It took Alex another week to make the connection between pathways and patterns. In a way, the meridians inside of a human body were just shaping the Qi in a certain pattern in order to be used.
It was not that the Qi had to go through twisting paths to change along the way, but rather for the Qi to form a pattern within the body to use the technique.
Alex wondered if this new realization was at all enough to learn a new Dao, but without Heaven, it was impossible to tell.
Still, he was certain he was going in the right direction.
Alex’s attempt at the new Blood Armor continued to fail even after making the new realization, but that was to be expected. Just because he knew the blood aura had to make a pattern did not mean that he knew what the pattern was.
However, he had the original Blood Armor to experiment and learn through, so he was certain he would succeed in a relatively short amount of time. All he was really doing was changing the size of the armor, after all.
The real test would come afterward when he had to improve the Blood Beasts. He would have to see if the Sun Wraiths could help him get some idea on what exactly he could do, but he wasn’t very hopeful.
Just like the Blood Beasts, the Sun Wraiths couldn’t grow stronger after the day they formed as well. At least, he could probably try and learn how he could make stronger Blood Beasts out of weaker blood cores. That was one of the major drawbacks of the current Blood Beasts, along with their inability to grow.
Outside of those techniques, Alex’s time in Sunspear had been going rather fine. He had learned about the chief’s decision to integrate the new battle formation into teaching the younger generation, and slowly having the older generation try it out too.
The change wouldn’t be instant, but they would be changing it sooner or later.
Alex had been handing over his pastes regularly and had even started giving them other types of pastes than the regular ones. When Tala first learned that he could create pastes that could increase the libido in men and women, he immediately commissioned Alex to make those.
Even the chief personally came to his place to ask about those pastes and take some with him. The libido-improving pastes were almost an instant success.
There were other pastes that were loved quite a lot as well. There was one that removed wrinkles from faces for nearly an entire week, which the older women liked more than Alex could have realized. There was a paste that one put on their tongue, which made everything they ate sweet and savory.
No one in the other worlds cared for such vanity pastes, but here, they were a massive success. Smelling nice, looking younger, and other such matters were something Alex associated with mortals more than cultivators, and yet these people seemed very excited about it all.
Alex wasn’t sure if it was the novelty of it that made it popular or if the pastes were genuinely liked by all.
In the end, as long as the blood came pouring into his room, he didn’t care.
Alex felt his blood aura continue to improve, and at this rate, he would likely even reach Immortal Origin 9th realm with his blood aura soon.
That would put his blood aura as the second strongest thing he had, with his Qi being the stronger.
Technically, his Immortal Transcendent 3rd realm Spiritual energy should have been the strongest energy he had, but due to the seal, it was quite a lot weaker right now.
As Alex’s days passed by and he continued to improve on everything, including his cultivation base by occasionally going out to hunt for Sunhearts and beast cores, he began to realize that he didn’t have much left keeping him in this place.
The blood was nice, but even that wasn’t anything great. The other cities deeper in the desert would fit him better. It was time to leave, but he didn’t just want to leave.
So, he decided that he would leave the day he figured out his new Blood Armor technique. He could tell from his rate of improvement that it wouldn’t take him longer than a month to do so, if at that.
Tala arrived at his house, carrying a large amount of blood once again.
“You’re back,” Alex said. “How was the trip to Life’s Edge?”
“Same old,” Tala said. “I’ve brought plenty of herbs this time around. Everything you gave me on your list is here.”
Alex smiled and nodded. “That’s great. But I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Tala looked up. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I think I want to leave this place soon and head deeper into the desert.”
Tala’s eyes widened slightly. “But you haven’t been here for that long.”
“No, but I’ve already received everything I needed from this city. The other things I want lie deeper in the desert. So I have decided that I will be leaving soon.”
“How… how soon?” Tala asked.
Alex shrugged. “A week or two. I haven’t decided the day just yet, but it won’t be long.”
“I see,” Tala said. “It has been close to two months since you began staying here. I was wondering if you really were planning to stay here for a while, but I suppose you were always destined to leave.”
Alex chuckled a little. “Don’t tell me you’ll get sad because of me leaving.”
“Not really,” Tala said. “But I will be sad that we will be losing such an incredible paste maker. I’ll have to have you make a lot more pastes before you leave in that case…”
Alex chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve thought about that as well.”
“Thought what?” Tala asked.
“Bring over your daughter starting tomorrow morning,” Alex said. “I’ll teach her all the ins and outs of how pastes are made.”