Ch147 Blood Soul Dagger

It takes an entire day to stabilize my new realm.

My meridians and spirit roots still ache in pain, even after the full morning’s worth of 6 new upgrade cards are used on healing elixirs.

I’m able to move more, and float in the lake, but there is still a soreness and fatigue that doesn't quite go away all day.

I think I’m starting to build up a resistance to these heavenly grade healing elixirs. Or, at the very least, the injuries I’m trying to heal are too complex for these lower tier medicinal ingredients to heal.

While taking a stroll around the outer ring of the lake, I find my new spiritual senses have pushed outward to a range of about 70 meters already.

This is not normal for a 6th level qi refiner. According to the system’s rewards in the past, an initial stage foundational cultivator’s spiritual senses reach to 100 meters… I’m not far off.

It is a combination of my unique soul based cultivation technique, Meimei’s bond, and the overall strength my Martial Physique adds.

My flesh and bones feel physically stronger too.

Out of curiosity, I slip away into my hidden realm, and start up a rematch simulator with a 7th level blood demon.

This is an enemy that I could only manage to kill before with random chance and luck, but I’d finish every match with broken or missing limbs.

Now, as the familiar sandy arena materializes into view, an old man with red bulging muscles and short horns forms a sword of blood between his hands.

I simply lunge to the side and dodge, punching him in the ribs without even being hit.

My souls are so dense and stable, it is not fair.

My Perfected Physique is the same mortal grade rank as this demon, but his cannot be wielded with such precision.

All I needed was a little more strength and speed.

Less than ten exchanges pass by, and the blood demon is torn to shreds, soul broken apart, and physique destroyed.

I stand on the blood demon’s neck, and charge up a Martial Fireball in my palm.

It takes less than five seconds to fully form, leave my hand, and blow this simulated man’s head clean off.

I jump backward with a smile, impressed at my own new strength.

It is the combination of perfect harmonious attributes that give me the advantage, despite the fact that I should technically be weaker than this demon.

Golden mist starts to close in as it always does to end the match, but a strange trembling catches my attention deep in my sea of consciousness.

The residue on the ground where this simulated blood demon lies trembles with an invisible weight only noticeable in my mind.

The only other times I’ve felt something similar to this is when I try to upgrade items with a system card. It is like something is selecting this pile of flesh and energy, and asking for confirmation to complete a task or ignore it.

No rematch simulator round has ever given me this strange sense before, but I’m intrigued.

I try to mentally accept, but I get the instinctual sense that I’m not close enough. I take a few steps closer to the pile of flesh, then feel a click in my mind. Streams of red, white, and invisible vibrating energy waves flow upward and into my body.

The remains of the blood demon shrivel up, to become a dried husk.

None of these streams enter any of my own energy pathways, they slip right past, and fall into a small crystal dagger on the edge of my sea of consciousness.

It becomes fully saturated with the life energy of this blood demon as the mist transports me back to my hidden realm.

I feel my fatigue from fighting go away, and the qi in my dantian from releasing that Martial Fireball is reset too. I’m brought right back to the pristine state I was in before entering. This is because my real body is never actually used inside this rematch simulator.

The only difference is, I feel the crystal dagger still resting in the back of my mind.

It has lost the weight of the simulated raw qi and wisps of soul it absorbed, gone in the flash of the simulation’s end.

However, it still vibrates with an unmistakable pressure.

The raw vibrations of a perfected mortal grade blood demon physique have been mirrored and trapped in this artifact.

I’ve tried to bring talismans, weapons, and all kinds of items inside this simulator before.

It has never worked.

I can’t even access my system storage while I’m inside.

Yet, there seems to be some kind of exception with this strange artifact.

I instantly load 7,000 spirit stones into this island again, and repeat the fight I just won.

It takes a few seconds, and I decide not to use any spells this time. I win with my bare fists covered in a thin layer of my martial grandmaster physique.

My heart rate rises when he dies, as the subconscious tremble appears once again.

This simulated blood demon’s energy is drained from his corpse in a matter of seconds, and I’m flashed right back to the hidden realm’s rematch simulator island.

The strength of two perfected mortal grade physiques now vibrates in this dagger.

“Another exploit…” I whisper, and stare off into the golden mist to think.

The scan my system gave when I first printed this item stated that after every kill, remains of their qi, soul, and physique’s intent will be absorbed or mirrored into the artifact, adding to its strength until released.

I have no idea how these simulations are even created.

It’s clear the qi and wisps of soul inside are not registered by this weapon. However, the weight of their physique, even if replicated by this hidden realm, does seem to count the same as though a real human was killed.

The mechanism in this hidden realm that creates these physique vibrations has done so with such precision that they are indistinguishable from reality, capable of manipulating the inner workings of this crystal dagger.

No physical energy is being lost, so for some reason, it's being mirrored and contained.

I immediately spend another 7,000 spirit stones to start a third round.

My physical body is not being trained at all from these trials.

This is a great use of my time to take a break from actual cultivation, allowing me to rest my fatigue and soreness while simultaneously getting used to my new strength. The last time I used this simulator, I was a full level of qi refinement lower, and with a much weaker pair of souls.

Now, the 7th level blood demons are easily killed.

I begin testing my strength against all levels of late stage blood demons.

The 8th level blood demons take far more effort. I am often caught off guard and hit due to their overwhelming raw speed and strength, but I can still win every single duel with my bare hands. If I manage to land the first hit, I can usually even come out unscathed.

The 9th level blood demons are the only ones still giving me trouble. They are too many levels of qi cultivation above me for my stronger soul or more harmonious physique to matter as much.

Even if I perform perfectly, it is still a gamble on who will come out on top. Even if I win, I can never finish one of these matches without losing a limb or two.

