Chapter 75 - 58 : Blood to Blood (2)

Chapter 75: Chapter 58 : Blood to Blood (2)

He wrote it down, then looked at the remaining blood. "Which means quantity isn’t everything." The thought pleased him.

Ethan continued experimenting. Two days later, he found a low-level spirit beast in the rocky hills outside the city. It was hardly impressive by cultivation standards, a small creature that looked almost like a large rat, with rough, stone-colored fur. It lived among the rocks, feeding on roots, insects, and whatever else it could find.

Ethan watched it from a distance. Its cultivation was weak, barely enough to make it stand out from an ordinary animal. Yet when his Blood Perception brushed against it, Ethan noticed something else. There was a trace of spiritual energy within its blood, making it presence more noticeable.

Ethan moved and caught it before it could escape. The creature struggled briefly in his grasp before Ethan ended its life with a swift motion. He felt no pleasure in it, but neither did he dwell on it. He had killed animals before. This one simply served a different purpose.

He collected the blood and later compared it with what he had gathered from ordinary animals. The difference was clear. The blood of the spirit beast carried more vitality than the others. Not by much, but enough.

Ethan nodded. "Even something this weak makes a difference."

He took note of this, then glanced toward the distant hills wondering if the blood of a weak spirit beast was already better than ordinary animal blood, what would happen with something stronger?

And what about cultivators?

The thought lingered for a moment. Better blood would surely be harder to obtain. Which meant money or danger and Perhaps both. Ethan put the thought aside. He would look into it when he was ready

The question of human blood came several days later. It wasn’t something he had gone looking for. The thought simply returned while Ethan was sitting in a small shop, drinking .

As he thought about what the Blood Seed had done, his mind naturally returned to the blood that had surrounded him during his transformation. That same thought brought the spirit-beast blood to mind and the difference he had just felt in it. His fingers paused against the side of the cup.

Human blood.

Could it work the same way?

Ethan looked down at his cup. Strangely, the thought didn’t bring any hunger with it. He felt no urge to attack anyone or sink his teeth into someone’s neck.

A faint smile touched his lips.

He had half expected becoming a vampire to come with some troublesome instinct like that. Thankfully, it seemed he had been spared the trouble.

What remained was simple curiosity. Could the Blood Seed refine human blood?

It should have been possible. Humans were living beings, and their blood carried the same thing he had already been taking from animals. The question was whether the Blood Seed would treat it differently. Ethan took another sip from his cup. There was only one problem though.

Getting it.

There was, of course, another way to get it. Ethan dismissed the thought almost as soon as it appeared. He wasn’t going to kill people just to get their blood. Whatever benefits human blood might offer, it wasn’t worth creating that kind of trouble.

That left obtaining it through other means. But unlike animal blood, human blood wasn’t something he could simply find in a market and buy. Asking for it openly would only bring unnecessary questions or worst, even trouble.

Ethan would need to find someone who dealt in things that weren’t usually sold in the open. Someone who dealt with things respectable merchants preferred to keep out of sight.

Ethan’s gaze settled on a familiar face, the merchant near the entrance, who was still busy arranging his shipment. Ethan waited until the man finished before approaching.

"You’re still busy, I see."

The merchant looked up and recognized him.

"Ethan. You’re here early."

"Just passing through."

The merchant glanced toward the street before returning his attention to Ethan.

"Need something?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you about a different kind of business."

The merchant raised an eyebrow.

"What kind?"

Ethan glanced around, from the entrance to the street.

"Not something I’d like to discuss here."

The merchant studied him for a moment before nodding toward a quieter corner.

"Let’s hear it."

Ethan glanced around to make sure no one nearby was paying attention before lowering his voice.

"I’m looking for something that isn’t normally sold in the open market."

"What exactly?"

"I’m not sure if you can get it."

A small smile appeared on the merchant’s face. "You won’t know until you ask."

"Something specific?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

Ethan was quiet for a moment before answering.

"Some blood."

The merchant’s expression shifted slightly.

"Animal blood?"

Ethan shook his head.

"Not necessarily."

"Then what kind?"

Ethan considered the question before replying.

"The rare kind, that comes with no questions."

