Breakthrough to the Blood-Marrow Realm! New Equipment Slot Function? Enhancement!

The Blood-Marrow Realm was the third realm of martial arts.

Unlike the Skin and Flesh Realm, which tempered the skin and flesh, or the Tendon-Bone Realm, which forged the tendons and bones, the key to this realm was to drive Blood Qi deep into the bone marrow, using one's own flesh, tendons, and bones as a furnace and surging Blood Qi as fire, gradually tempering and transforming ordinary marrow into denser, more potent Blood Marrow.

Blood Marrow was the source of Blood Qi.

A martial artist's future upper limit was, to a great extent, already determined 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 round of Tendon Tempering and Bone Forging, the Blood Marrow they tempered 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 could become like drums, and their strength could reach ten thousand jin.

A genius who had completed two rounds of Tendon Tempering and Bone Forging, on the other hand, could temper a special silver-white Blood Marrow. Their Blood Qi would be denser and their strength greater; when they fully circulated their Blood Qi, a faint silver light could even emerge over their skin.

That was why Wu Cai had told him to keep far away whenever he saw someone with silver light appearing over 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 dazzling golden bones produced by a third round of tempering, Wu Cai probably had never heard of them 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 scalding crimson rivers, seeping through his meridians bit by bit and penetrating every inch of bone throughout his body.

As Blood Qi continuously poured in, the marrow within his bones began undergoing earth-shaking changes.

The originally dark-red marrow neither turned crimson nor gleamed bright silver. Instead, beneath the radiance of his golden bones, it took on a faint golden sheen.

That gold grew deeper and brighter.

In the end, it transformed into drops of viscous liquid like molten gold, slowly flowing through the marrow cavities.

"Roar—!!"

The instant drops of pale golden Blood Marrow formed one after another, Mu Yang's tendons and bones erupted with a thunderous crack, like a dragon's cry.

Along with that dragon's cry, the pale golden Blood Marrow began circulating through Mu Yang's bones. Wherever it passed, his flesh, tendons, and bones were nourished and strengthened once more.

Every inch of muscle, every tendon, every bone formed a wondrous connection with the newborn Blood Marrow.

Even the circulation speed of his Blood Qi 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 increased my strength by four thousand jin. Golden Blood Marrow condensed through Third Tendon-Tempering and Third Bone-Tempering 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, bringing their total strength to just over four thousand jin. Yet merely entering the Early Blood-Marrow Realm had directly granted Mu Yang an additional four thousand jin, bringing the total strength of one arm close to twenty-five thousand jin.

"No wonder those great aristocratic clans have their talented descendants repeatedly forge their tendons and bones. The gap really is astonishing."

Of course, the cost was equally astonishing.

The Blood Qi Mu Yang had consumed alone would have been 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 Third Bone-Tempering, every minor advancement in the Blood-Marrow Realm required no small amount of Blood Qi.

The total Blood Qi brought by two high-grade martial arts manuals had only condensed 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 condensation in the bones of all four limbs and break through to the Middle Blood-Marrow Realm, he would likely need at least three or four high-grade martial arts manuals.

Or another demon corpse of roughly Hui Er's quality.

Sure enough, if you wanted the horse to run hard, it would not sip little fodder.

But Mu Yang did not mind. He had the Equipment Slot. As long as the martial arts manuals and demon corpses were in place, leveling up would be as easy as turning over his hand.

Pulling back his thoughts, Mu Yang looked at the Equipment Slot.

[Equipped Items: 1. Rat Demon Corpse (Third Rank), 2. Bronze Skin Technique (high-grade martial art), 3. Iron Sand Palm (high-grade martial art), 4. None]

[Current Empty Equipment Slots: 1]

After he broke 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 pulling 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 art)+, 3. Iron Sand Palm (high-grade martial art)+, 4. Air-Dried Pork (unranked)+]

Looking at the fully packed Equipment Slot, 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's this? A new function? Deep Blue adding points?"

Mu Yang observed it carefully for a long while, but could not make heads or tails of it.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to tap the plus sign behind the Air-Dried Pork.

