Tale of an Ordinary Cultivator

“Greetings, Senior Martial Sister Pan,” Zhao Yunxiao greeted with a smile of his own, happy to see a familiar face.

Pan Feifei.

While she was an outer disciple just like Zhao Yunxiao, Pan Feifei was at least ten years his senior and well known as an experienced assessor at the Sect Market.

Of course, her age was not apparent at all since just like many other cultivators, her looks remained as youthful as when she was in her early twenties.

She might not be drop dead gorgeous, but the demure and graceful way in which she carried herself gave off an inexplicable sense of attraction.

In fact, there were many young disciples who frequented to the Sect Market in hope of bumping into her!

“So, what do you have for me today?” Pan Feifei asked as she approached.

As the official hub for all trade within the sect, the Sect Market did not only provide a place for people to purchase items.

In addition to that, it was also the go-to place for people to sell their goods as well.

And that was exactly why Zhao Yunxiao was here today.

For that purpose, the Sect Market had experienced disciples like Pan Feifei working as assessors to determine the value of the items to be sold.

If the seller was unhappy with the assessment, they could choose not to sell their items or even go to another assessor for a second opinion.

Of course, the assessors were still disciples after all, and would not know the value of every item in the world.

Should they encounter a situation where they had no idea what the value of an item was, that was when they could invite the seniors in the Sect Market to take a look.

Still, such a situation rarely happened, especially when dealing with outer disciples like Zhao Yunxiao.

Pan Feifei walked over and met Zhao Yunxiao in the middle of the room, her gaze inevitably falling upon the pushcart in front of him.

Still, she knew better than to lift the cloth cover herself.

After all, you never knew what was lying beneath.

“Nightspirit rat carcasses, all cut up and divided into individual parts,” Zhao Yunxiao introduced his goods while removing the cloth cover.

“Is it possible to take them out and let me have a look?” Pan Feifei asked politely while gesturing to a wide table at the side of the room.

“Of course,” Zhao Yunxiao understood that it was a standard part of the process, and naturally did not refuse.

He pushed his cart over and started picking up item by item, laying them out on the wide table in an organised manner.

Once he was done, Pan Feifei immediately got to work.

“The flesh is one day old but has retained its freshness, likely due to the cold weather. Lucky you.”

“The hide is quite cleanly removed, but there are some uneven parts here, and here, and here as well. There are obvious tear marks in multiple spots too, you should have been more careful when killing this thing.”

“What happened to the brain? Why is it smashed like this?”

“Okay, I confirmed that the blood is not contaminated or diluted. Let me just weigh it to see how much this is...”

Despite the many comments and questions, Zhao Yunxiao simply stood silently by the side without responding, even when it sounded like Pan Feifei was asking questions.

This was not his first time dealing with Pan Feifei, and he had learnt over the years that she was simply mumbling to herself and not really asking him anything.

He would only break her concentration if he were to respond to any of her statements, not only causing her to be impatient but also unnecessarily prolong the assessment process.

Zhao Yunxiao knew better than to sabotage himself like that.

As an assessor of the Sect Market, and an experienced one at that, Pan Feifei was well-versed in identifying the value of goods.

Before long, she had already come up with an exact number for Zhao Yunxiao.

“So that adds up to 224 sect points. Seeing that you are a Silver member here, I will give you a better rate at 250 sect points. How’s that?” Pan Feifei quickly calculated in her head. “I’m sure you already know this, but it is my job to say it anyway – if you want to go for the auction route, the administrative fee will be 50 sect points or five percent of the auction fees for every month that we hold the goods for, whichever is higher. That said, I will recommend doing the direct market sale instead.”

“Sure, I will sell everything to the market,” Zhao Yunxiao did not need to think twice.

Had it been another assessor, Zhao Yunxiao might have tried to bargain a little. However, he knew that Pan Feifei was not one to budge on her determined prices.

As for why he chose not to go the auction route, that was because nightspirit rat carcasses were not high in demand whatsoever.

It would be good if he got lucky and managed to find generous bidders immediately after putting it up for auction. But if he did not, this monthly recurring 50 sect points administrative fee would burn a hole in his wallet.

Not just that, but the condition of the carcass would deteriorate after some time. Even if he wanted to do a direct market sale then, the offer would surely be lower than the current one.

This meant that his loss would be far more than those 50 sect points!

Rather than putting himself through all that, Zhao Yunxiao very much preferred to secure the sect points right now.

“Good choice. Is there anything else?” Pan Feifei asked with her usual business smile.

Zhao Yunxiao shook his head in response.

“Then I will thank you for your business once again, Junior Martial Brother Zhao,” Pan Feifei wrote a receipt and passed it to Zhao Yunxiao. “You can claim it at the front counter. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you where it is.”

“Got it, thank you for the help, Senior Martial Sister Pan!”

“I hope to see you again soon! The Sect Market always welcome you!”

Zhao Yunxiao left the room with his pushcart in tow, the latter being much lighter now that he had offloaded the goods.

Claiming the sect points was a straightforward process so before long, Zhao Yunxiao was already back at his residence.

It had been a productive trip to the Sect Market, but he was not quite done for the day just yet.

Among the chests in his house, there was one in a corner that was slightly special.

As opposed to the rest, it actually relied on simple arrays to give it a special boost, making it a storage device that possessed a rare preservative effect.

This meant that things that were stored within would have a much longer shelf life.

An apple might start to degrade after a week or so when left in the open, but it would take multiple times that duration should it be stored in this special chest instead.

That said, the resources required to maintain the array made it an expensive investment, especially for an outer disciple like Zhao Yunxiao.

