Novel Full Chapter 13: Self-Generating Qi Blood
Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Self-Generating Qi Blood
After his noon patrol ended, Li Yuan didn’t head straight back to his residence. Instead, he turned toward the northwest corner of the market.
There stood a three-story stone building. The words "Hidden Skills Pavilion" were hung on the lintel above the door. It was the place where the Wang family stored their Cultivation Techniques.
Outer-circle Cultivators who had signed a contract could use Contribution Points to exchange for Cultivation Techniques inside. The selection ranged from cultivation Magic to mundane martial arts. While not extensive, it had all the basics.
His predecessor had come a few times before, but he always went straight for the shelves with the cultivation techniques, never giving the mundane ones a second glance.
It made sense. In his predecessor’s eyes, spending Contribution Points on a mundane cultivation technique was a complete waste.
Li Yuan pushed open the stone building’s door, and a faint, woody scent washed over him.
The first floor was a modest hall. A desk was placed to the left, and behind it sat a guard, a Cultivator in his thirties with a Qi Refining Fifth Level cultivation, meditating with his eyes closed.
Hearing footsteps, the man opened his eyes. He glanced at the vice-captain’s token on Li Yuan’s waist and gave a slight nod.
"Browsing or buying?"
"Just browsing for now."
"Go on up."
Li Yuan climbed the wooden stairs to the second floor, which housed everything that could be exchanged for Contribution Points.
The second floor was much more spacious than the first. Bookshelves lined all four walls, neatly stacked with booklets and scrolls.
A few rows on the left were for cultivation techniques and Magic. The booklets were in good condition and arranged neatly. In front of each one was a small wooden plaque stating the technique’s name, grade, and the number of Contribution Points required for exchange.
The three rows on the right were clearly much more neglected. There were less than half as many booklets, and their arrangement was far less meticulous—a few were even shoved in sideways.
Mundane cultivation techniques.
Li Yuan walked to the first bookshelf on the right. His gaze swept from left to right, his finger casually tapping the spines of the booklets one by one.
Nourishing Body Skill, Stone-Splitting Palm, Copper Skin Skill, Eight-Section Brocade...
There were quite a few titles, but most were common, entry-level techniques, not much different from what was sold at the outdoor stalls.
Li Yuan didn’t rush to browse through them. Instead, he placed his palm lightly on the edge of the first bookshelf and slowly slid it forward.
The system panel showed no reaction.
Li Yuan placed his hand on the second row.
Still nothing.
When he reached the third bookshelf and his hand had just touched it, a line of semi-transparent text suddenly flashed before his eyes.
[Detected equippable items (multiple)]
’There it is.’
Li Yuan pulled his hand back from the bookshelf and began to touch the booklets one by one.
In total, there were over twenty mundane cultivation techniques on the three bookshelves. Li Yuan touched each one in turn. Most booklets elicited no response, but three of them caused the system panel to pop up when touched.
The first was Cloud-Dispelling Palm.
[Detected equippable item: Cloud-Dispelling Palm (Complete)]
[Item Entry Grade: White]
[Note: This item does not belong to you. Unable to equip. Unable to view detailed information.]
Li Yuan looked at the wooden plaque in front of the booklet. It read: Cloud-Dispelling Palm, mundane cultivation technique, four Contribution Points.
The second was Nourishing Essence Skill.
[Detected equippable item: Nourishing Essence Skill (Complete)]
[Item Entry Grade: White]
[Note: This item does not belong to you. Unable to equip. Unable to view detailed information.]
The wooden plaque read: Nourishing Essence Skill, mundane cultivation technique, seven Contribution Points.
The third was Profound Turtle Body.
[Detected equippable item: Profound Turtle Body (Complete)]
[Item Entry Grade: Green]
[Note: This item does not belong to you. Unable to equip. Unable to view detailed information.]
’A green entry.’ Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on the booklet for an extra moment before he looked at the wooden plaque—
Profound Turtle Body, mundane cultivation technique, thirty Contribution Points.
’Thirty points? I can’t afford that.’
Li Yuan picked up a small booklet next to the Profound Turtle Body. It contained a description of the technique.
He read the description out of curiosity and discovered that the Profound Turtle Body was a mundane cultivation technique that had been heavily modified by a Cultivator. It had some life-extending properties, but it required a specific Water Element technique to complement it, and the user had to enter an immobile, turtle-like breathing state for a certain period each day.
The techniques here weren’t protected by any high-end methods like restrictive seals. Instead, they were all wrapped in special paper and could only be unwrapped after purchase.
He put the Profound Turtle Body back on the shelf, his gaze darting back and forth between Cloud-Dispelling Palm and Nourishing Essence Skill.
Both had white entries. Cloud-Dispelling Palm was cheaper, at only four Contribution Points; Nourishing Essence Skill was quite a bit more expensive at seven.
