Vertebra 60 was a distance up the skeleton. Hui climbed up the bones. They slipped under his feet, the surface smooth and polished. Hui operated his movement technique to maintain his balance, hopping up the bones. I wish I could fly! It would be so convenient to zoom directly to the 60th vertebra, over having to climb forty-odd vertebra to get there!

Ah, oh well. It’s worth it to get away from that Vertebra 108. Up at Vertebra 60, there should be fewer who qualify to challenge me!

He climbed into the bone cave and peered around.

Unlike his original cave, this cave was wide and long, extremely spacious compared to Vertebra 108. Spiritual energy swirled thickly in the air, alongside a faint aura of death. From the rear, a well of blood-colored spiritual energy burbled up, exuding a thick, coppery scent. A few stray chairs and cushions sat around. A bloody scene of massacre had been carved into the walls in exquisite detail, so much so that it almost seemed to give off a red aura of slaughter.

How very… demonic. He closed his eyes and voided his dantian, then released it, instantly absorbing all the spiritual energy in the room. The strands of death qi darted to his second dantian, along with a few strands of blood qi. Unlike the usual rush, the blood qi only faintly stirred, barely entering his body.

Hui opened his eyes. He furrowed his brows, then tipped his head. Maybe it’s because I don’t have much blood qi in the first place? Only one duck’s worth. Mmm, it’s fine. I’m not particularly trying to cultivate blood qi. Besides, I don’t want to be mistaken for a demonic cultivator once I leave this sect. It’s better if I figure out a way to separate ordinary qi from the blood qi.

Or maybe… I wonder if I can refine life and death qi from qi? Death qi does corrupt it, but at the same time, it’s extremely dangerous, and the death qi dissipates more quickly when I corrupt my own qi than when I steal someone else’s. Likewise, I’ve never been able to separate life qi from qi. Obviously, I have life qi in me, but I’ve never sensed my innate life qi.

Maybe… innate life qi is the same as innate pure qi? I’ve never sensed that, either. Hmm…

He walked over to the blood spring and sat down beside it. Meditating, he reached out, feeling the blood spring with his qi. Blood qi flowed evenly, but something else flowed underneath it.

Carefully, Hui reached out with a strand of death qi. He caught a handful of blood qi from the spring and held it in his hands. Qi rotated around the outside of the blood qi to contain it, glowing blue. The blood qi roiled inside, spilling brilliant red light through the gaps in the qi.

Hui inserted the death qi into the handful of blood qi. The brilliant red light faded, blackening. Despite his qi cage, the corrupted blood qi dissipated almost instantly. Even with all his attention on it, he never detected even a spark of life qi.

Hui drew his hands apart and released the qi cage before the corrupted blood qi could corrupt it, as well. Black smoke twined into the air and vanished, escaping.

So I can’t just corrupt ordinary qi. Maybe at a higher realm, or maybe if I have a different technique, but it isn’t quite as simple as it seems to convert qi. Allowing it to happen naturally—by which I mean, letting someone die—is clearly the superior method here. As for life qi, I don’t know if the blood qi well had life qi in the first place. I can’t say decisively if it would work or not. However… given how the issue with life qi is the purity, and I’ve never detected it before, even when I corrupted my own qi, I doubt it’s easy to separate life qi out of ordinary qi.

And that’s assuming it’s possible to separate life qi from qi. It’s likely that life qi is its own separate thing, not something that’s a part of all qi.

Hui let out a sigh. He stretched and stood, then drew out his talisman equipment once more. There’s more qi in this cave. It’s a better place to draw talismans than that old vertebra. He lifted his brush, then halted.

“I can’t be hasty. I was able to recover from my first usage of the technique using the spiritual energy that had built up in the bone cave, but it’s been used now. I can’t easily absorb the blood qi, either. If I use the technique now, it might be days or weeks before I recover enough qi to use it again. Right now, I don’t have a talisman formula in mind. If I try and fail, I’ll have wasted weeks’ worth of qi with nothing to show from it.”

He shook his head at himself. “Instead, I should first figure out a talisman formula for it, and only cast it into the talisman once I have the formula figured out.”

Settling into a sit, he drew out a copy of each of his talismans. He crossed his arms and frowned. There… that’s the simplified illusory array. I won’t need an illusion with this technique. That symbol conducts power from fire, and that one wood… this technique is water and earth-aligned. The water symbol from the ice talisman… right, and that’s where it quirks into ice.

This technique… I don’t know its name, and I only have a shallow enlightenment on its essence. Once I reach a higher realm, I can tell I’ll have a much greater comprehension. For now, I’ll have to work with my shallow comprehension. The shallow comprehension will limit the strength of my talismans to a greater extent than it will limit my usage of the base technique, since one requires a higher comprehension to record the technique to a fresh talisman formula than to simply replicate the figure’s qi flow.

But even so, if I can manage it, it’s worth it! I can only use the technique once, but with talismans, I can use it as many times as I have talismans. Even if I only make two or three talismans, that’s still three to four times as many usages of the technique.

Circulating the technique through his mind, he gazed at the talismans, slowly comprehending the formula to record the technique into the talisman. Weeks passed, but to Hui, no time seemed to pass at all.

At last, he lifted his hand. Adjusting the paper, he drew a deep breath and bit his thumb, drawing blood. There’s no substituting it. For this technique, I need blood.

A splotch of blood colored the talisman paper. He drew his thumb across the paper, almost feverish in his motions, eyes wide. Qi poured out of him into the talisman, so much that the paper trembled and began to smoke. His stomach grew cold, his dantian depleting. Hui circulated his life qi, drawing a strand of it into the talisman. Stroke after stroke, the talisman came together. With every stroke, more qi rushed into the talisman. His breath came ragged, and his eyes blurred. Without realizing it, Hui fell into a state of enlightenment.

The final stroke. In his mind, he felt the shape of it, felt how it perfectly conformed to the technique. His stomach froze, icy cold. His hand weighed a thousand pounds, his thumb weak. Hui’s life force flickered, only kept up by the life qi circulating in his dantian. He lifted his hand and slashed the final character of the talisman, forcing out the last of his qi into it.

The talisman laid before him, gently smoking. It shimmered with power, so much that the heat brushed his face. He smiled, satisfied, and sagged over, unconscious.