Using Dragon Blood, His Strength Soared

"Was I already at my peak the moment I debuted?"

Shi Fen rubbed his chin, his eyes darting back and forth across the manuals. For a moment, he had no idea which one to look at.

"Forget it. I'd better improve my strength first. There's no rush to go fight monsters." Shi Fen crouched in front of the box of treasures and picked up the test tube containing "Dragon Blood."

The test tube held one-third of its volume in golden blood. Under the light, it gleamed dazzlingly. Without the slightest hesitation, Shi Fen rolled up his sleeves and carefully applied the golden blood to both arms.

The golden blood was incredibly thick. Shi Fen carefully spread it over his forearms. Not long after the Dragon Blood touched his skin, waves of heat flowed from where it had been applied, quickly seeping into his arms. Once inside his body, the heat coursed through every part of him: his hands, torso, legs, head, internal organs, skin, and everywhere else.

Shi Fen could clearly feel his strength rapidly increasing.

As the heat surged, the Dragon Blood's strange energy continuously seeped into every part of his body. The cells throughout him fought to devour that energy, undergoing a fierce transformation.

The heat continued to intensify, and the Dragon Blood visibly disappeared as it quickly seeped into Shi Fen's skin. When his body began to ache, most of his consciousness entered the Image World. With only a tiny fraction of his consciousness left in his body, the pain instantly diminished. Shi Fen let the Dragon Blood's energy run rampant inside him.

Even so, Shi Fen trembled all over from the pain. It was as if countless ants had burrowed into his body and were gnawing at everything inside him. The excruciating sensation made his face drain of color, turning deathly pale.

Shi Fen clenched his fists. The pain was rapidly worsening, becoming almost unbearable. It kept escalating in new ways: the agony of being gnawed at from within gave way to a sensation of heat burning him internally. When the heat reached its peak, an itchy, tingling sensation suddenly spread throughout his body.

The sudden itch made him want to claw himself to death. The deep-seated agony and burning were no longer so hard to bear.

Shi Fen's muscles began twitching uncontrollably. His pores were like "fountains," gushing out torrents of sweat. His breathing grew heavier and more rapid, beyond his control. His heart was like a "war drum," pounding out a thunderous "battle" rhythm inside his chest. His body was gradually reaching its absolute limit.

Shi Fen's vision kept going dark. It was a sign that he was about to pass out.

Shi Fen steeled himself. He brought all of his consciousness back and faced the inhuman torment with everything he had.

As his consciousness returned, Shi Fen convulsed. His clenched hands tightened, and his fingernails dug straight into his palms. A low "beastly growl" escaped his mouth, like that of a wounded animal. The pain was unbearable. His vision suddenly went black, and he came within a hair's breadth of passing out.

"I refuse to believe it!" Shi Fen steeled himself and tensed every muscle in his body, fighting fiercely against the horrifying torment. His blood vessels and muscles writhed beneath his flushed skin like earthworms fighting for their lives.

Under this hellish torment, Shi Fen's muscles, skin, bones, ligaments, connective tissues, and everything else underwent astonishing changes. They were rapidly growing stronger.

The genes in his cells' nuclei were changing just as dramatically, rapidly optimizing.

The impurities in his cells were forced out in an extremely brutal fashion. Driven by the heat, these impurities, along with dead cells and other waste inside his body, were expelled. A layer of black grime coated Shi Fen's skin.

Shi Fen looked utterly gruesome. His whole body was filthy, and countless pores in his reddened skin continued to ooze foul impurities. His blood vessels, bulging veins, and muscles writhed like earthworms and loaches struggling desperately, making him look like a terrifying demon.

Shi Fen no longer looked human.

Even Hong would have been startled if he had seen this sight.

Shi Fen wasn't enduring such torment to prove himself or train his willpower. During the refinement of the Dragon Blood, he had noticed strange changes in his mind.

As a vast amount of the Dragon Blood's strange energy flowed into Shi Fen's brain with the heat, his Sea of Consciousness—the boundless golden sea—began to churn wildly, as if an unseen force had set its endless golden mist ablaze. It was like an ocean caught in a tremendous storm.

The nine Dark Golden Spheres, flecked with golden specks, floated and rotated within his Sea of Consciousness. They activated once more and began absorbing the strange energy. The vortexes created by the spheres greedily devoured vast quantities of golden mist. The energy supplied by the Dragon Blood was nowhere near enough to satisfy the nine greedy spheres. The golden mist around them was instantly devoured, and as soon as the surrounding mist detected the void, it rushed in to fill it.

For a time, Shi Fen's Sea of Consciousness began consuming itself.

The Black Mirror sensed something was wrong and darted into Shi Fen's mind. It once again released cosmic energy mist, helping Shi Fen convert vast quantities of golden mist for the Dark Golden Spheres flecked with light to absorb.

The Dark Golden Spheres seemed to realize that golden mist was the most useful to them, and immediately grew picky. They absorbed only golden mist and rejected every other kind of energy.

All Shi Fen had to do was bring golden mist close to the vast quantities of cosmic energy released by the Black Mirror, and that energy instantly transformed into golden mist. The conversion rate was extremely high, but it still wasn't enough to feed the spheres.

Deep in the center of Shi Fen's vast Sea of Consciousness, the nine spheres were like black holes. They devoured the golden mist as if they had no limit. Even with the Black Mirror's help, the golden mist was still being rapidly consumed.

Shi Fen steeled himself and brought all his consciousness back to his Sea of Consciousness. The pain he had to endure grew much worse, but with his full consciousness empowering it, the Black Mirror released even more cosmic energy.

