Her pulse was strong and steady. Her breathing was deep and even. Blood energy circulated through her meridians in healthy patterns.
She's already absorbed all the blood energy as usual. She's just... sleeping.
Relief washed over me, and I let out a small laugh.
Mo Fan looked at me anxiously. "Is my sister okay?"
"She's fine," I assured him. "Better than fine, actually. Just sleeping. Her body is doing exactly what it should at night."
"So there's no problem?"
"No problem at all. Let's get her to bed."
I lifted Mo Ling carefully, her head resting against my shoulder as I carried her to the children's room.
She didn't even stir as I laid her on the bed and pulled the blanket over her.
"You should sleep too," I told Mo Fan. "It's been a long day."
He nodded, stifling a yawn. "What about you, Big Brother Shen?"
"I have some cultivation to do. But I'll be right in my room if you need anything."
"Okay. Good night."
"Good night, Mo Fan."
I closed their door gently and made my way to my own room. Once inside, I sat on the bed.
As I was about to pull out the large spirit storage bag from the inventory, I had a doubt.
If I remove this from my inventory, I wondered, will the overseer be able to detect the communication tokens inside and follow me here?
The thought made me pause. I wasn't afraid of the overseer himself. My cultivation and the system's protections gave me advantages he couldn't counter.
But involving others, putting Grandfather and the children at risk because of my actions, that was unacceptable.
Before I could spiral into worry, the system's voice echoed in my mind.
[The overseer cannot detect you. The communication tokens have limited range. You are far outside their detection radius.]
I exhaled slowly. Of course. Short-distance communication tokens wouldn't work across this distance anyway.
[Now you can erase his spirit mark to avoid further troubles]
Reassured, I withdrew the spirit bag from my inventory and took the black token out of it
'How do I do that exactly?'
I frowned slightly, turning the token over in my hand.
[Extend your spiritual sense into the token. You will feel a foreign imprint layered beneath the surface. It will feel different from the token's own qi black, colder, and slightly oily. Press against it steadily until it dissolves.]
I closed my eyes and did as the system said.
My spiritual sense slipped into the token like water through a crack, moving carefully through the dense formation inscriptions etched into its core.
There.
Faint, but unmistakable, a thin layer of black qi that didn't belong to the token itself. It felt exactly as the system described. Cold. Slightly slick. Like touching something that had been left in standing water too long.
I pressed against it with steady, focused intent.
It resisted for a moment, then crumbled apart like wet ash.
'Done,' I said internally. 'That was easier than I expected. A Foundation Establishment cultivator placed that mark and I could dissolve it at Qi Refining Layer 6?'
[Do not be misled by his cultivation stage and don't forget your spiritual sense is comparable to a early-stage Foundation establishment cultivator.]
[The overseer practices a demonic path, specifically a blood cultivation method that accelerates foundation building by consuming the life essence of others rather than refining his own spiritual roots.]
[As a result, his actual spiritual sense development is severely stunted. It has not grown in proportion to his cultivation base. The mark he placed was crude barely above what a early-stage Foundation establishment cultivator could produce.]
'Ah that's why i was a able to erase it easily'.
[He is powerful in raw force. But in precision, perception, and spiritual sense refinement, he is far weaker than his stage suggests.]
'So he's been buying strength he didn't earn,' I said.
[Correct. And like all borrowed things, it will eventually need to be returned.]
I didn't ask what that meant. I had a feeling I already knew.
Then I started examining my spoils from the day.
Formation and array plates. Cultivation pills in jade bottles. Ten medicinal herb boxes carefully preserved.
And the two precious legacy inheritances: Alchemy Tier 1 and Spirit Farmer Tier 2 legacies.
I opened my status panel to review the rewards and check my cultivation progress.
A blue panel unfolded before my eyes.
