The silence in the cave was no longer a mere absence of sound, but was charged with a cold anticipation. Wei Shen could still feel the malevolent warmth of the Blood-Devouring Stone even after its red glow had faded. The whispers of primal power, that dark call to the path of blood, still echoed in the deepest corners of his consciousness.
His stomach, which had been groaning with hunger hours before, had settled slightly after his miserable meal of Field Mouse meat. He drank again from the water droplets slowly falling from the rock crevice, moistening his dry throat. The wound in his left arm still ached, but he ignored the pain; all his focus was on what was to come.
"Blood Qi Art…" Wei Shen muttered in a low voice, the words feeling foreign on his tongue. It wasn't an art in the traditional sense, but closer to a savage instinct, a primitive understanding of how to convert stolen life essence into raw power. "No drawing Qi from heaven and earth like those fools in the sect… but direct absorption from fresh blood… The stone acts as a converter, extracting this primitive, aggressive Qi…"
He analyzed those flashes of knowledge that had flooded him from the stone. "The circulation… not through all known meridians, but concentrated on shorter, more violent pathways, close to the heart and blood centers… The goal isn't balance, but instantaneous power, lethality."
He recognized the inherent danger in this path. This Blood Qi felt like a slow poison, a power that could consume its user if not controlled by a will beyond imagination.
"But will…" A cold semblance of a smile touched Wei Shen's lips. "…is the only thing I trust in this damned body."
He knew he needed more blood. Not for food this time, but as pure fuel for his first true experiment with this dark art, and as an offering to satisfy the stone's thirst.
With grim determination, Wei Shen forced his exhausted and injured body to rise. The sharpened piece of stone, his only weapon, was in his hand. This time, he wasn't venturing into the forest as fleeing prey searching for scraps, but as a nascent predator, feeling his way towards his first victims.
It took longer this time. He was more cautious, more patient. His body was still weak, and his wound limited his movement. But his mind was sharp as a razor, analyzing every shadow, every sound, every trace. After hours of silent, arduous tracking, he finally managed to corner an "Iron-Beaked Bird," a small but strong mountain bird known for its chisel-like beak.
It was a short, brutal battle. There was no skill or art to it, only Wei Shen's absolute will to survive and the strength of desperation. When he grasped the fluttering bird in his hands, he didn't hesitate. He ended its life with a quick, precise blow from the stone.
He returned to the cave, the warm blood of the bird staining his hands and ragged clothes. He felt no disgust this time, but a kind of cold satisfaction. He had acquired the necessary fuel.
He placed the bird's carcass before the Blood-Devouring Stone. This time, there was a certain ritualism in his movements. He slit the bird's throat and let the blood flow profusely onto the smooth surface of the stone.
As he expected, the stone responded immediately. A crimson-red glow emanated from it powerfully, more intense than ever, like a heart beating with hellfire. Wei Shen felt that wave of dark, primal energy rising from the stone, dense, saturated with the scent of blood and death.
"Now," Wei Shen whispered, his eyes glinting with a faint red sheen that reflected the stone's glow.
He quickly sat in a meditative posture, closed his eyes, and focused all his consciousness on that rising energy. He didn't try to absorb "Qi" from the surrounding air as he had in his previous failed attempts. Instead, he extended his senses towards that blood-energy emanating from the stone, trying to draw it to him, to tame it, to force it to submit to his will.
It was like trying to catch a venomous serpent with bare hands. The energy was burning, chaotic, filled with pure, savage instinct. When its first tendrils touched the Qi pathways in his body, he felt indescribable pain, as if incandescent needles were piercing every nerve. The "Damaged Five Elements Root" felt as if it were being torn apart, forcibly reshaped.
Wei Shen gritted his teeth, blood trickling from his lips which he had bitten hard. His body trembled violently, and cold sweat poured from him as if he were in a fever. He was on the verge of losing consciousness, of succumbing to this unbearable agony.
"Control! Pain is just a signal! Direct the current!"
With a colossal effort, Wei Shen clung to that thin thread of consciousness. He began to apply what he had understood from the "stone's whisper"—directing that savage energy not through all traditional Qi pathways, but through a shorter, more direct cycle, passing through certain vital points linked to blood and life force. It was a process akin to taming a raging beast in a narrow passage.
Time passed without him noticing. Every second was a bitter struggle between his will and that savage, blood-infused current. He felt the Qi pathways in his body being forcibly expanded, cracking, then healing differently, stronger, and more… somber.
And suddenly, after what seemed like an eternity of torment and suffering, the change occurred.
That thin thread of tainted red energy, after being partially tamed and its savagery curbed, completed a full cycle through those newly forged pathways, then settled, like a seed of cold fire, in his Dantian.
It was a very small amount, barely worth mentioning compared to what even the weakest disciples of the "Fallen Leaf Sect" possessed. And this new Qi was entirely different from the pure Heavenly and Earthly Qi they spoke of. It was cold, aggressive, and carried within it a faint whisper of thirst for more blood, for more power.
But it was there. Stable. Under his control, albeit partially.
Wei Shen slowly opened his eyes. He was panting as if he had fought a battle that lasted for days. His body was covered in sweat and blood, and every muscle screamed with exhaustion. But in his eyes, there was a new glint, a faint red sheen that danced like a glowing ember.
He had done it. He had just broken through, barely, to the first level of the Qi Condensation stage.
He felt that cold thread of tainted red energy slowly circulating in his Dantian. It was meager power, but it was real. It was *his* power. Power he had snatched from the jaws of death, from the core of a demonic stone.
A harsh smile, completely devoid of any joy or mirth, stretched across Wei Shen's chapped lips. It wasn't a smile of triumph, but the smile of a predator that has tasted blood for the first time and realized it cannot be satisfied.
"The first level…" he rasped, his voice hoarse and broken. "A trivial beginning. But it is a beginning."
He looked at the Blood-Devouring Stone, which had returned to its stillness, its red glow faded, but Wei Shen felt he had become more connected to it, as if a part of the stone had become a part of him, and vice versa.
Then he looked towards the cave entrance, where the "Forest of Lost Souls" awaited him with all its new opportunities and offerings.
"The Fallen Leaf Sect… its elders… its 'genius' disciples…" A glint as cold as frost flashed in his eyes. "They will soon know the meaning of true trash."