Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Standing outside the courtyard wall, Hu Yanlie listened to the gentle words coming from inside the house. Far from feeling that being ordered around was beneath him, he burst out laughing in his rough voice.

"Since Madam Jiang wants to give the child a change of pace, I'll go to the back mountain and bring back a few more rabbit burrows. I guarantee you and your daughter will have the freshest roasted meat today."

Fan Chenxin stood in the dimly lit stone house, his large, calloused hands clenching silently at his sides, the bulging veins on the back of his hands starkly revealing the surging jealousy in his heart.

Jiang Yining didn't even spare him a second glance. She walked straight to the stone bed covered with fire fox fur, sat down, closed her purple-gold eyes, and continued to guide the blood and qi in her body to nourish the Myriad Spirit Divine Tree.

At noon, a deep, resonant sound of animal-hide drums suddenly emanated from the bluestone square in the center of the tribe.

The deafening drumbeats, accompanied by the mournful roars of wild beasts on their deathbeds, heralded the official start of the monthly blood sacrifice ceremony of the Barbarian Stone Tribe.

Wu Bao Jiang Siyue was originally outside the courtyard picking at the bitter grass roots used for body tempering when she heard the commotion. Her fluffy fox tail wagged excitedly, and she ran towards the bustling square with her short legs.

The tribal priest, dressed in a wide animal skin robe covered with strange totems, stood on an altar piled with the skulls of strange beasts, holding aloft a white bone scepter inlaid with black crystals and performing a prayerful sacrificial dance.

The tribesmen below knelt on the ground in a dark mass, each with their faces smeared with dark red blood, their expressions fanatical as they kowtowed to the unknown ferocious beast statue in the center of the altar.

Wu Bao tiptoed through the gaps in the crowd to the front, his heterochromatic eyes glancing disdainfully at the withered, yellowed offerings on the altar.

She sniffed, followed an extremely pure energy scent, and swaggered past the guards' sight, directly entering the stone hall behind the altar, which was used to store the tribe's treasures.

On a black stone pillar in the center of the stone hall is an exquisitely polished crystal box, inside which lies a stone radiating a rich, bloody red light.

This was a peak third-tier beast that the tribal priest had spent three years hunting down. The blood crystal, formed from the essence of its heart, was waiting to be used to break through his cultivation level during the full moon tonight.

Wu Bao moved a rock to climb up, and without any hesitation, lifted the crystal lid, picked up the precious blood crystal with his two chubby little fingers, and put it into his mouth.

The sharp little tiger teeth easily crushed the hard crystal, and the crunching sound was particularly crisp in the empty stone hall.

The priest had just finished a blessing ceremony outside and was planning the glory of breaking through tonight when he entered the stone hall and saw that the crystal box was empty, with a little girl sitting next to it with her mouth full of red shavings.

"How dare you devour the third-tier blood crystal I used to break through my cultivation realm! I'll skin you alive and sacrifice you to the heavens!"

The priest's face contorted with heartache, and a terrifying killing intent erupted from his turbid eyes as he swung his bone scepter toward Wu Bao's head.

Wu Bao nimbly jumped down from the stone pillar, dodging the fatal blow, and oblivious to his own mortality, licked the red powder off his lips.

"You old man are so stingy. This stone isn't sweet at all, and it's so hard it gets stuck in your teeth. I wouldn't even eat it as candy."

She complained in a childish voice, completely unaware that she had just swallowed terrifying energy powerful enough to cause a peak Body Tempering Realm cultivator to explode and die.

The priest was so enraged by these words that his hand holding the scepter trembled violently. He turned and roared at the guards who had rushed over after hearing the commotion.

"Seize this little bastard and tie her to the sacrificial pillar outside with the thickest cowhide rope. Today, I'm going to use this heavenly fire to refine her alive and extract the energy from the blood crystal!"

A dozen burly guards pounced on him like wolves and tigers. Wu Bao was startled by the fierce-looking guards and before he could run away, two guards grabbed his shoulders tightly.

The rough, hard cowhide rope mercilessly wrapped around her fair and slender wrists, leaving glaring red marks, suspending her in mid-air on the blood-soaked black stone pillar in the center of the square.

The tribespeople below whispered amongst themselves upon seeing this, but no one dared to stand up and say a single good word for the child of a stranger.

Hu Yanlie returned from the back mountain carrying two plump gray rabbits that had just died. As soon as he reached the edge of the square, he saw the priest holding a torch, preparing to light the dry firewood under the sacrificial pillar.

"High Priest, please have mercy! The child is ignorant and has offended the deity. I am willing to take the punishment in her place."

He dropped the rabbit and rushed up the altar, using his tall, strong body to block the falling torches in front of the firewood.

The priest stopped what he was doing, coldly looking at the youngest leader of the tribe, a sinister smirk playing on his lips, and slammed his scepter down hard on Huyan Lie's shoulder.

