Blood Boiling Potion, as its name suggested.
After drinking it, the heart would beat faster, continuously pumping more blood through the body, as though it intended to boil the blood itself.
At that moment, it would have been a lie to say Duke was not nervous. After all, his predecessor had died from the potion's powerful effects, and every year, quite a few unlucky souls died because of Blood Boiling Potion.
But this time.
Duke believed in Xiao Yi's abilities. He also believed that the improvement in his physical condition over the month he had spent cultivating his Spiritual Sea meant he would not be so easily tormented to death by Blood Boiling Potion.
Thump, thump!
His heartbeat quickened, as if it were about to leap out of his chest.
Duke endured it and chose to look inward at his Spiritual Sea.
At that moment, Xiao Yi, shaped like a phone within the Spiritual Sea, seemed to radiate light. From her endless energy circuits, she projected dozens of rays that shone toward the depths of the Spiritual Sea.
"Thump, thump!"
In his inward-looking state, he could clearly hear, from the depths of the Spiritual Sea illuminated by those rays, a heartbeat like rolling thunder.
Following Xiao Yi's light, he flew toward the depths of the Spiritual Sea.
He traversed an boundless ocean of starlight. He did not know how long he had flown; perhaps it was only a daze, or perhaps the seas had dried up and the stones had rotted away. At last, at the end of the illuminated path, he saw a portal.
It was a blood-red, vortex-shaped portal.
Xiao Yi's light passed through the vortex.
Duke followed through the vortex as well. Immediately afterward, he saw a blood-red ocean world existing in an indescribably profound manner.
On one hand, it seemed vast and boundless, its crimson stretching beyond sight. On the other, he could clearly see the outline of that blood-red ocean—it resembled a beating heart.
Thump, thump!
Boom-thump!
The sound of war drums seemed to echo beside his ears, making his blood surge.
The blood-red ocean constantly heaved in waves, answering the thunderous drumbeats. Xiao Yi's light had already spread out, outlining one energy route after another around the blood-red ocean within the heart-shaped outline. The purpose of those energy routes was to maintain the blood-red ocean and prevent it from collapsing amid the drumbeats.
Thump, thump!
Boom-thump!
Strongly infected by the drumbeats, Duke's inward-looking consciousness soon merged into the blood-red ocean.
Then his entire body suddenly jolted. He broke free from his inward-looking state, and his consciousness returned to his body.
He was still sitting cross-legged on the bed, as if nothing had changed. Yet when he sensed himself carefully, he "heard" a ceaseless heartbeat in his mind. It was a special sound of resonance.
"The sound of the Spiritual Sea resonating with the Blood Sea!"
Duke was overjoyed. "Xiao Yi, did it work?"
"Yes. Congratulations, Master, on successfully opening your Blood Sea. You can now cultivate as a knight."
"Haha, I owe it all to you." Duke rose from the bed and stretched his limbs. He had never felt so good. What surged outward from his heart was not merely blood, but also a solid, surging sense of strength.
The feeling was excellent.
Opening the Spiritual Sea left him refreshed and vigorous; opening the Blood Sea filled him with power.
Two of the three seas within the human body had now been opened. With the Blood Sea's reopening as a precedent, he believed he would soon be able to deduce how to open the Qi Sea again.
Once all three seas were complete...
It seemed there was nothing particularly miraculous about it. The Qi Sea and Blood Sea were merely branches of the Spiritual Sea. The only one who could truly touch the essence of Spiritual Arcana was an arcane mage.
He threw two punches at the air.
It took Duke quite some time to calm his emotions. The accelerated heartbeat brought by Blood Boiling Potion had also completely returned to normal.
He sat down before the desk without opening the book Universal Blood Refining Method. Xiao Yi had already stored its contents in her database. With only a thought from him, the contents of Universal Blood Refining Method would roll through the Spiritual Sea and then project into his mind, as though he had read it countless times. Every detail was at his fingertips.
The meditation method granted him the ability to absorb Free-floating Spiritual Particles from the outside world.
The blood refining method, meanwhile, extracted spirituality from his own cells and tissues through the heart's pumping action, then condensed it into a special method of circulating power—battle qi.
Boom, boom.
Upon circulating Universal Blood Refining Method for the first time, his heart rang out twice with a resounding cry. In every cell throughout his body, threads of spirituality slowly seeped out.
They flowed with his blood and passed through blood refinement by the heart.
Then they transformed into a thread of special gaseous Spiritual Power finer than a strand of hair.
"My first wisp of battle qi!"
"Now I'm a 0-ring Knight. No, I should be a 0-Ring Knight Squire. Only a knight who has formed a contract with a spirit beast companion can use the spirit beast's bloodline to nourish their battle qi and advance to 0-ring Knight." A thought flashed through Duke's mind, and he quickly gathered his distracting thoughts before continuing to circulate the blood refining method.
As the blood refining method circulated, this first wisp of battle qi began seeping into another meridian that existed within his body yet could not be found there. The meridian was faint and elusive. One end connected to the heart's Blood Sea, while the other vanished into his body. It then emerged from another part of his body and flowed back into the Blood Sea, forming a complete cycle.
With every complete cycle, his battle qi grew slightly stronger.
The spirituality within his body was refined and diminished by a trace as well. At the same time, the battle qi that had grown stronger nourished his body anew, strengthening his physique more effectively than the original spirituality.
"Xiao Yi, can you operate Universal Blood Refining Method in my place?"
"Based on the information currently available, I can."
"Come on, give it a try."
If Xiao Yi could help open even the Blood Sea, operating Universal Blood Refining Method was naturally no problem. Soon, Duke felt the battle qi within his body begin circulating on its own.
But then a problem arose.
Restricted by Duke's own hardware, Xiao Yi could not run Field Meditation and Universal Blood Refining Method in the background simultaneously.
"Forget it. You should continue running Field Meditation in the background. The importance of Spiritual Sea cultivation is beyond question." Duke quickly made his decision. "I'll find time to cultivate Universal Blood Refining Method myself..."
In reality.
Even if Duke asked Xiao Yi to run Universal Blood Refining Method in the background, it would be difficult to maintain.
The reason was simple. The meditation method absorbed Free-floating Spirituality from the outside world, while the blood refining method extracted spirituality from his own body. The spirituality outside was inexhaustible, but the spirituality within him was pitifully scarce.
That was also why knights needed to consume large amounts of spirit beast meat to replenish themselves.
Relying on nothing but three ordinary meals a day, it was difficult for battle qi to grow.
"I'll have to spend money on spirit beast meat..."
Duke suddenly felt the pressure of making money return.
He did not dwell on it, however. Instead, he shifted his gaze to the Long-Haired Mongoose cub in the paper box. Looking at the tiny, bald creature that had not yet grown its fur, he revealed an auntie-like smile.
"Little fellow, come on. Form a Knight Contract with me."
He extended a hand and used a small knife to make a cut. Then he immediately stuffed his finger into the cub's mouth.
He circulated his battle qi. The wisp of battle qi that had just been born within him surged along with his blood and emerged from his finger. The blood mixed with battle qi radiated a strange Spiritual Power, causing the cub to suck it down instinctively.
Then.
The ignorant Long-Haired Mongoose cub sensed a strange power guiding it. Unable to resist, it followed that power and opened its still-weak spiritual world.
In an instant!
The Duke who had already seemed somewhat familiar to the cub suddenly felt even more familiar.
Duke likewise sensed that the Blood Sea at the heart of his body, extending through his blood and battle qi, had established a strange connection with the palm-sized little beast before him.
It was as if their spirits had been strung together.
There was a vague sense of telepathy.
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