Qualitative Change, Blood Sword Dance

It was already dark at night, and the Pawnshop's only light came from an oil lamp.

When the hoarse voice sounded from outside the door, Shen Bai's hair stood on end.

He was intimately familiar with that voice; he had heard it just last night. It was the Old Daoist Priest's voice.

This morning, Zhang Chaofeng had told him that the Old Daoist Priest had died at the Qian Family's estate. So how could he be at the Pawnshop tonight?

Are evil things like ghosts really real? Shen Bai gripped the rusty iron sword on the table.

He was highly adaptable; just having the thought, he had already come to terms with it.

There was no choice but to adapt.

He had already experienced transmigration, so what else was there?

Outside the door, after that voice, the sounds disappeared.

But then, the oil lamp on the table flickered.

A sound of footsteps suddenly echoed inside the Pawnshop.

The Pawnshop was completely open; there was no one else present besides Shen Bai.

Yet the footsteps reminded Shen Bai that the second presence might not be human.

Just as he thought this, the oil lamp suddenly flickered again.

A voice sounded to Shen Bai's right.

"Give me the Peachwood Sword."

Shen Bai sharply turned his head to look.

In the corner to his right, the Old Daoist Priest, hair disheveled, was squatting on the ground, his back to him.

Seemingly sensing Shen Bai's gaze, the Old Daoist Priest lifted his head, still with his back to Shen Bai.

A full one hundred and eighty degrees, as if his neck had been brutally snapped, the Old Daoist Priest's back of his head rested against his back, staring at Shen Bai with inverted vision.

Through the oil lamp, Shen Bai saw a section of a Peachwood Sword's tip in the Old Daoist Priest's mouth, with streaks of crimson blood still on it.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by the sound of bones shattering.

The Old Daoist Priest's elbow joints twisted, his palms braced on the ground, and with his back facing downward, he lunged at Shen Bai with extreme speed.

His eyes were chillingly cold, and the sword tip in his mouth extended out intermittently with his movements.

"Give me the Peachwood Sword... give me the Peachwood Sword..."

After reaching Shen Bai, a sharp, broken bone extended from the Old Daoist Priest's elbow, striking towards Shen Bai's chest.

"You're elbowing me?"

Shen Bai's forehead was covered in dense sweat, but his mind was incredibly calm.

The rusty longsword was swung by Shen Bai.

At this moment, the Sword Dance Technique was unleashed by Shen Bai to its fullest.

Resplendent righteousness dispelled the evil.

The rusty longsword swept across, glinting with a magnificent light under the oil lamp's illumination.

The Old Daoist Priest's elbows shattered, and his back crashed heavily onto the ground.

Shen Bai's rusty longsword reversed its grip, thrusting downward, piercing the Old Daoist Priest's forehead.

The Old Daoist Priest's limbs began to thrash.

After a long moment, the struggling gradually ceased.

A wisp of black smoke emerged from the Old Daoist Priest's body. Before long, the Old Daoist Priest transformed into black smoke and vanished.

[Killed Bizarre Entity, gained one wisp of Malevolent Qi]

Malevolent Qi?

Shen Bai hadn't fully recovered from the fright when he saw the mist before him turn into text.

"Killing a Bizarre Entity grants Malevolent Qi?"

Shen Bai confirmed it repeatedly, suddenly grasping the origin of Malevolent Qi.

As for what a Bizarre Entity was...

Did he even need to look?

Something like the Old Daoist Priest, who died and then reappeared, bearing a resemblance to a ghost, was definitely a Bizarre Entity.

"This has given me some inspiration."

Shen Bai rubbed his chin, thinking to himself, Perhaps I have an idea about the source of Malevolent Qi.

At this moment, everything around him fell silent once more.

The crisis was averted. Shen Bai now knew what Malevolent Qi was, and he had even obtained a wisp of it.

Now, it was time to use it.

Before Shen Bai's eyes, mist reappeared.

