The remains of the deer lay in a corner of the dark cave, Wei Shen having taken just enough to temporarily sate his hunger. The raw meat, despite its bloody taste and coarse texture, had given his frail body a much-needed surge of energy. The wound in his arm, after being treated with "Dewmoon Leaf" sap, was still painful, but the inflammation seemed to have subsided slightly.
Now, nothing occupied Wei Shen's thoughts except the "Blood-Devouring Stone." That silent, enigmatic object embedded in the cave wall, which had promised him – or so he felt – a different path to power.
"Every part has its use. No room for waste here," Wei Shen muttered to himself as he looked at what was left of the deer's carcass. He wasn't thinking about the meat this time, but about the precious blood still locked within the tissues.
With his primitive tools – the sharpened piece of stone and some pointed twigs he had prepared – he began the process of extracting what blood he could from the deer. It was a slow, messy operation, requiring precision and patience. He collected the blood in a small rock depression he had carefully cleaned for this purpose. The quantity wasn't large, but it seemed sufficient for another experiment, for another offering.
When he finished, he carried the rock depression containing the dark, viscous blood and approached the Blood-Devouring Stone. There was no hesitation in his steps this time, only a cold anticipation of what was to come.
He began to pour the blood slowly onto the smooth surface of the stone.
As before, but with greater intensity this time due to the larger quantity of blood, the stone began to glow crimson red. It wasn't just a faint glimmer, but a deep, vibrant radiance, as if a heart were beating with liquid fire within the rock. Wei Shen felt the heat emanating from the stone increase, and that faint vibration or hum he had sensed before now became more distinct, like a low-frequency thrum that vibrated his bones.
A wave of that dark, primal, aggressive energy flowed from the stone, stronger and more concentrated than the last time. Wei Shen felt the meager Blood Qi in his Dantian react to it, quivering, as if responding to its master's call.
Wei Shen wasted no time. As soon as he sensed the stone had reached its peak activity and the emitted energy was at its strongest, he quickly sat in a meditative posture. This time, he was better prepared.
He closed his eyes and focused all his consciousness on that glowing red energy. He began to apply the primitive Blood Qi art he had gleaned from the stone's whispers. It was no longer just an attempt to attract the energy, but a conscious effort to direct it, to tame it, to integrate it with the faint thread of Blood Qi he had previously formed.
The pain was still there, burning and tearing. The Qi pathways in his body screamed under the pressure of this chaotic energy. But Wei Shen, with a will forged in a life of dominance and merciless conflicts, did not flinch. He met pain with focus, chaos with analysis.
"It must submit," an internal voice screamed in his head. "All power must submit to control, or it is merely destructive chaos that will devour its owner."
He began to feel the thread of Blood Qi in his Dantian responding to the new energy, absorbing it slowly, growing. It wasn't a significant growth; his body and his damaged spiritual root still constituted a formidable bottleneck. But it was real growth.
He felt his Dantian, his energy center, expand very slightly, like a small balloon being slowly inflated. And that single thread of Blood Qi became a little thicker, and more… vibrant, despite its aggressive coldness.
He continued this process for hours, ignoring the hunger that began to resurface and the pain that never left him for a moment. He was completely immersed in this internal struggle, in this dangerous dance with an unknown and demonic power.
When the stone's glow began to gradually fade, signaling that its "fuel" from the deer's blood had been exhausted, Wei Shen stopped cultivating. He was panting, sweat covering his entire body, but there was a different glint in his eyes.
He slowly opened his fist and looked at his hand. He felt that his physical strength had increased slightly. He was no longer that frail body that could barely lift a stone. He was still weak by the standards of the cultivation world, but he was no longer completely helpless.
"The first level of Qi Condensation… has been consolidated," Wei Shen thought coldly, assessing his condition. "And this Blood Qi… has become more controllable, albeit slightly."
He looked at the remains of the deer's carcass, which had now become a dry, horrifyingly shrunken husk, just as had happened to the squirrel before. There was no longer any trace of life in it.
"Still too weak," he muttered in a low voice, his eyes staring into the darkness outside the cave. "More blood. I must find stronger prey. This stone… and this power… demand more."