The three kids returned to their inn just in time for supper. After buying some food at the restaurant on the ground floor, they returned to their room.
Normally, after completing their nightly cultivations, the trio would go to bed, but Li Lang had other plans tonight.
He brought a lit candle to his bed as he impatiently opened up the book he had rented. He only lingered on the title ‘Baleful Claw Demonic Technique’ for a moment before diving straight into its contents.
Wei Ping and Long Yi simply shook their heads at the scene and went to bed first.
Li Lang paid them no heed and ravenously absorbed the new content and by the time he was done, the candle had almost burned out.
Compared to the basic cultivation technique he read back in Spirit Grove, the demonic technique went into much more detail. The manual itself was more than twice as thick and even provided helpful background information that allowed beginners to better grasp the process.
The demonic technique explained the difference it had with orthodox techniques and the different types of demonic techniques.
In general, all demonic techniques were called such because they absorbed the essence of other living things. The common denominator was that the target of absorption had to be recently deceased.
Some of these techniques were very specific in what they could assimilate and couldn’t be easily changed. For example, if one chose to practice the Baleful Claw Demonic Technique, one could only make significant progress by absorbing Qi beasts with powerful claws.
These demonic cultivation techniques that preyed on such specific parts were known as Possession Techniques. In exchange for committing to a specialization, they were generally regarded as more powerful among their peers at the same cultivation level.
In contrast, there were demonic techniques that were less demanding, allowing their practitioner to absorb the Qi of any living thing it killed. They were called Qi Pilfering Techniques and were known to be less efficient in exchange for flexibility in picking their targets. On top of that, they were less prone to cultivation deviation, which was described by the book as when the technique drove its practitioner crazy.
Possession Techniques heavily influenced the minds of its users and caused mental deficiencies. It often made the practitioner take on the characteristics of the beasts they absorbed. In general, it made people more violent, as violence was the nature of most Qi beasts.
That didn’t mean Qi Pilfering Techniques didn’t have any drawbacks. When Li Lang read the part about these drawbacks, he couldn’t help but frown. While Qi Pilfering Techniques could also negatively affect the mind, they also had some potential consequences that were shockingly similar to Qi overdose. If severe, it could potentially leave the practitioner bedridden and eventually claim their lives. Like an overdose, it would require the practitioner to take a break to recover.
However, after having some time to think it through, Li Lang thought the symptoms described were closer to another phenomenon he was familiar with. It shared many similarities with immune rejection, which sometimes happened in some organ transplants.
Still, Li Lang only had the words of a single book to go on and nothing definitive could be said.
The Baleful Claw Demonic Technique in Li Lang’s possession went into detail about how one would absorb a Qi beast’s energy, but that wasn’t something that interested Li Lang too much. It was too big of a commitment and he was already stretched thin, researching orthodox cultivation.
Still…if I had the time, I would like to research the difference between orthodox techniques and demonic. They shouldn’t be that different…
There were few things he could immediately draw from the technique itself, but he still found the purchase worthwhile. He gained a lot of information about the nature of demonic techniques, and clues on how demonic cultivators attained their reputation.
Excited with his discoveries, he didn’t hesitate to wake up his friends to share his findings. As he rambled on, his two friends could only sleepily rub their eyes.
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“...Li Lang, as interesting as that is, the sky is still dark. Can this wait for another time?” Long Yi pleaded.
It was only then that Li Lang managed to rein in his excitement. The next morning, Wei Ping and Long Yi would find themselves struggling to concentrate on their cultivation as Li Lang resumed the sharing of his findings.
With the Cleansing Drug on their side, their cultivation sessions had gotten longer. Every time they reached their limit, they would take the drug and be able to cultivate again. They did this a total of six times; three during the morning and three during the night. It was this prolonged cultivation time that allowed Li Lang to ramble on as his companions were fixed in place.
“...and that is all I found and inferred from the book last night. Any questions?”
