Akata ran and ran without decreasing his speed in the least. But he was soon getting tired and knew that he couldn’t keep it up. What upset him more was that the blood rabbit still chasing him didn’t decrease its speed either and in fact didn’t look the least bit fatigued. They have been running non-stop for about an hour now and Akata couldn’t hold out any longer. He knew that if he couldn’t outrun the blood rabbit he might as well face it now instead of facing it when he was dead tired.
Akata quickly jumped up a tree and climbed up a branch to turn around and face the oncoming blood rabbit. The blood rabbit saw Akata stopping so it too slowed down and came to a halt, looking at Akata with bloodthirsty eyes. Akata closed his eyes and took a deep breath and slowly let it out. When his eyes opened they showed with the will to fight, his red rune started rotating slowly and his blood became purer.
“Why am I running away from a fight? If I don’t fight a measly little rabbit now, then how can I fight tougher opponents in the future. If that’s the case then if I don’t kill this blood rabbit then I might as well quit being a cultivator and give up on being strong.”
As he was thinking to himself he launched himself forward in the direction of the blood rabbit. He held his knife out in front of him and stabbed it outwards, aiming at the blood rabbits throat.
“But I don’t want to give all this up! If I don’t become strong and be able to stand over everyone then I might as well die!”
Akata swished past the blood rabbit who just stood there as if astonished by Akata’s sudden burst of resolve to fight. In the last second though it hopped to the side barely able to escape with a gash on its fur. Akata held the bloody blade in his hand and looked at it, his eyes burning fiercely. He pointed the blade towards the blood rabbit even while blood still dripped off if it and stated, “I hereby vow that if I ever run from another fight in the future I will mortally wound myself and have to rely on my own strength to recover from it, and that’s if I do!”
The blood rabbit seemed to understand Akata’s words because it shuddered and inched back just a tiny bit. Then its eyes became bloodshot again and it pounced towards Akata, showing its fangs. Akata charged towards the blood rabbit, blade in hand. The blood rabbit managed to bite off a bit of skin from Akata leaving him dripping blood. Akata managed to slice off an ear from the rabbit. The two seemed to be evenly matched.
As they faced each other again, Akata’s face suddenly changed as he saw the blood rabbit doing something completely unexpected… absorbing his blood. The blood rabbit took the blood of Akata that was splattered everywhere from when it bit him and congealed it all together. Then it compressed the blood making it more dense and powerful then it absorbed it through its chest where its heart was. The whole process made Akata look astounded, but what made him fearful was what happened next. The blood rabbit absorbed the blood and it looked like its fur was becoming a deeper red, it grew in size to reach Akata’s waist, and its teeth became a bit longer and sharper. Akata could also sense the blood rabbit’s strength growing. From that bit of blood he lost the blood rabbit’s strength increased by two times!
“I can’t let that blood rabbit draw any more of my blood, otherwise it could really kill me. Since it has grown stronger then I can’t hold back anymore.” Akata’s pupils became a more deeper crimson red, the color of blood, and they showed with a fierce will to fight. The red rune in his heart glowed brightly and spun even faster, as if it has been waiting for Akata to unleash its power.
The pressure in the area intensified greatly to the point the grass and the surrounding smaller plants were crushed by it. The blood rabbit was the first to move, reaching Akata in the blink of an eye. Its mouth was wide open showing its fangs and only a few inches from Akata’s neck. Akata slowly closed his eyes and took in a deep breath while he lifted up a single palm towards the blood rabbit. He grabbed it by the throat and pushed it into the ground with enough force that it formed a crater. The blood rabbit was instantly mangled and bloodied but it wasn’t dead yet, and Akata wasn’t finished either. His hand still on the blood rabbit’s throat he lifted his other hand and formed a fist where he stuck down on the blood rabbit’s head, crushing it.
It was now thoroughly destroyed.
Akata released his grip, pulled his fist back, and let out a long breath, then opened his eyes. After he opened his eyes he became very fatigued and he was beginning to black out. He only used an extremely small amount of strength from the red rune for less than a breath of time but he was on the verge of going unconscious. He bit his tongue to wake himself up and clear his mind. He picked up the rabbit and dashed back to the training field.
It took around two hours for him to get back to the training field. One reason for this was when he was being chased by the blood rabbit he headed a little bit deeper into the forest. Another reason is that he was tired and had to rest on some occasions. There was one case when he found himself looking at a field of blood rabbits. The sight of it caused his heart to skip, and when they all started to sniff the air it made his body go cold and he immediately took a detour.
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Once he made it back he let out a long sigh of relief happy that he made it out. But then his mind thought of something else. “Wait a minute! Ming Lu said that this blood rabbit was so weak that it would flee at its fastest speed upon seeing someone. Why would it do the complete opposite and what is up with it absorbing the blood of its enemies?! She has some explaining to do.”
