Drawing in Qi and the Blood Bath

In the dead of night, spiritual qi suddenly surged violently at the center of the silent pavilion. It rushed in from all directions, forming white spirals of wind that poured toward a room.

Lin Sui sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. The rushing spiritual qi gathered into a white vortex above his head, then, as though drawn by some force, poured wildly into the crown of his head.

Su Fuxi hurriedly appeared before him. At the sight, even her sightless eyes widened slightly in shock. This-this was drawing qi into the body!

The spiritual qi drawn in by the boy filled the entire Chongming Pavilion. The violent disturbance in its flow prompted the elders cultivating in seclusion in the caves on the mountain behind the sect to open their eyes. They glanced toward Chongming Pavilion, then closed them again.

The same thought occurred to them all: it seemed some talented youngster was practicing drawing in qi.

Su Fuxi kept silent watch beside him and swept her spiritual sense over the light of Lin Sui's fortune. Judging by this display, his talent was indeed exceptional!

Inside Lin Sui's body, he had guided the spiritual qi downward and broken open eleven spiritual apertures in succession. Now he was trying to break through the twelfth.

For an ordinary cultivator to cultivate, they needed at least three spiritual apertures and spiritual roots that were sufficiently resilient and unobstructed. Those conditions were barely enough to draw in qi and temper the body.

Su Fuxi was an ordinary person with four spiritual apertures and mixed spiritual roots. She had entered the Dao with difficulty, relying entirely on honing her spiritual apertures day after day. By now, she had broken open seven apertures and established pathways for spiritual power to circulate through her body. At least three apertures were needed to establish circulation.

This was already the limit of what she could achieve. After all, the spiritual qi at the Azure Cloud Sect in the Tianshui Kingdom was already considered excellent, so this was as far as she could go. The spiritual vein of Azure Cloud Mountain lay beneath Cloud-Capped Peak. If she wanted a better place rich in spiritual qi, she would have to go to a faction in a higher-ranked kingdom, but unfortunately, she was unable to meet the requirements.

"Ugh..."

As thoughts passed back and forth through her mind, Su Fuxi suddenly heard Lin Sui let out a muffled groan of pain. The spiritual qi circulating around him abruptly slowed, then surged violently into his body!

Lin Sui's face quickly flushed red. He groaned again, his face turning pale as cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He had reached the thirteenth spiritual aperture but lacked experience, and a moment's carelessness had led him to use too much force. The spiritual qi was blocked with no way to escape, and it began to accumulate and rampage through his meridians.

The meridians all over his body swelled like balloons. His exposed skin slowly flushed red with blood, and his veins bulged. If the accumulated spiritual qi could not resume its normal circulation, his body would soon explode, killing him.

Danger! Su Fuxi had no time to think. She immediately sat cross-legged behind him and formed a seal with both hands, swiftly guiding her own spiritual power into his body to help disperse the accumulating spiritual qi.

The entire process had to be handled with extreme care and was very slow, because a single mistake would destroy all the meridians in his body.

Only after two hours did the surging spiritual qi in the room gradually disperse and the vortex vanish. The spiritual qi inside Lin Sui finally resumed its normal circulation.

"Master..."

"Focus your mind and continue breaking open your next spiritual aperture."

The boy murmured softly, and Su Fuxi spoke coldly, giving him a direct order. "Stop decisively when you reach your limit."

Lin Sui immediately obeyed.

As the sky began to lighten, he successfully broke open his fourteenth spiritual aperture. When he tried to reach the fifteenth, the aperture began to ache faintly, and his meridians felt as though they were being torn apart. Knowing he had reached his limit, he promptly stopped trying to break through.

He opened his eyes to see Su Fuxi sitting upright beside his bed. She must have been guarding him the whole time, and the boy could not help feeling touched.

"..." Just as he was about to call out to her, she raised her face and looked at him expressionlessly. Her voice was a little cold. "You've certainly gotten bold. Acting so recklessly, you nearly sent yourself down to the Yellow Springs."

Lin Sui lowered his head in shame. "Thank you for helping me, Master. Your disciple won't dare do it again." He had not expected to succeed in drawing in qi by sheer chance, either. He had thought all cultivators did it this way.

Su Fuxi stood up, took his wrist, and sent her spiritual power into him. She found that he did indeed have ten innate spiritual apertures and had broken open four more afterward. His meridians were also naturally wide and unobstructed. He was simply... not human!

She immediately felt somewhat uncomfortable. She quickly released the boy's slender wrist. "Go find Wang Xiaohu and have breakfast first. Return at the start of the Chen hour and wait for me." With that, she tossed him an ordinary pouch and vanished.

