Unprecedented Speed

Hearing the question that was thrown at him, Sixth Void could not help but turn silent as a solemn expression could be seen on his face…well, to be more exact, what could be seen through his gaze. With this gaze, he looked at Bell on his shoulder and asked him, "Are you sure you want to know?"

Naturally, hearing something like that come out of Sixth Void's mouth, who was way above him in terms of cultivation, could not help but make Bell feel like turning into a human would be way harder than he thought. "Is it hard to achieve a human form?"

"Well, if you consider the Soul Supremacy Realm as nothing, then sure," Sixth Void said in response to his question, letting out a sigh soon after. With Sixth Void mentioning a cultivation realm he hadn't heard of before, Bell could not help but feel like it would be impossible for him to turn into a human in the short term.

Of course, wanting to broaden his knowledge regarding cultivation, as well as the cultivation realms, he then asked Sixth Void, "How hard is it to reach the Soul Supremacy Realm?"

Sixth Void looked at Bell with a gaze of hesitation as he asked that question. Though, Sixth Void still obliged to answer it as he decided that being honest with Bell would be better than shrouding him in lies. Taking in a deep breath, Sixth Void replied, "The Soul Supremacy Realm is the highest realm one could achieve in this world. Any higher than that, and you would need to enter the immortal plane."

"Tsss…." Hearing Sixth Void's answer, Bell could not help but suck in cold air…or imitate the sound of one sucking in cold air. It seemed that his worst dreams had turned into reality. It would take quite some time to turn into a human. Surprisingly, even though he was somewhat disappointed that he wouldn't be able to turn into a human early on in his path of cultivation, he was still grateful that he could live longer than a normal human could.

He had only lived for 18 years in his previous life, so being able to live longer than that would already be a blessing to him. With this in mind, he steeled his mind as he told Sixth Void, "That far, huh? I guess I'll have to give it my all in cultivating, then."

Hearing those words come from Bell, Sixth Void looked at Bell in silence for a while…

…only for stifled laughter to come out of his mouth not long after.

Eventually, he could not hold his laughter any longer as he let out a chortle, giving Bell a thumbs-up. "To be honest, the Soul Supremacy Realm part was just a lie. Nevertheless, that shows me that you're willing to go far in the world of cultivation."

"Huh?" Being told that the cultivation realm he had to reach to turn into a human was a lie, Bell's mind went blank for quite some time, working hard to process it. By the time he completely processed what Sixth Void told him, he took in a deep breath as he asked, "So, what cultivation realm do I actually need to transform into a human?"

Seeing as how Bell decided to not chew on him for pulling a prank on him, Sixth Void decided to come off clean as he answered truthfully this time around. "Well, I was only half-lying when I said you needed to enter the Soul Supremacy Realm to transform into a human. In reality, only those with strong bloodlines would need to reach that cultivation realm to transform into a human."

Looking at Bell, he continued, "As for you, basing on what I know from prior knowledge, you would need to reach the Qi Gathering Realm to transform into a human."

Hearing the term 'Qi Gathering Realm', Bell could not help but let out an inward sigh of relief since the Qi Gathering Realm was the next realm after the Qi Sensing Realm, the current realm he was in.

Of course, he wanted to make sure if reaching the beginning of the Qi Gathering Realm would be enough for him to transform into a human. With that in mind, he asked Sixth Void for clarification. "By Qi Gathering Realm, would reaching the beginning of the realm be enough for me to transform into a human or would I need to reach the peak of the realm before I would be able to transform into a human?"

"Just the beginning stages of the realm would be enough for you to reach it," Sixth Void replied, instilling Bell with an intense urge to charge through the various stages of the Qi Sensing Realm. Although he did not mind being a mosquito, only when he was in human form would he be able to truly experience the world of cultivation for what it was.

"I see, I see. Well, thank you for clarifying my doubts regarding the basics of cultivation," Bell said to Sixth Void with a tone of gratitude. After that, he went ahead and flew towards the final beast corpse he hadn't deprived of blood yet, only to notice that Sixth Void was just looking at him as he sat down.

Naturally, Bell could not help but feel curious as to why Sixth Void was still here, given how he was a part of something called the Void Dagger Pavilion. With that, he asked him, "Er…shouldn't you be elsewhere at this moment?"

"What? You want me to leave?" Sixth Void said in response to Bell's question before shrugging his shoulders as he said, "It's been a while since I've really gotten out of the pavilion. Plus, it's not like I have something urgent going on right now. I'm not even obstructing you from letting you do what you're about to do."

"Well…" Although Bell thought that it would be better for Sixth Void to leave, since Sixth Void wasn't going anywhere in the meantime, he decided to have Sixth Void help him out in his cultivation. With that, he poked his proboscis through the fourth and final beast corpse making up the pile. From its appearance, one would instantly notice that it looked like a deer, save for the fact that its antlers were golden.

Unsurprisingly, with that kind of appearance, Bell soon came to know through the system that the beast was called…the Golden Antler Deer.

Compared to the three previous beasts he had siphoned blood from, this Golden Antler Deer gave him the most Impure Blood Energy out of all of them, giving him a total of 1800 points of Impure Blood Energy.