Akata brushed off his tiredness and headed towards the second cabin. Some nearby disciples saw him come out the forest and started discussing matters.
“Was that Akata just now? Why did he just come out of Misty Forest? And he’s scratched up and looks tired.”
“He just became apprenticed to Demoness Ming Lu so maybe she told him to go in there for a test or something.”
“That place is extremely dangerous the weakest creatures in there are blood rabbits and they are even able to take your blood to make themselves stronger. How did he survive coming out?!”
Akata could hear these disciples talking around him and when he heard the bit about the blood rabbits his heart clenched. Not only were they able to make use of their opponents blood to make themselves stronger, but they were the weakest creatures in there. Thinking of how the blood rabbit absorbed a tiny bit of his blood and became twice as strong and he still survived gave Akata chills. It also made him wonder about the strength of the red rune.
“I should probably not rely on this rune inside of me from now on and focus on my own strength. That way I’ll be able to handle those blood rabbits with my eyes closed without even needing it.” Akata’s eyes gleamed with determination and a fighting will. “But first I have to ask master a few questions regarding those weak blood rabbits.”
Soon he made it to the arena in front of the second cabin. When he was making his way across the arena a barrier suddenly sprang up. He went on full alert because he now couldn’t sense anything outside of it, which meant nobody could sense anything inside.
“Hahaha calm down it’s just a barrier to block out the outside world so people won’t disturb any spars that go on. The top ten disciples all have one so when they spar others won’t be able to see their skills. I just set mine up so nobody can see us, as you know absorbing blood takes a lot of concentration.”
When Akata heard the chuckle he instantly calmed down and lowered his guard. After hearing Ming Lu speak he decided to not ask his questions regarding the blood rabbit. In his mind he knew she had planned all this, he could especially tell by her tone of voice and calmness even after she saw how much of a mess he looked like. He pushed the matter aside and clasped hands towards Ming Lu instead.
Ming Lu was quite astonished by this action, she was expecting to be questioned heavily by Akata after he got back. But instead of questioning her he clasped hands. That was something unexpected. She stopped walking towards him and looked at him with a thoughtful look. After a breath's worth of time she continued.
“Absorbing the blood of a beast is rather difficult as I have said before. If you mess up you can cripple your cultivation base or even die. The clan I come from cultivates in the art of absorbing the blood of beasts. We have multiple special techniques that allow us to do so in a safer manner and even then a number of us perish each year. Since these are the techniques of my Ming clan and I am nothing but a junior I am not obligated to share these techniques with you. But there is a technique that anyone can practice although it is the most dangerous. And that is the technique of the blood rabbits.”
It was then that Ming Lu stepped in front of Akata and told him to sit, she then placed her hand on his forehead. “I’m going to transmit that technique to you. If you can succeed in following the technique then you’ll be able to absorb the blood of your enemies while you’re in battle. But if you fail, your blood will reject you and rush out of your body leaving you to die bloodless.” Her kind smile contradicted her words in every way possible. Her hand touched his forehead and the technique started being transmitted between the two. Akata closed his eyes.
Take the blood of your enemies and use it for yourself
Take the life of your enemies and use it for yourself
What’s theirs is yours and what’s yours gets stronger
Your blood is supreme, cut the enemy and slaughter
Wage wars by yourself and bathe in a crimson flood
Only then can you attain the true level of Paragon’s Blood
The scripture of the technique flooded into Akata’s mind and caused his rune to rotate vigorously. It was like the technique was resonating with him, like it wanted only Akata to learn its ways and comprehend it. Akata’s blood started flowing faster and in turn it caused the red rune to glow brighter and rotate faster.
The transmission of the technique seemed to drain Ming Lu of her energy. After she was done she headed to her cabin. Akata was still sitting there comprehending the technique when he murmured, “Paragon’s Blood.” When she heard this she immediately stopped in her tracks and turned around her hand over her mouth. “This is the highest level technique used in order to absorb the blood of beasts. It actually comes from ancient times and it is what the Ming Clan is founded on. If it wasn’t for the fact that blood rabbits innately use the first part of this technique then it would solely be ours. The ancient records in our clan says that if it was even possible to comprehend this technique it would take at least a hundred years, and that would just be comprehending the first part of it. Yet he comprehended the first part in just a few breaths of receiving the technique and witnessing it for the first time? What kind of a monster is he?!”
Ming Lu was truly astonished, even she couldn’t comprehend any of the technique, and she was a genius when it came to absorbing the blood of beasts. How could someone who hasn’t even heard of the concept of absorbing beasts blood be better than her. At the moment she felt envy, hatred, fear, and also admiration. She turned back around and walked off to her cabin.
Akata sat there still comprehending the Paragon’s Blood technique. He mused to himself, ‘So this technique has three parts to it. I’ve only comprehended the first part and yet the benefits it provides are tremendous.’ As Akata sat there excitement ran through him because he just received tremendously good fortune. A slight smile even appeared on his face.