The oil lamp flickered, casting long, dancing shadows against the bamboo walls.
Kai sat hunched over the desk, his eyes darting back and forth across the map of the Bone-Eating Forest. He wasn't just looking; he was burning the image into his mind. He traced the winding curve of the River of Silent Screams, memorized the jagged elevation of the Wolf-Cry Ridge, and noted the red circles marking the territories of Rank 3 beasts.
He couldn't afford to pull the map out in the wild. A moment of distraction meant death. He had to know the terrain as if he had been born in the mud.
Behind him, the air shimmered silently.
Su Qing drifted out of the Crescent Jade Pendant. Her translucent form was faint, conserving energy, but her gaze was sharp. She didn't look at the diligent boy first.
Her eyes fell on the sleeping white fox curled up on the chair beside him.
Xiao Bai was breathing softly, her three tails wrapped around her nose like a fluffy scarf. To anyone else, she was just a beautiful Spirit Beast. But to Su Qing, who had spent fifty years staring into the void of the soul, she saw something else.
'If my guess is correct... she is the only ticket I have to get out of this purgatory,' Su Qing thought, her expression unreadable.
She glanced at Kai's back, a pang of guilt tightening her spectral chest.
'Forgive me, child. I hope you can understand my deception in the future. I did not choose you because of your unique Darkness, nor your resolve. I chose you... because of her.'
Her mind drifted back to the moment she had first sensed them near the stream. When Kai had fought the vale panther, Su Qing had felt a ripple. It wasn't from the boy. It was a faint, terrifying pressure coming from the fox—a primal, imperial instinct that made her very spiritual form tremble.
It felt less like the aura of a beast and more like the gaze of a sleeping god, forcing her soul to instinctively want to kneel.
'How come a persona like her chose a Spirit Beast as a vessel?' Su Qing mused, staring at the fox with a mix of awe and confusion. 'Is it a reincarnation? A seal? To hide in the body of a fox... the price must have been astronomical.'
She looked at her own translucent hands listlessly.
'If I could wake her... if I could bargain with that entity... my resurrection wouldn't be a dream. But I need Soul Herbs. High-grade ones. Even in my past life as a Core Disciple, I only saw a few. Here in the wilderness? It is like looking for a needle in the ocean.'
She sighed, the sound soundless in the quiet room. 'It is too difficult. But for now, I must guide the boy. If he dies, the vessel is lost.'
She floated closer to the desk. She watched Kai trace a path around a poison swamp, nodding in approval.
Cough.
She let out a soft, deliberate sound.
Kai jumped slightly, his hand instinctively going to the dagger he didn't have, before realizing where he was. He turned around, rubbing his tired eyes.
"Su Qing," Kai let out a breath, relaxing his shoulders. "You're awake. I was just finishing the northern sector."
He stood up and bowed slightly, a habit from his clan days. "Is there anything else I need to do? Any preparations?"
Su Qing floated down until she was eye-level with him. Her expression was the mask of a strict teacher, hiding her earlier calculations.
"You have the map," she said. "But knowledge of the land is useless if your body cannot traverse it. Tell me, Kai. Up until now, how much do you truly know about the Cultivation Realms?"
Kai blinked, surprised by the sudden quiz. He scratched the back of his head.
"The basics, I guess," Kai replied, leaning against the desk. "I know that reaching a higher realm makes a person stronger, faster, and extends their life. A cultivator uses the energy of nature to strengthen themselves."
He counted on his fingers.
"After the Mortal Foundation, there is the Blood Awakening Realm. Once the blood is ready, one can start to absorb Qi into the body—that's the Qi Condensation Realm. Then comes opening the Spirit Veins, forming the Qi Core... and many more after that which are just legends to me."
Su Qing nodded slowly. "The structure is correct. But the nuance is missing. Tell me about the Mortal Foundation Realm. How did you manage to get past it?"
Kai's face fell slightly. A shadow of his past embarrassment crossed his eyes.
"There are various ways," Kai muttered, looking at his boots. "Breathing exercises. Body tempering arts. The Clan Elders use a massive array to force Aether into the children's bodies to temper them. In the big clans, like the Lin Clan, children usually past through this realm automatically during the Blood Awakening Ceremony at age eight after touching the Monolith of Truth to awaken their bloodline."
