Virgil regains his consciousness, and the first thing he feels is pain in every part of his body.
He feels like he is hungry, yet his stomach is full.
He is completely confused by this feeling.
He channels the cure minor wound spell, but instead of relief, he screams in pain.
The door of the room opens, and Cynthia and the rest enter.
Cynthia rushes to his bedside and feeds him a mixture that spreads relief through his body.
Virgil sighs as the pain fades, "What happened?"
Vincent, standing behind Cynthia, speaks, "You are suffering from mana deprivation."
Virgil, confused, asks, "What?"
Cynthia holds his hand, "Do not worry. In a few days, you will return to normal."
Virgil says, "Why am I suffering from mana deprivation?"
Mira says, "Your last move was a second-order move, and you are a first-order professional."
Virgil understands now—he is a first-order professional who used a second-order move.
The mana needed for a second-order move does not exist within a first-order professional.
The move drained every bit of mana from his body, leaving him dry as a desert.
After that, Virgil fell asleep.
The next day, upon waking, he used the simulation reincarnation opportunity.
(You suddenly die and reincarnate again.)
(You are born into a merchant family and named Duan Zhixing.)
(You find in your memory the Lotus Visualisation Technique, Blood Mark Meditation, Six Pole Technique, Golden Iron Body Technique, Nine Spells, and memories of spear and combat skills.)
(You feel confused—you don't remember Earth, only faint impressions of a visualisation technique and spear combat.)
(You assume this is your golden finger.)
(From birth, you practice the Lotus Visualisation Technique, which only improves memory.)
(You also try the Blood Mark Meditation, but within minutes, you grow sleepy and fall asleep.)
(Your parents grow worried and call a doctor.)
(To avoid alarming them, you continue the practice only at night.)
(You can't enter your sea of consciousness to verify progress.)
(But the exhaustion afterwards and the clarity in thought convince you it's working.)
(At three, you begin training with a spear.)
(The family guard captain notices your talent and accepts you as a disciple.)
(He teaches you martial arts, and only then do you realise this is a cultivation world.)
(The martial path has the lower four realms, the middle three, and the upper three.)
(Your teacher is a ninth-level martial artist who only knows the lower four realms and the first middle realm's name.)
(The lower four realms are: Sensing, Forging, Hammering, and Refining.)
(To enter the Sensing Realm, one must train the body and will to sense physical energy.)
(Your teacher teaches you the Iron Body Technique.)
(You are confused that the Iron Body Technique is similar to the Golden Iron Technique—likely the Iron Body Technique is the basis from which the Golden Iron Body Technique was created.)
(After reading the Six Pole Technique, you discover that the Fire Yang and Iron Body techniques are combined to create the Golden Iron Body Technique.)
(You wonder if this is not your first time reincarnating in this world—like you have travelled to the past again, forgetting all memory except the cultivation methods.)
(However, the visualisation, meditation techniques, and spells make you even more confused.)
(Your teacher is only a lower-rank martial artist; he may not know the truth.)
(...You die, killed by a second-rank martial artist.)
Rating — B. Reward — Understanding of Yang power.
The reincarnation was similar to the previous one.
Only this time, you chose to comprehend the Yang Power.
You were able to kill three innate martial artists after combining both Fire Yang and Yang Power.
This provoked a stronger martial artist, and you were killed.
You had already naturalised some percentage of Fire Yang Power, which was the reason you could keep yourself alive against the Dark Orc before your mana was drained completely.
Fire Yang and Yang Power share the same basic structure, so you can also naturalise Yang Power with relative ease.
After two days, you are able to walk again, though you still cannot use mana.
You come out of the room, and Swan approaches with something found on the leader of the Dark Orcs.
Because of you, the Dark Orc leader was killed.
But you know the Dark Orc would have died anyway, since you didn't receive any event notification.
You understand now—you only get an event notification when you change the course of the future in a minor or major way.
If your action doesn't alter the outcome and it would happen regardless, then your participation doesn't matter, and you receive no reward.
Among the leader's belongings, Swan finds a book.
"It is a Blood Warrior professional book for the Dark Orc race," Swan says.
Reading the book, Virgil's eyes brighten.
"I will take this," he says.
"Are you sure?" Swan asks.
Virgil nods, and with the book, he returns to his room.
Inside, he begins reading.
He cannot practise the contents after finishing it.
But instead of feeling down, he is elated.
