"I feel… suddenly very dizzy and tired," Lin Fei murmured in a weak voice.
"Hold on a little longer," Wei Shen said in a "reassuring" tone. "We're almost there."
The journey back to the cave took some time.
When they reached the cave entrance, he gently set her down. "Wait out here. I'll prepare the 'medicine' for you and warm the place up a bit."
Wei Shen entered the cave. Quickly, he ground some ordinary herbs he had collected earlier.
He came out with the pungent-smelling ointment. "This is a potent ointment that will help heal your wounds and soothe your pain."
Lin Fei took the ointment with a trembling hand, thanked him with teary eyes, and then began to apply it to her wounds. After a few moments, she felt her weakness increase, her head grow heavy, and the "Qi" in her body began to churn painfully.
---
Lin Fei, the inner disciple of the "Fallen Leaf Sect," lay in a corner of the dark cave, her body trembling intermittently, her breaths shallow and rapid. The "ointment" Wei Shen had given her, which was supposed to be a healing remedy, had only brought her more pain and weakness. She felt her "Qi," which had previously circulated smoothly in her pathways, now become chaotic and agonizing, as if currents of fire and ice were battling in her veins.
"I feel… much worse," she murmured in a weak voice, looking at Wei Shen who sat calmly on the other side of the cave, observing her with cold, expressionless eyes. "This medicine… are you sure it's…?"
"The toxins in your body from the beast were strong," Wei Shen said in a neutral tone, rising and slowly approaching her. "The ointment is working to expel them, and this might cause some discomfort initially. Try to circulate your Qi calmly; this will help absorb the medicine's power better."
Lin Fei nodded with difficulty, her trust in her "fellow disciple and savior" not yet shaken, despite the increasing pain and the faint doubts that had begun to creep into her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to focus, to push her "Qi" to circulate in its pathways as she was accustomed.
But the moment she attempted it, pain exploded through her body with unbearable force. She coughed violently, spitting dark, bloody foam onto the rocky floor. Her eyes flew wide open, absolute horror beginning to replace trust and gratitude. She looked at Wei Shen, who now stood over her, his cold features now bearing something else… something akin to scientific curiosity, and cruel indifference.
"You…" she rasped, her voice choking. "What… what have you done… to me?"
A faint, cold smile, like arctic ice, played on Wei Shen's lips. He bent towards her, his ivory dagger having appeared in his hand as if it were an extension of his body. "You were curious about my strength, weren't you, disciple of the Fallen Leaf Sect? The third level is barely enough to scratch a sixth-level beast, even with your 'heroic' help, which I didn't really need."
Lin Fei's eyes widened with absolute terror as she listened to his words, which fell upon her consciousness like shards of ice.
Wei Shen continued in the same cold, neutral tone: "That weakness you felt on the way here? It wasn't just from your wounds or the battle's exhaustion. I injected a thin thread of my venomous 'Blood Qi' into your Qi pathways while carrying you, just to weaken your initial resistance. And the ointment I gave you just now… was merely a mixture of ordinary, worthless herbs, with a precisely calculated dose of the 'Poisonous Mist Serpent's' venom I had preserved. An interesting concoction, isn't it? I wanted to see how your body would be completely weakened, and how your essence would become more… fragile, before I offered it to the 'Blood-Devouring Stone'."
Lin Fei was trying to speak, to scream, but her body had begun to completely betray her, a cold paralysis creeping through her limbs. Tears of helplessness, anger, and regret streamed from her eyes as she stared at the face of this demon who had worn the mask of a savior.
"Why…?" she whispered, her voice broken and barely audible.
"It's an experiment, Lin Fei," Wei Shen said, as if explaining a complex scientific theory to a dull student. "My 'Blood-Devouring Stone' has an endless curiosity about the nature of vital essence. The blood of spiritual beasts was good, but I wanted to see how it would react to the essence of a human female cultivator at your level. You… are merely an important variable in my equation towards absolute power. Don't take it personally; survival in this world is always for the most efficient… and the most ruthless."
Then, without any hesitation or pity, his sharp ivory dagger descended towards her heart.
Lin Fei's body gave a final shudder, then stilled completely, her wide eyes staring lifelessly at the dark cave ceiling, reflecting a distorted image of the deadly coldness in her killer's eyes.
Wei Shen stood over her corpse for a few moments, breathing calmly, examining his "work" with detachment. There was no trace of remorse or even satisfaction on his features, only that cold, analytical focus.
"A somewhat successful experiment in controlling and weakening the target," he thought. "Now… let's see the results of this specimen."
Quickly and efficiently, he began to collect Lin Fei's blood, separating a little into a rock depression and the rest in his leather waterskin, which still held some of the "Rock Thunder Beast's" blood. Her blood was not as copious as a beast's, but it carried the aura of fifth-level "Qi," albeit now tainted by his venoms. He didn't bother taking anything else from her; no spiritual core forms at the Qi Condensation stage, and she wasn't carrying any valuable storage tools.
He approached the "Blood-Devouring Stone" and offered Lin Fei's blood first, separately.
The stone's reaction was entirely different this time. The crimson-red glow that emanated from it was strangely purer, and more… vibrant, as if reacting to an essence carrying a higher consciousness than that of beasts. There wasn't the primal violence that had accompanied its absorption of beast blood; instead, there was a kind of deep, quiet absorption, as if it were savoring a new and unique flavor.
Wei Shen sensed that the energy emanating from the stone this time was also different. It still carried the dark, aggressive nature of "Blood Qi," but there was something additional, something like… an echo of a human soul, a faint trace of Lin Fei's consciousness.
"Interesting," Wei Shen thought as he sat to meditate. "The energy of human essence… is clearly more concentrated, and more complex. The stone devours it with greater greed and appreciation than ever before."
He didn't try to absorb this energy immediately. He wanted to see if the stone would give him any "whisper" or new understanding. After a few moments, he felt it. It wasn't a new technique, but information, a clear idea that formed in his consciousness as if the stone had planted it there: "The essence of human cultivators, especially those who have reached higher levels in Qi Condensation or beyond, carries purer and more complex spiritual power. This essence can provide a qualitative boost to Blood Qi, not just quantitative. But… this current body, Lin Fei's body, was only at the fifth level, and her spirit wasn't strong enough to cause a true breakthrough for me."
"So, the hypothesis was correct," he thought coldly. "Human essence is special."
Then, he looked at the blood of the sixth-level "Rock Thunder Beast" and its core, which were still with him. "Perhaps… if I offer all of this to the stone now…"