"Were you the one who just bought the blood condensing pills?"
"Yes."
Seeing Ling Xu's attitude asking what it had to do with him, Xie Li got angry.
"Did you know that those were the last ones?"
"No, but what does it matter?"
Ling Xu started looking strange at the man he had in front. "Does he have a screw loose?" he thought, wondering what it had to do with him the pills he bought.
"I was going to buy them."
"And? I bought them myself."
Hearing the commotion from the man that was confronting Ling Xu, several people started looking at the scene.
"It's the young master of the Xie family, what did the man do to make him become son angry?"
"It actually is young master Xie Lan, why is he angry?"
"I don't know, but it seems that the other man is very unlucky. To have met the young master of one of the three big families in the town, he is destined to lose."
Hearing the few whispers from the people watching, Ling Xu started to understand what was going on.
"So this is the young master of the Xie family, maybe that's why he thinks he has the right to take what isn't his."
Ling Xu had already learned about the three big families in Lesser Crimson Town that were just below the lord of the town. They were the Xie, Yu and Ma families and each of them had several cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm.
They even have their respective patriarchs in the ninth stage of Qi Refining, putting the, at the top of the food chain in this town. The only person stronger than them was the lord who was already a Foundation Building cultivator.
"Do you understand now why I'm asking?"
Xie Lan had a proud face, hearing the people around talking about with respect to his background. He had become accustomed from a young age to be revered by the normal people who had a gap in power compared to his Xie family.
But all of this was meaningless as Ling Xu had only in his mind that he was going to use the blood condensing pills for himself, and he didn't feel the need to cower at the young master he had in front.
Although his family was very powerful from what he heard, Ling Xu was smart and knew than in just a day and a half he would be gone. After passing the disciples selection he would enter the Formless Sword Sect and he didn't need to feel pressured about his background.
He felt even less burdened about his cultivation realm as Xie Lan was in the ninth stage of Blood Qi and Ling Xu felt more than capable of confronting him.
"If you have nothing else to say, good bye."
He turned around and walked through the exit, leaving Xie Lan left with no face after being ignored several times.
"Stop!"
Xie Lan used his aura to pressure him, he didn't plan on doing it and only wanted to give him a warning. But after being ignored and slapped on the face repeated times he was extremely angry.
"Look, he is using his aura to pressure him!"
"I pity him, now that young master Xie is using his blood qi to pressure him he is done for."
"Yeah, with Xie Lan having undergone two blood exchanges already, it's impossible for the young man to resist form his strong blood qi. Even less as he is just in the seventh stage of Blood Qi."
Feeling the pressure from Xie Lan's blood qi, Ling Xu suddenly stopped.
"Yes, that's right, now you know who you have messed with. You should have cooperated from the start after knowing who you were up against."
"What is this? I can feel that his blood qi is actually as strong as mine! I never expected to encounter someone who has also undergone two blood exchanges."
Ling Xu felt shock after realizing that there was someone else with his level of purity on his blood qi. He even felt pressured at the difference of two stages that made Xie Lan's blood qi reserves more abundant than his, making him capable of putting a stronger pressure.
But pressuring someone and having a direct confrontation were two different things, and fortunately Ling Xu was strong enough to continue without showing any difficulty.
"Look, he is moving!"
"What?! He has resisted young master Xie's aura!"
Seeing Ling Xu exit the store unbothered by his aura, Xie Lan became infuriated.
"Very well, you are stronger than you seem for someone in the seventh stage of Blood Qi but let's see how it goes once we enter the sect."
He thought as he had already figured out that Ling Xu came to Lesser Crimson Town to go through the disciples selection they made once a year.
He never thought he was from here as he would have heard of such a person, able to resist the aura from a ninth stage who had undergone two blood exchanges.
"After I get the blood condensing pills from another store I will enter the Qi Refining Realm and enter directly as an outer disciple, then you will feel what true pressure is."
…
Ling Xu was in his room thinking about what had just happened.
The man he met just now was the second son of the Xie family, Xie Lan. He heard that he is the second son of the Xie family and he was already able to enter as an outer disciple when he was fifteen years old, having surpassed the requirement of being in the third stage of Blood Qi.
But he wasn't called on Lesser Crimson Town a genius only because of his fast cultivation speed but his talent in alchemy.
Before he entered the Formless Sword Sect, he became the disciple of a Foundation Building alchemy refiner who found his talent by coincidence.
Because of this, instead of entering at the age of fifteen years old he was going to enter now, after having become a full fledged Blood Qi alchemy refiner.
"Luckily I'm entering the Formless Sword Sect now, or else I would have had to bow down to this young master of the Xie family."