After a while, I find practicing with 8th level blood demons to be the most practical balance for honing my fighting skills while mirroring more and more physiques into my blood soul dagger.

By the time the sun rises again, I’ve spent the entire 500,000 spirit stones from last week’s farming payout.

In a single day I’ve burned through more wealth than most late stage qi refining clans will ever see in a hundred years, but it is well worth it.

I’ve become extremely comfortable fighting with my new strength, and understanding my new physical limits.

As an added bonus, the absorption of blood demon physiques does not slow down at all. Even after the 63rd one is stored inside this crystal dagger, it still rests unmoving deep in my mind.

—

When Lan Xin returns this week, I make sure to scan her innate physique again, and find almost no damage remaining. Her time spent above the WangMu Peak’s Tier 2 Vein must have been beneficial. However, there is still no sign of her serpent. It says formless, deep inside a small glowing red pocket in her soul.

I make no mention of it, as she gets straight to handing over the full containment case. It holds a restock of spirit stones, along with twenty-five new black jade spirit vein harvesting array flags, and a huge pile of soul metal fragments.

“I’ve completed what you asked. The Lin Branch Clan fulfilled our order for more perfect grade harvesting arrays easily. Kang Yejing was paid in full for the lower quality bulk honey, but when I tried to buy even more he said his enchanted flowers have already been pollinated for this growth cycle. It will take a while until he can begin producing more. I did manage to start branching out to small foundational families not linked to this side of the outer sect. That was their supply of soul metal fragments I managed to obtain. There was no spirit herb peak auction this week, so I could not acquire any unique items, but there is a larger than average one in a few days I plan on attending.”

“Very good. What is the update on Wang Ruze and Meng Ruo?”

“The Li General Shop is crowded with late stage cultivators every morning, but that Old Wang drives them away and tells them the specialty wine is still sold out. He’s been patiently awaiting your return to go over the store’s profits.”

I nod, and toss her my only silver low grade tier 2 storage ring. It holds 30 foundational crystals, a heavenly grade firestone, and a perfect grade barrel of wine inside.

“Good. Drop off the wine to Wang Ruze and tell him to follow the same instructions as the last batch. Beside your firestone, there are some foundational crystals in this ring. You said last time there were items you couldn’t buy without them, use these to buy everything you can at the next one.”

Lan Xin’s pupils flicker with minor surprise, but she only nods, “Understood, I will purchase everything I can. And Meng Ruo, she finally came out of seclusion. Something changed in her… I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never seen that woman smile so much in my life. She says the task you asked her of is a success, but wants to see you in person.”

“Alright. Tell them both I’ll see them soon enough. At the end of this coming week, I need to return to the sect. You’ll give me a ride, and I’ll check in with Lingshi City right before we go.”

—

7 full days pass.

Now that I’ve reached level 6, and Lan Xin has begun expanding her connections further into the Foundational Forces of the Outer Sect, I decide to spread my resources out more freely in another direction.

My emerald swallow begins flying to and from this lake, visiting a certain steward Wei Ping in the servant camps that have expanded past the ravine, as well as atop the alchemy peak to the outer disciple Chen Yilin.

Inside my hidden realm, Meimei licks a few more drops of rock bee honey, but its efficacy even wears off on her too.

I eat a drop of honey every few hours to continue the long and vigorous process of maturing my spiritual roots. Three of my daily upgrade cards are used on healing elixirs to heal every night, and with the other three, I begin upgrading veins around this lake plot.

Twenty-one more perfect grade veins are created, some beneath the back mountain beside the lake, and others in the light forest areas, and some kilometers deeper into the flatland that has been abandoned for quite a while.

Over a hundred thousand extra stones have been harvested. I stow them away into my storage to build a bigger buffer for emergencies.

Meimei doesn’t come out to play much.

She is far more interested by the pile of soul metal I give her that stacks even taller than her small body. She either sleeps alone, or lazily munches on these metal shards while cultivating beside me every time my Jade Purity Soul Scripture activates.

She finishes off my rock bee honey, and reaches the perfected stage of level 6.

Around this time, I start to feel my own bottleneck to the mid stage of level 6, but it's far from breaking open.

It’s going to take a significant amount of work to progress further, but I’m excited about the fact that I can still feel the bottlenecks. After most big breakthroughs, my 9th grade root potential would normally make the next step impossible to feel.

Little Red looks content all week with a wide satisfied smile on his face.

He stays at the initial stage of level 4, not budging at all, but his weight in this hidden realm has expanded many times over.

He’s absorbing natural red flames at a far faster rate. The small spirit beast has already rejuvenated his Acquired Natural Flame Physique back up to the Late Stage.

I can feel his intentions loud and clear, this toad is going to sacrifice it again.

When my spirit roots, meridians, or muscles are too sore to practice element control, I take my time and practice fighting in tired and sore states within the rematch simulator. There’s no risk, and I find it beneficial to get myself used to fighting under poor body conditions. It’s never a guarantee that I’ll be in pristine shape at the start of every fight.

I use up most of my spirit stones Lan Xin dropped off again, but I space them out, a few a day to reflect on each fight to see where I can improve.

The greatest cost benefit of draining this spirit stone supply is that it is strengthening the Blood Soul Dagger laying dormant on the edge of my sea of consciousness. There is still no pure qi or soul wisps infused into it at all, but now the raw weight of 125 perfected mortal grade physiques have been mirrored inside over the last two weeks.

There is no concrete description telling me its strength, but comparing its weight to other items in my storage, I can make a rough guess that it is equivalent to a mid or high grade tier 2 weapon right now.

Unlike my tier 3 golden sword slaughter formation, this dagger’s description mentions it only kills a single target, making it far less dangerous to my allies. It cost me a full million spirit stones… but I have another rechargeable artifact to add to my arsenal.