Chapter 6
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/Shuaa…/
"Urg… I need to…"
/BLERG!/
"Huff… Huff…"
Sun looked at the ground. A dirty puddle of muddy water reflected his expression. There, he saw red eyes and a frowning expression. A broken man, saddened beyond belief.
"... Haa… Was I ever that emotional? I always thought I was a Demonic Human…"
'It seemed that after being by myself for so long… I forgot how it felt to be around someone… And how it felt to be recognized… appreciated… Even if their words were lies so I would remember them fondly and perform their last wills…it felt… nice.'
'Truly, how low have I fallen for me to put so much emphasis on the words of people I never saw before?... I should just take it all and move on.'
He closed his eyes, remembering those Elders' words, and a thought passed through his mind:
'The inheritor of the Sect, huh… I wanted none of this. The only thing I ever wanted was to… have those guys eat their words a little…'
"Sigh… Even though it was petty, it feels so hollow now…"
'Ancestors… I never thought much about them. To me, they were but old people living their old lives in their retirement home. Even if the Sect was biased and unequal, someone has no responsibility to take care of all injustices in the world. Besides, I always thought they were like the other elite children… people who grew to only care about their bloodline… Maybe to some degree, they still did, even in death.'
'What makes them stand out, however, is the fact that they truly, from the bottom of their hearts, loved the Heaven Cross Sect. And whatever they were feeling at the end… likely cannot compare to the solitude I feel now.'
"... I can't say I'll live the lives they want, but I'll honor their sacrifices, as no matter what, they saved my life."
"My ignorance both saved and cursed me, as had I left the Sect, a life of mediocrity if not insanity would've followed, while had I left the Demonic Vault at night, the Elder would've taken my life."
"Life is… quite unpredictable."
He got up from the ground, recovering his bearings as his senses stabilized.
"I can promise them one thing… That I'll live and achieve a realm of cultivation like none before, and when I do, I'll spread the name of the Heaven Cross Sect so their legacy may live, even if for only a few more centuries."
"I'll succeed; this is what I've been living for. I may never have been accepted formally, but in their final moments, the Ancestors recognized my efforts and talent."
"If only for a moment, I was a true member of the sect…"
'Everything I have came from the sect. It's just right that I honor its name.'
"... From now on, I'm Sun Xiaoei Ma, the last living member of the Heaven Cross Sect and the Inheritor of the Blood Cross Sect's will."
"I declare here that I'll surpass Kalamal-Ghar Xingru Lox, the patriarch of the Demonic Path!… I am the last cultivator of the Guamo Continent!""
/Shua…/
His resolution set, Sun looked around as hot wind blew against his body.
'Now, where am I?'
"Hm… Wait…"
Tall, broken buildings. Wide rocky black roads, strange metal objectives rusting under the sun…
"T-This place… Don't tell me…"
'Am I back on Earth?!'
"But this place… It's so… desolate."
All buildings were ragged, not old, just destroyed. Windows broken, cars rusting, paint peeling… The ground was covered in muddy red sand, not too thick but enough to hide the black concrete in some areas.
"From the looks of it... it's been years since this city was abandoned… no, decades."
'If this is Earth, would this city have been abandoned for as long as I've been alive?… Hard to say.'
"I can't feel any life around me either. If this city had been abandoned, nature would've overtaken it, unless we're in a desert city… No, even then…"
"Let me guess… was it war? Nuclear Winter? I don't feel weird… so far at least…"
'I could be under the effects of intense radiation even at this moment… so if I don't raise my cultivation…'
He reached for his chin, pensive, "Hum… Even if I raise it, would it be enough to protect me against radiation sickness?"
"Urg… No matter, for now, I should find shelter, a food source, and above all, somewhere to cultivate."
He closed his eyes to feel his surroundings, making a terrible discovery.
"This world is overflowing with energy!… But this energy… Dead Qi… There's no Spiritual Qi around, not even Life Qi… It's just death everywhere."
'Just like dead air, Dead Qi exists. It's created when Life Qi stales for too long and when something dies and begins to decay. When that happens, Spiritual Qi transforms into Dead Qi. It's a vile, smoggy Qi that has no value as it's impossible to work with… almost impossible…'
"Usually Dead Qi breaks down on its own into other simpler forms of Qi, but this one just keeps condensing… it's almost as if this entire city is some sort of forbidden zone where Dead Qi pools into a thick blanket of miasma…"
'Maybe if I look far enough, I'll be able to find Dead Qi liquefied… just thinking about that is quite harrowing.'
