Blood Sacrifice Technique and Blood Escape Technique

"Bleurgh..."

Song Wen had barely returned to his cave abode when he could no longer hold it in. From his stomach, which had gone a full day without food, he did not know what came surging up, churning his insides like a raging river.

Song Wen vomited continuously for half a quarter-hour. Only when it felt as though he was about to spit out his bile did the nausea in his stomach ease slightly.

He was so exhausted that he wanted to collapse into bed, but the stench of blood and corpses clinging to his body made him retch again.

He had no choice but to go out and fetch two buckets of water, wash himself thoroughly, and clean up the vomit in his cave abode before finally falling into bed.

The next day, Song Wen rose early.

He first went to the servants' dining hall for breakfast, then arrived at Corpse Dissection Cave before the hour of the dragon. If he did not come early today, then after dissecting one hundred corpses, he might as well skip returning to his cave abode to rest and begin the next day's dissections directly.

Fortunately, Corpse Dissection Cave was also at the foot of the mountain, not far from where he lived.

He was the first to arrive at Corpse Dissection Cave that day.

After receiving his share of corpses from Yuan Cheng, Song Wen eagerly began dissecting them.

By now, it took him only a little under half a quarter-hour to dissect a corpse. By the time he had finished one hundred corpses, another six hours had passed.

He was still the last corpse dissector to leave. When he emerged from Corpse Dissection Cave, just as on the previous day, night had already fallen.

After returning to his cave abode and rinsing himself off, Song Wen went to the dining hall.

At this time, only a few scattered servant disciples remained in the dining hall, eating their meals.

Song Wen forcibly suppressed the nausea in his heart and made himself swallow a large amount of food.

He knew that under such intense strain, if his body could not replenish sufficient energy, both his mind and body might develop problems and collapse.

Yet after all, he was a cultivator of demonic arts. The strength and endurance of his body were beyond ordinary people, and his body showed no signs of trouble.

After dinner, Song Wen returned to his cave abode and examined his body internally.

He discovered that although he had not deliberately absorbed the blood essence from corpses over the past two days, the dense blood qi in Corpse Dissection Cave, along with the blood essence he occasionally devoured without realizing it, had completely replenished the qi and blood he had previously depleted.

At this moment, he had once more become a vigorous young man brimming with qi and blood.

That night, Song Wen did not choose to cultivate. He still slept.

Sleep relieved his mental exhaustion and discomfort to the greatest extent.

The work of dissecting corpses was unpleasant, but there was no fighting and no complicated interpersonal dealings. Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, a month had gone by.

Song Wen had gradually adapted to dissecting corpses and become a qualified corpse dissector.

Each day, he needed to spend only four hours in Corpse Dissection Cave, yet he still remained the last corpse dissector to leave.

Song Wen had long resumed his daily cultivation. With the blood qi he plundered from Corpse Dissection Cave, his Corpse King Blood Refinement Art advanced by leaps and bounds, and Song Wen silently raised his cultivation to the second level of Qi Refining.

However, just now, after finishing his seated cultivation, Song Wen discovered an awkward problem.

Because his cultivation speed was too fast, he found that the corpse baleful qi supplied by the corpse well in his cave abode could no longer meet his cultivation needs.

While dissecting corpses, he could secretly steal and devour enough qi and blood for cultivation, but the corpse baleful qi in the corpse well was not inexhaustible. It was supplied in a fixed amount.

Naturally, this shortage of corpse baleful qi could only occur to Song Wen. In the cave abodes of other early Qi Refining disciples, there was absolutely no possibility of insufficient corpse baleful qi.

"What should I do? Where can I get enough corpse baleful qi?"

Song Wen immediately ended his meditation. The sky outside was already beginning to brighten; it was another sleepless night of cultivation.

Today was the day monthly stipends were issued. Song Wen planned to collect his stipend and visit the market town not far from the mountain's foot to see whether he could buy baleful qi.

After completing that day's corpse dissection work, Song Wen received his monthly stipend: twenty low-grade spirit stones and ten Corpse Blood Pills. Fasting pills were no longer issued.

