Capítulo 116: Chapter 116 - Crimson Revelations (Lei chapter).
Wu Lei entered an old tunnel, the stench of the old sewer immediately hitting his nose. The location was quite remote, far from the guards' patrols, and even the homeless avoided this place.
Feng Chonglin was already there, waiting, his face half-lit under the dim light of an old lantern.
"Master, are you sure no one trailed you?" Lei's voice echoed slightly, betraying his anxiety. The swag he carried was costly, and he couldn't afford any mistakes.
"I have my methods," Feng Chonglin replied, his tone calm and confident. "It's clear. We can talk safely."
"Good. If anything happens to us, certain people will be alerted." What Lei truly meant to say was "If you kill me, my friends will know".
Feng Chonglin smirked.
"Good. So, what were the contents of that warehouse, warranting such a secretive meeting in such a remote place? Took me a while to decipher your messenger's instructions."
"About that..." Lei approached and pulled out a spacious bag of holding. "A whole blood path lab, filled with goods."
Feng Chonglin's face remained unmoved.
"Is that so? And how did you manage to rob it? Thought you went alone?"
"They had two rank one guards and two qi active mortals. It was quite a fight. The lab was downstairs, a small secret tunnel filled with... terrible stuff. Fetuses, jars with qi-active blood, semen, lots of alchemy materials. Well, blood path, you can paint the picture."
"Let's identify the loot." Feng Chonglin sat down on a stair and tapped it, signalling Lei to sit near him. Instead, Wu Lei approached and squatted in front of him, opening the bag of holding.
"Rings." Lei began, revealing an array of ornate rings, each set with a crimson red stone the size of a nail. Inside the inner circle of every one, a tiny metal spike protruded. "Fifteen total."
"It's a Bloodsurge ring, a pretty basic artefact. If you have a non-qi active mortal you want to boost, give it to them. It raises their strength and regeneration, and also provides some pain tolerance. A useful little trinket."
"Mortals? Can cultivators use it?"
"Non-blood path dao shards will certainly be repressed, and its soul strain is disproportionate to its usefulness. It also drains your blood. You shouldn't use it, but as I said, mortals might find it quite useful."
Wu Lei almost rolled his eyes. You've got a blood path foundation, grandpa. I figured it out long ago, you aren't exactly subtle.
"What are these?" Lei pulled out a bunch of red apple-shaped balls that were firm to the touch.
"Oh... those are bad." Feng Chonglin looked worried. "You need to refine ten people to craft just one."
Lei was stunned.
"Refine... people? Fuck me."
"That's an ancient demonic method, Torturer's Egg. It heals both physical and meridian damage and can serve as a potent blood path material, but it's filled with ominous human qi. The way these are crafted is far from humane, whoever you killed aren't regular criminals. Maniacs. Ruthless." He underlined each word in his hoarse voice.
Lei sighed.
"Well, they're already crafted, and the people are already dead, so I am not throwing these into a garbage can. I also managed to extract some dao shards. I assumed the blood master's shards would be more valuable, so I grabbed his."
"Did you have time to extract the shards? I thought you tried to leave as fast as possible."
"Well, I had enough time to chop the core out of his belly and store it in my bag of holding. Its bottom is all soaked in blood now, but whatever. He had three shards." Lei felt weird about this run, he never had so much valuable loot, but he was far from delighted.
"Splendid. This one is basic, Blood Spear dao shard." Feng Chonglin pointed at a sharp sting, looking like a solidified clot. "This one is Blood Bubble." He pointed at a small pale shard, it looked like a tick filled with blood, but without the head or legs. "Versatile, useful, strong. Quite a master you've killed. You have my respect. Still, it's not the strongest of the bunch."
"So, it's this one?" Lei looked at the third shard with his night vision. It looked like a small, dry, and pale spleen, with a little ingrowth that resembled a kidney, but completely red. "Master, I think I have my guess."
"Oh, you do? Shoot it, let's gauge your analytical skills."
Relative to Xin, you wanted to say. Whatever.
"The spleen and something that looks like a kidney. Filters and produces qi, I assume. Probably a healing or restorative method. Am I right?"
"Very good, kid. Very good. It's called Blood Conversion dao shard, and it stabilises unstable qi before turning it into blood qi. Eh, not that useful in fighting, unless used as part of a transformative compound move, but in a lab, this one is a gem."
"Oh, such knowledge, grandpa. I'm sure being a steppe trader taught you a lot about the blood path." Lei finally confronted him, as Feng Chonglin didn't even try to be subtle anymore.
"I don't like this tone, kid. I'm a knowledgeable old man, and I've spent more years doing alchemy than you've spent on this earth. Think I could be bothered following the capital's regulations, living in the steppe, outside the Ring? Blood is an element, and I study the elements. End of story."
"It's not studying! Your knowledge is too in-depth. You cultivated the blood path! I can tell!"
"A vile accusation. If this were the case, why would I reveal myself so foolishly?" He smirked. The lantern flickered, underlining a gleam in his usually detached gaze.
"Because you hoped to recruit me into this, too."
