Chapter 29 Blood Cultivation

Immediately after Xuan and Zhi Ruo broke their jade slips, they were transported back to Xuan's room.

"So… you have the Space Ring now, but… how, exactly, do you intend on getting it open?" Zhi Ruo asked, folding her arms. "Don't tell me… you are an array expert as well?"

'… Well, I actually used to be a Grand Sage, the highest rank there is in arraymaking, but I feel like if I told her that, she might faint…' Xuan thought in his head before eventually settling on a simple shake of his head.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not. However, there are a few in this city, are there not?"

"That's true, but… Zhou He can easily track you down if you go to them."

"Don't worry about me, senior sister," Xuan replied with a smile. "I have my ways."

"Yeah… why am I not surprised?" Zhi Ruo sighed, already used to Xuan's mysterious style, before heading for the door. "Well, anyway. I'm going to report back to Grandmaster Zong, then practice some alchemy. Call me if you need anything, junior brother."

Xuan gave a nod, and soon, he was left alone in his room—just like he wanted.

'Track me down? Heh… he can try. Why go to an arraymaster when I am a far better one myself?'

Normally, one's Space Ring would be protected even if it was stolen from them, due to the encryption array they could set on it, which acted like a password. Unfortunately for Zhou He, the array grandmaster that Xuan had met in his past life had taught him quite a bit, including how to crack through all sorts of different Space Ring encryptions. This was nothing.

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Opening up his inventory, Xuan retrieved the silver ring labeled <Zhou He's Space Ring> and laid it out on the desk in front of him. Then, he poured some Qi into it, just to test the waters a bit. Sure enough, a red flash appeared around the small metal circlet, not accepting Xuan's attempt to open it, and spasmed a bit in the air before falling back onto the desk, unmoving. Calmly, Xuan looked at his finger and saw a cut that wasn't there before, dripping blood.

"Interesting… a Sanguine Guile array… but isn't that an array only usable by blood cultivators? Unless…"

… Zhou He was a blood cultivator?

'Oho… that would make things interesting,' Xuan thought in his head, narrowing his eyes as his lips widened into a slight smile. 'Blood cultivators are considered evil in the world, so word got out that the patriarch of such a big family was actually a blood cultivator… quite a scandal could be caused.'

The array used to protect this Space Ring alone, however, was not enough to act as proof, since someone else could've placed it for Zhou He. Xuan needed something else… something that he would most likely find inside this Space Ring.

"Now then… let's see what the patriarch of the Zhou family has stored inside his Space Ring," Xuan muttered with a chuckle, and easily broke the array by injecting Qi at its weakpoint.

Every array in this realm had a weakness, and as long as one knew where it was, breaking through was easy—all it took was tremendous precision and patience. This flaw was inevitable here in Asphodel, both Lower and Upper, since the World Qi here wasn't pure enough to support completely flawless arrays. Elysium and Tartarus, on the other hand, could support perfect arrays, which were far more difficult to break through.

After successfully cracking open the array, Xuan mused at the projection of blue space in the air that appeared. Its borders fizzled and hissed as if unstable, which was only natural given that this wasn't the ring's real owner accessing it. However, it wasn't going to collapse or anything, so Xuan didn't have to rush things.

"Hm… neat, neat."

Using his Divine Asura Eye, Xuan scanned through the various items in the blue space. Upon focusing on one, a name and description would pop up, which was quite a convenient appraisal skill indeed.

<Health Restoration Pill (Veined) — Pill (Ancient Grade) — The higher grade version of Health Rejuvenation pills. Has the same effects, just amplified. This one in particular has pill veins, further increasing its healing potency.>

<Qi Restoration Pill (Veined) — Pill (Ancient Grade) — The higher grade version of Qi Rejuvenation pills. Has the same effects, just amplified. This one in particular has pill veins, further increasing its Qi restoration potency.>

'… Of course, classic,' Xuan thought. It was normal for every cultivator to carry these two types of pills around in their Space Rings, since they never knew when they might need them. However… Zhou He wasn't simply a normal cultivator, and there were far more than just supplementary pills inside his Space Ring.

