Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World
Chapter 153 - 53 Blood Symbol

Chapter 153: Chapter 53 Blood Symbol

Zheng Fa is not some bloodthirsty psychopath.

At least, he doesn’t believe himself to be one.

The reason why he is interested in this person’s blood is because of a discovery—he found that this person’s blood actually contains Spirit Talismans!

When Master Pang’s lineage disciples brought him back, the person was at death’s door, and would have been buried had it not been for a faint warmth remaining in his chest.

When Zheng Fa saw him, the man’s limbs were cold and stiff, his breathing weak to the point of being nearly inaudible, with dark red blood trickling from his lips.

Zheng Fa had hesitated over whether to save this person or not.

Although he sounded somewhat foolish from the Shopkeeper’s description,

this man was a disciple of the Great Freedom Demon Sect. Not to mention whether his words to the Shopkeeper were sincere or deceptive.

Even if the man foolishly favored the Jiushan Sect,

with the Demon Ancestor’s control over his descendants, Zheng Fa could not be entirely at ease.

His fellow senior disciples brought him back, actually looking to possibly extract information from him—talk of goodwill was not something even Zheng Fa, someone educated in modern times, dared consider for a member of the Demon Sect.

The man had been placed in a remote cabin away from Jiushan Sect’s core, with many Spirit Talismans affixed to him and around the room.

Until two days ago.

At that time, the man was still unconscious.

While Zheng Fa was cultivating the Void Spirit Eye following Master Pang’s Secret Technique, he unintentionally noticed the blood at the corner of the man’s mouth—and discovered a pleasant surprise.

Some vague Spirit Talismans were present in the man’s blood!

Cultivators all have Spiritual Power in their bodies.

But for Jiushan Sect cultivators like Zheng Fa, the Spiritual Power in their bodies is scattered and only forms a certain pattern when deliberately cultivated.

Yet, the Spiritual Power in this man’s blood seemed to circulate naturally following the tracks of a Spirit Talisman—

No.

That wasn’t a Spirit Talisman.

Zheng Fa observed for several days before confirming that the talismanic diagrams in the man’s blood were different from those in the void.

If analyzed by the law of the Three Child Talismans—

The Five Elements Child Talisman’s part of both types of diagrams was completely identical.

But the distinctions between the other two unknown categories of Sub-talismans were quite significant.

The main differences lay in the quantity and kind.

If the two unrevealed categories of Sub-talismans were labeled as Type A and B.

The blood’s talismanic diagrams had far fewer kinds of Type A Sub-talismans.

Type B had even fewer—only two kinds!

And every talismanic diagram in his blood necessarily contained these two Sub-talismans.

This discovery made Zheng Fa immensely interested in this man’s blood.

He speculated that it might be somewhat related to the essence of the Demon Sect’s Cultivation Technique.

Zheng Fa found it slightly frustrating that once removed from the body, the Spirit Talismans in the blood would dissipate within half an hour—forcing him to draw a little blood every day.

To maintain the blood supply, he also applied a few healing Spirit Talismans on the man.

He wasn’t sure if it was because his Spirit Talismans worked too well, or if the man’s will to survive was particularly strong,

but the man actually awakened!

...

When the young man woke up again, he saw Zheng Fa looking at him intently, accompanied by Yuan.

"What is your name?"

asked Zheng Fa.

The young man did not move, as if he was reluctant to answer Zheng Fa’s question. It was only after a while that he spoke: "Lin Bufan."

"That’s a good surname, but there’s a problem with your name," Zheng Fa said after a moment of silence, "Remove that ’Bufan,’ and I think you could achieve great things."

"?"

A flicker of confusion appeared on Lin Bufan’s deathly still face.

"Now that you’re awake, you must know that you’re captured by the Jiushan Sect," Zheng Fa spoke as he and Yuan sought to get some information from this person: "What’s your true intention behind coming to the Jiushan Sect with another person?"

"That person, what happened to him?" Lin Bufan’s expression suddenly became agitated.

"Dead."

