Chapter 101 - 76 : Bounty Hunters Or Free Resources (2)

Chapter 101: Chapter 76 : Bounty Hunters Or Free Resources (2)

Heat rolled through the hollow.

Flames gathered between the cultivator’s palms, growing brighter until an orange glow spread across his face. The fear in his eyes remained, but his expression hardened as he poured more spiritual energy into the technique.

Ethan’s grip tightened around his dao. So he intended to keep his distance. That was sensible. At his current cultivation, the man’s best chance was to rely on a ranged technique and avoid close combat.

The fire between his palms condensed into a blazing mass, hovering there for an instant as flickering light spread across the surrounding grass and stones.

Then it shot toward Ethan.

Ethan saw it coming. He could have avoided it easily; his speed was more than enough to carry him out of its path. Instead, he moved forward, heading straight toward the flames.

Qi flowed into Ethan’s short dao.

The layer that formed along the edge was thin and uneven, trembling faintly as it clung to the metal. He had only begun practicing this method recently, and the control was still far from refined. It wasn’t a proper technique, but Ethan didn’t need perfection right now. He only needed enough.

The flames came rushing toward him, filling his vision with a wall of orange. Heat washed over his face and arms, hot enough to make his skin tighten. Ethan stepped forward instead of away, his eyes fixed on the center of the attack.

The dao swept upward.

The Qi along the blade wavered under the force of the movement, but Ethan steadied it at the last instant. The edge met the blazing mass and cut through it. Flames split apart on either side of him, their heat blasting across his body as he passed between them. The sleeve of his robe caught the edge of the fire, scorching the fabric and sending a sharp burst of pain through his arm.

Ethan gritted his teeth and kept moving.

Behind the flames, the cultivator was already running.

By the time Ethan cleared the attack, he could see the man’s back as he sprinted toward the hills, moving with everything he had. His robes snapped in the wind, his footsteps kicking up dry grass and dust as he put distance between them.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. The man hadn’t been trying to defeat him. He had only needed an opening to escape.

For an Early Qi Refining cultivator, it was respectable speed. But Ethan was faster.

His footsteps struck the earth once, then again, and the distance between them began to disappear. The fleeing cultivator heard the footsteps closing behind him, each one sending another jolt of fear through his chest. His breath came harder now, his legs pushing him forward as he desperately tried to reach the hills.

Then the footsteps were right behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder.

His face went white.

Ethan was already within reach.

The cultivator twisted his body, trying to turn and defend himself, but there was no time.

The short dao flashed.

For an instant, he felt nothing.

Then the world tilted.

His body continued forward, but his vision suddenly spun sideways. The ground, the sky, and the trees blurred together as though everything had been thrown into motion. He tried to understand what had happened, but his thoughts struggled to keep up with what his eyes were seeing.

His head struck the grass.

The world stopped spinning for a moment.

And there, only a short distance away, a body was still stumbling forward. He stared at it, his eyes following the familiar robe, the arms, and the legs as they continued moving without him. His mind struggled to make sense of what he was seeing, unable to understand how the body could still be running when he was no longer inside it.

Is that... my body?

The thought never finished.

Everything went black.

Ethan slowed to a stop several steps away. He looked toward the fallen head, then at the body lying farther ahead in the grass.

The hollow was quiet again.

He lowered his dao.

The burn on his arm had already begun to fade.

Ethan looked down and watched as the damaged skin slowly drew itself back together. Beneath the surface, his Living Blood stirred and moved through the injured flesh, carrying the strange vitality that had become a natural part of his body. The raw skin closed little by little, the redness fading as the last traces of the burn disappeared.

He flexed his fingers.

The pain was gone.

Ethan remained still for a moment, studying his arm. Even after everything he had experienced since becoming a vampire, there were moments when seeing his body heal itself still felt strange. There was no medicine, no treatment, and no time spent recovering. His body simply repaired what had been damaged, as though injury itself was something it had learned to reject.

His gaze shifted to the short dao in his hand.

The thin layer of Qi had already vanished from the blade. His control was still crude, and the technique was nowhere near the level of the rogue cultivator’s reinforcement.

But it had worked.

Ethan crouched beside the fallen cultivator and searched his body. He found a few coins, some cultivation resources, and a handful of ordinary items, but nothing particularly valuable. The other three were much the same. There was no great fortune among them, despite the reason they had come after him.

A hundred and fifty spirit stones.

Ethan’s gaze shifted to the tracking talisman lying near the body. He picked it up and turned it over between his fingers, looking at the small piece of paper that had led them straight to him.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

Qi gathered in his palm.

The moment it flowed into the talisman, the paper violently tore apart in his hand. Fragments scattered from between his fingers, some breaking down into tiny pieces that drifted away like ash before disappearing into the wind.

Ethan opened his hand and watched the last remnants fall away.

He turned back toward the bodies. The blood was different. Ethan let his Blood Perception pass over them, feeling their vitality fading with every passing moment while the blood within their bodies remained. At the same time, a familiar pull stirred from his Blood Seed, drawing his attention toward what was still left behind.

A resource had been placed in front of him. He wasn’t going to waste it.

Ethan searched the surroundings before doing anything else. The hollow remained quiet, with no other presences nearby and the road far enough away that no one should notice what happened here. Satisfied, he moved the bodies toward the lowest part of the dry streambed, where the uneven ground dipped between the surrounding rocks.

He crouched beside them and let his Blood Perception sink deeper. The blood within the bodies responded to his pull, slowly at first, then with increasing strength. Thin streams seeped from their wounds and gathered across the dry earth, dark against the pale dust before flowing toward him.

Ethan guided the blood carefully, keeping it from spreading across the ground. He had no intention of leaving an obvious trail behind. From his storage pouch, he took out one of the unused pouches he had acquired earlier. He had already learned that storage pouches could preserve liquids as well as ordinary objects, and this gave him another practical use for the spare.

The blood gathered inside it, drawn steadily from the bodies until the pouch gradually grew heavier in his hand. Ethan continued the process without rushing, directing each stream inward while keeping the surrounding ground as clean as possible.

As the blood accumulated, he could feel the Blood Seed responding more clearly than before. Reaching Mid Qi Refining had sharpened his Blood Perception, and the connection between his senses and the Blood Seed felt more responsive as well. He allowed a portion of the gathered blood to flow directly toward it.

The Blood Seed stirred.

The blood began to refine, its vitality merging with the Qi within him. A familiar warmth spread outward from his core, flowing through his body as Living Blood accumulated within his veins and flesh. Ethan closed his eyes for a moment and let the sensation settle.

It was subtle, steady, and useful.

This was no longer something he was trying to understand.

He already knew what the Blood Seed could do.

Cultivator blood was a resource. Not something he needed to survive, and certainly not something he had to hunt for. But when people willingly came looking for his head, Ethan saw no reason to throw away what they brought with them.

A faint smile touched his lips.

"They really are making this easy."

He opened his eyes, and the faint amusement in his expression quickly faded. These cultivators had come because they were hungry for resources. They had seen the reward and decided that Ethan himself was the resource standing between them and a hundred and fifty spirit stones.

Instead, they had brought their own.