( POV CHANGE )
In a quite shabby and what seem to be an abandoned mansion in Howling Wolf City, there was a person sitting down cross-legged on the floor and in front of him there seemed to be a huge swarm of mosquitoes and different flying insect .
Then all of a sudden, this cloaked figure screamed on top of his lungs, coughed a huge amount of blood, then collapsed on the hard floor .
What had gotten into you all of a sudden .
A bastard killed it, he killed my Soul Seizing Hornet .
( Scene Change):( Back In The Dojo ) :
I thought with Liu Ru Yu temperament, she too would go all berserk and attack me, but that didn't seem the case anymore, even though her eyes were still cold, but that was very understandable, so I didn't feel much offended by it, I already got accustomed to these kind of stares, it no longer affected me,
But even though this was what I expected her to do, it seem that my expectations this time was way off, she came dashing towards us, her sword was in the sheath and her expression was filled with nothing but concern as she took her from my hands .
She first circulated her blood qi and used it to check on Boa'er's state, after determining that there was no much issue with the girl and how a crisis was averted, she let out a breath of relief, then said faintly :
Thank you for your help, but I hope that you won't show in front of her, ever again .
I didn't respond, afraid to say something that might only worsen the situation even more, so instead of doing that, I turned around and left the place and went to grasp a few things from my room, everything that I owned and was directly planning on leaving the Dojo for a few days .
I happened to run into Ti Tu and the latter was surprisingly the one to approach me and help me with carrying my luggage, they weren't much to begin with, but a kind gesture nonetheless .
About the arrangements in the Fighting Ring ? .
After we had passed the Dojo shattered gates that once stood there like an unclimbable mountain, Ti Tu suddenly asked about this, I shock my head and said :
" Nothing had even slightly changed or got affected by what happened today, I will just leave staying in the Dojo for some time that's all, but notify all the guys to just study well and get ready for I will show no mercy to any of you .
My glare with intense resolve, seemed to give him a glimpse of what will befell them, if they were to be lazy and he shuddered slightly as he continued to lead me towards an inn that he was quite familiar with .
Where could it be located, if not in the Red Light District, I looked at him weirdly and all he said was :
Trust me, in this place, you will be surprised at how much information can you gather from staying here .
He seemed to be talking from experience, so I didn't doubt him as we went in directly, the first thing that assaulted me was a foul smell of dirty floor, spilled drinks, nasty smells mixed with few good ones which resulted in even more terrible smell .
After the stench assaulted my nose, I couldn't help but curse at Ti Tu beside me, only for him to confirm that this will all be an important sacrifice on my part, but the rewards will still be great .
I almost cursed him and his 8 family generations, but held back slightly after seeing the peculiar people that are gathered here, most of them were covering their faces and from time to time, someone would be passing a few taels on the table to the person whom he was talking with .
An information broker, this place was a place that sold information, I'm now starting to understand why did Ti Tu say that this place could provide a lot of help to the current me, well to anyone who can afford to spend a few taels to acquire wanted information .
After booking a room, I directly wanted to have some rest, so I refused the accompany of those who invited me to join them or allow them to join me, then directly put a sign on the room, signaling that I don't want people to bother me .
I kept hearing weird noises from around me and even though I had used my Blood Qi to filter those voices, they still found their way to me, I started to unpack my belongings, if nothing happened, I might be staying here for some time, so it was better to unpack ..
Then I directly started to withdraw everything that was in my pouches, a few heavy thuds sounds allowed me to become expectant on what might be hidden for me in that loot, getting cheerful indeed happen naturally when a person get rich overnight .
The room floor was now glittering with fortune, the night was already upon us and the lanterns outside were gleaming and brightening up the sky, but to me it wasn't worth mentioning in front of the gleaming treasures in front of me .
The most loot still came from the guy who was devoured by resentment from the Evil Tigers group, not to mention the other boxes that contained numerous resources, that guy actually had a few seeds on him and one of those seeds was a Yin Soul Grass seed .
I almost gauged my eyes out while rubbing them as to make sure that I wasn't dreaming or anything, even though the seed in front of me could be said to have no current value, but that's only if the person didn't know how to appreciate real treasure .
Whether it was the seal in my mind or the knowledge I had already accumulated this far, they were screaming at me and telling me how much did this thing in my hand worth, the effect of a 10 year old Yin Soul Grass could be said to be heaven-defying .
