The blood was way too sticky hard to wash off like crazy.
I had to steal and change clothes.
Staying unknown was priority number one.
Questions being asked? That was a big no for me.
I had tracked and massacred fifty of the Beast Kin.
They were the right hand bandits and executors of the Beast Kin leader.
I fed them whole to the furnace, and they were powerless against it unless they were at least Dantian Genesis.
But all my tools were bloodthirsty.
They could eat all the bad people on earth and still want more.
That would be a problem one day, but for now, I had bigger fish to fry.
Even the 36,000 souls got a little too concerned.
"You're changing. Your aura is getting darker."
"Well, change isn't a bad thing."
"It is when you're changing into a demon. Or what you kill."
The guards looked like they'd been drained of all vitality.
A royal mess waiting to be slaughtered.
They went about their normal activities, not knowing about all the killings and blood.
Well, they wouldn't not with me burning everything without a single piece of evidence left behind.
I ate fast to get the meal over with, thinking of Makena's golden eyes and hair.
I was worried about the immense power inside her like an ancient calamity waiting to be unleashed.
She was becoming powerful and dangerous.
We still hadn't figured out what wanted inside her or how dangerous that was. But we had bigger fish to fry.
The normal shift started again.
Swing, Pick, Drop.
I was absent-minded, thinking about the war room I'd overheard lazy overseers talk about.
Bragging about everything they'd stolen and hoarded.
My interest was peaked. I had to get it one way or another.
I wanted to wait until the ones who actually took their post seriously changed their shift, making way for the lazy ones who didn't have a worry in the world.
They slept. Yawned. Nothing ever happened. Which was true it was all just standard procedure, and nothing really happened for guards to act on.
I was happy since it made my stealing stressless and easy. I just had to find where the treasure vault was chilling.
Luckily, the system helped me find it behind a false wall with a sequence to open it.
It was behind the head overseer's office.
I'd studied and watched him enough to know the patterns and the exact timing to make sure I didn't trigger any alarms or security systems.
Iron doors with an old, predictable lock if you were smart.
The room was cramped but a little too big for a mere head overseer who reported to the warden.
But he knew how to turn a little space luxurious and in great shape.
Scrolls. Crystals. Weapons. Manuals.
I made no exception. Got greedy and stuffed everything in.
I found ten million spirit stones and put them all in my pocket dimension.
Since I wasn't a cultivator, suspecting me of stealing and putting it in a pocket space of a billion kilometers with a small crystal piercing would sound like a bad joke.
I found two interesting manuals:
Gold Body Tempering Manual: Promised skin as hard as gold metal.
Diamond Body Tempering Manual: Had words that seemed to have life of their own, glowing like cute crystallized diamonds.
Promised unbreakable bones two tiers higher than the user's current cultivation.
Could crush millions or billions of other cultivators at the same level.
I found an old parchment an ancient map showing tunnels below the mines, an entire sector we were in, leading to a place named the Blood Quarters.
I got curious and unfolded it. Blood Bending Techniques from Pulse Awakening to Meridian Level.
I put it all in my pocket dimension.
The system chimed in, breaking my thought process.
[System Notification: Harvest Requirements Detected]
[To unlock Gold Body Tempering: 500 Pulse Awakener Hearts]
[To unlock Diamond Body Tempering: 1,000 Pulse Awakener Hearts]
[To unlock Blood Bending Foundation: 20,000 Pulse Awakener Hearts + 50 Meridian Hearts (or more). More makes your bloodbending more powerful at same tiers and two tiers higher. Might attract more Meridian guards with the killing spree I'm sending you on.]
