Revolt against the Heavens

Under his body, the Crimson Dune Lord had long hair. They almost hid his limbs as only his long claws were visible. And on his face, those hair looked like a thick beard on a very old wrinkled face. Besides, some hair were also on his shell armor and on his tail, but they were extremely small and almost invisible.

As it was moving toward the pond, the Crimson Dune Lord's every step was causing disturbance on its surface. Until now, he had probably been sleeping under the dune. In fact, he had been the dune. Hongyu had not detected his presence at all and it horrified her. Although he was not a 9-core demonic beast, he was still way above her current strength. Only Cao Yun would have been able to sense his presence. At that moment she realized that crossing the Desolate Dune Desert without her brother was much more dangerous than she had imagined. If she were to encounter a similar demonic beast, she would die without understanding what had happened.

All the demonic beasts were prostrated before the Crimson Dune Lord. Despite that, a few lower demonic beasts found themselves on his path. Even though there was a large path open for him, he deviated a little and some poor beasts on the side were crushed without mercy. He didn't even flinch as though he was just walking on sand. The sound of their bones being crushed under his claws echoed throughout the small oasis as the weaker demonic beasts shivered. Among the unfortunate few, most were kids but even their parents or their tribes didn't react. They knew that only death would be the outcome.

Suddenly, the Crimson Dune Lord stopped moving. Still covered with a layer of sand, his head moved toward Hongyu. In the entire crowd, she was the only one whose head was not all the way to the ground and it caught his attention. Before anything could happen, the young Five Bloods Pheasant who had failed to court her pushed her slightly with his wing. Instinctively, she bent forward even more and completely hid her face from the Crimson Dune Lord.

The giant creature growled for some time. Despite her powerful cultivation, Hongyu could feel it deep in her bones and then in her very demonic cores. In an instant, that beast could crush her as though she didn't exist. Instead, he sent his senses all over her body. Nothing was hidden to him. She was glad that she had hidden the spatial ring because there was no telling what would have happened if she had in on her at that moment. Fortunately, even the Crimson Dune Lord couldn't pierce the mysteries of her Evil Core and Wrath Core. In his eyes, those two cores were in fact extremely feeble. Even if she was a 5-core demonic beast, she had barely been able to form her last two cores. As such, she would never form a sixth one and she was no threat at all.

After deciding that she was of no interest to him, the Crimson Dune Lord kept on walking toward the pond. Because he had turned toward her, his path changed even more and he crushed a few dozens demonic beasts more.

Contrary to all the other demonic beasts, the large armadillo didn't respect the dead tree at all. He put his all face into the pond and drank as much as he could. Although he didn't dry the pond, everyone could see its level slowly go down. In the end, he had drunk even more than all the demonic beasts together. But he wasn't done. Instead of leaving, he kept on walking forward, completely entering the water. Splashing water everywhere, he dived down and immersed himself entirely.

For several hours, he played in the water, cleaning himself off. The clear water turned muddy with all the sand that got off. Slowly, his armor shell became shinier and shinier until it was as red as fresh blood. From his hair that covered all of his flesh, even more sand was washed away. When he was done, the water seemed to only be mud.

Once again, he disregarded the dead tree and didn't give his blood to them at all. In fact, instead of using his own blood, he would use another demonic beast. While he was walking, he chose a random Two-Tailed Eluding Fox. She was a beautiful female with three demonic cores who was probably on the verge of forming her fourth core. As soon as his eyes stared at her, she felt her blood freeze in her veins. The Silver Six-Tailed Fox Hongyu and Cao Yun had met was also anxious. But he knew that there was nothing to do.

In an instant, a tiny piece of the armadillo's armor shell erupted and flew toward the poor Two-Tailed Eluding Fox. Despite her terror, she did try to avoid it. However, it was faster than her by much. The tiny piece caught her right in the chest as she moved. Its sheer momentum impaled her on one of the dead trees behind her. She wasn't dead right away though. Unfortunately, she knew what was going to happen, unlike Hongyu who was watching with intense curiosity.

Like it had absorbed the blood given to it willingly, the dead tree also sucked in the blood given against the Two-Tailed Eluding Fox's will. It took almost no time at all. But the body of the fox shriveled as her blood was being completely sucked in. Then, her flesh even turned into dust and her three demonic cores fell in the sand. Even then it wasn't over. Her very demonic cores broke apart and turned into dust before merging with the sand.

Hongyu could feel an intense vitality emanating from the dead tree that had just been fed by the giant armadillo. Before leaving, the Crimson Dune Lord stared at Hongyu once more in a clear attempt to intimidate her. That really wasn't necessary at that point. Even if she tried to fly away, his shell could still pierce her. Maybe she could avoid being struck in any vital part but considering his claws had poison, she was certain that those small pikes would too.

In her mind, it was obvious that this entire area was ruled by this powerful demonic beast. But she was still unsure whether leaving would be the right decision. Of course, she could retrieve Cao Yun's spatial ring and find another spot. But the presence of so many demonic beasts despite this threat showed her that this place was ideal. She would have a hard time finding another oasis and she might run into even worse demonic beasts. At the very least, the Crimson Dune Lord didn't seem to want to kill and eat her. Anyway, she would stay some time to figure out the situation before making any rash decision.

Once the Crimson Dune Lord was gone, the demonic beasts all went toward the deep pond. This time, they had no intention of drinking water. Instead, they began to clean it up. Even the 6-core demonic beasts worked on it. If they kept it like that, they might end up losing this oasis and no one wanted that. The Silver Six-Tailed Fox looked at some young Two-Tailed Eluding Foxes. They were from the same pack as the one who had just been killed. He was clearly sad about their plight, but he could do nothing. Slowly, he walked past Hongyu. After looking at her for an instant, he went toward the pond and began to help as much as he could.