"Although vile, I can use Dead Qi to raise my Cultivation. If I can become a Nascent Soul Cultivator, I can set massive arrays and eventually convert Dead Qi back to Spiritual Qi and from there things are simple."
"I can then abolish my cultivation and start again! After all, Dead Qi leads to a dead foundation…"
"Although there's a small handicap, this world is full of Qi! Almost as much as the Upper Sect at its densest times!"
'Whatever occurred in this world… I don't know if I should be happy I didn't experience it, or disappointed I arrived too late to experience a world full of bountiful Spiritual Qi…'
"Okay, now… My ring is still on my hand so my stuff is protected. I don't see any issue with the ring's structure either… but where's… I found it… Wait, something's off.""
Sun grabbed the Cosmic Mirror, and he immediately noticed its dim appearance, "Is it broken? I hope not, because if his world is this desolate… I don't think I'll last very long. I need sustenance after all."
'Still, I think this is but a matter of just charging it up again. However, if it took the life force of dozens of Soul Formation Experts, and the life force of thousands of cultivators and their treasures for it to charge once… I can't believe how much time it would take me to activate it again.'
"Even if I were at the realm beyond Soul Formation, I probably wouldn't be able to make much of a dent on its charge… Just how high does one's cultivation need to be to support the constant use of such an item?"
"That said… the idea itself is interesting… traversing the cosmos… If I can just land at a well-developed world… just thinking about it… Forget it, I'm thinking too far into things."
He looked around, "For now, I need a base to spread my legs; my back's killing me and I need to begin my cultivation else I die of darned old age... Maybe I should begin with a formation or…"
/Step…/
Because of all the noise he was making, something noticed his presence, making its way to him, one step at a time.//
"!"
Although his body was mortal, he was still stronger than an ordinary person. And with his sharpened senses, Sun heard something approaching from behind him.
"... ?! A person!"
'If there are people here, this could mean supplies and maybe… wait, I feel danger…'
"Grrr… G-H-Gha…."
A man slowly walked towards him, almost falling several times as he dragged one foot behind him.
"... Could it be… That is the same thing that was attacking the ancestors!! It's that darned infection! Why is it here?!" He asked out loud as his forehead tensed
'If the Cosmic Mirror connects two worlds together, could it be that the Heavens' punishment also befell this world?! Although… if that were the case, the Dead Qi wouldn't remain… This must mean that this is…'
"Graaarr…"
"Just an unpleasant coincidence."
'Or perhaps the way the Heavens affect each world is different… It could be that as well… But I shouldn't risk it either way. I have no intention of becoming a Zombie.'
'Maybe if I reach Nascent Soul or Soul Formation I might be able to control my body even if infected, but at least I wouldn't want to risk becoming one in the first place.'
"That said… does it spread through the air? Maybe even the water… urg… I feel danger everywhere…"
'I'll have to be careful what I touched from now on…'
/Unsheathe… CUT!/
Sun took out a small hook weapon from the storage ring, shoving it inside the man's forehead before pulling it out unceremoniously.
He thought about using the Golden Dew Sword. However, in its state, it might end up shattering if he used it this brutally. A Human's skull was hard, it could chip the blade… and any damage would be catastrophic.
This hook, on the other hand, was just an old tool linked to alchemy… Its state was not of his concern.
"Thankfully, I hoarded some trash items during my compulsive period… I never thought I'd be using this old iron hook like this."
He approached the zombie carefully, "Is it dead?"
/Silence…/
"It seems so. As I thought, aim for the head does the job… But anyhow, is this a zombie or something? I can feel Dead Qi all over it… I didn't have the chance to inspect the Zombie Cultivators, so I can't tell if they're the same thing."
Sun approached the creature, taking great care not to touch its body and also to avoid giving it the chance to retaliate…
"Let's see… HM?!"
'This is!'
As the creature bled to death, Sun noticed something very odd…
"Blood Qi! This darned thing has Blood Qi!"
There were several types of Qi inside the human body… True Qi, as he explained before, formed when someone was born and during pregnancy. Vital Qi was similar, but it usually grew in power as someone grew in age, trained, and cultivated.
Inner Qi represented the ordinary energy inside a cultivator's body, although some people just called it Spiritual Qi plainly… albeit it wasn't the same. Inner Qi was more refined, it was the Spiritual Qi of the world refined through a cultivator's technique and settled inside their body.
