Shedding the Mortal Shell

The blood pool suddenly changed!

Shi Yan stood in the pool, the water reaching only to his waist. Yet the blood within it seemed to come alive, condensing like vines as it wound up his body. In just a few seconds, blood covered him from head to toe, wrapping him up tight.

The blood in the pool seemed to turn into countless scarlet snakes, coiling around him and wrapping him into a gigantic cocoon.

Agonizing pain spread through his entire body. It felt as though a meat grinder were carving into his brain, and the torment was unbearable.

It was as if billions of tiny insects were burrowing through every pore in his body, wriggling through his limbs and organs as though gnawing at his flesh, inflicting the agony of being cut by a thousand blades.

Shi Yan could see nothing. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out, and he couldn't move.

Strands of strange fluid flowed slowly through his meridians like trickling streams. Wherever they passed, the meridians that had never before encountered foreign energy seemed to tear apart. The fluid surged through him, branching into countless streams and frantically pouring into all seven hundred and twenty of his acupoints.

Shi Yan felt as if the seven hundred and twenty acupoints in his body had suddenly expanded countless times. One moment they were blazing hot, the next they were freezing to the bone. The sensation was indescribably awful.

The pain in his mind grew more intense. In a daze, Shi Yan seemed to see his acupoints undergoing an uncanny transformation as the strange fluid poured into them. Every acupoint in his body seemed to become a tiny vortex, spinning wildly.

Strands of crimson fluid flowed into those vortices and seemed to be swiftly absorbed, becoming part of them. As the vortices took in the fluid, they grew larger, and the larger they became, the faster they absorbed it.

Perhaps because the pain had become more than he could bear, Shi Yan, in his delirium, felt as though his body had become a gigantic vessel. The strange fluid flooding in through every pore seemed to be changing his body in a way he couldn't comprehend.

More precisely, it was changing the seven hundred and twenty acupoints within him!

As soon as this thought surfaced in his mind, a piercing pain suddenly erupted inside his head. All of Shi Yan's consciousness vanished, and he passed out in an instant.

He didn't know how long had passed before Shi Yan slowly woke again.

He immediately realized that the pain in his head and body was gone, and the strange fluid was no longer flowing within him. He carefully felt around and examined himself. Aside from a faint ache in all his acupoints, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

Suddenly, he felt a warm current slithering through his meridians like a little snake. After completing one Lesser Celestial Circuit, it left his whole body feeling comfortable, and even his hands and feet seemed stronger.

Essence!

Shi Yan's heart skipped a beat. He immediately realized that the blood pool had given him some benefit after all. The warm current slithering through his meridians was clearly the essence that only a Martial Artist could possess!

Through the memories of the other Shi Yan, he knew that essence was the source of a Martial Artist's power in this world, as well as the foundation for unleashing powerful Martial Skills.

Depending on the strength of their essence and the level of their cultivation, Martial Artists were strictly divided into ten realms: Acquired, Innate, Human Position, Hundred Tribulations, Earth Position, Nirvana, Heaven Position, Connecting to God, True God, and God King. Each realm was further divided into three heavenly tiers.

Martial Artists were the powerful people of this world. The clearest way to distinguish them from ordinary people was to see whether they possessed essence. Anyone with even a trace of essence in their body could be called a Martial Artist, no matter how little they had.

Many people went their entire lives without ever obtaining essence. But once a person possessed it, they could strengthen it through diligent cultivation. Thus, any Martial Artist with essence could secure a place for themselves in this world.

Feeling that faint thread of essence slowly flowing within him, Shi Yan suddenly felt a little more at ease. He knew that even if he couldn't get back, at least he wouldn't starve to death in this world.

Once his mind was settled, Shi Yan immediately noticed that the blood cocoon covering his entire body was still there, wrapping him up tight.

Shi Yan struggled with all his might.

"Rip!"

