Demonic Cultivator: Immune To Common Side Effects - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: May This Humble Maiden Spend the Night?

The young girl, hiding beneath the eaves, watched Li Yan return to his room with the Medicinal Gourd. She quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

The other children gathered around her, asking, “Big Sister, what’s with that Big Brother?”

“Anyway… he saved our lives. Don’t tell anyone, understand?” Xin Zhi cautioned, gesturing for silence.

In the girl’s eyes, Li Yan’s act of taking the Blood Egg Pills without forcing them to swallow them was an act of salvation.

She clearly overestimated Li Yan’s moral compass, but in a way, he had indeed saved their lives—at least for the time being.

If no new patrons arrived at the Stone Workshop Hall in the coming days, Li Yan would inevitably have to force the pills upon them.

Her gaze shifted back to the room.

Li Yan swallowed all six Blood Egg Pills in one gulp. The potent medicine caused his Blood Qi to boil violently.

Detected: Host has consumed six Blood Egg Pills with severe side effects!

Blood Qi Theft level 2 upgraded to Blood Qi Theft level 8.

Current Blood Qi Theft: Can now steal Blood Qi from cultivators within 80 steps!

According to Tang Dynasty standards, one bu (step) was approximately 1.5 meters, making 80 bu a radius of 120 meters.

Within this range, Li Yan could freely and discreetly absorb the Blood Qi of fellow cultivators at his level.

Simultaneously, the side effects of the six Blood Egg Pills had been purged, transforming into a ferocious surge of Blood Qi that violently assaulted Li Yan’s Dantian Qi Sea.

The Blood Qi from the pills crashed into his Dantian like a tidal wave.

Sensing a dull ache in his Dantian, Li Yan immediately assumed a meditative posture.

Drawing upon the memories he had absorbed from Senior Brother Ming Zhe, he recalled the Tranquil Void Heart Method.

He suppressed the raging Blood Qi within him, guiding it to circulate through his body’s Qi Channels, condensing it to nourish his meridians.

Seek tranquility in stillness, embrace Qi in emptiness.

The heart governs the five viscera. Nurture it with stillness, fill it with emptiness. Let Blood Qi flow through the meridians like streams merging into the sea, nourishing every bone and organ.

Guide Blood Qi, nourish Qi Channels.

Gradually mastering the technique, Li Yan sat cross-legged, his tongue lightly touching the roof of his mouth, his eyes lowered in contemplation of his Dantian.

When a gentle warmth and tremor arose three inches below his navel, he focused his mind to create invisible silken threads of consciousness, coaxing the molten, gold-like Blood Qi within his Dantian.

Initially, Li Yan’s Blood Qi flowed like scattered streams. Guided by his consciousness, it converged into a single thread, ascending along the Ren Meridian to the Zhongdan Acupoint. From there, it split into two currents, flowing into the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian and the Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian.

After a long while, a faint golden glow began to emanate from his skin—a sign of Initial Blood Aperture Activation!

“Hah… I think I just glimpsed the key to the Blood Shifting Realm…”

“I’ve fully absorbed all the side effects of these six Blood Egg Pills, leaping from the fourth to the sixth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm. It seems the old saying, ‘A night-grazing horse grows fat,’ really holds true.”

Li Yan realized that even a sliver of authority within the Tranquil Void Temple could bring him immeasurable benefits.

Take the Blood Egg Pills he’d pilfered from the Stone Workshop Hall—who would ever notice?

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, his sixth-layer Blood Condensation Realm cultivation base filling him with newfound confidence.

Yet this rapid advancement brought a new danger.

From Ming Zhe’s memories, he knew that disciples who progressed too quickly risked drawing the attention of Old Daoist Xuanwang.

That old ghost Xuanwang, obsessed with absolute control, would never allow any disciple’s cultivation to surpass the Blood Shifting Realm.

Once Li Yan broke through to the Blood Shifting Realm, he would finally be on equal footing with Old Ghost Xuanwang.

