62. The bandits 3/3

Mei Lin stood before him, unmoving, waiting for him to make the first move. The bandit, blinded and in pain, waited as well, relying on sound to detect her movements. Mei Lin slowly crouched to the ground and picked up a cultivation mat. She then threw it behind the bandit.

Hearing the noise, the bandit immediately pulled out a machete from his storage bag and swung it wildly around him, trying to hit anything within reach.

As the bandit swung wildly, Mei Lin seized the opportunity. She rushed forward and drove the machete into the wound left by the crystal knife, pushing it as deep as she could. The machete struck his cultivation dantian, sealing his fate. The bandit, realizing he had no chance of survival, attempted one final swing with his machete. However, Mei Lin was behind him, out of his reach, and his attack hit nothing but air. He collapsed to the ground, defeated.

His hand fell to the ground, and Mei Lin followed suit, collapsing in exhaustion. The tea-house was eerily silent. The stairs to the second floor were destroyed, and the first floor was a wreck. Though the fight had been quick, it was extremely brutal and deadly. Xu Yi lay unconscious from the beating he had endured. Mei Lin, utterly spent, fell asleep where she landed. Xu Jie remained where she had been pinned down in the kitchen, unconscious from the earlier struggle. The once bustling tea-house now lay in a shattered, bloodstained silence.

Not long after, Xu Jie emerged from the kitchen to see how the fight had ended. The silence had worried her. When she arrived, she saw the bloody scene and immediately rushed to Xu Yi, who looked like a bloody corpse. Xu Jie started crying and hurried back to the kitchen for bandages and a needle to stitch his wounds. She was very nervous while stitching because she had never seen him so beaten up.

After stitching all his wounds, she went to check on Mei Lin, who was covered in blood. Xu Jie looked at her with fear and sat next to her, trying to clean her from the blood. As she took some water and started cleaning, Mei Lin suddenly opened her eyes, grabbed Xu Jie's hand, and slammed her to the ground. Xu Jie hadn't expected that and fainted from the impact.

Not long after, Mei Lin realized that it wasn't a bandit but Xu Jie, who was already unconscious. She checked on Xu Yi and Xu Jie, ensuring they were both stable. Then, she started to collect the blood of both bandits. She took out a crystal bottle, poured its contents out, and then went into the kitchen to clean the bottle.

After preparing everything, Mei Lin went to the first dead bandit with a clean piece of cloth to start collecting the blood. Most of it had pooled on the floor. She moved the bandit up the stairs and carefully gathered the blood from the floor, straining and squeezing the cloth to extract every drop. After a meticulous effort, Mei Lin managed to collect nearly two liters of blood.

The blood was soaked into his clothes and had seeped through the floor, so Mei Lin couldn't collect any more from the first bandit. After gathering what she could, Mei Lin moved to the second bandit to claim her reward. She cleared the area around him and pulled out the machete. Placing the bottle against the wound, Mei Lin turned the bandit to the side, allowing the blood to flow into the bottle. It slowly filled up, and soon after, she set the bottle aside, satisfied with the amount she had collected.

Mei Lin collected more than four liters of blood from the two bandits, both at the third stage of BT. After securing the bottle, she took the crystal knife from the bandit's body and added more wood to the fireplace to warm the room. Although winter was ending, snow still covered the ground outside the tea house.

Mei Lin retrieved their storage bags and headed to the kitchen to clean the blood-stained teapot and prepare tea. She mixed the third-stage BT blood with some spirit herbs in the teapot before setting it on the fire. Once the tea was ready, she went to check on Xu Jie and gently woke her up. Xu Jie, initially filled with anger, fell silent as soon as she laid eyes on Mei Lin's bloody visage. Mei Lin, with her crimson-stained hands, red cultivation robe, fiery eyes, and snow-white hair, resembled a blood demon. Xu Jie, overcome with terror, remained speechless.

Mei Lin grabbed her bamboo hat and ascended to the second floor. She settled onto the cultivation mat, pouring herself a cup of tea and taking a sip before easing into a lotus position. It was the first time since reaching the first stage of BT that she entered the cultivation state. Almost instantly, she sensed a profound change. Her blood seemed to pulse with spirit energy, coursing through her veins. Engrossed in this newfound sensation, Mei Lin intensified the circulation of her blood, hoping to expedite the healing of her injuries.

Healing proved to be a slow process, and Mei Lin dedicated the entire day and night to cultivation. By early morning, her external injuries had stabilized, and she emerged from her cultivation state feeling considerably stronger. However, the pain persisted, a constant reminder of her broken ribs. Despite absorbing all the blood from the wound, Mei Lin couldn't even bear to glance at her side due to the excruciating pain.