"What in the world?"
Su Mo stared blankly at Gu Tong.
After finally recovering his buried memories, the first thing Gu Tong did upon waking up was to ask to be killed.
'What is going on?'
Gubo clutched his head. "Sir, you didn't mishear. My senior brother is asking you to kill him. And please, kill me as well."
"But why?"
Su Mo asked, baffled.
Gubo explained, "Because we are Evil Demons. Every few days, we need to drink fresh blood to cleanse the Evil Qi from our bodies."
"Drinking blood?"
Su Mo asked, surprised.
Their condition was a bit like the vampires from the legends of his past life.
Gubo explained, "If we go too long without drinking fresh blood, we lose our minds and become monsters that know only slaughter. But to get blood, we must kill in massive numbers. It's an impossible situation."
"I see!"
Now, Su Mo completely understood.
No wonder Evil Demons were always performing blood sacrifices on entire cities. They needed blood to cleanse the Evil Qi from their bodies and maintain their sanity.
Gu Tong and Gubo remembered that they were once human and didn't want to become mass-murdering Evil Demons again, so they were asking him for death.
"Sir, now that you understand, please hurry up and kill us."
"Our only request is that you bring our remains back to the Great Demon Sect and give them to our descendants. If they can bury us, we will die without regret."
Gu Tong and Gubo looked resigned to their fate.
However, Su Mo was in a difficult position.
If any other Evil Demon had made such a request, he would have killed them without a second thought, granting them a swift end and ridding the world of their evil.
But these two were different.
They had been Elders in the Great Demon Sect a century ago, and were ancestors of both Lu Ya and the Hua Celestial Sect.
And as it happened, Su Mo knew both the Hua Celestial Sect and Lu Ya.
He couldn't bring himself to kill them.
Su Mo asked, "Isn't there any other way?"
Gu Tong shook his head. "Only by sacrificing a million people and using their blood to refine an Evil-Suppressing Blood Pill. That would cleanse the Evil Qi from both of us in one go, allowing us to shed our identity as Evil Demons."
"That many?"
Su Mo was startled.
The blood of a million people... you'd have to slaughter an entire mega-city for that.
To put it in perspective, the Imperial City of the Desolate Empire only has a population of seven or eight hundred thousand. Wiping it out completely wouldn't be nearly enough.
"And that's the absolute minimum,"
Gu Tong sighed.
"Actually, the essence blood of Demon Beasts can also be used to refine an Evil-Suppressing Blood Pill. Demon Beasts are born powerful, and the energy in their essence blood far surpasses that of humans. One Demon Beast is equivalent to ten people, but we would still need well over a hundred thousand of them."
Where would they possibly find over a hundred thousand Demon Beasts?
It's completely unrealistic.
"What's more, over a hundred thousand Demon Beasts would only be enough to refine a single Evil-Suppressing Blood Pill."
Gubo said, "Sir, just kill us. We don't want to accumulate the karma of endless slaughter and fail all the people of this world."
"But as long as you drink blood, you can maintain your sanity, right?"
Su Mo asked.
Gubo saw what Su Mo was thinking and shook his head. "Sir, there's no need for that."
Even if they drank Su Mo's blood to maintain their sanity, it would only be a temporary solution.
'It's not as if Sir Su Mo can just squeeze out blood for us every day, can he?'
'He'd die from blood loss sooner or later.'
Gubo said despairingly, "In the years since we became Evil Demons, we have committed endless slaughter. We more than deserve to die. Sir, just grant us a swift end. I'm begging you."
Su Mo countered, "If you're going to die, you can die at the Great Demon Sect. If I kill you now, what happens when your juniors from the Sect, unaware of the truth, come looking for revenge against me?"
"If they come seeking revenge, I might get angry and swat them all dead. Do you want to just stand by and watch as I turn all your juniors into meat paste, leaving them with no place for a proper burial?"
"This..."
The two of them were stumped.
They knew Su Mo wasn't bluffing. He absolutely had the strength to annihilate the Great Demon Sect.
Su Mo continued to persuade them. "Let's settle this after you've returned to the Great Demon Sect. It won't be too late for me to kill you then."
