Chapter 29: Replenishing Blood Energy
Fang Yuan immediately took that portion of Pure Blood Energy into his mouth.
The crimson energy merged into his body and surged rapidly through every part of him, easily absorbed by his flesh, blood, and bones.
The cloud-pattern formation cycled, condensing that blood energy into strand after strand of blood qi, which flowed into his Dantian.
Though this blood energy was pure, its degree of refinement was still too low — it had to be processed through the Cloud Body Art before it could become true blood energy.
"I've really taken a shortcut here."
A look of delight crossed Fang Yuan's eyes.
Replenishing blood energy was one of the great challenges of Body Tempering. Normally it required relentlessly forging the physical body, eating high-grade beast meat, or consuming special blood-energy Pills to raise it slowly.
But Fang Yuan had directly extracted the blood energy from the bodies of low-tier demon beasts, then used that blood energy to replenish his own, rapidly making up for what he lacked.
He quickly retrieved large quantities of demon beast flesh, bones, and blood — all the demon beast parts he had decomposed still brimmed with vigorous blood energy.
Fang Yuan decomposed them one by one, and vast amounts of blood energy and Demonic Aura were extracted.
He let the Demonic Aura dissipate freely; he had already sensed the spirit beasts outside, and they could absorb and process it on their own.
The remaining Pure Blood Energy was naturally absorbed by him.
The sun had already risen.
Yet Fang Yuan showed no intention of stopping his cultivation.
Chunk after chunk of flesh was decomposed and dispersed.
The blood qi in Fang Yuan's middle Dantian kept growing steadily.
In the midst of his cultivation, he activated a secret cultivation technique from the Cloud Body Art.
"Blood Cloud Qi Condensation Art!"
The blood qi within his Dantian transformed into wisps of blood clouds!
These blood clouds gathered into one enormous blood cloud, and once it took shape it generated a powerful suction force, automatically drawing in more blood energy to feed itself.
It was like installing a second cultivation engine in his body — he was now running on dual cores, and the speed was blazing fast.
The decomposed blood energy was swiftly absorbed throughout his physical body, then converted into blood qi that poured ceaselessly into the blood cloud.
Only after refining the flesh, bones, and blood of more than ten beast carcasses did the blood cloud's absorption rate finally slow significantly. It split apart into smaller blood clouds, then reverted back into individual strands of blood qi.
At that point, the total count of blood qi strands had grown to eight hundred!
And every single strand was powerful and vigorous — far stronger than the blood qi he had started with.
Strand after strand of blood qi flowed out from the middle Dantian, racing through his flesh and blood, continuously tempering his body.
Fang Yuan felt a warm, comfortable sensation throughout his physical body, as though he were soaking in a hot spring.
"The Completion Stage Mystic Body Art — truly wondrous!"
Fang Yuan stood up and began moving around the cultivation chamber.
With each step, his figure flickered like a phantom throughout the room, leaving dozens of afterimages in his wake.
He channeled a single strand of blood qi and burned it as fuel!
His speed surged again — he vanished entirely from the cultivation chamber, moving at a pace the naked eye could barely follow!
After a good while, Fang Yuan reappeared in the cultivation chamber.
Not flushed, not winded — he had become something like a demon beast himself!
He was now a human-shaped weapon!
"A human-shaped weapon! A human-shaped demon beast! Survival capability vastly improved! Body Tempering really does give you a sense of security."
Fang Yuan clenched his fist, then steadied his breathing.
The fluctuations of his blood energy were reined in, and his tough, bronze-toned skin softened to a fair and delicate appearance. From the outside, there was no way to tell that Fang Yuan's physical body had already reached the seventh layer of Body Tempering.
Some time ago, he had learned a breath-suppression art from the Scripture Repository and raised it to Major Mastery.
With it fully suppressed, he appeared no different from an ordinary person — though against a Core Formation cultivator, this concealment would be useless. If such an opponent used their spiritual sense to examine him carefully, he would be exposed immediately.
Fortunately, physical body cultivation was genuinely not held in high regard by orthodox immortal cultivators. Even if his Body Tempering realm were exposed, it would not cause much of a stir.
Fang Yuan glanced at the sky.
It was now fully bright outside.
Two full days and nights had passed in cultivation.
Fang Yuan stretched his body and opened the cultivation chamber.
The residual Spiritual Energy inside drifted outward and was eagerly gulped down by the surrounding spirit beasts.
Fang Yuan sensed the state of the spirit beasts — their auras had all grown noticeably denser.
He took a particular look at the Thunder-Wing Tiger. That creature's cultivation had already reached the latter half of the early first tier — its cultivation speed was quite impressive.
The other spirit beasts were no slouches either.
Fang Yuan nodded with satisfaction. "Keep staying home and cultivating, all of you!"
The spirit beasts all nodded in unison.
He calmly left the Cave Dwelling.
He strolled leisurely to the rear hall to continue his shift.
Before long, an unfamiliar disciple walked in.
Fang Yuan glanced over, his brow furrowing slightly. "Fellow Junior Brother, this is the rear hall. Exchanges are handled in the front hall."
The disciple coughed and lowered his voice. "I'm one of Young Master Li's people. I have a matter to ask of you — the price is negotiable."
Fang Yuan shook his head. "I can't help with that."
"I haven't even said what it is yet. It won't be difficult for you at all, and there's a great benefit in it!" the disciple said hastily.
"Not interested," Fang Yuan said, shaking his head.
The disciple hurried on. "All you have to do is keep an eye out — let Young Master Li know whenever supreme-grade Pills appear in the inventory. Not only will you receive a handsome reward, you'll also earn Young Master Li's friendship! You may not know this, but Young Master Li is..."
"Xiaobao, this is a restricted area of the rear hall — unauthorized persons are not permitted inside. How did you let someone like this in?" Fang Yuan called out loudly.
Xiaobao materialized out of thin air and fixed the disciple with a warning glare. "Hey, you little pest — is this the Treasure Hall's rear hall you've snuck into? Are you here to spy and gather information?"
"No, I'm not!"
The disciple retreated helplessly. Before leaving, he shot Fang Yuan a furious glare that lasted several seconds.
Fang Yuan ignored him entirely.
"Young Master Li, Young Master Zhu — none of that has anything to do with me!"
Fang Yuan had no interest in cooperating with someone like that. The attitude was terrible — speaking in a tone of command, and through a messenger at that. What nerve.
And to say all of this so brazenly right under Xiaobao's watch — clearly he didn't think much of Xiaobao at all!
The disciple hurried out of the Treasure Hall and made his way to a pavilion.
Beneath the pavilion, Li Pingyuan sat fanning himself and sipping tea.
"Young Master Li, that person refused," the disciple reported promptly.
Li Pingyuan's brow creased. "He wouldn't even take eight thousand Spirit Stones?"
"I didn't even get to mention that before he threw me out. Please forgive me, Young Master Li." The disciple quickly bowed his head.
"Hmph!" Li Pingyuan let out a cold snort, turning the matter over in his mind. "That fellow never intended to help at all. He wouldn't give me the original copy of the Cloud Body Art before, and now he won't even do me a simple favor — yet he's perfectly willing to pass information and intelligence to that Li Mengyao. It seems this person has truly sided with my seventh sister."
He had never thought much of a post like guarding the Treasure Hall, but now it seemed there was profit to be skimmed from it after all. It was just that Li Chenggong, that immovable old stick-in-the-mud, had been occupying the position all along, which had obscured how valuable it really was.
Take this latest instance — four hundred supreme-grade Pills had appeared, and he had only managed to obtain a single one.
Li Pingyuan's eyes glinted. "Find a way to get someone to take over his position."