Terrifying Internal Force

The little snake was still lying on the ground.

Very much alive.

But Zhao Hong's blow had still inflicted severe injuries on it.

At least a third of the scarlet blood scales covering its body had been shattered, leaving it a bloody mess. It looked utterly miserable.

No wonder it had not fled.

With injuries like these, the Blood Candle Snake could only barely wriggle across the ground.

When it saw Zhao Hong approaching, the Blood Candle Snake trembled, a trace of humanlike fear appearing in its scarlet eyes.

Zhao Hong examined it closely.

Its pair of blood-red eyes was rather unsettling. Looking carefully, he could make out what seemed to be a tiny blood-colored flame deep within them.

His gaze was quickly drawn to the fleshy crest atop the Blood Candle Snake's head.

That was also what the man in black had called the key.

The crest was crimson as well.

At its center lay a red glow that stood out clearly from the surrounding color, like a glistening drop of fresh blood, shining brightly.

"Can you speak?"

Hisss!!

The little snake flicked out its tongue and fearfully shrank back.

"Still just a little thing."

Zhao Hong shook his head slightly.

Demonic creatures could take human form and speak, but only after cultivating to a very profound realm.

The greatest difference between ordinary demonic creatures and demonic beasts was intelligence.

Moreover, the former could cultivate of their own accord.

Zhao Hong suddenly grabbed the blood snake by the neck, brought it close, and stared intently at its fleshy crest.

The blood snake trembled without pause.

Yet driven by instinct—

The crest quivered, and the blood-drop-like thing at its center abruptly blossomed with a dazzling blood-red radiance.

The radiance spread, making the blood at the center even more conspicuous.

Buzz!

The blood drop suddenly ignited with a flame, extremely tiny and seemingly veiled beneath a membrane as thin as cicada wings.

"One, two, three, four, five... Five clustered candle flames. Does that mean it has five layers?"

The form of the blood-colored candle flames was quite peculiar.

From low to high, each wisp was distinctly separated, yet they clustered together.

Unfortunately, the man in black had not explained it clearly.

After pondering briefly, Zhao Hong slowly covered the surface of the blood-colored candle flame with his other hand.

The instant he touched it, he felt none of the blazing heat of fire. Instead, it was intensely cold.

Thoughtfully, he guessed that this sensation was related to snakes being cold-blooded creatures.

"As expected, it contains astonishingly rich essence. Though cold, it is extremely pure, without any baleful or vicious aura."

Delight appeared on Zhao Hong's face.

This essence felt incredibly powerful, faintly enough to make even his heart palpitate.

It should not be difficult to use it to break through to internal force.

That battle had truly been perilous.

Life and death had hung by a thread.

There were still several hundred li left on this journey.

No one knew what unexpected dangers they might encounter.

Especially that Divine Skin Holy Church the man in black had mentioned. It was fucking bizarre.

"I only broke through to the peak of Blood Refining not long ago. I'll cultivate for a few more days."

Having made up his mind, Zhao Hong took the blood snake with him and rose to leave.

Before leaving, he searched the first man he had killed and found only a pitiful dozen or so taels of silver. Better than nothing.

Once one left the village, money was something one absolutely could not do without.

Every little bit added up.

Four days later.

In a corner of the wilderness.

Zhao Hong sat cross-legged beneath an ancient tree when he suddenly sliced off the fleshy crest atop the blood snake's head with one stroke.

The blood snake let out a shrill hiss. Knowing it was no match for him, it still viciously twisted its head and tried to bite his wrist, only to freeze halfway with a crack.

Zhao Hong twisted its neck clean off and casually tossed the corpse aside.

Then, with two fingers held together like a sword, he tore open the fleshy crest and picked out the crystalline blood drop within that encased the blood candle.

Zhao Hong swallowed it in one gulp.

A wave of icy cold entered his stomach, rapidly spreading and crashing through his body.

Boom!

Zhao Hong closed his eyes and steadied his mind, erupting with blood qi to envelop it.

Immediately afterward, the boiling blood qi ignited the vast icy cold within. Cold and heat intertwined, and for a moment, his blood qi actually fell into a disadvantage.

It was like two armies locked in battle.

The essence within the blood candle was immense.

But if he could not withstand it and refine it, it would injure him instead.

Fortunately, Zhao Hong had prepared for this.

Every bone in his body resounded as his blood qi boiled like fire, forcefully splitting it apart.

Divide and conquer.

The moment he refined the first wisp, his blood qi surged dramatically.

"What an astonishing effect."

Zhao Hong was overjoyed and accelerated the process.

