The Fallen Vampire

Chapter 188: Something Wicked…

The task of altering breathing techniques isn't just difficult for the sake of it.

Breathing arts are both the vessels and the guideways through which the river of qi flows to nourish the mind, body, and spirit in perfect harmony.

The techniques that are the most commercialized are those that are easy to comprehend and require little to no prior training.

The more advanced the manual, the more martial knowledge and talented is needed to understand it.

Taira spent some time skimming through both techniques in his possession.

He was rather thorough with his preparations.

He mapped out every corner of his brain, the circuitry patterns through which qi flows through his body, the paths through which his blood flowed, how exactly it responded to qi, and even the shape of his soul.

Once he had those committed to perfect memory, he pulled out a new notebook from within his storage ring.

Placing the two breathing arts on the floor, he flipped to the front pages of both of them.

Finally, he began writing bits and pieces from both manuals into the new one he was creating.

It wasn't a random 'A little of this, and a little of that' sort of thing.

Taira analyzed which components were necessary for the breathing arts to flow smoothly and stimulate parts of the body instead of crippling it.

He took the best parts of the arts and wrote them together; keeping in mind the parts that weren't interchangeable.

After fifteen minutes, he had his tentative sample breathing art.

Now, all that remained was testing it.

But this was precisely the hard part.

Taira put the two notebooks away and studied his created method approximately 6 more times; ensuring that he understood each and every detail.

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Finally, he began to put his new art to the test.

He closed his eye and absorbed qi from his surroundings towards very specific accupoints within his body.

...And his lungs burst apart not ten seconds into the attempt.

Abandoning the effort, Taira doubled over and retched out a concerning amount of black blood.

His head and chest felt like they were on fire, and not in a way that he could survive in.

Though he was in horrible pain, he refused to cry out and instead gritted his teeth until his lungs healed.

Possibly due to Taira's extraordinary healing factor, his discomfort faded along quicker than it normally would have.

And fortunately, his body nor cultivation seemed not to have suffered any damage.

The only thing that seemed to be bruised was his ego, but perhaps this was what he needed to gain a grasp of exactly the kind of challenge he had in front of him.

'...Damn it.'

Taira had a sudden and painful realization.

He had to use that improper art again.

The time, he couldn't let himself be jarred by the feeling of pain and instead had to focus on exactly what went wrong on the first attempt.

So he destroyed his lungs a second time.

But at least this time he knew exactly where he'd gone wrong and wouldn't have to do it again.

He went back to the drawing board; making new adjustments to the breathing art and retrying his endeavor.

This attempt still ended with him vomiting blood, but instead of his lungs popping, one of his elemental cores cracked.

He had to spend extra time repairing it before he made the adjustments and tried again.

This time, his efforts resulted in a rupture of the muscles along his back and abdomen, along with a nosebleed to compliment it.

His head was beginning to spin, and he was having a hard time getting his bearings. If he persisted anymore in this state, he was at risk of falling back into the sovereign realm.

Instead of just diving right back into work, he took a moment to stabilize his foundation and get his body back under control.

But it was only getting worse.

'Get it together..' Taira chastised himself.

The stakes for him were a lot higher than ever before.

He and Aveena were sect leaders now. They had an entire tribe following them with pure devotion, believing that they could lead them to a better, more glorious future.

And above all, they needed to wrap up their business here and take their true place within the upper realm.

The Black Myth Cult would always trudge forward, whether by stealth and subterfuge, or brute force and fire.

Going backward would not be in their nature.

'I...Wait...'

Taira's vision was getting worse and worse, and his vision was becoming even more unstable.

But he had an idea that he couldn't simply look past at the moment.

Despite his blurred vision and serious difficulty keeping his head upright, Taira was determined to finish his writings before his stroke of genius left him.

At a certain point, he could no longer even see.

As his vision failed him, he continued to write at a speed that practically tore the pages.

He had reached the last line of his notebook when his body suddenly gave out.

His pencil rolled to the floor just as his amulet trembled and Velreth emerged from his nap.

*Yawn!* "Alright, disciple. Let's see what you… By the nine."

The last thing Velreyh expected to find when he checked on his disciple was a whole floor covered in blood.

Black blood at that.

"In the great name of dao, boy… What have you done??"

Velreth thought that at worst, Taira would just frustrate himself and end up with a really bad headache.

Or maybe he'd cultivate wrong and make himself pass out or drop a level.

But he NEVER expected to see a scene like this.

He quickly checked the unconscious Taira's condition and found that he was just experiencing a side effect of introducing qi into your brain at too fast a rate.

His entire nervous system was enduring something like a hard reboot.

Whether or not there would be permanent damage or not was something that would have to wait to be seen when he woke up.

"Just what were you.. Oh?" Velreth's eyes finally settled on the open notebook that had fallen in Taira's lap.

The writings were a tad bit messy and seemed to have been written in a hurry, but he could follow along at least.

Though the last line was never completed, he was still able to get the general gist of what he was seeing.

Complete and utter madness.

"Quite a special apprentice you have there, isn't he?"

Velreth felt every tangible drop of his nonexistent blood freeze in his veins.

He looked around the training hall for the one who had spoken but found nothing and no one there.

"…Announce yourself! This heavenly immortal is in no mood for games!"

Laughter echoed all throughout the walls of the hall.

Velreth could not tell if the one he was speaking to was a man or a woman.

"A lesson to you, who is long departed. You should know that none above the dark are in a place to make demands of me."

Velreth saw a 'figure' suddenly walk through a wall.

It seemed to be comprised entirely of darkness and death. It had no defining features save for a pair of glowing purple eyes.

Velreth floated in front of Taira protectively; still not realizing the gravity of the being on his hands.

"Who are you? How dare you come into-"

"Step aside." The dark being waived its hand and Velreth was plastered against the wall like a smashed fly.

This humiliation was only Velreth's latest reminder of the fact that he had lost his former powers.

The dark shadow kneeled in front of stairs and held out his hand.

He waited and waited for a long time but nothing like he expected seemed to occur.

"…Curious. Very curious indeed…"