<Myriad Sword True God's Inheritance Map — Key Item — A map detailing the location of Myriad Sword True God's lost legacy.>

'There it is… the map.'

But Xuan wasn't quite done yet.

<Sanguine Blade — Artifact (Origin Grade) — A special sword made out of Blood Essence. The more one kills, the stronger it becomes in battle. Note: this cannot be used as a weapon until one is experienced in blood techniques, or it will seek out the user's Blood Essence to fuel itself instead.>

"

—Xue Gui, Crimson Reaper

<Ring of Bloodlust — Artifact (Origin Grade) — A ring that temporarily grants extreme vigor and defense to the wearer when activated, at the cost of lifespan. Duration extends upon >

"????

—Akuman, Forgotten Blood Demon

'A last resort artifact… makes sense,' Xuan thought. 'And as expected, it has to do with blood as well… but where are the techniques?'

After some probing around the uninteresting stuff—namely, the plethora of common pills, Spirit Crystals, and whatnot—Xuan found what he was looking for within the Space Ring's blue space.

'… Aha.'

<Transfusion — Technique (Soul) (Ancient Grade) — Draw upon the blood of dead enemies to heal yourself. If the user's Soul Strength exceeds the opponent's Soul Defense by at least 10,000, this technique can also be used on living foes.>

<Hemorrhage — Technique (Soul) (Origin Grade) — Inflict harrowing pain on an individual or group of people, bursting their blood vessels from the inside just enough to not kill. Perfect for torture.>

<Blood Conjure — Technique (Soul) (Origin Grade) — Conjure an item (weapon, shield, etc.) out of blood, both yours and other people's. The stronger one's cultivation is, the better weapons their blood can form with this technique.>

"Blood techniques… as expected," Xuan muttered, narrowing his eyes. "But the question is… why did Zhou He keep the scriptures for them inside his Space Ring, if he's already a blood cultivator? Could it be… he's saving them for Zhou Hai to learn in the future as well? Hm, wait… what is…"

His gaze was suddenly attracted by a couple of small red orbs in the corner of the blue space, and he picked out one to see what it was.

<Blood Pill — Pill (Earth Grade) — A necessary item to always have on hand for any blood cultivator. Can be dissolved into liquid blood to be used for any blood techniques.>

"Huh… I see…" Xuan blinked in surprise at this, slightly impressed. In his past life, he'd never gotten the chance to step onto the path of blood cultivation, and any blood cultivators he'd met were crushed by him in an instant. As such, the existence of this item was news to him.

After some deliberation, Xuan retrieved the three techniques from the Space Ring, along with everything else. It was a shame there weren't any weapons suitable for Xuan in here, but that made sense considering Zhou He summoned the only one to use for the fight with the other powerhouses. That said, it's not like Xuan needed a weapon, anyway—he already had the Black Mamba sword, obtained from the Four Serpents. The Sanguine Blade didn't count, since Xuan wasn't proficient enough in dlood cultivation yet to use it.

But as for these techniques… he would gladly take them. Since Xuan was still only a Body Tempering stage cultivator, he could choose to cultivate whatever he liked and wasn't bound to a specific path.

Once a cultivator reached the Core Formation stage and chose one type of Qi to cultivate, they would have difficulty trying to master another. This was a mistake many people in this world made—both player and NPC. For example, a cultivator who has decided to cultivate the Fire attribute will no doubt find it near-impossible to then try and learn something like Earth Qi.

In Xuan's past life, he too had fallen prey to this fatal mistake. He had cultivated Devil arts—the Asura branch in particular—and as a result was effectively barred from learning any techniques outside of that category. Knowing that, however, he wasn't going to make the same mistake this time around.

The solution was, in fact, very simple. All it took was endurance. Mastering another attribute while cultivating one already was not fully impossible—it was just very, very hard—and painful. However, as long as he didn't die, what was a little pain?

