New Prescription, Startling Blood Soup!

After sneaking back to the inn, Su Que immediately laid out the night's gains on the table to examine.

The yellowed paper he'd taken from Fan Wuyang recorded a training prescription called "Startling Blood Soup."

"I wonder how the effects of Startling Blood Soup compare to Body Strengthening Soup?" Su Que thought.

By now, Body Strengthening Soup had lost much of its potency for him.

If Startling Blood Soup proved significantly better, he wouldn't need to hunt for another prescription.

He carefully folded the paper and tucked it against his skin, hidden inside his clothes.

Then, he spread out all the silver he'd acquired—notes, ingots, and loose coins—and counted them one by one.

His senses were now sharp; just weighing the ingots and coins in his hand gave him a rough idea of their value.

"Six hundred eighty taels in total."

"Those White Lotus Sect folks sure are loaded. 'Kill and burn, gold in return,' huh?"

Su Que sighed inwardly as he stuffed all the silver into a large money pouch.

Finally, he opened the "Wedding Dress Divine Skill" manual.

This was the real purpose of his trip.

He flipped through it roughly and found its contents matched the rumors circulating in the martial world.

Any cultivator who practiced internal arts would generate "true qi" within their body.

Those who trained in the Wedding Dress Divine Skill produced true qi that was fiercer and moved blood faster than ordinary internal arts.

Thus, practitioners of the Wedding Dress Divine Skill advanced faster in martial realm than average martial artists.

However, because the true qi generated by the Wedding Dress Divine Skill was so violent, it gradually caused internal damage to the practitioner's flesh, blood, and meridians.

The higher the level of the Wedding Dress Divine Skill, the more severe the hidden injuries.

If one reached sixty or seventy percent mastery without dispersing or transferring the skill's power to another, the practitioner could no longer withstand its true qi, and their flesh, blood, and meridians would be destroyed.

The lucky ones merely lost all their martial arts.

The unlucky might even lose their lives.

"Destroying flesh, blood, and meridians... What a fine technique!" Su Que praised as he read.

After skimming the entire manual, he turned back to the first page and began cultivating the Wedding Dress Divine Skill as instructed.

The first step in practicing internal arts was to sense qi.

Su Que sat cross-legged on the bed, focusing his mind, searching for that thread of qi sensation.

Once he found it, he'd have entered the gateway of internal arts.

Over two hours later, Su Que suddenly felt a faint, thread-like warmth within his body.

His spirits lifted, and he concentrated his mind on that warmth.

Gradually, the warmth grew, expanding from a thread into a wisp, and he could guide it through his body at will.

"Done!"

A thought stirred in Su Que's mind, and five lines of small black characters appeared before his eyes.

Name: Su Que (Age 17)

Lifespan: 71

Talent Value: 12

Martial Arts: Seven Injuries Fist (5th Realm, Refined 15%), Five Animal Frolics (1st Realm, Initial Glimpse 1%)

Internal Arts: Wedding Dress Divine Skill (1st Realm, Initial Glimpse 1%)

For an ordinary person with average talent, finding qi sensation would take at least two to three months.

But with a Talent Value of 12, Su Que's learning and cultivation speed far exceeded the norm.

Thus, in just one night, he'd entered the gateway and successfully found his qi sensation.

Su Que channeled that wisp of true qi into his fist and suddenly threw a punch!

Crack!

The fist's force split the air, producing a louder sound than before.

True qi not only moved blood but also combined with fist force to generate greater power!

Unnoticed, the eastern sky began to pale.

Seeing that dawn had broken, Su Que packed his bundle, left the inn, and headed back toward Jade Water City.

The deaths of Fan Wuyang and the other White Lotus Sect members were soon discovered by the remaining sect members at the Jade Water City stronghold.

After examining the corpses of Fan Wuyang and the others, the White Lotus Sect disciples made a discovery.

The manner of death for Fan Wuyang and his men closely resembled that of the White Lotus Sect disciples whose medicinal herbs had been seized earlier.

This type of death seemed highly likely to have been inflicted by someone familiar with the Seven Injuries Fist.

"Could it be that remnants of the Kongtong Sect are hunting the White Lotus Sect?"

"Or has a traitor within the White Lotus Sect leaked the Seven Injuries Fist manual?"

Bai Wuji, the branch leader of the White Lotus Sect in Jade Water City, pondered this in his mind.

No matter how hard he racked his brains, he would never guess that the killer of those White Lotus Sect disciples was a schoolteacher from Jade Water City.

After Su Que returned to the vicinity of Jade Water City, his first move was to head toward Qinghua Mountain.

Qinghua Mountain was where he hid his medicinal herbs.

He planned to immediately use his stored herbs to brew a batch of "Startling Blood Soup" and see how its effects compared to the "Body Strengthening Soup."

The Startling Blood Soup required sixteen types of herbs, three more than the Body Strengthening Soup.

It also used larger quantities of each herb.

Several herbs overlapped between the Startling Blood Soup and the Body Strengthening Soup.

Su Que glanced at the cave, noting that the thirteen herbs for the Body Strengthening Soup were running low, and clicked his tongue a few times.

"Looks like I'll have to go steal herbs again."

"But I wonder if the White Lotus Sect will still pass through that road after being robbed once."

Suddenly, a thought struck Su Que.

The major martial arts schools in Jade Water City each had at least dozens of disciples, all consuming a considerable amount of herbs.

On top of that, they sold medicinal soups to the public.

Given their high consumption, they must purchase herbs from the White Lotus Sect at regular intervals.

He could follow these herb buyers to discover where the White Lotus Sect stored their herbs.

With this in mind, Su Que felt reassured, no longer worrying about what to do when his herbs ran out.

He picked out sixteen types of herbs from the remaining stock, lit a fire, and began brewing the Startling Blood Soup.

After a little over half an hour, the Startling Blood Soup was ready.

The soup appeared dark red, looking at first glance like fresh blood.

Su Que ladled out a bowl and drank it.

The medicinal soup flowed down his throat, through his esophagus, and into his stomach.

Immediately, Su Que felt a scorching surge of medicinal power rising in his abdomen!

Then it spread outward to every part of his body!

In an instant, the blood within his body boiled and surged.

Su Que felt as if he had plunged into a scalding hot spring.

"This medicinal power is at least twice as strong as the Body Strengthening Soup!"

Delighted, Su Que continued drinking the Startling Blood Soup.

After downing three bowls, his blood raced rapidly, and his entire body burned hot.

Beads of sweat seeped from his forehead.

His body was saturated with medicinal power, and he felt uncomfortable unless he refined it.

So Su Que sat cross-legged, took out the "Wedding Dress Divine Skill" manual, and placed it beside him.

After glancing at the qi circulation route in the manual, he closed his eyes and began to cultivate.

Su Que already had a Talent Value of 12, far surpassing ordinary people in cultivation speed.

Now, with the added boost of medicinal power, his progress in practicing the Wedding Dress Divine Skill was rapid.

As the medicinal power was refined, the single thread of true qi within his body grew stronger and stronger.