This equipment was purely a throw-in. Even if something went wrong, it would not matter much.

But if something happened to the other three pieces of equipment, his realm might directly fall back to the Tendon-Bone Realm.

With a thought from Mu Yang, a notification suddenly rang in his mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host has selected the Enhancement Subject Item—Air-Dried Pork. Please select the materials required for enhancement: (), (), ()]

A much smaller translucent ink-black panel appeared above the fourth Equipment Slot along with the notification.

"Enhancement subject? Is this four into one?"

Mu Yang tried selecting Bronze Skin Technique, and an old yellowed thread-bound book immediately appeared in the three Enhancement Material Slots.

During this process, the Blood Qi within his body did not change at all.

Clearly, merely selecting materials would have no effect.

With that thought, Mu Yang moved his mind again and deselected Bronze Skin Technique.

"Surely it can't only use items in the Equipment Slot? That would be far too useless."

Mu Yang thought to himself.

Enhancing an item required three pieces of equipment, and he only had four Equipment Slots in total.

That meant if it truly worked that way, he would need to empty all his Equipment Slots before he could use the enhancement function.

If that were the case, this new function could only be called dispensable.

No, he had to test it.

Mu Yang reached toward the Air-Dried Pork hanging from the eaves and tore off a strip.

He silently willed it to become enhancement material.

The next second, Mu Yang's hand was empty.

One strip of Air-Dried Pork suddenly filled an Enhancement Material Slot.

At that sight, Mu Yang's heart leaped with joy.

With a broad sweep of his hand, he directly filled the remaining two Material Slots with two more strips of Air-Dried Pork.

[Ding! Detected that the host has selected (Air-Dried Pork), (Air-Dried Pork), and (Air-Dried Pork) as enhancement materials. Use them to enhance the subject item—Air-Dried Pork?]

"Yes."

Mu Yang answered inwardly.

[Ding! Detected that the enhancement subject is unranked, with its lowest attribute quality being white. The materials are unranked, with their lowest attribute quality being white. Enhancement conditions met. The quality of one attribute on the subject item will be raised!]

As another notification sounded, the three strips of Air-Dried Pork on the ink-wash panel seemed to weather away, turning into tiny pale-white particles that merged into the Air-Dried Pork in the Enhancement Subject Slot.

Once all the white particles had fused into it, a faint blue gleam flashed across the surface of the Air-Dried Pork and vanished.

[Ding! Subject item—Air-Dried Pork enhancement complete. Attribute quality has been raised!]

[Muscle Growth (white) → Muscle Growth (blue)]

[Item: Air-Dried Pork +1]

[Rank: Unranked]

[Equipment Effect: ① Muscle Growth (blue): Strength receives a slight increase.]

[Permanent Solidification Requirement: Equip this item for one full shichen, or kill any unranked wild beast or ranked demon beast while this item is equipped.]

"The item rank hasn't changed, and the solidification requirement hasn't changed. Only the attribute quality was raised..."

Mu Yang looked at the description for "Air-Dried Pork +1" and analyzed it inwardly.

It seemed this newly unlocked enhancement function used three items of the same rank as materials to upgrade the quality of the attributes on the selected 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, making his perception of his body sharper, he would have barely been able to sense that nearly imperceptible warm 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 one "enhanced +1 Air-Dried Pork," which had consumed three "ordinary Air-Dried Pork" strips, could only increase his strength by fifty jin.

It was roughly the equivalent of losing one strip.

But on second thought, this seemed to be the same as trading resources for time.

After all, four strips of Air-Dried Pork had to be equipped for four shichen, while one enhanced +1 strip only needed one shichen.

Furthermore, Mu Yang could not carry a huge pile of Air-Dried Pork with him, nor could he go without sleep and equip a new strip every shichen.

Viewed 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, Mu Yang would never have broken through to the Blood-Marrow Realm now. He could only have stopped at Third Bone-Tempering in the Tendon-Bone Realm.

Therefore, as he progressed further, equipment with higher-quality attributes would only become more important.

"Then again, how many times can this thing be enhanced?"