Inspiration During the Public Class

"Insufficient data, unable to determine."

Xiao Yi's answer was concise. Recently, the content Duke had been absorbing from books was mostly related to card making and card repair, or analyzing the secrets of Rings.

Little of it touched upon the Qi Sea or Blood Sea.

"It seems I need to find some books related to the Blood Sea and Qi Sea for a while to expand Xiao Yi's database. My knowledge of card repair is sufficient for now."

When it came to card repair techniques, his mind understood, but his hands were utterly incapable.

He struggled on like this until 2 AM in the latter half of the night. At this hour, Snakehead Town, devoid of nightlife, should have been fast asleep. Duke cautiously pushed open the back door, hoisted the snakeskin bag, and slipped out.

He avoided the main streets, sticking to narrow alleys all the way.

Fortunately, he had grown up in Snakehead Town and knew every nook and cranny. Thus, he nervously took detours, stopping and starting, avoiding any route that might expose him.

It was both thrilling and exhausting.

It took a full half hour to reach the outskirts of town. Under the cover of the dark night, he crossed the farmland and sprinted towards the wilderness.

He gripped the mouth of the bag with one hand, keeping the snakeskin bag stable on his shoulder, and held the Desert Eagle pistol in the other, ready to shoot at any spirit beast that might ambush him.

Firing a gun at night might alert the night guards.

But it was better than being eaten by a spirit beast.

Seeing that he had put enough distance between himself and the town, Duke found a hollow in the bushes and directly threw Robney's corpse into it, taking the bag and rope with him.

"Mister Robney, you've gotten me into so much trouble. Although I got the long-haired mongoose cub as compensation... In short, after you're eaten by wild beasts, if I have the chance, I'll help your son Royce as much as I can..." Duke muttered a few words, then slipped out of the bushes. He also threw the snakeskin bag and rope into another hollow.

Then he sprinted back to the farmland and carefully avoided possible patrol routes before sneaking back into town.

He walked and stopped all the way, successfully returning home.

"Hoo!"

Duke locked the door and collapsed onto the floor.

Sweat had soaked his clothes. The tension in his nerves, which had been wound tight throughout the entire process of disposing of the body, finally relaxed at this moment.

After a long while, he regained some strength, changed his clothes, took a bath, and lay down on the bed, looking at the long-haired mongoose cub in the cardboard box by his bedside.

Everything felt like a dream.

He woke up when it was dawn.

With dark circles under his eyes, Duke went out to buy breakfast and also purchased some milk powder from a shop.

On the way, he observed carefully and found no signs of a search nearby. It seemed Robney's death had not alerted the Black Snake Family or their outer organization, the Poison Fang Gang.

Perhaps the Black Snake Family had gone to hunt the 2-Ring Spirit Beast, the Long-Haired Mongoose, and felt they had obtained their spoils, thus no longer caring about Robney.

In any case, no activity was good news for Duke.

"Sigh, I shouldn't have done business with Robney. I've gotten myself into a huge, unavoidable mess!"

He never considered calling the police or handing over the long-haired mongoose cub, because that wouldn't avoid trouble. If news leaked that the Black Snake Family had ambushed an outsider who was normally hunting, it would be a huge blow to their reputation.

Therefore, even if Duke confessed everything honestly, he would still be silenced.

Compared to damaging their family reputation, killing a few insignificant people was nothing.

After buying the milk powder, he returned home and fed the still-blind long-haired mongoose cub some milk. The little creature, only palm-sized, drank a whole pot of milk before it was full, then fell back asleep.

Duke was a bit uneasy about leaving it by the bed.

After thinking for a moment, he directly opened the ceiling panel in the room, placed the box on top, and then closed the panel.

This way, even if someone came to search, they wouldn't find anything unusual.

For the entire day, Duke was somewhat on edge, occasionally going out to observe the surroundings, checking if any suspicious people appeared near his home.