The sun was still high, and he still had time to browse around. Song Wen hurried back toward his cave abode. The smell of blood on him was far too strong; going to the market town like this would easily draw attention, which did not suit Song Wen's habit of keeping a low profile.

After washing up, Song Wen did not head straight to the market town. He first went to the sect's Transmission Hall. His Corpse King Blood Refinement Art had reached the second level of Qi Refining, so it was time to find a way to strengthen his combat abilities.

Traveling at full speed, Song Wen spent nearly half a quarter-hour before reaching the Transmission Hall halfway up the mountain.

After showing his disciple token, Song Wen entered the Transmission Hall without difficulty. However, he was informed that disciples at the early Qi Refining stage like him were permitted to move only on the first floor.

There were many books in the Transmission Hall, encompassing everything and arranged by category: cultivation methods, combat spells, Corpse Puppet Refinement Arts, spirit herb cultivation, spirit material identification...

Naturally, everything on the first floor of the Transmission Hall consisted of beginner cultivation methods and books on low-grade spirit herbs and spirit materials.

Song Wen went directly to the spell section. There were not many spells suitable for early Qi Refining disciples, only a little over thirty in total.

Song Wen gave them a rough look-over. Having already cultivated the Fireball Technique and Shield Technique, ordinary spells held little appeal for him.

However, some arts unique to demonic sects caught his attention.

For instance, there was an art called Blood Sacrifice Technique. Once cast, this spell could greatly increase a cultivator's spiritual power for a short time, but it came at the cost of burning the cultivator's blood essence.

If others used this spell, at best their qi and blood would be severely depleted; at worst, they would die on the spot. It was generally used only as a final life-or-death measure.

Song Wen, however, had no such concerns. Over the past month, through repeatedly devouring the blood essence of others, he had gradually uncovered some of the secrets behind his body's ability to devour blood essence.

Perhaps his strengthened body had increased the limit of blood essence it could contain. Or perhaps his body had gradually adapted to devouring the blood essence of others. Now, when he devoured blood essence, he no longer suffered from the discomfort of surging qi and blood.

No matter how much blood essence he devoured, his body could quickly absorb and digest it.

Of course, it was also possible that Song Wen had been relatively restrained over the past month, and the blood essence he had devoured had not yet reached the limit of his current physical strength.

In short, the blood essence stored within Song Wen's body was more than ten times that of an ordinary person. Casting the Blood Sacrifice Technique would be as easy as turning his hand over, and he had no need to worry about any serious loss of blood essence.

Even if his blood essence became depleted, he could swiftly replenish it by devouring more.

Just as Song Wen's heart stirred, he noticed the price of the Blood Sacrifice Technique and could only put it down awkwardly.

The Blood Sacrifice Technique sold for one hundred low-grade spirit stones, far beyond what he could afford right now.

At his current income, he would need to save for five months without spending a single spirit stone before he could buy it.

Song Wen then saw a Blood Escape Technique, an art that burned one's own blood essence to increase one's speed. It cost eighty spirit stones, which Song Wen likewise could not afford.

After putting down the Blood Escape Technique, Song Wen moved to the Corpse Puppet Refinement Art section.

As a major sect specializing in creating corpse puppets, the Corpse Demon Sect had more than a dozen corpse puppet arts that could be cultivated at the early Qi Refining stage alone.

Perhaps to promote corpse puppet arts, or perhaps because low-level corpse puppet arts had already become commonplace around the Corpse Demon Sect, most corpse puppet refinement arts were quite cheap, ranging from several low-grade spirit stones to over twenty low-grade spirit stones.

There were also many types of corpse puppets. Some were advanced methods that refined the soul and corpse together, while others were low-level methods that refined only the corpse.

Corpse puppets that contained souls were also called living corpses. They were more agile to control and more powerful. If suitable yin-attributed spirit materials could be found, their ranks could even be continuously raised.

Corpse puppets without souls were called walking corpses. They were stiff to control and lacked any potential for growth. Because they were cheap to create, they were generally used as disposable cannon fodder.