On that note, Spiritual Qi was something all could inherently absorb, albeit in mortals, the Spiritual Qi was so minimal it was almost none. It was one of the most basic forms of Qi and the one Immortal cultivators used to advance their cultivations.
Demonic Cultivators had to grow through a few extra steps…
Blood Qi represented the strength of their blood and flesh, it could be consumed and nurtured without major consequences.
Soul Qi was the manifestation of their Soul, usually hidden deep in their bodies. It disperses at the lightest of stimuli; only Nascent Soul Cultivators can tap into Soul Qi effectively. But only Soul Formation Cultivators can make use of it proficiently.
Finally, of the most common forms, there is the Yin and Yang that balance the body. Both men and women have it, albeit in different densities and quantities.
Having more Yin Qi won't turn a man into a woman, nor is having more Yang Qi turn a woman into a man. Albeit it's true that on average, men are known for their Yang Qi and women for the Yin Qi.
Having too much of the opposite side while being of the opposite danger can cause adverse effects, such as men developing more feminine features and women more masculine ones… even if merely on an emotional level.
Aside from that, there are many other types of "Minor Qi" that were far too technical to be considered, such as Flesh Qi and Bone Qi.
Originally, Sun believed this world had been exterminated and that only Dead Qi remained, but now… If there was Blood Qi…
"This means I can practice all of my Demonic Techniques without fear!... Hahaha… This is great!"
As he said that, he crouched next to the zombie, putting his right palm before its skull.
/Crunch…/
The veins on the back of his palm twisted, forming a strange pattern…
As he stimulated his True Qi, something happened…
/SUCK!/
The blood of the Zombie was sucked, and from the back of his hand, dark gas was released into the air, creating a thin cloud.
"Haaa… I did it… There wasn't much Blood Qi but it's enough for me to begin cultivating."
'I burned a little of my True Qi, but as long as there's Blood Qi, I can perform rituals and… No! I can go beyond that!'
"Who cares if I practice the Devilish Arts? It's just zombies!… There's no one around to bother me anymore!"
"The Heavens won't punish me for skinning a zombie; on the contrary, they'll likely praise me!"
'My only fear is the blood… I don't think there's anything to fear in refining their energy, but the blood… I'd rather not touch it.'
/Growl…/
As he exclaimed that, a bigger group of zombies was alerted, approaching him from all sides…
"Haa… right… Maybe this was my fate all along."
He looked at the bright red skies, "The Heaven's will is boundless. Was I destined to be here from the beginning?... Very well then, I'll cleanse this world for you."
He put his hands high and declared:
"I'll purify everything and bring back life through Demonic Arts!"
His right hand shone with red light…
"I'll send you all peacefully, rest easy now… I'll allow your Souls to ascend to Heaven." He said as he reached for a nearby zombie
"GUAARRR!!"
The zombie tried to hold him, but before he even had the chance to move…
/SUCK!/
His entire Blood Qi was sucked, turning him into a dry husk.
/Shine…/
Sun's right hand glowed a little stronger as the pattern at the back of his palm grew more defined.
"That makes two… eight more should be enough for me to become an entry Level Cultivator."
'I'd prefer if I could sit down and revise the documents I was given, but I can't tolerate another twenty years of study… not when factors like my basic necessities aren't even secured.'
"GUAARR!"
/FWOOSH!/
/GRAB!/
He evaded a zombie's arm, placing his palm at the end of his nape, "Even if I have to reset my cultivation later on…"
/SUCK!/
"I can just try again… and again… and again…"
"That makes three…"
/GRAB!/
/SUCK!/
"Four… Five… Six… Even if takes a million bodies with each reset… I can definitely refine my arts to an unbelievable level!"
'I just hope there's enough Dead Qi to support such splurge… wait… am I really doubting how much Qi there is in the whole planet?!'
"Pffft… Since when did I grow so arrogant…?"
/Muehhhh…/
They kept coming, everything he needed to do was to touch their heads, and the more he did, the brighter his hand glowed.
Eventually, a rune formed on the back of his palm, completely drenched in blood.
"With this one… makes ten."
/Crack…/
Like the sound of glass breaking, something… Violent energy surged around Sun's body as a wave of red energy rushed from his palm all the way to his chest!