"Young Master, have you been bewitched by that woman from out of town? This bastard stole my third-tier blood crystal used for my breakthrough! What will you use to take her punishment? Get out of here right now, or I'll burn you alive too!"

The power of blood and qi attached to the scepter forced Huyan Lie to take half a step back. He gritted his teeth and was about to persuade him again when he heard a woman's voice coming from the edge of the square.

"If you dare to light that firewood, I guarantee that no one in this Barbarian Stone Tribe will leave alive today."

Jiang Yining stepped out from behind the crowd of onlookers, her purple-gold eyes swirling with a chilling, brutal killing intent.

She immediately noticed Wu Bao, who was dangling in mid-air and crying loudly, especially the deep red marks on the child's wrists that were cut into his flesh. Her expression instantly became solemn.

Fan Chenxin followed silently behind her, his eyes, which should have been full of compassion, now held a hint of coldness.

The priest looked down at the beautiful woman, whose body showed no signs of life force, as if she were a clown who didn't know his place.

"Your daughter ate my treasure, so it's only natural that I use her to refine medicine. Seize this arrogant wretch along with her!"

He arrogantly waved his scepter and gave the order. Ten strong guards, their bodies covered in totems, drew bone knives from their waists and pounced on Jiang Yining in a semi-encircling formation.

Hu Yanlie roared in desperation, wanting to rush down from the altar to help, but the priest used his scepter to firmly hold him in place, preventing him from moving.

Jiang Yining didn't even look at the sharp bone knives slashing at her. Inside her seemingly delicate mortal body, the blood essence of the tusked blood boar that she had just absorbed and refined the night before erupted like a volcano.

She stomped her toes heavily on the hard bluestone slab, her whole body turning into a blur as she crashed into the guard charging at the front.

The guard's vision blurred, and a heart-wrenching pain shot through his wrist as the bone knife was handed over to that fair and delicate hand.

Jiang Yining grabbed the guard's Adam's apple with her other hand, and with the terrifying physical strength granted by the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree, she forcefully twisted his neck, which was twice as thick as hers, into a bizarre angle.

The chilling sound of bones cracking could be clearly heard in the silent square as she casually tossed the limp corpse toward the two people rushing towards her.

Anyone who dares to bully my daughter shall die.

She sneered as she moved closer, her fingers like iron hooks piercing the second guard's collarbone, tearing two of his ribs off his chest. Blood instantly splattered across her snow-white cheeks, making her look like a demon crawling out of hell.

The third guard tried to retreat in terror, but Jiang Yining gave him no chance to catch his breath. Her right leg lashed out like a steel whip, striking his knee hard. The moment he fell to his knees, the bone knife pierced precisely through the back of his head.

In just a few breaths, three elite tribal guards at the late stage of Body Tempering Realm were reduced to gruesome corpses. The remaining seven were terrified by the intense murderous aura emanating from her, and their hands gripping their knives trembled uncontrollably.

Standing on the high platform, the priest watched this scene, and an uncontrollable fear finally arose in his heart. Taking advantage of Jiang Yining's back being turned to him, he silently took out three black bone nails coated with the deadly poison that kills on sight.

He channeled all his energy and blood, hurling the three poisoned nails fiercely at Jiang Yining's unsuspecting back acupoint.

"Go to hell, you old bastard!"

Wu Bao saw this scene from the pillar and frantically waved his little hands and shouted.

The three poisoned nails made an eerie whistling sound as they pierced the air, about to strike Jiang Yining's flesh.

Fan Chen, who had always stood in the shadows like an invisible man, was moved.

His tall and imposing figure instantly tore through the air resistance, traversing half the square at a terrifying speed that even afterimages could not be caught, and appeared directly in front of the priest.

Fan Chenxin's palm, carrying unstoppable force, pierced fiercely through the priest's chest, which was clad in an animal skin robe.

Blood spurted out along with fragments of internal organs, and his five long, strong fingers pinched the still violently beating, turbid heart.

The priest stared wide-eyed in disbelief, a gurgling sound like a broken bellows coming from his throat. He tried to say something but could only spit out mouthfuls of bloody foam.

"Anyone who touches her will die."

Fan Chenxin's cold and indifferent voice was filled with endless ferocity. He tightened his fingers and crushed the other person's heart in his chest cavity.

He disgustedly kicked the gradually cooling corpse off the altar, then drew his knife from his waist and cleanly severed the ox sinew rope binding the five treasures.

Jiang Yining shook off the dirty blood on her hands, strode to the foot of the altar, and steadily caught the five treasures that fell from mid-air. She then carefully rubbed the bruises on the child's wrist.

She turned around, holding her daughter, her sharp eyes sweeping over the trembling, frightened Man Shi tribesmen around her, a chilling sneer curling at the corner of her lips.

"My daughter, even if you eat this meal, you'll still have to kneel down and serve me the dishes."