Chapter 117: Blood Drawing_1
Mo Hua was startled for a moment, then asked Bai Zixi, “Is the Blood Drawing Art difficult to learn…”
Bai Zixi shook his head, “It’s not difficult to learn, but it’s hard to use.”
“Blood Drawing Art is a simplified Divine Sense Manipulation that can attract Monster Blood with Divine Sense. Divine Sense Manipulation is an ability of Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage. Although Qi Refinement Cultivators can barely use it, they can’t do it remotely, and it also consumes a lot of Divine Sense,” explained Bai Zixi.
If it was only a matter of Divine Sense consumption, Mo Hua wasn’t afraid. After all, neither his Spiritual Root nor his Body Refinement were anything to write home about—he only had a bit of an advantage in Divine Sense.
Mo Hua looked at Bai Zixi with his pair of glossy black, spirited eyes, full of expectation.
Bai Zixi understood, sighed lightly, and then took out a book from the Phoenix Pattern Storage Bag.
On the book cover was written “Blood Drawing Art”.
“Blood Drawing is quite arduous and drains a lot of Divine Sense. Most cultivators wouldn’t bother to learn it. Be careful,” Bai Zixi said.
“Got it!” Mo Hua replied happily.
Then, he took out a rosewood food box from his own Storage Bag. Inside the box were several pieces of Emerald Cake and a pot of pear blossom brew.
The Emerald Cake was sweet, the pear blossom brew was refreshingly sweet; mixed together, they emitted a rich fragrance.
“My mom just made this, try some,” he said.
Bai Zixi was taken aback for a moment, his lips curved slightly upwards, and without being polite to Mo Hua, he delicately picked up a piece of Emerald Cake and nibbled on it.
Perhaps because it tasted good, his clear eyes slightly narrowed.
Bai Zisheng smelled the aroma and abruptly sat up, sniffed a few times, and looked toward Mo Hua:
“What about mine?” he asked.
“Weren’t you suffering from a headache?” Mo Hua replied.
“It’s gone now,” Bai Zisheng said.
“You should rest a bit more.”
“I’ll rest after I eat.”
Mo Hua shook his head and also took out a dish of beef for him.
“This was cooked with a spicy seasoning; it will taste even hotter.”
Bai Zisheng picked up several slices of meat and stuffed them into his mouth all at once, immediately huffed, “So spicy!”
After chewing a few bites, he nodded, “Tasty!”
While saying it was spicy yet delicious, Bai Zisheng quickly finished the plate of beef. Only then did he say,
“What did you want to ask just now?”
“I’ve finished asking.”
“I can’t just eat your food for free. Think of something else to ask!” Bai Zisheng insisted.
Mo Hua thought for a moment and then asked,
“The Blood Drawing Art is a simplified Divine Sense Manipulation… So, what exactly is Divine Sense Manipulation?”
Bai Zisheng looked puzzled, “You don’t know about Divine Sense Manipulation? Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage all know it.”
“I’m a Qi Refinement Cultivator, wouldn’t it be normal for me not to know the abilities of those at the Foundation Establishment Stage?” said Mo Hua.
Unable to find a rebuttal, Bai Zisheng nodded and explained,
“Divine Sense Manipulation is essentially using Divine Sense to remotely control objects, like these small stone tables and stools. You can move them with your Divine Sense from a distance.”
“That doesn’t seem like such a big deal…”
“How could it not be a big deal?” snorted Bai Zisheng, “Controlling tables and stools might not be, but you can control swords! Just think, Divine Sense Sword Control! From far away, with a thought of Divine Thought, a sword flies out and kills the enemy miles away! Isn’t that impressive?”
“Really, miles away?”
Bai Zisheng gave him a look of exasperation, “Are you just arguing for the sake of arguing?”
“A Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage couldn’t possibly project their Divine Sense miles away, could they?” Mo Hua said pragmatically.
Bai Zisheng had to admit, “Well… being capable of ten or a hundred miles is already quite good.”
Mo Hua had an expression of “just as I thought.”
“Tao Cultivation must be rigorous. A miss by a millimeter is as good as a kilometer. If you don’t calculate precisely, you could very easily lose your life in a duel,” said Mo Hua with a serious face.
