Devour Blood Qi, Consume Souls, Draw Vital Essence

Wang Yue had just walked out of the Vital Essence Room when he suddenly felt the Blood Qi within his body stir slightly. It was not the hollow weakness left behind after depletion, but a sense of fullness from being replenished.

He instinctively sank into his consciousness and, to his surprise, clearly sensed another familiar fluctuation of Blood Qi resonating wonderfully with his own from several miles away.

"This is... the result of the Vital Essence Body's cultivation?"

Wang Yue's heart stirred. He hurriedly shifted his consciousness to connect with the Vital Essence Body's perspective. In the image, the Vital Essence Body was seated in a desolate little courtyard within the county town, faint Vital Essence curling around him. With every breath, threads of silvery-white airflow entered his body, and as the Vital Essence Body's Blood Qi grew—

Wang Yue's main body's Blood Qi also recovered at a visible rate. Its total amount, which had only recovered halfway, rose to sixty percent in a short while.

"So it's like I have an incarnation cultivating in parallel with me, directly doubling my cultivation speed?"

He simply calmed himself and carefully examined the Vital Essence Body's senses. He saw the Vital Essence Body raise his head toward the sky, a sly glint flashing through his eyes. Forming seals with both hands, he lightly drew at the invisible Essence Refinement and Qi Transformation Array in the air.

A thin pillar of silvery-white Vital Essence seemed to be pulled by an invisible force. It silently peeled away from an array node and flowed into his body through his fingertips. The entire process was noiseless, without even the slightest ripple from the array itself.

"This brat can actually steal Vital Essence from the grand array?"

Wang Yue stared blankly. Just as he wanted to question him through their consciousness, he saw the Vital Essence Body take out a fist-sized pale golden stone from his robes. A gentle Vital Essence glow shimmered across its surface. It felt icy cold, as though it had been formed from condensed solid Vital Essence.

The next instant, Wang Yue's panel automatically popped up with an explanation for his confusion:

Solidified Vital Essence is formed when pure Vital Essence is compressed and condensed through a secret method in a special environment. It contains refined Vital Essence and may be directly absorbed, or used as a catalytic material for Artifact Refining and pill refinement. The conditions required for its formation are exceedingly harsh.

"This thing can be condensed even in the county town? Using stolen Vital Essence from the array, too?" Wang Yue's mind filled with question marks. He had just wanted to press the Vital Essence Body about what secret method he had used when he discovered that their connected perspective suddenly became blurry. The Vital Essence Body had deliberately emptied his mind, leaving behind only the simple thought, I'm cultivating properly. Clearly, he did not want Wang Yue to know the details.

"You're deliberately playing dumb with me?" Wang Yue helplessly rubbed his forehead, though he could vaguely sense the little schemes lurking deep within the Vital Essence Body's consciousness.

From time to time, the brat would think, Once I've saved up enough Solidified Vital Essence, I'll give the main body a huge surprise. Clearly, he wanted to secretly make preparations behind Wang Yue's back.

"Surprise my ass!" Wang Yue grumbled irritably in his mind. Giving himself a surprise? This incarnation's train of thought was truly bizarre.

Grumbling aside, he quickly organized a message and sent it to the Vital Essence Body through their consciousness. "Don't just focus on saving Vital Essence. Go to the forests outside the town and find some wild beasts to test on. Kill them with Blood Qi and see whether you can trigger the Devouring Body's effects. Record the devouring process and what it feels like."

The instant the message was sent, the Vital Essence Body replied, "Got it, got it. What a hassle. I'll send you feedback once I find prey."

His tone was full of disdain, but he obediently rose to his feet and headed deeper into the mountains.

Having settled the Vital Essence Body's matter, Wang Yue turned and returned to his residence. He shut the door, sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, and took advantage of his spare time to cultivate the sixth form of the Blood Dragon Secret Method.

He took a deep breath. Fourteen streams of Blood Qi suddenly surged through his body. Ever since his soul had been invaded by the Three-Headed Buddha, his Blood Qi seemed to have been awakened. Not only had it recovered what had been consumed before, but it had also faintly broken through. After waking up, it had risen from twelve streams to fourteen.

"Blood Dragon Secret Method, sixth form!"

Wang Yue gave a low shout in his heart and formed a complex hand seal. Fourteen streams of Blood Qi condensed within his body into a crimson dragon phantom. The dragon phantom opened its sharp claws and traveled through his meridians. Every time it passed an acupoint, it triggered a faint tremor. The pain was as though his meridians were being torn apart, yet it also made the circulation of his Blood Qi smoother.

