Chapter 70 - 56 : Living Blood (1)

Chapter 70: Chapter 56 : Living Blood (1)

Ethan remained seated in the rocky hollow. The Qi Refining manual lay open beside him. For several minutes, he did nothing.

The night wind gently moved through the grass , carrying the faint smell of damp earth and leaves. Occasionally you could hear from the distance the faint sounds of insects and then the brief silence that follows after. The world continued as it always had.

Ethan lowered his gaze to his hands. The pain from his failed cultivation attempt had almost disappeared. That alone was worth remembering. He had deliberately stopped the circulation when the Qi became unstable. Even so, the backlash had injured him. Yet the damage had already begun repairing itself at a speed that would have been unusual for his former body.

Another difference.

Another question.

But he would leave that aside for now. One at a time, for now there was something more important. The Blood Seed.

Ethan closed the Qi Refining manual. He had spent the last several days studying it. The method itself was not flawed. Its principles were simple enough.

Absorb spiritual energy.

Refine it.

Circulate it through the meridians.

Gather the refined Qi.

Store it within the dantian.

Repeat.

For an ordinary cultivator, that process formed the foundation of Qi Refining. For Ethan, however, the final step was where everything changed. He no longer had an ordinary dantian serving as the center of his cultivation. He knows that much, instead he had the Blood Seed.

Ethan rested one hand lightly over his abdomen. He could not physically feel the Blood Seed beneath his skin. It was deeper than that. Somewhere within his transformed body, it existed as naturally as any other organ. He could sense its presence when he focused inward, although he still could not fully perceive its structure.

That bothered him.

Not because the Blood Seed frightened him. Because he did not understand it. Ethan had learned long ago that an unknown advantage could become a weakness if he relied on it without understanding its limits.

He closed his eyes while his breathing slowed. The surrounding world gradually faded from his attention. He turned his awareness inward.

The meridians appeared first.

They were familiar.

The pathways through which Qi traveled had been part of his cultivation for months. He knew their general structure, their larger routes, and the sensation of Qi moving through them. Then his attention moved deeper. There, he found the latest addition.

The Blood Seed.

Ethan remained still. He did not try to activate it. He did not attempt to command it. Instead, he observed. The Blood Seed felt strange.

Not foreign.

That was the part he found most difficult to explain. It was unfamiliar, yet it did not feel like something placed inside him. It felt as though it had always belonged there. As though his body had simply acquired an organ it had never possessed before.

Ethan considered the comparison with the dantian. The dantian was part of a cultivator’s internal foundation, but he knew enough to understand that it was not simply a container where Qi sat forever. Cultivation involved gathering, refining, circulating and storing energy according to the principles of a particular method.

The Blood Seed seemed to occupy a similar position in his transformed body. But similar did not mean identical. That distinction could determine everything. Ethan opened his eyes.

"If I treat it like a dantian, I might be making the same mistake again."

He looked at the manual. The method had failed because it assumed something about his body that was no longer true. Perhaps the mistake wasn’t that the Blood Seed could not support cultivation. Perhaps he simply did not understand how it was supposed to work.

Ethan picked up his journal. He turned to a clean page. At the top, he wrote:

Blood Seed — Observation

He paused.

Then continued.

Current assumption: cultivation-related organ unique to transformed vampire body.

He looked at the sentence. The word assumption remained. He did not cross it out.

Not yet.

He preferred facts. Ethan placed the journal beside him and closed his eyes again. This time, he decided to try a different approach, he gathered a small amount of Qi.

Very small.

There was no reason to risk another backlash. The spiritual energy moved through his meridians. He guided it slowly, following the basic circulation principles he had learned from the Qi Refining manual.

Nothing unusual happened. The Qi remained stable. Ethan continued until the refined Qi reached the point where the previous experiment had begun to fail.

He stopped. His attention moved toward the Blood Seed. He got nothing.

He waited.

Still nothing.

Ethan frowned slightly. He had expected some kind of reaction. Perhaps he had misunderstood the process. He adjusted the circulation by a small amount.

The Qi moved forward.

This time, the Blood Seed responded. A faint sensation passed through his body. It was barely noticeable.

A subtle pressure.

Then it disappeared. Ethan immediately stopped the circulation. His eyes opened. He remained still.

"Again."

He waited several breaths before repeating the process. The same amount of Qi. The same general route with the same careful pace.

As the Qi approached the Blood Seed, that strange sensation returned. A faint pulse, not from his heart. Not from his meridians. From somewhere deeper.

Ethan’s attention sharpened. The sensation lasted only a moment. Then something happened. The refined Qi did not simply disappear.

It changed.

Ethan couldn’t describe the change immediately. The sensation of Qi became weaker, but another sensation appeared in its place.

Something denser.

Warmer.

Closer to his blood. Ethan’s breathing slowed. He followed it. The sensation moved away from the Blood Seed. It did not enter his meridians like ordinary Qi. Instead, it seemed to merge into something else.

His blood.

Ethan’s eyes opened. He could feel his heartbeat more clearly now.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The blood moving through his body seemed slightly different. Not faster.

Not stronger.

Simply more noticeable. Ethan remained motionless. He didn’t interfere. He wanted to see what happened naturally. The sensation continued for several breaths before gradually fading.

Silence returned inside his body. Ethan stared into the darkness. He had seen enough to know that the previous incident had not been an accident. But he didn’t yet know what he had produced.

He looked toward his journal.

Then stopped.

Writing a conclusion now would be premature. He needed another test. Perhaps several. Ethan waited until his breathing had completely settled. Then he repeated the process.

The Qi entered.

The Blood Seed responded. The strange transformation occurred again. This time Ethan followed it more carefully. The refined Qi reached the Blood Seed and seemed to lose its familiar character. Something was extracted from it.

Or perhaps something was being...