Blood Exchange

The Blood Jade Art.

Its name evoked repaying blood with blood, burning jade and stone alike.

From the moment one began practicing this art, one would repeatedly ignite one's own blood and qi, bringing them to a boil and laying the foundation for blood exchange and marrow washing.

Moreover, blood and qi that could boil at any moment could send its practitioners into a berserk state, granting them explosive power far beyond others at the same level.

But the price...

Was also extraordinarily brutal.

Many people would suffer depleted blood and qi before they could undergo blood exchange and marrow washing, dying plagued by illness and pain.

Many members of the Xu Family who practiced this art did not even live past thirty.

Even if they were fortunate enough to undergo blood exchange and marrow washing, unless they could subsequently repair the flaws in their foundation caused by that loss of blood and qi, they could forget about perfecting their essence and qi and attaining an impervious body for the rest of their lives.

Thus, this was clearly a shortsighted, sinister art that sacrificed one's future for a sharp increase in short-term fighting strength.

Of course, there's also the possibility that this art is missing something crucial: the accompanying blood-replenishing medicine! If the depletion caused by every instance of boiling blood and qi could be restored with medicine... this wouldn't be a sinister art chasing quick gains, but a supreme divine art capable of easily producing martial masters at the blood exchange and marrow washing stage, one after another!

Li Xian pondered.

No wonder this art had brought the calamity of extermination upon the Xu Family.

This art...

Indeed seemed to hold tremendous potential.

Li Xian leafed through it for a while. Finding no mention of any blood-replenishing prescription, he decided to find somewhere to throw it away.

However...

As he looked for somewhere to discard the art, his thoughts involuntarily began examining its advantages and drawbacks in detail.

Even without a blood-replenishing prescription, this art isn't entirely useless to me.

His thoughts turned.

Practicing this art has two major drawbacks. First, the inability to perfect essence and qi and achieve an impervious body. Second, depleted blood and qi and a damaged foundation... but its advantages are equally obvious. Boiling blood and qi amounts, in a sense, to repeated rounds of purification, performing blood exchange and marrow washing in the fiercest, most violent way...

Of the two drawbacks, the first had little effect on him. He had already comprehended primordial unity.

As for the second, depleted blood and qi damaging his foundation...

What do you think “One Proof, Eternal Proof, Never Regressing” means?

He was beginning to feel tempted.

Better to act than merely be tempted. He would find somewhere to try it.

"Li Xian?"

Just then, a voice suddenly came from the side.

Its tone carried a trace of startled uncertainty.

Li Xian looked toward the voice.

A woman who looked twenty-four or twenty-five was staring at him in surprise, looking him up and down.

Beside her were two companions, a man and a woman.

She looked somewhat familiar.

But...

He could not remember her.

"Don't recognize me? I'm Li Hanbing."

The woman spoke, then continued, "Did you come with Liu Yanran? She's up on the mountain..."

Li Hanbing?

He still could not remember.

After all, "Li Xian" had already died when he transmigrated, and the memories he inherited were incomplete.

Naturally, his memories of inconsequential people were not particularly clear.

Still...

Out of courtesy, Li Xian nodded. "Hello."

His attitude left Li Hanbing speechless.

She stopped halfway through what she had been saying.

Only after a good while did she continue, “Forget it. You've already severed ties with your family and married into the Marquis's Residence, so I suppose you don't want to see us. I don't know whether you came with someone or ran here by yourself, but there are plenty of martial artists here. They aren't as easy to talk to as scholars. Every last one of them is utterly unreasonable.”

She offered a well-meant warning. "As the saying goes, with a sharp weapon in hand, murderous intent arises of its own accord. Warriors rely on their martial strength and might attack over a single disagreement. For your own safety, you'd best leave."

"I understand. Thank you for the warning."

Li Xian nodded.

Seeing this, Li Hanbing opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

But in the end, she merely shook her head. "Take care of yourself."

With that, she turned and left with the two companions around her age, who seemed to be her senior martial brother and junior martial sister.

Li Xian gave it no further thought either. He soon left Canglang Mountain and went to the town below.

The town had a thriving trade and several inns. After renting a room, he began carefully reading the Blood Jade Art manual.

After studying it at length, he tried igniting his blood and qi according to the method recorded in the Blood Jade Art.

