Three in the morning.
A silver moon hung on the horizon, spilling deathly pale moonlight over the long flagstone street. A night watchman passed the mouth of the alley with his bronze gong, sounding one quick beat and four slow ones:
"Dong~ dong-dong..."
Deep within the dark alley stood the Wu Household residence.
The great residence lay completely dark. Wu Su, his hair graying, sat behind a Nanmu Writing Desk with both hands braced against his forehead. Deep torment showed at the corners of his crow's-foot-lined eyes.
Last time, in the Corpse-Hiding Cave, after Lin Wanyi received a drop of Xie Jinhuan's vital blood, she had felt a pleasure that soothed her entire body, and had even wanted to do it a few more times. That feeling was actually a characteristic of Demon Path cultivation methods:
Bloodthirst Addiction!
Wu Su was the same, only worse.
The core of the Demon Path was to follow one's nature, taking from others to benefit oneself and practicing however felt best. After entering the "Unrestrained Desire" stage, every cultivation session even plunged body and mind into ecstasy, leaving one eagerly anticipating the next.
As a cultivation tradition, this sensation did not make practitioners physically addicted, but the "mental addiction" could not be eradicated:
Easily obtaining cultivation that took others years of bitter practice...
Growing faster the more lawlessly one acted...
Having no shackles of law, morality, doctrine, ethics, or anything else...
Once someone had tasted that feeling a few times, no one could bear the prison of reality anymore. This was also what drove Demon Path practitioners to climb higher at any cost.
Consuming blood essence also relieved Bloodthirst Addiction, but the sensation was like using a Horned Gentleman: it could bring pleasure, but fell far short of the reality and intensity of a