The merchant looked at him for a few moments. He seemed to understand what Ethan was getting at.

After a moment, he said,

"I might know someone who can help you with that."

Ethan nodded. "Can you arrange a meeting?"

"I’ll see what I can do. Give me a couple of days."

"That’s fine."

Ethan tossed him a sliver coin .

"For your troubles"

The merchant nodded and returned to his goods while Ethan left without saying anything more.

Two nights later, the meeting was arranged on a quiet street away from the busier parts of the city. A man waited beneath the shadow of an old building, his face partially covered.

Ethan stopped a few steps away. His Blood Perception spread quietly. The man’s blood was calm. His cultivation wasn’t particularly high, Body Tempering.

Ethan relaxed slightly.

The man looked him over. "You’re the one the merchant mentioned?"

"I am."

"He said you were looking for something difficult to obtain."

Ethan nodded.

"I am."

"What is it?"

Ethan studied the man for a moment.

"Human blood."

The man’s expression changed. He was silent for several breaths.

"That’s not what I expected."

"Can you get it?"

The man didn’t answer immediately.

"How much?"

"A small amount to begin with."

"And you don’t care where it comes from?"

Ethan’s expression hardened slightly.

"I care."

The man waited.

Ethan continued, "I don’t want it taken from someone because of my request."

The man’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"You’re making things difficult."

"I’m trying to keep them simple with zero trace backs." A short silence followed.

Finally, the man nodded. "I may be able to find something. It won’t be much, though."

"That’s enough for now."

"It’ll take a few days."

"How much?"

The man named his price. Ethan considered it before nodding.

"Fine."

"I’ll contact the merchant when I have it."

Ethan nodded.

"Then I’ll wait."

He turned to leave, but stopped after a few steps. "And keep this between us."

The man gave a quiet laugh.

"If I wanted people knowing about my business, I wouldn’t be meeting you here."

Ethan glanced back at him. The answer wasn’t completely reassuring but it was good enough. He left without asking anything else.

The blood arrived several days later. Ethan opened the container alone in his secluded spot. The smell reached him first. It wasn’t stronger than animal blood.

The smell reached him first.

It wasn’t stronger than animal blood.

Just different. His Blood Perception followed almost immediately, and Ethan paused. The blood felt strangely familiar. Maybe it was because it came from a human, a being with a mind of its own . Ethan couldn’t quite explain it, but the difference was there.

Ethan stared at the blood for a moment.

Human blood. There was something familiar about it. Not because it belonged to him but because it reminded him of what he had once been. His gaze lingered on the container.

Now he was something else entirely.

Ethan stared at the blood for a while. His fingers tightened slightly around the container. He had expected animal blood, and it came more freely, Spirit beasts were one thing. Even cultivator blood, strange as it was, could be viewed as another resource.

But this was different, this had belonged to a person. Ethan’s gaze lingered on the dark red liquid. He didn’t like the thought as much as he wanted to. Yet curiosity remained. He had come this far. He wanted to know what his Blood Seed would do with it.

Ethan was still unsure what to make of that. For now, he would simply find out. Ethan closed his eyes and began circulating his Qi.

The Blood Seed responded as it had before. The blood slowly gave up what it carried, and that strength flowed toward him as Qi moved through his body. The result came quickly.

The Living Blood formed inside him, and Ethan immediately noticed the difference.

It was stronger than what he had produced from ordinary animal blood.

There was more of it, and each drop felt richer.

Ethan stopped before using the entire blood.

The Blood Seed responded as it had before. As Ethan circulated his Qi, something within the blood began to flow toward him. As the warmth spread through his body, living Blood began to form. Ethan noticed the difference almost immediately. It felt stronger than what he had produced from ordinary animal blood. There was also more of it, and each drop carried a greater sense of strength. He stopped before the blood was completely used.

The small amount he had tested had produced a clear result, but that didn’t tell him what would happen if he used more. There could still be things he hadn’t noticed. Ethan picked up his journal.

It seems human blood can produce Living Blood. He paused, then added:

There is something different about it.

Ethan looked over the words for a moment before closing the journal. That was all he could say for now.

