Blood Oath

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

"Those who sense blood can perceive and guide their blood qi, taking their first steps on the path."

According to the method, only after successfully guiding one's blood qi through a complete Great Heavenly Cycle could one truly enter the Blood Sensing Realm.

Before, Jiang Ran had thought that the circulation he'd been performing... was a Great Heavenly Cycle.

But compared to what was happening now...

"This is what it really means to have mastered the basics..."

Jiang Ran felt the surging power within him, and his eyes lit up.

If his total blood qi had been a cup of water before, now it was a whole barrel.

Both its quality and quantity had undergone a dramatic transformation.

He tried to direct his blood qi into his right fist.

Humm...

The air around his fist wavered slightly, and an invisible pressure radiated from it.

"At least three times stronger."

Jiang Ran estimated his current combat strength.

If he'd faced that Mother Spider last night, he was confident he could have killed it within three punches while in the Buddha's Wrathful Vajra state. There'd have been no need for such a long fight.

More importantly, with his total blood qi greatly increased,

he could also sustain a fight for much longer.

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

Jiang Ran glanced at the time on his phone.

Six thirty in the evening.

There were still five and a half hours before he'd return, plenty of time to explore another area.

He got up and walked to the coffee shop's entrance, pushing open the glass door.

The street was still quiet. In the shadows cast by the buildings on either side, he could just make out the outlines of monsters peeking out.

But the day's killing spree had clearly frightened them. They only dared to watch from a distance and wouldn't come any closer.

Jiang Ran frowned slightly.

If all these monsters hid, he'd have to waste plenty of time looking for them, and his hunting efficiency would plummet.

He might as well...

check out another area.

That way, next time he came in, he could cast his divination somewhere else.

So Jiang Ran stood at the shop entrance, a freshly brewed cup of coffee in his hand,

and opened the forum on his phone.

After the initial twenty-four hours of panic and two days to adjust in the real world,

the forum had become noticeably more active.

After all, in the Abyssal Void, there were no distinctions of rank or status.

In the real world, you might be a company executive, a tycoon, or an influential figure.

But once inside, even you could be chased by a monster until you were screaming for your parents.

Even a delivery driver or an ordinary student could rise above the rest if they were lucky enough to obtain a supernatural inheritance.

Everyone started from the same place.

This had undoubtedly given many ordinary people a chance...

a chance to change their lives.

Jiang Ran glanced at the popular posts on the homepage.

[Teammates wanted! Edge of the West City Safe Zone. Seven-person team, looking for someone with basic weapon skills who's brave and levelheaded...]

[Buying Spirit Crystals! 500,000 yuan each. In-person transaction. Bank transfer or cash accepted.]

[Exposed! Some rich kid thought he could throw his weight around in the Abyssal Void. Our captain slapped some sense into him. Hilarious.]

The forum had become a miniature reflection of society.

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

Jiang Ran only skimmed a few posts before moving on.

He opened the search bar and typed in "Feng City."

The page refreshed, bringing up a flood of related posts.

[Latest map of the Feng City Safe Zone (updated October 16)]

[Warning! There's a strange white fog in the East City Development Zone. Nobody who went in has come back out.]

[Anyone near Feng City University? Let's form a team and check out the library. I heard there's something in there.]

Jiang Ran scrolled through the results, quickly skimming them.

On the third page, one post caught his attention.

It had been posted an hour ago, with a blunt title:

"What do I do? Can anyone save me? I have money... There are monsters everywhere around me..."

He opened the post.

The poster's ID was Wang Fugui Is Not Rich. His avatar was a selfie of a middle-aged man in a luxurious office, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and smiling confidently.

But the post itself was full of despair:

"I'm in a top-floor suite at the Hilton Hotel. Monsters have surrounded the entire street. There are at least dozens in the lobby downstairs, and they're crawling all over the outside walls... I can't get out.

"I have money. Can someone come save me?

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

Below the post was a photo taken out the window.

The street was packed with grayish-black monsters.

They weren't like the lizard-shaped ones from before. These were a new kind of monster, resembling felines but as large as calves, with bony spikes growing along their backs.

There were so many that the sight made his scalp tingle.

"The Central Business District... The monster density's this high?"

Jiang Ran's gaze sharpened.

In the real world, that area was one of Feng City's busiest districts.

It was packed with skyscrapers and commercial centers.

Normally, the density of buildings and the complex layout would make a large monster population understandable.

But the number in the photo was still beyond what he'd expected.

Jiang Ran opened his navigation app.

He entered "Hilton Hotel."

It was about twelve kilometers from his current location.

At his current pace, that wasn't far.

"Perfect."

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

Then he walked into the darkening evening.

Top-floor suite, Hilton Hotel.

Wang Fugui, whose real name was Wang Zhenguo, owned a local construction materials company in Feng City.

At that moment, he was slumped on the luxurious carpet with his back against a leather sofa, both hands clamped over his mouth to keep from sobbing aloud.

