Xiao Hong's Intoxication...

As the darkness of dawn was driven from the world by the first rays of the sun, and the crescent moon in the sky faded and vanished, Su Ming, sitting within the cavern of Black Flame Peak, felt his body shudder. He slowly lowered his head, which had been tilted upward the entire night.

His eyes were filled with confusion, bewilderment, and a trace of emptiness. Yet, when Xiao Hong, the little monkey nearby, caught sight of this indescribable gaze, its fur stood on end. It recoiled sharply, pressing its back against the rock wall with a look of terror and shock.

It saw that within the pupils of Su Ming's eyes, a faint shadow of a blood moon was slowly dissipating.

A long time passed before the flickering shadow of the blood moon in Su Ming's eyes vanished completely. He awoke from his daze, while Xiao Hong watched him blankly from the side, its expression full of suspicion.

Su Ming took a deep breath. To him, the night had felt like a mere instant. Now that he was awake, the memories of what had transpired left him deeply puzzled, but as he checked his body, his confusion turned into astonishment.

"My injuries... they're all healed," Su Ming muttered. His body had suffered some damage from the forced breakthrough earlier. The injuries hadn't been severe—he had estimated they would take several days of meditation to recover—yet after only one night, they had completely mended.

After a long while, Su Ming gasped. He looked up abruptly, though all he saw was the bright sky and the sun through the small openings in the cave.

"That was indeed a Barbarian Art, a technique of the Fire Barbarian tribe! It must possess immense power; just by contemplating it for one night, my injuries have fully recovered..." Su Ming's eyes flashed. He immediately circulated the blood energy within him, and soon, nineteen blood lines appeared on his body.

However, after the nineteenth blood line emerged, Su Ming's expression turned strange. He faintly felt that he still had some strength left. With a solemn look, he circulated his blood energy again. As the energy coursed through his body several times, a twentieth blood line condensed across his chest!

This sight made Su Ming's eyes widen. A long while later, when he dispersed his blood energy, he felt even more shaken by what had occurred during the night.

His heart hammered against his ribs. The overwhelming effect of the Mountain Spirit Powder had already shocked him, and now, discovering the wonders of the Fire Barbarian art felt as if a grand path had been opened for his future!

"Dust Opening! Perhaps, I, Su Ming, can truly reach Dust Opening in this lifetime and become a powerhouse of that realm!" Su Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart. Nearby, Xiao Hong ran over, climbed onto his shoulder, and stared intently into his eyes with a look of utter confusion, even raising a paw as if to grab at them.

Su Ming laughed, pushing the little monkey away. After playing with it for a while, Xiao Hong seemed to remember something. It hissed at Su Ming, raised its right paw, took a deep sniff, and wore an expression of intoxication. After licking it a few times, it held the paw out in front of Su Ming, as if inviting him to smell it too.

Su Ming froze. He had seen Xiao Hong perform this action often over the past few months and had formed some guesses, but it always felt like something was off. Seeing it now, he hesitated, but noticing the expectant look in Xiao Hong's eyes, he leaned in and took a sniff.

A faint, musky, pungent odor wafted up, leaving Su Ming unable to decide whether to laugh or cry as he pushed the paw away.

Xiao Hong's eyes widened immediately, seemingly displeased by Su Ming's rejection. It hissed at him, ran to the side, and began sniffing its paw again, looking intoxicated as if that paw had once grasped something...

"It never had this habit before..." Su Ming watched Xiao Hong's expression, feeling even more bewildered. A thought stirred in his mind, and he secretly made a decision.

Several more days passed in a flash. During this time, Su Ming immersed himself in Powder Refining. The potent effect of the Mountain Spirit Powder left him heart-struck, and he began to consider refining more of it.

Unfortunately, the failure rate for the Mountain Spirit Powder was high; Su Ming had used half of his Luoyun Leaf supply and only managed to refine two Medicine Stones.

Aside from refining, Su Ming often meditated during the day to circulate his bloodline, making his third level of Blood Condensation increasingly stable. A sense of formidable power permeated his body. Based on his analysis, he felt he could now face the large man from the Black Mountain Tribe—who had died under the Blood Powder—in a direct fight!

At night, Su Ming would stop refining and sit in the cavern, gazing at the bright moon and silently imagining it in his mind, though the effect never seemed as miraculous as it had been on the first night.

Even so, his training over these few days allowed him to condense two more blood lines, making him a Barbarian Warrior with twenty-two blood lines.

That night, as Su Ming sat cross-legged, gazing at the moon and imagining it turning red, Xiao Hong, which hadn't left the cave for days, quietly climbed up. Its eyes darted around with excitement and anticipation. It sniffed its right paw with an intoxicated look, glanced at Su Ming a few times, and seeing that he seemed unaware, it darted out through the exit.