Fortunately, after evolving [Lesser Blood Dimension] to the next tier, he had barely enough space to siphon all of it without having to spend it on upgrading a skill or two. That was because he was planning to use the Impure Blood Energy from the Golden Antler Deer to upgrade something else.

Ding!

[The being is now deprived of all blood.]

[You have learned the Constitution skill 'Golden Antler Deer's Alacrity']

[Golden Antler Deer's Alacrity (9/10) -> (MAX)]

[Constitution +0.018]

With all four beast corpses now deprived of all blood, as well as the fact that he had obtained Constitution skills based on their species respectively, Bell retracted his proboscis from the now statue-like Golden Antler Deer corpse as he made his way to where Sixth Void was sitting, flying exactly right in front of his face.

"What are you doing?" Sixth Void could not help but ask.

Letting out a chuckle, Bell replied, "Well, since you're just watching me do my own thing, I'm sure you're feeling kind of bored."

"Well, not really. Sometimes, doing nothing is a good change of pace," Sixth Void replied, though he had a feeling that Bell was steering the conversation towards a certain direction. With that, it did not take long for him to have a hunch as to what he was trying to do, prompting him to ask, "I presume you want me to help you out on something?"

"I just need you to help me out on my cultivation," Bell said in response. "Although I've committed all of the information you gave me to memory, I'm still unsure as to how I should go about doing this."

"Well…sure. I'll help you out," Sixth Void said, standing up as he told Bell to land on his shoulder. Following his words, Bell then asked, "What should I do next?"

"Not much, really. You just have to absorb enough qi to form a qi wisp," Sixth Void said before deciding to explain what one had to do in the Qi Sensing Realm again. "As I've mentioned before, the Qi Sensing Realm is the realm where one would have to become more familiar with the feeling of qi in the surroundings, allowing one to have greater control over it. The goal of the cultivator in this realm is to create enough qi wisps to reach the peak of the realm before fusing them together to enter the Qi Gathering Realm."

"Of course, having an internal cultivation technique would allow you to achieve twice the result with half the effort. Even a Mortal Low-grade cultivation technique would allow you to cultivate faster than someone without a cultivation technique," he said. Seeing as the term 'Mortal Low-grade' left Bell confused, Sixth Void soon said as he scratched his head, "It seems I've forgotten to tell you about the grades of techniques."

"Well, note that these grades I'm about tell you don't just apply to cultivation techniques. They also apply to martial techniques, techniques that utilize your qi. There are three major technique grades: Mortal, Earth, and Heaven. These major grades are then split into three minor grades: Low, Middle, and High."

"With that information, the lowest grade a technique could have is Mortal Low-grade, while the highest grade would be Heaven High-grade," Sixth Void said, adding not long after, "Of course, there's still a technique grade beyond Heaven High-grade. Those techniques are called Primordial-grade techniques."

After saying that, he then shrugged his shoulders as he said, "Well, Primordial-grade techniques are rare, even in the immortal plane, so let's not talk about it."

With Sixth Void talking about the importance of cultivation techniques so much, Bell decided to spend the Impure Blood Energy he had siphoned from the Golden Antler Deer to purchase cultivation techniques from the Blood Monarch System. Yes, this was the reason why Bell saved those points up.

Of course, with the amount of points he had obtained from the Golden Antler Deer, he made sure to buy both an internal and an external cultivation technique from the system, turning silent as he looked at the names of the cultivation techniques he had obtained.

________

Internal Cultivation Technique: Crimson Soul Manual [Mortal Low-grade | 2x efficiency] (can be upgraded)

External Cultivation Technique: Crimson Body Manual [Mortal Low-grade | 2x efficiency] (can be upgraded)

________

'I have a bad feeling about these cultivation techniques,' Bell could not help but think to himself, wondering if his path of cultivation would be restricted by the system.

Nevertheless, he decided to place those thoughts at the back of his head for now as he started to absorb qi from the surroundings, just like what Sixth Void told him.

After some time, a bit of the qi in the area started to gather around Bell as they slowly made their way through his forehead. Little by little, he could feel some of the energy he had absorbed from the surroundings taking up a spot in his body. For some reason, he could not help but feel a bit of comfort from having qi enter his body.

As for Sixth Void, noticing that Bell was now starting to cultivate, he could not help but examine how Bell was doing. With a quick manipulation of the energy in the surroundings, he now had the ability to see how the qi in the surroundings was being absorbed by Bell's body, nourishing him in the process.

At first, he did not think too much about Bell's progress in terms of cultivation. Though, as time passed, he could not help but put on a solemn expression as he noticed that Bell's cultivation speed was far faster than the grade of Qi Root Bell told him.

'Does he really only have a Two-Branch Mortal Qi Root?' This thought soon festered inside Sixth Void's mind as he decided to take a look at Bell's Qi Root, only to find out that he wasn't lying at all.

Eventually, around 10 minutes or so later, Bell stopped absorbing qi as he felt like the qi in his body would condense and transform into something else entirely. With that, he looked at Sixth Void and asked, "I feel like I can condense a qi wisp now. Should I do it?"

Surprisingly, Sixth Void did not answer his question at all. Instead, he asked Bell a question of his own.

"Bell, I would just like to ask you something."

"How the hell are you cultivating so quickly?"