Blood Sacrifice Technique and Blood Escape Technique

Chapter 35 Blood Sacrifice Technique and Blood Escape Technique

"Blegh..."

Song Wen had just returned to his cave abode when he could no longer hold it back. His stomach, completely empty after a day without food, violently turned inside out.

He retched continuously for half a quarter-hour, feeling as though he was about to bring up his own bile before the wave of nausea finally began to pass.

Exhaustion weighed on him so heavily that he wanted nothing more than to collapse and sleep, but the intense stench of blood and rotting flesh clinging to his skin made his stomach churn anew.

Left with no choice, he forced himself to go outside, fetch two buckets of fresh water, and thoroughly wash his body. After cleaning up the mess in his cave abode, he finally threw himself onto his mat and fell asleep.

The next morning, Song Wen woke up exceptionally early.

He hurried to the menial disciples' canteen for a quick breakfast, then rushed down to the Corpse Dismemberment Cave before the hour of Chen. If he did not get an early start today, processing a hundred corpses would take so long that he wouldn't even have time to return to his cave abode to rest before the next day's shift began.

Fortunately, the Corpse Dismemberment Cave was located at the foot of the mountain, not too far from his dwelling.

He was the very first to arrive that day.

Once Yuan Cheng assigned him his batch of bodies, Song Wen wasted no time and immediately set to work.

By now, his efficiency had improved, allowing him to flay and dismember a single corpse in just under a quarter-hour. Yet, by the time he finished all one hundred, more than six double-hours had slipped away.

Once again, he was the last corpse dismemberer to leave. When he stepped out of the cave, the sky had already turned pitch-black, exactly like the night before.

Song Wen returned to his cave abode, rinsed himself down quickly, and made his way back to the canteen.

By this hour, only a few scattered menial disciples remained inside, quietly eating.

Forcing down the lingering revulsion in his chest, Song Wen compelled himself to swallow a massive amount of food.

He knew all too well that under such intense physical strain, if he failed to replenish his energy, both his mind and his flesh would eventually break down.

Fortunately, as a demonic cultivator, his physical strength and endurance far exceeded those of ordinary men, and his body bore the burden without issue.

After finishing his dinner and returning to his cave abode, Song Wen sat down to perform an internal inspection.

He discovered that although he had strictly avoided draining the corpses' essence blood over the past two days, the thick blood mist permeating the Corpse Dismemberment Cave-along with the stray wisps of vital energy he occasionally absorbed by accident-had fully replenished his previously depleted stores.

Once again, his body brimmed with robust, vital energy.

That night, Song Wen chose not to force any cultivation. He simply slept.

Sleep was the most effective way to soothe his mental exhaustion and quiet his frayed nerves.

Though the work of a corpse dismemberer was thoroughly revolting, it lacked conflict and the dangerous entanglements of sect politics. Because of this, the days blurred together, and a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Song Wen had gradually grown accustomed to the gruesome labor, turning into a thoroughly proficient worker.

He now only needed four double-hours a day to finish his quota, though he still intentionally remained the last person to leave the cave.

Having long since resumed his nightly cultivation, his Corpse King Blood Refining Art advanced by leaps and bounds, fueled by the blood energy he subtly harvested from the dissection tables. Without drawing anyone's attention, he quietly broke through to the second layer of Qi Refining.

However, just as he broke his meditation posture tonight, a rather awkward problem presented itself.

Because his cultivation speed was simply too fast, the corpse sha energy rising from the pool inside his cave abode could no longer keep up with his demands.

While he could surreptitiously drain enough blood energy from the corpses to sustain his flesh, the corpse sha energy provided by the sect's well was strictly rationed and far from infinite.

Of course, this deficiency was entirely unique to Song Wen. For any ordinary disciple at the early stages of Qi Refining, the standard supply of corpse sha energy inside their cave abode was more than enough.

"What am I supposed to do now? Where can I get more corpse sha energy?"

Song Wen ceased his meditation entirely. Outside, the horizon was already beginning to pale; it had been another sleepless night of cultivation.

Today was the day the sect distributed monthly allowances. Song Wen planned to claim his earnings and visit the market town near the foot of the mountain to see if he could purchase the necessary energy.