"Breakthrough!!! From a mortal to the Entry Level, from the Entry Level to the First Stage of Qi Refinement." Sun said in a low tone as his skin cracked
'This is a little uncomfortable… Breaking through too quickly leads to this.'
Entry Level is a half stage between a mortal and a Cultivator, it's a stage where a mortal sheds their old body and becomes an immortal.
Their skin peels and their bodies rejuvenate, even if little. In Sun's case, he could already feel his entire skin becoming loose from his sudden breakthrough.
"GUAAA!!"
The zombie screams only seemed to attract more to his location, but he didn't complain.
"A little discomfort is nothing." He said as he reached for his face, peeling off his old skin and wrinkles, revealing a far more youthful face underneath it
"Finally, my back pain is starting to subside. With a few dozen more, I'll grow as young as when I first stepped inside that vault."
"And after that… I'll cut off this darned beard!"
/Grab…/
/SUCK!/
/Grab…/
…
/Ten minutes later…/
"Haaa… I feel… euphoric."
Around him, a pile of rotting bodies rose to form a small hill. The infected blood ran down the mud into the long clogged drains of this dead city.
"... No wonder Devilish Cultivation is to be feared. The sensation of your power increasing in real-time can mess with your head."
He looked around. The quiet was… haunting, "At least here I don't have to worry about the zombies rallying up against me in a fight for justice or something like that."
Sun opened and closed his hand, feeling the condensed power he had absorbed.
/Open… Close…/
/BAM!/
/BREAKTHROUGH!/
"Humph, Second Stage of Qi Refinement within barely fifteen minutes of my arrival; that's quite fast, even for my past plans."
"It took me thirty-seven zombies to gather enough Blood Qi; at this rate, I'll have to kill thousands to reach the Foundation Establishment realm."
'… But to a certain degree, that is the norm… It's just that there is far less to absorb in these zombies compared to the ordinary mortals back on the Guamo continent… But I know I can get a little more efficient than this.'
"Even if my technique is better than those out there, even if my execution is flawed… There's a loss of energy during the absorption, during the conversion process, and finally during the integration procedure."
"I'm barely absorbing a third of their total blood Qi. And in an apocalyptic world, I have to use my resources sparingly."
He put his arms behind his back, "Time is also a top priority. I can spend days hunting for this, but I need to look for food."
"As for my safety, the higher my cultivation is, the faster and safer it'll be… Now, from a preliminary analysis of these zombies, I'd say they've been around for two or three decades, maybe less… Quite far from when the Heaven's destroyed my world."
"Maybe there's a connection… but for now, it's built on assumptions."
After a moment to gather his thoughts, he stepped down from the corpse pile, "... Alright, I know what to do."
'I could gather zombies and absorb their Blood Qi, but I know a better process. I'm a Demonic Cultivator… no… I'm a Demonic Scholar whose knowledge reaches Nascent Soul if not Soul Formation… it's time to make use of my knowledge.'
"Even if I can't employ 95% of what I know, I can start somewhere… From a sharp rock to a metal axe, it all starts with the simplest of methods… albeit here, I'll use a more advanced technique to make me skip through that slow and tiring process."
"This is Demonic… no… Devilish Cultivation!"
/Walk…/
Sun walked to a small convenience store nearby. It was utterly looted, but he decided to use it as a base for now since it was quite the recognizable location.
"As expected, this isn't a language a recognize… I'm relieved. For once I thought this was Earth."
From inside his storage device, he took out a small white cocoon… "A Gu insect." He mumbled out loud as he inspected the item's structure
"A Gu Insect is a mystical creature usually paired with a Demonic Cultivator. I used to have one back in the day, but I sold mine for currency before entering the Demonic Vault. As for this little guy, I found him in the treasury of the Sect."
"This is a top-class Gu insect, and it's stirring… It probably has the potential to reach Nascent Soul if not Soul Formation without much issue… a monster…. and it wants to resurface."
"It's time for you to awaken… a partner to accompany me on this journey."
'And also my little guinea pig…'
/Drip…/
He cut his index finger with a dagger from inside the ring, letting his blood drench the cocoon red…
/Crack…/
/Ssszz…/
A small white centipede nymph crawled from within the cocoon onto his hand. It was rather graceful, having long, fluffy antennae behind its back as it moved slowly, trying to understand the world around it.
Its face was also round and chubby. It possessed simple, welcoming colors, not looking aggressive nor harmful in the slightest.
