Extreme Breakthrough

Refining a single demon beast corpse opened four meridians.

Two demon beast corpses allowed Lu Chen to open eight.

He had reached Meridian Opening Realm's first through third levels, achieving great completion in opening his meridians.

After absorbing and refining another ten drops of marrow, he gained a total of thirty-four Bull Strength.

His overall strength exceeded 260 Bull Strength, fifty Bull Strength greater than Martial Dao Cultivators of the same level. It was downright terrifying.

The second day, the third day...

All the way to the tenth day, he appeared every day.

Starting from the third day, he brought every demon beast corpse he slew back into the prison.

He averaged five a day, all of them high-grade mortal rank.

This was the demand he had made to the organizers in front of all the spectators.

Because of him, Luo Tiansheng had made a fortune, his coffers overflowing. Naturally, Luo Tiansheng waved a generous hand and agreed to those demands.

Could a useless cripple whose bloodline had been stripped away really eat his bloodline back?

Besides, Martial Dao Cultivators were naturally capable of eating. After all, battle relied on the power of qi and blood, not spiritual energy.

No one gave it any further thought.

Little did they know that Lu Chen was storing up strength.

He deposited all the energy from the demon beast corpses into the Myriad Manifestations Furnace.

Yesterday, he had opened every one of his meridians, one hundred and eight in total.

His meridians were smooth and translucent, his qi and blood surging like a great river.

He had consumed all the refined marrow as well.

The power of his qi and blood combined with his physical strength had now reached a terrifying 850 Bull Strength.

It was entirely because at the ninth level, the increase in strength grew geometrically. The twelve meridians of this level alone had added 360 Bull Strength.

Though he had known it would double, such a tremendous increase still left him profoundly shaken.

And the energy he had stored was preparing him for the next breakthrough.

To open his dantian furnace—the Qi and Blood Furnace.

Once the Qi and Blood Furnace was formed, it meant he had broken through into a Martial Dao Cultivator's second major realm, the Qi Surge Realm.

When that time came, the increase in strength would be even more terrifying.

It was a stage for tempering the meridians and refining qi and blood, far stronger than merely opening meridians.

"Having accumulated the essence of fifteen demon beast corpses, it should be enough!"

After preparing everything, Lu Chen summoned the Myriad Manifestations Furnace late at night, buried it beneath a small pile of ashes in the corner of the wall, then flashed and vanished from where he stood.

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace was a supreme treasure. Not only could it refine all things, it could store people and change its size.

Naturally, he did this to prevent the aura of his breakthrough from leaking out and alerting the guards.

The energy within the furnace had nearly condensed into liquid.

Gentle, silky, and brimming with majestic qi and blood.

Lu Chen sat upon a stone platform, adjusted himself to his peak state, activated the Myriad Manifestations Furnace Art, and mobilized the energy to charge toward his dantian qi sea.

His surging qi rolled like colossal waves, carrying the force of ten thousand jun.

With one impact, the recoil made him spit out a mouthful of blood.

It had not opened.

Then he continued.

Once, twice, three times...

He vomited blood every time.

The final impacts left his head swimming.

With a soft crack, Lu Chen shuddered violently.

He hurriedly steadied his mind and mobilized the energy within his body and the energy inside the furnace for one savage charge.

Boom!

It was like thunder exploding.

Boundless qi and blood surged into a pitch-black space like wild horses breaking free of their reins.

The dantian qi sea.

The rushing qi and blood began spinning violently at the center of his dantian.

As more and more qi and blood poured in, it gradually formed a boundlessly terrifying scarlet vortex.

Its very center had already turned deep violet.

It was also transforming toward a spherical shape, accompanied by streaks of violet blood patterns.

Each blood pattern consumed an oceanic amount of qi and blood.

And these violet blood patterns were the framework for forging the Qi and Blood Furnace.

There was no need for too many. Nine were enough to establish the framework.

This consumed an enormous amount of concentration and could not tolerate the slightest disturbance.

Still, in the dead of night, no one would come to see a miserable beast-fighting slave like him.

Everything progressed in an orderly fashion.

One, two, three...

The instant the nine violet blood patterns took shape, the dantian qi sea shook violently.

