I bear witness to immortality in the human world.

Chapter 2 Draw blood
As the only son in the family, Wu Ming was also highly regarded. The family had saved up for many years and provided him with plenty of food from the age of sixteen. Although he could hardly eat meat, he was basically full of rice every meal.

Wu Ming naturally wouldn't waste the opportunity. From the age of sixteen until now, for a full year and a half, he has almost never left his house or the village, devoting himself to martial arts training in order to condense pure yang blood energy.

but,
Reality is ultimately different from what we imagine.

During the past year and a half, although Wu Ming devoted himself to cultivation, he spent most of the time making no progress.

Clan Chief Wu Qu once told him that for ordinary poor families like theirs, it was extremely difficult to condense pure yang blood qi and step into the threshold of martial arts. This was because they lacked money, meat, and the money to use the medicines that replenished blood qi. Therefore, the only way to condense blood qi was to rely on their own physique, or what is called 'aptitude'.

According to Wu Ming's careful investigation, this so-called aptitude is not something like innate talent, but rather a more direct ability to 'digest and absorb'.

Ordinary poor people lack money and meat to supplement their diet. To condense blood and qi, they naturally need to obtain enough nutrition from ordinary rice and grains. Therefore, the stronger a person's digestive and absorption capacity, the easier it is for them to condense blood and qi, and vice versa.

In the entire Wu Village, with its more than one hundred households, almost every male member of the family would try to learn martial arts and cultivate his blood and qi at the age of sixteen. However, those who were truly gifted and managed to cultivate their blood and qi were few and far between, less than one in a hundred.

At least in this life, Wu Ming does not belong to the category of those with extraordinary talent.

I took some coarse grains out of the cloth bag.

Wu Ming then took out another shrunken cloth bag from the side of the bed, and then took out several dried red dates from the bag. After weighing the few dates left in the bag, Wu Ming shook his head almost imperceptibly.

Thinking back to his previous life, although he was a nobody at the bottom of society, he was not so poor that he couldn't afford meat. Even red dates were a precious item in his family, reserved for him alone. Moreover, his cultivation had been stagnant for a year and a half, which inevitably caused him distress.

After a while.

A pot of mixed grain porridge is ready.

Liu and Wu Yu each took a small bowl, leaving the few red dates untouched and giving them all to Wu Ming.

Looking at the red dates in the bowl, Wu Ming had some random thoughts floating in his mind. Perhaps he really didn't have the talent for martial arts in this life, and maybe he shouldn't have pursued martial arts. If he had just worked honestly and thought about some ways to make money, he might have been able to improve his life.

However, these distracting thoughts only flashed through my mind.

Not to mention that his family has been scrimping and saving to support his martial arts training for over a year and a half now, even if he feels the chances are slim, his family will not let him give up. Moreover, he has a Black Emperor Demon-Subduing Diagram of unknown origin in his mind, so he is even less likely to be confined to an ordinary life.

After eating.

Wu Ming then came to the courtyard alone, facing the rising sun, his body upright, one hand hanging down supporting his dantian, the other hand raised high above his head, his left knee slightly bent, his right leg raised horizontally and resting on his left knee, assuming a 'Pure Yang Blood-Guiding Stance'.

The Pure Yang Blood-Guiding Stance is a basic stance exercise that helps to guide and condense Qi and blood. It is basically universal in this world. Generally speaking, regardless of social status, people start their cultivation from this stance.

"Using blood as the foundation, pure yang slays evil."

After assuming the stance for stance training, Wu Ming closed his eyes and recited the incantation in his mind.

The mantra of stance training itself has no effect, but it contains some profound principles of martial arts cultivation. The so-called "exorcising evil" does not mean killing external evil spirits, but rather regarding one's own distracting thoughts and emotions as evil spirits. Using stance training as a foundation, one suppresses one's own distracting thoughts, concentrates one's mind, feels the rhythm of one's own qi and blood, guides the qi and blood, and condenses the qi and blood.

The martial arts cultivation in this world is based on nurturing blood and qi. Once one can condense a pure yang blood and qi, one can use it as a foundation to slowly temper the body, greatly improving one's physique. Ordinary people will find it difficult to get close to one, and wielding a sharp blade, one can even fight against demons.

Superior strength is the root cause of the vastly different status of warriors.

that's it,
Wu Ming remained in the stance, completely still, as if he had merged with the environment. Unconsciously, his own thoughts seemed to disappear, his perception of the outside world was completely eliminated, and all his senses were withdrawn into his body.

At this moment, Wu Ming could clearly feel his heartbeat. With each heartbeat, blood rushed through his body, and at the same time, a surge of vigorous blood energy emanated. However, this blood energy was completely uncontrollable, scattered and unable to be condensed or contained.

"Coagulate blood and guide qi."

Wu Ming focused his mind and tried to guide the scattered blood and qi in his body, gradually gathering and converging it, and then directing it to his dantian in his abdomen. The whole process was like pulling a cart frame through mud, which was extremely difficult.

After an unknown amount of time, Wu Ming suddenly opened his eyes, his whole body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely. In just a moment, his entire inner shirt was completely soaked with sweat.

"So close, so close again."

Wu Ming sat on the ground, panting heavily. After a few moments, he finally caught his breath and frowned deeply.

Once he can straighten out the scattered Qi and blood throughout his body, guide and gather it, and return it to his Dantian, he will have completed the first blood condensation and will have taken a step into the threshold of martial arts. However, he always gets stuck when he tries to return the Qi and blood to his Dantian.