"As I thought, it's the Angel Bite Centipede… one of the most valuable Gu centipedes in the world. Horrendously poisonous, a fully mature one can kill a Nascent Soul Cultivator with a single bite if they don't take care. And a Soul Formation would be in pain for weeks if not months if they were bitten by one… they might even die, but that's difficult."
"Back there, if you could become a Soul Formation master, then you weren't stupid… dying from venom is exactly that."
"It's extremely illegal. For obvious purposes… Its venom is even a powerful enough catalyst to create far greater Gu Poison… Tsk tsk, to think the Sect would keep one of its eggs behind… I thought it was extinct, but like most things in the world, killing them all is hard, especially when cultivators are greedy."
"It's still a nymph, so it'll take a while for you to grow… So meanwhile, you'll stay with me." Sun said as he made a small cut in his left palm
/Crawl…/
The centipede, seemingly knowing what to do, crawled inside the wound, closing it off with silk as if it was never there.
"A bit disgusting and uncomfortable, but it's the best place to keep it until it grows… Some Cultivators would keep their Gu insects inside their hearts, much less their palm…"
"But this isn't enough… Where is it?... Aha!"
After digging through his ring, he found a small bag with a set of pebbles inside. Those, of course, weren't pebbles but programmable Formation Cores.
"These can set formations anywhere and anytime by anyone as long as they have some degree of cultivation. The problem is that they aren't almighty, and I have so few of them… There are likely far more buried in the pile of treasures inside the ring... though, but until I go through it all… only small-scale Formations can be set."
"Even so, for someone at my stage, creating a formation is already more than enough! No cultivator in their right mind would expect a Qi Refining scrub to be able to make a formation… not even a Formation Establishment would be able to do it."
"First of all… I need to have a look at the surroundings." Sun said as he left the convenience store
He raised his head and looked at an apartment building around twelve floors high and… jumped!
/CRACK!/
With his previous physical strength, he was already superhuman, and adding to his current Cultivation, he immediately climbed two floors, jumping over nine meters in one go.
/Grab… Jump!/
He grabbed onto a window and jumped again. After repeating this a few times, he reached the top of the building.
"Huff… almost feel down for a moment there. It's been so long since I've done any of this that I almost embarrassed myself... Only in moments like these that I feel old… Fuck, I'm not old!"
Shacking his head in denial, he frowned… "It's worse than I thought."
The entire city block looked dead. As far as he could see, a gray, dusty world awaited him without a single shred of green anywhere.
"Even though this isn't Earth… where would I be, anyway? The North? South? The Equator?…"
'Those can be important for some large scale formations, but mine won't care about that.'
He looked around, eventually setting his sight on something in the distance,
"... Those buildings. They look good enough for my formation."
/Jump!/
/LAND!/
He jumped from the top floor, crashing onto the street with a loud bam!
"Huff… My ankles hurt… Alright, I won't try this again until I become at least a Sixth Stage…"
'To grow strong enough to resist the human body's terminal velocity, you need to reach the Ninth if not the Tenth Stage of Qi Refinement, but with my constitution, the Fifth Stage should be fine… But I'll stick with the Sixth Stage as a safe bet.'
'Until then… no playing around jumping from tall places, especially since I could fall onto a nail… That would hurt… a lot.'
/Dash!/
Sun ran to the building, eager to set a formation.
…
/Half an hour later…/
Looking down from a six-story top apartment, Sun turned his head to look at a strangely complex arithmetic drawing carved on the ground, "Hm… The basic formation is set."
Twelve different nodes interjected through a dozen lines, symbols and other strange runes. The carving was uneven, with holes and mounds scattered throughout its expanse. It was rather ugly, yet it possessed some layer of order and refinement to it.
There was logic there, for as twisted and alien as it was.
'A very simple refinement formation. Formation work the same way ordinary techniques function, and to a certain degree, every technique can be reflected through a formation, but not the other way around because of the limit of the human body.'
'Qi is moved through pathways. And like a computer's programming on a circuit board and its components, the many pathways and nodes control its flow, density, pressure, and other aspects. From this combination, an effect is generated.'
'Through the formation cores, we can input variables to control and stabilize it. This is some of the most basic principles around formations… albeit that alone covers dozens of books if not more if you stretch it to both Demonic and Immortal Cultivation.'
"Now then, time to activate it."
/Burn…/
Without Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere, Sun had to power it himself.