This Yin Soul Grass not only can heal soul injuries that are quite difficult to deal with, it can help with increasing and purifying one Soul Power, after all this was a heavy-earth treasure that have the potential to become an Immortal-grade panacea .
Only 10 years old could be allowing a person to completely escape from mediocrity, what about a 100 years old, what about after awakening its spirituality, well sadly for it, it won't be given the chance to fully grow, since I already have other plans for it .
Freezing Soul Pill, this was the name of the pill I had on mind for this pill, one of the main ingredients was already here, it is just need a few months to mature, if it was left to mature naturally and was put in a place rich with Yin Qi, it would take 7 months, that with the premise that nothing wrong with the seed in my hand .
But if it had something wrong, the estimate time for it to reach the milestone of 10 years old, it might take 3 to more additional months to finally be eligible to use as an ingredient, meaning that normally I would need to wait from 8 to 10 months in worst case scenario .
In the best case scenario, 6 to 7 months is the current rough estimate for it to mature, but again this is completely under the premise that I left it to mature normally, but with these 2 manuals found with that guy's belongings, things will be entirely different .
Evil Blood Nourishing Method, Records On Evil Ways of Alchemy .
These two manual already gave me a sinister feeling, but after carefully reading through them, this is what I found out, the first book was related to nourishing both treasures like artifacts or herbs and plants through the use of blood through a special technique .
As for the other book, well it recorded Secret Techniques and Arts related to Evil alchemy, Evil like using people's life essence as a material or using them whole as the cauldron, igniting Soul Fire, purifying medicine through the use humans acting as furnaces and the like .
Things that made one scalp go numb, but even though, I couldn't help but frown at the person who created those methods, I can't help but appreciate how much improvement can they indeed increase on the process of alchemy .
Even though the two manuals were filled with dangerous and sinister content and many souls might have lost their lives for the methods mentioned in them to work and bear fruitation, I couldn't help but wonder about what side effect these two things might have on me with the help of the Panel .
I won't be using living things as material, I will be using my own self, I'm already tensing up at the mere thought of this, but if this will help me improving my proficiency with alchemy, then so be it .
Freezing Soul Pill wasn't the only pill I had in mind, there were numerous pill recipes in my mind, most of them can provide some great help to me in my path, with tons of valuable ingredients that I won't be at ease letting anyone else touch and damage .
I had heard earlier that alchemist tend to be quite arrogant and overbearing, their is an organization called Alchemy Sacred Hall in Qin kingdom, in fact I heard that it had branches even in other countries .
There was once a person who had employed an alchemist to help concocting a pill for him, he gave out 3 sets of ingredients as required by the alchemist, the alchemist did the unthinkable, he took the three sets of ingredients and chased away the man, saying that the latter had insulted him by doubting his ability .
Those guys weren't overbearing when the man who employed the alchemist went to the hall to complain, he was directly crippled and chased away, after a few days, he was found dead .
The incident was still fresh in the minds of the people talking downstairs, so it must not be a lie, knowing how cruel could this world be, I already anticipated that moral ethics here are considered nothing but a nuisance .
So if an alchemist you employed to help you with a pill, took liking to something belongs to you or someone who is related to you, unless you have a power behind you that could make those at the Alchemy Sacred Hall think twice before crossing you .
Your only other option is to hand over the thing or the person that the alchemist took a liking too, that how overbearing they were and all that arrogance when they can't even use old method of alchemy, like the Flying Pagoda or Nine Furnace and Flames into one that I had read about .
All what the current alchemist in this part do can be considered a form of cooking while stirring the pot or in this case the cauldron, then force the pill to be condensed forcefully, I was surprised at how much I seemed to know about alchemy when I had never had any direct link to it .
But it was not difficult to find the culprit who was behind this, the seal in my mind contained a lot of details regarding alchemy, even those methods that was considered lost in time and only remained in nothing but name were there .
Once again forcing me to take a deep breath and think about Zi Xue's current state and her real identity, someone with this rich knowledge must be a huge figure in the world and this seal only had things that she deemed to be enough for me to live a happy, wealthy life .
Meaning that even though it was a weak possiblity, it won't be without basis, if I were to think about how much more knowledge could she have possibly possessed, maybe downstairs, I might find someone who actually had an idea about their current whereabouts, her and Li Fu should have crossed a great distance by now, but something tells me that I might be able to acquire news about them here .
