Xiao Hong's Ecstasy...

A night passed. As the darkness of dawn was driven from the world by the first light of the sun, and the bright moon in the sky dwindled to a crescent before fading away, Su Ming's body shuddered inside the cave on Black Flame Peak. His head, which had been tilted back all night, slowly lowered.

His eyes held confusion, bewilderment, and even a trace of emptiness. But when Little Monkey saw that indescribable gaze, its fur immediately bristled. It sprang back against the rock wall, its face full of fear and shock.

It saw a faint image of a Blood Moon slowly fading from Su Ming's pupils.

After a long while, when the faint image of the Blood Moon had completely disappeared from Su Ming's eyes, he came back to himself. Little Monkey stared at him blankly from nearby, its expression turning puzzled.

Su Ming took a deep breath. To him, the night seemed to have passed in an instant. Now that he had awakened, he was deeply puzzled by the scenes he remembered from the night. But when he checked his body, all that confusion turned to stunned disbelief.

"My injuries... they're completely healed..." Su Ming murmured. His body had suffered some injuries when he had forcibly raised his strength earlier. They were not serious, and he had thought that a few days of meditation would be enough to nourish himself back to health. Yet after just one night, they had all healed.

After a long pause, Su Ming drew in a sharp breath and looked up. Unfortunately, all he saw was the bright sky and sun beyond the small holes in the ceiling.

"That really was a Barbarian Art, an art of the Fire Barbarian Tribe! It must possess incredibly powerful strength. I only contemplated it for one night, and my injuries have already healed completely..." A glint flashed in Su Ming's eyes. He immediately circulated the blood qi within him, and soon nineteen blood lines appeared across his body.

But when the nineteenth blood line emerged, Su Ming's expression turned strange. He faintly sensed that he still had some strength to spare. His expression solemn, Su Ming circulated his blood qi again. After it coursed around his body several times, a twentieth blood line suddenly formed on his chest!

Su Ming's eyes widened. After a long while, when he dispersed the blood qi, the events of the previous night left him even more shaken.

His heart pounded. The astonishing effects of Mountain Spirit Powder had already shocked him, and now he had discovered the wondrous nature of the Fire Barbarian Art. It seemed as if a broad path had opened before him, one leading into his future!

"Dust Opening! Perhaps I, Su Ming, really can reach Dust Opening in this lifetime and become a Dust Opening powerhouse!" Su Ming took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement. Little Monkey ran over from nearby, climbed onto his shoulder, and stared into his eyes. Still utterly confused, it raised a hand as if to poke at them.

Su Ming laughed and nudged the monkey, playing with it for a while. Then Little Monkey seemed to remember something. It hissed a few times at Su Ming, raised its right paw, and sniffed it deeply. Its face took on an ecstatic expression. It even licked the paw a few times before holding it out to Su Ming, as if inviting him to smell it too.

Su Ming stared for a moment. Over the past few months, he had often seen Little Monkey make the same gesture. He had made a few guesses, but something about them had never seemed right. Now, seeing it again, he hesitated as he looked at the paw held out to him. Then, at the sight of Little Monkey's expectant gaze, he leaned in and sniffed.

A faint, rank smell reached him. Su Ming could only laugh helplessly as he pushed the paw away.

Little Monkey's eyes immediately widened. It seemed displeased that Su Ming had pushed its paw away. It snarled at him a few times, then ran off and sniffed the paw on its own, its face rapturous, as if that paw had once grabbed hold of something...

"It didn't used to have this habit..." Su Ming watched Little Monkey's expression, growing even more baffled. A thought stirred in his mind, and he secretly made up his mind.

Several days passed in a flash. During this time, Su Ming immersed himself in Powder Refining. The potent effects of Mountain Spirit Powder thrilled him, and also gave him the urge to make more.

Unfortunately, Mountain Spirit Powder had a high failure rate. Su Ming had used half of the Luoyun Leaf before, yet managed to refine only two Medicine Stones.

Aside from Powder Refining, Su Ming often sat in meditation during the day, circulating the blood qi within his body. This made his third layer of Blood Condensation increasingly stable, and a powerful feeling spread through him. By his estimate, he could now face the burly man from the Black Mountain Tribe who had died to Blood Powder in a direct fight!

At night, Su Ming would stop refining and sit in the cave, gazing at the bright moon as he silently imagined things. But the results never seemed as wondrous as they had been on the first night.

Even so, his cultivation over the past few days had allowed him to condense two more blood lines, making him a Barbarian Warrior with twenty-two blood lines.

