After resting for three hours, Qin Jie did not choose to re-enter Shuisheng Village but instead began to return the way he came.
He had accumulated enough Sacrifice Points to exchange for the Po Jun Blade sheath.
Originally, Qin Jie had planned to complete this mission before exchanging for the sword sheath, but the Sacrifice Points accumulated too quickly. Now, he had already reached 10053 Sacrifice Points, which was enough to exchange for the Po Jun Blade sheath.
The cave he passed through on his way back was quiet. After Qin Jie's "supernatural deliverance" and the slaying of the Great Vengeful Spirit Wu Shou by Qin Jie, the cave was much quieter than before. At the very least, those vengeful spirits knew to hide when they saw Qin Jie.
Upon arriving at the cave entrance, Qin Jie quickly noticed the Sacrifice Gang's stall again, but to his surprise, the original A Ji was gone, replaced by someone else with a completely different appearance.
[Hunter is interacting with a merchant in this world, a Sacrifice Gangmember, A Zhu.]
[A Zhu is a neutral character in this world, with a friendly disposition. Hunteris forbidden from attacking, extorting, or coercing neutral characters.]
A Zhu, similar to A Ji, was dirty and emaciated.
Upon seeing Qin Jie, he asked, "Friend, what would you like to buy?"
Qin Jie did not immediately buy anything but instead asked, "Where is the one named A Ji who was here before?"
"He starved to death. I am here to take his place."
Next to A Zhu stood a small tombstone, with A Ji's name on it.
When discussing A Ji's death, A Zhu seemed to have no extra emotions, as if he was simply stating a fact.
In such a chaotic world, living might bring more suffering than dying. "Then the previous goods shouldn't have changed, right?"
A Zhu shook his head. "Don't worry, friend. Everything A Ji was responsible for selling before is now sold by me."
These strange people actually valued transactions more than life and death.
[A Zhu's goods require Sacrifice Points, which are obtained by delivering souls.]
[Current Sacrifice Points: 10053]
Qin Jie noticed that A Zhu seemed to have more goods than A Ji. Before he could ask, A Zhu said,
"I've restocked some goods. Take your time choosing."
Qin Jie took a look and saw that the Po Jun Blade was still on the exchange list. Besides the Po Jun Blade, another piece of equipment caught his eye.
[Blood Storage Secret Mark]
Blood Storage Secret Mark
Quality: Purple
Type: Secret Mark
Origin: Sekiro
Inlay Requirement: Weapon related
Effect: After inlaying, 25% of your maximum health can be stored in the blood storage pattern. Stored health can be extracted at any time and will restore 20% of your maximum health within 15 seconds.
Note: Stored blood can be used for any skill consumption.
Rating: 113
Description: A secret mark for unforeseen needs, it can restore your health in an emergency.
Price: 4000 Sacrifice Points
---This is good.
Qin Jie's eyes lit up. This item was perfect for him; it instantly solved his urgent problem.
Due to the gluttony ring, his normal health always remained at around 50%. However, his Sword Shadow usually required at least 30% of his maximum health to reach its highest attributes.
Because the gluttony ring could stack a large amount of shields for him, after weighing the two, Qin Jie ultimately chose to wear the gluttony ring, while the Sword Shadow often only served as an invisibility activator in many situations.
But with this item, Qin Jie's problem was immediately solved. And the Po Jun Blade and the secret mark together cost 9800 Sacrifice Points, which was enough for Qin Jie to exchange for what he wanted.
The secret mark could also be inlaid on the sword sheath.
Without further ado, Qin Jie immediately exchanged for the Po Jun Bladesheath and the Blood Storage Secret Mark.
[Exchange successful. 9800 Sacrifice Points have been consumed.]
A Zhu took out the Po Jun Blade and the Blood Storage Secret Mark and handed them to Qin Jie. Qin Jie did not hesitate to inlay the Blood Storage Secret Mark onto the sword sheath. He hesitated for a moment, then took out some food from his storage space and handed it to A Zhu.
"Don't die."
With that, Qin Jie turned and left.
After receiving the food from Qin Jie, A Zhu was silent for a moment. Then, Qin Jie only heard a whisper from him.
"Thank you."
"It's a pity A Zhu won't be able to eat it—"
---The Blood Storage Secret Mark can store 25% of maximum health. Its pattern is similar to a battery; the more blood stored, the fuller the battery.
Without hesitation, Qin Jie directly spent 25% of his maximum health to fill the Red Blood Secret Mark.
A wave of dizziness came over him. At this moment, Qin Jie only had 25% of his maximum health left. Health is linked to combat power; the lower the health, the worse Qin Jie's condition and the lower his combat power.
Dots of purple light suddenly appeared in the darkness. Noticing Qin Jie's poor condition, some vengeful spirits suddenly harbored malicious thoughts. A vengeful spirit suddenly appeared behind Qin Jie and charged straight at him.
"Ah."
With a scream, the vengeful spirit was immediately dissipated into dust by the passive essence of the tengu mask.
Qin Jie was somewhat speechless.
His condition was indeed poor, but even if he only had 1% health left, as long as his shield was active, none of the vengeful spirits in the entire cave would be able to harm him.
Upon seeing the vengeful spirit that attacked Qin Jie turn to dust, the vengeful spirits that had been stirring in the darkness immediately lost their dangerous thoughts and retreated.
That's more like it.
Qin Jie spent some time passing through the cave and re-entered Shuisheng Village. As soon as he stepped into Shuisheng Village, many Corpse-Born Villagers swarmed towards Qin Jie.
Without the Red-Eyed Treasure Carp, the remaining villagers, no matter how many, were just a few swings of his sword.
Buzz.
The crimson sword edge dissipated from the greatsword. The surrounding enemies had already been slain by Qin Jie. The Po Jun Blade's extra attack range allowed Qin Jie to calmly deal with incoming enemies and, through its pulling effect, cause enemy attacks to deviate from their original trajectories.
There weren't many Corpse-Born Villagers attacking here; the other villagers seemed to be going to some kind of ceremony.
This made Qin Jie feel a bit regretful, but he didn't have time to make a special detour to clear out the remaining villagers.
There was no point in hunting down these entities that offered no rewards. Conveniently, their path to the palanquin stone cave did not obstruct Qin Jie's way, so Qin Jie simply let them go.
As he progressed, Qin Jie soon saw a cave entrance, which was the palanquin stone cave, containing the palanquin leading to Fountainhead Palace.
At this moment, the cave entrance had a closed stone door. As Qin Jieapproached, a blue phantom appeared.
This person was the Phantom Corrupted Monk, a gatekeeper created by the Broken Monk of Fountainhead Palace.
Phantom Corrupted Monk.