The two of them had recognized one another for sure. Cao Yun had beaten him fair and square but had let him go. Although it was tiny, Hongyu could see a small scar on the underbelly of the fox. Most of it had healed and she wouldn't have noticed if she didn't know what to look for. Her brother had truly injured him but there had been nothing lethal. Considering Cao Yun's strength, the Silver Six-Tailed Fox wondered about Hongyu's actual prowess. However, he had no interest in fighting her for the moment. In his eyes, she was still too weak because of her two feeble demonic cores.

On the other hand, the Five Bloods Pheasant seemed to find her stronger than he was. Maybe it was because of the close relationship between their bloodlines, but he could figure out that this seemingly weak 5-core demonic beast was probably stronger than any 6-core demonic beast present. Although it was just a feeling, the young bird was confident in his analysis. While she was dazed, Hongyu felt the touch of the male's beak. He beckoned her to join him as he was walking toward the pond.

Hesitating for an instant, Hongyu decided to follow him. Although he was persistent in his seduction, he seemed proper enough. Besides, if he tried anything untoward, she could crush him in an instant. But for the moment, she didn't want to look too strong. Attracting too much attention would be terrible, especially if that was that Crimson Dune Lord's attention.

Like all the other demonic beasts, she helped clean up the oasis. It took several hours of hard work, but they succeeded. Before the sun came down, the water was as clear as it had been before the Crimson Dune Lord had bathed in it.

When the task was over, Hongyu looked at the dead tree and realized that the tree that had sucked the Two-Tailed Eluding Fox's blood had a few buds all over it. Those tree weren't completely dead, but they needed blood to regenerate. However, those buds wouldn't survive very long, it was clear for everyone. They would need much more than just this amount of blood. What no one saw was that the one dead tree that had been fed by Hongyu had more vitality than all the others. Although nothing was apparent, it had regenerated much more thanks to the properties of her blood. After all, she had some of the Drop of Wrath's properties in her veins. And the Drop of Wrath had brought Cao Yun back to life. It was also helping him regenerate from serious injuries.

-

For weeks, Hongyu stayed in the area. She ended up joining the young Five Bloods Pheasant on his hunt. Fenghuang were rarely hunting. Demonic beasts were not all bloodthirsty. In fact, fenghuangs were usually rather pacific and it was also why they were viewed in such a positive light by humans. That being said, they were absolutely carnivorous. Although they could also eat plants, their main food was flesh from other demonic beasts. On the other hand, the Five Bloods Pheasant was an avid hunter. In fact, being close to Hongyu pushed him to prove himself so he hunted even more than usual.

Despite all his attempts, Hongyu never accepted his advances. On his side, he never went too far. Although he kept pestering her, he never tried anything too rash. Otherwise, he would have been killed. After seeing her hunt with him, he was absolutely certain that she would rip him apart in a fight. Instead of scaring him, it made him even more flirtatious. That fenghuang was clearly a great mate. Besides, his bloodline was much fainter than hers so there wouldn't be any clash and their fertility would be very good for their species. Reproduction was often difficult for powerful demonic beasts with strong bloodlines. But theirs were very compatible. Unfortunately, Hongyu didn't care about that at all. Even now, she was worried about her brother.

Almost every month, there was a large gathering around the deep pond. Every time, the same process happened. Even demonic beasts who had tried to eat each other the previous day became tame and docile during that time. And each and every time, the Crimson Dune Lord would come out, drink and clean himself. With no fail, he always killed a few demonic beast, some by accident, others by design.

Sometimes, a demonic beast on his way put some plant or some rock in front of them. Most of the times, the Crimson Dune Lord would ignore it completely. But if it caught his eyes, he would spare the demonic beast. Instead of stepping on the poor beast without mercy, he would slightly alter his path after taking his prize. Hongyu was becoming sicker and sicker each time, but she couldn't do a thing. Besides, she had to think about her brother.

Hongyu's presence changed things though. The dead tree became more alive each time. As she spread her blood on every dead tree, each one was getting a surge of the Drop of Wrath's properties. Mixed with the blood of all the others and those sucked completely dry after the Crimson Dune Lord killed them, the trees were really coming back to life. Obviously, all the demonic beasts were overjoyed. Unfortunately, it also made things worse for them.

Indeed, the Crimson Dune Lord also noticed the change. Like all the others, he didn't draw any connection between that and Hongyu. Instead, he became convinced that it was a cumulative effect of all the blood. Thus, he murderer even more demonic beasts. Until now, he had killed lower beasts, but after a few months, he started to kill 4 or even 5-core demonic beasts.

Before long, every demonic beast felt threatened. So they always brought gifts for the Crimson Dune Lord. Hongyu refused but the Five Bloods Pheasant found gifts for her too. Reluctantly, she took them and presented them before her.

In two to three years, the trees had grown a lot. There was now a small oasis with vibrant trees all around a deep pond. Despite the Crimson Dune Lord's tyranny, more and more demonic beasts were gathering each month, which hastened the growth of the oasis as well. At the moment, there were thousands of demonic beasts and the Crimson Dune Lord was basking in their submission to him.

Now, he had completely changed his behavior. He was actively expecting gifts toward him just to have the right to stay alive and to approach the pond. Like before, Hongyu was reluctant but her companion was always bringing gifts in her stead. In exchange, she helped him a lot when he was hunting. In a sense, she was hunting more than him, but he was busy finding gifts for the Crimson Dune Lord instead. As he became greedier, it was hard to find gifts he would find worthy. Many demonic beasts had been killed because he had been unsatisfied. And today, the Five Bloods Pheasant wasn't too sure about his gift. He gave the best one to Hongyu and kept the other for himself.