Wang Kuohai arranged a room for Li Qing, a private little courtyard.
The All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency's estate in Jade City wasn't small. After all, dozens of people lived there.
After accepting Wang Kuohai's warm hospitality, Li Qing finally managed to lie down on the bed.
Feeling the softness of the blankets as the faint candlelight flickered, he let out a deep breath.
"Finally, I'm safe. It's just too dangerous out there."
After resting for a little while, Li Qing flipped to his feet.
He walked over to the table, where there was a writing brush and a small bowl. He had asked the servants to bring them when he returned.
"Now that I'm temporarily safe, I'll cultivate the new Essence Blood Art first."
"This world is too dangerous. I have to improve my ability to protect myself as much as possible."
His experiences over the past few days had left Li Qing with a sense of urgency, as though some disaster were drawing near.
He took off his shirt, picked up the Hundred-Forged Steel Blade, and cut the five fingers of his left hand, letting large drops of blood fall.
His blood was now an intense red, bright as rubies.
It was already clearly unlike an ordinary person's blood.
Looking at the bowl of blood, Li Qing's expression shifted inexplicably.
"By the end of this cultivation, I might really not be human anymore."
"But there's no choice. This world is too strange."
Shaking his head slightly, he picked up the brush, dipped it in the blood, and began writing the two different blood curses, Heaven and Earth, across his body.
The blood curses were etched into his mind. All he had to do was keep writing them.
An hour passed in the blink of an eye. The Heaven and Earth Blood Curses together contained more than six thousand characters.
When he finished, Li Qing felt an ache in his right wrist.
As he wrote the final character, the Heaven and Earth Blood Curses on his body began to radiate a bright crimson glow. As if alive, they swiftly coursed over his entire body before sinking beneath his skin.
Agonizing pain burst from inside him, and Li Qing struggled onto the bed.
Countless blood-red characters became two enormous networks, covering every blood vessel in his body.
A strange rhythm rang out again and again as his blood surged wildly.
His vital essence circulated faster through his body, driving the pain deeper into his bones.
"Ugh..."
Li Qing groaned through the pain. Every muscle and bone in his body convulsed, and he struggled instinctively like a lobster with its tendons torn out.
His eyes were wide open. He gripped the bedding with both hands, and his skin was flushed crimson from head to toe.
His eyes were veined with blood, and it seemed that traces of characters flickered across those veins.
The pain was at least twice as severe as the first time he cultivated. Li Qing felt his consciousness beginning to blur.
But he did not pass out. According to the Essence Blood Art, he absolutely could not faint during Blood Curse Body Refining.
Otherwise, the blood curse would devour him, killing him.
Li Qing clenched his teeth and didn't make a sound. He didn't want anyone to discover his cultivation.
The Blood Refining Art and Blood Fusion Art had undoubtedly come from some demonic sect.
They were classic methods for achieving quick results. Although the Jade Tablet had optimized them, their demonic nature remained unchanged.
Cultivating any demonic art inevitably came at a price. Although the Jade Tablet had eliminated the most severe costs, the pain of cultivation could not be avoided.
A full hour passed. Li Qing was drenched in sweat and lay completely motionless on the floor.
"Haah... haah..."
Panting hard, Li Qing broke into a smile. He had finally endured it.
His vital essence surged through his body. He could clearly feel that it had become a deeper red, though its quantity had not changed; it still occupied only one-fifth of his total blood volume.
But its purity had at least doubled.
"Now my ability to stay alive should have improved again."
After resting briefly, Li Qing slowly stood up.
He silently circulated his vital essence. It trembled faintly as he activated Blood Burning, the innate minor art contained in the Essence Blood Art.
In an instant, he felt one-third of his vital essence vanish into thin air.
Then he sensed the changes in his body.
He grabbed the Hundred-Forged Steel Blade and began swinging it around the room.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Every slash cleaved through the air, bringing a sharp whistle and a slicing rush of wind.
The blood-red light on the blade grew brighter, as if a scorching flame were burning along it.
It possessed a strange quality.
A flash of blade light struck a stool.
The stool split in two with a crack, and an inexplicable scorched stench lingered where the blade had passed.
Li Qing's eyes lit up. He hurried over to take a closer look.
The cut surface of the stool was charred black, as if it had been burned by blazing light.
"Blood Burning is pretty powerful."
"First, I can clearly feel the increase in my strength and speed. Second, my vital essence seems to have taken on a hint of heat."
"This heat is different from ordinary fire. It doesn't seem to give off much warmth, but its effect is much like burning."
"Is this like the elemental true qi in wuxia novels?"
Li Qing mused, "Now I have a saber technique, giving me a certain degree of close-combat ability."
"Together with the Spirit Summoning Tablet, I have a certain degree of ranged-combat ability. I don't seem to have any glaring weaknesses."
"The Jade Tablet can optimize all kinds of knowledge. What I need to do is find ways to collect more cultivation arts. Any kind of power will do."
"Then I can gather the strengths of a hundred schools into one and forge my own path."
"But the cultivation arts in this world are usually dangerous and require a price."
"I still can't see any problems with the arts the Jade Tablet has optimized so far."
"But with deeper arts in the future, perhaps some costs will be unavoidable."
"It'll just be a question of how heavy the price is."
"So I have to be careful. I absolutely can't cultivate an art that doesn't suit me. I need to find a path that requires no price—or only a small one—as much as possible."
"I don't want to be a shop assistant for another ten years. That life was too hard to endure."
Thinking of the ten years he had spent at the Huayue Study, where he had lived like a servant, Li Qing knew he would never accept becoming that way again after finally gaining power and freedom.
He returned to the bed in a few steps, his mind already turning over what he should do next.
"Martial artists can cultivate qi and blood. It sounds similar to the vital essence I cultivate. Both seem to be rooted in the blood,"
"Maybe I can collect a few martial arts and have the Jade Tablet optimize them. Perhaps it can fuse them all into one, creating a more powerful art that complements the Essence Blood Art."
"That's the path most likely to work for me right now."
With a goal in mind, Li Qing slowly lay down and drifted off to sleep.
His vital essence circulated naturally, and a faint red glow enveloped his body.
"Knock, knock, knock."
He had no idea how much time had passed when a knock sounded softly at the door.
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