After being reborn, all I want to do is run away.

Chapter 17 The Intent of Blood

The green mountains, like a screen, embrace a pool of emerald lake. A gentle breeze rises, and the lake surface ripples with fine waves, which shimmer with golden light under the refraction of sunlight.

Shen Xu sat cross-legged by the lake, continuously circulating his internal energy to restore the depleted vital energy within his body.

After defeating Mo Shan, his life became much more peaceful. Shen Guangjian stopped sending people to cause him trouble, and he was happy to have some peace and quiet.

In his previous life, the Dao he comprehended was the Dao of Blood. If he were to recompile the Dao of Blood, it would certainly be much easier. Unfortunately, he was not a disciple of the Blood Fiend Palace, and the Dao of Blood was almost entirely tied to the Blood Fiend Palace. If he were to reveal the Dao of Blood, things might not be so easy to explain.

Moreover, without the help of the Blood Pool, the meaning of blood is not so easy to comprehend, so he could only choose to comprehend a different kind of Dao meaning.

As for which Dao meaning to comprehend, Shen Xu had already made his choice. The reason he chose the Water-based Overlapping Wave Sword Technique in the library was to prepare for comprehending the meaning of water.

The lake in front of him was a feng shui treasure land that Shen Xu had asked Wu Qi to find, a place to comprehend the meaning of water. However, this place was not close to Cuiyun Mountain, and he could not go back and forth every day. So he applied to go out for training, but actually built a shed by the lake and lived the life of a wild man.

These past few days, apart from hunting a deer to eat, he has been sitting by the lake cultivating. Thanks to the ample supply of Qi-nourishing pills, his cultivation has improved considerably.

However, he had no clue about the meaning of water, and the Overlapping Waves Sword Technique, which he had placed high hopes on, did not provide him with any substantial help.

Moreover, no matter how much he practiced, he could not break through the bottleneck of the five waves. All those practices only made him able to unleash the four waves faster.

The vital energy in the dantian is completely depleted, then meditation is performed to restore it, then it is depleted again, and meditation is performed again to restore it...

Shen Xu had repeated this process countless times over the past few days, but he also knew that he couldn't rush it. As the saying goes, haste makes waste, and haste leads to mistakes. The more urgent the matter, the less he should panic. Not only would panic not help, but it might even push things in a rapidly deteriorating direction.

As evening approached, Shen Xu sighed, ending his day of cultivation—another fruitless day. Gazing at the still water and the red sunset reflected on it, Shen Xu began to wonder if he had used the wrong method, or if comprehending the Dao was something that could only be achieved through a fleeting moment of inspiration.

The setting sun was like blood. With his eyes closed, Shen Xu couldn't help but think of the night he comprehended the meaning of blood. At that time, he had just come into contact with the Blood Fiend Palace. After swearing allegiance, he was taken to the Blood Pool and his cultivation was forcibly elevated. He remembered that place, apart from a huge blood pool in the center of the main hall, was filled with thick blood and broken flesh covered in blood plasma. The entire environment was shrouded in a thick layer of bloody mist, and the strong stench of blood made him want to vomit.

At that time, he had nothing but his life, and all he had was the thought of taking revenge on the Shen family. So, amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, he jumped into the blood pool without hesitation.

After jumping in, his vision was instantly obscured by endless red blood, as if the whole world had turned into an ocean of blood.

His mouth was filled with the taste of blood, a viscous liquid with a rusty flavor that constantly stimulated his taste buds; the sound of blood flowing echoed in his ears, the lament of life fading away; his nose was filled with the smell of blood, the pungent, fishy odor making his mind somewhat dizzy, and his stomach was filled with blood, the churning sensation almost making him lose his mind.

Finally, even his body seemed to turn into a pool of blood, merging with the blood pool. Surrounded by blood, his last trace of consciousness gradually dissipated.

Just as his consciousness was about to plunge into complete darkness, in a daze, he seemed to hear a faint voice asking him, "What is blood?"

At that moment, a powerful thought arose in his mind: Blood is nourishment! It is brutality! It is slaughter! It is death!

The thought made him no longer smell the stench of blood. As time went by, the blood around him became more friendly, and some substances in the blood began to merge into his body. He felt an unprecedented sense of comfort, and his strength increased rapidly. Finally, he broke through the Qi Nourishing Realm and entered the Qi Condensation Realm.

Later he learned that of the people who entered the Blood Pool with him, only he survived. The others had all become nourishment for the Blood Pool, waiting for the next batch of people to arrive. Only those who comprehended the meaning of blood in the Blood Pool could survive. The Blood Fiend Palace had lied to him.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Shen Xu was jolted awake from his reverie. He then realized that it was completely dark, with only faint starlight quietly reflected on the water. Moreover, his clothes were completely soaked with sweat. Panting heavily and feeling the faint blood aura surrounding him, Shen Xu couldn't help but smile bitterly.

The intent of blood is considered one of the higher-level intents of the Dao, making it very difficult to comprehend. Even with the Blood Fiend Palace's uniquely advantageous environment of the Blood Pool, only a few members can comprehend the intent of blood, as they are reluctant to send their painstakingly trained disciples to risk their lives in the Blood Pool.

However, even if you don't go into the blood pool, just experiencing the environment around it will greatly help you understand the essence of blood.

Another way to comprehend the meaning of blood is through killing, which is essentially no different from the blood pool of the Blood Fiend Palace. However, killing may lead to the comprehension of an extremely high level of the meaning of killing.

He thought that without the Blood Pool, he wouldn't be able to comprehend the meaning of blood, but he never expected that he could easily obtain the meaning of blood, which he had only managed to comprehend after nearly dying in his previous life, by simply taking a nap. Shen Xu couldn't help but sigh at the unpredictability of life.

However, no matter how powerful the intent of blood is, it is useless to him now. What he wants to comprehend most right now is the intent of water, but he still can't grasp it. It's true that you can't plant flowers with care, but they will grow into lush willows without intention.

"Intentional or unintentional?" Shen Xu fell into deep thought.

“Whether in my past life or now, I never thought I would try to comprehend the meaning of blood, yet I always inexplicably comprehend it. This time, I vowed to comprehend the meaning of water and made many preparations for it, but I still couldn’t succeed. Could it be that I was too obsessed with comprehending the meaning of water, and thus I ended up doing something inferior?” Shen Xu frowned.

Shen Xu stared at the dark lake water, knowing that the lake water was also staring at him. The starlight was reflected on the black lake surface and then reflected into his eyes through the lake.

The night breeze, carrying wisps of moisture from the lake, brought him a refreshing coolness.