At the same time, he visualized the dragon and tiger within himself, unleashing the might of Dragon Tendon and Tiger Bones. His blood qi steamed and tempered his body, constantly growing in force as it resisted the icy impact of the blood candle.

As time passed, Zhao Hong's aura steadily grew stronger. Every strand he refined brought explosive growth, its effect dozens of times greater than drinking beast blood.

The flesh beneath his skin squirmed, and the force gathering and dispersing within was enough to inspire fear at a glance.

Vast and violent.

Like a rampaging beast.

Yet it was all suppressed within his body, coursing through his tendons and bones as it tempered them without end.

Zhao Hong's consciousness was clear and still as an ancient well. His visualization had reached a profound depth; dragon and tiger filled his heart, merging with his fleshly body.

Between his tendons and bones, blood mist surged, steaming into vague outlines that connected and fused with the surrounding flesh and blood.

Those phantom figures seemed to be using his flesh and blood as their skeleton, on the verge of bursting forth.

Nearly half a day passed.

When the power of the blood snake's candle flame had been completely absorbed—

Boom!

His blood qi had been refined internally to the extreme. From deep within his tendons and bones, an utterly savage and violent force suddenly erupted.

The blood qi within his body abruptly contracted, transforming at a visible rate.

The transition from Blood Refining to internal force was one of activation and transformation.

Internal force originated from the skeleton and transformed blood qi.

The more extraordinary one's tendons and bones, the more wondrous one's internal force.

The stronger one's blood qi, the stronger one's internal force.

Boom-crack!

Zhao Hong's body shook violently, producing a string of crisp crackling sounds like booming thunder that echoed through the forest.

Whoosh!

He abruptly vanished from where he stood, stirring howling wind and thunder. Like a furious lion, he flashed before a mountain rock and fiercely shook his body.

The force within him erupted.

Boom!

The mountain rock trembled, yet remained completely unscathed.

Zhao Hong took one step back, and the ground quivered lightly.

Crash!

The ten-foot mountain rock completely collapsed, caving in several feet.

It was still the half-baked Cloud-Breaking Flash he had yet to properly master, and his body had not even touched the mountain rock.

Internal force had surged through it.

Such power.

Zhao Hong felt thoroughly at ease, refreshed in both body and mind.

The internal force forged through countless refinements was savage and violent, supremely hard and fierce.

"With internal force like this, Dragon Tendon and Tiger Bones truly lives up to its name."

Roar!

Zhao Hong suddenly twisted around and met a pair of fierce tiger eyes.

"White Tiger?"

What a fine white tiger.

Powerful and muscular, its tiger eyes gleaming.

Its entire body was snow-white, its stripes distinct, brimming with wildness.

Zhao Hong could not help wanting to pet it a few times.

The White Tiger slowly approached from afar, strolling leisurely and unhurriedly, as though it were patrolling its territory.

"Now that's what you call imposing."

"It really is different from the ones in zoos."

Zhao Hong marveled at it, truly sensing the wild majesty of the king of beasts.

Roar!

The tiger's roar shook the forest, making the woods tremble.

The White Tiger burst forward, its eyes full of hunger. It had clearly taken Zhao Hong for food.

Amid the tiger's roar, Zhao Hong felt as though something inside him had awakened.

Dragon Tendon and Tiger Bones—what a coincidence.

Roar!

He stared at the White Tiger and let out a roar of his own.

Even wilder.

The White Tiger jolted, abruptly slammed to a stop, and stared wide-eyed at him, filled with shock and dread.

It had been forcibly intimidated by a single roar.

The instincts of a ferocious beast told it that the two-legged creature before it was not to be provoked.

Even stranger, it could smell a faint trace of its own kind on him.

It stood there hesitating, unable to advance or retreat.

At last, it let out a tentative low growl.

The moment the growl fell, it discovered that the two-legged creature had vanished.

A terrifying pressure stirred the air like a tide, bearing down on it from every direction.

Roar!

The White Tiger's fur stood on end as it turned and ran.

Its once domineering figure now looked exceptionally pathetic, all its imposing presence gone.

Zhao Hong caught up in just a few leaps and grabbed it.

Roar!

The White Tiger desperately lashed its tail.

Yet the large hand on its body did not budge in the slightest.

Then it felt a heavy weight press down upon it. Its limbs went weak, and with a slap, it sprawled onto the ground, letting out a despairing whimper.

"It has roughly the strength of the middle stage of internal force."

"I really am a little reluctant to kill it."

Zhao Hong rode atop the White Tiger, excitedly running his hands all over it.