Back and Forth, Beef Offal Stew (Two-in-One)

A moment later.

"Bang!"

The instant Ye Liuyun's standard long sword was knocked flying from his hand, Li Xijun casually kicked him against the wall. Thanks to the buffering material, he formed a perfect 'big' character before falling to the classroom floor with a thud.

This scene, combined with Ye Liuyun's ancient noble attire, had a rather comical feel.

However, instinctively, he stared blankly at the classroom's starry sky ceiling layout and said:

"Two months ago, I could still easily defeat you with my stats of 17 m/s and 740 kg punch force."

"After the monthly exam, you could indeed track my movements, resulting in no win or loss."

"But now, even though I've advanced to Blood Essence Level 8.1, with 18 m/s and 810 kg punch force, I still can't beat you when wielding a sword."

"I didn't expect you to have time to practice an old-era external skill. It's like the old descriptions of external skill masters having bronze skin and iron bones. Now, only my full-power thrusts are effective; otherwise, my usual light sword techniques like slashing, parrying, and wiping can't break your defense."

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh wistfully:

"Sigh, if I had a worse disposition, I would have already become superficial friends with you, secretly wishing something bad would happen to you."

"Therefore, I only have one friend like you."

Li Xijun nodded in agreement.

In the time he had spent with Ye Liuyun, what he admired most was the other's stable and firm mindset of "water flows without competing for priority."

If this mindset were in his previous life, it would have been that of a chosen investor in the stock market, destined to crush quantitative trading.

"Right, when do you plan to start your weapon training? With your cultivation speed for the True Martial Killing Move: Drooping Cloud Hand, you should be able to start the third stage by now, right?"

In the martial skill examination for the college entrance, although not officially stated, everyone had established a convention of dividing the martial skills into four stages for the college entrance exam.

The first two stages involved the cultivation of hand-to-hand martial skills, represented by the True Martial Thirty-Six Forms. After mastering two True Martial Killing Moves, one could generally score up to 320 points.

The third stage involved starting weapon training to break the 320-point limit. Weapons would serve as extensions, combining the mind, body, and weapon to maximize one's strength to the greatest extent possible, with the potential to reach 360 points.

As for the fourth stage, both Li Xijun and Ye Liuyun had only heard Zhang Haifeng mention the concept of "unity of man and weapon, touching upon the Intent Realm."

It was said that in previous years, there were even instances of students being specially recruited into Martial Arts Universities for achieving the fourth stage in martial skills and scoring full marks.

"Soon, within this month," Li Xijun glanced at his proficiency in the True Martial Thirty-Six Forms, which was 91%. "Teacher Zhang previously told me to focus on mastering the Third Killing Move: Void Shock as much as possible. Weapon training isn't urgent."

"Indeed, Void Shock does help in stimulating the internal organs after reaching Blood Essence Level 9.0 and deeply excavating the body's potential. I didn't expect Teacher Zhang to have such high expectations for you back then."

Ye Liuyun knew his own talent. Advancing to Blood Essence Level 9.0 and mastering martial skills to get into a decent Nine Schools Alliance university would be a success.

However, Li Xijun might truly have a chance to aim for the Imperial Capital Two Heavens. Both of these top universities required students to excavate their potential deeply after reaching Blood Essence Level 9.0.

Past events had also proven that geniuses who reached Blood Essence Level 9.3 or 9.4 would have a greater improvement during the life essence evolution in the Mortal Shedding Realm, with their strength, speed, and physical toughness significantly exceeding those at Level 9.0.

Those who were fierce in combat within the same realm in the Mortal Shedding Realm and ranked high among their university cohort were all geniuses who had deeply excavated their potential to Level 9.0 or above during high school.

"Then you should carry the Electromagnetic Handgun with you when you go to and from school recently."

After Ye Liuyun stood up, his lips moved, and his voice became very quiet as he continued:

"Recently, there have been frequent missing person incidents. The missing people started with Blood Essence Levels 2 or 3, then progressed to 4 or 5, and recently, someone at Level 6 suddenly disappeared."

"The Prevention Bureau suspects the Blood God Cult, but the Blood God Cult members were mostly cleared out during the Mythic Rift incident. If a Mortal Shedding Realm cultist makes a move, the traces of spiritual energy fluctuations are difficult to escape the tracking of Outer Scenery Level powerhouses. Teacher Su herself went to the scene a few days ago and confirmed it wasn't a Mortal Shedding Realm martial warrior."

"The uncles in the bureau suspect that it's most likely a very powerful Apprentice Realm Blood God Cult member who has been hunting to increase their strength and advance to the Mortal Shedding Realm."

"In this state, Blood God Cult members will madly hunt and devour Blood Essence to break through."