Or he would occasionally return to his room to check on the sleeping long-haired mongoose cub.

Fortunately, Xiao Yi continued to help him cultivate the Field Meditation method passively. Otherwise, relying on himself today, he probably wouldn't even be able to meditate peacefully.

Three days passed in this difficult manner.

Still, no trouble came knocking. Duke gradually relaxed, no longer being constantly on edge and fearful that the Black Snake Family and the Poison Fang Gang would come looking for him.

"Boss Little Duke, the Spirit Society has a public class tomorrow," Card Master Murav reminded him as he left work.

"Okay, I know."

The public classes at the Spirit Society were the only way for these Spiritual Apprentices without formal inheritance to acquire knowledge related to cultivation. Basically, everyone attended on time.

Duke was no exception.

The next day, after feeding the long-haired mongoose cub and placing the box back in the ceiling panel, he gave Sally a few instructions and then hurried to the Spirit Society in the town center.

He ran into Best as soon as he entered.

They didn't exchange many words, each grunting at the other before entering and finding seats far from each other.

The teacher for today's public class was not an Arcane Mage, but a 1-Ring Great Knight named Owen. Duke had seen him before; he was one of the Great Knights accompanying the Black Beetle Car.

To ensure route safety, each car was accompanied by a 1-Ring Great Knight, serving as a form of air marshal or train conductor.

As for the Spirit Society's public lectures, it's not unusual for a 1-Ring Great Knight to teach, as the Blood Sea and Qi Sea are both branches of the Spirit Sea, and their cultivation methods have similarities.

"I'm very happy to be teaching everyone today. I don't know anything about the Spirit Sea, so I can only talk about Blood Sea cultivation. Please consider it as gaining some extra knowledge." Owen's tone was playful, showing none of the airs of a 1-Ring Great Knight. "As everyone knows, Blood Sea cultivation relies on the blood refining method, strengthening one's fighting spirit by refining the Spirituality from food..."

The blood refining method is somewhat similar to the external fortitude training in Wuxia novels.

Since the Blood Sea cannot directly absorb free-floating Spirituality from the outside, it relies on consuming large amounts of food rich in Spirituality for nourishment. Then, through physical conditioning, the Spirituality from the food is refined into fighting spirit.

The fighting spirit circulates endlessly through the body's cells and meridians, never ceasing.

"Knights have many limitations. For example, I became a 1-Ring Great Knight at twenty-three, and at thirty-seven, I'm still a 1-Ring Great Knight. My fighting spirit is already perfected, and my contracted partner, a 1-Ring Swift Black Panther, has also trained diligently with me, yet reaching 2-Ring still seems distant. Therefore, the only advantage Knights have is during the 0-Ring stage."

Owen spoke eloquently on the podium.

"Everyone here is a 0-ring Spiritual Apprentice, with very little combat power, unless you use Arcane Cards for combat. However, a 0-ring Knight can project fighting spirit externally. With a few people teaming up, hunting 1-Ring Spirit Beasts is not difficult. As long as you find a good partner and form a contract, you can borrow their strength, and promoting to a 1-Ring Great Knight will be effortless."

"But becoming a 1-Ring Arcane Mage is as difficult as ascending to heaven."

"This is due to the nature of the Blood Sea. The Blood Sea is located in the heart. After opening it, you can improve your physical fitness daily through the heart's pumping action. Furthermore, by contracting a spirit beast and resonating with its heart, you can borrow the spirit beast's power... However, I've heard that Arcane Mages who simultaneously open their Spirit Sea and Blood Sea can even refine their Blood Sea into an Arcane Artifact..."

"It's truly amazing, isn't it? That an Arcane Mage can refine their Blood Sea into an Arcane Artifact!" Owen exclaimed repeatedly.

Duke, sitting in the audience, had his eyes light up: "Xiao Yi, Arcane Mages can refine the Blood Sea into an Arcane Artifact. What do you think? If we two join forces, can we find the Blood Sea and then open it?"