That night, Su Ming sat cross-legged, gazing at the bright moon and imagining it as red. Little Monkey, which had not gone outside for many days, quietly got to its feet. Its eyes darted about, excitement and anticipation in its gaze. It sniffed its right paw in delight, then glanced at Su Ming a few times. Once it was sure he would not notice, it slipped away and ran toward the exit.

The instant Little Monkey disappeared from the cave, Su Ming opened his closed eyes. A smile touched his lips as he rose and quietly left the cave too.

"I want to see what Little Monkey is so excited about." Su Ming was still a boy, with plenty of curiosity. After keeping an eye on Little Monkey's behavior, he had grown even more curious.

With his current cultivation and twenty-two blood lines, Su Ming had reached an astonishing level of speed and agility. Even when walking on snow, he could leave no footprints if he did not wish to.

Following Little Monkey, he could keep it from noticing him. That night, Little Monkey moved quickly, racing down the mountain. It soon reached the foot of the peak.

Su Ming followed all the way, smiling to himself.

But half an hour later, that smile froze and gave way to confusion.

He watched Little Monkey leap through the forest as if it knew exactly where it was going. It moved with the ease of long familiarity, finally stopping outside a burrow in the woods. Much of the vegetation around the burrow had been broken, leaving it in disarray.

Little Monkey crept around the burrow, its wary expression mixed with anticipation. After watching for a moment, it suddenly plunged inside.

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

Just then, an angry, mournful growl suddenly came from within. A red blur dashed out, shrieking sharply as it ran. Its face was full of triumph, and Su Ming clearly saw a large clump of black fur clutched in its right paw.

"What is..." Su Ming hesitated. The earth seemed to tremble. A beast as huge as a bear roared out of the burrow.

It was covered in long, black fur, and its eyes were blood-red, blazing with fury. But when Su Ming saw it, his expression grew even stranger.

He saw that the beast's lower body... a large patch there had only a few scattered hairs left, making for a pitiful sight. It clearly hadn't been plucked just once, but many times...

Thinking of what Little Monkey held in its paw, Su Ming recalled how he had sniffed it at the monkey's urging a few days earlier. His eyes widened at once.

The beast gave a mournful roar and chased after Little Monkey in a frenzy, but it could not match the monkey's speed. Before long, it let out a few dejected, despairing howls, then returned to its burrow, looking utterly wronged. A moment later, loud thuds rang out from within, as if the beast were venting its rage.

Su Ming's mind went blank. His expression strange, he spun around and ran after Little Monkey. He was much faster than it, and soon caught sight of it in the distance.

Little Monkey stopped outside a forest filled with dead trees. It looked around, then hurriedly rubbed the black fur in its right paw beneath its crotch. Su Ming watched from afar, clearly seeing the triumph on its face. It seemed to think that this made it as "powerful" as a bear, though its expression looked downright lecherous.

Su Ming stared blankly as Little Monkey finished and, looking even more pleased with itself, walked toward the forest and let out a series of shrill calls. Then...

Su Ming saw a group of female monkeys with fur that was not red but bodies that were somewhat petite rush out of the forest, surrounding Little Monkey.

He watched the petite monkeys sniff Little Monkey's right paw, their faces full of surprise and fear as they gazed at its crotch... At last, with Little Monkey looking triumphant, they went with it deep into the forest...

Su Ming laughed bitterly and let out a long sigh. He understood now. Little Monkey was using the bear's might to attract females.

Unable to describe how he felt, Su Ming laughed helplessly and hurried away. As though imagining that the moon was red, he kept telling himself to forget the time a few days ago when Little Monkey had urged him to sniff its right paw.

He hurried back to the cave in a thoroughly disheveled state and let out another long sigh. He felt a pang of sympathy for the bear beast, which had been repeatedly harassed and stripped of so much of its fur.

"No wonder Little Monkey would go out and stay away for several days, returning utterly exhausted... Then, after resting for a while, it would run off again, full of energy..."

Su Ming rubbed his nose, forcing himself to stop thinking about it. Once more, he sank into that strange state of gazing at the red moon, imagining its crimson glow flowing with the moonlight into his blood.

Several days passed. One night, Su Ming sat cross-legged as usual, gazing at the bright moon. As the moonlight grew brighter, the faint Blood Moon slowly appeared in his eyes. Then, in a flash, the Blood Moon in his left eye seemed ready to burn, and Su Ming's body shuddered.

A sentence appeared in his mind, unbidden.

"Blood Fire Stacking: nine is the limit, one is the way. Burn the Barbarian Fire and bow nine times, and you will master the Fire Worship Technique!"

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