Li Qing continued pouring essence into it. In the blink of an eye, he had poured in seventy percent of the essence in his body.
The iron ball still showed no change.
"Could I have guessed wrong?"
His mind was full of questions. Helplessly, Li Qing set the iron ball down.
After putting everything away, a thought crossed Li Qing's mind.
"I have five different cultivation arts and spells: the Black Water Profound Yin Art, Shadow Transformation Art, Blood Swallowing Art, Blood Fusion Art, and Blood Refining Art. I can take them out and trade them."
"I'll see whether the Scripture Tower has anything similar. If not, perhaps I can trade for the cultivation arts I want."
Lost in thought, Li Qing turned and sat on the bed. He slowly circulated his essence, beginning to replenish what he had just expended.
Ever since he began cultivating, his appetite had gradually grown.
The main reason was that his cultivation method extracted essence from within his own body, which differed in approach from the original methods of these arts.
One method plundered essence from the outside, while the other refined it from within.
He took a deep breath, and before long, the next day had arrived.
Early that morning, Li Qing went to find Wang Kuohai.
"Brother Wang, there's something I'd like your help with."
Wang Kuohai's expression turned solemn. "Brother Qin, what is it?"
Li Qing took out a sheet of white paper, on which more than a dozen materials were listed.
Among them were the materials needed to cultivate the Black Water Art.
One could never be too careful. You shouldn't wish harm on others, but you must guard against others wishing harm on you.
He didn't want anyone to figure out what he was planning from the things he had chosen.
"I'd like you to help me gather the items on this list. Here's one thousand taels of silver."
"If it isn't enough, come ask me for more."
Wang Kuohai took the list and nodded. "Please don't worry, sir. I'll send someone to take care of it right away."
"Thank you!" Li Qing cupped his hands slightly.
Inside the Demon Extermination Hall in Jade City, dozens of jade tablets hung on a special wall.
The tablets came in three colors—white, green, and blue—representing three different ranks.
At that moment, a man dressed in black selected a white jade tablet.
After receiving a dossier from the clerk, the black-robed man couldn't help raising his brows in surprise.
"A half-Transformed Body Strengthening Rogue Cultivator has died. Investigate the cause."
"Interesting. It's been a long time since I've encountered a cultivator's murder in the city."
"To kill a half-Transformed cultivator in the Body Strengthening realm... their strength must be quite impressive."
The cultivator who accepted the assignment had thick brows and large eyes. He was around thirty, with slightly bronze skin, and stood eight feet tall—a truly imposing, burly man.
Holding the dossier, he left the Demon Extermination Hall in Jade City.
In a tavern across from Hundred Gates Alley, Li Qing had rented a private room.
He had ordered a table piled high with meat and was devouring it with gusto.
This meal was enough for at least six people, yet he ate it all.
His belly was stretched tight. Li Qing silently circulated his essence, squeezing out, bit by bit, the essence produced as the food digested, replenishing what he had spent.
He could extract essence from food in two ways.
One was to incorporate it into his bloodline and raise its potential limit; the other was to convert it directly into essence. The two methods had entirely different rates of consumption.
This meal could raise his potential limit by one-thousandth.
But if he only wanted to replenish the essence he had spent, he could restore all of it in a single meal.
Raising the essence limit seemed to be a process of transforming his bloodline.
Simply converting food into essence was easy.
Before long, it was midnight again. Hundred Gates Alley quietly opened, and Li Qing emerged from the darkness nearby, cloaked from head to toe in black. He headed toward the alley.
The street was still deserted. Most of the Rogue Cultivators hadn't arrived yet.
Half an hour passed, and the cultivators who planned to set up stalls that day had all arrived.
This time, Li Qing had a clear goal: cultivation arts involving the five viscera.
"Heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. I already have a cultivation art for the kidneys."
"If I can find arts for the heart, liver, spleen, and lungs, I'll know whether the jade tablet can optimize and fuse these cultivation arts."
His gaze passed over one stall after another, searching for those selling cultivation arts.
Soon, he spotted the Five Viscera Five Qi Art. It was actually a cultivation art that directly trained all five viscera.
His eyes lit up, and he quietly walked over, looking at the stall owner.
"How much for this art?"
The stall owner glanced at him. "Ten Dharma Coins!"
Li Qing frowned at the price. He had spent much of the previous night observing people here.
Cultivation arts weren't particularly expensive. They usually cost only four or five Dharma Coins.
Most of these people already had cultivation arts of their own, and almost no one would casually switch to someone else's art and cultivate it.
"That's too expensive. Five. I'm just buying it to take a look."
"Hmph, this art of mine is still an orthodox Daoist Sect art, even if it's only a basic one that's circulated outside the sect."
"Ten big coins is absolutely reasonable. You'd pay the same price at the Scripture Tower."
Li Qing furrowed his brows. "Can I take a look at it?"
"Heh heh, friend, that wouldn't be right."
"There are countless spells in this world, and plenty of techniques can reveal their contents with just a touch."
"I can't let you take advantage of me for free."
The stall owner turned Li Qing down with practiced ease.
Li Qing felt a little helpless. Almost everyone selling cultivation arts and spells had the same restrictions. They would only let you see the name and a detailed description.
They would never let you handle the item itself.
Clearly, enough people had been burned before for this unspoken rule to take hold.
After thinking it over, Li Qing still took out ten big coins and bought the art outright.
As soon as he got the Five Viscera Five Qi Art, the jade tablet in his mind immediately recorded it.
Li Qing didn't rush to inspect it. Instead, he turned and headed for the Scripture Tower. He hadn't forgotten why he'd come that day.
"Since I was lucky enough to come across an art for the five viscera, I should see whether the Scripture Tower has corresponding arts for the six bowels, bones, brain, and other parts of the body."
"If all else fails, I'll transcribe the Black Water Art and Essence Blood Art, then come back and trade them."
"But then I'll have to use a different identity."
"In this world, I have to be twelve thousand percent careful."
Li Qing felt a deep sense of danger in this world. It seemed that peril lurked everywhere.
The Scripture Tower looked like an old-fashioned study, steeped in classical elegance.
Inside was a hall about a yard square.
Six chairs stood in the hall, and a desk sat against the wall. A middle-aged man in a blue-green robe was reading there.
A faint smile played across his face, as if he'd found something interesting.
"Hello," Li Qing said. "I'd like to buy something."
The blue-green-robed man heard him and turned to look his way. A strange ripple seemed to flicker in his eyes.
Looking slightly surprised, he set down his book with a broad smile and walked over.
"Please, have a seat."
Once they had sat down, the middle-aged man in blue-green smiled. "I'm Han Qingsong, the manager of this Scripture Tower."
"How should I address you, fellow Daoist?"
"I'm Qin Erlang."
"So you're Mr. Qin. What would you like to buy?"
Li Qing pulled five scripture books and a piece of animal hide from his robes.
"I have one spell and five cultivation arts here. I'd like to buy some cultivation arts at the Scripture Pavilion."
"What are these arts?" Han Qingsong asked with a smile.
"The Shadow Transformation Art. It lets you envelop yourself in shadows and pass through walls as if they weren't there."
"The Blood Refining Art, Blood Swallowing Art, and Blood Fusion Art—a set of three interconnected arts."
"One Black Water Profound Yin Art."
"And one Martial Art, which comes with two minor techniques."
After thinking it over, Li Qing had decided to write down the Martial Art as well.
"Do you accept these here?"