Li Qing was quite astonished. The figure was very unusual, shrouded in a hazy black mist that concealed its form.
It was clearly a mysterious person who had mastered vital essence.
After a brief pause, Li Qing did not follow. Instead, he turned and quickly headed back toward the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency.
"It seems there are quite a few cultivators in Jade City."
"Dao Lineage? I wonder what kind of world lies within it."
Before long, he returned to his courtyard, already impatient to begin cultivating.
"This world is far too dangerous. I have to seize every moment to cultivate."
Back in his room, he picked up the bowl and writing brush again and began cultivating the new Spirit Blood Curse.
As before, he pricked all ten fingers to draw blood, then used the brush to write the Three Talents Blood Curse of Heaven, Earth, and Man.
As he wrote the final character, the Three Talents Blood Curse began to surge.
Wave after wave of agony surged through him. Li Qing lay on the bed, twitching like a skinned shrimp.
He endured it for a full hour. Only when he was nearly drained of strength did he finally get through the Blood Curse Body Refining.
Li Qing's face was deathly pale as he sensed the vital essence flowing through his body.
To his surprise, his vital essence had become a pure blood-red radiance, as though a spiritual light flickered within it.
This vital essence occupied one-fifth of the blood vessels throughout his body, flowing within him like a mighty river.
His whole body felt as though it were being massaged, and the pain from before was rapidly fading.
He could clearly feel his body changing, bit by bit.
"This new cultivation method is almost absurdly powerful."
Just then, his vital essence gathered in his lower abdomen, where a marvelous blood-red structure appeared.
Strands of vital essence wove together like threads, forming a blood-red seed.
The seed was three-dimensional, and at a glance, it looked vaguely like a ball of flame.
The blood-red seed gave off a red radiance, illuminating a strange, dark space in his lower abdomen.
He sensed that this radiance had opened something inside his body.
"What is this?"
A thought stirred in his mind, and he raised his hand slightly.
Half the vital essence circulating through his body vanished into thin air. The strange blood-red seed in his lower abdomen trembled faintly, and a stream of red light traveled along a wondrous passage from his abdomen to his palm.
A ball of red flame appeared in his hand, floating motionlessly.
Li Qing could clearly feel that he could control the flame at will.
Guided by his thoughts, the flame slowly rose from his right hand.
It danced through the air with the nimbleness of a living thing.
But Li Qing could sense its power rapidly dwindling.
It lasted for a few breaths before gradually going out, then finally vanished into the air.
"Was that the Burning Blood Flame spell? A seed formed from vital essence?"
"And that mysterious dark space in my lower abdomen, along with the passage this power traveled through when I activated the spell..."
"They all seem to be naturally present in my body. Could they be meridians?"
Li Qing's expression turned strange. "In all those cultivation and martial arts novels, people used meridians to cultivate."
"They circulated all kinds of true qi, spiritual energy, and true essence."
"But the Spirit Blood Art doesn't seem to work that way."
"Instead, it circulates vital essence through the blood vessels, yet this innate spell condenses something like a spell foundation around where the dantian should be."
"This is full of mysteries. So this is eldritch cultivation? It feels like all kinds of strange things will happen from now on."
He shook his head slightly, then got up.
Next, he wanted to cultivate the Shadow Art.
He recalled everything he knew about the spell.
Its method of cultivation was simple.
It contained a passage of incantation that had to be recited continuously while in shadow, absorbing a special kind of vital essence.
The instructions specifically stated that it could only be cultivated in places bustling with people. It could not be practiced in the wilderness.
Li Qing studied the spell's contents, his eyes thoughtful.
"Places bustling with people... Could that be so I can absorb those multicolored vital essences in the sky, the ones released by countless people?"
"The Dao Lineages hide within human society, and this spell has to be cultivated in a crowded place. Does that mean all the vital essence needed for cultivation has to be absorbed from people?"
"Is that why the Dao Lineages hide within human society?"
Vaguely, Li Qing felt he might have uncovered a secret of the mysterious world of the Dao Lineages.
After pondering for a moment, he climbed into bed to rest.
He planned to cultivate this spell tomorrow, since it had certain requirements.
"I should let Wang Kuohai know, so he doesn't send anyone to disturb me."
In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived. Li Qing told Wang Kuohai not to let anyone in, then began cultivating the Shadow Art.
He sat cross-legged in his room, concealed in a corner of pure shadow, where the sunlight from outside could not reach.
He began silently reciting the incantation. The seconds ticked by.
As he continued to recite, strange black vital essence seemed to gather in the air, unseen by ordinary eyes.
It was deeply dark, as though some shadowy emotion flickered within it.
As it gathered, it gradually enveloped Li Qing.
The darkness churned, seeming to form some mysterious connection with the shadows around him.
Little by little, it became an illusory darkness, as though it were shadow itself.
Cloaked in shadow, Li Qing seemed to sink into it.
A strange chill covered every inch of his body.
He could sense his vital essence slowly being depleted in the cold, as though it were resisting the chill's invasion.
The dark shadow seeped into his body, gathering in his lower abdomen, where his dantian seemed to be.
A strange seed formed from black vital essence appeared there.
A layer of black mist seemed to flicker within it, a pure yet illusory black vital essence.
But now, this vital essence no longer seemed strange. It was as though the process of taking shape had washed it clean, stripping away its uncanny darkness.
The spell seed fully formed, and Li Qing opened his eyes.
He could feel the black seed inside his body.
At a thought, an invisible black light spread from the seed, traveling through the passage inside him and covering his entire body.
Li Qing looked down at himself. A thin veil of black shrouded his body, as though it had cut him off from the world.
He glanced around. He seemed to have disappeared into the shadows, and a strange chill filled the area. The vital essence in the spell seed was slowly being depleted.
He turned and walked toward the wall, passing through it without a sound.
Outside, the light was bright, and the sun was slowly rising.
Beneath the sunlight, he was an illusory shadow, moving across the ground.
Li Qing considered this. "I can walk outside the shadows."