The movement of Qi and blood is subject to loss. Whenever he gathers Qi and blood and is about to transport it to the Dantian, the loss is too great, causing the final step to fail and the Qi and blood to dissipate outside the Dantian.

"My aptitude shouldn't be considered extremely poor. Given my current situation, I'm always just one step away from breaking through. If I could have a prescription to nourish my qi and blood, or some meat rich in qi and blood, I would have a chance to break through."

Wu Ming repeatedly reflected on his entire cultivation process.

If one's aptitude is truly extremely poor, then one should not be able to gather qi and blood. If one's aptitude is extremely high, then one should be able to easily condense blood. His situation seems to be somewhere in between, neither high nor low.

If he had been born into a wealthy family in the city, or even a slightly better one, he might have already completed blood clotting and entered the realm of martial arts. But unfortunately, he was born into a poor family. Being able to eat a few extra red dates while having a full meal was already the limit for his family, and even that was difficult to maintain.

"How about we get some meat?"

Upon thinking of this, Wu Ming recalled the gruesome death of Wu Sijiu and shook his head again.

For an ordinary person like him who hasn't cultivated his blood and qi, venturing into the mountains or traveling to distant rivers on his own is extremely dangerous. Moreover, meat isn't something that can be achieved with just one large meal; it requires a sustained period of consumption. Only special medicinal formulas that nourish and strengthen blood and qi might be able to help him succeed with just one dose, but the problem is that such formulas are far too expensive. He had inquired with Wu Qu, who said that even the worst nourishing formula would cost at least forty taels of silver!

Forty taels of silver was almost enough to feed a family of four for two or three years.

Practicing martial arts

It's just burning money!

These are the original words of clan chief Wu Qu.

Wealthy families can spend money to accumulate wealth, but poor people can only rely on their own natural endowments and talents.

Wu Ming pondered for a long time but still couldn't come up with a way to make money. The main reason was that this world was very different from his previous life. This was evident in aspects such as martial arts, blood energy, and demons. Much of his knowledge from his previous life was not applicable here.

Besides,

Even if he possessed truly applicable knowledge, as an ordinary citizen, any attempt to develop it would only result in it being exploited and taken advantage of.

In a world where strength reigns supreme, only power matters.

"call."

After resting for a while, Wu Ming got up, went to the water vat, picked up the water ladle, and gulped down a mouthful of water.

Raw water cannot be drunk directly; this was common knowledge in his previous life. However, Wu Ming was powerless to do so now because this was not the world of his previous life. To boil water, he needed to start a fire, and to start a fire, he needed firewood.

Here, the mountains and rivers are all owned, and you have to pay to go up the mountain to cut firewood. For wealthy families, this amount of money may not be much, but for poor people who can't even get enough to eat, using firewood to boil water is a luxury they can't afford.

Wu Ming knew this was not good, but he could only ignore it. After all, once he cultivated pure yang qi, his qi and blood would be abundant and he would be free from all diseases. On the contrary, if he could not cultivate it, he would live a mediocre life, struggling in poverty, and he would not need to care about so much.

In a moment of thought,
Wu Ming then recalled the Black Emperor's Demon-Subduing Diagram in his mind.

He felt that this picture must have a great origin and be extraordinary. Once he could use its power, getting out of his current predicament would be easy. However, he tried to explore and study it every night before going to sleep, but he could never get the hang of it.

After a while.

Wu Ming shook his head, banishing the chaotic thoughts from his mind. He looked at the water in the tank, where only a shallow layer remained.

"There's not much water left. Let's go fetch some while it's still light."

He glanced at the sun, then immediately picked up a carrying pole, hoisted two old wooden buckets onto his shoulder, and headed towards the back of the village.

There is a well behind Wu Village. The villagers rely on this well for their daily drinking water. Only when they need a lot of water to wash and dry clothes will they go to the river in front of the village. Although the river is owned and patrolled regularly, fishing is prohibited.

soon.

Wu Ming then arrived at the back of Wu Village.

Besides him, there was another boy of similar age drawing water from the well, also carrying two broken wooden buckets. When he saw Wu Ming coming over, he gave him a simple and honest smile and greeted him.

"Brother Wu Ming, you're here to fetch water too."

"Ah."

Wu Ming nodded slightly and said, "I heard that the clan leader has been giving you pointers on your training lately? How's it going?"

The boy in front of him grew up in Wu Village and was familiar with him. They shared the same surname, Wu, and the boy's given name was Zhong. However, Wu Zhong's family was closer to the clan chief, Wu Qu, who was Wu Zhong's second uncle. Therefore, they were treated differently by Wu Qu.

Wu Ming was only taught the standing meditation and mental techniques for guiding qi and blood by Wu Qu, who gave him some pointers. Wu Zhong, on the other hand, personally taught him and gave him pointers almost every day.

Wu Ming didn't feel any resentment about this. On the one hand, it was normal to have different levels of closeness and distance. On the other hand, he and Wu Zhong were childhood friends and had a good relationship. If Wu Zhong was fortunate enough to cultivate his blood qi and become a martial artist, it would not be a bad thing for him.

"My second uncle said I'm doing well in my training, and if I continue like this for another six months, I should be able to complete it."

Wu Zhong scratched the back of his head, gave a simple and honest smile, and then stepped aside, saying, "Brother Wu Ming, you go ahead and get the water."

"It's alright, there's no need to distinguish the order of fetching water."

Wu Ming smiled and put down the bucket and carrying pole.

"Row."

Wu Zhong grinned and walked over to the well.

Gulu.

Suddenly, a bubble rose from the bottom of the well. The bubble burst with a pop, and a wisp of faint black gas quietly dissipated.

(End of this chapter)