The Secret of Blood Transfusion

Inside private room Ding 527.

The youth impersonating Zhao Hu gently slid the door bolt into place, and above his head, a faint wisp of gray mist actually appeared indistinctly.

"This man isn't at the Iron Skin realm—he's actually a martial expert who has undergone one blood exchange?"

"Not good. Not only is this man skilled in disguise, he has also mastered a method to hide his martial cultivation. He almost even fooled me!"

At the entrance to the private room, Yang Xiao, who was circulating the Spirit Cicada Transformation to eavesdrop, instantly had his pupils contract, his expression changing drastically.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yang Xiao turned around and was about to take to his heels and slip away, only to suddenly stop.

No, no!

The aura above this man's head was faint and intermittent, extremely unstable. He probably had not truly undergone blood exchange, and had merely stepped one foot over the threshold of blood exchange.

"Although this man is impersonating Zhao Hu, he came to kill Zhang Long. He probably doesn't know I killed Zhao Hu, or perhaps he only suspects me, but can't be certain?"

"Who exactly is this man? Which force does he belong to? What exactly does he want to do?"

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He only felt that this matter was heavy with clouds of suspicion, as tangled and confusing as a blurred hare and falcon.

"Forget it. Since this man didn't come for me, the only plan now is to take things one step at a time and adapt to circumstances."

"As long as I don't enter the private room alone and stay a bit careful and cautious, using the unintentional to calculate against the intentional, I don't believe this bastard can do anything to me."

Yang Xiao could not figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking too much and pricked up his ears to continue eavesdropping.

Inside the private room.

"Zhao Hu" was completely unaware that someone was spying on him.

The instant gray mist appeared above his head, killing intent abruptly surfaced in his eyes, and his palm was about to smash into the back of Zhang Long's skull.

However, whether by coincidence or not, Zhang Long happened to bend down at that moment and gently patted the flying dust from his trouser cuff, dodging that palm by a hair's breadth without danger.

Zhao Hu's expression changed slightly. Knowing he had missed the best opportunity, the gray mist above his head vanished in an instant, and the killing intent in his eyes disappeared without a trace.

After Zhang Long stood up.

Zhao Hu wore a fawning smile. "Big Brother, the blood-exchange cultivation of us martial artists, and that great scholar Mr. Zou lecturing on the classics—what connection is there between them, exactly? Big Brother, please point me through the maze!"

Zhang Long, completely unaware that he had just escaped disaster, continued walking forward with his hands behind his back, explaining as he walked:

"So-called blood exchange is exactly what the words mean: replacing the mediocre, mixed blood inside us martial artists with the blood of fierce beasts."

So the so-called blood exchange was actually like this?

Yang Xiao was instantly stunned. He could not be bothered with the fake Zhao Hu and hurriedly pricked up his ears.

"Several hundred years ago, the world was in great chaos, fierce beasts ran rampant everywhere, and our dynasty's Founding Emperor appeared out of nowhere..."

Through Zhang Long's continuous narration, Yang Xiao finally understood that the so-called "Blood Qi Martial Dao" had actually been created by the Great Yan Founding Emperor!

It was said that in his youth, the Great Yan Founding Emperor had already been a highly skilled martial artist of the jianghu. He had traveled the jianghu for many years and had become acquainted with the disguised crown prince of the previous dynasty.

Under the previous dynasty's crown prince's recommendation, the Founding Emperor joined the previous dynasty's imperial guards, starting as an ordinary soldier and climbing step by step until he became the Grand Commander before the throne.

Later, the crown prince was slandered by others and died wronged, grief-stricken, and furious.

In rage, the Founding Emperor launched a mutiny, staining the palace with blood. He chopped the previous dynasty's emperor alive, then put on the yellow robe himself and established the Great Yan Dynasty.

After that, loyalist armies from every region descended upon him, but the Founding Emperor defeated and subdued them one by one.

After spending several years thoroughly consolidating his realm.

He led the Great Yan soldiers he had painstakingly trained and, like a gale sweeping away dead leaves, swiftly unified the south, destroying countless states.

A few more years passed. Once the south had stabilized, the Founding Emperor personally led the expedition, his sword pointing toward the northern barbarians.

With methods bloodier and more tyrannical than the barbarians themselves, the Founding Emperor exterminated the northern barbarian tribes to the last, slaughtering cities and wiping out clans at the slightest provocation.

He even destroyed sixteen barbarian kingdoms in one breath, killing until the various barbarians lost their nerve at the mere sound of him and surrendered one after another.

Only then was the world pacified, and the chaotic age that had lasted eight hundred years came to a complete end.

As time passed, the secret behind the Founding Emperor's invincibility in battle finally became known to the world.

It turned out that the secret of all this lay in—Blood Qi Martial Dao!

