Fusing the Blood Shadow Talent

A little over half an hour later, Qin Meng came down from the private room on the third floor. Two manuals were tucked against his chest, and he carried a heavy bundle containing twenty portions of nourishing herbs for the Boiling Blood Realm.

The Blood Wolf and Iron-Armored Salamander Demon corpses had been handed over to Duobao Pavilion.

They had drawn up a written agreement and settled on a one-month deadline. Although Qin Meng was using a false identity, he had temporarily put up the second-tier Salamander Demon Crystal Core as collateral.

Yang Xiong, an attendant of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, personally saw him to the door and handed him a palm-sized token. "Brother Ding, our pavilion only opened recently, and you've made a substantial purchase in a single transaction. This is a Bronze VIP Token issued by Duobao Pavilion."

Qin Meng accepted the token. It felt cool and heavy in his hand, its design both simple and exquisite. A relief of a nine-story pagoda was carved on the front; on the back, the words "VIP" were engraved in raised characters, with a tiny serial number beneath them.

Yang Xiong explained with a hearty smile, "With this token, you'll get a five percent discount on all purchases at Duobao Pavilion. If you need any rare herbs or Demonic Beast materials, you can also use it to place priority orders. We'll do our best to procure them."

"Then I'm much obliged, Steward Yang."

Qin Meng's eyes lit up at that. He clasped his hands in thanks, then took his leave.

As he walked out of Duobao Pavilion with his spoils, Qin Meng already had a plan in mind. The Diamond Body, along with twenty portions of nourishing herbs for the Boiling Blood Realm, would be enough to sustain him through the next month or so of hard cultivation and lay a firmer foundation for his Martial Path.

He hurried off. After leaving the bustling streets of the East District, he turned into a quiet, narrow alley. Once he had looked around and confirmed no one was there, he activated his Environmental Integration talent.

In an instant, his bones gave a faint crackle. The muscles of his face rippled and shifted like flowing water, rearranging themselves. In just a few breaths, he had acquired the unfamiliar face of a young man, utterly unlike Ding Li's rugged features.

Qin Meng pressed himself against the wall and sank his mind deep into his consciousness.

At the center of the panel's glowing screen, a blood bead the size of a soybean floated silently.

It had condensed from the Blood Wolf talent. Within the bead, a crimson wolf shadow could just barely be seen, thrashing and roaring, its savagery primitive and frenzied.

[Compatibility: 91%, fusion available.]

Qin Meng considered it briefly, then decisively chose to fuse.

"Vmmm—"

The blood bead suddenly trembled violently, erupting in a blinding crimson light! Then, with a bang, it burst apart and turned into countless crimson threads that burrowed into every part of his body.

Vast energy surged through him.

Qin Meng could clearly feel his body growing stronger. His leg bones, in particular, were repeatedly hammered and compressed, growing as dense as iron;

his muscle fibers multiplied and restructured at a frantic pace, every strand imbued with explosive force. The fascia in his soles strengthened, multiplying his grip on the ground.

More energy flowed into the meridians of his lower body, forcibly widening and clearing the circulation routes that had once been somewhat sluggish. A moment later, the strengthening came to a halt.

[Talent: Blood Shadow—Low Rank (1%)]

[Blood Shadow: Short bursts of speed are as fast as a fading shadow; jumping ability is greatly enhanced, and running speed is significantly increased. You can urge your vital energy to condense into a wolf-shaped phantom and deal impact damage to a target.]

"Half offense, half support. Just what I need." At a thought, Qin Meng's leg muscles tensed sharply, and he kicked off to the side—

"Whoosh!"

His figure shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow, covering three zhang in an instant. The alley walls streaked past as blurry gray lines. When he stopped, the hem of his robe had only just begun to settle.

Qin Meng kicked out several times in a row. The sharp, clipped whooshes came far faster than before. A smile had just appeared on his face when he suddenly frowned.

Somewhere deep within him, he sensed a feeling of fullness, as though a vessel had been filled to the brim with water and could hold no more.

Qin Meng vaguely understood. After fusing with the Blood Shadow talent, his body was nearing its limit for accommodating talents. Even if he later stripped new talents from Exotic Beasts or Demonic Beasts, he probably wouldn't be able to fuse them directly and grow stronger. Only by cultivating and breaking through to a higher realm could he expand the limits of his body.

"Looks like I'll have to settle down and cultivate hard once I get back." Qin Meng made up his mind. The muscles of his face shifted again, restoring his original appearance.

He strode out of the alley and headed straight for Chen's Fur Shop.

The Yanhan Dynasty had built its nation on the Martial Path, carving out thousands of miles of territory through centuries of conquest.

The dynasty's lands held boundless fertile fields. As long as there wasn't a year of great disaster, ordinary millet and rice were plentiful enough to feed hundreds of millions.

But martial artists were different—tempering their bones and strengthening their vital energy consumed vast quantities of nutrients with every step forward.

Grains alone were nowhere near enough. They had to supplement their diets with nourishing meat.

