Chapter 133 - 129: Permanentization of the Qi Blood Pill
Chapter 133: Chapter 129: Permanentization of the Qi Blood Pill
That morning, Li Yuan was drawing Fireball Talismans.
The fourteenth one.
He began his stroke, and six Spirit Patterns unfurled. As the overlapping Fire Gathering Patterns reached their midpoint, the turn of his wrist and the increase of his Spiritual Power were perfectly synchronized. The Spirit Patterns on the talisman paper grew tighter with each circle, their edges as clean as if cut by a knife.
Completion. The Spiritual Power settled in the Talisman Core, and a layer of crimson light bloomed from within, deeper and richer than that of his previous finished products.
A panel popped up.
[Fireball Talisman: Minor Achievement (0/1600)]
Li Yuan placed the Fireball Talisman on the corner of the table, stacking it with the others.
’Minor Achievement.’
He picked up his talisman brush, dipped it in Spiritual Ink, spread out the next sheet of talisman paper, and continued to draw.
The difference was apparent the moment his brush touched the paper.
His wrist no longer made any adjustments; the chain of conduction for Spiritual Power—from his fingertip to the brush tip to the paper’s surface—had become a completely fixed path. The force, angle, and Spiritual Power density of each stroke were now solidified into muscle memory, requiring no conscious thought.
The Spirit Patterns he drew were more uniform than they had been when he was merely proficient, the edges neater, and the convergence at the Talisman Core tighter.
In one morning, he drew eighteen Fireball Talismans and ruined two.
His success rate had pushed ninety percent.
It wasn’t just the success rate that had improved. After reaching Minor Achievement, the time it took to draw each talisman was shorter, the Spiritual Power consumption was more precise with less waste, and the same total amount of Spiritual Power could produce several more talismans. Coupled with the continuous regeneration of his Spiritual Power, his output increased dramatically.
In the evening, Li Yuan moved the finished products to the wooden shed in the courtyard.
He Shou was distributing the supplies the afternoon patrol had brought back when he saw Li Yuan approach, carrying a much thicker stack of Talismans than usual. He paused what he was doing.
He took them, flipped through them, and then counted them.
"Thirty?"
"Mhm."
He Shou said nothing more and stored the Talismans in a wooden box.
For the next few days, Li Yuan’s output remained at this level.
He produced over thirty Fireball Talismans, seven or eight Heart-lock Talismans, and five or six Qi Gathering Talismans daily, interspersed with Rejuvenation Talismans and Vajra Talismans.
The guard team’s stock of Talismans went from barely breaking even to slowly growing.
He Shou began to transport the surplus Talismans to the rear. A portion was sent back to the Talisman Hall to complete missions and settle contribution points, while another portion was stored in the marketplace management’s warehouse as a strategic reserve.
His completion rate for talisman-making missions was also accumulating rapidly. He was slowly paying back the contribution points he had previously overdrawn. At this rate, he would clear his debt in another half a month.
Besides making talismans, Li Yuan never missed a day of his Body Refining cultivation.
He took two to three Evil Essence Pills daily. Since his affinity for Evil Qi had become permanent, the negative effects were almost negligible, allowing him to efficiently absorb the pills’ active ingredients. He ate Demon Beast Flesh every day, converting the residual Demonic Power into supplemental Evil Qi. Meanwhile, the Divine Soul tempering from the Soul Refining Talisman and the soul light tempering from the Soul Mirror were both active, continuously strengthening his Divine Soul.
He circulated the Iron Bull Skill three to five times a day, flushing his organs with both Qi Blood and Evil Qi.
His progress after reaching Minor Achievement had been advancing steadily.
Later that night, Li Yuan sat cross-legged in his stone house, circulating the Iron Bull Skill.
He drew Qi Blood from his Dantian, channeling it into his organs along the path of the Iron Bull Skill. Simultaneously, Evil Qi seeped into the area around his organs, applying pressure from the outside.
When he completed the fourth circulation, the feedback from his internal organs changed.
Previously, when Qi Blood washed over his organs, their walls would passively endure the impact, like a dam holding back water. With repeated flushing, the dam would thicken and its endurance would increase, but it was always a passive process.
This time was different.
When the Qi Blood reached the organ walls, they didn’t block it. Instead, they actively absorbed it.
It was like dry earth meeting water—not being washed over, but soaking it in.
After the Qi Blood poured into the organ walls, it permeated them along their internal textures, seeping from the outer walls all the way to the inner ones.
His entire set of internal organs was thoroughly saturated with Qi Blood.
Once the permeation was complete, the texture of his organ walls changed again. At Minor Achievement, they had gone from loose to dense; now, they went from dense to resilient.
