediately use it because he had made enemies with some Ancient Gods. He couldn't risk being reborn while he could be ambushed by an Ancient God any day. If he were caught lacking in the period which he was re-cultivating, he would die regardless of his potential, and thus he wanted to save this blood until he had settled his issues with these Ancient Gods.

However, as Gaofeng knew now, the Blood God was never given the opportunity to settle his issues with the Ancient Gods. Rather, they settled their issues with him without giving him any opportunity to even communicate or strike a deal. This was truly ruthless to such a striking genius, but which one among these Ancient Gods didn't covet the Blood God's secrets? Naturally, they all wanted his secrets for themselves, but in the end this secret ended up in Gaofeng's hands eons after that fateful day.