Chapter 40

The night passed without incident.

After daybreak, Luo Qingchen said goodbye to Yang Guang and left the pavilion.

"Go on ahead, Brother Luo. I'll wait a little longer."

Yang Guang was in a corner of the first floor, being teased by two young women. He looked as though he was enjoying himself and was reluctant to leave.

As soon as Luo Qingchen stepped outside, he ran into Zhao Yun, who was returning from the entrance.

She wore a thin dress and shivered in the chilly morning wind. When she saw him, she lowered her head without thinking.

"It's cold. Remember to wear another layer next time."

The moment Luo Qingchen said it, he realized he'd just stated the obvious.

The girls from the pavilion went out to solicit customers, deliberately wearing gauzy clothes that showed plenty of skin to attract them. How could they possibly wear more?

Zhao Yun forced a faint smile, but said little. She only replied softly, "Mm."

Luo Qingchen said no more, either. He nodded and headed toward the back courtyard.

Zhao Yun remained where she was, watching him until he disappeared around a corner in the distance. Only then did she lower her head and enter the pavilion.

"Whoosh!"

After returning to his room, Luo Qingchen immediately began cultivating.

The medicinal energy his body had absorbed during last night's medicinal bath was still flowing through his bones.

It was the perfect time to cultivate!

He took a nap in the afternoon. After waking in the evening, he continued cultivating.

In the blink of an eye, fifteen days passed.

By then, all the blood in the second Blood Bar inside his body had been used up in medicinal baths.

Meanwhile, his cultivation progress had soared to 600/1000!

Fortunately, everything had been peaceful during this time. No one else had died at the pavilion, and no one had come snooping around the back courtyard.

That was what had given him the chance to take medicinal baths and cultivate in peace.

"Boom!"

He threw a punch. His strength had nearly tripled compared to before.

The toughness and defensive strength of his flesh and bones had both increased greatly.

His breathing had also grown longer and more powerful, and his senses had sharpened considerably.

The progress was plain to see!

"I'm still 400 points short, but I don't have any blood left to use."

He took out his bulging purse and poured out all the loose silver inside.

Because of his intense training, he had often gone out to buy meat to eat. So, of the 120 taels he'd started with, he now had only 110 left.

Today, he planned to go out and buy blood.

He had to keep taking medicinal baths to make rapid progress.

After thinking it over for a while, he changed his clothes and went out.

Yang Guang had just returned from outside, carrying freshly baked, steaming-hot flatbreads. When he saw Luo Qingchen, he immediately held one out to him with a smile. "Brother Luo, I just bought these. They're still piping hot. Have one."

Luo Qingchen thanked him but didn't reach for it. "I'll eat in the kitchen."

The two of them had patrolled together at night for some time now, and they got along fairly well.

After eating breakfast in the kitchen, he left the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion and headed straight to the Blood Shop on North Street.

This was the shop where he had sold his blood for money before.

The same old man in a black robe was there. Whether or not he recognized Luo Qingchen, he asked coldly, "Selling blood or buying it?"

Luo Qingchen took out some loose silver. "Buying. How much is a bowl?"

"Fifty."

"How much?"

Thinking he'd misheard, Luo Qingchen quickly asked again, "How much for a bowl?"

The old man in black seemed a little impatient. Raising his voice, he said, "Fifty taels a bowl!"

Luo Qingchen's mouth twitched. He couldn't help asking, "Why is it so expensive? When I came to sell my blood before, it was only seven taels a bowl, and I was a cultivator, too."

The old man in black didn't explain. Expressionless, he said, "That's the price. If you think it's too expensive, don't buy it."

Luo Qingchen froze for a moment, then silently put away the loose silver in his hand.

"I'll think about it."

He didn't linger. He turned and left the shop.

After that, he went to several other shops to ask around, but the prices were much the same.

One shop even charged eighty taels a bowl, with the excuse, "This is blood from a disciple of an upper sect—and a female disciple who's still a virgin, at that. It works even better in a medicinal bath."

