Natural Spirit Blood

A lot had happened and it was becoming more and more difficult for Wuxian to sleep recently. When he lay in the darkness, he ended up thinking about things he realistically couldn't immediately do much about.

And a hangover would not be conducive to cultivation, of which he had a lot of to do. 

'I won't get a hangover if I don't sleep, right?

In the end, he still had the same goal of getting stronger. Once he had obtained enough power, the small plots in the darkness could be directly crushed with overwhelming power and he'd be free from the scheming of others.

Hopefully, at least.

'But from now on, I cannot afford to make mistakes nor delay things any longer. I have refined the Triple Burner and pericardium meridians and their collaterals, all of which are neutral. Once I begin refining the liver meridian, I will become a ticking time bomb. Only once I complete Foundation Building will I have a moment to breathe.'

'Let's begin.'

Qi was rapidly mobilised from his Shen dantian. After battles and cultivation, he would subconsciously circulate the Nine Revolutions Earthfire technique to replenish qi and then refine it, hence he was almost always topped up at maximum capacity.

'This time, I will not leave my room until I finish refining the liver meridian. Though I am nominally a Nightwatcher… I work for myself. Only my own security matters, not this city's.'

With his resolution made, Wuxian circulated his qi. Although he emanated a sense of urgency, his internal control was at an all-time high. As time passed and he continued to make progress he felt the intoxication wear off. 

Each time he exhaled contaminated qi, he became clearer and clearer headed until he was no longer under the influence at all.

Subconsciously marvelling at the wonders of cultivation, he continued. He stopped only once in order to eat a fasting pill before returning to cultivation once more.

At one point, he heard a knock on the door, but he ignored it and continued with his own business, regardless of other matters.

On the Wednesday of the following week, Wuxian's eyes opened. Though dark and impenetrable, they gave off a gentle and steadfast aura.

He let out one last breath of impure qi, a mix of three colours shooting out of his mouth and rapidly becoming transparent, finally vanishing into the air.

Using his internal sense, he could feel the changes to his body. The meridian network itself now had three glowing major meridians, their power pulsing out through their subsidiary collateral meridians.

Now, Wuxian had refined the Triple Burner, the pericardium and the liver meridians, as well as 90 collaterals. The Triple Burner was the most unique meridian, in that it was more of a pseudo-major meridian, made up of many small meridians and spread across a whole section of the body.

It was called 'triple' because of the three sections of this 'scattered' meridian, the Upper Burner which encased the lungs, the Middle Burner which encased the medial organs and the Lower Burner which encased the large and small intestines. It also branched out and down the sides of the dorsal arm muscles and to the end of the ring fingers.

Then, within the Triple Burner, were the pericardium and liver. The pericardium protected the heart, supporting and enhancing its functions while the liver was positioned inside the Middle Burner.

Each of these sections seemed to glow with coloured light in Wuxian's mind. When qi was circulated through these sections, it was enhanced in its potency- almost as if it was being condensed.

'Perhaps this is how Qi Condensers achieve condensed qi. Part of the process is to use refined meridians to enhance and compress the qi, so circulating it throughout the body has more purpose than just replenishment.'

He then scratched his cheek with a silly grin.

'Maybe I should do some more reading. I have all these manuals, but I've only read the introductory chapters a few times thus far.'

Opening his interspatial rings, he summoned several manuals onto his bed.

'Speaking of which, I can now learn a new mystic art!'

Taking a hold of a dusty green manual, he opened the front cover. On the first page was presumably the name of the art, 'Natural Spirit Blood'.

Beneath were the requirements; the liver and the Triple Burner meridians.

With eager anticipation, Wuxian turned to the introductory chapter.

The many creatures of the realm develop various methods to adapt to the whims of Heaven's will. This is a slow process that takes many immortal lifetimes to occur, resulting in the fantastical inhabitants of which we see in modern times.

Take the Bark-skinned Salamander for example. It lives in the warm but swampy Southern Riverlands, a dangerous environment filled with parasites and pests. As an amphibian, it must face both aquatic and terrestrial predators, employing the varied terrain as it does so.

As a spirit beast, the Bark-skinned Salamander naturally has its own set of traits that allow it to thrive in its climate. Like all spirit beasts, it has an innate spirit root, specifically of the wood element.

The Bark-skinned Salamander is a venomous creature- not only can it inject toxins through its bite, but also through prolonged skin contact and its blood as well. During the Epoch of Great Melting, the mighty Five Flower Immortal Fairy took an interest in the salamander, studying its blood and the influences of the spirit root upon it.

She thus devised a hybrid mystic art, the Natural Spirit Blood art, which possesses both restorative and defensive aspects. The first part of this technique is the restorative part. It isolates wood qi's healing properties, using the caster's bloodstream as the medium through which one's entire body is healed.

Unlike many other mystic arts, this spell requires a medium-length period of acclimatisation to utilise effectively. Once initial success is obtained, the effectiveness of this technique is limited also, requiring periods of time stretching into the months and years to heal, depending on the severity and nature of the wound. Of course, this applies mainly to injuries sustained at the immortal level.

