Chapter 69 - 55 : Cultivating Qi (2)

Chapter 69: Chapter 55 : Cultivating Qi (2)

The meridians were familiar. The Qi within them was familiar. But deeper within his body was the unfamiliar presence.

The Blood Seed.

It remained still. Ethan didn’t try to command it. He remembered something important. The Blood Seed was like an organ.

Not a weapon.

Not a magical treasure. Not a button waiting to be pressed. It was part of his body. If he wanted to understand it, he had to observe how it responded. He opened his eyes again.

"Let’s start with what I already know."

He began circulating Qi according to the new manual. Slowly and carefully, the spiritual energy entered his body. It moved through the familiar pathways. Nothing seemed wrong.

Ethan continued.

The Qi was refined. Then he guided it toward the point where the manual instructed him to store it. He stopped. The Blood Seed seemed to react.

Not violently.

Just enough for Ethan to notice. His brows tightened. He adjusted the circulation. The Qi moved closer.

Then it came...

Pain.

A sharp pressure struck through his chest. Ethan immediately stopped the circulation. The Qi scattered. He opened his eyes. His breathing remained controlled and a bit rougher. But his face had changed.

That hadn’t been right.

As he waited. The pain gradually faded. Ethan looked inward again. The Blood Seed was still there.

"Again."

He resumed. This time he altered the flow slightly. The result was worse. The Qi suddenly became unstable. Ethan’s expression changed. He cut the circulation.

Too late.

The violent Qi surged through his meridians. His body shook. He coughed. A thin line of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. Ethan immediately severed the circulation.

Silence returned to the rocky hollow.

He remained seated. His face now paler than they originally were. His hands rested against the ground. For several breaths, he didn’t move. Then he wiped the blood from his mouth.

looked at it.

A small amount.

Nothing serious. But the message was clear. The manual worked. His body was the problem. Or more accurately, The manual was built for a different body.

Ethan looked down.

"So it isn’t the principle."

He spoke quietly.

"It’s the structure."

He sat there for a long time. The pain gradually disappeared. He waited even longer before checking his meridians again. The damage was already beginning to settle.

That surprised him. He examined himself carefully. There was still discomfort. But it was fading much faster than he expected. His breathing stabilized. The weakness disappeared. The small injury within his body seemed to be repairing itself.

Ethan’s expression became thoughtful. His body was recovering. Quickly. Much faster than it should have. He remembered the changes after the transformation.

The sunlight.

The food.

The Blood Perception.

The strange vitality.

Now this.

Another piece, another observation. He took out his journal.

Qi Refining attempt: unsuccessful.

He paused.

Then added:

Conventional storage method incompatible with current internal structure. He stared at the words. Then added another. Internal backlash occurred. Recovery unusually rapid.

He closed the journal. He didn’t try again immediately. That would have been foolish. Instead, Ethan opened the Qi Refining manual once more. He read the section describing the circulation pattern. Then he opened his notes concerning Blood Tempering.

The technique had once taught him how to regulate the movement of his blood. Before his transformation, it had allowed him to influence his blood more deliberately, refine it gradually, and occasionally draw a brief increase in physical strength from the response.

At the time, Ethan had thought of it simply as a strange technique connected to his blood. Now he looked at it differently, for perhaps it was a foundation. His fingers rested on the page.

Blood Tempering had taught him something he had not fully appreciated before. How to listen to his blood. How to regulate it. How to influence its movement without forcing it.

That knowledge was still useful.

The Vampire Template had changed his body. The Blood Seed had become part of that body. The Qi Refining manual contained principles developed for ordinary cultivators. And Blood Tempering had given him an existing understanding of his own blood.

Ethan stared at the three pieces of information. Perhaps he didn’t need to choose one. Perhaps he needed to understand how they could fit together.

He picked up the pen.

Under his previous notes, he wrote:

Do not copy the method.

He paused.

Then:

Understand the principle.

His eyes moved back to the manual. The cultivator who created it had designed a method around a dantian. Ethan didn’t have to reproduce that. He only needed the parts that were useful.

The absorption.

The circulation.

The refinement.

The control.

The rest could be changed. Maybe. Ethan closed his eyes, as he began again. This time, he didn’t follow the manual exactly. He used its circulation principle. Then he applied what he had learned from Blood Tempering.

The Qi moved.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Ethan guided it through his meridians.

He didn’t force it toward the Blood Seed. Instead, he allowed the Qi to approach. The response was different. The pressure returned.But this time around it wasn’t violent.

Ethan stopped.

Waited.

Then tried again.

The Blood Seed responded. A faint sensation spread through his body.

Not Qi.

But Something else. Ethan’s eyes opened. He remained completely still. The sensation disappeared.

He waited.

Then repeated the process. This time, the response lasted slightly longer. A faint warmth moved outward from the Blood Seed. It wasn’t hot, nor was it painful.

It felt alive of maybe full of life. Ethan’s breathing slowed. He didn’t move. He simply observed. The sensation gathered within the Blood Seed. Something was being refined. Something was changing. Ethan could not identify it.

It wasn’t ordinary Qi.

It didn’t feel like the energy he had spent months cultivating. It was denser.

Quieter.

More closely connected to his body. His blood seemed to respond to it. His vitality seemed to respond to it. And his body seems to embraced it.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. He did not attempt to push it further. Instead, he allowed the process to end naturally. When the sensation faded, silence returned. For several moments, Ethan remained seated.

Then he opened his journal. His pen hovered over the page. He thought carefully. He didn’t know what the substance was. So he refused to name it.

He simply wrote:

A new substance appears to be produced when the Blood Seed responds to refined Qi.

He stared at the sentence.

Then added:

Properties unknown.

Another pause.

Further observation required.

Ethan closed the journal.

Ethan looked down at the manual again.

The first attempt had failed. But the failure itself had given him something useful. The Qi Refining method was not useless. Its principles were sound. The problem was that the method had been created for a cultivator with a dantian. He had something else.

The Blood Seed.

And the Vampire Template had already changed the way his body interacted with Qi. Ethan’s gaze moved to the notes he had written.

Qi.

Blood Tempering.

The Vampire Template.

The Blood Seed.

Four things that had never been designed to work together, Most especially Qi. He tapped the page lightly with his finger.

"I need to understand the Blood Seed first."

That was the real problem. He had been treating it as a replacement for the dantian because the comparison made sense. But he still didn’t know how it actually functioned.

What did it refine?

What did it store?

What happened to the material it produced?

And most importantly, Could it actually support his cultivation?

Ethan closed the Qi Refining manual. There was no point trying to force another circulation before answering those questions. He packed his notes and stood. The injury from his failed attempt had already recovered considerably. That was another discovery worth recording, but it could wait.

He looked back at the manual. He had obtained what he came for. Now he had a much bigger problem. He needed to understand the Blood Seed. And this time, reading someone else’s cultivation method would not be enough.

He would have to study himself.