Chapter 67 - 54 : A New Sense (2)

Chapter 67: Chapter 54 : A New Sense (2)

He preferred to remain ordinary. At least for now. He continued toward his lodging. The city gradually swallowed him back into its routine, and Ethan let it. For the next several days, he returned to his previous rhythm.

Cultivation.

Food.

Rest.

Observation.

Nothing dramatic happened. That was exactly what he wanted. He appreciated the quiet and slow paced life , he did not need another crisis, just for the fun of it. He needed time.

During those days, he began noticing the Blood Perception more clearly. It was always there like a rader without a off button. Even when he wasn’t thinking about it. A person would pass nearby, and something inside him would register their presence. An animal would move through a nearby alley. He would feel it. When a cultivator would walk past, the sensation would be somewhat different.

At first, Ethan kept turning his attention toward each one. Then he began forcing himself not to. That was when he discovered something important.

He could choose.

Not perfectly, but he could choose. If he focused on the street ahead, the surrounding blood-presences became little more than faint impressions. If he deliberately turned his attention toward them, they became clearer. It reminded him of listening to a crowded room. At first, every voice competed for attention. But once you decided which voice mattered, the others became background noise. And the blood perception seemed to work similarly. Ethan found that interesting and useful.

One evening, he sat inside a modest tavern. The establishment was not particularly large. A few wooden tables occupied the main room. Oil lamps hung from the walls, filling the interior with warm light. The smell of cheap cooked meat, steamed vegetables and grain wine lingered in the air. Conversation filled the room.

Not loudly.

Just enough to create a constant layer of sound. A server moved between tables carrying bowls. Someone laughed near the back. Two cultivators discussed something in low voices. A pair of merchants counted coins beside the wall. Ethan sat near the corner with a simple meal in front of him. He picked up his chopsticks.

Then stopped.

This was a better place to test the ability. There were enough people. But not so many that the sensation became overwhelming. He took a bite. Then he relaxed his mind. The blood-presences slowly entered his awareness. It started with the closest, just one, then two.

Three.

Four.

More.

Ethan kept eating. He didn’t look at anyone.

He simply observed. The sensation was faint. Almost like distant lights appearing in darkness. Some were weaker, others stronger. Some seemed almost still. While others moved.

Ethan focused on one.

The sensation sharpened. He could tell where it was. A person sitting several tables away. He shifted his attention toward another.

The first faded.

The second became clearer.

Interesting.

He switched again. Then again. His lips curved slightly. It worked. Though not perfectly, But it worked anyway. He deliberately allowed his attention to widen. The room seemed to fill with faint living presences. His brow tightened.

Too many.

He narrowed his focus again. The pressure eased. He dropped his spoon then leaned back slightly. So that was the answer. He didn’t need to destroy the perception. He just needed to control how much of it he allowed into his conscious awareness. He tried again. This time, he selected a single presence.

Held it.

Then released it.

Another.

Held.

Released.

Another.

His breathing remained steady. He repeated the process. For several minutes. Then he stopped. He ate the rest of his meal. The experiment had already taught him enough for one evening.

The following days continued in much the same way. Ethan changed locations. Not because he needed secrecy. Because he needed different levels of difficulty. The tavern was the easiest. A quiet street was harder. A busy road was harder still. The market was worse. There were just too many people.

Too many animals.

Too much movement.

The first time he deliberately tried to maintain his Blood Perception there, the familiar pressure returned behind his eyes. He stopped near a stall, he had nearly collapsed into a vendor. The vendor looked at him strangely. He apologise quietly, moved further away.

He closed his eyes for a moment. Breathed. Then opened them again. This time, he didn’t try to perceive everything. He chose one presence, just like he did in the tavern.

A merchant nearby.

Held it.

Then released it.

Another, a passing cultivator. Held it then released.

A child. Held then Released.

A dog running through the street chasing who knows what. Held it then released. Slowly, the noise became manageable. Not in a silent kind of way. Far from it, it has never been silent.

But instead, organized.

Ethan continued. Day after day without fail, he would go out to different areas in the city and practice his control. The process was strangely enjoyable.

He had no teacher. No manual. No senior vampire explaining the proper method. Every improvement came from observation. Every failure gave him another piece of information. Eventually, Ethan began testing distance. He stood at one end of a relatively quiet street. A person walked away from him. The sensation gradually weakened. He followed it with his attention.

Farther.

Farther.

Until it became little more than a vague impression. Then it disappeared. Ethan made no attempt to determine the exact distance. There were too many variables. The person’s vitality. The surroundings. His own concentration. Perhaps even the person’s cultivation. He wasn’t ready to separate those factors. So he simply recorded the observation in his journal.

Distance weakens Blood Perception.

He paused. Then added another line: Concentration increases clarity. His pen stopped. He thought for a moment.

Then wrote: The perception does not appear to depend upon sight. He looked at the words. That one mattered. He closed the journal. Ethan understood now that this was not Spiritual Sense. He had never possessed Spiritual Sense. That ability belonged to a much higher stage of cultivation. He knew about it only from what he had read. This was something else. Something instinctive. Something tied to his new existence.bHe didn’t see blood. He didn’t see veins. He didn’t see through people’s bodies like a x-ray vision. He simply knew that something living was there.

It was a sensation closer to instinct than vision. A predator did not need to understand the anatomy of its prey to know where the prey was. Ethan wondered if that was what this ability was. Some ancient instinct written into the very foundation of his new race. Yet there was one important difference.

He wasn’t hungry.

The first time he’d sensed blood, he had expected the possibility of craving. Earth’s vampire stories had made blood synonymous with hunger. But what he is feeling, felt nothing like that. He could sense blood without wanting to consume it. The realization made him smile.

"That’s convenient."

He looked around the crowded market. For a brief moment, he deliberately widened his perception. The city unfolded differently. And it wasn’t visually. Neither was it through sound.

But through life.

Faint presences moved around him. Some weak, stronger, stationary, passing quickly. A person behind him. Another several steps to his left. A cultivator approaching from farther down the street. An animal beneath a merchant’s cart.

Ethan smiled.

Then he let the perception fade back. The world temporary returned to normal. And it was as if his other senses came alive. The smells of food became more noticeable. The sound of merchants calling out prices returned to the forefront. The warmth of the afternoon sun touched his skin.

He stood among ordinary people. No one knew what he was. No one needed to. Ethan looked at his hand. The body was still unfamiliar. The Blood Seed remained unexplored. His blood had changed. His senses had changed. There were undoubtedly other changes he had yet to notice. And that thought didn’t frighten him. It excited him.

Like the other things he still doesn’t understand, he now had one more thing that no book could fully explain. There was no established manual for what he was becoming.

No ancient record.

No senior cultivator.

No previous vampire whose experience he could borrow.vHe would have to discover everything himself. Ethan lowered his hand. A faint smile remained on his face. He turned toward the street ahead and continued walking. One discovery had only revealed how many questions remained. His eyes narrowed slightly.

’What more can this new body of mine do?.’ He thought.