Name: Shen Yuan
Age: 18 / 224
Cultivation: Qi Refining, Layer-7
Spirit Roots: Five Elements (High Grade)
Spirit Cultivation Techniques: Longevity Spirit Breathing Technique (Stage 1 - 63%)
Body Cultivation Techniques: Primordial Star Refining Celestial Body Art (Stage 1 - 26%)
Soul Cultivation Techniques: Divine Soul Nurturing Art (5%)
Legacy: Spiritual Farmer (Tier 1)
Spells: Spirit Rain (Initiation), Sword Control (Initiation), Qi Manipulation (Proficient), Earth Moving (Initiation)
Rewards:
-Verdant Dew (White) ×2
-Rapid Growth (Green) ×1
-Vitality Drop (Green) ×1
-Talisman Master Tier-1 Legacy
After some time, I came to a conclusion.
I can't rely on system rewards alone for cultivation, I decided, studying the numbers. The progression is too slow, too unpredictable.
I need to consume qi nourishing pills. They provide abundant spiritual energy, far more efficient than slowly absorbing from spirit stones.
The problem with pills was well-known. Pill toxins. Impurities that accumulated in the meridians with excessive consumption, eventually blocking cultivation paths and crippling progress.
But I had the Dust-Free Immortal Body. Toxins and waste were automatically purified and expelled.
Which means I can consume pills without the limitations.
My next steps became clear. Learn the alchemy legacy I bought from Jin Shang Hall, along with the Talisman Master legacy reward I'd acquired from killing the accountant.
Use both skills to accelerate my cultivation and prepare for whatever challenges lay ahead.
I stored the large spirit bag back in my inventory and withdrew my personal spirit bag instead.
From it, I took a bottle of qi nourishing pills.
The bottle contained ten pills, each bottle worth thirty spirit stones on the open market. A fortune for most cultivators.
I popped one into my mouth. It dissolved instantly, a warm, medicinal taste spreading across my tongue before flowing down into my stomach.
Heat bloomed in my stomach. Slowly, spiritual energy spread outward through my meridians in waves.
It was gentle but powerful, far more effective than the gradual absorption from spirit stones.
I immediately began the Longevity Breathing Technique, guiding and refining the energy, directing it into my dantian.
The process was slow but steady. The pill's energy was abundant but needed careful processing to avoid waste or damage.
Time passed in focused meditation. One pill. Then another. And another.
By the time I'd consumed the entire bottle, it was well past midnight. My dantian had noticeably filled to seventy percent of the seventh layer.
Twenty percent increase from just one cultivation session, but most of it was used to replenish what I consumed today, I noted with satisfaction.
And this is far more efficient than spirit stones, even if the refining process takes longer.
I could sustain this pace until the next harvest, using the pills I'd acquired to push my cultivation forward rapidly.
Standing up from the bed, I stretched, working out the stiffness from hours of sitting.
It was past midnight.
My body felt energized despite the late hour, spiritual energy coursing through my enhanced physique.
I made my way to the kitchen, retrieving the rice pot I'd prepared earlier. The vermillion blood rice was still warm.
Carrying it outside to the backyard, I set it down and started eating the vermillion blood rice slowly, feeling the blood energy building within my body.
The night air was cool and quiet, perfect for training.
Once I finished eating, I stood up and began the body cultivation routine.
The torrential wave of scorching blood energy erupted from my chest, tearing through my meridians and flooding every corner of my body.
I exhaled slowly and planted my feet firmly into the earth.
Calm.
Control.
Raising my hands, I began the first movement of the body cultivation art.
Above me, the night sky also responded.
Invisible yet undeniable, starlight converged above me, descending in thin, concentrated streams.
It wrapped around my body like a celestial furnace, igniting the blood energy surging beneath my skin.
Heat exploded.
My skin flared crimson almost instantly, glowing as if molten metal had been dragged fresh from a forge.
I moved through the movements systematically, pushing my immortal physique to refine and strengthen, each movement drawing more starlight, tempering my body with celestial light.
I could only complete four cycles of the movements before stopping. My skin throbbed with soreness and damage, yet it was slowly repairing itself, becoming more resilient and tougher than last time.
