Feeling his head clear up as the poison receded, Soha sighed. He was once more in an Inn. Now that he had money that he had stolen from the bandits, he didn't have to worry about money for this kind of thrifty lifestyle for atleast the next two to three months.
Taking the book containing the external arts, he flipped to a specific page and looked at its contents: Black Poison Palm Art. For normal practitioners, they cannot progress in the Innate Qi department by eating hearts, so they usually just cultivate their External Arts and when it reaches the next level, their Innate Qi breaks through alongside it.
He also wanted to try whether that was possible. Currently, even as he was reading, his left hand was inside a considerably large bowl of black liquid. Slowly, his hand was growing painful and cold inside there. He knew the unique composition of liquid was reacting with his Innate Qi and making it forcibly move in a unique pathway of meridians inside the palm.
The Li Clan had provided him with all the needed concoction which was actually very cheap.
He could feel the Innate Qi move along with an extremely painful sensation but he couldn't come close to understanding how he was supposed to make it move on his own. Yet, he also knew that doing this for a whole month would fundamentally change his left palm into a poisonous palm offensive-type external art. He was eager to test it out.
If he could transform both his palms into poisonous palms and then reach the next level of the poisonous palm method where he could transform his palm into poisonous and normal at just a thought, he would reach the realm of 2nd Class Martial Artists without eating a hundred human hearts.
"Emma, the next few days are going to be a bit hectic…" He sighed. "I could probably eat a hundred human hearts way before the two months it would require to change both of my palms. Wake me up four hours later. Let's head out of the village to that bandit area."
[Okays.]
He didn't notice it, but she could see visible aging all over his body. He was aging at a rapid rate, and practicing this method of eating hearts seemed to pull on his very life essence.
At this rate, he would probably have, at best, around 30 years of lifespan, and that was pushing it. He was aging by the day.
***
Six weeks passed.
The renowned bandit-filled forest named the Criminal Well had a new legend these days. A legend that made the bandits shiver at night. A heart-eating monster in human clothing was around the area now—The Heart-Eating Demon.
He comes and goes like a phantom. He was atleast a 3rd-Class Martial Artist, but no one knew his face or his true strength. He was always covered in a red mask and a bamboo hat.
He had the appearance of a samurai seeking honor, but he had not the slightest bit of honor. He would come at night when they were in their nightly activities or spread poisonous powder around before ambushing them. He was an utterly shameless man.
Some had tried to ambush him or catch him, but if he spotted a Martial Artist, even if they were old men past their prime with barely 3rd Class level of fighting capability, he would run and hide. He was a rat.
Of the around three hundred bandits in the Criminal Well, with more than three 2nd Class Martial Artist Bandit Heads ruling the area from hiding, atleast more than fifty had died. If it was a gradual event, they would have had a chance to set up preventions, but the first three days he appeared, he did a great ambush and killed more than thirty of them, and a week later, more followed.
Then, he vanished.
The bandit heads were waiting for him to show himself again, but he had vanished entirely, not a name or scent of him remaining. They could tell he was using their people to practice Demonic Martial Arts, and they wanted it for themselves, but the culprit never appeared.
***
Soha headed out of the Li Clan City, having taken the antidote once more. As usual, he was in his signature appearance, but now, both of his arms were inside a small woolen glove. Anybody he touched with his palms would slowly become poisoned, and his hand had also become tougher overall. It was like wooden branches or tough leather now.
Knives couldn't easily penetrate.
Every day, he had spent about two or three painful hours sinking his hand into the poisonous concoction, and eating hearts seemed to make the progress quicker. He had already eaten more than 60 hearts, and his overall appearance had become a very unhealthy pale.
But at the same time, he could sense that his Innate Qi was growing in quantity even though it was becoming more and more cloudy and dispersed rather than strong and one whole. Yet, he didn't mind. One of these days, Li Yuntao told him a point that made him very gloomy.
"There were no Demonic Arts in the whole world that could let a practitioner become a Grandmaster. That was impossible. Martial Master Class was their limit, and even as Masters, they could only practice Low-level External Arts due to their bad Qi. So, they would always be weaker than normal Martial Artists."
Regardless of knowing that, though, Soha would have still chosen the Demonic Path due to how easy it was to level up. Yet, he couldn't help but sigh at the fact.
There were three types of External Arts: Low-Level, Medium-Level, and High-Level. They were literally battle skills.
His Black Poison Palm Art, for example, was just a Low-level Art.
And since his Innate Qi was fundamentally heavy due to the sort of Innate Qi he practiced, he couldn't practice Movement External Arts or good Defensive Arts half as easily as he was practicing his current palm art. It wouldn't have as good of an effect either.
He could only focus on offense if he wanted to prioritize time. Nobody taught him professionally, so his gains were all blitzkrieg research by himself and Emma.
He wanted to quickly become a 2nd Class Martial Artist. It was said that becoming 2nd Class for a Demonic Martial Artist was easier, and that was true. He just had to eat warm hearts.
Once again, he headed for a bandit hub, but it was no longer the Criminal Well. Those people were too alert. He decided to go the other direction this time.