This process...

Was quite difficult for ordinary people, but Li Xian possessed a powerful mind and had spent this entire period trying to bring his blood and qi under control. Although he had yet to succeed, his control over them far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Drawing on this experience, he soon ignited his blood and qi and brought them to a boil. For a time, his entire body grew scorching hot, as though he had been struck by a high fever.

Yet rather than weakening him like a fever, this heat gave him the feeling of inexhaustible strength throughout his body, making him long to charge into battle and fight amid an army of ten thousand for three days and nights.

The berserk state!

Li Xian sensed the changes in himself.

In this state, his explosive power had indeed increased significantly.

Moreover, when he tried performing blood exchange and marrow washing after entering this state, his previously agonizingly slow cultivation progress instantly increased more than tenfold.

Just as I thought!

Li Xian's eyes shone.

Every method had advantages and drawbacks. The key lay in how he approached them.

After completing a round of blood exchange and marrow washing while maintaining his berserk state, Li Xian gradually wound down his practice and withdrew from the boiling of his blood and qi.

The moment he returned to normal, he felt an enormous expenditure of blood and qi.

But to say that this expenditure could deplete his blood and qi and damage his foundation...

Seemed a little exaggerated.

Li Xian considered briefly. I've already achieved embracing qi and forming a core and primordial unity, and I've begun bringing my blood and qi under control. My control far exceeds that of ordinary people. Besides, I only boiled my blood and qi to perform blood exchange and marrow washing, not to fight for my life. Naturally, the wear on my body wouldn't become apparent immediately.

Moreover, he could try optimizing the Blood Jade Art to suit his own characteristics.

In his previous life, he had drawn on the strengths of a hundred schools to create the Myriad Forms Limitless Art. That alone showed he was not someone who rigidly clung to established rules.

Now that the Blood Jade Art had proved so effective, he did not care whether it counted as a demonic or sinister art. He even stopped paying much attention to the Sword Discussion Convention, eagerly seizing every moment to temper himself.

Of course, whenever there was something lively to watch during his free time, he would join in to broaden his experience.

However...

The young talents competing below Canglang Mountain were mostly at the stage of Internal Organ Refinement.

Every one of them wanted to make a name for themselves at this convention.

There was also no shortage of people putting on an act like Zhang Yunsheng.

Six days passed in a flash.

Over those six days, Li Xian could clearly feel his progress in blood exchange and marrow washing racing a thousand miles a day.

Although he still needed at least another half month of consolidation to reach major attainment in blood exchange, he was already close to the minor attainment stage, at which he could publicly claim to have entered the Blood Exchange Realm.

However...

After six days of tempering, he had to face a problem.

His blood and qi were depleted!

He had achieved embracing qi and forming a core and primordial unity, and his control over blood and qi far exceeded that of ordinary people, but none of that could withstand such frenzied practice.

As long as training would not kill him, he would train himself half to death.

Even a bulletproof vest could not withstand repeated bursts of gunfire.

Li Xian felt the flagging circulation of his blood and qi...

For an ordinary person, this would have damaged their foundation, wouldn't it?

He once again breathed according to the Five Elements Method, circulating his blood and qi. Still, if I can replenish the blood and qi I've consumed in time, it might not have much effect.

He did not grow anxious.

Replenishing blood and qi...

The cultivation arts of this world were relatively crude, but all had corresponding medicines to provide nourishment.

For externally tempering the muscles and bones and practicing Internal Organ Refinement, there was Eight-Treasure Soup.

For blood exchange and marrow washing, there must likewise be blood-replenishing pills capable of making up for depleted blood and qi.

He did not know exactly what kinds there were, but...

Zhou Juechen, a martial master who had undergone blood exchange and marrow washing, would certainly know.

Originally, I only came to the Sword Discussion Convention to gain experience and broaden my horizons. I wasn't planning to trouble Hall Master Zhou. After all, he's already helped me a great deal by giving me the Five Elements Art, which leads straight to an impervious body... but now, I'll have to see him.

Having decided, Li Xian took a little time to regulate his essence and qi so that he would not look so withered and haggard.

Early the next morning, he checked out of the inn and headed straight for the entrance to Canglang Mountain.