He felt faint, almost falling to his knees, "Urg…"
He went all the way from the Second Stage of Qi Refinement to the First Stage… then Entry Level…
Sun burned his cultivation to activate the formation, letting his Qi bleed onto it through his feet, dying the pathways red as they oozed red smoke…
/Shine!/
"Huff… Huff… I did it!"
'This formation has no name, nor will I name it, so for now, I'll just refer to it as the Blood Essence Platform.'
"The Blood Qi of one hundred individuals to power a vile ritual… If this were back on the Guamo Continent, there would already be a squad led by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator on my ass."
On his way to the apartment and during the construction of the formation, Sun drained a few more Zombies to gather the minimum energy to activate the array… just so he wouldn't burn more True Qi needlessly.
While it didn't matter if he burned it or not, it always felt painful whenever he did it. And he didn't like pain…
"Time to work… Little guy, help me a bit." Sun said as he raised his left palm to the sky
/Slither…/
The small centipede nymph left its temporary house, climbing onto his fingers…
/SCREEEECH!!/
A heart-piercing sound echoed throughout the city.
"Urg… Good work. Our dinner should be getting here soon…"
'This is risky, as I'm unsure if there are others alive around, or if there are stronger zombies in this world… It could be just like the Guamo Continent where the truly strong Zombies hide… albeit I feel these are different from those back then.'
"These zombies look ordinary, while those in the Guamo Continent were… odd, to say the least. That dark fog inside their bodies… I haven't seen anything similar around here."
'Maybe the reason I can here was due to my fear… the thoughts of escaping those zombies might've affected my destination, leading me instead to another world full of zombies.'
"Even no, no matter how strong they are, as long as the zombies cannot defend themselves against the formation, even a Golden Core Zombie would slowly wither to the formation as its Blood Qi is drained."
'I don't know if there are such zombies. But I'll assume this world had some degree of cultivation, given there's Qi around… As a safety measure, I have the items inside the ring, they can save me if something bad happens…'
He looked at the ring, but his gaze quickly went elsewhere, "Oh! We already have some friends on their way…"
/March…/
/Growl…/
One by one, a crowd of zombies slowly made their way to his apartment. They were like moths to a flame… attracted by the sweet scent of…
Life.
"This entire building is a cage, and the closer they climb, the stronger the draining force of the Formation will be. Climbing up will take a long time, and by the time they figure out how to get here, they'll die… again…?"
'It's unconventional, but I made this formation work like a traction beam where it'll suck Blood Qi directly underneath it instead of its surroundings like most do.'
'This concentrates its power and increases its efficiency. The only thing I have to do now is rest and let the zombies come to me.'
'If there are zombies capable of climbing through the walls, then before they can, I'll recover my Cultivation and kill them as well. Once I drain all the zombies within a few hundred meters, I'll move to the next spot and repeat this process until I have enough energy to set up a major formation...'
'One that can cover the whole town!'
"Even though I only have a few programmable Formation Cores, each can take the work of an entire large formation if I program them well, so it saves me a lot of work."
'And I'm sure I can find more inside the ring, maybe even other items that can work as Formation Cores… Being rich… Sure is nice.'
/LIGHT!/
"Oh! Here's our meal, little one." Sun said as he watched his formation light up
/Drain… Splurge!/
Blood slowly splurged like a miniature geyser from the cracks in the concrete.
As the blood spurted… One small fountain became two… then a dozen… Gallons slowly poured onto the apartment ceiling, turning the entire area into a vast red pool.
"It works as intended… now… we wait." He said as he opened a door and got inside, locking it soon after
Inside the door was a large room with a few benches and old tables… The elevator shaft's maintenance room. It connected to the emergency stairs leading to the first floor.
Sun had already brought all of his items back to this floor, and to make sure no zombies made their way up there, he shoved a few old couches down the stairs.
Even if they could climb through it, by the time they were done, they would be empty husks… But would they even figure out the way up here was through the stairs?
This was also an excellent opportunity for him to check their intelligence.
/Sha sha sha!…/
"Hm? Do you want some of the Blood Qi?... Alright, but only a little." Sun asked as he put the centipede nymph on the ground
"Leave most of it to me. I'll need it to set even more formations in the future."
/Sha!/
/GUAAAA…/
Under the screams of dozens of dying zombies, Sun gently laid his head on the dirty couch, waiting for time to pass.
