The Blood-Marrow Realm was the third realm of martial arts.
Unlike the Skin and Flesh Realm, which tempered skin and flesh, or the Tendon-Bone Realm, which forged tendons and bones, the key to this realm was sending Blood Qi deep into the marrow. One used one's own skin, flesh, tendons, and bones as a furnace, and surging Blood Qi as the fire, slowly refining ordinary marrow into denser, more powerful Blood Marrow.
Blood Marrow was the source of Blood Qi.
To a great extent, a martial artist's future upper limit was already decided the moment their Blood Marrow took shape.
And the quality of that Blood Marrow was determined by the foundation laid in the Tendon-Bone Realm.
Wu Cai had told him this before.
For an ordinary Tendon-Bone Realm martial artist who had completed only one Tendon Tempering and Bone Forging, the Blood Marrow refined after breaking through to the Blood-Marrow Realm would ultimately be thick and crimson.
Once they cultivated to Blood-Marrow Realm Perfection, their skin membranes would be like drums, and their strength could reach ten thousand jin.
A genius who completed Second Tendon-Tempering and Bone Forging, however, could refine special silvery-white Blood Marrow. Their Blood Qi would be denser and their strength greater; when they fully activated their Blood Qi, a faint silver gleam could even surface across their body.
That was why Wu Cai had told him to keep far away whenever he saw someone with silver light emerging from their body.
As for the third round of tempering beyond that, Mu Yang did not know.
Wu Cai had only heard of the Steel Tendon Iron Bone formed through two rounds of tempering. As for the radiant golden bones forged by the third tempering, Wu Cai likely had not heard of those either.
"Phew~~"
Mu Yang took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.
Under his guidance, the surging Blood Qi within him became like countless scorching crimson rivers, flowing through his meridians and gradually seeping into every inch of bone in his body.
As Blood Qi continuously poured in, the marrow within his bones began undergoing earthshaking changes.
The originally dark-red marrow neither turned crimson nor shone bright silver. Instead, illuminated by his golden bones, it took on a faint golden radiance.
That golden hue grew richer and brighter.
In the end, it transformed into drops of thick liquid like molten gold, slowly flowing through his marrow cavities.
"Roar—!!"
The instant drops of pale-golden Blood Marrow formed one after another, Mu Yang's tendons and bones erupted with thunderous cracks, like the roar of a dragon.
Along with that dragon's roar, the pale-golden Blood Marrow began circulating through Mu Yang's bones. Everywhere it passed, his skin, flesh, tendons, and bones were nourished and strengthened once more.
Every inch of muscle, every tendon, and every bone formed a wondrous connection with the newborn Blood Marrow.
Even the speed at which his Blood Qi circulated was several times faster than before.
This was the mark of officially entering the Blood-Marrow Realm!
"Four thousand jin. Just entering the Early Blood-Marrow Realm gave me an extra four thousand jin of strength. Golden Blood Marrow condensed through Third Tendon-Tempering and Bone Forging really packs a punch!"
Mu Yang opened his eyes and clenched his fist.
An ordinary Early Blood-Marrow Realm martial artist gained only a thousand jin of strength, for a total of just over four thousand jin. Yet merely entering the Early Blood-Marrow Realm had directly given Mu Yang four thousand jin more strength, bringing the total strength in one arm close to twenty-five thousand jin.
"No wonder those aristocratic clans make their talented descendants repeatedly forge their tendons and bones. The gap really is staggering."
Of course, the cost was equally staggering.
The Blood Qi Mu Yang had consumed alone was enough to raise three to five martial artists to Blood-Marrow Realm Perfection.
Not to mention that after breaking through with Third Tendon-Tempering and Bone Forging, every minor advancement in the Blood-Marrow Realm required no small amount of Blood Qi.
The total Blood Qi provided by two High-Grade Martial Arts had only refined part of his golden Blood Marrow, barely allowing him to break through to the Early Blood-Marrow Realm.
If he wanted to complete the Blood Marrow refinement of his limb bones and break through to the Middle Blood-Marrow Realm, he would probably need at least three or four High-Grade Martial Arts.
Or another demon corpse of roughly the same quality as Hui Er's.
Sure enough, if you wanted plenty of horsepower, you could not expect low fuel consumption.
But Mu Yang did not care. He had the Equipment Slot; as long as the martial arts and demon corpses were in place, leveling up would be as easy as turning over his hand.
Drawing back his thoughts, Mu Yang looked toward the Equipment Slot.
[Equipped Items: 1. Rat Demon Corpse (Third Rank), 2. Bronze Skin Technique (High-Grade Martial Arts), 3. Iron Sand Palm (High-Grade Martial Arts), 4. None] [Current Number of Empty Equipment Slots: 1]
After breaking through to the Blood-Marrow Realm, the number of Equipment Slots had, as expected, increased to four.
Looking at the empty Equipment Slot, Mu Yang thought for a moment before directly tearing down a strip of Air-Dried Pork hanging from the edge of the eaves.
[Equipped Items: 1. Rat Demon Corpse (Third Rank)+, 2. Bronze Skin Technique (High-Grade Martial Arts)+, 3. Iron Sand Palm (High-Grade Martial Arts)+, 4. Air-Dried Pork (Not Entry Rank)+]
Looking at the fully packed Equipment Slots, Mu Yang wiped his hands in satisfaction.
