Although Bell knew that there was a possibility that the creaking of the gate that led into this fenced-off area could just be made by strong winds, from what his intuition was telling him, he had a feeling that the gate was not opened by the wind at all. With that in mind, he retracted his proboscis from the skin of the sheep he had just siphoned to death as he hastily flapped his wings away from the vicinity.
Well, to be more exact, he flew directly above the sheep's corpse, stopping at a certain height once he felt that he wouldn't be seen by the beings that opened the gate in his mind. He then inwardly let out a sigh of relief as he knew that his chances of being found out by the beings were now equal to nil, only for him to think to himself that he was slightly stupid at times.
Nevertheless, he wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be traced, thus prompting him to fly up to this altitude. On the contrary, the beings that opened the gate had finally made their way to a certain part of the fenced-off area, with one of the two beings screaming their lungs out after noticing that one of the animals in that area was now a corpse.
Indeed, not only one being had opened the gate, but two.
With the beings' legs giving out, the being then landed with their butt on the ground with a thud, their face incredibly pale as that being had just grazed their hand on the wool of the still sleepy sheep. As for the other being that accompanied the first one, their face had a surprised yet worried expression as they asked the other being, "Are you alright, dear?!"
"I-it's…dead…" Although the other being wanted to say that they were fine, just shaken up at most, the shock they felt from realizing one of the animals they tended to were dead had consumed them. At first, the being that asked looked at the other being with a confused expression, only to shift their focus soon after as the other being pointed towards one of the animals, which seemed to not look out of place amongst the other sleeping sheep.
"You've got to be joking, right? Dear?" the being did not believe the other being's words as they let out a light chuckle, thinking that the other being was joking to them. "See here, once I pet this sleeping sheep, it'll surely wake u—"
As the being made its way towards the sleeping sheep that the other being pointed at, they could not help but freeze in place. It was then that they realized that the other being's words were actually correct. In that instant, rather than an appalled expression being seen on their face, a frown could be seen on it instead as the being looked at the other being and asked, "Do you know why it's dead, Melissa?"
"I don't know…I really don't know…" Melissa, who was sitting on the ground, shook her head profusely as she really did not know why that sheep was dead. At this moment, she had gathered a bit of her bearings, her face finally regaining a bit of color. Taking in a deep breath to regain more of her bearings, she soon stood up before making her way to where the other being was.
"How about you, Dan…? Do you know…anything?" she looked at her significant other and asked, prompting the frown on the other being's face to grow deeper as he eventually let out a sigh while shaking his head. He then looked at her wife and responded, "As far as I know, this sheep was incredibly healthy the last time we checked. For it to become ill all of a sudden is more or less a mystery."
"Honey…there's still one more possibility, remember?" Melissa looked at her husband, listening to his speculations as she made her own as well. Although to Dan, his wife's speculation was more far-fetched than his, from the looks of it, it seemed like the crazier speculation was the more believable one.
Scratching his head as he looked at the sun, Dan murmured, "It's so early in the morning, and we get embroiled in a situation like this. Those people seriously don't care for us normal people."
"In any case, let's go check on the other animals and see if the same thing happened as well," he said not long after to his wife, to which his wife nodded as then they made their way to the other parts of the fenced-off area.
As for Bell, who watched all of this unfold, he could not help but let out a light sigh as he muttered to himself, "Although I had the feeling that people owned this, I now feel a bit guilty knowing that I've siphoned blood from animals tended by hardworking people."
Surprisingly, this feeling of guilt he felt soon faded away as he remembered the goal given to him by the Blood Monarch System, saying, "But if I don't siphon blood from other beings, then how would I reach a Constitution stat of 1?"
Not long after, he felt that he had become stupid yet again, prompting him to add, "Well, now that I think about it, I could've gone to the forest and siphoned blood from the wild animals instead, but I didn't."
"And now that I say that, I did have the choice to not fly away from the corpse of the sheep, and those people wouldn't think that anything was amiss," he muttered. At this moment, he wondered if turning into a mosquito had reduced his intelligence by a certain margin, consoling himself not long after as he murmured to himself, "Ah, whatever. It's better to be safe than sorry."
"Hmm…should I follow them?" After he was done with his internal monologue of mockery directed at himself, he then asked this question, which had easily obtained an answer within a few seconds. Increasing the speed at which he flapped his wings, he followed the two people from up above as they made their way to the other portions of the fenced-off area.
While doing so, he went ahead and asked the system to bring up information regarding the title that had just upgraded. Naturally, once the screen popped up, a notification sound had accompanied it, which prompted Bell to instantly look at the contents of the screen. After skimming through the text written on the screen, he could not help but think that the upgrade was worth the effort as he happily said, "Not only did it boost the amount of Impure Blood Energy I could absorb from farm animals, it also boosted something else I was not expecting!"
Ding!
________
[Farm Slaughterer (Bronze)]
A title given to those who have achieved 5 maxed out Constitution Skills from beings usually found on farms.
> Increases the amount of Impure Blood Energy available for the owner to siphon from farm-based beings by 100%
> Increases the amount of Constitution one could obtain from the Constitution Skills of farm-based beings by 5%
{Note: Siphon a total of 10,000 points of Impure Blood Energy from farm-based beings, and this title will undergo an upgrade!}
________
Soon after that, he commanded the system in his mind to bring up his status screen, but only the part that pertained to his Constitution. Since he had done it before, he was not surprised to see a small screen appear in front of his field of vision with the word 'Constitution' written on its left side. Recalling the number that appeared beside the word before he went on a blood siphoning spree, Bell could not help but feel satisfied as he muttered, "I'm around 60% of the way there to obtaining the first 1/10th of the constitution I need to achieve. It's only been around one day or so since I've been in this world, but my constitution has already improved by so much."