He could clearly feel that the sixth form was more difficult than the previous five combined. Not only did it require precise control over the condensed shape of his Blood Qi, but the dragon phantom also had to perfectly match his movements. The slightest misstep would cause his Blood Qi to fall into disorder.

Yet as his cultivation deepened, he gradually discovered that the Immortal trait was secretly taking effect. Whenever his meridians suffered slight damage from the impact of Blood Qi, faint golden light would mend the wounds, allowing him to cultivate with all his strength without reservation and without worrying about injury.

"At this pace, it won't be long before I master the sixth form. I'll be getting closer and closer to the first level of the Blood Dragon Secret Method."

Wang Yue secretly rejoiced. His fingers unconsciously tapped his knee as his mind suddenly recalled his earlier conversation with Wang Hezheng.

He had once curiously asked Wang Hezheng why the battle for the prefecture three hundred years ago had forced the Zhao Kingdom's martial artists to withdraw from Spirit Seeking Prefecture.

Wang Hezheng had merely said in a grave voice, "That war was far more brutal than you can imagine. In the end, a supreme expert acted. At the same moment, he struck the Three-Headed Buddha and every Buddhist temple within the Zhao Kingdom into extinction. Anyone dependent on the Three-Headed Buddha suffered severe losses in cultivation, leaving them with no choice but to withdraw from Spirit Seeking Prefecture."

"Even the Three-Headed Buddha, with a divine ability like the Unworldly Buddha Three Lives Body, could be struck into extinction by a supreme expert..." Wang Yue murmured softly, longing flashing in his eyes. "Just how many powerful figures are hidden in this world? What realm did those so-called 'supreme experts' reach?"

He lowered his head and looked at his hands. The immortal golden light in his palms flickered in and out of sight. From transmigrating into this world, from the early Blood Condensation Realm to his current fourteen streams of Blood Qi, from knowing only basic fist techniques to mastering the Blood Dragon Secret Method and the Unworldly Buddha Three Lives Body—he had traveled only nine short months.

Yet those few steps had allowed him to glimpse merely the tip of this world's iceberg.

There were great sects like the Transformation Dragon Sect, local powers like Spirit Seeking Prefecture, bizarre evil souls like the Three-Headed Buddha, and that unknown supreme expert from three hundred years ago.

"One day, I will stand at the summit of this world."

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Wang Yue slowly clenched his fist, blazing light erupting in his eyes. Exploring the limits—he hoped that one day, with unmatched cultivation, he could suppress an entire realm and let everyone know the name Wang Yue!

The blazing sun in the sky illuminated the ambition in his eyes, an ambition unwilling to remain ordinary.

Wang Yue had just become proficient in the hand seals for the Blood Dragon Secret Method's sixth form when he suddenly sensed a familiar surge of aura from beyond the county town. It was the Vital Essence Body's Blood Qi fluctuating violently. Clearly, he was in battle.

He instinctively switched perspectives, and his consciousness instantly connected to the Vital Essence Body's senses.

In the image, amid a dense mountain forest, the Vital Essence Body was confronting a fierce tiger with hanging eyes and a white forehead. The tiger stood over two meters tall, its fur sleek and glossy. The character for king on its forehead was clearly visible. Its eyes, as large as bronze bells, gleamed with ferocity; fangs protruded from its mouth, and saliva dripped onto the ground.

It was clearly a vicious beast that had occupied these mountains for years.

"This brat... actually provoked something this huge?"

The corner of Wang Yue's mouth twitched, his heart full of helplessness. If the Black Cloud Fist Armor and second-tier inner armor were still there, dealing with this tiger using Blood Qi would naturally be no trouble. But the Vital Essence Body was empty-handed now, without even a suitable weapon.

One had to know that hunting a tiger bare-handed was something even experts of the Force Entry Realm had to approach cautiously.

Wang Yue's expression had barely stiffened when he saw the tiger suddenly release an earth-shaking roar. Its hind legs slammed against the ground, and its massive body pounced toward the Vital Essence Body like an arrow loosed from the bowstring. Its sharp claws ripped through the air, aiming directly for the Vital Essence Body's throat with a vicious move that left no room to evade.

But in the next instant, a startling scene unfolded. The Vital Essence Body's body was as light as willow catkins. He appeared to take a slow step to the side, yet he perfectly avoided the tiger's claws, without even the corner of his robes being touched.