After finishing his daily shifts at the dissection tables, Song Wen received his monthly stipend: twenty low-grade Spirit Stones and ten Corpse Blood Pills. The Inedia Pills, however, were no longer provided.

Seeing that the sun was still high, giving him plenty of time to look around, Song Wen hurried back to his cave abode first. The stench of blood clinging to his robes was far too thick; walking into the market smelling like a slaughterhouse would easily draw unwanted attention, which ran entirely counter to his preferred strategy of lying low and farming his strength.

After thoroughly washing himself, Song Wen did not head straight for the market. Instead, he made his way to the sect's Technique Transmission Hall. Now that his Corpse King Blood Refining Art had reached the second layer of Qi Refining, it was high time he acquired some actual combat capabilities.

Traveling at full speed, it took him nearly half a double-hour of hard trekking to reach the Technique Transmission Hall, which sat halfway up the mountain.

After presenting his identity token, Song Wen was permitted entry, though the guards curtly informed him that early-stage Qi Refining disciples were strictly confined to the first floor.

The Technique Transmission Hall was vast, housing an immense collection of texts organized neatly into various sections: cultivation methods, offensive techniques, corpse puppet refinement, spiritual plant cultivation, and material identification.

Naturally, everything on the first floor consisted of basic techniques and elementary guides.

Song Wen walked straight to the technique section. There were not many arts suited for an early-stage Qi Refining disciple, totaling only about thirty choices.

He browsed through them casually. Having already learned the standard Fireball Spell and Shield Spell, conventional spiritual arts held little appeal for him.

However, a few unique techniques native to demonic sects caught his eye.

One such art was the Blood Sacrifice Technique. Once unleashed, it could temporarily grant a massive boost to a cultivator's Magic Power, though it came at the direct cost of burning one's own essence blood.

When ordinary cultivators resorted to this technique, they would be left severely weakened at best, or drop dead on the spot at worst. It was universally treated as a desperate, final gamble for survival.

Song Wen, however, harbored no such reservations. Over the past month of constantly devouring essence blood, he had slowly begun to uncover the hidden secrets of his own physique.

Perhaps because his flesh had grown significantly stronger, its capacity to hold vital energy had expanded. Or perhaps his body had simply adapted to processing foreign lifeforces; whatever the cause, he no longer suffered from any violent churning of his blood when he absorbed essence blood.

No matter how much he took in, his body rapidly digested and integrated it.

Of course, it was also possible that because he had been relatively restrained over the past month, the total amount he consumed had simply not hit his physical limit yet.

Regardless, the essence blood currently stored within Song Wen's veins was easily ten times greater than that of an ordinary cultivator. Utilizing the Blood Sacrifice Technique would be second nature to him, completely free from the looming threat of lethal depletion.

Even if his vital reserves ran low, he could easily replenish them by harvesting more blood.

Just as Song Wen's heart began to race with excitement, his gaze fell upon the price tag of the Blood Sacrifice Technique, and his enthusiasm instantly soured.

It cost a hundred low-grade Spirit Stones-a sum he could not hope to afford right now.

With his current stipend, he would have to save every single stone without spending a single one for five whole months just to buy it.

He then spotted another manual: the Blood Escape Technique. This was a movement technique that likewise burned essence blood to grant a sudden burst of extreme speed. It was priced at eighty Spirit Stones, which was still far out of his reach.

Sighing, Song Wen put the manual down and walked over to the corpse puppet refinement section.

As a premier sect renowned for its mastery over corpse manipulation, the Corpse Demon Sect offered more than a dozen distinct puppet techniques even on this basic floor.

Perhaps because the sect wanted to encourage its disciples to learn the craft, or perhaps because these low-grade techniques were completely ubiquitous throughout the region, the prices here were remarkably cheap, ranging from a few low-grade Spirit Stones to just over twenty.

The types of puppets varied greatly as well. There were advanced arts that refined both the soul and the flesh together, and rudimentary methods that focused solely on the physical shell.

A puppet that retained its soul was known as a Living Corpse. They were far more agile, possessed greater strength, and could continuously evolve if nurtured with the correct Yin-attributed materials.

Puppets devoid of a soul were called Walking Corpses. They were incredibly stiff to command and possessed absolutely no growth potential. Because they cost very little to manufacture, they were typically treated as disposable cannon fodder.

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