…
/SCREEECH!/
/Around two hours later…/
"Hm… I guess that's it… Good work, anyway."
/Sha…/
Sun crossed his arms as he looked at the empty streets, pensive.
'I've figured out a few things regarding these zombies. First, their meridians are all messed up as it seems their True Qi reversed, and now, rather than Life Qi flowing through their meridians, it's Dead Qi fueling them to keep moving.'
'In less technical words, they never died; they were turned into this while still alive… Everything that I know tells me they should still be conscious, but it's not the case.'
'They still have True Qi as well, just very little… Which means that, from a certain perspective, these zombies are alive… which makes sense to me.'
"Just because they were turned into monsters, it doesn't mean they're dead."
'The consciousness that once inhabited their body may be gone, but their flesh is still alive, a new creature, a new grotesque being… Perhaps their Soul still inhabits this husk, trapped and unable to move on to the beyond…'
'But even stranger than that is that this entity uses Dead Qi as the base of its being instead of Life Qi, and this shouldn't be possible… Perhaps if I can understand how they do it I might be able to figure out a new truth no one had been to understand before… Cultivation through Dead Qi, a new world would open!'
"Also, these creatures still have faint traces of their Yin and Yang Qi within their bodies, but I can't find any trace of their Spiritual Qi, the most basic of them all… which means this being is completely and utterly devoid of any thoughts. Hence their consciousness being dead."
"I still can't tell if their Soul Qi is still here… I'll have to make something more complex to extract that, but it isn't necessary now."
'I noticed that some zombies possessed stronger Dead Qi in their bodies, but that didn't seem to correlate to their strength. Some zombies, on the other hand, did possess stronger levels of Blood and True Qi, leading to a stronger body.'
'These zombies were usually larger and more deformed than the others, but they were there.'
"It seems something is causing their bodies to change, leading to an overall increase in strength. Like some sort of… mutation…"
With this study, Sun turned back to face the blood pool. It had now completely dried up, leaving behind a floating ball of red water…
"Pure Blood Essence, and much more than I originally expected."
"I should've sacrificed around seven hundred zombies. Quite a good haul… although these numbers are lower than I expected."
'I thought cities would be denser, but maybe the zombies moved elsewhere over time… or they just died off naturally.'
"With this much, I can directly advance to the Sixth Stage of Qi Refinement." He said with a proud smile as he licked his lips
He then changed his gaze to look at a smaller ball of light…
"True Qi… I can't absorb it now, but storing it should be fine. I can use it to power the next formation without losing my strength."
'Wasteful, but there's no need for me to hold myself here. Not when there are entire cities for me to harvest from. I'll need to reach Foundation Establishment to practice most of my Demonic Arts, so it's not useful for me, anyway.'
"There are techniques that can use it, but they're nothing but desperate attempts from talentless people of the past. For a truly stable foundation, one must leave techniques for when they enter Foundation Establishment."
"A few simple techniques are fine, like the Essence Absorption Palm… if you have enough mastery over it, that is."
'Also, that technique was overrated. I easily broke it apart and made something new out of it. I wonder why people put it on such a high stage… It was so inefficient! And the side effects were horrible… You basically turn into a pervert lusting for blood.'
"Anyhow, a bit of a shame I could not collect their Yin and Yang Qi… but it's a small sacrifice for the sake of progress. I can't make an all-encompassing formation with so little time and so little power."
"Give me some space little one… this will be over soon…"
'There shouldn't be any issue with absorbing this pure energy.'
Sun took out his clothes, putting them atop a small table he dragged to the ceiling, before stepping on the formation naked.
During these two hours, Sun took his time to peel off the old dead skin and clean his body with a wind bath from an artifact. It was a waste of precious Spiritual Qi, but he couldn't go around feeling like that…
He also thought about directly consuming the Spiritual Qi within the items he had brought with him, but so far, he didn't think it was necessary.
"Maybe once I'm stuck and can't progress, I'll see if there are any pills or other treasures I can consume to improve my cultivation. Until then, I'll keep them safe inside the ring."
'Although the Dead Qi isn't very useful, it prevents the Spatial Ring from decaying, which is good enough for me!'
/Step…/
"Now... Blood Essence Platform… activate!" He exclaimed as he raised his right hand towards the Blood Essence ball
/SHINE/
/INJECT!/
"Urg!..."
'I must endure it, condense the energy, channel it through my meridians, towards the center of my body…'
A wisp of energy connected to the back of his palm, and immediately after, the ball shrank as it injected its contents into Sun's body.