They hadn’t become softer, but more resilient.
Li Yuan stopped his cultivation and tapped his ribs twice with his fist.
His bones didn’t move an inch. But it was different from the brute-force resistance at Minor Achievement. Now, when the impact traveled inward, it wasn’t simply blocked; a portion of it was absorbed by the organ walls, and only the remainder reached his skeleton.
It was like an extra layer of cushioning had appeared between his ribs and his organs.
[Cultivation Technique: Iron Bull Skill - Great Success (0/3200)]
’Great Success.’
Li Yuan rolled his shoulders, then twisted his waist.
The range of motion in his torso was slightly greater than it was at Minor Achievement. It wasn’t that his joints had become more flexible, but that his organs were no longer the bottleneck limiting his torso’s movement. Before, when he twisted his body sharply, he would occasionally feel a slight pulling sensation from his organs; now, there was nothing.
The strength of his physical body had reached a new level.
The results of his Body Refining these past few days weren’t limited to the Iron Bull Skill.
There was Evil Qi Body Tempering, Evil Essence Pills, Evil Qi converted from Demon Beast Flesh, the constant nourishment from his self-generating Qi Blood, and the skin-and-membrane defense from his Iron Membrane Body technique. The cumulative effect of these overlapping methods was far stronger than any single one on its own.
His total Qi Blood had also increased significantly.
Li Yuan closed his eyes to feel the total volume and density of the Qi Blood within his body.
It was much more abundant than half a month ago. The density in particular had increased; with the Great Success of his Iron Bull Skill and the stacking of various Body Refining traits, the Qi Blood felt much heavier as it flowed through his meridians.
He dug out the bottle of Qi Blood Pills from the depths of his storage bag.
Only a single dark red pill remained in the bottle, one he had intentionally saved to equip.
With a thought, he unequipped the Replenishing Talisman.
The Replenishing Talisman emerged from his body and landed back in his palm. It was a single sheet of talisman paper, its Spirit Patterns still intact. He put it away in his storage bag.
Li Yuan tipped the last Qi Blood Pill from the bottle into his palm.
The dark red pill was slightly warm in his hand.
’Equip.’
A second notification immediately popped up on the panel.
[Conditions met to make "Qi Blood Abundance (White)" a permanent trait.]
[Do you wish to make it permanent?]
’Yes.’
[Permanence successful.]
[Qi Blood Abundance (White) has become a permanent trait.]
[Equipment consumed.]
The dark red pill in his palm dissolved into a ray of deep red light and sank into his body.
The change was both violent and swift.
A searing current erupted from the Sea of Qi and Blood next to his Dantian and surged through his meridians toward his limbs. It wasn’t an ordinary warmth, but a torrent of Qi Blood as thick and scorching as magma, instantly filling every inch of his flesh and blood from his torso to his arms and legs.
The capacity of his Sea of Qi and Blood suddenly expanded by thirty percent.
His Qi Blood, which had been nearing saturation, now seemed to leave a significant amount of empty space after the expansion. But immediately after, his permanent trait of self-generating Qi Blood automatically accelerated, and new Qi Blood was generated endlessly from the depths of his body, surging toward the expanded Sea of Qi and Blood.
The muscles in his forearms bulged slightly, and a faint red flush appeared on the surface of his skin.
Li Yuan clenched his fist.
His strength was a notch higher than before. This wasn’t a minuscule increase, but a clearly perceptible one. The power in his knuckles as he clenched his fist, the degree of contraction in his forearm muscles, the stability of his wrist—everything had been elevated.
The enhancement his Qi Blood provided to his body increased by ten percent.
The same amount of Qi Blood now provided ten percent more strength, speed, and recovery than it did before the permanent upgrade. Combined with the fact that his total Qi Blood was also increasing due to the thirty percent rise in his maximum capacity, the actual improvement to his physical fitness was far more than just ten percent.
Li Yuan stood up and paced a few steps around the stone house.
His footsteps were lighter than before, making almost no sound as they landed. He wasn’t deliberately trying to be quiet; his body was naturally performing the most efficient movements possible. With his Qi Blood abundant, the coordination between his muscles and bones was more harmonious, each step consumed less energy, and his movements were cleaner.
The sky outside the window had not yet brightened.
Li Yuan returned to the table, sat down, and took out a piece of Demon Beast Flesh from his storage bag to roast and eat. A warm current spread through him, the Qi Blood nourishing his muscles and bones, while the residual Demonic Power was converted into Evil Qi.
After eating, he sat cross-legged and circulated his cultivation technique.
Spiritual Qi surged into his body. It was refined into pure Spiritual Power, purging all impurities, before condensing and sinking into his Dantian.