As for Aksai combining the concepts of qi and Spirit essence together in a single weapon?
Aksai did not have the qualifications to think deeply about this matter.
He knew that the idea was tempting, but its execution was not going to be a walk in the park. Or more like, a walk in the farm.
Aksai had managed to obtain the 1st-order inheritances related to alchemy and Array Formations only recently because of the participation in the exchange meet.
It wouldn’t be easy to get an inheritance related to artifact forging anytime soon. Not to mention, Aksai would also need to obtain various qi-based manuals and study them deeply before he could start experimenting with the fusion weapon.
These tasks weren’t something Aksai could do on a snap of his fingers. However, he liked the idea so much that he decided to keep this objective on the back burner. He had finally made some acquaintances in the Dadangar World because of the exchange meet.
Although it wouldn’t happen right away, Aksai was sure that an artifact forging inheritance would one day land in his hands anyway through the use of these acquaintances.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it. You just have to conspire with the universe itself in order to raise your chances.”
Aksai mused to himself before snapping his fingers. In the next moment, a fire-element Spirit spell enveloped Zen’s form, burning his clothes. It didn’t take long before Zen’s completely exposed form was revealed.
After learning a few things from the Blood Fiend Creation manual, Aksai knew that there were some Essence Equation traps that couldn’t be detected using Spirit Sense. He had to visually confirm their presence to ensure he didn’t fall into a trap set by a Blood Bakshi cultivator.
“There it is,” Aksai found a red-colored Essence Equation the size of an infant’s finger on Zen’s lower back. Using a simple wind-element blade spell, he quickly flayed Zen’s skin and the nearby region around it.
Aksai then stood away from the corpse and summoned one of his Scarecrow puppets to take his place. He sat on the ground and operated the puppet, making it remove Zen’s storage ring from his finger. Using the puppet as the carrier, Aksai let his Spirit Sense enter the storage ring.
In the next moment, a purple poison mist was released from the storage ring that enveloped the clone’s hand holding the storage ring. This purple poison mist managed to seep into the puppet’s lifeless skin and enter its system.
The puppet’s arm skin melted as if it were wax coming into contact with fire when the purple poison mist took hold inside. Next, the muscles of the puppet melted, followed by partial melting of the bones.
Aksai watched with neutral expressions as the trap devised by Zen ended up destroying the puppet’s arm. He had already lessened the effects of the trap by removing the small Essence Equation on Zen’s back.
His precaution had made the effects of the trap relatively milder. Otherwise, the purple poison mist would have been able to melt the entirety of the Scarecrow puppet.
Aksai thanked his lucky stars that he had managed to obtain the Blood Fiends Creation Manual from the Blood Bakshis before the chaos erupted. Otherwise, he would have failed to detect these traps.
After the chaos spread in the two counties, the Lakir Family had made the remnant forces as deadly as possible by proliferating most of the techniques associated with the Blood Bakshi Arts among its associates. However, they still did not want the Blood Bakshi Arts to fall into the wrong hands.
The new and veteran Blood Bakshi cultivators took every possible measure to ensure that any technique related to the Blood Bakshi Arts did not fall into enemy hands.
However, Aksai was different. Although he hadn’t deeply studied the Blood Fiend Manual, he could navigate around such obvious traps.
When Aksai was sure that the trap was completely triggered, he made the puppet release the storage ring and let it come to him.
Aksai sent a few more Essence Equations inside the storage ring to prevent a smaller trap from destroying the contents within the spatial storage. When everything was done, a fully unlocked storage ring landed on Aksai’s open palm.
“Let me see what I got,” Aksai commented to himself before sending his Spirit Sense inside the ring once again. This time, there were no traps, so the contents of the storage ring were revealed to him.
Without wasting much time, Aksai made all the contents stored within the storage ring appear outside in his vision. It seemed that Zen had acquired quite a lot of cultivation resources for himself, even though the two counties were in turmoil.
Or perhaps, he could obtain these cultivation resources because there was chaos. After all, with bigger risks came bigger rewards.
“With bigger risks come bigger rewards, huh? I don’t particularly like this concept, but I have to acknowledge how truthful it is,” Aksai thought to himself and sighed as he looked at Zen’s possessions spread in front of him.
