As for the adage about ruined families through occult practice, the explanation was even simpler. Cultivating mystical arts was no different from launching a modern high-tech enterprise. Just drafting a proposal required a ten-year timeline, and any added difficulty easily turned it into the project of a century. Initial investments started at five or ten billion-and the units were counted in tens of billions! Only massive conglomerates or sovereign nation-states could afford to play such a game. Never mind ordinary citizens; even self-made millionaires and multi-millionaires would face instant bankruptcy the moment they dared to step into the ring.
Did that mean ordinary people had no way to touch the occult? It was not quite so absolute. One simply could not start big. The path had to be walked step-by-step, taking one bite at a time, building up from humble beginnings; only then might it grow into something formidable in the future. Unfortunately, if mystical power failed to reach a certain threshold, its outward manifestation was practically indistinguishable from a parlor trick. In large-scale practical applications, especially on modern battlefields against conventional military forces, it would be thoroughly humiliated and put in its place by modern technology. Consequently, modern occultism continued to wither day by day, with fewer and fewer people willing to devote their lives to it. In a sense, this was merely the natural selection of human society at work.
Considering his actual circumstances, Li Yunlong had refrained from picking those high-flown, grand projects. Instead, he chose the vital force inherent to every living human-the power of qi and blood-as his breakthrough point. He chose this because he possessed the cheat-like superpower of sensory control; success was virtually a foregone conclusion.
Because the power of qi and blood resided within every living person, anyone could tap into it provided they knew the method. Of course, the overwhelming majority of these methods inflicted far more harm than benefit. In ancient times, the most orthodox approach was the practice of martial arts: consuming massive amounts of nutrients while engaging in grueling physical training. Accumulated over time, one's qi and blood would grow increasingly robust-a method belonging to the martial traditions of nurturing the body and bolstering vital energy. Unfortunately, though Li Yunlong knew of this approach, he had no way to put it into practice. The nutritional aspect of such methods involved far more than merely eating ordinary food; depending on one's constitution and chosen path, specialized medicinal supplements were required. Nor could one simply train blind and unguided-it demanded hands-on instruction from an experienced master. Li Yunlong possessed neither requirement, so the option was dead on arrival.
Yet, since Li Yunlong dared to choose this path, he naturally possessed his own reliance. If one disregarded factors like time and efficiency, there remained a clumsy-yet most natural-method to strengthen one's vital qi and blood: eating! So long as the body could absorb and utilize the nutrients, continuous and massive nourishment over an extended period would naturally make the physical frame stronger, causing the qi and blood to swell in tandem. Once accumulated to a critical point, a thick foundation would yield a sudden breakthrough, allowing one to naturally shatter the mundane barrier and gain true extraordinary power over their qi and blood.
Understanding the underlying principle and grasping the specific techniques, combined with his foundational knowledge of the Taoist practices of ingestion and breath guidance, Li Yunlong found the execution trivial. Everything fell into place, and his cultivation entered the fast lane. Under normal conditions, it would have taken him several years at minimum to achieve his goal, but Li Yunlong had an unfair advantage.
Though his sensory control superpower came with various limitations and flaws, he could indeed achieve a degree of mastery over the seven manifestations of consciousness: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, mind, and manas-consciousness! In ancient times, he would have been hailed as an enlightened master who had conquered seven of the Nine Consciousnesses. Bringing these advantages into play produced a compounding effect: in the exact same environment, Li Yunlong's respiratory efficiency was more than triple that of an ordinary person, complete with passive perks like repelling dust and filtering bacteria. When gorging himself on food, much of it did not even need to be processed by his stomach or intestines; a few chews in his mouth allowed him to spit out the useless residue, saving time while conserving the energy normally spent on digestion. The nutrients entering his body were digested and absorbed at a rate several times faster than normal, and he could consciously regulate his own physiology to maximize the benefits of every drop of nourishment. Striking from all these angles, his cultivation speed naturally rocketed upward at a visible rate.
Even so, Li Yunlong remained unsatisfied. Numerous questions arose during his actual practice, and having no master to guide him, how was he to solve them? Through experimentation! Since he lacked ready-made knowledge and proven experience, trying it out first-hand was the only way to see the real results. Naturally, conducting such human experiments on himself was far too dangerous, but if America lacked anything, it certainly did not lack criminals-and criminals possessed no human rights! If Li Yunlong went out to fight crime for free without taking a dime, conducting a few side experiments along the way, no one could possibly complain.
Thus, Li Yunlong frequently slipped out in the dead of night to play the unsalaried vigilante. Assisted by his sensory control ability, no human observer could spot him during these outings, nor could any security camera record his movements. A single criminal could yield two or three human trials; after all, Li Yunlong merely wanted to run experiments, not kill them, maintaining a fundamental baseline. On any given night, depending on his experimental needs, he would handle anywhere from three to seven criminals. However, experiments inherently carried a degree of risk. Even though Li Yunlong exercised extreme caution, repeating the process so many times made accidents inevitable. To date, he had suffered two mishaps, one of which had even been caught on camera by a reporter and broadcast on the evening news.