Afterward, every pounce and bite from the tiger was perfectly avoided by the Vital Essence Body with the simplest movements. It was as though he knew the tiger's attack trajectory in advance, weaving through the gaps between claws and fangs with effortless ease.

"How did you do that?" Wang Yue could not help asking through their consciousness, his eyes full of confusion. Even with the Vital Essence Body's Far-Sighted talent assisting with prediction, he should not have been able to dodge so precisely.

The Vital Essence Body's answer soon came, carrying a hint of pride. "It's simple. I can see the direction in which Vital Essence flows within every living being in this world. Before this tiger attacks, its Blood Qi and Vital Essence flow together toward its limbs, claws, or fangs. I only need to follow the trajectory of that Vital Essence flow to determine where its attack will land in advance. Wouldn't dodging be as easy as turning over my hand?"

Shock instantly surfaced on Wang Yue's face. How was this prediction? This was plainly a bug-level ability granted by a divine power!

Being able to directly observe the flow of Vital Essence was equivalent to grasping the code behind an opponent's movements. It was utterly unreasonable. No wonder the Vital Essence Body could move through the tiger's attacks with such ease.

While Wang Yue was still stunned, the Vital Essence Body had clearly grown tired of dodging. The instant he avoided another pounce from the tiger, he suddenly turned sideways and clenched his right hand into a fist, assuming an extraordinarily strange posture. He neither twisted his waist to gather force nor sank his shoulder to exert strength.

It seemed like nothing more than a casual punch, yet it carried a heart-palpitating howl through the air as it viciously smashed into the tiger's neck.

Crack!

The crisp sound of shattering bones echoed through the forest. The tiger's huge body instantly went limp and crashed heavily to the ground. After twitching a few times, it fell completely silent.

Wang Yue was dumbfounded. This method of exerting force without following conventional principles completely shattered his understanding of combat stances.

Ordinary martial artists had to rely on the coordinated force of the waist, abdomen, and arms to unleash their full strength. Yet the Vital Essence Body could skip every step of gathering force and directly erupt with the strength of his entire body. This was clearly an advantage brought by the Vital Essence Body's special constitution. After all, though he possessed the sensations of a physical body, his essence was still condensed Vital Essence, unrestricted by the rules governing how human bodies exerted force.

Before Wang Yue could digest this discovery, an even stranger sight appeared. An invisible Qi Aura suddenly rose around the dead tiger and flowed into the Vital Essence Body like water.

Almost at the same time, Wang Yue's main body could clearly feel that the Blood Qi within him, which had been depleted to seven streams, was instantly replenished by one stream. It recovered from seven streams to eight, and that sense of fullness was real and distinct.

However, he sensed no change from the Devouring Body's described soul siphoning. He neither felt his soul strengthen nor received any feedback of heightened mental clarity.

What shocked him even more came afterward. The Vital Essence Body walked to the tiger's corpse, stretched out his right hand toward its body, and faint golden light appeared in his palm.

The next instant, streams of silvery-white Vital Essence were forcibly drawn out of the tiger's body, surging into the Vital Essence Body through his palm.

As its Vital Essence drained away, the tiger's originally sleek, glossy fur gradually lost its luster. Its full muscles shriveled at a visible rate, and its once enormous body slowly withered into a dry, gaunt husk. It looked as though it had been dead for many days, with only a layer of skin wrapped around its bones. The sight was horrifying.

"Devour Blood Qi, consume souls, draw Vital Essence..." Wang Yue clicked his tongue as he watched the Vital Essence Body suck the tiger's Vital Essence completely dry. He could not help grumbling inwardly, What kind of monster have I become?

Was this still martial arts cultivation?

He shook his head slightly and was just about to withdraw his consciousness when he suddenly felt a warmth arise within his body. Fine strands of Vital Essence emerged from all four limbs and every bone, flowing through his meridians into his dantian. Though the amount was not great, it carried pure energy. It was precisely the tiger's Vital Essence that the Vital Essence Body had just absorbed—and it could be shared with the main body as well!

"Vital Essence can be shared too?" Wang Yue slowly exhaled, a flash of understanding passing through his eyes. He had previously known only that Blood Qi cultivation results could be fed back. Now it seemed that the Vital Essence Body's absorbed Vital Essence, Blood Qi, and perhaps even talents obtained in the future could all be shared with his main body. The divine ability of the Unworldly Buddha Three Lives Body was even more powerful than he had imagined.

At that moment, an idea suddenly surfaced in his mind, making his eyes light up at once.

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