The first set of resources consisted of all kinds of organs of Spirit cultivators and demon beasts stored inside dozens of sealed glass containers, immersed in embalming fluids. These were the resources that could only be found inside the storage rings of Blood Bakshi cultivators.
Aksai completely ignored these resources. Although he had stopped feeling aversion to these resources, he was not completely okay with using them. At least not yet.
The second set of resources were the pills and elixirs that could be useful for a late-stage Spirit cultivator like Aksai. These resources were also stored inside small porcelain bottles before being sealed with simple Essence Equations to keep their efficacy locked in.
Then there was the third set of resources consisting of various manuals. From old and worn-out tomes to books that had been clearly crafted recently. There were some scrolls describing various concepts related to Blood Bakshi Arts as well. They covered the basics and touched upon some profound concepts as well.
Aksai also found a complete version of the Blood Strengthening technique in Zen’s storage ring. This was the same technique that Aunt Reta had used to temporarily boost her powers in her death match with the robbers. Aksai had claimed this technique for himself, but he never really got the opportunity to use it.
Thankfully, Aksai managed to get the complete technique by killing Zen. The complete version of the technique could use the blood and qi of others in tattoo forms to empower its users.
Using the Blood Strengthening this way would allow the users to not damage their Life Force and hurt their foundation. The effects brought out by the technique were also much stronger. The intensity of the boost one would receive by triggering the Blood Strengthening through the runic tattoos would completely depend on the processed blood of one’s enemies.
Aksai quickly thought of the martial artists. He could feel that the blood of the martial artists was better suitable for the Blood Strengthening because it was imbued with potent qi energy.
This was not all.
Aksai also received the Brain Bonsai technique from Zen, which the latter himself had never used. The Brain Bonsai technique required the users to harvest their enemies’ intact brains before planting them as fruits on certain compatible plants.
The Brain Bonsai did not have any offensive power. Its only function was to allow its users to think at a rapid rate using the processing powers of the harvested brains. The technique allowed its users to have certain insights into their cultivation journey at a faster rate. It also raised the users’ chances of having random bouts of enlightenment.
The Brain Bonsai technique at an advanced level could also be used to scan someone’s memories and assimilate with their experiences. This kind of memory procession and experience assimilation could play a vital role in certain situations.
“Hehe. This harvest is great,” Aksai thought to himself and laughed out while rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
“The Blood Bakshi Art is truly profound. I’m more certain than ever that the Purple River Sect was scared of its potential. Especially the fact that this type of cultivation art lay entirely in the hands of a particular family. So it destroyed the Lakir family using the borrowed knife,” Aksai thought to himself and sighed.
“Well, this kind of harvest is not bad. It makes me target all the available Blood Bakshi cultivators out of my own volition,” Aksai decided in his mind as he checked upon a particular scroll. This was a form of a map that had various X-shaped marks over it.
The map clearly covered the two counties. If Aksai’s guess was not wrong, the X-shaped marks indicated the locations of the hideouts and secret caves the Blood Bakshi cultivators still used to protect themselves as well as to gather.
When Aksai studied the map, a plan was formed in his mind. He decided to get his hands on other pieces of the Blood Bakshi Arts as well by targeting all the other Blood Bakshi cultivators.
After all, why should only Aksai’s enemies get to follow him and target him for his possessions? He could also do the same for his benefits.
Aksai decided to spend a few more weeks in the Dadangar World. He spent his next three weeks targeting many Blood Bakshi cultivators in their lairs when they least expected it.
Turns out, Aksai was a better robber than his enemies. The Spirit farmer, with his obsessive compulsive wariness, set better traps for his targets. He made full use of his Scarecrow puppets and martial arts to get rid of the Blood Bakshis quickly and effectively.
By the end of the third week, Aksai stopped what he was doing and decided to retreat. One shouldn’t try to push his luck too far.
The Spirit farmer in him knew that too much greed would spell his downfall. As such, he said a temporary goodbye to the Dadangar World and returned to Martial World Sharang.
The gains Aksai had made during this trip were immense.
All he needed to do within the coming few years was to digest these gains slowly and make tremendous improvements in all aspects of his cultivation paths.