Breakthrough, Canaan Academy

Looking at the leader of the Ancient Vine Mercenary Group, who had just emerged from a bloody battle, Xiao Li stopped wasting words. He spun his Thunder Scale Spear, a flourish of steel that signaled his murderous intent.

Gu Teng was startled. Students of Canaan Academy were far stronger than wild practitioners like them. He had spent years consuming all sorts of miscellaneous pills, relying on a high-tier Yellow-grade cultivation technique just to barely scrape by as a Great Fighter.

In contrast, students of Canaan Academy possessed structured cultivation methods, access to orthodox alchemists, and systematic battle skills; they were simply not in the same league as a wild practitioner like Gu Teng.

As for his subordinates... after the brutal clash with the mercenary group that had been hunting the magical beast, they had little combat strength left. The fact that they hadn't fled yet was a testament to their loyalty.

Gu Teng cast a hurried glance behind him and realized his men were slumped on the ground, trembling. It seemed it wasn't loyalty after all, but rather legs turned to jelly from exhaustion and sheer terror.

Watching Xiao Li close in, Gu Teng gritted his teeth. There were still Canaan Academy flying beasts overhead; it was impossible that this brat was alone. As long as the green hills remain, there's no need to worry about firewood.

"The beast is yours! I, Gu Teng, admit defeat today!"

Gu Teng let out a roar. Seeing that Xiao Li's offensive did not falter, he barely managed to parry while retreating, completely suppressed by the onslaught.

"I only know that wild grass is never burned away completely; it grows again with the spring breeze!"

"Lightning Flash Strike!"

A deep blue bolt of lightning streaked across the air, and an arm flew into the sky, the severed end already charred to coal.

Gu Teng's eyes bulged. He couldn't even maintain his Dou Qi armor, and the numbness from the wound left his mind reeling. "Hero, spare me! I am willing to give you all my worldly possessions!"

"Once I kill you, they will be mine regardless."

With a flourish of his spear, Gu Teng's corpse slumped to the ground. The elder from Canaan Academy had been watching the scene quietly, only occasionally stepping in to execute those who tried to sneak away.

Xiao Li calmly removed the Storage Ring from Gu Teng's hand, then proceeded to stab each of the incapacitated mercenaries from the Ancient Vine Mercenary Group one by one. Only after confirming there were no survivors did he walk over to the elder.

"This junior thanks the teacher for the assistance."

The elder smiled faintly. "I didn't expect you to be so decisive. Even this old man was taken aback."

The elder then looked at the grounded flying beast and reminded him, "Take what you want quickly to avoid any accidents. We attacked the people here, which means others can do the same to us."

Having said that, the elder didn't really care. This unwritten rule was complete nonsense; the weak wouldn't dare attack them even if they broke the rules, and the strong would kill and loot them regardless of whether they followed them.

The only reason this rule existed was that Canaan Academy had not yet had a falling out with the factions in the Black-Corner Region. If they did, one could be sure the Black-Corner Region would target the academy's recruitment teams.

Rules were for the weak; what the strong did depended entirely on a whim.

Xiao Li nodded silently, retrieved a few second-grade medicinal herbs from Gu Teng's Storage Ring to hand to the elder, and then walked toward the beast's carcass.

The elder accepted the herbs nonchalantly and nodded inwardly. Not bad, he knows how to behave.

The elder returned to the team in high spirits. Killing a few pieces of trash and getting a few second-grade herbs in return—this was a good deal.

Xiao Li walked to the side of the beast's corpse and pretended to store it in his Storage Ring, while in reality, he channeled it into the Blood Furnace within his body.

The previously silent Blood Furnace suddenly roared to life. Blood-colored flames mixed with lightning compressed and decomposed the carcass bit by bit, condensing strands of essence and impurities into a single Blood Pill.

Siphon Technique!

Xiao Li had stumbled upon this technique in the Magical Beast Mountain Range a year ago. It allowed him to cultivate a Blood Furnace to refine beast corpses into Blood Pills. Although they contained many impurities and required careful tempering, using them was still several, if not dozens of times faster than normal cultivation!

Refining this third-rank magical beast would likely take three days. Xiao Li licked his parched lips; ever since he had found a third-rank Blood Pill when he first acquired the Siphon Technique, he hadn't managed to obtain another.

There was no helping it; generally speaking, magical beasts were stronger than humans of the same rank. Back then, Xiao Li was only a Fighter; how could he hunt a third-rank beast? He had been forced to rely on killing first and second-rank beasts to cultivate.

Feeling the vigorous blood essence within the corpse, Xiao Li returned to his room, satisfied. Once he absorbed this Blood Pill, he would at least reach the peak of a two-star Great Fighter. If he cultivated normally, it would have taken him two or three months.

Watching Xiao Li return with a smile on his face after killing someone, Li Fei'er and the others shivered. They silently decided to keep their distance from this monster; he was too twisted.

The elder looked at Su Fei and stroked his beard with a sigh. "Teacher Su, you've recruited such a monster this time. It seems your promotion to a Profound-grade instructor is in sight."

Su Fei nodded. "It's a pity, though. A monster like this will likely reach the Inner Academy within a year. If he stayed for two more, I suspect my annual instructor rating would climb quite a bit."

Seeing Su Fei's smug smile, the elder shook his head helplessly. "Think of me, Liu Yi, who spent decades struggling to reach the Dou Ling realm and become an Earth-grade instructor. I am truly ashamed."

Su Fei pursed her lips and smiled in response, offering no further comment.

The Blood Pill gradually grew larger and more solid as the beast's carcass was completely incinerated by the Blood Furnace.

As he retrieved the Blood Pill from the space within his Blood Furnace, Xiao Li's gaze darkened, a faint flicker of blue lightning dancing in his pupils.

"This Blood Furnace space is truly extraordinary. Not only is it immensely vast, but it can also refine the essence of magical beasts. It's just a pity it cannot be used as a storage space."

Shaking his head slightly, a burning intensity returned to Xiao Li's eyes. "I wonder what it would be like to cultivate the Siphon Technique to its highest level and merge the Blood Furnace into my own body. It should have even more functions."

The Siphon Technique was divided into two stages: Furnace Construction and Furnace Fusion. Xiao Li was currently at the first stage, and he had no idea what the second stage, the Fusion Realm, entailed.

Unfortunately, Xiao Li had never found the path to the Fusion stage and had no idea where to start.

After a brief moment of reflection, Xiao Li cast the thought from his mind. The task at hand was more important; after swallowing this Blood Pill, he would be able to break through.

As the Blood Pill entered his mouth, it transformed into a warm current that flowed directly into his limbs, bones, and Dantian.

The Dou Qi cyclone within Xiao Li began to spin frantically, his meridians pulsed, and streaks of blood-red patterns appeared on his skin, emitting the scent of pure, intoxicating blood essence.

After the energy completed several cycles, Xiao Li suddenly opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of turbid air, his body feeling significantly lighter.

These were the impurities within the Blood Pill; absorbing too many would hinder his future path.

Tempered by the lightning within his body, strands of essence, even purer than the energy of heaven and earth, were absorbed.

Xiao Li's aura grew stronger by the second. In another room, Liu Yi opened his eyes, his heart filled with astonishment.

"What a monstrous brat. He is actually about to break through again. Truly extraordinary."