Chapter 121: Harvest

The Blood Absorption Technique can draw blood from beasts that died recently.

The Claw-Torn Wolf Demon lay on the ground, its body covered in wounds, blood oozing from the cuts—but within moments, it congealed. Thus, normal methods could not extract its demonic blood.

Mo Hua pointed to the Claw-Torn's heart meridian and said to Brother Da Hu: "Cut here."

Brother Da Hu did not understand why, but still drew his blade and stabbed into the Claw-Torn's heart meridian.

The Claw-Torn's flesh was tough; Brother Da Hu stabbed several times before carving a small gash.

Mo Hua placed the jade vial at the gash, then pressed his palm near the Claw-Torn's heart meridian, sensing the still-vibrant demonic blood flowing beneath the hide. He activated his spiritual sense according to the Blood Absorption Technique's principles, guiding the blood into the jade vial.

These jade vials were made of special jade—not precious, but capable of sealing spiritual energy and preventing demonic blood from spoiling for a time.

The jade vial in Mo Hua's hand had originally held spiritual ink; after the ink was used up, Mo Hua repurposed the bottle.

Mo Hua used the Blood Absorption Technique to draw the demonic blood into the jade vial.

After a moment, the vial in his hand was full; he sealed it and replaced it with another.

Thus, Mo Hua continuously extracted ten vials of demonic blood before stopping.

The Claw-Torn's bloodlines held little blood left, and it was growing cold, flowing slowly, its efficacy greatly diminished—no need to continue extracting.

Mo Hua's spiritual sense was significantly depleted, roughly equivalent to drawing a formation with seven or eight formation lines.

For an ordinary cultivator, this might be a heavy burden, but for Mo Hua, a formation master, it was nothing much.

Mo Hua sat in meditation, recovering a bit of his spiritual sense.

Looking at the ten vials of demonic blood in his storage bag, Mo Hua couldn't help but smile.

This demonic blood would be enough for Mo Hua to draw many formations.

Brother Da Hu and the others glanced curiously at the jade vials, then couldn't help but look at Mo Hua.

Little Hu couldn't help asking: "Is this blood useful?"

"Yes. For drawing formations."

"Can we help you extract demonic blood?"

"You need the Blood Absorption Technique."

Mo Hua briefly explained how the Blood Absorption Technique worked.

Brother Da Hu and the others listened, utterly confused, and decided to give up.

"Mo Hua, you really know a lot."

The Twin Tigers praised him; Brother Da Hu and Little Hu nodded along.

Mo Hua smiled: "Just read more books."

Mo Hua put away the demonic blood and said: "How should we handle this beast?"

Brother Da Hu and the others perked up—this was their first time killing a beast on their own, and now they could skin it and sell the parts!

Though mostly thanks to Mo Hua's formations, they were still delighted.

"Skin it, remove the bones, cut off the fangs and claws, and take the heart, meridians, and internal organs…"

The Twin Tigers listed each step for Mo Hua.

Mo Hua scratched his head—he was completely out of his depth, with no idea how to do any of this.

Brother Da Hu said: "Go wander nearby, don't go far. We'll finish skinning this beast, then head back together."

Then Brother Da Hu and the others rolled up their sleeves, pulled out their crude knives, and began skinning the beast's hide, removing other valuable materials.

The Claw-Torn, which had glared with ferocity an hour ago, now lay in a gruesome state.

Mo Hua felt no sympathy—if it hadn't been the beast that died, it might have been them, torn apart.

This beast's saliva was foul and stinking; it had likely killed many beast-hunters.

While Brother Da Hu and the others skinned the beast, Mo Hua wandered around, looking at the mountains, the trees, the water, familiarizing himself with Great Heishan's environment.

This was his first time entering Great Heishan.

When they entered the mountain in the morning, he'd felt tense and oppressed—but after half a day, having planned and killed a Claw-Torn and extracted its blood, his mindset had become much calmer.

The process of hunting the beast largely followed Mo Hua's plan.

This strategy required care and patience, but it was simple and efficient, minimizing casualties while yielding substantial rewards.

In the future, they only needed minor adjustments for different beasts.

Thus, even though Mo Hua was not a body cultivator, he could still participate in beast hunts, slaying different beasts and extracting demonic blood of different elemental affinities.

After Brother Da Hu and the others finished skinning the Claw-Torn, they called for Mo Hua and left Great Heishan.

They entered the mountain in the morning, hunted at noon, and departed at dusk.

In less than a day, they had slain a mid first-grade beast—with only four people.

If not for the bulging storage bag filled with the Claw-Torn's hide, claws, and fangs, Brother Da Hu and the others would have thought they were dreaming.

Afterwards, they went to the marketplace and sold the Claw-Torn's materials.

The Claw-Torn was a common beast—not overly valuable, but always in demand.

After haggling, they sold everything for a total of over eighty spirit stones.

After deducting the cost of Mo Hua's formations and the spirit stones used to activate them, each person received twelve spirit stones.

Holding the heavy spirit stones in their hands, Brother Da Hu and the others stared blankly.

This was the first time in their lives they had earned so many spirit stones.

Mo Hua was used to it, but seeing how excited Brother Da Hu and the others were, he was happy too.

Brother Da Hu said: "Mo Hua, we owe you. Whatever you want to eat, we'll treat you!"

"Yes, yes! We'll treat you!" The Twin Tigers and Little Hu nodded.

"No need," Mo Hua waved his hand. "I owe you too. Keep the spirit stones. Next time we're free, let's go hunting together again."

Beast flesh is tough, and its blood qi recovers quickly; although Mo Hua can use formations to severely wound or nearly kill a beast, he may not always be able to kill it outright.

But he isn't a body cultivator and isn't skilled in close combat—he still needs Brother Da Hu and the others to clean up.

Although he has learned the Flowing Water Step and can skirmish with demonic beasts, there's no need to take such a risk.

After all, those who swim well often drown; too much confidence will eventually lead to a fall.

After selling the demonic beasts and dividing the spirit stones, they looked up and saw the bright lanterns along the street.

The night street gradually grew lively.

Mo Hua had been busy drawing arrays and practicing spells, and hadn't gone out in a long time.

Brother Da Hu and the other two were the same—since becoming demon hunters, a heavy stone had settled on their shoulders, weighing down their spirits.

After slaying one demonic beast, all of them exhaled in relief, feeling considerably lighter, so they strolled along the street, taking in the strange and noisy sights, before bidding each other farewell and heading home.

On the way, Little Tiger asked: "How do you use these spirit stones?"

Double Tiger thought for a moment and said: "I want to give them to Mother."

All three fell silent, then pooled their spirit stones together—over thirty in total.

When they got home, it was already late; Madam Meng was reheating dishes and, seeing them, couldn't help but scold:

"All day long, who knows where you ran off to? You don't even eat meals—I've reheated them several times already…"

Brother Da Hu handed her the storage bag.

Madam Meng took it; it felt heavy in her hands, and she asked, puzzled: "What's this?"

She opened it and found over thirty spirit stones glowing brilliantly.

Madam Meng froze.

"Mother, these are the spirit stones we earned hunting demons—take them."

Madam Meng took a long time to come to her senses; she looked at her three children, who had grown without her noticing, and tears filled her eyes in an instant.

She felt comforted, wanted to smile, but the tears still fell.

In her life, she had shed many tears—salty and bitter—but today, they were tears of joy.

Fifth watch ends~