Just as he was about to look away, he suddenly noticed that every piece of equipment had somehow gained a "+" behind it.
"What is this? A new function? Deep Blue Attribute-Adding?"
Mu Yang studied it carefully for a long while, yet could not make heads or tails of it.
After thinking it over, he decided to tap the plus sign behind the Air-Dried Pork.
This equipment was merely a throw-in, so even if something went wrong, it would not matter much.
But if something happened to any of the other three pieces of equipment, his realm would likely fall straight back to the Tendon-Bone Realm.
With a thought from Mu Yang, a notification suddenly sounded in his mind.
[Ding! It has been detected that the host has selected the enhancement subject item—Air-Dried Pork. Please select the materials required for enhancement: (), (), ().]
A semi-transparent ink-black panel, much smaller than the normal interface, appeared above the fourth Equipment Slot along with the notification.
"Enhancement subject? Is this a four-in-one?"
Mu Yang tried selecting Bronze Skin Technique, and a yellowed thread-bound book immediately appeared in the three Enhancement Material Slots.
During this process, the Blood Qi in his body did not change.
Clearly, selecting materials had no effect.
With that thought, Mu Yang used his mind again and deselected Bronze Skin Technique.
"It can't be that I can only use items in the Equipment Slots, right? That would be far too useless."
Mu Yang thought to himself.
Enhancing one item required three pieces of equipment, while he only had four Equipment Slots in total.
That meant that, if that were really the case, he would need to leave all his Equipment Slots empty to use the enhancement function.
If so, this new function could only be called dispensable.
No, he had to test it.
Mu Yang raised his hand toward the Air-Dried Pork hanging from the eaves and tore off another strip.
In his heart, he silently designated it as enhancement material.
The next second, Mu Yang's hand went empty.
A strip of Air-Dried Pork suddenly appeared in an Enhancement Material Slot.
At the sight, Mu Yang's heart leaped with joy.
With a sweep of his hand, he directly filled the remaining material slots with two strips of Air-Dried Pork.
[Ding! It has been detected that the host has selected (Air-Dried Pork), (Air-Dried Pork), and (Air-Dried Pork) as enhancement materials. Would you like to use them to enhance the subject item—Air-Dried Pork?]
"Yes."
Mu Yang answered inwardly.
[Ding! It has been detected that the enhancement subject is Not Entry Rank, with its lowest attribute quality being white. The materials are Not Entry Rank, with their lowest attribute quality being white. Enhancement requirements have been met. The quality of one attribute on the subject item will be increased!]
As another notification sounded, the three strips of Air-Dried Pork on the ink-wash panel weathered away, turning into pale white particles that merged into the Air-Dried Pork in the Enhancement Subject Slot.
When all the white particles had merged into it, a faint blue gleam flashed across the surface of the Air-Dried Pork.
[Ding! Subject item—Air-Dried Pork enhancement complete. Attribute quality has been increased!] [Muscle Growth (White) → Muscle Growth (Blue)]
[Item: Air-Dried Pork +1] [Rank: Not Entry Rank] [Equipment Effect: ① Muscle Growth (Blue): Strength receives a minor increase.] [Permanent Solidification Condition: Equip this item for one hour, or kill any unranked wild beast or Entry Rank demon while this item is equipped.]
"The item rank didn't change, the solidification condition didn't change, and only the attribute quality improved..."
Mu Yang silently analyzed the description of "Air-Dried Pork +1."
It seemed that this newly unlocked enhancement function used three items of the same rank as enhancement materials to upgrade the quality of an attribute on the subject item.
"I wonder how effective it is."
Mu Yang removed the enhanced +1 Air-Dried Pork from the Enhancement Subject Slot and placed it into the fourth Equipment Slot.
The next second, an extremely faint warm current stirred within him.
If Mu Yang had not just broken through to the Blood-Marrow Realm and gained sharper awareness of his body, he would hardly have sensed that nearly imperceptible current.
"Only fifty jin?"
Mu Yang frowned slightly.
Four ordinary strips of Air-Dried Pork could increase his strength by roughly sixty or seventy jin. Yet now, one "enhanced +1 Air-Dried Pork," made by consuming three "ordinary Air-Dried Pork" strips, could only increase his strength by fifty jin.
It was about the equivalent of losing one strip.
But on second thought, this seemed to be trading resources for time.
After all, four strips of Air-Dried Pork required four hours of equipment time, while one enhanced +1 Air-Dried Pork required only one hour.
Furthermore, Mu Yang could not carry around a huge pile of Air-Dried Pork, nor could he stay awake and equip a new strip every hour.
Seen this way, enhancement was actually quite cost-effective.
Most importantly, resources were unlimited, but the Equipment Slots on his body were limited.
Just like before: if the Qi-Blood Abundance attribute on Hui Er's corpse had not been blue quality, he would not have been able to break through to the Blood-Marrow Realm now. He could only have stopped at Third Bone-Tempering in the Tendon-Bone Realm.
Thus, the further he advanced, the more important equipment with higher-quality attributes would become.
"Then again, how many times can this thing be enhanced?"
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