Chapter 74 - 58: Blood to Blood (1)

Chapter 74: Chapter 58: Blood to Blood (1)

Ethan spent the next morning thinking about a single question. Wondering if the Blood Seed could refine anything besides the Qi he produced himself?

As he sat beside the window of his room, his gaze drifting over the street below. The city had already begun settling into its morning rhythm. Wooden wheels rolled over the stone-paved streets, shopkeepers lifted shutters and arranged their goods, while the smell of freshly prepared food and herbs drifted through the air. Voices blended together in the distance, mixed with the occasional clatter of carts and footsteps passing beneath his window. He watched it all quietly, his thoughts still returning to the same question.

Ethan rested his chin lightly against his hand, his gaze still fixed on the street below.

The more he thought about the Blood Seed, the more one detail bothered him. He knew that cultivated Qi went into it and Living Blood came out. But the process still felt incomplete.

Qi was clearly part of it. But was it really all the Blood Seed needed? Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. If the Blood Seed could transform Qi into something as unique as Living Blood, then there had to be more to the process than he had seen. And that was something he wanted to understand. His eyes narrowed slightly as a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"Blood."

The word left his mouth quietly. It made sense. The Blood Seed was part of his new body, and since his transformation, his blood had become something entirely different from what it once was. Even his Blood Perception was connected to it.

Then there was the transformation itself. Blood had been at the very heart of it. Ethan’s gaze lingered for a moment. Perhaps that was the connection he had been overlooking.

And just maybe that was not a coincidence. He leaned back. He didn’t know whether the Blood Seed could actually use blood as a cultivation material. But there was only one way to find out.

Test it.

He smiled. "At least this one should be easy."

He stood and left the room. The first blood was ordinary. Ethan visited a meat seller he had bought food from before and quietly asked whether he could purchase some fresh animal blood. The man gave him a curious look.

"Blood?" he asked again, just to make sure he had heard correctly.

"Yes. Animal blood."

The man looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"How much of it do you need?"

Ethan thought briefly before giving him an amount.

"That much?" the man asked.

"Will there be a problem?"

"No, no. I can get it." The man rubbed his chin.

"What do you need it for?"

"Cooking," Ethan replied.

The seller gave him a doubtful look but didn’t press the matter.

"It’ll take a little while to gather that much, and i need to ask the nearby stores for some too"

"That’s fine."

A short while later, Ethan left the stall with several sealed containers of blood. He led his horse to a quieter spot nearby before carefully securing the containers along the sides of its saddle, making sure they were firmly tied in place.

Once everything was secure, he took hold of the reins and continued on foot, letting the horse carry the weight behind him. He glanced briefly at the containers. A faint smile touched his lips, as he thought on how it was easier than he had expected to get this much blood. His first experiment had cost him very little.

Ethan waited until later in the day before leaving through the city gate. With his horse following behind him and the sealed containers secured to its saddle, he left the main road and continued toward the quieter stretch of land beyond the hills.

The sounds of the city gradually faded behind him, replaced by the rustling of grass and the occasional call of birds. After walking for some distance, Ethan finally slowed beside a cluster of rocks and glanced around. The place was quiet enough. He stopped there and turned his attention to the blood.

The moment he activated Blood Perception, the world changed. It wasn’t his eyes that changed. It was the information reaching him, his awareness expanded. The world around him seemed to become clearer, every small movement easier to notice.

Something stirred beneath a bush in the distance. Ethan turned his head just in time to see as a rabbit-like creature darted from the grass.

Yet, strangely, it didn’t seem fast.

Ethan could follow its movement with ease, watching as its body shifted through the grass and its legs pushed against the ground. Before he had even fully thought about it, his body had already responded.

He moved. The distance between them vanished in an instant. His hand closed around the creature before it could get away.

Ethan stared at the rabbit in his hand. For a moment, he simply watched it struggle. He hadn’t used Qi. He hadn’t deliberately circulated his Living Blood. He had only moved when he saw the opportunity. Yet the creature had seemed almost slow to him.

His eyes narrowed slightly. So this was how fast his body had become.

Ethan blinked as he looked at the animal.

"That will take some getting used to."

He released it as the creature immediately disappeared into the grass. Ethan watched it go before turning back toward his belongings. There were still many things about his body he hadn’t tested properly.

Speed was now one of them, but today was clearly not the day for that.

Ethan opened one of the containers. The moment the scent of blood reached him, something inside him stirred.

It was faint, yet unmistakable. His body seemed to recognize the scent before his mind could make sense of it. His senses sharpened, and a strange warmth spread through him, almost like the quiet satisfaction of returning to something that had always belonged to him.

Ethan took a slow breath.

Then as his Blood Perception responded, he felt it. There it was. A faint trace of vitality lingered within the blood.

Weak.

Fading.

Ethan held the container in his hand and focused on the sensation. It wasn’t the same as sensing a living creature. A person or an animal carried a steady presence, something that shifted and moved with every breath and heartbeat. This blood felt quieter. Whatever vitality remained within it was slowly slipping away, like a small flame burning through the last of its fuel. Ethan tilted the container slightly, he watched as the blood shifted inside, and that faint presence seemed to move with it. He he watched it, his expression became thoughtful.

He watched carefully.

"So even after leaving the body..."

He paused. "The life inside it doesn’t disappear immediately."

That caught Ethan’s attention.

He set the container down. An idea had already begun to form in his mind, but he didn’t want to assume he was right. He needed to see what happened first.

Ethan found a natural pit between several large rocks, deep enough to hold a pool of blood. He poured the blood into it, watching as the dark liquid slowly gathered at the bottom.