The moment Xiao Hong's figure vanished from the cave, Su Ming opened his eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He stood up and quietly followed.

"I must see what Xiao Hong is so intoxicated by." Su Ming was, after all, still a youth, and he possessed a fair amount of curiosity—especially after noticing Xiao Hong's strange behavior.

With his current cultivation level of twenty-two blood lines, Su Ming's speed and agility had reached a remarkable degree; he could even walk on snow without leaving a single footprint if he chose.

Following behind Xiao Hong, he remained undetected. In the night, Xiao Hong moved quickly, racing down the mountain and reaching the base shortly after.

Su Ming followed the whole way, a smile lingering on his face.

Yet, that smile stiffened after half an hour, replaced by a look of utter bewilderment.

He watched as Xiao Hong leaped through the mountain forest, moving with the familiarity of one who had a precise target. It finally stopped outside a burrow in the brush, where the surrounding vegetation was trampled and in disarray.

Xiao Hong walked cautiously outside the burrow, its expression a mix of vigilance and anticipation. After observing for a moment, it suddenly charged headlong into the hole.

Watching from a distance, Su Ming frowned. With his experience in the mountain forests, he could tell at a glance that a large beast must be hibernating in that burrow to escape the cold.

Just then, an angry, shrill roar erupted from the hole. A red blur shot out, hissing piercingly as it fled with a look of triumph. Su Ming clearly saw a large clump of black fur clutched in its right paw.

"This is..." Su Ming hesitated. Immediately after, the ground seemed to tremble as a beast as large as a bear roared its way out of the burrow.

The beast was pitch black with long fur and glowing red eyes filled with extreme rage. However, upon seeing the creature, Su Ming's expression turned even stranger.

He saw that the lower half of the enraged beast... a large patch of its fur was missing, leaving it looking quite miserable. It clearly hadn't been plucked all at once, but rather over many occasions...

Connecting this to what Xiao Hong held in its paw, and remembering how he had been coaxed into smelling it a few days prior, Su Ming's eyes went wide.

The beast roared in agony and gave frantic chase, but it lacked Xiao Hong's speed. Before long, it let out a few whimpering, desperate-sounding cries, looking utterly aggrieved as it retreated back into the burrow. A moment later, loud thuds echoed from within, as if the beast were venting its frustration.

Su Ming's mind went blank. With a bizarre expression, he turned and chased after the direction Xiao Hong had fled. Being much faster, he soon caught sight of the little monkey in the distance.

He saw Xiao Hong stop outside a grove of withered trees. It looked around, then hurriedly rubbed the black fur it held in its right paw against its own crotch. The triumph on its face was clear to Su Ming from afar—it looked as if it believed it had become as "formidable" as the bear. Yet, no matter how he looked at it, the expression was undeniably lewd.

Su Ming stood stunned, watching as Xiao Hong, having finished its task, walked toward the grove with even greater pride. It opened its mouth and let out a series of hisses, and then...

Su Ming saw a group of small, dainty monkeys—not red-furred like Xiao Hong—quickly emerge from the grove and surround it.

He watched as the small monkeys sniffed Xiao Hong's right paw, looking at its crotch with expressions of shock and awe... Finally, under Xiao Hong's triumphant gaze, they followed it deep into the grove.

Su Ming let out a bitter laugh and a long sigh. He understood now: Xiao Hong was using the bear's might to attract mates.

Filled with an indescribable feeling, Su Ming didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He quickly left the area, and just as he had imagined the moon to be red, he kept telling himself to forget the moment he had been coaxed into smelling Xiao Hong's paw a few days ago.

Returning to the cave in a disheveled state, Su Ming sighed again, feeling a pang of sympathy for the bear that was constantly harassed and stripped of its fur.

"No wonder Xiao Hong would return exhausted after being gone for days... and after resting for a while, would head out again, full of energy..."

Su Ming rubbed his nose, forcing himself to stop thinking about it, and once again immersed himself in the strange state of gazing at the red moon, as if its crimson hue were flowing into his blood through the moonlight.

Several days passed. One night, as Su Ming sat cross-legged gazing at the moon, the moonlight grew brighter. Gradually, the faint blood moon appeared in his eyes, flickering. Suddenly, within his left eye, the blood moon seemed to ignite, and Su Ming's body shuddered violently.

A sentence surfaced in his mind, unbidden.

"Blood Fire Stacking, nine is the limit, one is the method; ignite the savage fire nine times to achieve the Fire Worship Technique!"