Enhanced Blood-Strength Pills

Treasure Meat was an upgraded form of Mutant Beast meat, containing purer Blood Qi and providing great benefits to Martial Artists who consumed it.

It was the most refined portion of a Mutant Beast's body.

The more powerful the Mutant Beast, the more Treasure Meat it possessed.

Yet Treasure Meat did not stand out. It looked no different from ordinary Mutant Beast meat and could only be identified with a certain tool.

Therefore, every Mutant Beast hunted by the Hunting Team had to be handed in first. Only after the hidden Treasure Meat had been removed would the rest be distributed.

Within the Li Family's inner courtyard was a place resembling a slaughterhouse, where more than a dozen people processed Mutant Beast meat atop stone tables.

They first washed the Mutant Beast meat, then handed it to an old man. He held a white stone and rubbed it repeatedly against the meat.

If the stone did not react, he tossed the piece of Mutant Beast meat in his hand aside.

Someone immediately took away the Mutant Beast meat he had discarded for further processing.

Suddenly, the white stone in the old man's hand gave off a faint red glow.

The old man's spirits rose. He carefully checked it back and forth with the stone, and after pinpointing the exact spot, personally took up a butcher's knife and began cutting.

The piece he cut off was no larger than an adult's fist.

Yet he treated it like a treasure, carefully placing it into the Rosewood Box beside him.

A layer of ice had been laid inside the box to keep it fresh.

Several similar chunks of meat were already inside.

After the old man had inspected all the Mutant Beast meat, he looked at the Rosewood Box and could not help frowning.

"The amount of Treasure Meat is a little low."

"Didn't Tiangang say he also killed a Wolf King? Why is there so little Treasure Meat? Could someone else have stolen it?"

"Impossible."

No sooner had the thought arisen than the old man shook his head with a laugh.

"Without a Blood-Qi Stone, who could spot treasure meat with the naked eye?"

"Perhaps this batch of Mutant Beasts simply had very little Treasure Meat in them."

In the end, the old man came to that conclusion. He did not investigate further and left with the box of Treasure Meat in his arms.

On Chen Xun's side, once he determined that what he had obtained was most likely Treasure Meat, he hurriedly cut off a thumb-sized piece. After simply pan-frying it, he put it into his mouth.

Not long after swallowing it, an extremely pure surge of energy welled up within him.

Chen Xun assumed his stance. After swiftly digesting the energy, he condensed a large amount of Blood Qi.

Chen Xun poured all that Blood Qi into his third Blood Pool Acupoint.

That was right—Chen Xun had already opened his third Blood Pool Acupoint seven days earlier.

At that time, his [Mountain Lord Acupoint-Finding Secret Art] had just reached Major Accomplishment.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Xun withdrew from his Stake Stance, astonishment on his face.

"This is truly unbelievable. Such a tiny piece of meat took me a whole quarter of an hour to digest."

One had to know that Chen Xun's [Primordial Unity Stance] had already reached Perfection. Its energy-refining efficiency had risen to an entirely new level.

This showed just how terrifyingly dense the energy within that piece of meat was, far surpassing ordinary Mutant Beast meat.

"It is undoubtedly Treasure Meat."

Chen Xun could now be certain. This Mutant Beast meat was the legendary Treasure Meat.

"Since it's Treasure Meat, I can't just eat it directly. That would be far too wasteful."

Chen Xun intended to make enhanced [Blood-Strength Pills] from the Treasure Meat.

Afterward, Chen Xun used his [Green Pouch Medical Art] at Major Accomplishment and [Green Satchel Alchemy] at Minor Accomplishment.

Combining them with the energy gap he had just discovered between Treasure Meat and ordinary Mutant Beast meat, he began altering the original [Blood-Strength Pill] formula.

The primary alteration was increasing the age of the other medicinal ingredients. The original ingredients had been too young, their medicinal potency too weak to assist Treasure Meat containing such powerful energy.

He needed herbs with stronger medicinal effects.

For this, Chen Xun spent an entire day running between herbal shops.

By tasting them personally, he experienced the varying potency of herbs of different ages.

At last, he deduced a new [Blood-Strength Pill] formula.

Then, after another three days of painstaking experimentation, he finally succeeded in refining an enhanced version of the [Blood-Strength Pill].

Once all the Treasure Meat he had obtained was used up, Chen Xun had refined a total of nine enhanced [Blood-Strength Pills].

Most of the Treasure Meat had been wasted during the experiments.

Otherwise, that number would have been at least twice as high.

Ordinary [Blood-Strength Pills] were bright red, while the enhanced [Blood-Strength Pills] had become so red that they carried a faint purplish hue.

Chen Xun picked up an enhanced [Blood-Strength Pill] and swallowed it in one gulp.

Very quickly, an incomparably surging flood of energy erupted. Chen Xun hurriedly assumed his stance to digest it, while equipping the two items [Iron Garment Art Manual (Purple)] and [Painting Skill: Painting (Purple)].

He activated the two traits [Absorption Acceleration (Blue)] and [Calm Mind (Blue)].

With all three working together, he immediately subdued the ferocious energy. It began transforming into Blood Qi in an unbroken stream and pouring into his third opened Blood Pool Acupoint.

"This medicinal potency is far too fierce. If a Qi-Blood Second Transformation Martial Artist consumed it, they would probably waste a great deal of the medicine's power."