[Sword Dance Technique lv.2 (Swordsmanship +2, Demon Slaying +2): 1000/1000]

[Can be qualitative transformed, requires one wisp of Malevolent Qi]

If there was Malevolent Qi, Shen Bai used it; he wasn't one to hoard things.

As Shen Bai's thoughts stirred, the Malevolent Qi before his eyes vanished, and the characters for Sword Dance Technique, like writhing snakes, began to reassemble.

Before long, Sword Dance Technique underwent a qualitative transformation.

[Blood Sword Dance lv.3 (Swordsmanship +4, Demon Slaying +4, Shockwave +4): 0/5000]

When Sword Dance Technique transformed into Blood Sword Dance, a flood of information once again appeared in Shen Bai's mind.

The first two abilities remained the same, merely doubling in attributes. The key lay in the subsequent Shockwave ability.

Shockwave meant vibrating one's own blood and qi through sword dancing, thereby increasing the power of the sword technique.

Shen Bai picked up his rusty longsword and began to swing it casually.

The Scorching Qi Flow within his body had increased slightly again after reaching level three.

As Shen Bai danced with the sword, and the qi flow surged, he felt his own blood and qi begin to vibrate.

The power of each strike was incomparable to before.

"Using qi flow as a guide and blood and qi as a medium, this sword technique is formidable."

Shen Bai danced for a while, then stopped.

[Blood Sword Dance +1]

"Time to get to work!"

With something new to try, Shen Bai couldn't contain his excitement.

The Scorching Qi Flow within his body could clear fatigue. While it didn't mean he could go without sleep for extended periods, it was fine for short bursts.

Shen Bai didn't hesitate and continued to practice Blood Sword Dance.

After reaching level three, each strike of the Blood Sword Dance required circulating blood and qi, causing the proficiency gain to slow down.

Shen Bai practiced until his qi flow was almost depleted, then stopped to recover.

This cycle continued until the next day arrived.

When the sunlight streamed in, Shen Bai let out a long breath.

Before his eyes, mist appeared, gradually condensing into text.

[Blood Sword Dance lv.3 (Swordsmanship +4, Demon Slaying +4, Shockwave +4): 400/5000]

Throughout the night, he had gained a full four hundred points. Although proficiency gains were slightly slower and he had to recover his qi flow, the progress was still decent.

"Time to open for business."

Shen Bai felt a gnawing hunger in his stomach.

Circulating blood and qi itself was a huge drain, so being hungry was perfectly normal.

Shen Bai left the house, and as he went out, he strapped his rusty longsword to his waist.

A Bizarre Entity incident had occurred last night, and Shen Bai felt he wouldn't feel safe without a longsword on him.

At the breakfast shop, To the shop owner's astonished gaze, Shen Bai ate three baskets of steamed buns before paying and heading back.

"No wonder they used to say 'poor scholars, rich martial artists.' Just circulating my blood and qi, I'm eating three times what I used to."

Shen Bai thought to himself on the way back.

Fortunately, the Pawnshop's earnings were good enough to support his eating habits.

Shen Bai pondered for a moment, then decided that after he returned, he would ask Zhang Chaofeng to watch the front while he went to the backyard alone to practice Blood Sword Dance.

He couldn't relax for a moment when it came to this kind of grinding.

Before long, lost in thought, Shen Bai arrived at the entrance of the Pawnshop.

Upon reaching the entrance, just as Shen Bai was about to open the door, he was called out to.

"Are you the proprietor of the Shen Family Pawnshop?"

Shen Bai frowned and turned his head.

Behind him, a middle-aged man dressed in black robes stood with over a dozen constables not far away.

Black robes, in Ascending Cloud County, signified a constable captain.

Shen Bai didn't know why they had come to find him.

The black-robed constable captain walked forward and, before Shen Bai could speak, slowly began, "I am Zheng Yuan, a constable captain from the county yamen. I've come to ask you about something. I heard that not long ago, an Old Daoist Priest redeemed a Peachwood Sword from you?"