Daoist Spring Breeze is sitting in a meditative position with closed eyes, cultivating with absolute concentration. Seven bottles filled with a red liquid are in front of him.
He is the leader of a local big martial arts sect called Breeze Sect. The sect has a long history, having been founded nearly 500 years ago and having five generations of cultivators.
In the mortal world, martial arts sects with a 500-year history are considered ancient; even the biggest mortal forces may barely have more than 1000 years of history.
Mortal forces are unlike immortal forces; their personnel turnover is too high. After all, humans can rarely live beyond 100 years; if there is no immortal cultivator at the higher levels of the sect, issues such as the sect master's succession, incompetent inheritors, etc., would cause even the most powerful mortal forces to fall.
Separate from immortal cultivation, there is also martial arts cultivation, which has become increasingly popular among mortals. The new martial arts technique has only appeared in the last few thousand years but has already spread throughout the world. If one has immortal cultivation talent, there would be no point in training in martial arts. Still, for most, martial arts is the only way forward. After all, only a few are lucky enough to have immortal cultivation talent.
As long as one has two hands and feet and has no severe physical defects, they should be able to train in martial arts.
The first stage of martial arts is called muscle training; in this stage, the practitioner has to train and develop their muscles.
The first stage is the easiest; one can lift some weights, eat meat and other protein-intensive food, and after a while, they would eventually be able to finish this realm. However, it would be expensive. Even though everyone, in theory, could practice martial arts, in actuality, only the rich can do it. Additionally, one has to start from a young age; it's impossible to earn money and then start training in martial arts at 50. If one is not born into wealth or unable to find a sponsor, it would be effectively impossible even to enter the martial arts path.
The second stage is called bone training, which focuses on bones.
This realm is not as easy to practice; to strengthen the bones, one cannot just train and lift weights; one has to eat the bone marrow of beasts every day, along with many precious medicinal herbs, and also physical training; bone training realm is much more expensive than muscle training realm.
The third is called internal training, which involves training and strengthening internal organs.
Internal training is even more expensive than bone training. The only way to strengthen internal organs is by using very old herbs, such as 100-year-old ginseng, the roots of very old trees, etc. Ordinary practices such as running or lifting weights would not help at all, and ordinary meat would also not help; only magical beast's meat may be able to help.
The fourth is called mental training, which is training and strengthening the mind.
This realm is much cheaper to pass; still, many martial arts practitioners would be stuck in this realm for their entire lives; a martial arts master must have an active and quick brain in addition to a strong body; to pass this realm, the practitioners must start solving math problems, memorizing long poems, puzzle solving, etc.; for martial arts practitioners, who may have never even encountered these, this realm is nearly impossible to pass through; but for martial arts practitioners who had masters, who knew about difficulty of this ream, it would be easy; they trained their mind throughout their practice, so with a headstart, it would not be difficult for them to pass this realm.
The fifth is called internal energy, which is the ability to cultivate one's internal energy.
This realm involved utilizing the strong physical qualities they cultivated to form internal energy. It is not very difficult, but accumulating enough internal energy to reach its peak would take a long time. Martial arts practitioners have short lifespans, so time is of the essence. If one gets stuck for too long, they will lose their chance of reaching the master realm.
The sixth stage is called Martial Arts Master; to become a master, the practitioner must integrate the first five stages into one, achieving unity of the body and mind.
This realm is one of the most difficult. One may try to reach it for decades and fail. It involves one's understanding of one's path. One may be able to reach it in one single day or fail to reach it for their entire life.
The seventh stage is called Grandmaster, which very, very few can achieve; there is no concrete way to reach it. If one can easily defeat martial arts masters, that would signify a breakthrough into the Grandmaster realm.
The eighth stage is called the Martial God stage; extremely few can ever reach this stage. This is the peak of strength one can achieve without entering the path of cultivating immortality. After Martial God, the only way to progress is to cultivate immortality; the martial arts ends with Martial God.
