Danmook Hyunwoo thought that Ren had ended up like this because he hadn't properly protected her that day.
This thought made his mind cluttered, his sword tip began to waver, and thus, the demonic influence took root. It was fortunate that he hadn't reached the point of being possessed by the demon.
Danmook Hyunwoo still couldn't overcome the demonic influence. That's why, even after completing his seclusion training, he sent Bingtanghu, pastries, and all sorts of snacks to Ren but couldn't bring himself to visit her. It was only after receiving an order from Danmook Tianji to study calligraphy that he finally met her face-to-face.
"Do you remember what I said about how you need to practice writing frequently to remember the characters well?"
"Yes!"
"Starting today, let's exchange letters once a day. Even one line is fine."
Danmook Bi, who was now deeply engrossed in learning everything with her sister, nodded enthusiastically, looking forward to the replies from her sister Ren and Huailun.
After the calligraphy lesson, it was tea time. To be precise, it was the time to drink the tea that Ren had brewed, and Ren insisted on joining them.
Danmook Hyunwoo tried to dissuade her, saying it was absurd to be treated to tea by his niece every time, but Ren pushed through, saying she wanted to practice the tea ceremony she had learned from her grandfather.
'Let's see...'
Ren smoothed her sleeve.
Danmook Ren
Harmony: 7 stars - Can remain unnoticed.
Mind Eye: 4 stars - Can see flaws.
Purification: 2 stars - Can purify vitality.
Stamina: 6 / 100
Spirit Qi: 52 / 100
Help: Try to increase the achievement of Purification. Maintain Spirit Qi below 50. If this state persists for more than 19 days, it will lead to death.
'Che. Easier said than done!'
No one knew how to use this Spirit Qi. It was a field she had to explore on her own.
Even if she used Spirit Qi to brew tea and purify the environment every day, it would be full the next day, and full the day after...
'This must be what it feels like to live day by day.'
It wasn't a joke; she was literally living day by day.
Ren couldn't miss this opportunity to serve tea to three people at once.
This was why she boiled the water despite the scorching heat.
When Ren placed four cups of tea in a row, Danmook Hyunwoo smiled and looked at the boys.
"Since your sister has brewed this tea herself, always drink it with gratitude."
"Yes! Thank you, sister."
"Thank you, sister."
Danmook Hyunwoo said the same thing every day, and the boys thanked her every day. Ren just smiled.
'Drink up and grow tall...'
"People from Hangzhou would come with a thousand gold pieces just to drink this cup of tea."
Danmook Hyunwoo sipped his tea and smiled. Ren quietly looked down at her teacup.
'No way.'
There were no new tea leaves this year, only old ones from several years ago.
The taste was barely passable, yet Danmook Hyunwoo always praised Ren.
Then, Danmook Bi, who usually drank the tea quickly and complained about the tea time, added his praise in short words.
"Delicious, as good as the pastries from yesterday, feels like a fairy would come and drink it," he said, repeating these phrases every four days.
Seeing his cute brother, Ren smiled, and then noticed Huailun standing silently beside him, smirking. Just by his gaze, she could tell he was teasing her.
No matter how good the tea was, could an eight-year-old's brewing be as good as a fairy's?
'This kid.'
"That's not just a formality, Ren. Your skill and deep heart are reflected in the taste of the tea. When you learn swordsmanship from the Grand Patriarch in the future, your achievements will be exceptional. Your brother... "
Danmook Hyunwoo hastily trailed off.
Just as the atmosphere became awkward, Danmook Bi interjected.
"Sister! Are you going to learn swordsmanship from Grandfather?"
His face was full of envy. Danmook Hyunwoo's stiffened face quickly softened.
"Once you memorize the Thousand Character Classic, you will learn from the Grand Patriarch. Bi, if you memorize all the characters, the Grand Patriarch will teach you swordsmanship too."
"Yes! I will memorize them all!"
"Good, good. If you do, I will give you a reward. All three of you."
At the mention of a reward, Danmook Bi's eyes sparkled.
Ren recalled that she had started these calligraphy lessons after hearing a similar story from Danmook Tianji and nodded. She glanced to the side. Huailun, who had been pretending to be happy about Danmook Hyunwoo's words, looked indifferent and smirked when their eyes met.
* * *
The cicadas' chirping was deafening.