There was something strangely familiar about the sight. During his transformation, blood had surrounded him. Now he was deliberately placing himself in the same setting, though this time he was here to find out what his new body would do. Ethan remained still, waiting to see if anything would happen.

Ethan removed his outer robe and folded it neatly beside the rocks before stepping into the pool. The cold blood touched his feet first, then rose past his ankles and reached his knees. He slowly lowered himself into the pool and sat down. Blood surrounded his lower body, cool against his skin.

Ethan closed his eyes and settled himself in the pool. He didn’t begin cultivating right away. His attention instead turned inward, toward the Blood Seed.

He waited.

For a while, nothing happened. Ethan remained still, letting the silence settle around him as he waited to see what would happen next.

Ethan took a slow breath and began circulating Qi through his meridians, keeping the flow gentle as he guided it toward the Blood Seed. Nothing happened. He waited for a while, maintaining the circulation.

Still, there was no response.

He opened his eyes. "Again."

He repeated the process. This time, he paid more attention to the blood around him. His Blood Perception sharpened. The weak traces of vitality within the blood became clearer. Then he felt something.

It was a pull, a faint on at that. So faint that Ethan almost mistook it for his imagination. He stopped moving. The sensation disappeared. Ethan stared at the blood.

He tried again. The same thing happened. A small smile appeared.

"There you are."

He began the process again. This time, he didn’t force the Blood Seed. He simply allowed his Qi to circulate while keeping his attention on the blood.

The pull returned.

The blood around him trembled faintly. Ethan noticed it at once, then he felt something change. A strange sensation passed across his skin as the blood around him began to respond. It wasn’t simply soaking into his body. Something within it was being drawn out, pulled toward him and disappearing beneath his skin. Ethan slowly released the breath he had been holding.

"So that’s what you were looking for."

His gaze fell to the blood around him. It was still red, but the feeling it carried before was gone. The faint vitality he had sensed earlier had almost completely disappeared.

Ethan reached out with his Blood Perception.

Nothing.

The blood had become ordinary. He stared at it for several seconds, his thoughts already beginning to turn over what he had just witnessed.

Then he smiled. He did not stop there. The next test was simple. How much had he gained?

Ethan closed his eyes, as he focused inward. The Blood Seed was quiet again. But there was more Living Blood within him than before.

Not much.

Still, the difference was clear. He guided a small amount through his body. Warmth spread through his chest. His muscles responded. His breathing became smoother. Even his Blood Perception seemed slightly clearer.

Ethan stopped the circulation as the effect faded. He thought about it. The blood itself had not made him stronger. The Blood Seed had taken something from it and turned that something into Living Blood.

That was the important part.

External blood was the source. Living Blood was what came out of the process, with Qi somehow tying the two together. He reached out, picked up his journal and wrote down the main points while they were still fresh in his mind.

External blood contains usable vitality.

He paused, then added: The Blood Seed draws out that vitality and refines it with Qi.

Another line followed: The result becomes Living Blood.

Ethan looked over what he had written. It seemed to fit what he had just experienced, though one detail was worth noting. So he added: Not all of the vitality is retained.

With that, he closed the journal. He had a good enough understanding of what had happened. But another thought had already taken hold. If the blood itself was stronger or contained more vitality, would that change what the Blood Seed produced?

The answer came two days later. Ethan decided to start with what was easiest to obtain. There was little point spending money on ordinary animal blood when the forest around the city provided plenty of it.

He left in the afternoon and followed the quieter paths beyond the city, letting his Blood Perception guide him.

Even after using it for some time, Ethan still found the ability fascinating. Finding animals with Blood Perception was almost cheating. Any hunter would have dreamed of having a sense like this.

A bird rested somewhere high among the branches, its presence faint but clear. Something small moved through the undergrowth nearby, while farther ahead, a larger creature stirred among the trees.

Ethan followed the strongest traces when he needed them and left the rest alone. He wasn’t there to hunt for the sake of hunting. He only needed enough blood for the test.

By sunset, he had gathered several small containers. Back at his secluded spot, Ethan arranged the blood and began with the ordinary animals. One after another, he tested them. The results were largely the same. There were differences, but they were small enough that Ethan couldn’t draw much from them.

By sunset, Ethan had gathered enough blood to satisfy his curiosity. Back at his secluded spot, he put the ordinary animal blood to use and let the Blood Seed work through it. The results were much the same. Nothing stood out enough to change his understanding.

Ethan’s hand moved toward the last container. The moment his fingers touched it, a faint sensation stirred within him.

He paused.

Even before opening it, he could sense something lingering inside. As he removed the seal from it. The clearer the feeling he hot from it. It felt more alive, denser and richer. His eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile slowly appeared on his lips.

Spirit-beast blood.

Ethan had bought a small amount from a traveling cultivator earlier that day. It had cost more than ordinary animal blood, but the price was still within his means.

He removed the seal.

Ethan immediately noticed the difference. The blood felt stronger, much stronger. His Blood Perception picked it up at once. There was more life in it, more force than he had felt from ordinary animal blood. He leaned closer, studying the dark liquid. It was like comparing a dying flame to a burning lamp.

He poured a small amount into the pit and sat down. Then he began circulating Qi, as the Blood Seed began the refinement, he could feel the life within the spirit-beast blood slowly moved toward him. Warmth spread through his body as the Blood Seed pulsed faintly and more Living Blood began to form.

Ethan stopped before the blood was completely used and waited for his body to settle. He turned his attention inward. The difference was clear. The Living Blood produced this time felt stronger. It wasn’t simply that there was more of it. Each drop seemed to carry more than what he had produced from ordinary blood.

His eyes narrowed. "So the quality matters."