Haolan Spell, Yes, Mana-Consuming Spell

"Hiss, the feeling of cutting my own finger open on purpose really isn't pleasant." Tang Liu's face twitched as he watched his blood drip continuously, feeling a cold chill settle in his heart.

Once the blood had formed a thin layer covering the bottom of the Calla Lily bowl, Tang Liu followed the system's prompt and hurriedly plucked all the leaves from a small herb within reach, crushing them quickly before applying them to his wound. Before long, the bleeding stopped.

Incidentally, the spot where Tang Liu placed the bowl was also directed by the system.

After stopping the bleeding, Tang Liu discarded the crushed leaf residue, then gripped the bamboo branch he had broken off as if holding a pen, gently dipping it into the fresh blood in the bowl.

He then used the bamboo branch to carefully write on the stone held in his left hand.

Whenever the blood on the bamboo branch ran low, he would dip it back into the bowl before continuing to write. By the time he had used up all the fresh blood in the bowl, the character on the stone was complete.

The character he wrote was "Store" (存). Naturally, this "Store" character was in the Small Seal script.

Tang Liu certainly did not recognize the "Store" character in Small Seal script; the system had simply projected the seal-script version onto the stone, and he had traced it stroke by stroke.

Setting down the bamboo branch, Tang Liu looked somewhat stunned. "Is that it?"

"Not yet," the system spoke up. "Host, please release your Third Martial Soul and use your first soul skill, Hao-Lan Mark, on this stone."

Tang Liu did as the system instructed, leaving a mark on the stone.

"Now, please sit cross-legged, place the stone about ten centimeters in front of you, and ensure the blood-written character is facing you."

Tang Liu followed the instructions again, sitting cross-legged and positioning the stone correctly.

"Now, Host, please inject your soul power into the stone through the Hao-Lan Mark."

Hearing this, Tang Liu was taken aback.

"I can also inject soul power into a marked target through the mark?" he couldn't help but ask.

"You can," the system gave an affirmative reply.

Having received the confirmation, Tang Liu's mind couldn't help but race.

If I can inject soul power into a marked target, then conversely, can I also absorb soul power from a marked target using the mark?

Or, to broaden the scope.

I can inject my life force into a marked target, and I can also plunder the life force of a marked target.

I can give a marked target everything I have, and I can also plunder everything from a marked target!

"And there are no restrictions on space or distance," the system responded to Tang Liu's thoughts.

"My god..."

The excitement in Tang Liu's heart was self-evident.

This is truly invincible!

"However, I advise the Host not to attempt this lightly, as this operation consumes a great deal of soul power," the system warned.

"I know, 'Mana-Draining' (Hao-Lan) spells, I get it," Tang Liu said calmly.

Ever since he took down that Mandala Snake, Tang Liu had gained a deeper understanding of the Hao-Lan Spells martial soul.

Take the first soul skill, Hao-Lan Mark, for example.

Although this soul skill does not consume soul power when marking an opponent, once you want to do something using the mark, it consumes a massive amount of soul power.

For instance, when Tang Liu used the mark to make the Mandala Snake freeze and explode, that single operation drained all the soul power in his body in an instant.

At that time, he could clearly feel that if his soul power hadn't been insufficient, even more would have been extracted.

After all, that was a 5,800-year-old Mandala Snake!

Or, for another example, if Tang Liu used the power of the mark to make Tang San suddenly freeze in mid-air just like the Mandala Snake, it would also almost instantly drain his soul power. If Tang San were replaced by Tang Hao, that speed would be even faster.

This is like an ADC whose basic attacks all cost mana, and the cost of every single basic attack is equivalent to someone else's ultimate ability!

Something like this, isn't it just a "Mana-Draining" (Hao-Lan) spell?

After thinking it through, Tang Liu finally understood why the two characters "Hao-Lan" on the cover of that Compendium of Haolan Spells he saw in his previous life felt so out of place with the characters that followed.

Turns out, those two "Hao-Lan" characters were completely added later!

Tang Liu seriously suspected that the original name of that Compendium of Haolan Spells was actually Compendium of Mana-Draining Spells!

What, did they feel bad about only changing "Drain" (Hao) to "Hao" (Hao), so they even went and redid the "Lan" (Blue) part which wasn't even a problem to begin with?

Then why not just change "Spells Compendium" while they were at it!

Was the budget too low, and they couldn't afford the revision fee?!

Having finally suppressed his burning desire to complain, Tang Liu refocused his attention on the stone in front of him.

As he concentrated, the phenomenon that had appeared on the Mandala Snake also appeared on this stone.

In Tang Liu's eyes, the stone gradually faded, with only the rune of the Hao-Lan Mark remaining within it, emitting a bright light.

Looking at that mark, Tang Liu began to attempt to channel his own soul power into the stone through the mark.

With a shift of his intent, Tang Liu felt the soul power in his body begin to diminish. At the same time, in his eyes, the light released by the Hao-Lan Mark grew more intense.

In just three seconds, one-tenth of the soul power in Tang Liu's body had been consumed.

"Now, Host, please point your right hand at the stone in the form of a sword finger and shout 'Lin'," the System said, simultaneously displaying a diagram of the "sword finger."

It was essentially just pressing the index and middle fingers together and extending them, with the ring and little fingers pressed against the palm, and the thumb resting over the ring finger.

In other words, it was that common hand gesture seen in xianxia dramas.

Tang Liu's mouth twitched, feeling an immense sense of awkwardness, but he followed the instructions nonetheless and shouted, "Lin!"

The moment the word left his lips, a dazzling blood-red light rapidly flared up from the stone.

From Tang Liu's perspective, the blue-black glow emitted by the mark was instantly swallowed by a sudden burst of crimson light; in the end, even the mark itself was dyed red, appearing quite eerie.

Tang Liu had no time to be surprised, for the stone that had been fading from his vision reappeared, and he finally saw the source of that blood-red light: it was the character "Store" that he had written on the stone.

After about three breaths of time, the blood-red light radiating from the stone gradually faded and vanished, while the "Store" character originally written on the surface seemed to possess a life of its own, beginning to erode into the interior of the stone until it had carved a permanent "Store" character into it.

At the same time, the originally irregular stone had miraculously transformed into a perfectly round bead, which was truly marvelous.

"Is that it?" Tang Liu still found it hard to believe.