One day, inside his cave abode, Lu Xiaotian sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion. The magical power within his body and the blood-force contained in his physique surged like a tide, coursing through his meridians and bones.
Gurgle, gurgle. Lu Xiaotian didn't even need to carefully sense it with his spiritual awareness to tell that the blood-force and magical power were far more active than before.
Drip! At last, under the utmost compression of his magical power, they coalesced into a single crystalline, teardrop-shaped bead, which fell into his dantian. But the surging blood-force within his body failed to coalesce; it burst apart with a roar and once more lay dormant within his physique.
Inside his dantian, a Nascent Soul identical to Lu Xiaotian raised one hand and cradled the blood-colored teardrop bead in its palm, a hint of excitement on its face. With a flick of its finger, a hazy crimson glow appeared around the bead. It circled the Nascent Soul once before the little figure opened its mouth and swallowed it.
After a long while, Lu Xiaotian propped up his chin, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Looks like the Ten-Cycle Essence-Melding Art is of little use to body cultivators." A moment later, Lu Xiaotian arrived at this conclusion. The crystalline, blood-colored teardrop bead was the Essence-Melding Blood Bead he had formed by cultivating the Ten-Cycle Essence-Melding Art while repeatedly fighting Xiang Kuang. It could store magical power. One bead was already enough to hold one layer of his magical power; if he condensed ten Essence-Melding Blood Beads, his capacity for magical power would naturally double.
When he first began cultivating this art, Lu Xiaotian had intended to condense his magical power and the blood-force in his physique at the same time. But only half had succeeded; the