The book teaches how to turn physical energy into blood energy, a more combat-focused power.
With the Six Pole technique, he can create a physical technique of his own.
And now that he cannot use mana, the timing is perfect.
He can regain his combat effectiveness and become even stronger.
Even as a spiritualist, he relies less on spells and more on his spear.
He closes his eyes and ponders how to form the technique.
A week later, in an open space near the village, Virgil moves with his spear.
He grows faster and faster.
His speed becomes too great for the naked eye.
At last, he ends with a straight piercing attack.
A red light appears on the spear's tip, cutting the very air.
He has successfully created the beginning of a physical technique for himself.
It is formed from the blood energy of the dark elf, his own physical energy, and the qi of martial artists.
Drawing from three sources—blood energy, physical energy, and martial qi—Virgil forged something entirely new: Blood Chakra.
He began by drawing inspiration from the blood energy of the Dark Orc, forcing all his physical energy into his blood until faint traces of blood energy emerged within him.
It was weak at first, almost imperceptible, because his body lacked extraordinary blood.
To strengthen it, he applied the refinement methods found in martial techniques, tempering the newborn blood energy as though forging a weapon.
The process consumed a portion of his own blood each time, forcing him to pause for days to recover before continuing.
Slowly, through repeated cycles of tempering and recovery, the blood energy transformed into a self-contained Blood Chakra.
One wisp of Blood Chakra carried the strength of a quarter of his body's entire blood volume.
He named it so because, when expelled from his body, the energy would spiral outward like a spinning crimson ring, drawing in chaotic energy from the surroundings to further refine itself.
However, the path ahead was steep.
Without extraordinary blood, Blood Chakra cultivation would plateau at the peak of the first stage professional realm, trapping him there for years.
To break through, he would need to elevate his blood into an extraordinary state.
There were two possible methods.
The first was to drink a Blood Potion made from the blood of a magical beast—though this carried serious risks.
If he drank one made from the Blood Wind Wolf, for example, he would be locked at the 7th rank professional stage, unable to advance until consuming another potion crafted from an evolved Blood Wind Wolf.
Any other beast's potion would be useless to further progress.
The second method was to reach the Arch Spiritualist Realm—the fourth stage of spiritualists—where his spiritual power and the law he comprehended could naturally evolve his blood into something extraordinary.
Since he had chosen the Life School, there was even a chance his blood might transform before he reached that realm.
A week later, his mana began to recover, marking the end of the Blood Mark Meditation—4th stage simulation.
After regaining those memories, he estimated that in two weeks, he could advance to the 4th rank of Spiritualist.
He shared the news with his group, who were eager to depart for the Southern Ocean.
They decided to wait for the two weeks, reasoning that Virgil's increased strength would make the journey safer.
Upon hearing they would leave after two weeks, Swan gathered them and made a confession.
She was the thief who had stolen the Sage's Finger Bone.
She explained that she had taken them along because—at that moment—Virgil revealed a white crystal in his palm.
Virgil explained that Swan had placed the Finger Bone in his pocket when she collided with him.
Her true goal was to exchange the Finger Bone with him in the village.
The village itself was one of the Keeper's base camps.
The Keeper had stored another Finger Bone there.
But it had already been looted by a mysterious figure before the Dark Orc attack.
The Dark Orc bandits had only been sent to erase the traces of that mysterious figure's involvement.
Six Finger Bones were required to open the seal of a Chaotic Monster named Gharix.
Nine Finger Bones had already been stolen from the Keeper.
Swan wished for them to join her in stopping the unsealing.
Gharix was sealed under an ice mountain within a secret realm.
Only first-stage professionals could enter this realm, and only those carrying a Finger Bone could pass through its barrier.
The main members of the Keeper were too far away, and the seal would be broken before they could arrive.
The group exchanged glances, prepared to refuse.
Then Swan produced a vial.
Vincent and Mira gasped—Silver Stone Blood.
Swan said, "This is the payment for your help in protecting the village."
She handed them the vial, then continued, "I also possess a book detailing the human professional system up to the 5th stage—Legend—from another plane."
The group's eyes widened.
In this plane, the human race typically practised only two professional systems, both of which ended at the fourth stage.
Only a handful of geniuses could reach the fifth stage, and most could not do so with existing methods.
Their breathing grew heavy, and they accepted her offer.
An hour later, using the Finger Bone, a portal was opened through a formation.
Eight figures stepped into the portal.