Pure essence, there was no need to purify it; he could instantly absorb it like an elixir!
/Shine!.../
Entry Level… First Stage of Qi Refinement… Second Stage of Qi Refinement…
Sun's past strength quickly rose again as his body returned to its previous power.
Second Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!/
Third Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!/
Fourth Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!/
Fifth Stage of Qi Refinement…
/BREAK!!/
"Hoooo… I'm full."
With the last remaining drop, Sun broke through again… Sixth Stage of Qi Refinement!
"With this, I've reached the highest point my Cultivation's ever been at. It only took me a few hours..."
'At this rate, wouldn't I reach Nascent Soul within a year? I may even beat the Immortal Flower's record… Just kidding…'
Sun looked at his body. His fair complexion had vanished slightly as his True Qi was replenished, his bony body had grown a little, and his long hair had turned somewhat crimson.
He went to the table nearby and pulled a small broken mirror he found on the ground.
"Hm… My eyes have turned red… this is because of the Blood Qi, not a permanent side effect; it'll go away with time. I could cleanse it now, but it looks imposing, so I'll keep it for now."
Sun's Revolving Heart Body allowed him to practice as much as he wanted without many risks, so the little Blood Qi running through his veins would soon be processed and integrated into his body in due time.
"Hm… I need to cut my beard… I look like one of those elders…" He muttered with a sigh as he touched his chin
/Shine…/
His hand shining with light, he began cleaning off his chin and within a few minutes, a pile of hair had formed on the ground.
"Now we're talking! I went from Revered Elder to Mister Handsome." Sun said with a chuckle as he touched his chin
'Now that I think about it, how long has it been since I saw my face?'
"Hum... I was nineteen when I last saw my face… No wonder I look so… foreign… It's been over sixty years…"
"The long red hair is also a bit odd. My hair was reached my shoulders when I first entered the Demonic Vault. After sixty years and cutting it a few times… I think the last time I cut it was when I stumbled on my long hair when I was studying at the True Demonic Vault ten years ago."
"My hair was around my knees when I reached here, but after a few breakthroughs, it's now back at the ground… It's cool, but not practical in battle."
'I'll keep it anyway. I can easily cut it at any moment, so who cares?… I'll just have to cut its ends, so it doesn't touch the ground. Or tie it up so it doesn't get dirty.'
/Screech… Sha sha…/
"I know, little guy… We're done here for now. The next one is all yours." He said as he patted his Gu centipede
He looked at the distance, "Only thing left is to…"
He raised his right arm to the orb of True Qi, storing it inside his body.
"Now we can leave…"
/Sha!/
"Oh! Of course… I need to put on some clothes first… And cut some of the excess hair down there… nice."
/SHA!/
…
After taking care of his business, Sun and the little centipede set up shop further down in the city, creating yet another formation circle before repeating their previous process.
This time, over two thousand zombies were slain. It seemed they were getting more numerous over time.
But as he said he would, he gave all the Blood Qi to his little centipede.
He could let it eat the zombies directly if he wanted to be efficient. This way, it could roam around the city while he could do his own thing.
But until he figured out how these zombies were made, directly eating their flesh was still far too dangerous. He could have it do so as an experiment, but he wasn't yet ready to try it.
/BREAK!/
Ultimately, the little nymph went from the Entry Stage to the Ninth Realm of Qi Refinement!!
Beasts and the like did not follow the same rules as Cultivators. So, saying it is broken into Qi Refinement was wrong, and instead, it's better to say it is akin to that.
As for what its cultivation truly was, there was no proper categorization as beasts followed their bloodlines instinctively, and different bloodlines had different strengthening patterns.
That's why a strong creature at birth could grow weak over time, and one that was once weak could grow strong after being fed lots of energy.
Some beasts were more efficient than others, and so were humans with their unique cultivation patterns. It was only that cultivators built a civilization to study and understand the laws of Haven, while beasts relied on nature to evolve.
With that done, Sun prepared his next formation, this time somewhere he believed would be more than worth it…
In the distance, inside a shopping district, he felt massive Dead Qi looming in the air, indicating an incredibly high concentration of zombies. To clean them all, he climbed the large shopping mall and set a large formation on its ceiling before activated it.
"Let's see how many we take down this time."
The hours passed… and the zombies were still coming like a small tide.
…
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Notes