[CURRENT PROGRESS]
Pulse Awakener Hearts: 600/10,000
Meridian Hearts: 15/1,000
[System has made a crafting list based on available materials]
CRAFTING LIST — FURNACE OUTPUT
Item Materials Needed Current Stock Effect
Strength Elixir (Basic) 10 Beast Hearts 230 +25% physical attack for 1 hour
Speed Elixir (Basic) 10 Scale-Touched Scales 180 +50% movement speed for 1 hour
Defense Pill (Basic) 10 Stone-Skin Cores 150 +50% damage reduction for 1 hour
Invisibility Cloak (Low Grade) 50 Shadow Walker Essences 40 Blend into shadows for 10 minutes daily (23-hour cooldown)
Fire Weapon Coating 20 Flame Born Embers 35 +10 fire damage for 3 strikes (23-hour cooldown)
Ice Weapon Coating 20 Frost-Touched Ice Cores 30 +10 ice damage for 3 strikes (23-hour cooldown)
Venom Dagger 50 Venom Tongue Glands 25 Paralysis effect on hit
Angel Feather Charm 30 Angel Feathers 12 Healing boost when equipped
Demon Horn Amulet 30 Demon Horns 8 Fear aura when equipped
Beast King's Core Weapon 1 Beast King's Core + 500 Beast Hearts 230/500 Meridian Level 10 weapon (pending)
Below Dantian Genesis, the furnace could make anything but had high-level requirements for ingredients. And I needed a whole identity to throw everyone off.
"System, can you make an attire so I look like the young lord the son of Chen Ping? So in the end, it looks like him going on a crazy killing spree?"
"I love how you think.
Kill all evil leaders of the thirteen races and you get yourself the perfect cover of a spoiled young brat.
And you get to shower and bathe clean as if you're not a slave.
You just have to take all their treasure.
They have valuable treasure at Meridian and Pulse Awakener level and I sense a rare Chakra Bloom Level 10 treasure."
"Thanks. You're the best. I have to go attend to Makena."
Getting to the room, I saw her practicing relentlessly. She was getting better. Way too fast.
"Well, I found something to make you happy."
"Really? What is it?"
"The Gold and Diamond Body Tempering manuals. And here see this map to the Blood Quarters. And look, this is a Blood Bending Manual up to Chakra Dantian Genesis tier."
"How many have you killed?"
"Six hundred for Pulse Awakening. Fifteen for Meridian."
"I have a feeling you need thousands. Or tens of thousands."
"I need ten thousand Pulse Awakener and one thousand Meridian. Plus Blood Bending Techniques at Foundation level."
"Get back to your hunt. I'll continue practicing."
After changing into Liu Ping Chen Ping's son.
I went on a crazy killing spree.
I killed three hundred from all the races. The furnace was just too hungry for more.
Then my system started spamming me with messages.
[Beast Heart acquired.]
[Scale acquired.]
[Stone Core acquired.]
[Shadow Essence acquired.]
[Ember acquired.]
[Ice Core acquired.]
My whole body went into emergency panic mode. I'd pushed myself above its limits. But luckily, the numbers moved up like crazy.
[Pulse Awakener Hearts: 1,200/10,000]
[Meridian Hearts: 25/1,000]
[Gold Body Tempering: UNLOCKED]
[Diamond Body Tempering: 200/1,000]
[Blood Bending Foundation: 1,200/2,000 Pulse + 25/50 Meridian]
HARVEST PROGRESS TRACKER
Category Current Goal
Pulse Awakener Hearts 1,200 10,000
Meridian Hearts 25 1,000
Gold Body Tempering UNLOCKED -
Diamond Body Tempering 200/1,000 UNLOCKED
Blood Bending Foundation 1,200/2,000 Pulse + 25/50 Meridian UNLOCKED
CRAFTING MATERIALS STOCKPILE
Material Current
Beast Hearts 400
Scale-Touched Scales 250
Stone-Skin Cores 200
Shadow Walker Essences 80
Flame Born Embers 70
Frost-Touched Ice Cores 60
Venom Tongue Glands 45
Angel Feathers 20
Demon Horns 15
"At this rate, I'll have a cell named after me in every realm."
Makena laughed. She thought I was joking.
I wasn't.