"The current official bounty for this existence has reached 1 million."

"It's better for you to carry a gun when you go to and from school."

Li Xijun nodded slightly upon hearing this.

He was currently at Blood Essence Level 7.3. According to the pattern described, his level might very well be the next target for hunting.

He naturally took Ye Liuyun's warning to heart.

However, since he had used the Electromagnetic Handgun twice in the Da Sheng World, he would absolutely not bring it back to the main world.

Moreover, although he no longer had the Electromagnetic Handgun, he now possessed a more discreet and useful method.

Li Xijun's gaze fell upon his backpack at the entrance of the private martial arts classroom.

The peach wood sword, which looked like an ornament, trembled slightly upon sensing its owner's thoughts. The blood patterns within, which had been refined and nourished with soul power for many days, slowly surged like real blood.

"Even if an Apprentice Realm martial warrior is strong, their physical defense cannot compare to a Viscera Refinement Martial Warrior. Since it's not a Mortal Shedding Realm martial warrior, I'm actually looking forward to it."

He had spent almost all the money Zhang Haifeng had sponsored him. He had even switched to the 200 yuan meal plan for his usual school meals.

Not to mention that when he learned saber techniques later, he would likely need to get a better one, and all of these required money from the main world.

That evening.

Zhou Shenghao changed out of his usual black nano-suit and put on loose, casual clothes to stroll through the snack street for a while.

When it was getting late, he entered a very vintage-looking small shop within the snack street.

The light bulbs were a rather old-fashioned dim yellow, and the signs were also a bit worn and greasy, faintly revealing the store name: "Granny's Cantonese Offal Stew."

After walking in, before he could even scan the surroundings, he saw a middle-aged man with a bulging belly emerge from a 'private room' covered by a cloth curtain and shout:

"A young man has come today, add a portion of Beef Windpipe and Beef Omasum, stewed until tender."

After speaking, the middle-aged man, clearly a regular customer and connoisseur, waved to Zhou Shenghao, who had just entered, and led him into the 'private room' which clearly had a less-than-ideal environment.

Sitting on the red plastic stool, Zhou Shenghao couldn't help but frown. After looking around, he couldn't help but say:

"Are you sure this is your hideout? Aren't you guys evil..."

He stopped mid-sentence, his enhanced senses at 8.4 level suddenly cutting him off. He saw the somewhat worn-looking owner bring in a pot of offal stew.

"Brother Chang, hurry up and eat it while it's hot."

After setting it down, the owner invited the two to taste it before going out to attend to other regular customers.

The aroma of the offal stew was quite strong, but Zhou Shenghao's frown deepened.

If it weren't for his bad luck of being forcibly implanted with the "Devouring Blood," he would never have wanted to come to a place like this and deal with these cultists.

But he had become one of them, and because of it, his progress had become increasingly rapid. He even had the confidence to aim for the top three in his grade, and even the 'Imperial Capital Two Heavens.'

This made it increasingly difficult for him to distance himself from these members of the Blood God Cult.

"Don't worry, our cult is hard to detect unless we reveal the Devouring Mouth and the Blood God Totem and have been consuming flesh and blood within the last 8 hours."

"Everyone here is our believer, there won't be any problems."

Brother Chang said this while picking up a piece of Honeycomb Tripe and stuffing it into his mouth, looking quite pleased.

"Besides, I told you back then, our Blood God Cult also keeps up with the times."

"This isn't the Great Calamity period anymore, when human lives were as cheap as grass and we could freely develop by devouring our own kind. This is a stable society now. If people start dying consecutively in a short period, the pressure from above will be immense, and the Prevention Bureau will be all over us trying to catch people."

"Normally, we just consume the Blood Essence from the corpses of mythical creatures. That big scene with the Mythic Rift earlier was also because the instructor sent down from above insisted on doing it. As you saw, not only did he die, but most of our Bo City members were also taken in, leaving only me and the old brothers from this branch."

As he spoke, Brother Chang sighed, as if recalling something, and said indignantly, "The worst part of working is having leaders who come down and mess things up. Now, even when running a church, I encounter such idiots. How can the Blood God Cult flourish by associating with this reckless, brainless worm?"

"Times have changed. To develop the church, we need to recruit talented students like you from top universities!"

"Ultimately, you are the future..."

Hearing this, Zhou Shenghao, who had been wearing a dark expression, couldn't help but laugh.

"So, you're saying the recent string of disappearances wasn't your doing?"

"Of course not! Doing such things is harmful and unprofitable, it's too short-sighted. The higher-ups have already expressed their stance; the previous incident was an accident. Our goal is still to recruit more geniuses like you into the church, then have you get into good universities, enter important positions in various federal agencies, work hard, and get promoted..."

