By the time Shi Qingyun neared the Blood Pool, not a single patch of his body remained unscathed. Wounds large and small covered him.
The bright red blood flowing from those wounds vanished the instant it appeared. And those were only the injuries on the surface; the situation inside his body was far worse.
His once magnificent, precious robe had disintegrated inch by inch into ash within the gray mist.
Without that robe shielding him, Shi Qingyun's protective barrier was as flimsy as paper. It had already been on the verge of shattering from resisting the loss of his blood energy, divine radiance, and life essence.
Now, under the black mist's corrosive assault, it held out for only a moment before being eaten away entirely. With all his protective measures gone, Shi Qingyun could only endure it with his flesh.
The consequences were easy to imagine. Shi Qingyun's body was like a sieve, allowing the black mist to rampage through him. Even the last membrane of light covering his internal organs was in imminent danger.
Shi Qingyun was in a horrific state. The gray mist tore through his body as though it had entered an undefended realm.
Streams of gray mist spilled from Shi Qingyun's mouth and nose. All he could do was swallow the scorching, blood-red liquid to preserve his last flicker of life.
Just as the gray death qi was about to further damage the membrane of light over Shi Qingyun's internal organs, wisps of black and white qi emerged from somewhere within him.
The moment that black and white qi appeared, the death qi briefly recoiled as though it had encountered its natural enemy. The black mist reacted as though it had met its nemesis.
Though there were only a few wisps of black and white qi, their appearance immediately caught hold of both the death qi pouring through Shi Qingyun's pores and the blood-red life qi he kept swallowing.
Under the pull of the black and white qi, the two began showing signs of merging.
Within Shi Qingyun, the yin-yang qi drew in the life-and-death qi, forming a vortex that gathered inside his body.
Every bone in Shi Qingyun's body shone with a lustrous glow. The runes that had already lost their luster suddenly stirred back to life, each rune fragment entwined with a trace of yin and yang.
Shi Qingyun sensed the strange changes within him, but he no longer had the attention to spare for his own body.
He staggered to the edge of the Blood Pool. The storage bag in his hand fell to the ground, and the blood-red liquid inside flowed into the pool.
The membrane of light covering Shi Qingyun's internal organs shattered piece by piece. Gray mist immediately coiled around his organs, while countless streams of black mist wound around the surface of his body.
In an instant, his entire body was covered in a layer of black armor.
A faint hissing sounded from time to time as Shi Qingyun's flesh corroded. Even that pain drew no response from him.
Shi Qingyun's consciousness was a haze of chaos. The torment had left him numb, and eventually, he no longer even had the strength to cry out.
Shi Qingyun's body went limp, and he collapsed into the Blood Pool.
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Chapter 28: Breaking the Rules of Order to Embrace Transformation
The moment Shi Qingyun fell, the emerald-green life source qi floating in the air drifted down like rain, scattering over his body.
The life source qi passed through the black mist obstructing his skin and settled on his internal organs.
The death qi entrenched in Shi Qingyun's organs was swiftly dispelled by the life source qi, like blazing fire meeting icy water, without stirring so much as a ripple.
The next instant, the life source qi became a thin green membrane that gently covered Shi Qingyun's internal organs, slowly repairing their damage.
A mysterious force tugged at Shi Qingyun's body, keeping him gently afloat on the Blood Pool as he slowly moved toward its center.
The black death qi coiling around Shi Qingyun's skin had already been worn away upon contact with the Blood Pool.
But Shi Qingyun's consciousness had long since sunk into slumber. Only his relaxed brow showed that he was still alive.
Though Shi Qingyun had lost control of his body, his flesh instinctively absorbed the rich essence within the Blood Pool, repairing its injuries.
Vast currents of vital essence flowed into Shi Qingyun's body, healing the wounds on his skin in an instant.
His skin became whole again, and the newly grown flesh was even softer, smoother, and more supple than before.
The blood-red liquid beneath him seemed to possess a consciousness of its own, slowly winding around Shi Qingyun's body as he drifted toward the center of the Blood Pool.
By then, a thick layer of blood crust covered Shi Qingyun, pulsing over his body as though it were breathing.