“No.” Long Yi decisively answered, throwing the ball to Wei Ping.
“I-I…don’t think w-we can afford to t-think about demonic techniques r-right now. We’re s-still testing t-the Cleansing Drug, right?”
“Right, right. Let me collect your samples.” Li Lang moved to draw some blood and collect a small piece of flesh from himself and his companions. “Anyway, now that we are clear about the nature of demonic cultivators, we should see if we can join one of their organizations.”
As Li Lang said those words, Long Yi was just about to swallow a Recovery Pill. Hearing the abrupt news made him almost choke on the pill. He had a coughing fit for a few moments before recovering after drinking some water.
“...Are you serious? You want to join them now?”
“It depends on how they work. From what we have seen, they don’t operate exactly like sects, so I wanted you guys to investigate it first. We’ll need someone to support us if we want to safely gain combat experience while we cultivate. As you said yesterday, it’ll be too dangerous to leave the city as we currently are.”
“U-understood, boss! I’ll l-look into it today.” Wei Ping immediately answered in Long Yi’s stead.
“Good, I’ll leave it to you guys, then. I’m off to the Alchemist Guild.”
Leaving his friends behind, Li Lang swiftly made his way to the guild. He mechanically did the same thing he did every morning and rented a refining room after purchasing the materials.
There were currently three pills he could refine. The Recovery Pill, the Qi Replenishment Pill, and the Stimulant Pill. He could have expanded the repertoire greatly if he wanted, but he currently was satisfied with what he had.
The main reason he studied alchemy in the first place was to gain access to materials, make money, and form connections by adding value to himself. There was no reason for him to waste his time studying a new pill while he was so busy with the Cleansing Drug.
When he arrived in the refining room, he placed down his materials and placed Ruby against his head.
He swiftly found himself in his familiar lab and was greeted by Ruby.
“Good morning, master! The results of yesterday’s samples are already done. The new ones are already in the auto-analyzer.”
“Thank you.”
Li Lang sat down on his office chair and began going over the report on his monitor.
Every morning, he submitted the samples he took from Wei Ping, Long Yi, and his flesh and blood to be analyzed.
When he first started researching the symptoms of Qi overdose, Li Lang had two hypotheses about how aptitude worked. One was that aptitude affected a person’s tolerance to the Qi toxins. It was now rejected because the samples from Long Yi showed how he had similar levels of toxins at his limit, so that left the second hypothesis to test.
The second hypothesis was that aptitude affected the strength of one’s spiritual roots, and the strength of spiritual roots meant one absorbed fewer Qi toxins. The idea was that spiritual roots acted like toxin filters, processing the harmful elements within the ambient Qi.
He had gotten this idea from his talks with Ri Xin, the independent cultivator who had a unique physique that allowed him to strengthen his spiritual roots.
This was why Li Lang was now testing if it was possible to strengthen these spiritual roots by repeatedly making use of them more than they were intended. He believed that because people normally succumbed to Qi overdose so fast, the spiritual root never had to work hard enough to experience progressive overload. Almost like if someone lifted weights that were too light and for too few repetitions.
With the Cleansing Drug, Li Lang hoped that it would enable the spiritual roots to be ‘worked out’ enough. After all, if this was possible, the significance of it was completely different from simply treating the symptoms of Qi toxins. It could affect their very future when they arrive at the other cultivation realms.
As always, measuring Qi was an arduous task, as Li Lang didn’t have access to such equipment and he didn’t even know if they existed.
However, having measured the amount of time it took for each of them to cultivate to reach their limit, it was still possible to notice if their spiritual roots had really been strengthened if monitored over a period of time.
The other way he could notice was if the samples contained fewer toxins than the previous day. They may subconsciously stop cultivating at around the same time as usual. In that scenario, if their toxin levels were consistently lower, it meant something must have changed.
When Li Lang finished reviewing the data from the previous day, he couldn’t help but feel his breathing quickened.
“These results…It’s only been a day…”