He sighed, his fist clenching. "I... I couldn't. My body rejected the Monolith. It didn't empower me; it felt like it was trying to erase me. They called me trash because I couldn't cross the threshold that every other toddler walked over effortlessly. I only entered the Blood Awakening recently, on my own, through... pain."
Su Qing looked at him softly. "You brute-forced it. That is why your foundation is solid. Without a bloodline, people still rise, Kai. The ceremony is a shortcut. You took the stairs."
She drifted closer, her voice turning instructional.
"Listen well. You are currently in the Blood Awakening Realm. Do you know what that truly means?"
Kai shook his head. "Just that I'm stronger than a mortal."
"It is biology, not magic," she corrected. "In this realm, there are three phases."
"First," she held up one finger, "Your blood must Boil. This is not heat; it is purification. The body burns away the toxins accumulated from birth—the mundane filth. Looking at your current state, you have only just stepped onto this threshold. Your blood is active, likely forced awake by your will to survive, but it is still turbid. You must purge every ounce of mortal weakness until your sweat runs clear as water."
"Second," she held up a second finger, "Your blood becomes Thick and Heavy, like mercury. It carries ten times the oxygen and nutrients of a mortal. This allows for explosive movements, like your Phantom Strike."
"And finally," she held up a third finger, "Your heart changes. It starts to pump slowly, with immense pressure. Thump... Thump. When you reach the 8th stage, you can project that pressure outwards. That is the origin of Killing Intent or Aura."
She looked him dead in the eye.
"Only at the 9thStage of Blood Awakening is your body durable enough to absorb Qi without exploding. When you absorb your first wisp of Aether and store it in your Dantian... that is the moment you reach Qi Condensation."
Kai stood frozen, his mouth slightly agape. It was like a fog had cleared in his mind.
He had always thought cultivation was just "meditating and getting stronger." He didn't realize it was a biological evolution. The heavy feeling in his chest during the fight, the way his blood felt like lead... it wasn't fatigue. It was his cultivation working.
"I see..." Kai whispered, a look of sudden enlightenment dawning on his face. "So my blood is the fuel. The Qi is the fire. I can't light the fire until I have enough fuel."
Su Qing nodded, pleased. "Correct. You are quick."
"But," Kai frowned, "How do I get stronger? How do I make my blood 'thick' and 'heavy'?"
"Nutrition," Su Qing stated simply. "A fire needs wood. Your blood needs essence. You must consume Spirit Herbs or Beast Meat."
Kai grimaced. "Herbs... I can do herbs. Finding them is hard, but I can do it."
He paused, thinking about the panther. "But... Beast meat?"
He looked a little green. In the Clan, even as a prisoner, he ate rice and salted fish. Maybe a chicken if he was lucky. The idea of carving up a panther or a wolf and eating its muscle felt... savage. It felt like something a monster would do.
"It's... a little foreign to me," Kai admitted, rubbing his stomach. "I'm used to cooked fish."
Su Qing watched his hesitation. She floated back slightly, her eyes narrowing. She knew that the wilderness did not care for a boy's dietary preferences. If he wanted to survive the journey to Black-Iron City, he needed to shed the last of his civilized softness.
"You can survive on herbs if you are lucky enough to find them," Su Qing said coolly. "But luck is a finite resource."
She paused, letting the silence stretch until Kai looked up at her, waiting for the alternative.
"There is another way to temper the blood," she said softly. "A faster way. A way that forces the blood to boil and thicken out of pure necessity."
Kai's ears perked up. "What is it?"
Su Qing's translucent face hardened. The gentle teacher vanished, replaced by the survivor who had died fighting.
"Adrenaline," she whispered. "Fear. The instinct to survive."
She pointed to the darkness outside the cottage window.
"You can eat roots and wait ten years to advance. Or, you can engage in life-and-death combat. When you are on the brink of dying, your blood flows fastest. Your marrow works hardest."
Kai swallowed hard.
"You mean..."
"I mean," Su Qing finished, her voice as cold as the grave she inhabited, "Bloody battles."