After completing the body cultivation, I sat cross-legged in the backyard, my skin still faintly warm from the residual celestial fire cooling against the night air.
I consumed another qi nourishing pill, letting the warmth seep into my battered muscles and aching bones as I meditated to stabilize my body and mind.
The soreness from the four cycles lingered, but the pill's energy slowly knitted the damage back together, thread by thread.
Once I felt stable enough, I made my way back to my room and settled onto my bed.
Before sleeping, I held the talisman legacy reward in my palm, turning it over thoughtfully.
The legacy from the system is more complete and useful, I thought. It gives experience, decades worth, that makes me a talisman master in practice.
But the pain from the information transfer is more than what I can handle while conscious.
I got into a comfortable sleeping position and closed my eyes.
Here goes nothing.
I clicked on the talisman legacy reward.
Swoosh.
A sharp, searing pain ripped through my mind like white-hot iron being pressed into flesh. Light exploded behind my eyelids, blinding and absolute.
Then everything went blank.
Next morning, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a dull ache throbbing behind my temples.
Sunlight filtered through the window, telling me I had slept well into the morning. I blinked a few times, letting my vision clear, then called for the system.
A blue panel unfolded before my eyes.
Name: Shen Yuan
Age: 18 / 224
Cultivation: Qi Refining, Layer-7
Spirit Roots: Five Elements (High Grade)
Spirit Cultivation Techniques: Longevity Spirit Breathing Technique (Stage 1 - 63%)
Body Cultivation Techniques: Primordial Star Refining Celestial Body Art (Stage 1 - 26%)
Soul Cultivation Techniques: Divine Soul Nurturing Art (5%) Legacy: Spiritual Farmer (Tier 1), Talisman Master (Tier-1)
Spells: Spirit Rain (Initiation), Sword Control (Initiation), Qi Manipulation (Proficient), Earth Moving (Initiation)
Rewards:
Verdant Dew (White) ×2
Rapid Growth (Green) ×1
Vitality Drop (Green) ×1
I closed the panel and turned my attention inward, searching through my mind carefully.
Complex rune inscriptions filled my consciousness like pages of a book I had read a thousand times. The paper and ink making process, the proper way to channel spiritual energy through the brush, the exact pressure needed for each stroke.
Five types of talismans surfaced clearly. Fireball, water shield, earth escaping, wood vine trap, and golden sword qi.
These are the basic talismans of Tier-1 legacy, I noted. But I also gained the system's experience along with them.
I sat up and pulled out my spirit bag, retrieving the talisman tools and papers I had stored earlier while sorting through my spoils.
The brush felt natural in my hand, as if I had held one a thousand times before.
I dipped it into the spiritual ink and began drawing the runes for a fireball talisman, infusing spiritual energy through the brush with the ink acting as a conductor. Each stroke flowed smoothly, the runes glowing faintly as they took shape on the paper.
One incense stick's time passed before I completed it.
Too slow, I thought, frowning at the finished talisman.
I set it aside and started another. Then another. Each time, the movements became more fluid, the strokes sharper, the time shorter.
By the fifth attempt, I had cut it down to half. By the eighth, even faster.
After ten attempts total, I was able to complete one in five minutes.
Then I paused, staring at the row of talismans laid out before me.
Not a single failure. Not one wasted paper, not one misdrawn rune.
So this is the effect of the system's experience, I realized, a slow smile spreading across my face. One hundred percent success rate.
A side income, I thought, picking up one of the completed talismans and examining it. And a reliable one at that.
In my previous life, I had desperately wanted something like this. A way to earn money that didn't involve sitting in a suffocating office under fluorescent lights, watching the clock tick toward the end of another meaningless day. A single life with no real interests, no passion, nothing worth waking up for.
But here, in this world, everything was different. To advance in cultivation, one needed resources. Resources meant being either strong or wealthy.
I am going down the wealthy path to become strong, I decided, storing the talismans carefully. And talismans are just the beginning.
...to be continued