Feeling that he didn't need to feel pressured at all, Ling Xu brushed it off and sat down in the lotus position, ready to absorb the medicinal effects of the high grade blood condensing pill.
After six full hours of slowly circulating his blood qi and integrating with it the energy from the pill, Ling Xu had one last pill to use.
"After its effect decreased so much, I can barely see any progress in the purity of my blood qi. This pill is probably the last that will actually help me refine my blood qi so I won't buy more of them."
Ling Xu had already refined nine blood condensing pills and was feeling the limitations of using external pills to help in increasing one's strength.
Normally, it would require dozens of them for its effect to reach this point. But with Ling Xu's current blood qi purity, its effect wouldn't help anymore.
Even Xie Lan was able to reach his level of blood qi purity and enter the second blood exchange after using two dozen of them.
"This should be because I have condensed my blood qi through the Blood Thread Transformation technique. From what I saw, there aren't any techniques for strengthening blood qi in this town."
Ling Xu realized this after hearing the people in the store say that Xie Lan was the first of the town to have gone through two blood exchanges.
Normally, if one used a similar technique to condense blood qi just like Ling Xu's, they would have managed to go through the second blood exchange in the peak of the sixth stage of Blood Qi.
…
After another hour and a half, Ling Xu completely absorbed the tenth high grade blood condensing pill.
Finally circulating his blood qi at the normal speed, Ling Xu relaxed once again as he felt the changes his blood qi had gone through after refining the pills.
"Although my blood qi has become stronger than before, I don't know why but I feel that I'm falling short of something for it to undergo another transformation."
Having such a strong connection with his blood qi, having mastered to perfection his Basic Blood Circulation cultivation technique, Ling Xu felt that he just needed one thing and his blood qi would surpass its limit and become extremely strong.
…
The next day, Ling Xu only stayed in the tavern.
He rarely moved out of his room as he decided to start refining his bones and advance in his cultivation stage once again.
"Every time I circulate my blood qi I feel that a portion of it is swallowed by my bones, refining them from the inside."
Ling Xu realized that his blood qi entered his bones, as he felt it through the remaining connection it had with him, before being completely absorbed by them.
After half a day of constant refining, only stopping to eat when his body felt hungry, this was his current progress.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (48%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (27,1%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
Ling Xu realized that his progress had become even faster than when he was refining his organs, after having gone through the second blood exchange and completed his Blood Thread Transformation technique.
Both of them greatly increasing the purity of his blood qi.
Ling Xu realized that this phase was dependent on the purity of his blood qi because the purer it was the deeper his blood qi would seep into his bones. Having a better effect in refining them.
He felt that once his blood qi entered a certain depth into the bone it would suddenly stop, and then it would completely be absorbed by it.
Normally, to advance from the seventh stage of Blood Qi to the eight, it would take a month if they refined their bones every day.
And this progress would only be faster when using high grade blood tempering pills, but after you consume a certain number of them the effect will decrease just like for the blood condensing pills.
But with his blood qi, he was able to progress more than five times faster than the average cultivator in town.
This cultivation speed could be considered very fast, surpassing even Xie Lan, who was called one of the top geniuses in the town.
…
In a secluded room, there is a young man of only nineteen years old.
With his elegant clothes and strong aura he gave off a very imposing feeling, but all of a sudden a movement occurred.
After a complete hour the impression he gave off had completely changed because the aura that was previously shown had now disappeared.
The young man opened his eyes.
"I can't believe that after three and a half years of learning the refining techniques and recipes from my master, he left. Asking me to enter the Formless Sword Sect and to reach a high stage in the Qi Refining Realm before finding him at Windfall City."
The man who was in the room was none other than Xie Lan.
It was the same person that asked Ling Xu to give him the last high grade blood condensing pills that were on sale at Treasure Shop.
If he had the chance to get the pills in another store he wouldn't have made such a big reaction out of it.
But after the town had become full of young cultivators who increased the demand on the lower and middle grade Blood Qi pills, the production for the rest decreased. Making the high grade blood condensing pills run out of stock.
Fortunately, someone who had bought the blood condensing pills before Ling Xu saw the commotion and gave them to him as a gift, with the intention of befriending the young master of the Xie family.
"Now that I'm sure to become an outer disciple, don't let me see you again."
He thought, deciding to leave it there as he had barely any hatred towards Ling Xu.
The reason why he became so overbearing was because at that time, seeing that he may not enter the Qi Refining Realm before entering the sect, he thought that he would have to become an unofficial disciple.
This is because unofficial disciples are also called menial workers and they are the ones who do the hard labor inside the sect.
Being always above the rest made Xie Lan not tolerating the idea of entering with such a low status. And he wasn't the only one as the young masters from the other families did the same, waiting before they were about to breakthrough the Qi Refining Realm before entering the sect.