A few days later, Ethan received another message. The same supplier had managed to obtain a small amount of cultivator blood.

Ethan’s first thought was to refuse.

Cultivator blood wasn’t something people simply gave away. Whoever had provided it had either been willing to part with it for a reason or had been persuaded to do so. Either way, getting it had probably not been simple.

That alone made the deal troublesome. Ethan knew that. He also knew he should probably leave it alone. But the thought of what he might learn kept coming back to him. In the end, curiosity won and he bought it.

The amount wasn’t much, and the price was high, but Ethan accepted both without complaint. He would just have to see whether the risk had been worth it.

When he opened the container outside the city, Ethan paused. The blood carried a weight he hadn’t felt in the other samples. It was stronger than ordinary human blood, stronger than the spirit-beast blood he had tested before. Ethan looked at it for a moment.

The thought brought back the faint lights he had felt through Blood Perception. The stronger the being, the brighter that presence had seemed. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence. He didn’t dwell on it.

A small amount was enough for what he wanted to learn. Ethan began circulating his Qi. The Blood Seed responded, and the blood slowly began to change. The reaction was stronger than before. Ethan stopped soon after. He waited for the feeling within him to settle before turning his attention inward. When he was done he sealed the container again.

"Later."

There would be time to try stronger blood later. For now, Ethan had learned enough.

Still, as he looked at the different containers beside him, another thought came to mind.

If each kind of blood produced something different, what would happen if he mixed them together?

Ethan let the thought sit for a moment. Then he reached for the containers. He took small amounts of ordinary animal blood, spirit-beast blood, and human blood and set them before him.

The cultivator blood remained sealed.

It was too valuable to waste. If he ever needed more, he could always find a way to get it. Taking it from another cultivator by force wasn’t impossible. But there was no reason to go that far for that yet.

Ethan mixed the three together. At first, nothing seemed out of place. But when he turned his attention to the blood, he noticed that something wasn’t right. The three kinds seemed to resist each other. They mixed together, yet they didn’t truly blend.

Ethan frowned.

He tried guiding them with the Blood Seed. The moment he began refining them, pressure built inside his chest. Ethan stopped immediately. A dull ache lingered for a few breaths before slowly fading. He looked down at the mixture. Something about combining them clearly wasn’t working.

"That’s troublesome."

He opened his journal and wrote; Mixed blood is more difficult to refine.

After a moment, he added; Different sources do not naturally mixed.

Ethan stared at the notes for a while.

So mixing them wasn’t as simple as he had hoped. If he wanted to combine different kinds of blood in the future, he would need to find a better way.

By the time Ethan finished, the sun was already sinking. He returned to the deeper part of his secluded shelter, where the surrounding rocks kept the area hidden from the main path. Sitting down, Ethan opened his journal and went over what he had written.

He had started with ordinary animal blood, then moved to spirit beasts and humans. The cultivator blood had shown him even more. Each had produced its own result, and each time, some of what the blood carried was lost along the way.

Ethan closed the journal.

At least he had a rough idea of how it worked now. Blood could provide what the Blood Seed needed. Qi helped refine it, and what came from the process became Living Blood. The better the blood seemed to be, the more useful the result appeared.

But that came with its own problem. Better blood wasn’t easy to get. Ordinary animal blood was cheap and easy enough to find. Spirit-beast blood was harder. Human and cultivator blood brought other complications entirely.

Ethan leaned back against the rock. A quiet laugh escaped him.

"So even this has a price."

He looked down at his hands. The Living Blood moved quietly within him. He could feel it now without having to search for it. It was another way for him to grow. Not a shortcut.

Ethan actually preferred it that way. Something that gave him unlimited strength without requiring anything in return would only make him careless. This was different. It gave him an advantage, but making use of it would still require effort. Money, resources, better control and eventually, better blood.

Ethan closed the journal and looked toward the hills beyond the rocks. There were still things he didn’t understand, but he didn’t feel the need to chase all of them at once. One question, however, remained in the back of his mind.

If the Blood Seed could take what it needed from blood. What else could it take?

A faint smile touched Ethan’s lips. He didn’t know. And he wasn’t going to guess.

He would find out.