Bloodletting

Putting away the Shore Flower, Old Ancestor Styx no longer dawdled. He took out the Twelve-grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus and sat cross-legged directly before the Forbidden Stone Tablet, beginning to sort through the insights he had gained while traveling the Blood Sea. This journey had first yielded two High-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures, then the refining of the Nether Blood Sea's Forbidden Stone Tablet, and finally, the harvest of a High-grade Innate Spiritual Root.

Every innate object contained Dao Resonance. By refining these spiritual treasures, spiritual roots, and the core of the Formation, Old Ancestor Styx had reaped a vast amount of enlightenment. His cultivation realm climbed rapidly, easily shattering the barrier between Profound Immortal and Golden Immortal. He reached the mid-stage of the Golden Immortal realm before he finally finished absorbing his gains. This meant that, had it not been for the shackles of Heaven and Earth, Old Ancestor Styx could have ascended to the Golden Immortal realm rapidly without any fear of an unstable foundation.

Once his realm broke through, Old Ancestor Styx began to push his cultivation level. By the time he emerged from seclusion, his cultivation had reached the late-stage of the True Immortal realm—a consecutive breakthrough of two minor realms. In truth, under the pressure of the Great Dao and the Great God Pangu, the limit a cultivator should have reached was merely the mid-stage of the True Immortal realm. Whether it was due to his Pangu bloodline, his earlier creation of the acquired path, or the merit of the Blood Scripture, the Great Dao and the Great God Pangu seemed to grant Old Ancestor Styx some preferential treatment. After breaking through to the mid-stage, Old Ancestor Styx felt he could still advance, so he followed the momentum to the late-stage of the True Immortal realm before he sensed the shackles once more.

Old Ancestor Styx decided to end his seclusion. Perhaps due to the breakthrough in his cultivation and the fact that he had refined the Nether Blood Sea Formation, he felt that he could now begin refining his Blood God Son avatars. "The Blood Sea shall not dry, and Styx shall not die!" This could finally be put on the agenda. Once the Blood God Sons were refined, he could go out and roam the Great Wilderness! Old Ancestor Styx thought to himself.

Returning to the place where he was birthed, Old Ancestor Styx first retrieved the Primordial Spirit he had been nourishing within the Ghost Soul Treasure Tree. After nearly an Eon of cultivation, this Primordial Spirit had recovered to a state of full Origin. Any further nourishment and it risked merging into the Origin of the Ghost Soul Treasure Tree! He drew the Primordial Spirit back into his Sea of Consciousness, using his Origin Primordial Spirit to purge the foreign aura contaminated within it, thereby restoring it to a state of purity.

He then took up the Blood Scripture, carefully contemplating the method of avatar creation contained within. In the original timeline, Old Ancestor Styx had refined the entire Blood Sea into his own body; every drop of blood within it could manifest as an avatar of Old Ancestor Styx. To the current Old Ancestor Styx, while this method of refining avatars ensured that "the Blood Sea shall not dry, and Styx shall not die," these avatars were of little use once they left the Blood Sea. Moreover, they were stuck at whatever realm they were refined at, forever unable to improve! If he followed this method, the probability was high that his eventual fate would not differ much from the Old Ancestor Styx of the original timeline.

Old Ancestor Styx could not help but ponder: how should he refine his own Blood God avatars? Suddenly, he recalled the scene of refining his Three Thousand Chaos Demon God Avatars! Combined with the traditional method of refining Blood God Son avatars, this seemed like a promising path!

Thus, after careful deliberation, he did not hesitate. He first took out the initial batch of fruit from the Blood God Fruit Tree, selected a large quantity of spiritual roots beneficial to Qi and Blood, took up his Alchemy Furnace, and began the refinement. Once the fruits were exhausted, a small mountain of jade bottles had piled up before Old Ancestor Styx. Most were Blood Replenishing Pills for nourishing Qi and Blood, but a small portion of Spirit Replenishing Pills were mixed in—after all, Essence, Qi, and Spirit were interconnected; one could not do without the other.

Once prepared, Old Ancestor Styx took out a jade basin and began to bleed. He first squeezed out four drops of Essence Blood. The moment the Essence Blood appeared, Old Ancestor Styx's face turned deathly pale, and he hurriedly downed a bottle of Blood Replenishing Pills. One had to understand that Essence Blood was the condensation of a cultivator's Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Every cultivator had a finite amount, and once lost, it was extremely difficult to replenish. Fortunately, Old Ancestor Styx's realm was still low, and the pills refined from the first batch of fruit from a High-grade Innate Spiritual Root were more than enough for his current needs! If not for this safeguard, he would never have dared to gamble like this.

After resting to recover slightly, Old Ancestor Styx began to bleed himself again. Of course, this time it was not Essence Blood, but merely ordinary blood. Throughout the process, he frequently tossed several Blood Replenishing and Spirit Replenishing pills into his mouth. In the interim, once he had recovered, Old Ancestor Styx drained two more drops of Essence Blood.

Time flew by, and ten Eons passed in a flash. Before Old Ancestor Styx lay 1.296 billion drops of blood, flickering with a faint, humble light. Floating above these blood droplets were twelve drops of Essence Blood that shimmered like rubies...

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