Zheng Fa and Yuan exchanged a look, realizing that Lin Bufan had some connection to the dead man.

"Dead..." Lin Bufan’s gaze darkened, yet showed no sign of sorrow, as if he had already anticipated this answer: "Then he..."

"He was cremated and buried," Zheng Fa honestly said.

This was his own strong recommendation—keeping the corpse was not secure enough for Zheng Fa.

"We buried him beside the riverbank where he died."

"Cremated..." Lin Bufan remained silent for a long while before sighing: "Well... at least his body wasn’t left in the wilderness."

"What do you want to ask?" Lin Bufan looked up at Zheng Fa, seeming somewhat willing to cooperate.

"Why are you focused on me?"

"It’s not just you. We would take our chance with any geniuses of the Hundred Immortals Alliance," Lin Bufan paused before continuing: "Including that Zhang Wuyi."

"Zhang?"

Zheng Fa was shocked. This group had infiltrated the Jiushan Sect just as Zhang had left.

This was clearly no impulsive decision but premeditated.

"So your target is Zhang?"

He abruptly stood up, his voice tinged with anxiety.

"I don’t know," Lin Bufan said directly: "I don’t have a high position within the sacred... Demon Sect, and the matters involving Zhang Wuyi are beyond my scope."

"What I can tell you is that someone is definitely targeting Zhang Wuyi," Lin Bufan’s voice suddenly carried a hint of hatred: "Among them is the person who sent me and my uncle to Jiushan Sect, the same person who wants to kill you!"

"...Uncle?"

"The Great Freedom Demon Sect venerates the Lin surname as if one family, but there have been countless people bearing the Lin surname over the years..." Lin Bufan gazed at the ceiling: "My parents died when I was very young, and my uncle raised me."

Having said that, he seemed unwilling to divulge anything more.

No matter what Zheng Fa and Yuan asked, he either remained silent or professed ignorance.

"As a captive under the Jiushan Sect, do you see the Spirit Talismans on your body? If you use Spiritual Power or leave this room, you will die." Seeing that he was unwilling to share anything, Zheng Fa paused before standing up: "If you think of anything else, let me know."

Zheng Fa left the room in a hurry with Yuan.

Lin Bufan watched the two figures leaving, his eyes flickering with a sharp light.

...

"Junior brother, can we trust what he said?"

"His intentions are not pure, but he definitely didn’t lie about everything." Zheng Fa said while walking, sharing his thoughts: "This man now probably wants to avenge his uncle and is trying to involve us against the person who killed his uncle."

"...Indeed."

This person’s behavior actually did not hide his motive - but on the other hand, the Jiushan Sect couldn’t take this matter lightly.

"Sister, I need to send a message to Zhang and inform her about the situation here." After pondering for a while, Zheng Fa added, "I also need to discuss this with Master."

Yuan nodded in agreement, seemingly prioritizing Zheng Fa’s opinion.

"On another note, sister, you need to keep an eye on this man for me." Zheng Fa glanced back at the room where Lin Bufan was resting: "We know too little about the Demon Sect; I’m exposed while my enemy hides in the shadows. This person has been abandoned, and he probably has second thoughts - there might be other gains to be had."

"Leave it to me!"

Yuan nodded once more.

...

Zheng Fa mulled over the talismanic diagrams obtained from Lin Bufan’s blood, comparing them with the diagrams he had learned before.

The Three Child Talismans theorem was imperfect.

Among the three types of Sub-talismans, the Five Elements Child Talisman was the clearest and easiest to categorize.

The other two types of Sub-talismans, both in quantity and function, were extremely vague.

Yet the Spirit Talismans in Lin Bufan’s blood opened a small window in Zheng Fa’s mind—especially since his blood contained only two types of b-class Sub-talismans.

And both were consistent.

Comparing it with the talismanic diagrams Zheng Fa had studied before,

An even more vital discovery emerged—among the two b-class Sub-talismans found in this person’s blood, one was common in previous diagrams.

But the other one... never seen before!