Using flesh and blood as the primer, through constant slaughter, fierce beast blood was drawn into the bodies of soldiers!

Through continuous blood exchange, in theory, soldiers could ultimately even use mortal bodies—to stand shoulder to shoulder with gods!

Of course, in the several hundred years since Great Yan's founding, the only one who had truly been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with gods was the Great Yan Founding Emperor alone.

After several hundred years of change, Blood Qi Martial Dao had developed to the present day, and its cultivation system was already extremely complete. It was the mainstream path for martial practitioners of this age.

As for "secret medicine," it had not been created by the Great Yan Founding Emperor.

Rather, it was the result perfected by successive Great Yan emperors after the Founding Emperor, who widely gathered martial experts from all under heaven, assembled them within the imperial palace, and exhausted the efforts of several generations in constant research and refinement.

As for exactly how "secret medicine" was made, Zhang Long naturally did not know.

But Zhang Long did know that secret medicine could not only greatly increase the success rate during blood exchange, but also reduce the side effects brought by blood exchange to the absolute minimum.

"Blood exchange actually has side effects too?"

Hearing this, "Zhao Hu" feigned confusion, his expression "changing drastically."

"If one changes blood without a secret medicine, then it is—nine deaths and one life!"

"Even with a secret medicine to guard the path, when we martial artists break through by changing blood, the filthy things contained in the blood of fierce beasts will still disturb our minds—at best, we suffer qi deviation and fall into madness; at worst, we die violently on the spot!"

At this point, Zhang Long could not help sighing with emotion. "Brother Zhao, do you understand now just how important Mr. Zou's scripture lectures are to qi-and-blood martial artists like us?"

So that was it!

"Zhao Hu" feigned sudden enlightenment and said in an "excited" voice:

"Big Brother means that if martial artists like us are fortunate enough to listen to a great scholar lecture on the classics, we can temper our state of mind, thereby increasing the success rate of blood changing?"

"Exactly!"

Zhang Long nodded and smiled. "Brother Zhao, Mr. Zou's lecture today will also be of great benefit to you and me."

"Though we are attendants, we can observe a great scholar lecturing on the classics from close at hand."

"If we are lucky enough to comprehend even a thing or two, when you and I change blood in the future, it can increase our chance of success by at least ten percent."

Wonderful!

"Zhao Hu" feigned excitement and continued chatting idly with Zhang Long.

Outside the private room.

Yang Xiao still wanted to keep eavesdropping.

But he suddenly felt his vision blur, and the "scroll" in his mind vanished in an instant.

An unprecedented feeling of weakness and exhaustion made Yang Xiao's figure sway, and he nearly fell to the ground.

"Eavesdropping felt great, sure, but I forgot that this Spirit Cicada Transformation consumes essence, qi, and spirit to an extreme degree."

Yang Xiao could not help smiling wryly. Bracing himself against the wall, he moved carefully, slowly entering the adjacent private room, closing his eyes, and beginning to meditate.

What Yang Xiao did not see, however, was that this scene happened to be seen from far away by the dancing girl Xiao Zhao, who had just walked out of a certain private room.

"This kid pretends he isn't interested in this young lady, standing in the corridor every day and staring at Great Tang's Painting of the Luo Goddess."

"But at night, he sneaks off to the brothel to have his fun, so that by day his steps are unsteady and his limbs are weak..."

At once, a trace of disgust flashed through Xiao Zhao's eyes.

Though arrogant Xiao Zhao could not possibly like Yang Xiao.

Still, being secretly liked by a handsome young man was something that made one happy.

But now?

Scumbag!

Hmph!

Xiao Zhao left in a huff.

And of all this, Yang Xiao knew nothing.

Yang Xiao sat in the neighboring gatehouse and practiced breathing for a while. Slowly opening his eyes, he immediately felt refreshed and clear-headed, his whole body as if filled with inexhaustible strength.

"After I exhaust my essence, qi, and spirit using Spirit Cicada Transformation, then use the Azure Cloud Sect's breathing method, not only can I rapidly recover my essence, qi, and spirit, it seems the upper limit of how much I can store has also increased?"

Yang Xiao was first stunned, then wildly delighted.

Did that not mean that, from now on, if Yang Xiao hid in the gatehouse and eavesdropped, he could repeatedly temper his essence, qi, and spirit, making his "capacity" larger and larger?

Wait!

Someone was coming!

Yang Xiao's ears twitched slightly. He quickly walked out of the gatehouse and stood at the entrance of private room Ding 527, his expression respectful.

Soon, footsteps rang out.

Surrounded by a crowd, Mr. Zou slowly walked over in white Confucian robes, his bearing extraordinary.

And when Yang Xiao clearly saw just what sort of person was following beside Mr. Zou—

His eyelids immediately twitched wildly, and an intense sense of life-and-death crisis surged up in his heart...