Chapter 38 - 31: Monster
BUZZ!
Deep within the sewers.
The Mosquito Avatar shot upward like an invisible black bolt of lightning, scaling the intricate network of pipes at breakneck speed.
The city’s vast subterranean network provided it with countless secret passages to the surface.
It deftly avoided any potential thermal imaging scans from monitoring nodes, weaving nimbly through the system.
The closer it got to the surface, the more intense the thick, metallic, and sickeningly sweet stench in the air became.
Finally, it slipped out through the gap in a hidden storm drain, completely exposed beneath the crimson sky.
The sight that greeted him made Lin Yi gasp, even though he had been mentally prepared.
The entire world was steeped in a nauseating shade of blood-red.
A torrential rain of blood poured down, pooling on the ground to form viscous, churning crimson marshes.
And right in the middle of these marshes, countless twisted, hideous, and terrifying monsters were being continuously birthed!
Some resembled giant, flayed lizards covered in slick, dark-red fascia, their sharp claws scraping the ground with a deafening noise; others were masses of flesh formed from countless entangled, rotting tentacles, writhing and splitting erratically; still others looked like insects magnified a thousand times over, their carapaces glinting with a bloody light, corrosive saliva dripping from their opening and closing mouthparts...
Their auras were savage, and their numbers were as vast as the tide!
"Now’s my chance!"
A cold glint flashed in Lin Yi’s eyes as he locked onto a monster that had just struggled to its feet from a pool of blood, the one closest to the storm drain.
The monster was a stooped humanoid, its skin looking as if it had been scorched by lava, covered in charred cracks and writhing, dark-red veins. Its arms had mutated into enormous bone scythes.
The [Concealment] skill was constantly active!
Perfect Demon Qi suppression, along with the visual deception granted by its optical camouflage, allowed it to meld almost completely into the crimson downpour, making it utterly undetectable!
Like an invisible Ghost, it lunged precisely at the side of the monster’s exposed neck, which radiated a scorching heat!
SHLICK!
Its proboscis, as tough as alloy, viciously pierced the resilient, searing-hot skin!
[Blood Sucking] Skill—activated!
’Success!’
A violent, scorching torrent of Qi and Blood instantly surged through the mystical link between the Mosquito Avatar and his main body, pouring into Lin Yi!
[Qi and Blood +0.05!]
[Qi and Blood +0.05!]
[...]
The notifications rang in Lin Yi’s mind like a frantic drumbeat!
’Excellent!’
’It really works!’
This essence of Qi and Blood from the monster was far more potent and wild than the blood of an ordinary Martial Artist or even a First-Grade Demon Beast!
The energy concentration within was extremely high, far surpassing the gentle Qi and Blood converted from a Bone Tempering Pill, but it also carried a primal, chaotic impact!
"Urk!"
Lin Yi, who was sitting cross-legged in a corner of the shelter, suddenly jolted!
His tightly shut eyelids twitched violently, his face flushed an unnatural crimson, and veins bulged on his forehead!
An indescribable scorching heat rose from his Dantian and instantly swept through his body, as if lava were coursing through his veins!
This sudden, violent fluctuation in his Qi and Blood was so turbulent that his entire aura fell into a subtle state of disarray, and the very air around him seemed to warp slightly.
"Lin Yi?" Luo Qian, who was next to him flipping through *An Analysis of Pre-Qin Calligraphy*, sharply sensed something was wrong with his friend. He turned his head in confusion. "What’s wrong? Your face is so red! Do you have a fever?"
Luo Qian reached out to touch his forehead. "This damn place is so stuffy and damp. Don’t tell me you’ve caught a cold..."
"Don’t touch me!" Lin Yi snapped, his voice hoarse and laced with a forcibly suppressed tremor.
His body tensed like a fully drawn bowstring. "I... I’m fine! I just... hit a small snag in my cultivation. I’ll be fine once I regulate my breath!"