Ren, feeling the heat, lay on a bamboo mat on the bed, reading through the stack of books.
'I need to know something to sweep away these Blood Demon Valley scoundrels.'
She had lived and died in a future where the Blood Demon Valley would wreak havoc in a few decades, and it was impossible to let that happen.
She didn't know if she could do it alone, but she couldn't just stand by and do nothing.
So, under the pretext of studying calligraphy, she had brought all the relevant books from the library.
'Blood Demon Valley's Blood Technique. Destructive and cruel. The wounds are like scratches from a rake. No one has discovered the cultivation method yet...'
A person can accumulate 60 years of internal energy through basic breathing techniques—Tuguna (吐古納新), which means expelling old energy and inhaling new energy—over 60 years, known as one jiazi.
With a good cultivation method, one could accumulate it faster, but it was impossible to condense decades into a few years.
Even if one consumed powerful elixirs, it would still require a proper cultivation method and a certain amount of time to absorb the Spirit Qi from the elixirs into one's internal energy.
However, the martial artists of the Blood Demon Valley had none of this.
From their sword skills, it seemed they had only practiced for a year or two, yet they possessed internal energy far exceeding one jiazi and kept appearing, raging like mad.
Anyone with perception could tell that their martial arts were evil, and it was necessary to understand how they were evil to defeat them, but no one could figure it out.
The Blood Demon Valley had changed leaders several times, and three major forces from the Martial Arts Alliance had tried to investigate, but to no avail.
Especially the Black Heaven Chain, which didn't care about using unpopular methods, had searched with great effort but still couldn't uncover anything.
'Is it even possible to have a cultivation method that can accumulate internal energy so quickly?'
There was a theory that they had consumed a large amount of elixirs, but it was debunked.
According to the calculations of the Zhuge family, if they had the financial power to support such a practice, they could have dominated the martial world with gold rather than martial power.
'Anyway, even if I don't know the method, their internal energy characteristics suggest that madness will soon take root... and that madness can only be quelled by drinking human flesh.'
Ren flipped through the pages. Thanks to her Mind Eye, the content of the books remained vividly in her mind after a single read.
'The abnormal vitality of those who have mastered the Blood Technique. They can move for half an hour even with a pierced heart. Moreover, it is known that the Blood Demon Valley's leader possesses several treasures of the martial world? Treasures? What are they?'
Ren pondered the 'treasures' she knew about and, feeling exhausted from the heat, closed the book.
The Blood Demon Valley was important, but it was a matter for after she had lived her life, wasn't it?
At that moment, the door to her quarters opened quietly.
"Hmm? Huailun?"
"You were lying down because of the heat, right?"
Huailun looked at Ren with a triumphant expression. Ren, with a sullen face, sat up.
Her quarters were the coolest place in the estate, but Ren would quickly feel the heat after a short walk outside.
The nanny, Zhang, often lamented that Ren's weakness to heat was a family trait passed down from previous generations.
"Wait until winter."
While she would be a mess in the summer, she would be energetic in the winter, which was also a family trait.
Seeing Ren puffing and panting, Huailun raised an eyebrow and glanced at the books scattered around.
"What... Blood Demon Valley?"
Feeling a bit uneasy, Ren quickly closed the book.
"Have you ever seen the Blood Demon Valley?"
The Dongting Blood Incident, where they clashed with the Blood Demon Valley, was a significant event, but it happened over twenty years ago.
As the saying goes, a decade can change the landscape, and with two decades and more, the Blood Demon Valley was now only occasionally used as a curse word by the elders.
Usually, an old man would shout, "I'll spit out this Blood Demon Valley!" after a drink, and a fight would break out.
"...I haven't seen it, but I know. They are blood-sucking creatures."
"I see..."
"Why are you looking into this?"
"U... Our family is one of the pillars of the righteous martial world. As the eldest granddaughter, I need to know the history."
Huailun looked at Ren with a slightly surprised expression.
"And our grandfather and father... because of them..."
Danmook Hyuncheng's death was due to a duel with the Jinjia Manor, but the injuries he sustained in the Dongting Blood Incident had been burning his life away.
If not for that, would the prodigy Danmook Hyuncheng, known as a thousand-year talent, have died in a duel with the new martial family, Jinjia Manor, in Hangzhou?