The two methods can wait for now, other than those items, there was a lot of medicine and pill ingredients, there was also that cursed manual teaching how to make that cursed green elixir suitable for Quenching the Organs, but it was of no use to me .
Not only it required sacrificing women with abundant Yin Qi in their bodies, but it leave a deep fate of resentment on the person who dare to use such method, after all it had an addictive effect, that's why that guy wanted that elixir so badly and didn't dare to part with it and attack me, so anyone who will do follow this method, will only end becoming a slave to his addiction .
Even if I had not interfered and dealt with him, he sooner or later would have died out of his own schemes, the method was burned on the spot, but I still couldn't help but wonder how strong was the Master behind him and what is with the weird methods he imparted to his disciples .
Another book that I thought to be quite interesting came from the guy who tried to stop me at the entrance of that stronghold, a Martial Weapon Skill, Shadow Kill Sword, the book had caught my full attention, but sadly the book seemed quite old and a few pages of it were already dried of ink and lost all the content .
There are still three moves that I can learn, ( Kill Without A Shadow, Life Severance, One Sword One Kill ) .
Those moves didn't focused on anything but killing, this Martial Skill was a sure killing sword, once the sword is unleashed, then someone needs to fall .
Heart Crushing Palm, this was another Martial skill book, I had seen that man display before, it was quite strong, but for some reason I felt that he seemed to be trying to restrain its power than unleashing it and my suspicion was indeed correct .
A full power Heart Crushing Palm could indeed deal great damage to an enemy, but it was a two edged sword, since not only the enemy who would suffer from this move, it was a Secret Martial Skill, a forbidden one too that dealt mutual damage to both the user and his opponent, but for me this was indeed a godsend .
I was even more happy about this manual than I was with Shadow Kill, other than that there was a few bottles of medicine and training resources, Blood Qi Nourishing pills, Blood Qi Recovery Pills, Flesh Tempering Pills, Bone Eroding Powder that I almost hurt myself with it just now .
Other than those bottles, there was also not quite the few gold taels and silver taels together with a few broken ones, 12 GOLD TAELS and over 300 SILVER TAELS was all the loot I found, there was no bank paper money, it seem that these guys loved their money and couldn't part with it .
As for the pouch, I got from that Gu Family member, well it was less abundant, but there was one book that caught my eyes, it was related to the last attack that guy tried to do back then before I severed his arm .
Only now after seeing the manual in front of me did I finally understood the words of my senior brother regarding those families having Martial Arts Secrets that they kept from the hands of anyone else other than their families members .
Compound Waves was the name of the secret skill in my hand, it was a secret skill that once someone manage to Master, can release a one last attack carrying two folds of the user strength, but after that the user will fall into a weakened state for a few days .
But if resting for a few days was the cost of killing an enemy, then it was completely worth it, if I hadn't use my Soul Power at that time, I believe that I would have at least lost a limb in that fight, but fortunately this didn't happen, Compound Waves, Shadow Kill, Heart Crushing Palm, Evil Blood Nourishing Method, Records On Evil Alchemy .
It seem that in the next period of time, things will become quite busy, but all those things will be put away first, my priority now is to see how much I will progress after completely digesting that strange Spiritual Energies inside me .
After that I will see what's needed to be done, weirdly enough these guys from the Evil Tigers group didn't have any Techniques on them, it is either because they weren't trusted by the person they serve, or it could be because they had it orally transmitted to them .
Either way, I had no intention on dwelling much on this, my current situation didn't require me to go probe into how their organization worked nor did I needed to change my techniques just yet, since I hadn't truly finished practicing the ones I have .
Solid Rock Fist Technique, both the external and internal tempering effect are still there, Ferocious Blood Body Refinement was missing content as well, but I felt compatible with that skill the most for some reason and after already spending a lot of time using my own Blood to run it, I believe that now was the time to let it taste Ferocious Beast Blood at last .
There was Gliding Swallow and the three Tiger Martial Arts that needed to be consummated as well, for now there are plenty of things I needed to do, so I can't bite more than I can chew for the time being .
First let's see the insights I gained this time, I should first organize my thoughts then after that, I should practice a few times as to consolidate my foundation even more .