Blue Umbrella Company, Basement Level 7.
This had originally been a transit station set aside by Blue Umbrella Company when constructing the underground Hive base.
While it technically belonged to the Hive, it was registered under Blue Umbrella Company.
Later, after the Raccoon City biohazard broke out, every company under Umbrella Corporation was placed on a watchlist.
This transit station had then been converted into a so-called luxury underground apartment.
In reality, however, it remained a vital foothold with direct access to the underground Hive.
It was just that the passage leading into the Hive had been made far more discreet.
After Mark and Selene came to an agreement—and because Christine had yet to notify the Henry family, as well as the European financial magnates and distributors—Mark and Selene were temporarily accommodated in this apartment.
Of course, accommodating Selene’s needs played a part in this arrangement as well.
After all, placing a vampire in a sun-drenched high-rise penthouse was practically murder.
Underground was fine; it was thoroughly luxurious anyway.
At this moment, Mark was in the middle of the apartment’s living room, continuously drawing something.
They were runes drawn line by line in fresh blood: the Blood-Gathering Essence-Condensing Rune, Precious Lotus Qi-Seeding Rune, and Myriad-Transformation Blood Spirit Rune.
Centering on these three fundamental runes representing vitality, qi, and spirit, supplemented by thirty-six thousand auxiliary runes.
Looking down from above, these layered blood runes converged into what resembled a thirty-six-petal blood lotus blossoming layer upon layer.
After temporarily settling down, Mark spent over two full hours deliberating inside the apartment before finally deciding to anchor his future path of cultivation to the World Dao—the premier path of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect.
Among the countless Sun Spirits and True Immortals in the Yanfu World, very few methods could allow one to attain the status of Dao Ancestor or Demon Lord.
Though the Blood Fiend Demon Sect was founded on the Blood Spirit Dao, its ultimate ascension to become one of the ancestral courts of the demonic path relied on the World Dao.
Once the Nether Blood Sea was established, it gathered the boundless Yin Fiend, Calamity Fiend, and Demon Fiend of heaven and earth to form a world of its own.
Not only could it supply vast cultivation resources to countless disciples, but it also accrued merit toward heaven and earth.
It offered resources, status, and renown alike.
It fulfilled the mandate of heaven by gathering fiendish energies, and it linked below to the path of Nether Reincarnation.
With such an established grand avenue available, Mark saw no reason to waste effort on unorthodox detours.
Especially in this merged Marvel universe.
By taking the World Dao as his broad path, let alone reaching Hunyuan Transcendence, even attaining minor mastery would at minimum elevate him into an immortal Dimensional Demon Lord.
What could possibly hold greater prospect than this? This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
However, unlike the standard World Dao cultivation methods of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect, Mark did not choose the Nether Blood Sea as his world’s core Dao.
Instead, he selected the method of the Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Precious Lotus Nurturing the World as his true core foundation.
The Blood Spirit Dao, Asura Dao, Spirit-Purifying Dao, Demon Fiend Dao, Karmic Fire Dao, Life and Death Dao, Yin and Yang Dao, and so on—Mark could cultivate all these divine abilities and spells from the manuals of the Nether Blood Sea.
Yet at the same time, every last one of these arts and spells would ultimately serve as mere nourishment for his world’s core Dao.
In the end, all things would converge into a single precious lotus.
When the time came, the lotus would give birth to the world, and the world itself would be the precious lotus.
This technique was a method of transcendence inadvertently comprehended by the Blood Fiend Demon Sect after it became a demonic ancestral court in the Yanfu World, during a discourse on the Dao with Hunyuan powerhouses from the Daoist ancestral courts.
Demonic on the outside, Daoist at the core.
In a sense, this technique could actually be called the Supreme Method of Seeding the Dao in the Demonic Heart, or simply, the Dao-Seeding Scripture.
However, in the Yanfu World, the foundation of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect had long been established as an ancestral court of the demonic path.
A technique that appeared demonic on the surface yet was truly Daoist at its core could only be sealed away permanently.
After all, the various Demon Lords of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect feared that if someone actually mastered this Dao-Seeding Scripture, they might turn around, vanquish demons, and uphold the Dao, turning the Blood Fiend Demon Sect into the biggest laughingstock in heaven and earth.
Mark, on the other hand, was in the Marvel universe and had no need to care about the rules of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect.
No matter how formidable a Demon Lord was, they couldn’t manifest across the chaos to purge a renegade here.
No matter how advantageous the demonic path was, it ultimately corrupted one’s temperament.
The naturalness of the Daoist classics far better aligned with Mark’s values.
Amidst his sprawling thoughts, Mark’s hands never paused for even a fraction of a second.
It took him eight full hours, but the thirty-six thousand runes were finally drawn in a single continuous effort.
Once the immensely intricate Thirty-Six-Petal Lotus Dao-Seeding Array was fully formed, Mark collapsed onto the ground, pale-faced, on the verge of total exhaustion.
This Thirty-Six-Petal Lotus Dao-Seeding Array used not only synthetic blood, but Mark’s own blood as well.
After all, Mark currently lacked any cultivation base.
To set up a spiritual array, the simplest method was using blood to guide blood, drawing his own vitality, qi, and spirit into the array.
Blood was just that miraculous.
That was why ancient traditions so frequently resorted to blood sacrifices.
And as a sect that had mastered every conceivable variation of blood manipulation, the Blood Fiend Demon Sect possessed even more methods.
Yet even with the vast expertise of the Blood Fiend Demon Sect at his disposal, setting up such an intricate spiritual array as a mere mortal nearly drained Mark of all his vitality, qi, and spirit.
However, it was all worth it.
With this spiritual array, Mark could not only step directly onto the path of cultivation, but also lay down a perfect Dao foundation.
“It’s time!”
“The path of cultivation, the start of the extraordinary—it all begins here!”
“Array, activate!”
Rallying his spirit, Mark formed a Dao hand-seal.
Guided by that slender thread of spiritual connection, Mark’s last sliver of vitality, qi, and spirit swiftly triggered the array.
In an instant, a point of crystal-clear light began to circulate, starting from the core runes: the Blood-Gathering Essence-Condensing Rune, Precious Lotus Qi-Seeding Rune, and Myriad-Transformation Blood Spirit Rune.
Like an extraordinarily complex lantern, everywhere the flowing light passed, the entire array lit up completely.
In a daze, the thirty-six-petal blood lotus that was originally flat on the ground seemed to gain life, rising gently into the air, drawing in boundless celestial and terrestrial essences with every breath.
If this were in the Yanfu World, such a spiritual array would be enough to trigger a spiritual qi storm spanning ten miles around.
In the Marvel universe, however, there was clearly no spiritual qi to be drawn upon.
Fortunately, Mark had prepared for this long in advance.
The moment the array activated, Mark turned on the fire sprinklers overhead.
Mark had modified the sprinkler pipes so they connected directly to the blood banks of both Blue Umbrella Company and the underground Hive, providing a massive supply of blood.
Without spiritual qi, he would refine essence-blood and extract the Primordial True-One Qi.
That was the demonic path for you—there were always more solutions than problems.
Besides, while Primordial True-One Qi might not be as precious as Innate Spiritual Qi, it was vastly superior to Acquired Spiritual Qi.
Though the scene was a bit gruesome, for the sake of cultivation, there was no shame in it.