The Black Mirror erupted. Shi Fen, who had been on the verge of passing out from the pain, suddenly felt his spirits lift. He was no longer groggy, and his vision stopped going dark. It was as if the Black Mirror had injected him with a shot of adrenaline. Shi Fen was now incredibly alert and excited.

The pain was many times worse, but it was worth it.

As Shi Fen endured the astonishing torment, he was amazed to find that the golden mist was now being replenished faster than the nine spheres could consume it. In just over ten minutes, everything that had been depleted was fully restored.

Excited by the discovery, Shi Fen almost forgot the pain in his body. He focused all his efforts on converting golden mist and increasing its concentration in his Sea of Consciousness.

Once the golden mist filled his mind, a very small portion broke away from its edges, left his brain, and merged with Shi Fen's body. With the golden mist's aid, his body and the Dragon Blood worked together to strengthen him.

Several hours passed...

Shi Fen's body gradually settled down, and its evolution was complete. The evolution of his Sea of Consciousness was also nearing its end.

His Sea of Consciousness had now become a viscous golden ocean. The nine Dark Golden Spheres that had been there at the beginning were now almost entirely golden. Only a tiny dark golden seam remained before they were completely transformed.

The Black Mirror stopped releasing energy and returned to stillness.

The spheres continued absorbing golden mist. After one particularly powerful surge of absorption, they turned a brilliant gold. Their size had barely changed, but their color was now dazzling.

On close inspection, the Golden Light Spheres were somewhat transparent, like clear "eggs."

The instant the nine Golden Light Spheres took shape,

the nine Golden Light Spheres abandoned their former docile ways. They joined together in a ring and began revolving rhythmically around the center of the golden ocean. They even set the entire ocean of Shi Fen's Sea of Consciousness in motion, making it rotate in an orderly fashion like a galaxy.

The scene felt vaguely familiar.

"Phew." Shi Fen opened his weary eyes and let out a deep breath. He felt utterly drained, and his head was a little swollen. Waves of dizziness washed over him.

Those few hours had been almost impossible for anyone to endure. If not for the changes in his Sea of Consciousness, Shi Fen would certainly have sent all his consciousness into the Image World to study Basic Secret Patterns and let his body fall into a "coma," sparing himself this suffering.

The ordeal hadn't been for nothing.

His physical strength had improved tremendously, and his Sea of Consciousness had transformed as well. Although he still had no idea what the Golden Light Spheres were, his Spiritual Master abilities had definitely improved. He couldn't say exactly by how much.

Shi Fen was exhausted.

Those few hours had drained him completely.

Shi Fen swayed and struggled to his feet. His entire body was coated in black grime, from the skin beneath his clothes to the exposed skin and even his face. The grime gave off a strange stench.

Shi Fen tried not to touch any of it. He was afraid that if he accidentally spread the stench through the room, living there afterward would be quite the experience.

"Splash, splash..."

Shi Fen rushed into the bathroom and washed away all the grime with hot water. Once he had rinsed it off, his bronze skin—darkened by years of smithing under the heat of the flames—was fully revealed.

At first glance, Shi Fen didn't look like an enormously muscular giant. His build was lean and well-defined, his muscles perfectly proportioned as if sculpted. His body fat was very low, his muscles had smooth contours, and his eight-pack abs resembled neatly arranged chocolate bars.

With a physique like that, Shi Fen looked like a leopard poised to pounce, ready to unleash astonishing power at any moment.

Shi Fen dried himself with a bath towel, put on a robe, and sauntered lazily toward the bedroom.

Shi Fen walked over to the bed, then lay down stiff as a chopstick. He shifted slightly on the soft bed, finding a comfortable position. Before long, he was fast asleep.

Refining the Dragon Blood had really put him through the wringer. He had endured hours of excruciating pain, and his head felt as if it were about to split open.

After a few hours of sleep, Shi Fen finally got up.

Shi Fen picked out a set of comfortable forging-room clothes from the wardrobe. They had been prepared in advance and fitted him perfectly. After changing, he left the rest room and went to the Punch Force Tester outside.

Shi Fen stood before the punching target and lightly clenched his fist. He used no techniques at all, relying purely on his own brute strength. His power erupted like a volcano, and his fist shot forward like a rock hurled from its crater, trailing a startling sonic boom as it slammed into the target.

Bang! The target shook violently, and the heavy thud echoed through the underground plaza.

Shi Fen looked at the display on the Punch Force Tester. A number appeared on the screen.

"53,210 kg."

"Without any force application techniques, my punching force has already exceeded the strength threshold for a high-level War General. Not bad." Shi Fen was fairly pleased with the result.

The 13,082 kg he had measured last time wasn't his true brute strength. With the Force Application Technique of Taiji Fist's Extreme Yang Fist, he could boost his strength by roughly twenty or thirty percent. So his actual brute strength before had been a little over 10,000 kg.

Using the Dragon Blood, along with the Black Mirror's help, had increased his strength by almost 43,000 kg. His strength had skyrocketed!

During this transformation, the Golden Light Spheres in his mind initially absorbed too much of the Dragon Blood's energy. If the Black Mirror hadn't suddenly erupted, he might have lost everything he had invested. His improvement in strength would have been minimal, nowhere near what he had achieved.

Fortunately, the Black Mirror had erupted in time and replenished the energy consumed in his Sea of Consciousness. Later, the golden mist had even fed back into his body. Without the Black Mirror, Shi Fen would have been in real trouble this time.