When his predecessor sold his belongings to buy a Realm-Breaking Pill, he hadn’t spent all his Contribution Points, leaving a balance of five. Adding the three he had just received for the month, he had a total of eight points on hand.
He could get the Cloud-Dispelling Palm for four points, which would save money.
But while the Nourishing Essence Skill was expensive at seven points, he could still afford it.
The price difference was nearly double, but he preferred the Nourishing Essence Skill.
Li Yuan picked up the booklet describing the Nourishing Essence Skill.
Nourishing Essence Skill, a mundane Qi Blood cultivation technique. It consists of five forms. Cultivating it strengthens the body and enhances Qi Blood. Long-term practice leads to abundant Qi Blood and a robust constitution. This technique also has an essence-nourishing effect; after reaching a certain level of mastery, the body’s Qi Blood can passively heal injuries, or it can be actively consumed to accelerate recovery.
He closed the booklet and picked up the description for Cloud-Dispelling Palm to flip through it.
Cloud-Dispelling Palm was an offensive Palm Skill. It shouldn’t have even been placed here, because no matter how powerful a mundane martial art was, it could never block a Fireball.
However, it had also been modified by a Cultivator. Its advantage was that one could channel Spiritual Power and Qi Blood into their attacks.
’But an offensive ability isn’t what I need right now.’
Putting the booklet down, Li Yuan took the Nourishing Essence Skill in hand and walked downstairs.
The guard on the first floor opened his eyes and glanced at the booklet in Li Yuan’s hand.
"Nourishing Essence Skill, seven points."
Li Yuan handed over his waist token. "I’ll exchange for it."
The guard took the waist token, pulled out a register from under the desk, found Li Yuan’s name, and checked his Contribution Point balance.
"Eight points. Minus seven, one remaining."
The guard scribbled a few notes in the register, stamped a small seal on the booklet’s cover, and handed the waist token back.
"Once you take the technique, there are no returns. If you lose the booklet, there are no replacements."
Li Yuan nodded, put away his things, and left the Hidden Skills Pavilion.
After returning to his residence, Li Yuan bolted the door, sat down on the edge of his bed, took out the Nourishing Essence Skill, and unwrapped it.
The paper was much thicker than that of the Iron Bull Skill manual. The characters were neat, and each form was accompanied by a simple illustration.
At that moment, the semi-transparent text appeared:
[Detected equippable item: Nourishing Essence Skill (Complete)]
[Entry Preview: Self-Generating Qi Blood (White)—Increases Qi Blood recovery speed by fifty percent, accelerates healing of external and internal injuries.]
[Permanence Condition: Cultivate this technique to perfection and accumulate forty-eight hours of practice while in a state of abundant Qi Blood.]
[Current equipment slots (2/2). Replace currently equipped item?]
Self-Generating Qi Blood.
’Fifty percent faster Qi Blood recovery, and it accelerates healing.’
This entry was different from the Iron Bull Skill’s Organ Enhancement. Organ Enhancement focused on increasing damage tolerance, while Self-Generating Qi Blood focused on recovery.
’One for tanking, one for healing.’
However, the permanence condition was a bit more complex than the Iron Bull Skill’s.
Not only did the technique have to be cultivated to perfection, but he also had to accumulate forty-eight hours of practice while his Qi Blood was abundant.
Forty-eight hours wasn’t a short amount of time, and practicing with abundant Qi Blood wouldn’t be easy, but the conditions weren’t outrageous. He could just slowly work toward it.
More importantly, the permanence condition for the Iron Bull Skill was to cultivate two mundane techniques to perfection.
Now that he had the Nourishing Essence Skill, he had met the requirement for the second technique.
As long as he cultivated both the Iron Bull Skill and the Nourishing Essence Skill to perfection, the Organ Enhancement could be made permanent.
Then he could make the Nourishing Essence Skill permanent as well, locking in two white entries. With fast Qi Blood recovery and durable organs, both his cultivation and his combat would benefit.
The problem now was that he only had two equipment slots. The Meridian Opening Pill couldn’t be touched, so if he wanted to equip the Nourishing Essence Skill, he would have to unequip the Iron Bull Skill first.
But it wouldn’t need to be a long-term replacement.
The biggest advantage of equipping a technique was the infusion—the entire set of spells would be directly engraved into his mind, saving him the long process of studying. After equipping the Iron Bull Skill, he had mastered the basics in less than two hours.
It would likely be the same for the Nourishing Essence Skill. He could equip it, receive the infusion, and focus on practicing for several hours; mastering the basics shouldn’t be hard.
After mastering the basics, he could unequip it. Once the Iron Bull Skill’s twenty-four-hour cooldown was over, he could just switch back.
All in all, he would lose a day, but in exchange, he would master the basics of the Nourishing Essence Skill. No matter how you looked at it, it was a worthwhile trade.
There was no rush. He had patrol duties to handle in the afternoon, and the replacement process required an uninterrupted block of time for focused practice. He would do it after he got back in the evening.