The boundless vortex of qi and blood vanished in an instant like ten thousand birds returning to their nests, absorbed into the Qi and Blood Furnace constructed by the nine violet patterns.

Then the energy abruptly expanded within the Qi and Blood Furnace, releasing boundless force that spread through the Myriad Manifestations Furnace, only to be blocked by it.

The Qi and Blood Furnace was formed. First level of the Qi Surge Realm.

The energy in the Myriad Manifestations Furnace had also been completely exhausted.

A furnace crimson from top to bottom floated within the dantian qi sea.

Qi and blood billowed from its mouth.

"Ah!" Lu Chen sighed faintly and opened his eyes.

The first level of the Qi Surge Realm required compressing qi and blood one hundred and eight times, liquefying it within the furnace.

Moreover, the compression process required vast amounts of energy to sustain it.

Otherwise, without enough quantity, it could not be liquefied.

But one hundred and eight times—just thinking about it made his head ache.

At the very least, one compression would surely require a whole furnace's worth of qi and blood. Altogether, that meant one hundred and eight furnaces.

How much energy would that take?

He could only take it slowly.

And the most urgent matter was leaving the beast-fighting arena.

At the first level of the Qi Surge Realm, he fully possessed the ability to throw the beast-fighting arena into chaos.

Especially if he caught them unprepared.

But the moment he emerged, his expression changed.

Fuck, it was nearly afternoon already.

And the prison gates stood wide open, while screams continuously echoed through the corridor.

Clearly, his disappearance had brought disaster upon the other beast-fighting slaves.

"Seeking death!" Lu Chen's gaze turned ice-cold as he immediately shot out.

"What? You... ah!"

The guard by the door sensed movement and turned around. Before he could finish speaking, Lu Chen's fist blasted his head apart.

Before the corpse could fall, it transformed into a streak of light and entered Lu Chen's body.

The other guards who witnessed this stumbled backward in terror, as though they had seen a ghost.

Being killed was normal, but having the person who killed them take them into his body was anything but normal.

Before they could think any further, Lu Chen had arrived.

His blade flashed like lightning. The two guards could not withstand even one strike and fell dead one after another.

The minor leader interrogating beast-fighting slaves in the prison heard the screams and had just leaped out when a cold flash descended.

He was cleaved directly in two.

Buzz buzz buzz...

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace trembled joyfully inside him. Whether corpses or the items they carried, all were refined into pure energy.

As his strength rose, the refining ability of the Myriad Manifestations Furnace rose with it.

The gate at the end of the passage was tightly shut, and there were no other guards. With a thought, Lu Chen removed the prison doors.

The beast-fighting slaves inside stared in utter bewilderment.

Lu Chen did not bother with them and moved on to the second cell.

Clang, clatter—he dismantled it from beginning to end.

He stored it all in the Myriad Manifestations Furnace.

Creak...

Lu Chen pulled down the gate's chain lock and opened the heavy iron doors.

Sunlight, accompanied by cheers soaring to the heavens, crashed in and stole their breath.

"Whether you can escape amid the chaos depends on your own ability!"

Only one beast-fighting slave followed behind him. As for the others, they were all fighting in the arena.

The beast-fighting slave who had changed into guard clothes clenched his fists hard and said hoarsely:

"Whether I survive or not, thank you!"

"Fight for yourself!" Lu Chen clenched his fist fiercely.

"Fight for yourself!"

Lu Chen burst forward, pouncing toward one of the iron cages.

Inside was a Blazing Lion.

It was the only second-rank demon beast at the venue, the demon beast used to hold down the fort.

It was equivalent to a human at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"Stop him!"

The guards who saw Lu Chen's movements roared and lunged toward him.

But with no defenses in place, how could they possibly be faster than Lu Chen?

The blade in his hand suddenly erupted with a one-meter blade aura. With a bang, it cleaved through three iron bars of the cage in a single stroke.

Crack crack crack...

When the guards were still more than ten meters away, Lu Chen sliced the cage cleanly in half at waist height. He directly stored the upper half away, exposing the savage, berserk Blazing Lion.

Roar!

The beast's roar shook the heavens and resounded throughout the entire arena.