The blood cocoon split open with a wide tear, and Shi Yan sprang out. He looked around and realized he was still in that strange stone cavern, surrounded by heaps of bones.

Yet the blood in the pool had dried up—not a single drop remained!

All that was left in the drained pool were dozens of broken bones. The entire poolful of thick, scarlet blood had vanished without a trace.

A gigantic blood cocoon stood high in the center of the pool. It was thin as a cicada's wing and glimmered faintly. But the moment he looked at it, a small flame ignited at its base. The flame grew, setting even the bones in the pool alight. In a short while, both the cocoon and the bones had burned to ashes.

In the dried-up pool, a simple, ancient ring lay quietly, glowing red and etched with intricate blood patterns.

Shi Yan stared at the strange ring for a few moments, vaguely sensing that it had a lot to do with the blood pool. After hesitating, he stepped forward, picked it up, and slipped it onto the ring finger of his left hand.

A warm sensation came from the ring. In an instant, Shi Yan felt a blood-deep connection with it, as if it had become part of his body. The faint essence inside him suddenly surged out of control toward the dark-red ring. It poured toward the surface of his skin, but the flesh on his ring finger blocked it, preventing it from entering the ring.

Startled, Shi Yan immediately sensed that something was strange about the ring. He hurriedly tried to remove it, only to find it firmly fastened to his finger, as though it had taken root and sprouted there. No matter how hard he tugged, he couldn't pull off the strange ring.

Unable to break through the flesh blocking its way, the essence soon returned to normal and sank back into his lower abdomen. The red light on the ring flickered for a while, then dimmed. The warmth vanished, too.

After wiggling his fingers for a while and finding nothing else amiss with the ring, he stopped worrying about it. He looked around at his surroundings and thought carefully.

Before long, Shi Yan reached an utterly absurd conclusion: all the blood in the pool had flowed into his body!

The pool had covered ten square meters. It wasn't large, but the blood it held had weighed at least several tons. Even an elephant couldn't drink several tons of blood in one go!

Shi Yan's face darkened. Instinctively, he looked himself over, wondering what had changed and whether he had become bloated.

That was a mistake. Shi Yan was startled all over again!

Not only had he not become bloated, but he was even thinner than before—little more than skin and bones. The clothes that had fit him reasonably well before now hung several sizes too large. There was barely an ounce of flesh on his arms, legs, or anywhere else. He looked like a skeleton draped in human skin.

"Thin" wasn't the word for it. He was a dried-up mummy.

Shi Yan's face darkened further. He hadn't expected the blood pool not only to fail to send him back to the world he knew, but also to leave him with such a bizarre transformation.

"Gurgle! Gurgle!"

The rumble of hunger came from his stomach, and suddenly Shi Yan felt ravenous enough to eat an elephant.

The stone cavern was littered with bones, and there was nothing to eat. He glanced at the dried-up pool and suddenly realized he might never get back.

Shi Yan wanted to find a weapon before leaving. He remembered the guards hacking at one another, blades flashing and metal clanging without end. But after searching the cavern, he found that every weapon had corroded away in no time. Not one was usable.

With no other choice, Shi Yan left through the passage he had entered, empty-handed.

The air was damp and the heat rolled in waves. The soft burble of flowing water came from afar. Ancient trees towered dozens of meters overhead, while dense shrubs spread like giant umbrellas, blocking out the sun. Only a few stubborn rays managed to pierce through and fall upon the marshy ground.

This was the Gloomy Forest. The instant Shi Yan emerged, he understood where he was from the memories of the body's original owner.

The forest covered an immense area. Its trees were so dense that even sunlight struggled to penetrate them, leaving it dim and damp even in broad daylight. That was how it had earned the name Gloomy Forest.

The Gloomy Forest lay between the Merchant Alliance, the Blazing Fire Empire, and the Divine Grace Empire. The Merchant Alliance lay to the north, the Divine Grace Empire to the south, and the forest separated them. The Blazing Fire Empire lay to the west. Merchant caravans traveling between the nations had to pass through the Gloomy Forest.

