Chapter 133: Don't read now

Update problem, read later.

Valencia was well aware of the Deans, especially the powerful ones who were feared throughout the continent. Dean Lucien was one of those figures. He was very young compared to the other powerhouses, but he was the strongest under the king stage, it was undisputed. 

After knowing that Keith was offered to be his disciple was shocking, to say the least. But looking at his face, she knew it didn't go well.

"Let me guess, Mr.Visit?" She voiced her hunch.

"He did try to keep me away from him, but I didn't like Dean Lucien either. He doesn't see me as a disciple but a treasure chest, at least that's how I feel. I won't go to him until I'm strong enough to defend myself, in case he tries something funny." Keith replied with an annoyed voice.

"He is a lone wolf and his achievements are endless. But anyone who knows him properly is either dead or stronger than him. From what I've heard, he doesn't fulfill his duties as the dean and Vice-dean Chandra handles all the affairs of the department. Actually, Vice Dean Chandra is more efficient than any other faculty I've known. Not only does he manage everything inside the blood warrior department, but he also handles the affairs of the management committee. I wonder how he does all of that while keeping his sanity." Valencia said with an admiring tone.

"Hmm…I forgot to thank him for letting me do my thing. Well, I will meet up with him soon." Keith mumbled.

"Another thing I wanted to ask is, why did you register as a hunter? It is very dangerous for first years like you." Valencia asked.

"I wanted to go outside for some fresh air. It felt boring inside the academy walls." Keith replied casually.

"And what about getting in trouble with your seniors? I heard you almost stole their treasury cards. The fourth-year students will be coming after you soon enough." She warned him.

"Let them come. I could use some free labour." 

"You're as audacious as ever. But we'll have to see how you are going to back it up." She laid back on her chair.

"Do you remember what you promised me?" She questioned.

"To be a member of the disciplinary committee. Yeah, I'm here to get it done with. I won't be coming here often so let's finish all the discussion right now." Keith replied firmly.

"Listen, I know you don't have any particular interest in the resources I want to give you but take a look at this."

She dropped a baseball-sized bloodstone on the table that popped out of nowhere. Keith stared at the bloodstone trying to analyze its properties. If it was a good quality bloodstone with enough blood essence, he was willing to listen to her terms.

[ This bloodstone is very rich in blood essence]

[ Purity: 96% ]

[ Blood essence: 513 ]

'How is it compared to the one Mr.Visit gave me?' Keith asked the system.

[ His bloodstone's purity was higher than this one at 99%, but it was smaller so the blood essence it contained was lower. This will increase your level by 0.5 which is a significant boost. But..]

'I know. If it were any other vampire, they wouldn't think twice before getting that bloodstone.'

Keith was not desperate. He knew what he was getting into if he took that bloodstone. Besides, he could absorb blood-qi from various sources and didn't need the bloodstone urgently. He recently leveled up his warrior frame and blood core so he was taking a break from absorbing huge amounts of blood-qi.

What he needed the most right now was not blood-qi but techniques, high-level blood-qi techniques at that.

"The offer is tempting but I have to politely refuse. I just broke through to the viscount stage and you must've already felt my warrior frame reaching the count level. So I don't need the bloodstone for the foreseeable future." Keith shrugged his shoulders.

"Then what do you want? This is not related to the student council, but me. I will get to the point. I am on the verge of breaking through to the Duke stage. Everything is going well for me and I've accumulated enough blood-qi.

"What I need is the technique you used to increase your blood-qi density. I didn't think I would meet a vampire who can increase his blood-qi density before reaching the Duke stage. In fact, I was ready to break through. But after I saw your wonderful performance at the orientation ceremony, I changed my mind." She leaned in to look directly at Keith's eyes.

"What is so magical about higher blood-qi destiny. You have enough strength already, why are you worried about the blood-qi density? It looks like a trivial thing." Keith was puzzled to see her pick that particular point.

His higher blood-qi density was the result of the warrior frame absorbing and storing blood-qi on its own, independent from the blood core. It acted as a quasi blood-core and increased the amount of blood-qi his body can store.

Another reason for his tremendously high level of blood-qi was the system allocating blood-qi to every single muscle in his body evenly so that not even a small amount of space was wasted.

The result was that his body was carrying several times the blood-qi of a normal viscount level vampire. Lastly, all of this relied on the fact that he had a special physique. Keith as well as the system didn't know the reason before the encounter with the black dragon.

But now that the other gene was revealed, It was clear that Keith's body was strong because of the dragon genes. Dragons were godly beings, capable of destroying worlds. If Keith was half-dragon, it wasn't surprising that his physique could withstand and absorb so much life energy. His endurance and vitality were way higher than normal vampires.

"You are still at the lower levels on the path of blood condensation, but the higher you reach, your blood-qi becomes stagnant. This kind of knowledge, I'm afraid no one is going to give you. I am also saying this just for you to trust me.

"Before I explain to you about the blood-qi density, let me give a brief introduction to the blood-qi circulation process. This is the main driving force for the blood-qi generation. After you consume blood from humans or absorb blood essence from the bloodstone, it gets stored within you as the purest form of life energy that could be absorbed by vampires." 

"You need to circulate that blood essence to add your attribute and make it your own blood-qi. At lower levels, the conversions taking place at a moment is very low. The higher you go, the more blood essence will be stored within your blood-qi. Then it becomes difficult to store blood essence with the high level of blood-qi present."

[ I think I understand what she's trying to say. When I absorbed the viscount ghoul, your whole body was getting hot and there was no space to hold it in. The blood essence is raw and pure life essence and it can't be diluted and separated easily like your own blood-qi. It stays in one place and occupies free space. 

[ Unless you convert it into blood-qi, you can't absorb more blood essence. The imbalance will lead to a blood-qi eruption where the body can't circulate any blood-qi when your blood core is converting blood-qi from blood essence. There will be no space left in your body to store that blood-qi.]

'Then it all makes sense.'

Valencia continued explaining.

"The blood-qi stored in your body is not always uniform and there are gaps in your physique and spaces where the blood-qi is not dense. This creates a hollow structure of blood-qi and as it accumulates, it's harder to get rid of.

"Lower level vampires have a better chance to reorganize their blood-qi, especially if they don't use any blood-qi technique. It gets harder to change the blood-qi density if you use blood-qi techniques. For a vampire at my level, I can't change what is done and only fix the faults I have now. Fortunately, I have a very efficient and high-grade circulation technique that ensures that my blood-qi is less imbalanced, but it's nowhere near your level." She explained directly.

"So let me get this straight. If you have more blood-qi and blood-qi techniques, you are basically locked in on the path, and changing the blood-qi passageway will have a detrimental effect." Keith summarized what he understood.

"Something like that, but changing the blood-qi passageway is impossible for me. What I can alter is to reduce the number of empty spaces in my physique and fill them with blood-qi." 

Keith was silent and thought deeply for a moment. He was weighing the positive and negative aspects of this before suggesting anything. 

"After the explanation, I still can't understand why you would ask me this? You said, only Duke level or higher can alter their blood-qi density. If you break through to the Duke level, you can grasp the concept." Keith suggested.

"You don't understand. It will be too late. The best time to alter the irregularities is before a major breakthrough. I can only change the irregularities that happened during my marquis stage, which is the significant portion of my empty spaces.

"If I break through to the Duke stage, and grasp the concept at that time, I can only fix the irregularities that happen afterward. All of my irregularities from the past will be unchangeable." She said with a grave tone.

"That is indeed a problem." Keith nodded his head.