Blood Oath

Jiang Ran immediately recalled the description of the first level, the Blood-Sensing Chapter, within the Blood-Qi Circulation Method.

"To sense blood is to perceive blood-qi, guide blood-qi, and catch a first glimpse of the path."

According to the technique, only by successfully guiding blood-qi to complete one full major circulation could one truly step into the Blood Sensing Realm.

Previously, Jiang Ran had assumed that what he was circulating... was a major circulation.

But compared to now...

"This is what true entry feels like..."

Jiang Ran felt the surging power within his body, his eyes brightening slightly.

If his previous total blood-qi was a cup of water, now it was a bucket.

Both quality and quantity had undergone earth-shaking changes.

He attempted to mobilize his blood-qi, surging it toward his right fist.

Hum...

The air around his fist distorted slightly, and an invisible pressure radiated naturally.

"At least a threefold increase."

Jiang Ran estimated his current combat power.

If he were facing that Mother Spider from last night, he was confident he could blast it to death within three punches while in the Buddha's Wrathful Vajra state, without needing to tangle with it for so long.

More importantly, with the massive increase in total blood-qi.

The duration he could sustain combat would also be extended accordingly.

"Looks like I'm good to go again."

Jiang Ran glanced at the time on his phone.

Six-thirty in the evening.

With five and a half hours left until his return, there was plenty of time for another round of exploration.

He stood up and walked toward the coffee shop entrance, pushing open the glass door.

The street remained quiet, and in the shadows of the buildings on both sides, the silhouettes of monsters could be vaguely seen peeking out.

But they had clearly been terrified by the slaughter earlier that day, daring only to watch from afar rather than approach.

Jiang Ran frowned slightly.

If these monsters all hid, he would have to spend a lot of time searching, and his hunting efficiency would be greatly reduced.

It would be better to...

Go check out other areas.

That way, the next time he entered, he could start in a different zone.

And so, Jiang Ran stood at the shop entrance, holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee in his hand.

He opened the forum on his phone.

After the initial 24 hours of panic and two days of buffering in reality.

The forum had become noticeably active.

After all, there was no distinction between high and low status in the Abyssal Void world.

In reality, you might be a corporate executive, a wealthy tycoon, or a person of power.

Once you enter, you might still be chased by a monster until you're crying for your parents.

Even a delivery driver or an ordinary student, as long as they were lucky enough to obtain a transcendent inheritance, could leap to become a superior being.

Everyone was at the same starting line.

This undoubtedly gave many ordinary people a chance...

A chance to change their lives.

Jiang Ran scanned the hot posts on the homepage.

[Recruiting teammates! Edge of the West City Safe Zone, seven-person squad, looking for someone with weapon basics, bold and meticulous...]

[Buying Spirit Crystal! Five hundred thousand per piece, face-to-face transaction, bank transfer or cash supported]

[Exposure! A certain group's young master tried to throw his weight around in the Abyssal Void, only to be slapped awake by our captain, hilarious]

The forum had become a microcosm of a small society.

There were trades, recruitment, information sharing, and even grudges and gossip.

Jiang Ran only glanced at them for a few moments before looking away.

He opened the search bar and entered the two characters for Feng City.

The page refreshed, popping up a large amount of relevant information.

[Feng City Safe Zone Latest Map (Updated October 16)]

[Avoid! There is eerie white fog in the East City Development Zone; no one who enters comes out.]

[Anyone near Feng City University? Forming a team to go to the library; rumor has it there is something inside.]

Jiang Ran slid his finger, browsing quickly.

When he flipped to the third page, a post caught his attention.

The post was made an hour ago, and the title was very straightforward:

"What do I do? Can someone save me? I have money... I'm surrounded by monsters here..."

He clicked on the post.

The original poster's ID was Wang Fugui Is Not Rich, and the profile picture was a selfie of a middle-aged man in a luxurious office, wearing gold-rimmed glasses with a confident smile.

But the content of the post was filled with despair:

"I'm in the penthouse suite of the Hilton Hotel. The entire street is surrounded by monsters. There are at least dozens in the lobby downstairs, and the outer walls of the windows are covered in them too... I can't get out.

I have money, can someone come save me?

Please, I really don't want to die..."

Attached below was a photo taken from the window looking down.

The street was densely packed with gray-black monsters.

They weren't the lizard-like ones from before, but a new type of monster resembling felines, yet as large as calves, with bone spurs growing on their backs.

The sheer number of them made one's scalp tingle.

"Central Business District... the monster density is this high?"

Jiang Ran's eyes narrowed slightly.

In reality, that area was one of the most prosperous districts in Feng City.

With office buildings standing tall and commercial centers gathered together, it was reasonable for the monster count to be high given the dense architecture and complex space.

But the density in the photo still exceeded the normal range.

Jiang Ran opened the navigation.

He entered Hilton Hotel.

It was about 12 kilometers from his current location.

With his current physical strength, it wasn't too far.

"Perfect."

Jiang Ran put away his phone and finished the last of his coffee.

He then walked into the darkening sky.

Hilton Hotel, penthouse suite.

Wang Fugui, whose real name was Wang Zhenguo, was the owner of a local building materials company in Feng City.

At this moment, he was slumped on the luxurious carpet, his back against a leather sofa, his hands tightly covering his mouth to keep himself from crying out loud.