Chen Xun sighed in admiration before immersing himself in cultivation once more.

From daytime until night, an entire day passed.

At around nine that evening, Chen Xun finally finished digesting the enhanced [Blood-Strength Pill].

One had to know that Chen Xun now needed only five or six hours to fully absorb an ordinary [Blood-Strength Pill].

This enhanced one had taken Chen Xun an entire day, from eight in the morning until nine at night.

Naturally, its effects were extremely powerful as well.

Within Chen Xun's third Blood Pool Acupoint, nearly one-fifth of its capacity was already filled with Blood Qi.

Before today, the Blood Qi accumulated in that Blood Pool Acupoint had not even reached 15% of its capacity.

In other words, one enhanced [Blood-Strength Pill] could provide Blood Qi equal to 5% of a Blood Pool Acupoint's capacity.

Meanwhile, even after fully absorbing an ordinary [Blood-Strength Pill], it could only provide around 1% of a Blood Pool Acupoint's capacity in Blood Qi.

A fivefold difference.

"This Treasure Meat truly is a treasure!"

Chen Xun exclaimed.

This was merely a method he had fumbled his way into himself. He believed that a great Lineage like the Li Family certainly had better ways to use Treasure Meat.

Unfortunately, given his status, it was impossible for him to come into contact with them.

"With this batch of Enhanced Blood-Strength Pills, my third Blood Pool Acupoint will soon be filled."

"By then, my cultivation should also be close to the limit of the Qi-Blood Second Transformation."

Chen Xun could not help checking his cultivation panel.

[Cultivation: Qi-Blood Second Transformation (82%)]

At his current rate of progress, he could reach the limit of the Qi-Blood Second Transformation within half a month.

If that speed were made known, who knew how many people it would frighten senseless.

After all, from the moment Chen Xun had broken through to the Qi-Blood Second Transformation until now, less than three months had passed even by the fullest count.

In such a short time, perhaps only top-grade geniuses with resources piled to the ceiling could surpass him in cultivation progress.

As for ordinary people, they could only eat dust behind Chen Xun.

Take Luo Tao from the Hunting Team. He had broken through about a month later than Chen Xun.

According to what Luo Tao had told Chen Xun, his first Blood Pool Acupoint was still less than one-third full.

He had only begun condensing Essence Blood in the past few days.

If displayed as data, his progress in the Qi-Blood Second Transformation was likely no more than 3% to 4%.

As the amount of Essence Blood he condensed increased, his progress would rise before gradually stabilizing.

If he could remain alive in the Hunting Team, then at his current pace, he would need at least two or three years to reach the limit of the Qi-Blood Second Transformation.

Martial Artists outside the Hunting Team would need even longer.

Thus, resources were truly important on the path of cultivation.

Without resources, what good was top-grade aptitude?

The next day, at the Dragon-Tiger Grounds, Chen Xun and the others received orders to gather there.

"Do you know what this is about? Why are we suddenly gathering? Didn't we just distribute the Mutant Beast meat two days ago?"

Chen Xun quietly asked Luo Tao.

Because Chen Xun had rendered meritorious service, the Mutant Beast meat allocated to him was second only to Yang Feng and Xie Xiong's shares, amounting to a full thirty jin.

On top of that, Chen Xun was publicly rewarded with twenty taels of silver.

That added up to fifty taels of silver, making many people's eyes redden with envy.

The others had only received a dozen or so jin of Mutant Beast meat.

The lion's share had been taken by Li Tiangang—more than two hundred jin.

Yet no one was dissatisfied, because Li Tiangang had indeed contributed the most. Had he not killed the Wolf King, everyone might have perished there.

"I don't know either."

Luo Tao shook his head.

Soon, all fourteen members of the Hunting Team had gathered.

One of them had just been added, and he was even an old acquaintance of Chen Xun's.

"Chen Xun, didn't expect it, did you? I got in too."

Li Peng smugly raised his brows at Chen Xun.

Chen Xun did not get angry. Instead, he smiled. "Congratulations."

He truly had not expected the replacement to be Li Peng. He also had no idea what benefits Yang Feng had received from Li Yuan.

To let Li Peng, a Martial Artist who had only just broken through to the Qi-Blood Second Transformation, join.

Chen Xun had heard that quite a few veteran Qi-Blood Second Transformation Martial Artists had been fighting to get in.

Things were no longer as they had been two months ago. That incident had long since faded, and the Hunting Team's benefits once again made many people covet them.

Li Peng had not seen the reaction he wanted and was about to say more when Yang Feng shouted, "Fourth Master is here! Form ranks! Silence!"

In an instant, everyone stopped talking and took up their usual places in formation.

Li Peng was momentarily dumbfounded. In the end, Yang Feng gave him a hand and had him stand at the very back of the line.

Once everyone was in position, Li Tiangang entered the Dragon-Tiger Grounds.

"Do you know why I gathered you here today?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"A notorious Flower Thief has drifted into our Cloudflow County. To protect the safety of the ladies and young misses, we need people to guard them at all times."

"There is naturally a guard unit within the residence, but once they leave the residence, that is another matter."

"It is winter now, and before long, heavy snow will seal off the mountains. The Hunting Team will no longer enter the mountains to hunt Mutant Beasts."

"You have all become free, so the heavy responsibility of protecting the ladies and young misses falls upon you."

"Rest assured, you will not be working for nothing. Your monthly pay will be doubled."