"And then?"

"And then... first, we reveal and promote our new Blood God Church tenets, showing that we actually coexist harmoniously with most people, and that we can only advance faster in martial arts by consuming the flesh and blood of mythical creatures, with only minor side effects."

At this point, Brother Chang puffed out his belly, and his words gradually carried a strange magic.

"We need to tell the public that although we are a minority, we should not be discriminated against, and we must strive for more legal rights, ultimately pushing for relevant legislation to acknowledge that our Blood God Cult is not an evil cult, but a church that can coexist with humanity."

The middle-aged man spoke with great passion and infectiousness.

However, Zhou Shenghao could only sneer.

"If you really go through with this, you won't just be an ordinary evil cult, you'll be an evil cult that needs to be dealt with severely!"

"Do you really think that I, who is ranked in the top thirty in my grade, have poor academic performance and haven't read history from the old era or taken moral education classes?"

"You people are just trying to replicate the LGBT movement from the past, aren't you? If you succeed, and a large number of people become monsters like me, humanity will face a crisis far more troublesome than any war."

Seeing that his words hadn't swayed the other party at all, Brother Chang stopped his impassioned speech and picked up the offal stew again, saying coldly, "But so what? No matter how clearly you see it, are you going to jump ship? If you expose your identity as a Blood God Cult follower, can you still get into the Nine Schools Alliance? Can you still achieve the Outer Scenery realm? If your moral character was truly sound, you would have reported it to the Prevention Bureau that very night."

Zhou Shenghao's right hand had already moved towards his chest; he also had an Electromagnetic Handgun.

The other party's strength could indeed crush an apprentice with a Blood Essence Level of 9.0, but he was ultimately not a Mortal Shedding Realm martial warrior.

At this distance, he was confident he could shoot and kill the other party with one shot.

"In the end, a proud talent like you values your own bright future the most, and our Blood God Cult can ultimately help you progress rapidly and become an even more exceptional individual."

"With the 'Ten-Year Cultivation Plan,' you might even become a reserve candidate for the Martial Sage. The Blood God's Devouring Blood can restrain ordinary martial artists and affect those in the Outer Scenery realm, but it's not very effective against Martial Sages. At that time, you might even be able to devour it yourself and advance further, wouldn't you?"

Zhou Shenghao remained silent for a long time, then released his hand from the Electromagnetic Handgun.

"Indeed, you're just a middle-aged working man, skilled at making empty promises as soon as you open your mouth."

"You keep saying you're cultivating me and helping me... then show some sincerity first."

"What do you mean?" Brother Chang asked, putting down his chopsticks.

"Our school also has an unparalleled genius named Li Xijun. In just three months since the start of the semester, he's gone from a Blood Essence Level of 5.7 to 7.3, which is faster than me, even though I can devour Blood Essence. He also has strong martial arts talent and has been noticed by that Outer Scenery realm expert from the Clear Spring Dawn Palace. He'll likely be taught swordsmanship."

Hearing this, the middle-aged salaryman's eyes lit up.

"He's also an orphan, and his residence isn't very secure, with not many security cameras in the neighborhood."

Zhou Shenghao looked at the other party's reaction and continued.

"A genius like this is worth taking a risk for, wouldn't you agree?"

"That's true, but this kid's future is just too bright. I'm worried that even after implanting the 'Devouring Blood,' he'll actually report it." Brother Chang hesitated.

"Then after implanting the 'Devouring Blood,' don't leave. Observe him secretly. If he reports it to the Prevention Bureau, you'll make a comeback, directly devour him, and drain his Blood Essence and life force."

Zhou Shenghao spoke with increasing nonchalance, causing the middle-aged office worker opposite him to freeze for a moment.

After a while, he took a sip of tea and sighed:

"It really shows the importance of education. Students nowadays are so cunning and truly ruthless."

Zhou Shenghao said nothing, simply picking up his chopsticks and eating the offal stew. What he had found somewhat unappetizing before now tasted increasingly delicious.

As time slowly passed, When the offal stew pot was nearly empty, Brother Chang took out his own tissues from his pocket, wiped his mouth, and after handing a few to the other man, said calmly:

"I'm willing to take the risk and try this. However, I have one last question for you."

"Speak."

"After working in the workplace for so many years, I believe I have some ability to judge people. Before, your state was one of pent-up frustration, focusing on practicing martial arts to improve your Blood Essence, wanting to achieve results to show others and prove yourself."

"If you wanted to defeat Li Xijun at school to prove you're stronger than him, I think that would be a natural progression of your previous mindset."

"But this idea of harming someone feels a bit sudden, not like something that would arise from your previous line of thinking."

"Have you been influenced by someone?"