Indeed, that had been Amelia's news report. The subject of Li Yunlong's experiment that night had unexpectedly awakened his X-gene, gaining a superpower that converted emotion into physical force. He had broken free from Li Yunlong's control and fled into the night, struggling on the public street for several minutes before finally succumbing. Unable to track down the perpetrator, Amelia had let her imagination run wild, coining the moniker «Mr. Ghost» for Li Yunlong!
In any case, through his own relentless efforts, Li Yunlong had now mastered a second extraordinary power alongside his sensory control cheat: the power of qi and blood! It not only fortified his physical body, but by strengthening his foundation, it also enhanced his sensory control ability.
Having achieved success in his cultivation, Li Yunlong continued to nurture and expand his vital force on one hand, while on the other, he began considering auxiliary means to aid his training-first and foremost, medicinal compounds. After all, humanity had used drugs as cultivation aids for millennia, a practice rampant across all branches of the occult. The East had its alchemy and elixir refinement, while the West possessed magical potions and alchemical reagents. With a wealth of ready-made formulas and records available for reference, Li Yunlong had already achieved preliminary results despite the limited time he had invested.
For the present Li Yunlong, he was in a phase of rapid ascent. A bright future seemed to be beckoning to him-the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the sun shone warm and gentle!
The following day was April 30th, the very last day of the month. Amelia was in a terrible mood. The previous night, she had asked a friend for a favor to analyze the liquid Li Yunlong had given her. It was an off-the-books job, but although all proper procedures were followed and fees paid in full, having a contact inside meant she could obtain the fastest results alongside detailed professional analysis. Her friend worked in a major laboratory affiliated with the police department, boasting top-tier equipment and expertise. She had asked for help before and usually received a satisfactory answer within an hour or two. Yet now, past four in the afternoon, her friend still had not sent over the results. Amelia could not help but grow anxious. Had something gone wrong?
When her phone finally rang, Amelia let out a sigh of relief, only for her heart to leap into her throat at her friend's first words.
«Amelia, do you have any idea what that stuff you brought in yesterday actually is?»
«It's a liquid a friend gave me,» Amelia replied, «called the Yin-Nourishing Decoction. Supposedly, it's meant to boost a woman's vitality.»
Her friend went silent for a moment. «Amelia, when you brought it in yesterday, we found its primary components to be extremely unusual. It's a synthetic compound with a massive, mind-bogglingly complex molecular structure. My colleagues and I ran a full experimental analysis on it. This is no simple energy drink-it literally targets female cellular vitality and boosts it at a fundamental level!»
Amelia felt a bit lost. «Are you saying… this potion is really good for women?»
«'Really good' doesn't even begin to cover it-it's impossibly good!» Her friend sounded practically frantic on her behalf. «Amelia, do you realize what this is? It's a scientific miracle! Human cells age, but this compound actively reverses that process! Don't you get it, Amelia? This is a modern Fountain of Youth! Every woman on Earth would go insane for this!»
Her friend continued babbling over the line, but Amelia's mind had already drifted far away. She responded purely on mechanical instinct, a single thought echoing repeatedly in her mind: I struck it rich! I struck it rich! I struck it rich!
It was not until her friend hung up that she snapped back to reality. The very first thing she did was unzip her shoulder bag. The vial Li Yunlong had given her rested inside; the portion submitted for analysis yesterday had been a mere fraction, leaving the vast majority untouched. Without a second thought, Amelia downed a massive gulp. Even the dark, murky color of the liquid seemed utterly adorable to her now. What if it was black? Crude oil was black too, and people called it liquid gold! This was the modern Fountain of Youth-the darker it was, the sweeter the prize! There was no helping it; Amelia's nature was just that pragmatic.
It tasted slightly bitter on the tongue, but a subtle, fragrant sweetness lingered after she swallowed it down. As the liquid hit her stomach, it brought an utterly peculiar sensation. It was a complex feeling-the bottle had been sitting in her bag at room temperature, yet to her senses, it felt like a soft, soothing warmth, hot without scalding. It felt somewhat like drinking a cup of warm water at the perfect temperature, minus the thin texture of liquid. Like a gentle mist, the sensation radiated outward from her abdomen toward her extremities, yet it bore none of a mist's damp chill. Instead, it was like soft sunlight filling her body from the inside out. Wrapped in this comforting heat, her mind and body relaxed into pure bliss. A full, satisfying euphoria washed over her like a mild intoxication-the sun was high, and it was a fine day for a lazy nap.