An idea struck him—this unique Sub-talisman might be one of the core secrets of the Demon Sect’s Cultivation Technique.

And thinking deeper,

Could this Sub-talisman be linked to the Demon Ancestor of the Great Freedom Demon Sect?

Considering this, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but think of the so-called interactive Sub-talisman Tang Lingwu mentioned—could this talisman represent the invisible yet intimate connection between the Demon Sect disciples and the Demon Ancestor?

This thought almost gave truth to the second principle of Tang Family’s talismanic Dao.

Nevertheless, Zheng Fa dared not freely research this, nor did he dare to draw the Sub-talisman.

Who knows if a Demon Ancestor would suddenly appear...

...

"Junior brother!" Li Nuo ran over in a hurry, shouting at Zheng Fa: "I did it! I succeeded!"

"...What did you succeed at?"

Seeing Li Nuo’s uncontrollable joy, Zheng Fa asked:

"I’ve created a talisman!" Li Nuo shouted excitedly: "A Nourishing Spirit Talisman!"

"...Really?"

Zheng Fa was also surprised; he hadn’t held much hope since Li Nuo’s father had killed himself while only producing one talisman.

Now there’s a result in less than a month?

"How much did it cost?"

Zheng Fa inquired.

"...No cost."

"?"

"Didn’t you draw blood from that person? I got some from you to try."

"..."

"It works!"

Zheng Fa looked towards the room where the man lay, deep in thought: "Just his blood works?"

"It seems so, our Jiushan Sect’s blood doesn’t." Li Nuo confirmed.

"You’ve tried that too?" Zheng Fa asked, widening his eyes.

"When we couldn’t afford spirit beast blood, my father and I used our blood."

Zheng Fa remained silent for a while, considering a possibility.

The main difference between the blood of these Demon Sect people and Jiushan Sect cultivators – it was those Spirit Talismans within the blood.

"Junior brother, the evildoers of the Demon Sect must be eliminated by everyone!" Li Nuo said excitedly: "Their blood is worthless!"

"..."

Indeed.

Compared to spirit beasts, using Demon Sect disciples’ blood to make talismans indeed had many benefits.

Spirit beasts required careful breeding, being extremely delicate—the some sects in the Xuanwei Realm were even renowned for breeding spirit beasts.

Demon Sect disciples were understanding, they could eat and sleep on their own, not to mention they practiced cultivation voluntarily.

In past conflicts between the Immortal Sect and Demon Sect, the disciples of the Demon Sect were always wiped out without much gain—battles were risky and the payoff was small.

Now... well, it’s conducive to the atmosphere of exterminating demons and eliminating devils!

Thinking this way, Zheng Fa understood Li Nuo’s excitement.

The only issue...

"Master, do you think if we cut down someone’s years-old cultivated Spirit Plants, they will seek revenge?"

Inside the Sect Leader’s thatched hut, Zheng Fa asked his Master.

"...Who?" The Sect Leader pondered, then suddenly asked, "You vandalized Master Pang’s thousand-year-old spirit bamboo? That shouldn’t be, he cherishes it greatly. If that spirit bamboo isn’t dead, give it back to Master Pang."

"...No, not that. People from the Demon Sect."

"Demon Sect? Why be polite with the Demon Sect? They are still trying to infiltrate our Jiushan Sect to cause chaos!" The Sect Leader patted his chest loudly saying: "Immortals and demons stand opposed; there’s no need for morals in this. If there’s trouble, you have me, your Master— I’ve also killed people from the Demon Sect!"

"Then it’s settled..."

Feeling his Master’s unwavering support, Zheng Fa looked invigorated.

"Tell me, whose Spirit Plant are you planning to harvest?"

"Nobody’s, just from the Great Freedom Demon Sect’s Demon Ancestor."

The Sect Leader was silent for a moment, then spoke: "How about I uproot Master Pang’s thousand-year-old spirit bamboo and give it to you?"

"..."

"I always say disciples are like debts! Each more troublesome than the last!"