Luo Qingchen wandered around the street for a few laps, then prepared to return to the pavilion.

He had only 110 taels of silver left. If he spent it all buying blood from the Blood Shops, he could afford two baths at most.

That wouldn't be enough for his current progress.

"If I come across someone selling blood, I could buy it from them privately. It should be much cheaper."

The idea suddenly occurred to him.

But he knew it wouldn't be easy to find someone like that.

And doing so would carry considerable risk. It would be tantamount to offending every Blood Shop in Medicine Man Town—and even the people above them.

"What should I do, then?"

Was he supposed to be like the other cultivators and rely on time and patience, cultivating slowly?

No. He couldn't wait.

Even if he could wait, his younger sister couldn't.

The Ten-Soul Banner couldn't hold out much longer.

Just as he was deciding to spend a fortune on a bowl of fresh blood and at least keep his medicinal baths going for the time being, a piercing wail suddenly came from a butcher shop nearby.

He turned to look. Several people were holding down a wild boar, preparing to slaughter it.

A knife came down, and blood sprayed everywhere.

The boar wailed in pain and thrashed violently, but it was bound tight.

As its rich blood poured into the wooden basin that had been set beneath it, Luo Qingchen suddenly felt a familiar sensation surge up from within him!

The Blood Sucking Skill in his second Blood Bar had reacted!

"Pig's blood?"

His heart jolted. He stared at the wild boar's spraying blood, unable to believe it.

Before long, they had finished bleeding the boar, and it died.

By then, the wooden basin on the ground was more than half full of blood, and plenty had splattered onto the ground.

Luo Qingchen held back his excitement and waited a little longer. When he saw the group preparing to carry away the pig's blood, he walked over with a calm expression and asked, "How much for the pig's blood?"

The butcher was a bald, bare-chested man. He was holding a sharp knife, ready to butcher the pig.

At the question, he glanced at Luo Qingchen. "How much do you want?"

Luo Qingchen looked at the blood in the basin. "All of it. My family likes to eat it."

A young man slaughtering the pig nearby laughed. "This pig's blood is pretty rank."

The bald man glared at him, then held up one finger. "One tael of silver."

As if afraid he'd quoted too high a price, he added a few words of explanation. "It wouldn't cost this much outside, of course, but this place is different. Besides, pig's blood sells well. After Blood Medicine are drained, many of them come buy a few slabs of it to build themselves back up."

As the saying went, eat what you wanted to replenish.

Many Blood Medicine bought pig's blood after being drained, hoping to replenish their blood.

But most people knew it didn't actually do much.

Luo Qingchen furrowed his brow. "A whole pig only costs two taels of silver outside."

Truthfully, even a little maid outside was worth only two taels.

The bald man snorted. "You said it yourself: that's the price outside. This isn't outside! Buy it or don't, but if you're not buying, get lost! I've got meat to cut!"

The bald man seemed to have a short temper.

Luo Qingchen pretended to think it over, then said, "All right. But there's no need to boil it. I'm in a hurry to get back and take care of something, so I'll cook it myself. Pack it up for me, and make sure it doesn't spill."

"You don't need it boiled?"

A woman nearby gave him a puzzled look, then went inside to find a container.

Luo Qingchen took out one tael of silver and fumbled with it a few times, as though reluctant to part with it, before finally handing it over.

The woman brought out a large earthenware jar and set it on the ground.

Two young men nearby lifted the wooden basin and carefully began pouring the blood into the jar.

As he watched the murky blood gurgle into the jar, Luo Qingchen kept his expression calm, though his heart was filled with excitement he could barely suppress.

If the Blood Sucking Skill could absorb even pig's blood, that meant he could use it to cultivate, too.

If that was true, then from now on, he could absorb the blood of animals as well as humans and make it his own!

Then he'd never have to worry about running out of blood for medicinal baths again!