Demon beasts often appeared in the Gloomy Forest, and beasts of the sixth and seventh ranks were not uncommon. But merchant caravans, mercenaries, and Martial Artists from the three nations had traveled through it often enough to know the dangers: powerful demon beasts generally stayed within specific territories, while only low-ranked beasts wandered wherever they pleased.

Generally speaking, caravans that stuck to established routes through the Gloomy Forest and avoided areas prowled by high-ranked demon beasts wouldn't run into trouble. It was the mercenaries and Martial Artists who came specifically to hunt high-ranked beasts who were more likely to encounter them—and suffer heavy casualties.

High risks went hand in hand with high rewards. Mercenaries and adventurers who managed to slay a sixth- or seventh-rank demon beast in the Gloomy Forest would immediately earn a fortune in crystal coins. Sixth-rank demon beasts already possessed Demon Crystals, which were of great help to Martial Artists, alchemists, and weapon refiners alike—and were worth a king's ransom.

Besides their Demon Crystals, a demon beast's hide, fangs, bones, and even venom were all worth a great deal. High-ranked demon beasts were treasures from head to toe.

For that reason, Martial Artists and mercenaries willing to risk their lives often ventured into the Gloomy Forest, seeking high-ranked demon beasts. But only a few ever reaped the rewards. Many underestimated the intelligence and strength of the beasts. They failed to get what they wanted and instead became the beasts' next meal.

After leaving the stone cavern, Shi Yan surveyed his surroundings for a while. Then he heard a commotion drifting from the direction of the distant water. The conversation was all about women, with a few lecherous chuckles thrown in now and then.

Shi Yan was hesitating over whether to head over and take a look when he suddenly heard a faint rustling from a thicket not far ahead, as if someone were brushing through its leaves.

Shi Yan instinctively looked in that direction.

In the thicket, a woman with a graceful figure slowly untied her plain white sash and squatted with her back to him, revealing snow-white buttocks shaped like peaches. She waved her delicate hand behind her, shooing away the bothersome mosquitoes as she relieved herself with cheerful ease...

The woman clearly didn't know anyone was behind her. Even with the "splashing" of the water, she hummed an unknown tune, evidently in a good mood.

Shi Yan froze for a moment, then came to his senses. Without the slightest restraint, he looked her dazzlingly white backside up and down, admiring how alluring it was and wondering what her face looked like.

"Smack!"

The woman suddenly slapped behind herself, striking her smooth, tender left buttock and killing a bold mosquito. Her flesh first clenched inward in a shiver of ecstasy, then, after she quickly pulled her hand away, rippled enticingly. Its firm resilience was plain to see, and Shi Yan felt his heart sway along with it.

As Shi Yan watched her reluctantly, the woman finished relieving herself and rustled as she retied her sash. She muttered to herself, "Damn mosquitoes..."

Without the slightest warning, the woman suddenly turned around. Blue arcs of electricity flashed in both her hands, enveloping the mosquitoes gathered behind her. With a crackling burst, she shredded them all.

As she turned, her face came fully into view. She had a delicate face like a bright moon, looked around twenty, and stood about one meter sixty-eight tall. She was stunningly beautiful, with a slender waist, a full bosom, and a graceful figure. A silver-gray suit of soft armor covered her pale-purple underclothes, but the armor clung so tightly to her body that it did nothing to hide her breathtaking curves. She was like a beautiful fox from the mountains and wilds of legend.

Shi Yan's gaze burned as it fell on her. He couldn't help admiring that she could rival the most stunning actresses from his world.

As Shi Yan's greedy gaze wandered over her marvelous figure, the beauty suddenly sensed something. Despite several enormous banana leaves between them, she found his eyes with uncanny accuracy.

A brilliant glint suddenly flashed through the beauty's eyes like an arrow!