"What is the blood element, Lei? Be honest. Think about your life up to this point, and give me an honest answer. "
"A liquid? Something to transport stuff through the body." Lei felt tense, and gave only a basic answer. He felt like he could say more, but felt too chained to speak up.
"True, that. Blood is an essential component of most life on earth. It represents each of the five Wuxing elements in its own way, but in the blood path tradition, its strongest relation is with two of them. Can you guess?"
"Fire and... Shit. Metal." Lei stood up. "How long have you been planning this?"
"Planning? I am not telling you to cultivate the blood path."
"Did you know that the warehouse had a blood path lab underneath?"
"It was a possibility I considered. Lei, we haven't finished the ledger. I want to see what other materials you brought."
"Grandpa... Master Chonglin, you can't switch topics! You're a blood path master, trying to recruit me! What do you have to say about this?"
"Eh... I think we already work together. It was your choice to bring blood path materials and shards. You could have searched the warehouse thoroughly, grabbed the other master's shards or just left. Yet we are here, having this conversation. What does it say about you?"
"You, old... Fine. Let's go through the rest, see how much we can push this all for."
They spent fifteen more minutes reviewing the loot.
Crimson silk, blood quartz, bloodsurge rings, torturer's eggs, the dao shards — the total value of the loot was at least 400 spirit stones!
Lei was astonished.
"You sure you can push this all, master?"
"Of course I can. But there is something else we should consider."
"Shameless, granpa. Come on, say it."
"You should sell some of this stuff to me, squirt. Now that I am rank two, I've got plenty of qi to convert, and with the reagents you brought, I could produce a lot of rare medicine. We both know how valuable this stuff is in this…"
"Rank two?" Lei interrupted him. "You never told me!" He was scared for his life now, Feng Chonglin could squash him like a bug!
"I told you now. But… I am not comfortable doing business with you. You haven't answered my question, kid. What is the blood element? Think."
A shiver ran down Wu Lei's spine. Now that he is on the Condensation stage, he is in complete control! No matter how much I've improved, I am at his mercy now… If my answer doesn't satisfy him, will I walk out of here alive? His gaze locked with his master's stern eyes, the faint flicker of the lantern's flame dancing across their surface.
"Blood. Life essence. But also… Heritage?" Lei guessed.
"Think about it this way. The tunnels we are in, vessels of this city. Streets, too. Little passages with people moving through them, bringing it into life. Without the people, the city is a stone skeleton. Blood is motion. Blood is change. And blood is birth. It is many things, depending on what aspect you lean on."
And none of these things, Xin would say. He loves these philosophical contradictions.
Lei remembered his own experiences in this city. So many people bled out in front of his eyes. So many shed their blood to invigorate their elusive cause, and so many died for nothing.
"So… What's your point, master?" Lei was worried, if he wants me to become a blood cultivator, what are the logistics of it? Am I supposed to refine a blood core or pull out a blood path dao shard during the tournament? This is a joke.
"Your own blood, does it define you? Think of your parents."
"Of course not! Why that, all of a sudden? My mom was a prostitute, and my dad was a lazy ass low ranked master! I am neither of these things! I am a warrior, and I don't abandon those who I love. I am loyal. Strong. Nothing like my parents."
"Lei, remember what I told you? When we met."
"Ehmmm… If you rebel against the path they set for you… You are also under its control? Something like that?"
"Correct. The wound both of your parents inflicted upon you is still open. You chose to pretend it's just your father, you even prefer having bloodshot crimson eyes to having his, yet your mother is a saint who did nothing wrong. Still, I'll make a wild guess here, the women in your life, you sting them. You conquer them, realise you don't feel loved, then stab them in the heart. Am I not right?"
Lei remembered at least several cases of doing exactly that. That's why he never got close to Jia Li, he loved her too much to do this to her. And he was about to do something like that with Yao Nang, to punish her for being weirded out by his new looks, he was already setting up dates with two different girls, to cheat on her and drive the point home.
"Fuck me… I still fail to see how it relates to all this." He pointed at the tunnel and at his bag of holding.
"These things I am talking about, they aren't you. They are clots. You can heal them. We like to think ourselves doomed, unsolvable. Makes it easier to avoid change. Lei, you are a unique talent, on par with Xin and Rui Ming, you just need to be guided properly."
Lei was moved. This recognition was one of the few things that could bribe him, even if it was blatant flattery.
"Fine, sweet talking old man, I see your point. But what does it have to do with the blood path?"
"You need to understand something very important. You are eighteen. An idiot. A little retard, no matter how talented. In fact, talented people are often the most stupid.
You have to be ready to shed parts of you, to change genuinely. To stop playing childish games, be it showing off or begging for recognition. Forge a man out of yourself, not an actor pretending to be a man by following a checklist. It's not about the blood path, although we'll use it at some points, and you'll definitely have to study it thoroughly."
"Why, though?" Lei felt overwhelmed, the idea of just selling his swag and slowly working on his rank two was more enticing than Feng Chonglin's weird drifting arguments, soaked in stinging insults.
"Because it will soon be legalised."
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