The True Blood Escape Technique

Donghua Market was situated in the northeastern region of the Tianyuan Continent.

Roughly eight hundred li to the east of the market lay a massive mountain rich in Spirit Qi. Known as Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, it served as the headquarters for the Beast Taming Sect, one of the five great sects dominating the continent's northeastern territories.

Donghua Market was the largest trading hub established by the Beast Taming Sect.

Furthermore, slightly over two thousand li to the southwest lay the renowned Lei Family, a clan celebrated throughout the cultivation world for their formidable lightning arts.

Song Wen had already been staying in Donghua Market for two months.

He had disguised himself as a low-ranking talisman master in his early thirties, maintaining a cultivation base of the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

Song Wen's talent in the art of talismans was far inferior to his aptitude for techniques.

Even though his Divine Sense had grown comparable to that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator after thoroughly absorbing and refining Wu Ren's soul, his success rate in drawing a first-grade, middle-grade flight talisman was only fifty percent-a shockingly dismal ratio.

In contrast, some of the genuinely gifted talisman masters in the market could achieve a seventy percent success rate while drawing flight talismans despite only possessing mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation.

An example was the elderly man sitting across from him. Though over sixty years old and possessed of mediocre talent, this man had reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining. While he would likely never break through to the late stage of Qi Refining in this lifetime, his exceptional craftsmanship allowed him to thrive within Donghua Market.

"Brother Zhang Cheng, are you truly not going to visit the pleasure houses? The Peony Pavilion recently took in several new girls. Their figures, their looks, their talents..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... simply divine."

Observing the nostalgic look on the old man's face, Song Wen could not help but suspect that the reason this man had been stranded at the mid-stage Qi Refining bottleneck for over a decade was because his vital essence was being drained dry by the vixens in those establishments.

The old man was named Ai Kun, a name that suited his disposition perfectly.

With a wry smile, Song Wen shook his head.

"Thank you for the kind offer, Senior Ai Kun, but my aspirations lie elsewhere. I must decline."

Ai Kun stroked his silver-streaked beard.

"You are already past thirty, yet your cultivation remains at the fourth layer of Qi Refining. In this lifetime, you will likely end up like this old man, with no hope of ever breaking through to the late stage. Why not enjoy life while you can?"

"You are alone without a Dao companion. Why endure such solitude?"

Song Wen offered no reply. The old man was decent at heart, but he was far too talkative.

Seeing that Song Wen remained silent, Ai Kun found the exchange rather dull. He picked up his teacup, swallowed two large gulps, and shifted the topic.

"I managed to gather some of the latest intelligence regarding the war between the Orthodox and Demonic paths from a contact inside the Beast Taming Sect. Care to hear it?"

Song Wen's interest was instantly piqued. Straightening his back, he prompted, "Senior Ai, please tell me."

Ai Kun did not beat around the bush and spoke directly.

"Word has it that the conflict has reached a complete stalemate. Initially, the five Orthodox Sects joined forces to besiege the Corpse Demon Sect, expecting an effortless victory. Who could have foreseen that the Corpse Demon Sect possessed an incredibly formidable grand mountain-protecting array? The five sects have launched relentless assaults for a long time but cannot breach it. It is said that two Nascent Soul Supreme Elders from the Orthodox path personally intervened, yet they still failed to break the array and were forced to return empty-handed."

"Furthermore, with the Crimson Blood Sect and the Profound Yin Cult harassing them from the flanks, the five great sects are caught in a dilemma. They spent years planning and expended immense manpower and wealth, yet they have gained absolutely nothing."

"I also heard that before the Orthodox Sects even invaded, the Corpse Demon Sect enforced a scorched-earth policy across a radius of several thousand li, thoroughly plundering all the minor demonic factions within their territory. The five great sects found nothing but barren lands, while the Corpse Demon Sect used the opportunity to amass a massive fortune."

Ai Kun spoke with a hint of schadenfreude, evidently delighted to see the prestigious Orthodox Sects suffer a setback.

