It was already ten o'clock at night. Since it was the thirtieth, there weren't any trainees at the gate.
"Guan Ning, what are you doing waiting for Dragon Blood at this hour?" the middle-aged man in charge of the guards at the main gate called out with a laugh. He'd seen the news online, too.
Guan Ning nodded.
The General Hall Master gave Guan Ning a long look. There was a hint of envy, a hint of disdain, and a hint of wariness and distance.
"They always seemed to get along so well. Who would've thought he'd stab Luo Feng in the back? You really can't judge a book by its cover!"
The General Hall Master muttered, then realized the person he was talking about was standing right in front of him. He felt terribly awkward.
"I didn't stab anyone in the back. Senior Brother Luo Feng and I discussed it, and he agreed."
Guan Ning gave the General Hall Master a knowing smile as he explained.
He didn't want to be branded a backstabber. He needed to spread the word and clear his name.
"Heh..." The General Hall Master gave an awkward laugh and went back inside.
"You discussed it? What does Luo Feng get out of this? I don't get it..."
Even after hearing Guan Ning's explanation, he was more confused than ever.
"Beep!"
A horn sounded, and a large truck drove toward the Training Camp's entrance.
After passing security, the truck drove inside.
"That should be it." Guan Ning walked to the side. The truck seemed to have spotted him. It drove over to the open area nearby and came to a stop.
Clatter!
The rear doors swung open, and a voice called out, "Trainee Guan Ning, please come aboard."
Guan Ning ran to the back of the truck. A blue light shone over him, and an electronic voice sounded: "Identity confirmed. Please come aboard."
The truck's interior was luxurious. Three people were inside, all watching Guan Ning in surprise.
"So this is Guan Ning?"
"The Dragon Blood must be in that box." The three people in the truck—one East Asian and two white men—were speaking Chinese.
Guan Ning climbed aboard. As before, a blue light shone over the lockbox.
"Item confirmed. Trainee Guan Ning, please accept delivery," the electronic voice announced.
Guan Ning stepped forward.
One of the three, a tall white man, lifted the lockbox and held it out to him.
Guan Ning took the box.
"Just as I thought. Looks like I'll have to put up with this for a few days."
Seeing the familiar looks in their eyes, Guan Ning chuckled bitterly to himself. "I discussed it with the person involved. I didn't stab him in the back."
Then he left.
"He didn't stab him in the back?"
The other white man couldn't quite figure out what he meant.
"He means he and Luo Feng staged the whole thing together. They were after the hundred-billion reward," the East Asian man said with a sigh. He'd understood.
"Damn! So Vulture and Poison Scorpion got made into suckers?"
The tall white man was stunned.
"That's unbelievably bold. They went after Vulture, a high-level War God with a Black God suit."
The white man who'd asked first was amazed by how daring Guan Ning and Luo Feng had been.
Guan Ning didn't care what they said. If it weren't for his reputation, he wouldn't have bothered explaining.
Carrying the lockbox, Guan Ning was brimming with excitement. Even his steps quickened.
Before long, he reached Jiangnan Pavilion.
"Guan Ning, get out here! Don't think you can make me let you off just by hiding!"
"You've really got some nerve. Now you're even stabbing people in the back!"
"You let a few days go by without a beating, and you start acting up again!"
The moment he entered, he saw Zhao Ruo shouting furiously in front of his loft, with none of the gentleness one would expect of a Jiangnan woman.
"You're back!" Seeing Guan Ning return, Zhao Ruo had finally found the person she wanted. "Come with me. You need to apologize to Luo Feng."
"Sister Ruo, I only let the news out after discussing it with Luo Feng. Otherwise, how would I dare do something like that? Who'd want to be friends with me afterward?"
Guan Ning had no choice but to explain again.
"Today... General Hall Master Hong and I talked it over before deciding."
"Oh, so that's what happened!" Zhao Ruo showed no sign of feeling bad for suspecting Guan Ning. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the box he was carrying. "Is that Dragon Blood in there?"
Guan Ning nodded.
"Let me have a look!" Zhao Ruo started wheedling. Even with her means, she couldn't afford to buy something like this.
"No." Guan Ning refused outright.
"By the way, where are Luo Feng and Senior Brother Shi Jiang?" Guan Ning hadn't seen either of them. Given how loudly Zhao Ruo had been carrying on, they should have heard her.
If Luo Feng had heard, Guan Ning wouldn't have needed to explain things himself.
"Senior Brother Shi Jiang still hasn't come back from the Nine-Story Tower. Ever since Chu Qiang reached the top, he's practically been living there," Zhao Ruo explained. "I don't know about Luo Feng."
"Sister Ruo, now that you've asked what you wanted, can you go home?"
Guan Ning was too excited to chat. Usually, he'd be happy to talk with Zhao Ruo, but he wasn't in the mood now.