What is the biggest difference between martial arts and the cultivation of immortality? The biggest one is that martial arts practitioners only use their internal energy, while immortal cultivators absorb the natural energy. The difference is significant; martial arts cultivators may struggle to create one strand of energy in one month, but immortal cultivators may be able to cultivate 100 strands a day.
Martial arts masters do not require a high-energy environment; they only use their own internal energy, so they would not be delayed in their practice even in a low-energy environment. Immortal cultivators, on the other hand, need a high-energy environment.
For that reason, in places where the aura and energy are low, one would not be able to find cultivators but would be able to find many martial artists. In fact, places with low aura are where martial arts thrive; in those places, martial arts rule, while cultivators are just rumors.
A martial god cultivator is even stronger than the 10th stage of energy gathering, just a bit weaker fighting power than that of a core formation cultivator. In places where there is no cultivator who rules directly, martial gods are exactly like gods; one word from their lips can turn everything upside down.
Kingdoms, top sects, top trade groups, top gangs, etc., all forces must have at least one martial god to be able to stand. If they lose their martial god, they would either merge with another force or be destroyed by other forces.
The Breeze Sect was one such sect; they are a martial god force, with 11 martial gods among them. The sect leader is Spring Breeze, an 80-year-old martial god.
The Breeze Sect is the biggest force in the Fang Kingdom, arguably even stronger than the kingdom they reside in; the kingdom doesn't dare to interfere with their affairs at all.
Some time ago, Spring Breeze, the leader of the Breeze Sect, found a relic while exploring the wilderness. The relic contained a secret technique that allowed even those without the talent for immortality to cross the threshold!
Such a heaven-breaking technique could have caused chaos; fortunately, he kept it secret, not letting anyone know, not even his fellow sect members. For months, he researched it, experimented, and finally found out that it was really feasible. Ultimately, he decided to take the risk; in any case, he didn't have many years left.
Not everyone can become a cultivator; the key is to have the talent to absorb energy directly from the air. Technically, everyone can absorb at least a bit of energy from the air, but it won't have any effect if the amount is too small. Some lucky people are born with the talent to absorb massive energy from the air. Those who have this talent are capable of cultivating immortality.
In normal times, acquiring the talent to cultivate immortality is impossible, but it doesn't mean it is impossible; it is possible and doable, such as by consuming talent pills. It's just that such pills involve secrets of the world itself, and crafting them may range from hard to nearly impossible, depending on the world.
The number of people who cultivate immortality affects the world's well-being. As a result, the rate of talent among people is governed by the world's will or has been written into the code. Pills that can meddle with it are difficult to find.
The technique Daoist Spring Breeze discovered was in no way capable of doing those things.
It was called the Vampire King Cultivation Technique. The technique was very simple and easy to understand. Simply put, while martial arts masters are unable to absorb energy from the air, that doesn't mean they cannot absorb energy from the bodies of other martial arts masters.
Without using the Vampire King Technique, if one absorbs the internal energy of another cultivator, the inconsistency and conflict between the two energies would cause at least serious injury. But, using the Vampire King Technique, any internal energy that passes through it would become harmless, pure blood Dao energy. With this technique, it would be possible to accumulate internal energy to form a core. In fact, there is a chapter called Blood Core.
This technique is extremely evil; it practically forces those who practice it to kill others to steal their energy. Even worse, after practicing it for a while, one's personality would change; one would become chaotic and needlessly cruel to others and to oneself.
Still, Daoist Spring Breeze has worked so hard for decades to reach where he is; he is not ready to accept death. He would cultivate this technique, even if it is evil.
"Let's start!" he thought, then opened up a few bottles.
There were seven different bottles in total, each containing different blood from different people, men and women, young and old.
Then, he picked them up and started drinking them.
'Glup, Glup, Glup.'
He drank them all, bottle by bottle.
Then, he started running the Vampire King Technique exactly as it was written.
In the dark room, after a few minutes, two shining red pupils appeared!!
"Success!" Daoist Spring Breeze laughed.
He succeeded!
Now, as long as he drains ten martial gods, he could be promoted to Blood Core and achieve a lifespan of 200 years!
Fortunately for him, his sect has ten martial gods besides him; those ten are easier targets!