However, the stalemate was not good news for Song Wen.

He was, after all, a defector. The Corpse Demon Sect still retained the aura of his soul. If the Corpse Demon Sect eventually stabilized and sought to settle scores with its traitors, Song Wen would be high on their list.

After a bit more idle chatter, Ai Kun stood up and took his leave.

Their conversation had taken place inside a small courtyard that Song Wen rented from the market administration for ten Spirit Stones a month.

Within Donghua Market, a residence like this was not considered expensive, though it was far from the cheapest.

The least expensive accommodations were the shanties located in the western slums, where a straw hovel could be rented for a mere two Spirit Stones a month. However, the environment, comfort, and, most importantly, security were vastly inferior.

Over the past two months, Song Wen had come to realize that the Orthodox Sects' exploitation of rogue cultivators was not a single bit lesser than that of the demonic sects.

While setting up a street stall in Donghua Market was relatively cheap at just one Spirit Stone per day, the prices of goods in commercial industries controlled directly by the sects were significantly higher than those in the Corpse Demon Sect's markets.

Take the Qi Gathering Pills, which were most frequently utilized by Qi Refining cultivators.

In the Corpse Demon Sect's market, they generally cost two and a half Spirit Stones per bottle. In Donghua Market, however, the price hovered around four Spirit Stones. Other cultivation resources-such as cultivation techniques, Magical Artifacts, talismans, and spiritual herbs-were generally thirty to seventy percent pricier than they would be under the Corpse Demon Sect.

Managed by the Beast Taming Sect, Donghua Market drew an immense gathering of rogue cultivators. Like worker ants, these cultivators braved hazardous lands and forbidden zones to bring various treasures back to the market, only for the Beast Taming Sect to purchase them at depressed prices. Afterward, these same rogue cultivators were forced to buy their essential cultivation resources at exorbitant rates from shops owned by the sect.

Furthermore, the Orthodox Sects were hardly the selfless protectors of the common people they claimed to be, supposedly sacrificing their lives to eradicate evil.

While they did not openly massacre mortals and rogue cultivators the way the demonic factions did, they possessed no genuine concern for the lives of ordinary people.

The legends circulating among mortals about righteous cultivators slaying malevolent entities almost always stemmed from a hidden motive-the monster in question possessed rare materials coveted by the cultivators. Had there been no profit to gain, no cultivator would risk their lives for the sake of mere mortals.

After seeing Ai Kun out, Song Wen walked to the main gates of his courtyard. He cast a brief glance toward the courtyard directly across the street, and upon confirming there was no unusual activity, he barred the door and returned to his room.

The opposing courtyard had also been secretly rented by Song Wen under a different disguise.

Beneath that property, he had excavated an underground secret chamber.

Within that chamber, he had deployed the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array. He had also purchased the complete carcass of a Demon Beast and refined it into a corpse beast using a specialized secret technique, leaving it to rest inside the underground room.

Song Wen's objective was not to raise a largely useless corpse beast, but rather to test the effectiveness of the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array to see if it could truly evade the scrutiny of a Golden Core cultivator.

As the Beast Taming Sect's largest and most lucrative market, Donghua Market maintained a resident Golden Core cultivator.

However, this Golden Core expert spent almost all his time cultivating in a cave dwelling rich in Spirit Qi ten li outside the market, rarely showing his face.

Until he could definitively ascertain the limits of the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array, Song Wen had no intention of stepping foot into that opposing secret chamber again.

He had obtained a wealth of valuable items from Wu Ren's Storage Ring, most notably two specific cultivation methods.

The first was an advanced derivation of the Blood Escape Technique-or rather, this was the authentic version of the technique itself.

When confronted with an existential crisis, a cultivator could ignite their entire body's vital essence to dissolve into a cloud of blood mist. This technique not only allowed one to evade fatal strikes but could also instantly transport the user dozens to thousands of li away depending on the volume of vital essence consumed. It bore a striking resemblance to the legendary divine ability known as 'Shrinking the Earth to an Inch'.

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