Thus, in the realm of Yanhan, grain was easy to come by, but meat was precious. Meat from wild beasts and Demonic Beasts, especially, was rich in vital energy and often impossible to find at any price.

No wonder Shopkeeper Hu had been grinning from ear to ear when Qin Meng agreed to sell half a deer carcass to Kexianju Restaurant.

By the time Qin Meng returned to the rear courtyard of Chen's Fur Shop, most of the earlier bustle had died down.

The wolf meat, which had once been piled up like a small hill, had been snapped up by the shopkeepers and workers from every tavern and restaurant in town. Only a little over two hundred jin of odds and ends remained.

As for the two Spotted Deer, Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu had been so reluctant to part with them that Qin Meng had specifically told them to keep one whole carcass. It was still intact.

Even so, between the wolf meat they had sold and the nine intact wolf pelts, Shopkeeper Chen had cheerfully written them a bank draft for one hundred taels of silver.

By the time they had counted it all up, the meat alone had sold for more than three hundred taels of silver. Their haul from this trip into the mountains had exceeded four hundred taels in total.

To Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu, that was a fortune they wouldn't have dared dream of, even in their wildest dreams. They held the bank draft and silver ingots in trembling hands. Who could have imagined they'd earn so much from a single hunt?

Just then, Qin Meng returned from outside.

"Qin Meng!" Li Tiezhu greeted him, his face glowing. After quickly telling him how much they'd earned from the meat and pelts, he handed over all three hundred-plus taels of silver. "Here, this is yours. You killed the wolves, so you should get the biggest share."

Qin Meng glanced at the money, took only a hundred-tael bank draft and two official silver ingots worth ten taels each, then pushed the rest back. "This is enough for me. You three can split the rest according to how much work you put in."

"B-but that won't do!" Li Tiezhu froze. When he came to his senses, he pointed at the heavy silver in his hands and shook his head repeatedly. "We can't accept it. You saved both our lives, and now you want us to take a share? I, Li Tiezhu, can't do that."

"Me neither!" Wang Tieniu hurriedly chimed in.

Qin Meng waved his hand, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Tiezhu, Tieniu, we got those wolves thanks to you drawing the pack's attention earlier. Besides, that red-furred wolf was the most valuable. You deserve this."

Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu felt their cheeks burn at his words. Remembering how miserably they had fled from the wolf pack, then looking at the solid silver in their hands, they felt both ashamed and grateful. They opened their mouths but couldn't find a word to say.

"All right, it's settled." Qin Meng cut off any further protest with a stern look. "Use the money to buy herbs that replenish your vital energy and strengthen your bones and sinews. The important thing is to improve your strength as soon as possible."

"Oh, right." Qin Meng turned to Wang Tieniu. "As agreed, sell half the deer to Shopkeeper Hu at Kexianju Restaurant. He helped us out of trouble last time."

"Don't worry, Brother Qin. I've got it covered." Wang Tieniu thumped his chest in agreement.

Qin Meng pulled the sled carrying the Salamander Demon in front, while Wang Tieniu pulled the remaining deer and wolf meat behind him. The three of them first headed to Jisheng Pharmacy.

After meeting up with Qin Xiaoshan, who had been waiting there, the two hunters excitedly told him about yesterday's perilous adventure and their haul, then gave him a share of the money.

Qin Xiaoshan clutched the heavy silver, his throat tightening. He looked up at Qin Meng's tall, straight back ahead of them, his gaze complicated.

Hadn't he once been among the people who laughed behind Qin Meng's back and called him a "good-for-nothing"?

Qin Xiaoshan sat on the sled and watched their belongings.

Meanwhile, Qin Meng took Li Tiezhu and the others to another shop to buy medicine.

Jisheng Pharmacy was the largest pharmacy in town. It was said to have ties to the official dispensary in the provincial city, and even Leiming Martial Hall didn't dare offend it lightly.

It treated ordinary people and also supplied martial artists with cultivation medicine.

The main hall of the dispensary next door was spacious and bright. Medicine cabinets soared to the ceiling, and a rich herbal fragrance filled the air.

More than twenty people were already lined up inside.

Most were dressed like martial artists, some looking impatient, others speaking in low voices.

Cultivation medicine required great care.

Not only did the herbs have to be carefully selected, but a specialist pharmacist also had to prepare them into decoctions and ointments suited to martial artists' training. Naturally, they came at a steep price.

A single dose of blood-nourishing decoction for the Boiling Blood Realm cost thirty taels of fine silver; medicine for the Blood Changing Realm cost fifty taels per packet.

Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu had only used medicine to assist their cultivation two or three times in their entire lives. Their families were simply too poor to afford it.

The worst part was that cultivation aids were not only expensive, but also in short supply.

Just as Qin Meng and the other two reached the counter and were about to ask for the medicine, a commotion suddenly rose outside.

Seven or eight muscular men in close-fitting clothes crowded into the pharmacy, surrounding one man. The leader wore fine silk and carried himself with an arrogant air. It was none other than Lei Jun, the young master of Leiming Martial Hall.