“Besides, your thousand-mile Sword Control is nearly ten to a hundred times off from the actual situation. With such a huge discrepancy, if you were to really fight, you’d definitely be done for!” Mo Hua added.
Bai Zisheng helplessly said, “Divine Sense Manipulation with a sword, aren’t you excited?”
“Sword Weapons are so expensive, I can’t afford them, what’s the use of being excited…” Mo Hua pragmatically said.
After thinking for a moment, Mo Hua asked Bai Zisheng, “You practice Body Cultivation, right?”
“Do Body Cultivators also control swords?”
“Generally… they do not control swords.”
“If you can’t control swords either, what are you excited about?” asked Mo Hua.
Bai Zisheng took a deep breath, a sense of powerlessness welling up in his heart.
He lay down on the ground, looking up at Mo Hua and said earnestly,
“Mo Hua, someday, someone in this world will be talked to death by you!”
Mo Hua looked confused, “How could that be? After all, everyone is a Cultivator with a tough Taoist Heart. How could someone be talked to death by a few words?”
“Rest assured, there will be!” Bai Zisheng declared confidently.
After parting with the Bai siblings, Mo Hua returned home and started to learn the Blood Drawing Art.
The Blood Drawing Art wasn’t so much a Spell, nor could it truly be counted as a secret technique. It was more akin to a Tao Cultivation Skill like herb picking, mining, or Spirit Plant cultivation.
Some Cultivators relied on this skill to extract the fresh Monster Blood, selling it to merchants or other Cultivators who needed Monster Blood.
The process of Blood Drawing was not difficult, but it was burdensome on the Divine Sense and also rather laborious.
Blood-Drawing Cultivators were similar to those who toiled at the Spiritual Transport Wharf, moving goods through Body Cultivation, except these used their physical strength to move goods, whereas Blood Drawing employed Divine Sense to transport Monster Blood.
Physical strength could recover quickly, but Divine Sense did not, so the amount of Monster Blood that could be extracted by a Cultivator each day was limited, leading to modest profits. At least near Tongxian City, there weren’t many Cultivators proficient in the Blood Drawing Art.
Mo Hua guessed that some Cultivators in various state boundaries could extract large amounts of Monster Blood and make a living by doing so; otherwise, due to its rarity, the Spiritual Ink used by Formation Masters would become much more expensive.
But this was just speculation. With limited experience in the Cultivation World, Mo Hua couldn’t be sure.
The Blood Drawing Art wasn’t difficult to learn. Following the instructions in the manual, Mo Hua learned it after going through it a few times.
As Bai Zixi said, the Blood Drawing Art was a simplified version of Divine Sense Manipulation, but this Manipulation couldn’t take place through the air. Instead, one had to place their palm against the Monster Beasts’ fur, sense the flow of Monster Blood, and then use Divine Sense to control it, drawing it out from the Monsters’ bloodstream.
In Tongxian City, there were no living or freshly dead Monster Beasts for Mo Hua to practice the Blood Drawing Art on.
Mo Hua had no choice but to ask Mo Shan to cut a piece of hide from a Wild Cattle Monster and pour water on it, then, through the hide, he used his Divine Sense to guide the flow of water.
Although this differed greatly from the actual Blood Drawing Art, it was better than nothing.
Mo Hua practiced a few times in reality and soon mastered the technique.
The biggest problem, however, was that even though he learned the Blood Drawing Art, there were no Monster Beasts for Mo Hua to extract Monster Blood from.
Without Monster Blood, he could not prepare Spiritual Ink. The scarcity of Spiritual Ink remained unsolved.
After several days of thought, Mo Hua came up with only one solution:
Go into the mountains to hunt monsters!
Find a way to enter Big Black Mountain, slay the Monster Beasts, then while they are freshly dead and their blood has not yet clotted, extract the vibrant Monster Blood directly from their veins.
This was the only way to stably and abundantly acquire Monster Blood.
Mo Hua looked up: his gaze passed the houses and streets of Tongxian City and rested upon the dark, profound Big Black Mountain in the distance.
The mountain ranges were treacherous, brimming with poison and miasma, shrouded in mist, and pervaded with Monster Qi.
It was the dwelling place of formidable Demonic Creatures and also where countless Monster Hunters from Tongxian City had sought their livelihoods or met their end over thousands of years…