With that, he hurriedly began to circulate his Bone Tempering Skill at top speed, attempting to mask the turbulent torrent of Qi and Blood while desperately guiding the violent monster energy to impact the rib he was currently refining!
However, the torrent of Qi and Blood being sent back from the Mosquito Avatar was simply too immense!
At his current cultivation speed, even pushing his body to its limits with the Bone Tempering Skill, he could only manage the refinement of 3.0 units of Qi and Blood every ten minutes, advancing his Bone Tempering progress by 1%.
But the Qi and Blood contained within the monsters born from the blood rain was practically boundless!
The amount the Mosquito Avatar devoured and absorbed in a mere ten minutes far, far exceeded the 3.0-unit limit!
This meant that Lin Yi’s main body was completely unable to digest the immense energy being fed back to it.
His body couldn’t retain the excess Qi and Blood at all.
In the end, the excess Qi and Blood, with nowhere to go, began to forcibly seep out from the pores and acupoints all over his body in fine wisps, vaporizing into the air.
In an instant, it had condensed on the surface of his seated body, forming a thick, viscous, and eerily churning crimson mist, as if he were draped in a flowing, scarlet cloak of blood!
This scene appeared with abrupt and horrifying suddenness inside the shelter.
Upon seeing this, the students, who were already on edge and uneasy due to the appearance of the Red Moon, were all momentarily stunned.
Every gaze snapped to focus on Lin Yi, and the air seemed to freeze.
"Lin Yi... what’s happening to him?" a girl asked, her voice trembling.
"God! He’s giving off a blood mist?! Is he injured?" a boy beside her exclaimed, his voice rising in terror.
"It looks like he’s in the middle of cultivation, right?" someone asked, confused.
"At a time like this... with the Red Moon overhead and monsters on the rampage, he can still calm his mind enough to focus on his Bone Tempering cultivation? Not only is his talent astonishing, but that willpower and diligence..." Another voice was filled with disbelief and a deep sense of frustration. "How are we ever supposed to catch up to him?!"
"Something’s not right! That blood mist... he hasn’t pushed himself too hard in his cultivation and suffered a qi deviation, has he?" someone else warned worriedly. "Should we get a teacher to come have a look? We can’t let something terrible happen to him!"
The hushed and nervous murmurs buzzed around, their gazes filled with curiosity, concern, and a subtle, underlying dread.
Lin Yi was keenly aware of all this.
He forcibly suppressed the roiling surge of Qi and Blood within him and quickly looked over at Luo Qian. His voice was low, tinged with a deliberately fabricated weakness and exhaustion.
"Luo! I just took a special... Bone Tempering Potion, and the medicinal power is too strong! I have to focus on guiding it right now and can’t be distracted at all! Be my Guardian. Keep everyone away from me, and don’t let them get close or disturb me!"
Upon hearing this, Luo Qian didn’t hesitate for a second. With a sharp SNAP, he slammed his book shut, his expression instantly turning dead serious.
He looked Lin Yi straight in the eye, nodded firmly, and promised unequivocally:
"Got it! Lin, you just focus on your cultivation! As long as I’m here, no one’s getting near you to disturb you, even if the sky itself comes crashing down!"
Before his words had even faded, he shot to his feet and strode over to stand about ten feet in front of Lin Yi, immovable as an iron tower.
His eyes were sharp, warily scanning their surroundings.
When the other students heard that Lin Yi had merely taken a special potion and wasn’t suffering from the cultivation deviation they had imagined, their desire to gawk and their sense of worry faded considerably.
One by one, they averted their gazes and paid him no more mind.
The surrounding disturbance finally subsided.
With his mind at ease, Lin Yi immediately focused inward, sinking all of his consciousness into his body.
He guided the ceaseless, surging torrent of violent Qi and Blood, continuing the refinement of the rib bone!
Previously, a lack of resources had forced his Bone Tempering progress to a halt.
But now, the Qi and Blood from the Mosquito Avatar... there was just too much of it!
It was massive! Overwhelming! Endless!
He couldn’t use it all!
He simply couldn’t use it all!