The liver meridian is the point of contact to the main body through which modified wood qi is delivered, entering the bloodstream and following it to the rest of the organs. 

The second part of the technique is similar in that it also requires acclimatisation to employ effectively. Rather than isolating only the healing properties of wood qi, it also uses wood qi's toxicity and poisonous qualities. It requires the caster to have conditioned their body to wood qi and its healing properties, enhancing one's natural healing to the point where flesh wounds heal within seconds.

Using this art, the caster's blood becomes poisonous and extremely dangerous to cultivators of the same realm, also posing a minor threat to higher realm cultivators as well. When circulated, wounds will spray toxic blood outwards- incredibly effective when paired with telekinesis. 

Containing a high concentration of wood qi, it will induce minor elemental imbalance once the poison reaches a certain concentration within the target, while its natural toxicity will erode the target's body.

However, take note! 

The healing variant of this technique cannot be actively cast at the same time as the poison variant, as they will neutralise one another. Additionally, after the poison technique is cast, the caster is recommended to undergo a detoxing process as soon as possible. This is achieved by circulating the healing technique and then expelling the excess qi from one's body.

As such, this mystic art cannot be circulated for continuous periods of times, else the caster risks poisoning oneself to death instead. 

Nodding as he read, Wuxian felt that the world was truly wondrous. Not only did this species of spirit beast naturally develop such a sophisticated method of self-rejuvenation and defence, but human cultivators were able to mimic it for their own use.

'Humans emulate nature to achieve greatness. Perhaps this is the meaning of the Dao.' He mused.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm and mentally prepare himself, Wuxian slowly readjusted his seating, finally closing his eyes.

Unlike Effortless Flow, a mystic art that could be used by anyone of any cultivation, Natural Spirit Blood required at least Foundation Building to pull off, since two meridians had to be refined for its successful activation.

According to the manual, though it wasn't impossible to use a few other meridians to transfer the Natural Spirit Blood qi into the bloodstream, the efficacy would decrease while the danger of doing so increased dramatically. So in the end, the liver meridian was still the best option.

Wuxian began. He familiarly stirred up his Shen dantian, coaxing out a thin stream of refined wood qi. It flowed rapidly through his meridian network, making its way down to the liver meridian in the blink of an eye.

Of course, on the way, it passed through many collateral meridians that reduced non-healing properties from the qi, until finally an almost purely restorative strand of wood qi sat inside his liver meridian.

Up to this point, everything had been familiar to Wuxian. Stirring up the qi, manoeuvring the qi, these were both things he'd gotten adept at through casting Effortless Flow during travel and battle. Not to mention the few times he'd cast weapon imbuement too.

However, the Natural Spirit Blood spell was almost like weapon imbuement, except, rather than a weapon, one imbued their fragile internal organs instead. And it required transposing the metaphysical and the physical.

The fact that he was about to inject qi energy into his bloodstream was uncomfortable to Wuxian. But knowing that sooner or later he'd end up having to do the same with poisonous qi too made this part easier for the moment.

With the liver meridian as a gate, the vibrant green energy entered his physical body. Almost instantly, it dispersed into his blood, travelling further and faster with each heartbeat.

Wuxian resisted the urge to shudder. Though it wasn't painful, he felt extremely peculiar within, and this feeling was quickly spreading across his whole body. 

But having experienced the things he had recently, his mental fortitude had increased dramatically compared to what it had once been, so he slowly relaxed himself- almost on command.

The damage dealt to his left flank by the white robed man had not been minor. Though he had mostly healed, there was still the markings of a wound on the exterior. Internally, he was also still recovering.

Once the qi made its way to the wound, Wuxian felt a wondrous sensation. It was comfortably warm, a sort of pulsing feeling that was accompanied by itchy undertones, as if his body was fixing itself on the double.

And it was. Just merely half an hour later, he could feel that he'd been completely healed. Only, he was also very hungry- nothing a fasting pill couldn't fix though.

After finishing a few circulations of the Natural Spirit Blood technique, Wuxian cancelled it, withdrawing the main bulk of the qi back into his meridian network and then out of his body.

There were still many remnants of modified wood qi within his blood and organs, but this was a necessary part of the mystic art. The body had to be conditioned before it could adapt properly to wood qi.

It was important to note one thing. While Wuxian had stripped the wood qi of poisonous qualities, it was impossible for someone at his level to do so completely. Just, the healing was so significantly greater than the poison that he was not adversely affected.

And this was part of the art's conditioning process. Through continual healing and application of minor poison, the body would soon be capable of withstanding greater concentrations of toxicity.

And if it ever built up to a level he could not handle, he could always manually expel the poison from his body.

'Circulate the healing technique nine times per session. Two sessions per day, three at maximum. Any more than three and one might cause an adverse reaction to the poisonous remnants within the qi.'

Wuxian stood up and circulated the technique once more. As he did so, he picked up the Northern Dark Edge and sliced his palm open, blood spilling out. He winced and cursed himself internally, as he had not realised how sharp the treasure weapon really was.

Regardless, within five seconds, his wound vanished, a green scab taking its place. Scrutinising the scab closely, Wuxian tutted in astonishment.

'It looks just like a piece of mossy tree bark.'