'Constitution: 0.06295'
Just as he said this to himself to boost his confidence, a shrill scream could be heard once more coming from one of the two people, prompting Bell to close all of the screens he had summoned as he focused his sense of vision on them, noticing that they were now at the chicken coop.
"One chicken, and one sheep…" Dan muttered to himself as he tallied the deaths that occurred inside the fenced-off area they owned. After passing through the chicken coop, they then made their way to the pigpen, only to find that one of the pigs inside it had suffered the same fate. At this point, he could not help but feel like the deaths of the animals had a pattern to them, prompting him to shudder as he looked at his wife and asked, "So far, we've tallied one chicken, one sheep, and one pig dying. Melissa, what other animals do we have here again?"
"Er…" Melissa rubbed her chin as she pondered, responding to her husband's question not long after as she replied, "We have chickens, pigs, sheep, horses, and bulls."
Hearing his wife's response, Dan could not help but scratch his head as he said to her, "Once we're at the stables and the bullpen, you better prepare to see one of them dead, okay?"
Although her husband's words were grim, after giving him a piece of her mind a while ago, she only shuddered for a bit before nodding as they then made their way to the stables and the bullpen.
Just as they had expected, one horse had undergone the same phenomenon when they checked the stables. But when they looked at the bulls in the bullpen, they noticed that not only one bull had died while standing. Instead, two bulls had died standing!
"What the…" Dan could not help but mutter, thinking that the current situation was weirder than he had thought. "A chicken, a sheep, a pig, a horse, and two bulls? What are those sect disciples doing?"
"No idea," Melissa said in response to her husband's words. Since he was flying at an altitude that made sure he wouldn't be noticed by the two people, plus a little bit extra to make sure, Bell could not hear the conversation between the two, other than the shrill screams of the woman from time to time. If he heard their conversation just now, he would turn ecstatic in less than an instant.
Fortunately, it seemed that the heavens wanted him to realize that there was something different with the world he was in as a different aura started to surround the two people, prompting Bell to concentrate all of his attention on them.
"What's going on?" Bell muttered to himself in a tone of curiosity at the very instant he felt the change. Not long after, his eyes were instantly fixated on what was happening around the two people.
Out of thin air, multiple motes of light taking on a pale blue color had manifested around the bodies of the two before being manipulated to make their way towards the hands of the two. Not long after, they went ahead and took on one bull each before going ahead and lifting the bulls from the underside.
At first, Bell had expected the two to be unsuccessful in lifting the dead bulls off the ground. Contrary to his expectations, though, the two were able to lift one bull on their own without breaking a sweat, heading towards the gate that led outside the fenced-off area as they sent motes of pale blue light towards their feet as well.
At this moment, Bell was left at a loss for words as he watched the two seemingly ordinary people pull off things that could be considered superhuman in his past life. Eventually, he found the right words to say once the corpses of the pig and sheep were brought out of the fenced-off area, muttering to himself in disbelief, "Is that…what I think it is?"
Ding!
As if the system he had obtained was reading his mind, a notification sound soon resounded in his mind as the system's monotonous voice came out not long after.
"Congratulations, owner! Since you have witnessed qi firsthand, you have obtained the title [One Who Has Seen Qi]! On top of that, certain information, which has been withheld from you before, has now been unlocked!" the system congratulated Bell, to which Bell could not help but become ecstatic in an instant as he heard a particular word being uttered.
"Qi! There's qi in this world!" Bell shouted with intense joy, though in reality, no one could hear it but himself. "Since there's qi in this world, I can cultivate! I can actually cultivate!"
"This is seriously an unexpected harvest. Who knew that following two people on a whim would lead to me obtaining something like this," he said not long after, proudly laughing at his foresight to follow the two people. Of course, after experiencing the temporary high of discovering qi, he calmed down, prompting him to read through the notification he had obtained one more time.
"System, identify the title I had just obtained," he said not long after, now thinking that there was no more point staying inside the fenced-off area. In response, the system allowed a screen to pop up in front of his field of vision, describing the effects of the title he had just received.
Ding!
________
[One Who Has Seen Qi]
A title given to those who have seen qi firsthand.
> Increases one's sensitivity and understanding of qi.
{Note: This title is part of a set. If the owner obtains the other titles, a resonance effect will occur!}
________
"Although the effects of the title are vague, they're pretty good when I start cultivating," Bell muttered to himself, eager to start cultivating once he left the fenced-off area. Since the next upgrade of the [Farm Slaughterer] title needed him to siphon a lot of blood from farm animals, he felt that this place wasn't the right place to do so, placing the thought at the back of his head for now as he formulated a plan in his mind.
"Also, it's a part of a set?" he said not long after, prompting him to ask the system, "System, could you tell me the other titles that would complete the set?"
"The owner must reach a certain level first before obtaining the rights to do so," the system succinctly replied, which Bell accepted without any hint of disappointment. He was just trying his luck anyway.
"Speaking of which, what do you mean by certain information now being unlocked?" Bell continued to question the system, recalling the second statement that he heard from the system. Without surprise, the system responded to his query in an instant, saying, "The information the owner has unlocked has something to do with the goal the system has given you."
"You mean reaching a Constitution stat of 1?" Bell could not help but make sure, to which the system replied, "That is indeed correct, owner. Once the owner achieves a Constitution stat of 1, then the owner…"
"…"
"…can start to cultivate."
I. Have. Returned!
Damn, this month has not been kind to me. Exams, mental health problems, and even my dog passing away just a few days ago. But as they say, through adversity comes strength, so here it is.
Hope you enjoy the chapter and have a Merry Christmas!