With that, Su Mo squeezed out a drop of his blood.
"Alright. We'll return to the Great Demon Sect with you."
"It seems this is the only way for now."
Gu Tong took the drop of blood from Su Mo and said in surprise, "Huh... Sir, your essence blood is... golden."
"Is it?"
Su Mo looked curious.
He'd never been injured to the point of bleeding, so he had no idea what color his blood was.
GULP!
Gu Tong swallowed the drop of blood and began to refine it.
He didn't hold out much hope, however.
Even if Su Mo's blood was different—golden—it was probably still useless.
'After all, it's just a single drop!'
'It would be a miracle if it could even help us maintain our sanity for a short while.'
BOOM!
Suddenly, a terrifyingly vast amount of Evil Qi erupted from Gu Tong. His hair whipped about wildly as he fell into a frenzied state.
"Oh no! My senior brother's Evil Qi is flaring up!"
Gubo cried out in panic.
Su Mo, however, just looked on in surprise.
'Are Evil Demons this terrifying when they lose their minds?'
'His eyes have even turned red.'
Gubo gritted his teeth. "Sir, you have to kill my senior brother now! His Evil Qi is erupting, and he's about to lose his mind!"
'It's better to die a quick death than to become an Evil Demon who kills without batting an eye.'
'That way, he'll be free.'
However, Gu Tong stopped him. "Junior Brother, don't panic. I haven't lost my mind."
"Then what is...?"
Gubo asked, puzzled.
Gu Tong smiled and explained, "I consumed the Sir's blood and now I'm cleansing the Evil Qi from my body. I'm expelling it in large quantities, which is why I'm covered in it right now."
"Cleansing... Evil Qi?"
Gubo was stunned.
This was an effect that should only occur after taking an Evil-Suppressing Blood Pill refined from the essence blood of a million people.
'Could it be? Is a single drop of Su Mo's essence blood equivalent to that of a million people?'
'How is that possible?'
"ROAR!"
Just then, Gu Tong threw his head back and let out a long roar. The Evil Qi surrounding him surged like a tidal wave, rushing toward the heavens.
Immediately after, all the Evil Qi was washed clean from his body.
He was brimming with vitality.
Not only that, but specks of golden light began to appear on Gu Tong's skin, as if he were being reborn from flames.
"It... it really cleansed all the Evil Qi!"
Gubo was so shocked his jaw hung open.
Gu Tong reined in his aura. "Thank you, Sir. I ask that you also bestow a drop of your essence blood upon my junior brother to help him cleanse the Evil Qi from his body."
"Alright!"
Su Mo flicked his finger, and a drop of essence blood flew into Gubo's body.
Soon, Gubo was restored to his human form.
The Evil King, watching from the side, was completely dumbfounded.
He had hunted and killed countless human Martial Artists, using their blood in a failed attempt to cleanse the Evil Qi from his own body.
And yet, Su Mo had completely cleansed the Evil Qi from two people with just a single drop of blood.
It was surreal.
Like something out of a dream.
THUD!
The Evil King dropped to his knees and begged, "Sir, I implore you, bestow a drop of your essence blood upon me as well, so that I might cleanse the Evil Qi from my body!"
"You?"
Su Mo hesitated. "I can, but you'll have to prove your worth. I will grant you my essence blood once I am satisfied with your performance. Until then, you can hunt some Demon Beasts to maintain your sanity."
"Yes, Sir!" the Evil King exclaimed, overjoyed. "From now on, whether you ask me to climb a mountain of blades or plunge into a sea of fire, I will go through hell and high water for you without a second thought."
'If I can be human again, who would want to remain an Evil Demon?'
'Once I get Sir Su Mo's essence blood, I can finally shed my Evil Demon identity and recover my own buried memories.'
'Maybe I was an ancestor of some great Sect, too!'
Gu Tong urged, "Sir, we should leave this place immediately. If that fiend, the Blood Demon, finds out you stole his Burial Ground Blood Flower, he'll definitely come to kill you."
"Heh heh. Thinking of leaving now? It's too late!"