He was thirty-five. Starting from nothing, he'd worked his way up from hauling bricks on construction sites to amassing a fortune worth over a hundred million yuan.

Only he knew how hard the journey had been.

He'd finally made it. He'd bought a mansion, driven a luxury car, and married a beautiful young wife. His life was supposed to be for enjoying now...

Instead, he'd been dragged into this hellhole.

The first time he'd entered, he'd been asleep in his hotel suite.

He'd woken to terrifying scratching and snarling outside the door.

Through the peephole, he'd seen the hallway packed with catlike monsters with bony spikes growing from their backs.

He'd nearly wet himself. He'd used every last bit of strength to barricade the door with furniture, then grabbed a bottle of Moutai from the liquor cabinet as a weapon. When a monster crawled in through the ventilation duct, he'd shut his eyes and swung wildly, somehow managing to beat it to death.

He'd found a strange piece of paper inside the monster's head.

It was covered in blood-red patterns, but had no writing on it.

The moment he touched it, information had appeared in his mind:

[Blood Oath]

[Once signed, the oath-taker must obey the holder's commands without question. Anyone who breaks the oath will die as their blood qi turns against them.]

Wang Zhenguo had been both shocked and delighted.

He was shocked that this world had supernatural things in it.

He was delighted that he'd obtained a treasure.

But reality soon crushed his joy.

He discovered that the entire hotel was practically overrun by monsters, and there was no way he could get out.

When the first twenty-four hours ended and he returned to the real world, he immediately contacted everyone he knew. He even pulled strings to reach the relevant federal departments and reported his situation.

The federal response was thoroughly official: his report had been recorded, and a rescue would be arranged, but it would take time.

As for when, exactly?

They didn't say.

Then, after two days in the real world, he was pulled back into the Abyssal Void...

and things were even worse.

The monsters seemed to have sensed a living person here. More and more of them had gathered, and they'd even climbed all over the outside walls and windows.

He updated his forum post and offered a fortune for help.

But his private messages contained nothing but unreliable scammers asking whether he could pay upfront, along with desperate messages from a few people trapped nearby.

Nobody could save him.

No, more accurately, nobody dared to come.

The sight of those monsters packed together in the photo was enough to scare off ninety-nine percent of people.

"Am I really going to die here...?"

Wang Zhenguo watched the time on his phone steadily tick by. There were still more than five hours before he'd return.

A muffled thud sounded against the door.

The wardrobe blocking it had shifted, and the doorframe had begun to crack.

At most, it'd take another hour for the monsters to break in.

"I refuse to die like this..."

Wang Zhenguo gritted his teeth and pulled the blood-red Oath Paper from his pocket.

The paper felt icy to the touch, and its patterns shifted faintly.

"Following someone's orders is better than dying..."

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

"Whoever saves me, I'll obey your commands for the rest of my life!!! I have a supernatural item, the Blood Oath, which can be used to form a master-servant contract..."

After posting, he stared fixedly at his private messages.

One second, two seconds...

The expected notification never came.

Wang Zhenguo's face turned ashen.

But Jiang Ran had noticed his post.

At first, he hadn't been particularly interested in rescuing this Wang Fugui.

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

What interested him was the dense population of monsters in that area. It would make a perfect new hunting ground, and he'd be able to collect Spirit Crystals efficiently.

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

"A supernatural item that can force someone into a master-servant contract..."

Jiang Ran's gaze shifted slightly.

That thing was worth far more than Spirit Crystals.

He had no particular interest in taking on servants, but...

"What if I could use it on monsters?"

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

If he could control monsters, even the weakest ones would give him a huge tactical advantage.

Scouting, luring enemies, testing the waters...

But Jiang Ran didn't plan to contact the man in advance.

Sometimes, giving someone hope of survival only to snatch it away was even more despairing.

It all depended on whether the man could hold out until he got there.

Half an hour later.

Jiang Ran stood atop an office building two blocks from the Hilton Hotel.

From there, he could see that the entire street where the hotel stood was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere.

On the street, more than a hundred catlike monsters with bony spikes crouched or lay sprawled. Their dark green eyes glowed like will-o'-the-wisps in the night.

There were no roars, no commotion. They simply stayed where they were.

Jiang Ran's gaze swept over them, and his brow furrowed.

The scene was much like the Human-Faced Spiders he'd encountered in the High-Tech District.

Organized and disciplined.

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

Looks like this trip... wouldn't be as easy as he'd imagined.

But he was already here.

He might as well give it a try.

Jiang Ran leaped down from the rooftop.

He landed without a sound.

Rising to his feet, he headed toward the street where the hotel stood.

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

In the next instant, all three monsters pounced at once.

Jiang Ran stood still and took a deep breath.

Blood surged through his body. He unleashed the full power of the Blood Sensing Realm, bent his knees slightly, and assumed the opening stance of Dragon-Tiger Fist.

"Here they come."