He was thirty-five years old this year, a self-made man who started by moving bricks on construction sites and worked his way up to assets worth over a hundred million.

Only he knew the hardships of that journey.

He had finally made it, bought a mansion, drove luxury cars, married a young and beautiful wife, and was just at the point in life where he should be enjoying it...

Yet he had been dragged into this hellish place.

When he first arrived, he was sleeping in the hotel suite.

He woke up to the sound of terrifying scratching and roaring outside the door.

Looking through the peephole, he saw the corridor packed with those cat-like monsters with bone spurs on their backs.

He was so scared he nearly wet himself. He used all his might to barricade the door with furniture and grabbed a bottle of Moutai from the wine cabinet as a weapon. When a monster crawled in through the ventilation duct, he closed his eyes and smashed it blindly, and to his surprise, he actually killed the monster.

From the monster's head, he felt a strange piece of paper.

The paper was covered in blood-red patterns without any writing.

But the moment he touched the paper, information appeared in his mind:

[Blood Oath]

[After signing, the oath-taker will unconditionally obey the holder's orders; those who violate it will die from blood qi backflow.]

Wang Zhenguo was both shocked and delighted at the time.

Shocked that there were supernatural things in this world.

Delighted that he had obtained a treasure.

But this joy was quickly crushed by reality.

He discovered that the entire Hilton Hotel had been occupied by monsters, leaving him with no way out.

After the first 24 hours ended, he returned to reality and immediately contacted everyone he could, even pulling strings to reach the relevant federal departments to report his situation.

The federal response was purely bureaucratic: it had been recorded, and rescue would be arranged, but it would take time.

As for exactly when?

They didn't say.

And after two days passed in reality, when he was pulled back into the Abyssal Void...

The situation was even worse.

The monsters seemed to have sensed a living human here, gathering in even greater numbers until the exterior walls outside the windows were completely covered.

He updated his forum post, offering an astronomical price for rescue.

But the private messages were filled with nothing but unreliable scammers asking for money upfront, or desperate messages from others trapped nearby.

No one could save him.

No, to be precise, no one dared to come.

The dense swarm of monsters in the photos was enough to scare off ninety-nine percent of people.

Am I really going to die here...

Wang Zhenguo stared at the time constantly refreshing on his phone; there were still over five hours left until he could return.

A dull thudding sound came from the door.

The wardrobe he had pushed against the door had shifted, and cracks were appearing in the door frame.

In an hour at most, the monsters would break through.

"I won't accept this..."

Wang Zhenguo gritted his teeth and pulled the blood-red oath paper from his pocket.

The surface of the paper felt icy, its patterns shifting slightly.

"Obeying orders is better than dying..."

With trembling hands, he took a photo of the Blood Oath with his phone and updated the post:

"Whoever can save me, I am willing to obey their commands for the rest of my life!!! I have an extraordinary item, the Blood Oath, which can bind a master-servant contract..."

After the post went live, he stared fixedly at his inbox.

One second, two seconds...

The "ding" he was hoping for never sounded.

Wang Zhenguo's face turned ashen.

On the other side, however, Jiang Ran had actually noticed his post.

He originally had no interest in rescuing this "Wang Fugui."

Money in the real world was meaningless in the Abyssal Void.

What interested him was the dense concentration of monsters in that area; it would make a perfect new hunting ground, and the efficiency of farming Spirit Crystal would be very high.

But when he saw the update mentioning the Blood Oath, Jiang Ran changed his mind.

"An extraordinary item that can forcibly bind a master-servant contract..."

Jiang Ran's eyes flickered.

The value of this thing far exceeded that of Spirit Crystal.

Although he had no interest in taking on servants, but...

What if it could be used on monsters?

The thought flashed through his mind, making his heart beat a little faster.

If he could control monsters, even the lowest-level ones, it would provide a massive tactical advantage.

Reconnaissance, luring enemies, testing traps...

However, Jiang Ran did not intend to contact the man beforehand.

Sometimes, giving someone hope only to have it shattered was an even more desperate experience.

It would depend on whether the man could hold out until he arrived.

Half an hour later.

Jiang Ran stood on the roof of an office building two streets away from the Hilton Hotel.

Looking out from here, the entire street where the hotel was located was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere.

On the street, hundreds of Bone-Spike Cat monsters were crouching or lying down, their dark green eyes glowing like ghost fires in the night.

There was no roaring, no commotion; they simply waited in silence.

Jiang Ran's gaze swept over them, his brow furrowing slightly.

This scene was very similar to those Human-Faced Spiders he had encountered in the High-Tech District.

They were organized and disciplined.

It was as if a higher-level monster was commanding them.

It seemed this trip... would not be as easy as he had imagined.

But since he was already here.

He naturally had to give it a try.

Jiang Ran leaped down from the rooftop.

He landed without a sound.

Standing up, he walked toward the street where the hotel was located.

The moment he stepped into the street, the three nearest Bone-Spike Cat Monsters immediately turned their heads, their dark green eyes locking onto him.

The next instant, all three monsters lunged at him simultaneously.

Jiang Ran stood his ground and took a deep breath.

His blood energy surged within him, the full power of the Blood Sensing Realm unleashed. He bent his knees slightly and assumed the starting stance of the Dragon-Tiger Fist.

"Let's go."