Once he ascended Canglang Mountain, the number of martial artists coming and going diminished considerably, but their caliber increased markedly.

As he approached the Canglang Sword Sect's gate, two mountain-patrol disciples came forward. "What is your name, young hero? What brings you to our Canglang Sword Sect? If you've come for the Sword Discussion Convention, do you have an invitation?"

"My name is Li Xian. I'm here to see Hall Master Zhou Juechen of the Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall in Lijiang City. Sorry for the trouble, but please let him know."

Li Xian spoke.

"Hall Master Zhou?"

Experts who had undergone blood exchange and marrow washing belonged to the very highest circles within a province.

At this Sword Discussion Convention, for instance, there were only twenty or thirty experts of that level. Naturally, the two patrolling disciples remembered Zhou Juechen's name.

One immediately said, "Please rest for a moment in the pavilion halfway up the mountain, Young Hero Li. I'll report your arrival right away."

Li Xian nodded.

One disciple led him to the pavilion to rest, while the other went straight through the sect gate to deliver the message.

Before long, the message had reached the Canglang Sword Sect's inner sect.

At this moment, within the Canglang Sword Sect, a small circle of six people sat discussing the martial way.

Zhou Juechen was among them.

The fact that the Sword Saint Guangyuan was holding a Sword Discussion Convention at the Canglang Sword Sect did not mean he would appear every day to instruct others.

Today, for instance, the Sword Saint Guangyuan had not appeared. The group sat together exchanging insights, led by the renowned Jiangzhou elder, Recluse Baiyun, Ren Qingshan.

"Over these past few days, the Sword Saint Guangyuan has repeatedly offered guidance to your disciple Cao Qiu, Recluse. It seems we ought to congratulate you in advance."

“That boy Cao Qiu is only twenty-three, yet he has already achieved Viscera Great Accomplishment and begun blood exchange and marrow washing. With only your teaching and support, Recluse, he would at most perfect blood exchange in five years. But with the Sword Saint Guangyuan as well, comprehending primordial unity and attaining an impervious body would be far from an extravagant hope! And once he reaches the Leakless Realm, he'll have every hope of leaping through the Dragon Gate!”

The others kept offering Ren Qingshan their congratulations.

"That boy does practice diligently, but he isn't quite quick-witted enough. I worry that when the time comes, he won't grasp the key to primordial unity at all and will spend his entire life stuck at blood exchange and marrow washing."

Although Ren Qingshan could barely suppress the smile tugging at his lips, he remained very modest. He even turned to Tower-Bearing Hand Zhang He. "Your disciple, on the other hand-that boy Zhang Yunsheng is quite clever. Now he's even building a reputation for chivalry and has a chance of making the next Hidden Dragon Ranking. As long as you can help him complete blood exchange and marrow washing, with his intelligence, comprehending primordial unity will surely be no great difficulty."

"Ah, don't bring that boy up. He's caused me a great deal of trouble lately."

Zhang He waved a hand.

“Are you worried about the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang? Those thirteen brothers aren't unreasonable men. Send them a letter stating your position. They wouldn't refuse to give you, the Pagoda-Bearing Hand, that much face.”

Zhou Juechen, seated among them, also joined in.

"You have a boundless future ahead of you, Brother Zhou. Naturally, they'd give you that face. But old fellows like me... with how overbearing the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang are... even if they haven't taken it to heart, I've still suffered this undeserved calamity for nothing."

Zhang He spoke with a headache.

"That little girl from the Xu Family really is far too thoughtless."

A somewhat older man snorted softly. "I say we should speak to Sect Leader Jiang and have her driven off the mountain."

In his youth, Yu Songnian had roamed the martial world with Jiang Ruhai, the Canglang Sword Sect's leader. They shared some friendship, so he did indeed have the standing to say this.

While they were talking, a disciple suddenly arrived with a report.

"Hall Master Zhou, a young hero named Li Xian has come to visit."

"Li Xian?"

Zhou Juechen froze.

Only after a moment did something occur to him. "Li Xian? That boy even used an alias? What's he here for?"

He was somewhat puzzled.

But immediately afterward, he seemed to realize something and gave a soft snort. "If I remember correctly, people from Prince Yue's Residence are also on the mountain?"

(End of chapter)