Abel couldn't help but smile upon hearing this news. This meant that his life as a cultivator wasn't about to end. It made sense, since Zeke and the warrior he had fought a few hours ago were using qi just as a human would.
"The dark path? What's that?"
"It's just an arcane, obscure path of cultivation. It destroys the soul, leaving just the void of energy behind that can be tapped into using a dantian. Those under the dark path lose their sanity as they venture further, becoming true demons by the end of it. Those under the dark path are called warlocks, and that's pretty much all I know. Most of the knowledge I gained is from fantasy books in Nudra so don't take my word as gospel." Zeke stated.
"Before you go, let me help you with something,"
Abel and Zeke were now in the school library, and Zeke was sat at one of the wooden tables with him, where people could read and cultivate.
He had gained a sheet of clean parchment from one of the librarians working in such library.
Zeke also had a rectangular pot of dark purple ink, that was the blood of a beast. He dipped his thin wooden brush in it and began to elegantly write out an extravagant inscription. It was incredibly detailed, but he did each brush perfectly.
In about a few minutes of him doing this, the job was done, and he handed the parchment back to Abel.
Just to check that it was a functioning inscription, Zeke closed his eyes and red-blood qi exuded from his fingertips.
The symbols glowed purple, before switching to the red colour of his own qi.
"This should work. It's an inscription straight out of Nudra and it's what... vampires use to form their dantian." He said, whispering the last bit of his sentence.
Abel almost felt like crying upon holding this treasure. The time had come.
It was finally time for his body to gain the power of qi!
***
With that, the students were to enter their final part of the day, which was just simple cultivation.
Abel used this time to work on cultivating, and nearing the end of the session, he felt something. It was hard to describe, but it felt like a dark abyss. It felt like looking down into a gigantic dark hole that looked like it went down forever.
Being snapped out of his trance, the session was over, and Zeke decided to go with Abel instead of walking back into the city on his own.
The two had some stuff to do, and that was to get Abel some human blood.
"So, how are you going to get blood for me covertly?" Abel asked.
"I'm going to use a special skill that we call compulsion. Vampires with enough qi control can compel human beings to do as they please. If you work hard enough on it, you then become able to compel even other supernatural beings like werewolves." Zeke replied.
They arrived in the central area of the city, and Zeke was surveying the surroundings to find a target.
Abel didn't really understand the criteria that Zeke had for determining who to pick, so he just left his friend to his resources.
Tapping on someone's shoulder, they stopped with surprise but then looked frozen as they stared into Zeke's eyes.
His pupils contracted as he looked forward with focus and gave his command.
"Come with me. Do not be scared and do not make any noise. Don't try to leave, either." He explained.
The man nodded and looked to be in a trance, then he followed Zeke to the back of a restaurant that was beside them.
The area they were in looked quite unrevealing and closed off from the surrounding streets.
"Here we go. Take your drink, but do not go overboard. I saw what you did with your last two targets and it was hard for me to try and cover it up for you." Zeke stated.
Just as Abel approached the man's neck, the smell came back to him. He couldn't smell adrenaline, but that was a given as he was compelled.
Digging his fangs into his neck, he began to drink and almost felt like he was going to lose control from the feeling. He drank many gulps of blood, before forcing himself to come to a stop.
"I commend your control. It must be because you're a hybrid and you don't really need it." He explained.
"So, what happens if I don't drink blood?" Abel asked, licking the drops of blood left on his mouth.
"You just lose your immortality. Us vampires gain our life force from human blood. If we don't have that, we eventually desiccate and end up in a neutralised state, just like when we're staked."
Just as Abel had finished his drink, Zeke began wiping the blood left on the man's neck and handed him a healing pill that he had from the expedition that they had just went on.
"Eat this and forget about what happened just now." Zeke ordered, and the man did just as he was commanded to.
Chewing on the crunchy pill, he almost looked confused before walking off like nothing happened at all.
Abel looked taken aback by the ability that he had. With such an ability, Zeke could almost get anything he wanted.
"Why don't you use this power to just become super rich and powerful?" Abel asked.
"It doesn't work like that. My ability can only be used against those that are sufficiently weak enough. I struggle to even compel the masters at our academy, and I'd have no hope of compelling Lord Ingolf or someone if I tried." He replied.
Abel gave his thanks to Zeke for his help and returned to his home to swiftly begin cultivating. He could tell that progress was being made and now, couldn't stop himself.
He continued cultivating, and was met by that ominous, dark feeling once again. At first, it was quite scary, but he now felt ready to take on the challenge.
Upon cultivating, he could feel this dark feeling intensify. With his eyes closed, he had an expression of confusion upon feeling this sensation.
Suddenly, he could feel a warm energy being summoned into his stomach. It got larger and larger, until a golden aura of qi was formed across his entire body. Abel's eyes started to glow their amber-gold colour, and he looked on at his body with delight.
"No way... no way!!" He called out, with tears now running down his cheeks.
He just laughed with tears of joy, feeling the power that he had longed for for so long. He was tormented by it in his dreams, in the academy. Now, that was all over.
'Now is only the beginning! With this power, I will not be stopped. The sky is the limit!' Abel declared to himself, clenching his fist.
"Nothing's going to stop me now." He stated to himself, before wiping the tears flowing down his cheeks.
His qi retreated into his newly formed dantian, and his demonic face faded away.
With this, he promptly informed his master from his academy of his new achievement.
"Master Oscar, I have now formed my dantian." He informed him.
"You didn't have to inform me; I can sense it. Good work, now you won't have to be expelled. Continue working hard." He monotonously replied.
Abel was expecting slightly more praise than he was given but realised that he was expecting a little bit too much. These masters only praised those at the very top. Those with talent that they could nurture to become strong warriors.
It would give them a better reputation, and academies would regularly be rewarded by the lordship of a city, which is just its government, through monetary grants.
Now that his mode of cultivation had gone past mere inscriptions to form a dantian, he could advance to the next stage.
This was stage was the utilisation of skills. Skills were special techniques that one could utilise from manipulating the qi within their bodies. At this time, this is what all of his classmates were doing.
People had formed a foundation of qi and their dantian, and now had to master controlling it in various ways to become more versatile, powerful fighters.
However, upon manipulating his qi he could realise that it wasn't going to be particularly productive. When he tried to follow the rules in even the most basic skill books, he couldn't do much at all.
The cryptic descriptions of the skills were hard for him to follow, and this was a given. He hadn't even tried to perform a skill at any point in his life since he couldn't.
What was puzzling was that when he tried to manipulate his qi in the described way, his qi just wouldn't flow.