Han Yu stepped closer and asked, "What did you do while I was gone"
Xuan Qing replied chanically. "I consud food. I drank water. I remained seated."
Han Yu nodded slowly. Then another thought hit him. Cultivation.
"Can you cultivate?"
"I cannot cultivate. I can only use what cultivation I already possess."
That was expected. The cultivation restriction seal placed in the Dantian prevented true progress. But he had noticed sothing else earlier.
"Can you at least regenerate your spirit Qi?"
"With your permission I can."
Han Yu placed his hand on her back and sent his spirit sense into her body again. He loosened the restraining seal as much as he could without breaking it. Her presence instantly shifted a little. Her energy rose slightly, becoming fuller and more stable.
A soft breath left his lips. "Good. Maintain your spirit Qi at a stable level. Do not let it drop. Keep your body healthy. Rest. Eat. Drink. Do everything you need to stay physically strong."
Xuan Qing bowed her head. "Understood."
Then she sat down and began to ditate.
With the restriction seal loosened she could absorb ambient spirit Qi again. It would not allow her to grow stronger, but at least her reservoir would remain full. A cultivator without spirit Qi was no different from a cripple.
Han Yu refused to let that be her condition when she eventually regained herself.
He set that thought aside and moved to the cauldron. He took out herbs and sorted them. His supply of rit points had taken a devastating blow. Nearly all the wealth he had earned over the past twenty months had gone into buying Xuan Qing. He could not afford to slow down.
He needed rit points. A lot of rit points.
Enough to buy the others. Enough to survive the Puppet Peak, Curse Peak, and Blood Peak training. Enough to make preparations for escape.
He began to refine a batch of Blood Flood Pills, the familiar routine calming him slightly. Flas flickered, herbs lted, essences combined. Behind him Xuan Qing sat motionless, ditating quietly, sotis blinking like a puppet practicing human behavior.
Han Yu’s hands tightened around the stirring rod.
He looked back at her again.
Even with her cultivation partially restored, she did not look alive. Her face was doll like. Perfect but dead. Beautiful but hollow. Every blink, every breath, every movent was chanical.
Han Yu gritted his teeth and snapped back to the cauldron before his anger spilled out.
He focused on his work.
For a while, only the faint bubbling of herbs and the soft hum of spirit flas filled the cave.
As the pills condensed, Han Yu allowed his thoughts to drift to other matters. Puppet mastery would take ti. Curse mastery would take even longer. Blood mastery would require sothing he did not have, perhaps even a bloodline.
But to unlock the Doll Seal he needed all of them. There was no shortcut. No trick. Only long, painful study.
The Puppet Peak was now accessible to him. At least the basic parts of it. He would need to attend the introductory lectures. Then he would need to work toward the Apprentice Rank. Only then could he begin studying real construction thods.
But puppets were expensive. Materials were expensive. So of the ores and woods used for advanced parts made Blood Flood Pill materials look like common marbles.
Han Yu wondered how profitable puppet making was.
He had seen so disciples selling puppets to alchemists as assistants or carriers. So puppets even assisted with fla control. However, even the simplest puppets in the peak’s stores were far beyond what he could currently craft.
If he could reach Apprentice Rank, that would open more opportunities. If he reached Interdiate Rank, the money involved would skyrocket. But all of that required ti.
He glanced at Xuan Qing again.
Ti was sothing he could not waste.
He clenched his jaw.
Leaving the Blood Moon Continent was another problem entirely.
After almost two years in the sect, he understood their situation clearly. The sect rarely sent mbers outside. Only elders were permitted to travel between continents for whatever missions they had, and the cost in spirit stones and Moon Blood Crystals was astronomical.
From what Han Yu knew so far, the path outside the continent wasn’t a literal path. One couldn’t just walk out as the two continents weren’t even connected in the first place. They were divided by a great ocean in between filled with dangerous beasts.
So were even said to be at the Immortal Ascension realm.
It was the kind of danger that even the Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect would not wish to face. As such, they actually used a Teleportation Array to reach the other continent.
But the spatial pathway itself was unstable and could not be opened often. The Teleportation Channel far too unstable due to the seal that transcended the world’s limits and extended even in the Lesser Void.
There were many disciples who joked about wanting to visit the Great Continent for fun, treating it like a vacation. They had all been firmly rejected. The elders made it clear that only essential missions would be approved.
Han Yu, an outer court disciple on paper, had no chance.
Even worse, the sect was working on weakening the seal binding the Blood Moon Continent. If they succeeded, the entire sect could march out into the world. The Great Continent would not be prepared for such a calamity.
Han Yu needed to stop it.
But he could not do anything until he saved his companions. One by one. As many as he could.
And he knew he had maybe a year until the others appeared on the slave lists. Maybe less.
He needed rit points. He needed knowledge. He needed strength.
He needed ti.
Han Yu looked at the cauldron as the pills finished condensing.
Then he looked at Xuan Qing.
A soft whisper escaped him, barely audible.
"I will get you back. All of you."
He tightened his grip on the cauldron lid.
"Even if I have to tear this entire sect apart."
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