Two months flew by in the blink of an eye.
Sub-level three of Chateau Louis XIV, an estate in the suburbs of Paris, inside an underwater meditation room.
Behind a wall of crystal-clear glass was a wraparound aquatic world filled with hundreds of tons of fresh blood.
In just one month, the bloody tint within the massive tank had completely disappeared, leaving the water flawlessly clear.
Guided by a complex array, the underwater world now resembled a Blood Refinement Pool of Myriad Transformations, capable of dissolving all spiritual essence from the blood directly into the water veins.
Various species of fish even swam within this aquatic domain.
Nurtured by the abundant spirituality of the water veins, these swimming fish were showing subtle signs of transformation.
This estate was one of Mark’s trophies after sweeping away the parasitic financial oligarchs controlling Blue Umbrella.
Because it was situated at a junction of earth qi, making it a rare feng shui treasure land in the mortal realm, Mark had renovated it into a secondary sanctuary.
The underwater meditation room, in particular, gathered earth qi, water veins, and a continuous stream of spiritual energy.
Gradually, it had become Mark’s favorite place to stay.
On this evening, just as night fell, Mark had just finished his current round of cultivation and stowed his power away.
Selene, who had been waiting at the entrance of the underwater meditation room, wore a sheer, gauzy nightgown.
Tiptoeing barefoot, she darted into Mark’s arms like a graceful butterfly.
“Darling, I can’t wait any longer.”
“Selene, hold on a bit more.
The primordial yin you’ve accumulated over a thousand years is immensely useful to me.
It can’t be wasted.”
“Then tell me when?”
“Three days.
In three days, the vampire farming base inside the Hive will be completed.
When the time comes, we’ll head to Hungary to capture Viktor, Marcus, and Alexander to fix your bloodline.”
Two months was more than enough time for Mark to completely win Selene over.
Yet Mark had exercised restraint.
Just as he said, the primordial yin aura Selene possessed was exceedingly rich.
Furthermore, Selene was a living human who had been converted into a vampire.
If he could fix her bloodline defects, she could transition from a vampire back to a living human.
When that time came, her primordial yin would not only contain the Dao charm of life and death, but also an added touch of reincarnation spirituality.
If the plan succeeded, Mark could leverage her primordial yin to break through several cultivation sub-realms in one go.
He could even take the opportunity to master two top-tier magic-and-martial divine abilities from the Blood Fiend Demonic Sect: the Abi Hell Body-Nourishing Spell and the Yuantu Blood-Draining Soul-Nourishing Spell.
These two divine abilities were both incantations and martial techniques, and they could even be used for artifact refining.
According to the records of the Blood Fiend Demonic Sect, these two divine abilities were created during a sudden enlightenment by a patriarch who specialized in the Dao of Slaughter after discovering the true meaning of life, death, and reincarnation amidst endless slaughter.
Once these two spells were formed, they would nourish two fundamental sword restrictions within the body.
The Abi Sword specifically slashed the spiritual soul to nourish the physical body.
The Yuantu Sword specifically slashed the physical body to nourish the spiritual soul.
Between life and death, it used reincarnation techniques to sustain slaughter power.
It could be said that as long as Mark mastered these two divine abilities, he would possess near-infinite combat stamina.
Killing humans restored mana; killing ghosts restored health; it could even replenish mental energy.
If Mark could use these two spells to forge physical sword embryos and anchor the fundamental sword restrictions onto them, he would be able to maintain peak condition at all times—provided he had enough blood essence and fiendish aura to replenish himself.
Of course, achieving such a perfect, infinite loop of sustainability was still a long way off.
Even so, simply condensing the fundamental sword restrictions and relying on the lethal ferocity of the Yuantu and Abi swords would give Mark an exceptional trump card.
These two divine abilities were born purely for slaughter.
Suppressing the fleeting thought, Mark comforted Selene further before changing the subject.
“Selene, you need to familiarize yourself with the Six Desires Heavenly Concubine Sutra as soon as possible.
Once we catch Alexander and fix your bloodline defect, the feedback from dual cultivation can push you straight into the Foundation Establishment realm.”
“As for right now, if you’re really bored, how about we go inspect the newly built farming base?”
Two months had been enough for Mark to thoroughly subdue Selene, Christine, and the Nightstalker squad.
As the “Holy Son of the Blood Fiend Demonic Sect” in the Marvel world, Mark naturally intended to carry forward his sect’s heritage, so he didn’t mind passing down cultivation methods.
After all, anyone familiar with demonic cultivation understood how it worked.
For the more ruthless practitioners, using direct blood relatives as resources was hardly out of the question.
Although Mark cultivated the demonic heart to plant the Dao—using demonology as the technique and the Dao as the foundation, meaning his mindset was not entirely devoid of humanity—he still possessed the typical caution of a demonic cultivator.
The source of every technique he distributed to his subordinates traced back to Mark himself.
He didn’t need to worry about them leaking techniques privately, nor did he need to worry about betrayal.
He was already being so kind and generous, leading his subordinates to cultivate immortality and pursue eternal life together.
If someone still refused to play by the rules, he would reluctantly refine them into a cauldron of medicine on the spot.
Under these circumstances, Selene naturally understood the benefits of cultivation.
The Six Desires Heavenly Concubine Sutra, in particular, was one of the highest-tier inheritances in the Blood Fiend Demonic Sect, specifically suited for women.
Once mastered, it not only granted eternal youth, but also continuously refined one’s appearance.
Furthermore, across the six major realms of cultivation, reaching each major realm awakened a top-tier divine ability tied to one of the six desires: life, death, ears, eyes, mouth, or nose.
This was a genuine, orthodox scripture that pointed straight toward the Grand Dao.
By contrast, the Nightstalker squad had only been granted spell seeds, which meant they merely cultivated around the Blood Shadow divine ability.
Even so, the changes in Jason Bourne and the other fourteen members had long made Selene green with envy.
With the Six Desires Heavenly Concubine Sutra dangling in front of her, Selene finally settled down.
Women were allowed to throw minor tantrums occasionally, especially when she had accumulated a thousand years’ worth of precious primordial yin for him.
Since Mark dared to covet her body, he naturally had the patience to accommodate her mood.
Besides, on the long road of cultivation, such romance was a welcome spice of life.
A moment later, with Selene helping him straighten his clothes, Mark cast a hand seal, causing the array throughout the underwater world to gradually come to a halt.
Right now, the energy in this Blood Refinement Pool of Myriad Transformations relied almost entirely on artificial blood supplies.
Every moment the array ran, it burned through massive sums of money.
Even though he had completely taken over Blue Umbrella, money wasn’t something to be squandered thoughtlessly.
Before leaving the estate, Mark looked back at the grand array spanning the entire property.
It was almost complete.
Once the vampire farming base was fully set up and the vampires of the Golden Court Clan were captured, he could form a complete closed-loop layout: farming blood to nourish vampires, using vampires to nourish banners, using banners to nourish the array, using the array to nourish the dragon pulse, and using the dragon pulse to generate blood.
When the dragon pulse was finally formed, he wouldn’t have to be so stingy with his cultivation resources anymore.