However, it was an investment that he deemed necessary.

Zhao Yunxiao retrieved a small waterskin from this special chest and walked over to a counter, carefully pouring the bright red liquid within out into a small bowl.

Pan Feifei would have instantly recognised this red liquid had she been here, as it was the exact same thing that Zhao Yunxiao had sold to her earlier.

This was the blood of the nightspirit rats.

While Zhao Yunxiao had sold most of the remains of the nightspirit rats to the Sect Market, he made sure to keep a small portion of it as well.

After all, there were many uses for the remains of the nightspirit rats.

When the bowl was about a quarter filled with nightspirit rat blood, Zhao Yunxiao put away the waterskin before raising a small knife to his thumb.

Slice-!

Drop by drop, fresh human blood was slowly introduced to the contents of the bowl.

When put together like that, it became obvious just how different the two types of blood were.

The blood from the nightspirit rat was a darker red, and much more viscous in comparison to his own.

Even though both liquids were blood, they were obviously immiscible and remained as two separate parts despite being placed in the same bowl.

Zhao Yunxiao stopped adding his own blood after several drops, and promptly patched up the small cut on his thumb.

His eyes then turned serious, knowing that the next step was the crucial one.

Positioning his hands not far away from the bowl as if he was about to pick it up, Zhao Yunxiao started channelling essence energy from his dantian to both of his hands.

Essence energy gathered at his hands before forming into narrow threads of energy that reached towards the small bowl.

There were at least dozens of these threads coming from either of his hands, each containing a gentle wisp of essence energy that was eventually passed into the bowl of blood.

Slowly but surely, the mixture in the bowl started to rotate, moving in a clockwise manner as though it was being stirred by an invisible spoon.

Zhao Yunxiao was extremely focused, taking extra care not to overdo it.

He understood that control was key here.

The process could neither be too fast nor too slow. Otherwise, this experiment would only result in failure.

As the mixture continued to rotate within the small bowl, the few drops of blood from Zhao Yunxiao started to disappear, slowly assimilated into the mixture.

Sizzle-!

Bubbles rapidly formed at the surface of the mixture, each of them bursting into thick vapour that made it such that the contents were suddenly no longer visible to the naked eye.

And then it suddenly stopped – both the sizzling of the mixture and the creation of the vapour.

All that was left was a dark red liquid that remained in the small bowl, rotating at the same speed as before.

Huu-!

Zhao Yunxiao retracted his hands and wiped away the sweat that dotted his forehead.

This was an experiment for which he had little hopes for success in the first place. Yet despite having expected as much, he still could not help but let out a sigh of disappointment when faced with the final result.

Having spent years in the Black Tortoise Sect, Zhao Yunxiao had come to accept his own level of talent.

While he was not completely incorrigible, what he had was nothing as compared to the true geniuses.

It was a decent level of talent that would allow him to lead a comfortable life with the safe haven that was the Black Tortoise Sect. After a thousand years of cultivation, he should be able to gain enough strength to travel freely around the world without fearing too much for his own safety.

Freedom.

That was the only goal he had set for himself.

It was not a lofty goal like conquering the firmaments and might even take a long time to achieve. But knowing his limits, Zhao Yunxiao decided that this was the most logical and attainable goal.

Still, knowing one’s limits was one thing.

Despite that, who would not dream of achieving more than what they felt they were capable of?

Zhao Yunxiao definitely did.

He had never stopped dreaming about possessing a greater cultivation talent, such that he could obtain his goal of freedom without having to go through a thousand years of cultivation.

And this blood experiment was one of the methods he had thought of in pursuit of that dream.

In this world, there were many cultivators who possessed special bloodlines, for example having a trace of the bloodlines of powerful spirit beasts or monsters.

In this world, there were many cultivators who possessed special bloodlines.

These special bloodlines could be hereditary in nature, or they could be forcibly extracted and assimilated from foreign sources such powerful spirit beasts or monsters.

Regardless of how these bloodlines were obtained, most cultivators who possessed special bloodlines would also possess an advantage in certain aspect.

Greater strength.

Enhanced stamina.

Tougher skin.

Or even special attributes such as faster cultivation rate.

These were examples of advantages that could come along with the possession of a special bloodline.

Seeing as that was the case, Zhao Yunxiao naturally yearned for a special bloodline of his own as well.

Inheriting a special bloodline was out of the question by now, but the active assimilation of one was still possible for him!

Unfortunately, just wanting to possess a special bloodline did not mean it was possible.

Similar to how there were advantages to possessing a special bloodline, there could be potential disadvantages as well.

In exchange for powerful attributes, certain bloodlines could result in negative traits such as poor sight or a reduced lifespan.

And in extreme cases where the cultivator was unable to properly assimilate the foreign bloodline that had been introduced to the body, the consequences could be as terrible as loss of mind or even death!

Thus, one had to be absolutely sure of what they were doing before actually going ahead with the assimilation of a foreign bloodline.

This blood experiment by Zhao Yunxiao was exactly that – him doing his due diligence.

Through an activation of the blood using essence energy, the nightspirit rat blood appeared to have completely overpowered his own, reducing his own blood to nothingness in a matter of seconds!

With a result like that, there was no longer a need to even look into the possible pros and cons that could come about from assimilating the nightspirit rat blood.

Zhao Yunxiao opened up a scroll that was filled with words, all of them names of different creatures that he had successfully hunted in the past.

Dipping a brush into the bowl of blood to use it as ink, he wrote down the words ‘Nightspirit rat’ in the scroll before drawing a cross next to it.