Terrifying Combat Power Boost

A full month later, Xiao Yan finally emerged from the Dou Technique Pavilion of Burning Flame Valley.

In this month, Xiao Yan only spent ten days studying the Dou Technique of Burning Flame Valley.

Although he wouldn't dare say he's mastered them all, he's at least able to use the four Dou Techniques that Xiao Yan values: Pure Yang Cotton Hand, Heavenly Stellar Stone-Crushing Step, Supreme Unity Fire Net Palm, and the Heaven-Burning Great Hand Seal.

In other words, Xiao Yan spent the remaining twenty days studying and comprehending what his ancestor Xiao Xuan had left him.

First is the complete version of the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations.

As he expected, as a member of the Xiao Clan, despite the depletion of his Dou Emperor Bloodline, he was unable to channel his bloodline power to condense the Clan Mark.

The good news is that the depletion of the Dou Emperor Bloodline does not mean that the bloodline is completely gone.

Regardless of the circumstances, Xiao Yan is a legitimate member of the Xiao Clan, so he can certainly use his own blood essence to condense the Clan Mark.

According to the information annotated by our ancestor Xiao Xuan, although such Clan Mark do not enhance one's strength to the maximum extent without any side effects like those of other Ancient Clans, they still possess some secret techniques to improve one's strength.

That is, the original effect of the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations.

However, if it is performed using Clan Mark, it is equivalent to activating the three transformations of the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations with one click. The effect is better than activating them one by one, and the side effects are also reduced.

Xiao Yan spent three days successfully condensing the Clan Mark.

After all, with his almost non-existent power of the Dou Emperor Bloodline, condensing the Clan Mark is not difficult at all.

In addition, Xiao Yan also roughly understood the reason why Xiao Xuan created the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations from some descriptions in the secret technique.

In fact, starting with Xiao Xuan's generation, the problem of the Xiao Family's Dou Emperor Bloodline being on the verge of depletion was already far from optimistic.

It was precisely for this reason that, in order to enable more clan members whose bloodline power was not so strong to have better Clan Mark, Xiao Xuan took a different approach and chose to create a secret technique called the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations. This allowed clan members to use the power of fire to amplify the power of their own bloodline and thus condense Clan Mark of better quality.

It was precisely because of this that the Xiao Clan was able to achieve its final glory under his leadership.

Unfortunately, his desperate actions ultimately failed to save the Xiao Clan from its complete depletion.

Fortunately, with Xiao Yan around, the Xiao Clan may be able to rise again.

Xiao Yan gave it a quick try and activated the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations with a single click through his Clan Mark. His current strength is stable at the Two-Star Peak Dou Zun level. Although it's only slightly stronger than his previous Two-Star Dou Zun, it's better than nothing.

It's important to understand that at the Dou Zun level, the difference between each star is enormous. Being able to increase one star in strength is already quite impressive.

After all, he currently has no bloodline power at all.

After mastering the Clan Mark, Xiao Yan originally intended to immediately begin studying the other two techniques left behind by his ancestor Xiao Xuan. However, due to sensing an opportunity for advancement, he spent two days breaking through to the Five-Star Dou Zong.

For the next five days, Xiao Yan devoted himself to studying Xiao Xuan's signature Dou Technique —the <Capital Heaven Profound Fire Art>!

This fire control technique is of a high-grade Heaven Tier!

In five days, Xiao Yan only had time to briefly learn about the five methods of the <Capital Heaven Profound Fire Art>: fire control, form condensation, attack, defense, and body refinement.

As for learning it in such a short time? That's incredibly difficult. Even for someone as skilled with fire as him, it would be hard to learn so much in such a short period.

However, after learning a little about it, Xiao Yan was completely dumbfounded.

According to the description, if the <Capital Heaven Profound Fire Art> is cultivated to its extreme, the five methods of fire control, form condensation, attack, defense, and body tempering can all be considered high-level Heaven Tier Dou Technique.

In other words, one <Capital Heaven Profound Fire Art> is equivalent to five high- Heaven Tier Dou Technique.

Now I understand!

No wonder our ancestor Xiao Xuan was so awesome; it turns out he was the earliest superhuman.

For the remaining ten days, Xiao Yan spent all his time studying the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art>!

This secret technique is completely different from any other Cultivation Methods and Combat Skills he had encountered before, including secret techniques like the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations and the Thunder God Descent.

It does not cultivate Dou Qi or refine the soul; its core lies in the ultimate use of "blood," or more precisely, in stimulating and burning the power of the "Dou Emperor Bloodline" hidden within the body!