"How stingy." Zhao Ruo sniffed. "I know you think I'm in the way. I'll get going."
"Take care, Sister Ruo." Guan Ning wasn't about to humor her.
Zhao Ruo stumbled, shot Guan Ning an annoyed look, and stormed off.
In the basement, Guan Ning set the lockbox on the alloy floor and opened it. Inside were two small wooden boxes. One held the Mist Sword manual and several discs. The other contained a test tube secured in foam and sealed with a stopper. Golden blood filled a little over a third of the tube.
"So this is Dragon Blood, worth 80 billion?" Guan Ning carefully took out the test tube and held it up to the ceiling light.
The golden blood shimmered beneath the light, making his heart tremble.
He searched inside and quickly found the instructions for using the Dragon Blood. The original story had described how to use it, and he remembered the details clearly, but it was still better to be cautious.
Just as the original story said, all he had to do was apply the Dragon Blood to his body. He didn't need to coat himself all over; applying it to a single spot was enough.
The Dragon Blood would seep in naturally and spread throughout his body.
The only thing he must never do was drink it.
Guan Ning lay down on the floor and pulled out the test tube's stopper. A peculiar scent immediately filled the basement. Just breathing it in made his whole body tingle faintly, like he was cultivating Genetic Origin Energy.
He tilted the tube slightly and poured the Dragon Blood onto his chest.
The Dragon Blood was as viscous as mercury, flowing slowly.
Soon, the tube was empty. He gently rubbed his palm over his chest to spread the Dragon Blood over a wider area. His chest began to heat up.
A rush of warmth spread rapidly from his chest throughout his body, growing stronger by the moment. The Dragon Blood on his chest visibly dwindled, as if seeping beneath his skin.
The heat kept intensifying!
The temperature kept rising!
Guan Ning felt as if a flame had started burning in his chest before spreading rapidly through his entire body, scorching him all over. His skin seemed to be cracking, and his blood was evaporating.
"The original story said the pain would be unbearable. The instructions mentioned it, too. I didn't expect it to be this awful. This is going to kill me."
Guan Ning clenched his fists, his whole body trembling faintly. He hadn't suffered from headaches since childhood like Luo Feng had. This was his first time going through anything like this.
The heat-dried skin cracked and peeled away as new skin grew beneath it. The itching and numbness felt as if millions of ants were crawling over every inch of his body, biting him and driving him mad with the urge to scratch.
Once the Dragon Blood on his skin was gone, the burning and tingling sensations disappeared.
But the Dragon Blood had seeped inside him. As it did, Guan Ning's whole body began to convulse. It wasn't just his body; every muscle was twitching. Across his bare upper body, each muscle writhed like an earthworm. His skin looked as if it had been burned red, while the veins beneath it bulged and twisted. The sight was horrifying.
Pain!
Excruciating pain!
Pain that made him want to die!
Guan Ning wished he could pass out so he wouldn't have to endure this inhuman agony.
Unfortunately, that wish wouldn't come true. His soul was exceptionally strong, his consciousness far beyond an ordinary person's, and years of reading the Dao Scripture had made his will formidable, too. All he could do was endure the agony himself.
As the pain grew worse, every cell in Guan Ning's body devoured the Dragon Blood's energy. Under its influence, the genetic material inside his cells rapidly transformed, shedding useless genes and improving and refining the rest.
Some obsolete cells and impurities were expelled directly through Guan Ning's skin, like dirt.
As his cells transformed, his muscles, bones, skin, and blood all changed as well.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
The pain Guan Ning felt grew even more intense. He could no longer stay lying down and rolled back and forth across the alloy floor. Fighting the urge to tear his body apart, he repeatedly punched the floor, venting the impulse building inside him.
"Haah..."
The whole process lasted about three hours. Guan Ning lay sprawled on the floor like a heap of mud, unable to move even a finger.
He couldn't believe he'd managed to make it through. He'd wanted to pass out and be done with it, but he hadn't been able to. All he could do was endure the excruciating pain and thrash around in the basement.
The training room was a complete mess. Bloodstains were splattered across the floor and walls, left behind when his fists split open. Without the Dragon Blood replenishing his energy, he would've died from blood loss long ago.
Looking at the ruined room and remembering the maddening pain, Guan Ning shuddered. He'd never imagined that he wouldn't pass out.
Since he'd remained conscious, sweat had poured off him. The impurities expelled during the transformation had stuck to every surface of the training room.
Guan Ning was drenched in sweat, but his skin still gleamed with a bronze sheen. He'd spent so much time training indoors, away from sunlight, and even when he went out to hunt monsters, he wore a combat suit. His skin had been deathly pale. After the stimulation from the Dragon Blood, it had turned bronze, looking firm and powerful.
Guan Ning thought to himself, Not bad! I'm very satisfied. This is what a man should look like.
Before you continue