Xuan Gang City.
The enormous martial arena was packed with people on all sides, yet so silent that a needle drop could be heard.
At the center of the arena, a young man sat cross-legged. Blood qi surged around him like a tide, his face twisted, veins bulging across his forehead as though he were enduring immense agony.
Several massive exotic beast carcasses lay around him, their vast blood qi flowing toward him.
The watching disciples held their breath, their eyes fixed tightly upon him. Some were expectant, some fearful, but most were uneasy.
"Can Zhao Tieyi hold on?" someone asked in a low voice.
No one answered.
Zhao Tieyi was a peak Transcendent Realm disciple of Xuan Gang Peak. He had been stuck at his bottleneck for ten years. Three days ago, he had signed up to cultivate the Myriad Transformations Origin Return Art, and today was his first official attempt at cultivating through devouring exotic beast essence blood.
"Looks like another one is about to go mad!" Several disciples stood together amid the crowd, watching coldly.
The speaker was Sun Heng, also at the peak of the Transcendent Realm. Looking at Zhao Tieyi in the center of the arena, he shook his head. "Cultivating by devouring essence blood—isn't that the path of demonic cultivators? How could the sect promote such a technique?"
"I heard it was created by the Sect Master. It combines the Savage Body Refinement Art and allows one to devour blood qi for cultivation. The Peak Master personally gave the order: all disciples must take it as an elective, or they will not be promoted!" someone beside him said quietly.
"Created by the Sect Master?" Someone cried out in surprise. "Then perhaps it can be tried. If the Sect Master created it, it should be