This secret technique was actually evolved from the cultivation method practiced by the Xiao Clan's ancestor who reached the Dou Emperor level and activated the Xiao Family's Dou Emperor Bloodline.

That progenitor was Dou Emperor who bred himself through war and broke through to the next level through slaughter.

Therefore, this is the special characteristic of the Xiao Family's Dou Emperor Bloodline.

Originally, the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> was a trump card left to the clan by the Dou Emperor Ancestor before he ascended to the Upper Realm. Only a certain number of clan members with stable and excellent bloodlines were originally able to cultivate it.

Only those members of that clan, after their bloodline has been refined, can recover the portion of their bloodline that was refined through rest and recuperation.

But it's unclear when exactly, but the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> gradually became a required secret method for the Xiao Clan members. Although they fought fiercely, each one was more powerful than the last, and each could fight beyond their level or even their rank.

However, as a result, many people's bloodlines were insufficient to support them in recklessly using secret techniques, and thus their descendants' bloodlines were not concentrated enough. In order to catch up with their peers from other Ancient Clans, they had to frequently use the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art>, and in the end, the Xiao Clan still headed towards the depletion of their bloodlines.

"Refining imperial blood, using blood as a sacrifice, maximizes the power of the bloodline, thereby enhancing one's overall combat strength..."

Xiao Yan studied the contents of the "Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art" and immediately understood.

This is a forbidden method that is a double-edged sword.

After refining the bloodline, although the proportion of the Dou Emperor Bloodline in the body will decrease, its purity will gradually increase. Although in most cases the proportion of the offspring bloodline is not large, there is a small chance of giving birth to offspring with extremely high bloodline purity. Their talents are also very good, but they will find it more difficult to master the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art>.

Because their bloodline purity is already high enough, refining it is naturally not easy.

However, according to Xiao Yan's understanding, the idea behind refining bloodlines in the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> is more like what the Xiao Clan's ancestor wanted to do to ensure the continuation of the Xiao Clan's Dou Emperor Bloodline.

According to Xiao Yan's understanding, if this <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> can truly refine the Dou Emperor Bloodline without limit, theoretically one could refine their own bloodline to be identical to that of Dou Emperor.

At this level of purity, there is a high probability that the bloodline of the entire body will be completely assimilated by the Dou Emperor Bloodline. In this way, no matter what realm this person is at, having the same bloodline as the Dou Emperor, theoretically, can achieve all the effects of the Dou Emperor Bloodline.

For example, reactivating the Dou Emperor Bloodline of our clan!

However, it's impossible that all the ancestors of the Xiao Clan were fools who couldn't see this.

This is especially true for Xiao Xuan, who attempted to break through to the Dou Emperor Realm; something seems amiss here.

There are only two possibilities:

Firstly, the progenitor's thinking may have been wrong; refining bloodlines could not possibly refine them to the level of Dou Emperor.

Secondly, the progenitor's idea was correct, but for some reason, the bloodline could not be refined to the level of Dou Emperor.

Xiao Yan's knowledge is still somewhat limited, and he cannot determine whether it is the former or the latter.

He has no right to speak on the former.

He did manage to think of something crucial, though.

Source Qi!

Since the Dou Qi Continent lost its Source Qi, although various beings have appeared who claimed to suppress an era, were the strongest in the world, were the closest to Dou Emperor, or even Half-Emperor, Dou Emperor has never appeared.

Xiao Yan pondered that if the second possibility was true, then it must be because the world lacked Source Qi, preventing the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> from refining the Dou Emperor Bloodline to the point of taking the final step.

Therefore, no matter what, the Xiao Clan's bloodline has only one path: to wither away.

Moreover, this also explains why the Xiao Clan began to promote the cultivation of the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> throughout the clan.

Because the Clan Chief knew that this method was theoretically sound, and there might even have been precedents for it within their clans.

However, this precedent mostly occurred when the Source Qi of the Dou Qi Continent had not yet disappeared.

Later, the Source Qi disappeared, so naturally, it became impossible to replicate this precedent.

However, the ancestors of the clan in later generations did not know about the Source Qi, and naturally thought that they were not talented enough or that they had not worked hard enough.

Therefore, they simply let all the clansmen give it a try.

If we don't do this, our bloodline will eventually dry up.

With the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art>, even if the bloodline begins to deplete, one can still sustain oneself for a considerable period of time.

Even the brilliant ancestor Xiao Xuan probably tried to refine his bloodline using the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art>, but ultimately failed.

By his generation, among the direct descendants of the Xiao Clan, there were probably people like Xiao Yan today whose bloodline had been completely depleted. That's why his ancestor Xiao Xuan chose to take a desperate gamble and forcefully break through to the Dou Emperor.