Xuan had been far too deep in his Asura's path when he realized this in his past life, so it became physically impossible for him to learn any new attributes. If he were to force his body to learn clashing attributes now, however, not only would he be able to succeed with a little bit of tenacity, he would also be able to temper his body so that it would be easier to do the same thing for other attributes in the future.

Eventually, this knowledge had spread amongst both the playerbase of Xianxia Online as well as the NPCs of this world, and cultivators who were able to master two attributes in their bodies came to be known as Binate Cultivators. Since anyone who could master more than two were extremely rare, there wasn't an official term for those especially talented individuals.

There were also certain artifacts and treasures that allowed this process to be smoother and less painful, but unfortunately, he didn't have access to any of those. Either Zhou He didn't use one to practice blood cultivation along with his normal techniques, or he simply consumed it and it now lives in his body or knowledge sea. Either way, Xuan had no way of accessing them—but that was fine.

After all, he was no stranger to pain.

Opening the scrolls containing the three blood techniques, Xuan took a deep breath to calm his mind, then imbued his Qi into them and began the comprehension process.

Knowledge and images flowed into his head, like videos instructing how to use the techniques. Eventually, he began to feel it—his body was resisting. Before this point, he had cultivated a wide variety of techniques—Sky Devil's Palm of the Wind and Devil attributes, Spirit Thorns of the Plant attribute, and the Twelve Zodiac Technique of the Beast attribute.

None, however, had him learn three completely separate techniques of the same attribute in a row. The Twelve Zodiac Technique's twelve abilities were all interconnected in some way, but these three blood techniques were completely separate from one another.

As the pain grew stronger and more prominent in Xuan's body, he furrowed his brows a bit. Sweat beads began forming on his forehead, but his will didn't waver. He continued with the comprehension process, pouring Qi into the scrolls and fighting back against his body's instinctive urges to stop.

In this manner, he continued cultivating for hours, until the sun set and night fell at last.

*****

<Transfusion — Technique Learned!>

<Hemorrhage — Technique Learned!>

<Blood Conjure — Technique Learned!>

As the 'ding' sounds accompanying those notifications rang out in Xuan's ears, he slowly opened his eyes and relaxed his muscles. His clothes were drenched in sweat, but he didn't seem to care one bit. Instead, he calmly summoned his normal sword with a mere thought (doable once someone was experienced with the player System) and made a cut on his finger, nice and small.

Of course, he didn't use Black Mamba, since that blade was lined with deadly poison. Even though his Devouring Qi could cleanse it, there was still no point. All he was doing was extracting some blood from his body so he could test out the limits of one of his newly-learned techniques, Blood Conjure.

"… Let's see what you can do."

Letting his blood drip out of the wound freely, Xuan envisioned a sword in his mind. Magically, rather than hitting the floor, the blood twisted upwards, defying gravity, and began forming into the shape of a sword. Xuan watched in awe as the blade took form, fully red just as expected. Then, tenderly, he reached out to grab the sword's handle… only to lose his focus and cause all the blood to splatter onto the floor, like what one might see at a murder scene.

"…"

Looking down at the crimson pool in disdain, Xuan realized he was feeling a bit lightheaded—he'd perhaps used too much blood there—and quickly sealed up his wound using a Health Rejuvenation pill just to be safe it really was closed.

'Hm… this is harder than I'd initially thought,' Xuan noted in his head. 'The control over the volume of blood to use and maintaining focus on a still image of the object I want to conjure… it's more difficult than expected. It seems I'll need to practice quite a bit if I want to master this… the other blood techniques are no doubt easier, though.'

Before he could practice any further, however, a new notification suddenly popped up on the screen in front of him.

<Public Event: Hunting Party — Now Starting.>

<Proceed to the marked location on your System Map to participate.>

Below was a miniature version of the system map, highlighting the place Xuan was meant to go to.

"… Well then. Time to set the plan in motion."