Advancing to Dou Spirit

The Blood Pool was not very wide. The blood within was murky and viscous, its depth impossible to discern. Bubbles rose one after another from below, and the instant they burst, a scorching, rancid stench of spoiled blood spread out into the surrounding air before finally rushing into Ling Li's nostrils. Even Ling Li, long accustomed to the smell of blood, could not help frowning. The discomfort in his stomach told him he was about to vomit.

This foul stench was not merely an assault on the senses; it instinctively repulsed people from the depths of their hearts.

"Just how long has this Blood Pool been sitting here? Could the treasure be hidden inside?" Ling Li could not help wavering. No matter how he looked at it, this Blood Pool was no good thing.

After searching for a long time, practically examining every inch of the surrounding walls, he returned to the starting point and tried to break through the wall blocking the entrance. Unsurprisingly, he failed. What made Ling Li despair even more was that the air in this passage seemed limited. There were no other forks in the path, nor were there any mechanisms that could send him out.

That Blood Pool seemed to be the only possible way for Ling Li to leave this place...

Ten minutes later,

Suppressing his disgust, Ling Li forcibly took a deep breath of the foul-smelling air, now so thin that it made breathing difficult, then leaped into the Blood Pool.

"Worst case, I die. It's not like I haven't died before..."

The Blood Pool was even deeper than Ling Li had imagined. His entire body sank beneath the surface, yet his feet still did not touch solid ground. However, the blood in the pool was not as scorching as lava as he had expected. Instead, it felt like a hot spring, warm and comforting.

For some reason, the moment he entered the Blood Pool, that repulsive stench vanished without a trace. The blood within the pool suddenly became crystal clear, while the air and natural energy abruptly grew abundant. It was as though he was not in a sea of blood, but in a blessed land.

Ling Li had just taken a deep breath of fresh air when, in the next instant, an enormous force seized his ankle and dragged him downward, causing him to sink continuously.

Ling Li focused his eyes, yet found nothing. It was as though an invisible pair of giant hands within the sea of blood was pulling him down.

Alarmed, Ling Li tried to pull his leg free, but to no avail. He decisively swung Dark Night toward his own legs.

Severing his legs to survive was something Ling Li did not want to do, but it was necessary. As long as he escaped this bizarre situation, he might be able to live a little longer.

Survival had always been Ling Li's top priority. To stay alive, he would stop at nothing. That was the creed Ling Li believed in.

Before Dark Night in his hand could swing down, the liquid around him seemed to sense something and suddenly became incomparably viscous. Like an enormous slime, it completely Devoured Ling Li.

Ling Li, wrapped in the viscous liquid, wanted to struggle, only to discover that it was as solid as condensed matter, leaving him unable to move. Then, the liquid around him began to slowly tighten like a wrung towel, compressing every bone in Ling Li's body until they creaked. Dark Night instantly slipped from his grasp and sank into the Blood Pool.

But Ling Li paid no attention to the Dark Night that had already left his hand. Under the immense pressure, droplets of blood slowly seeped from pores all over his body and gathered together. Buoyed by the liquid, they began to float upward, passing before Ling Li's eyes.

The pain and unbearable itch that felt as if his entire body were being pricked by needles and gnawed by countless tiny insects, drilling into his marrow, made Ling Li want to struggle and howl in agony.

But now, he was like fish on a chopping block, like an ant trampled and crushed at will by a child. Let alone killing himself, he did not even have the ability to make the slightest sound.

Accepting his fate was the only path.

Over the following period, Ling Li did not know how many times he was painfully knocked unconscious, only to be painfully awakened again. Pain and torment seemed to be the only things left.

The torment lasted for more than an hour. By the time every part of Ling Li's body had gone numb and his consciousness had become dull, it seemed that all his bodily fluids—blood, marrow, liquid Dou Qi—had been completely drained away. The heartbeat in his chest had nearly stopped. Only the system panel still flashing before his eyes reminded him that he was alive.

