Vaelorian was lying on his bed. His thoughts were a mess but oddly he also felt satisfaction. Maybe it was because his mind was corrupted now but the idea of drinking blood was oddly pleasing to him. A whole new world was opened to him. Time was passing by quickly and he needed to practice mana circulation and increase his prowess. But before all that he needed a backup, a steady supply of blood.
He couldn't get any more careless, his mother must have helped in covering his tracks after his little stunt on the old man, Mr Holms. But if he keeps his insane killing spree then even Lan Liuyue won't be able to help.
His mom had said he needed blood but she didn't specifically say which blood. It could be a wolf's blood too right? But there was a high possibility that his body might reject it after all a wolf and a human were totally different. Is this how people on Earth do experiments? Vaelorian got excited and got off his bed. Since he cannot attend the sessions of his education and training team better do one on his own right?
He briefly thought of Celia who was nowhere to be found. He needed to stop her from cultivating but he didn't have time to look for her. He looked towards the inner city and hesitated before walking towards the outer gates leading to the forest.
The most important question was how was he going to kill a wolf? And how will he find Lan Liuyue? They have no means of communication. Is this a loophole? As long as he just doesn't communicate with him or make himself unavailable then he won't have to tell him any truth. Instead of being happy that he found a loophole he was pretty annoyed by the fact that there was one and that too a significant one. If he found this then there's no doubt that Lan Liuyue will also find it sooner or later.
He went into the deeper end of the forest as these thoughts occupied his consciousness. He could see several people scattered everywhere in groups. It was the exploration team. It would be a pain if any familiar face saw him and thus he changed his course of direction. After walking for another fifteen minutes he found himself in front of a river. He had been here a few times and the flowing river always gave him a sense of calm.
He sat down in the lotus position near the shore and took in a huge breath, circulating the mana he blew out black smoke and watched it disappear into thin air. The density of his smoke a lighter than before.
"I cannot purify the mana now?" He questioned to himself. A complicated expression appeared on his face as he blew out another breath of smoke which was considerably less denser. His blood is corrupting at a faster pace and now his body is actually dissolving the impure mana, the dark element!
He suddenly heard the leaves rustling and turned around to see a hare hopping towards the river. He channeled the mana to his fingers and compressed it into tiny bullets. He aimed his fingers towards the hare and released the pressure. Several blue streaks shot forward and two of them hit the hare.
Vaelorian strolled towards the dead hare and picked it up with his right hand. The blood was gushing out and without wasting any time he started drinking the blood and drained the hare.
After waiting for a minute and a half, Vaelorian started circulating the mana again. There was indeed a little improvement than before. He could feel the mana flowing more smoothly, he blew out the smoke and it was denser!
Without wasting any time he circulated more and more mana but soon, for the first time he started getting tired and his smoke was barely visible now. Vaelorian frowned as observed this.
'Does this mean that hare blood is not compatible and is considerably weaker?' He thought and got up to walk back home. It was getting dark soon and Vaelorian didn't waste any time and walked faster. By the time he reached his house, Vaelorian was panting heavily.
He opened the door and saw Celia lying on his bed. Her stomach was completely healed. "Are you okay?"
"What happened to you?" Celia frowned as she looked at Vaelorian.
"I was training."
"You look older,"
"What?" Vaelorian immediately moved toward the mirror and checked his appearance.
"What the fuck?" He really was older! There were several streaks of grey hair, he could see thin stubbles on his cheek and a wrinkle near his eye.
"Blood...." Vaelorian trailed off as realization hit him. He needed human blood!
"Don't try the breathing technique and forcefully open your meridians. It's dangerous and you will die Celia."
"But you were the one who taught me. I want to get stronger too!"
"This is not the time to be stubborn. Just listen to me for once okay?! I have talked with Mother."
Celia stopped her protesting as soon as Vaelorian mentioned their mother. "Okay," she spoke weakly.
'Great now that one thing is settled, I can focus on the main problem. Blood.' Vaelorian thought and his eyes trailed towards Celia. She was his half-sibling, will drinking her blood maybe heal his meridians?
Vaelorian sighed and dismissed his thoughts, "Just practice normal technique but don't forcefully channel your mana."
"Okay," Celia nodded again.
Vaelorian lay down next to Celia. "You can never trust anyone Celia, but only your own blood. Always remember this okay?"
Celia nodded snuggled closer to Vaelorian and buried her face into his chest. Vaelorian stared at the roof and closed his eyes.
How can he experiment with mana when the darkness is corrupting his mind? He could feel his mind screaming at him to drink blood. Will it be a bad thing if he completely submitted himself to his mind? If he does that then there would be no room for irrational decisions.
One thought kept popping into his mind, since he is clearly exhaling the impure mana then it means he is basically extracting the dark element. Does that mean he can control the dark element? What if he extracted the dark element through all the pores of his body and then compressed it? But the problem was his body was now digesting the element, and that was affecting his life. He could feel that he had grown 30-50 years, but not physically. The growth was of his internal organs and bloodstream and if he kept on experimenting then his heart could fail!
His mother had told him that he needed blood but now that he had actually grown this much can blood make him younger?
'OH WAIT' Vaelorian's eyes forcefully widened with realization. He drank the blood of an old man and his blood and organs were already old and near their limit! Did that fasten his growth and make him older?!
He carefully removed Celia's hands wrapped around his waist. She was fast asleep and he didn't want to wake her. Vaelorian slowly opened the door and moved outside.
If he needs to be young again and live longer then he will need to drink the blood of a child or someone his age! Vaelorian stealthily moved and peeked inside several houses and stopped at the farthest house.
'This should work otherwise I am screwed!' He thought and stared at the little girl sleeping peacefully. It was time to kill his half-sister.