This might explain why the Xiao Clan, once the leader of the Ancient Eight Clans, has fallen to its current state.

While the Ancient Clan disregarded their promise to care for the Xiao Clan and the Soul Clan ordered the Soul Hall to persecute the Xiao clan, the precipitous drop in the number of clansmen with Dou Emperor Bloodline was likely also a contributing factor.

Thinking about this, Xiao Yan suddenly had a question.

If that's the case, could the <Emperor Blood Battle-Nurturing Art> refine even a trace of the Dou Emperor Bloodline in him through the method of refining bloodlines?

Therefore, Xiao Yan tried to carefully sense the almost negligible Xiao Clan Bloodline power within his body, following the instructions of the secret method.

However, just as Burning Flame Ancestor said, with his bloodline depleted, he was unable to "refine" his bloodline to improve its purity like a normal Xiao Clan expert.

That faint bloodline connection was like a candle flickering in the wind; the slightest touch would sever the connection, and searching for it again would take a long time.

Helpless, Xiao Yan had no choice but to give up on activating the ethereal Dou Emperor Bloodline and instead focus on his own vast and powerful blood and qi.

He operated with extreme slowness and precision, following the method recorded in the secret technique, as if he were refining Eighth-Grade Pill. He extracted a small clump of essence blood containing his powerful life energy and used a special method to ignite it!

As soon as the sacrificial burning technique was activated, Xiao Yan felt as if his body was being thrown into a furnace and "burning"!

But who is Xiao Yan?

Legendary Fire-Resistant King!

If he could withstand the tempering of his body by Heavenly Flames, how could he not endure the pain of burning his essence blood?

Okay, it's definitely not easy to withstand.

Xiao Yan felt an indescribable, excruciating pain instantly sweep over his entire body!

It wasn't the physical pain of being tempered by Heavenly Flames, nor even the soul-burning agony of the Fallen Heart Flame.

Rather, it is a feeling of emptiness and burning that comes after the very essence of life has been sacrificed and burned.

The sense of detachment and weakness emanating from the depths of his body and soul gave Xiao Yan the illusion that he might actually die.

Fortunately, Xiao Yan was also a dignified Eighth-Grade Alchemist. A quick scan with his soul power revealed that he would only be weak for a couple of days at most, and nothing serious would happen to him.

So he endured the discomfort deep within his life essence and began the refining of his own essence and blood.

After the refining process began, Xiao Yan clearly felt a violent, intense, and battle-ready power surging out from the burning essence blood, brutally pouring into his limbs, bones, and meridians!

This power is extremely domineering; it can not only affect his physical body but also make his Dou Qi more aggressive.

His muscles bulged uncontrollably, veins stood out like dragons beneath his skin, and even his powerful bones made a slight "crackling" sound.

His fighting Dou Qi was so intense it was like he'd taken an aphrodisiac, making him incredibly restless.

Xiao Yan felt that his combat power had increased by a full 20%!

Moreover, this 20% is not affected by their own strength.

Simply burning one's own essence and blood can only achieve this effect.

Even if he is now Nine-Star Dou Saint, without the Dou Emperor Bloodline, he can only improve by 20%.

However, if one possesses the Dou Emperor Bloodline), their combat power could probably only increase by 50% at most.

In that case, it's no wonder that our ancestor Xiao Xuan could fight two opponents at once when he got serious.

If one strengthens themselves by 50% beyond the Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint, they'd probably be close to becoming Half-Emperor.

As long as someone has the word "Emperor", it is mostly due to quantitative changes that lead to qualitative changes.

But that small clump of essence blood burned for less than a minute before it was completely consumed.

Using this ratio, Xiao Yan did some calculations.

Without affecting his foundation, he can burn his essence for a maximum of three minutes.

If he continues burning for another two minutes beyond this time, he will be so weak that he will be critically injured and on the verge of death.

If he had another minute, his life essence would have been completely burned away, leaving him a dried-up corpse. If he couldn't take some pills in time, he could directly refine his own body into Heavenly Demon Puppet.

So, for the next ten days, Xiao Yan continued to conduct experiments.

The general conclusion is that, given his physical condition, even if he takes some elixirs to strengthen his body and replenish his qi and blood in time, unless his rank reaches the Eighth-Grade, relying solely on Seventh-Grade elixirs will at most extend his three minutes to four minutes.

After all, he loses nearly one-sixth of his essence and blood each time, and with his physical condition, even a Seventh-Grade pill wouldn't be enough to replenish that amount.