"Detected bloodline undergoing specialization..."

"Automatically selecting bloodline specialization direction..."

"Based on the host's constitution, bloodline attribute automatically selected: Darkwood."

"Bloodline specialization begins!"

"0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%..."

The instant the progress began to move, Ling Li's dried-up eyes flew wide open.

It was still the same familiar formula, still the same familiar feeling. The torment began anew, except this time, it changed from extraction to injection!

Countless threads formed from blood wrapped around Ling Li like strands of yarn, then burrowed into his body through pores all over him. They began flowing through his blood vessels once more, nourishing his limbs and bones.

As the blood threads entered, the values in Ling Li's bloodline and cultivation columns rapidly climbed from zero.

One-star Dou Zhe, the Dou Qi cyclone condensed once more;

One-star Dou Master, gaseous Dou Qi liquefied into droplets;

One-star Great Fighting Master, Dou Qi droplets condensed into spheres!

Ling Li's cultivation quickly returned to two-star Great Fighting Master, but the infusion of bloodline and energy did not stop. His cultivation and bloodline continued to rise at tremendous speed.

His entire body was still in agonizing pain, but Ling Li's consciousness had recovered. Looking inward with his spiritual sense, Ling Li watched spherical droplets of Dou Qi slowly condense within the sea of Qi in his Dantian, eventually floating steadily within it. Every spherical droplet of Dou Qi that formed represented an increase of one star in Ling Li's strength.

The sensation was not particularly pleasant due to the agony throughout his body, but Ling Li could clearly feel that he was rapidly growing stronger, that his strength was swiftly increasing!

After nine spherical droplets of Dou Qi had formed inside Ling Li's body, the energy infusion still did not stop. Earth-shaking changes were also taking place within him. Crystals resembling salt crystals gradually began to appear within the mass of liquid Dou Qi in his sea of Qi! As the energy continued to solidify, the number of these crystals kept increasing.

Whether advancing to Dou Master or Great Fighting Master, the Dou Qi in Ling Li's sea of Qi had always been in liquid form. As a Dou Zhe, it had been small droplets; as a Dou Master, large droplets; and at Great Fighting Master, the droplets had merely grown larger into spheres, still remaining liquid. But this time, his Dou Qi was turning solid for the first time!

Moreover, Ling Li discovered that the soul scattered throughout his body was beginning to gather toward his sea of Qi, forming an illusory human figure above it. This was the so-called Soul Body!

There was a fundamental difference between Dou Spirit and Great Fighting Master. This difference was reflected in two aspects: Dou Qi weapons and the Soul Body! After cultivators with Soul Bodies fell, they could exist in the form of a Soul Body for a certain period of time. The duration depended on their strength and the strength of their Soul Body. If the Soul Body formed a new body again or successfully possessed another body, then it would effectively gain a new life! Upon reaching the Dou Spirit stage, one theoretically obtained immortality!

Precisely because of this, one could imagine how difficult it was to advance to Dou Spirit. Countless people remained stuck at this step, unable to advance their cultivation any further, and ultimately died with regret.

However, even reaching Dou Spirit could not grant true immortality. This immortality was only theoretical. Every rebirth weakened the Soul Body a little more. When it could no longer be reborn, that would be the day the person truly perished.

After advancing to Dou Spirit, the Dou Qi in the sea of Qi would form a sea-urchin-shaped Dou Core with ten spikes. As one's strength increased, the spikes on the Dou Core would slowly be worn away. Once all ten spikes had completely disappeared and it formed a smooth Dou Pill, one would advance into the Dou Wang realm.

The solidification of Dou Qi within Ling Li's body lasted a full day and night. When the final spherical droplet of Dou Qi merged into the Dou Core, forming the tenth spike, the liquid within the Blood Pool abruptly vanished. Ling Li's body rapidly fell downward, and the system notification followed:

"Congratulations to the host for advancing to the Dou Spirit realm. Ability skill—Shadow Transformation unlocked."