Lin Sui was already accustomed to this. He caught the pouch and opened it to find a few spirit stones and some loose pieces of gold and silver. It was probably spending money for his meals.

In all his years, he had never seen so much money. Flattered and overwhelmed, he tucked the pouch into his robes and went out.

She really is a good master, he thought. People saying she's cold and heartless must be spreading rumors.

Meanwhile, Su Fuxi rode her flying sword straight to the outskirts of the Azure Cloud Mountain Range. The spiritual qi was not as abundant there, and many ordinary wild beasts lived deep in the forests.

Before long, she found a human-faced bear. It looked ugly and eerie, and it silently stared back at her for several seconds. Only when she released her aura for an instant did it realize it was her prey too. It turned and ran, and Su Fuxi killed it with one stroke of her sword.

She reached into her storage bag, and a wooden bucket soon landed on the ground. Raising a hand, she released her spiritual power to seize the prey from a distance, crudely sliced off its head, and deftly collected the bear's blood.

The second was a fierce tiger with a white forehead and glaring eyes. She drew its blood with one stroke and took its pelt as well to exchange for silver. In the Tianshui Kingdom, spirit stones circulated among cultivators, but gold and silver currency were generally more useful. Even some low-level cultivators who lacked enough spirit stones preferred to barter.

The third time, she came across a white deer. Su Fuxi was about to strike when she saw its swollen belly and the fawn inside. She immediately gave up.

As it happened, a diamond-patterned python was hiding in the waist-high grass nearby, watching the white deer. She casually killed it, and the deer glanced at her before hurriedly fleeing.

Ordinary snake blood reeked, and there was not much of it. Su Fuxi frowned, but she had already killed it, and leaving it would be a waste. She collected its blood in the bucket after all, so it would not have died for nothing.

She hunted from place to place like this, working for more than an hour before collecting enough beast blood. She returned to Chongming Pavilion by the start of the Chen hour, then went to a side room in the rear courtyard to prepare the body-tempering materials herself.

When Lin Sui returned, he was faced with a whole bathtub of beast blood, giving off foul, nauseating bubbles, with various flowers and herbs floating in it. He could already sense the spiritual qi in those herbs. The stench and spiritual qi mingled and rushed straight to the crown of his head.

"Master, you mean you want me to soak... soak in that?" He swallowed and quietly took a small step back, making a great effort to keep himself from turning and running.

"Mm. Take off your clothes and soak in it naked." Su Fuxi pretended not to understand the reluctance on his face. As she spoke, she turned her back so she would not look at him.

Her voice was calm, but it brooked no argument.

Lin Sui covered his nose. "What... what is this for? Your disciple... your disciple has never seen anyone bathe like this..." His voice grew less confident as he spoke.

He did not dare show too much disgust. He knew that even though immortals were blind, they could still see what he was doing. He had long since asked about Su Fuxi's deeds and knew that immortals had an ability called spiritual sense.

"This is a medicinal bath for tempering the body. It will lay the foundation for the cultivation art you practice."

With her back to him, Su Fuxi turned her face slightly, though her expression could not be seen. She spoke without mincing words. "Get in!"

Lin Sui hesitated.

"Quit dawdling. Don't make me throw you in myself."

"..."

All right, then. Lin Sui gritted his teeth, stripped off his clothes, and tossed them onto the screen frame. Naked, he went ahead and soaked himself in the tub.

Part of the reason he could throw caution to the wind was that this would lay the foundation for his cultivation. More than that, though... he did not want to make her angry.

The body-tempering blood bath did indeed smell revolting. Lin Sui held his breath. As soon as he entered the tub, he felt the warm liquid cling to his skin. He squeezed his eyes shut, unwilling to look at the bizarre blood bath any longer.

Su Fuxi waited until he was in before turning around to look. Seeing how hard he found it to endure, she glanced at the blood bath and did indeed find it rather disgusting. She then took a medicine bottle from her storage bag, poured out two body-tempering pills, and formed a seal to refine them into spiritual liquid, which she tossed into the tub.

"Lin Sui, begin circulating the Breathing Art now. Draw qi into your body and cleanse your marrow. Once these two body-tempering pills have taken effect, we'll see the results."

"Yes." Only then did Lin Sui open his eyes and glance at her. The blood bath reached his shoulders, and he suddenly sank a little lower, until it nearly covered his slightly protruding Adam's apple. Then he closed his eyes and began cultivating.