But before that could happen, the old ghost would inevitably strike first, gutting him to extract his Dantian and use it for alchemy.

“Hmm…”

Li Yan stroked his chin, trying to find a solution in Senior Brother Ming Zhe’s memories.

If Xuanwang discovered his rapid progress, the old ghost would surely become suspicious.

Just as Li Yan was deep in thought, Old Ghost Xuanwang’s voice suddenly echoed in his ear!

The unexpected voice startled him awake.

“Disciples, heed my command! This Master is departing for Broken Sword Valley.”

“While I’m away, all sect affairs will be overseen by your Eldest Senior Brother Mingshan and Second Senior Sister Mingyue.”

Only after clearly hearing Xuanwang’s words did Li Yan breathe a sigh of relief.

How long will the old ghost be gone?

A daring idea suddenly surged into his mind.

With the old ghost away for several days, and the Stone Workshop Hall under his temporary control, wouldn’t all those Medicine Pills effectively become his?

His thoughts immediately raced as he began plotting his escape from the sect.

Hidden in his room, Li Yan peeked through a crack in the window and watched Old Daoist Xuanwang stride out of Tranquil Void Temple, his robes billowing behind him, accompanied by several young acolytes. It looked as if the old ghost was rushing to Broken Sword Valley to handle some urgent matter.

Now that the old ghost is gone, Li Yan’s chance has finally arrived!

But amid his excitement, Li Yan suddenly felt as if he had overlooked something important.

“Hmm?”

“Ming Zhe’s memories are a bit hazy… Could it be because I didn’t fully absorb them?”

“It seems like something’s going to happen after Old Ghost Xuanwang leaves the sect…”

Li Yan vaguely sensed that the memories he had absorbed from the Nethergod Pill were incomplete, likely due to the old daoist’s inadequate alchemy skills, which only produced inferior, ninth-grade Medicine Pills.

“What exactly is this important thing? Why can’t I remember?”

“That old daoist’s shoddy medicines are doing more harm than good.”

Sitting cross-legged in his room, Li Yan racked his brain, convinced that some significant event was about to unfold, yet unable to grasp what it was.

He considered secretly learning some alchemy skills, but Old Daoist Xuanwang, being as cunning as a fox, never taught his disciples the secrets of pill-making.

Just as Li Yan was lost in thought, a knock echoed outside his door.

Li Yan’s eyebrow twitched as he activated his Mind’s Eye to sense the person outside.

It was an ordinary person with weak Blood Qi, and judging by the shape of their qi, they appeared to be a young woman.

Now at the sixth layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, he could use his Mind’s Eye to perceive things invisible to the naked eye.

The girl who knocked on the door had faint Blood Qi, indicating she was likely a patron of the Stone Workshop Hall.

“The door’s unlocked. Come in,” Li Yan called out.

As soon as he spoke, Xin Zhi, the girl he knew by name, entered the room carrying a wooden basin. Her long, jet-black hair framed a face of quiet obedience.

“Daoist Master Mingyan, this is freshly boiled water.”

“What’s this?” Li Yan frowned as the girl knelt before him, removing his boots and socks.

“Please… please allow me to wash your feet. I can never repay your kindness… I can only…”

Her voice trailed off as she lowered her head and silently began washing his feet.

Truthfully, Li Yan didn’t dislike the girl. But with his own survival hanging by a thread, he couldn’t afford to rescue her. When he fled, he couldn’t take on a burden.

The girl had no Cultivation Base; taking her would only slow him down. It was better to shatter her illusions now than let her cling to false hope.

“Xin Zhi, I can’t save you,” Li Yan stated bluntly. “Unless you can become a Servant Disciple, the fate of you patrons…”

He left the sentence unfinished, letting the implication hang in the air.

Slowly, Xin Zhi raised her head, her eyes like twin stars, clear and bright. Her youthful face, still bearing traces of childhood, hinted at the extraordinary beauty she would become.

Kneeling forward, she pleaded in a voice filled with desperation, “Tonight… may I stay in this room?”