Once the blood-colored liquid had enveloped him from head to toe, a mysterious force seeped out of Shi Qingyun's body.
Under that force's pull, Shi Qingyun slowly floated into the air. Both the blood-red liquid beneath him and the green substance roaming freely above his head stirred.
They swarmed toward Shi Qingyun's body. In mere moments, a cocoon radiating five-colored light appeared in midair.
The great cocoon pulsed with Shi Qingyun's steady, powerful breathing. As it flickered, it seemed faintly to resonate with the Great Dao.
The free-floating essence energy outside entered the cocoon with each pulse. In particular, the golden river changed course, pouring straight toward Shi Qingyun.
Inside the great cocoon, Shi Qingyun instinctively curled up, clasping his hands tightly together as the energy flooded his body.
Yet the violent energy became gentle as it passed through the five-colored cocoon of light, slowly flowing into Shi Qingyun.
Deep in slumber, Shi Qingyun felt only an incredibly warm presence flowing through his body.
It was as though he had returned to his mother's womb. An indescribable sense of safety and warmth flowed through his heart, leaving him utterly comfortable and at ease.
Gentle currents of energy moved through Shi Qingyun's body, circulating with his blood to reach every part of him.
The gentle energy continuously washed through Shi Qingyun's bones and meridians. Wisps of golden light escaped from it and entered them.
After being washed by that energy, Shi Qingyun's body emitted faint halos of light. Mysterious runes were clearly branded across his limbs and bones.
Those runes grew out of Shi Qingyun's bones. Though some were incomplete, they carried a naturally formed aura of the Dao.
On the outside, Shi Qingyun's body was changing as well. Countless runes surged out from every part of him.
Rune after rune appeared on Shi Qingyun's skin, instantly gilding him in gold.
They swam across Shi Qingyun's skin like fish toward the space between his brows. All the runes gathered there, densely intertwining as though they were about to give rise to some terrifying precious technique.
Through Shi Qingyun's pores, pitch-black blood suffused with light and fragments of white bone were expelled from his body. A trace of death qi could faintly be seen lurking within them.
These were all things Shi Qingyun's body no longer needed: waste blood and bone damaged during cultivation or battle and hidden deep within him.
Though merely discarded blood and bone, they had been tempered by Shi Qingyun until they rivaled ordinary precious medicines.
Especially on the expelled bone fragments, faint runes on the verge of taking shape could still be seen, retaining some of the insights Shi Qingyun had gained during cultivation.
Though they were nothing particularly precious, to ordinary geniuses they were rare treasures.
Moreover, those precious bones bearing rune imprints could be fashioned into precious artifacts.
Time slowly passed. The subterranean world was utterly quiet, with only the pulsing sounds from the great five-colored cocoon at the center of the Blood Pool and the heartbeat within it echoing through the space.
Inside the five-colored cocoon sat a naked youth with disheveled hair, his body wreathed in runes that radiated golden light.
That youth was Shi Qingyun. He sat inside, absorbing the energy outside with all his strength. By now, he had long since regained consciousness and recovered control of his body.
Shi Qingyun commanded his body to devour the energy like a whale gulping water. Vortices formed outside the five-colored cocoon, funneling rich essence qi into it.
At that moment, chains covered in intricate, profound runes slowly appeared on Shi Qingyun's skin, branding themselves upon him.
Each chain exuded the aura of the Dao. They were manifestations of the rules, shackles that constrained the human body's potential.
During this transformation, Shi Qingyun's physical strength had reached the limit of the Blood Moving Realm: one hundred thousand jin with a single swing of his arm.
To advance any further, he had to break his fleshly shackles and perceive blood moving true intent. Only then could he reach the realm beyond that limit.
And that was precisely what Shi Qingyun was doing. He had never expected his strength to soar this time, bringing him straight to the limit of the Blood Moving Realm.
Though surprised, Shi Qingyun was still dissatisfied. He needed to ascend to the pinnacle in this era, and this was nowhere near enough. He had to go one step further and break the so-called rules of order.
Chapter 29: Yin and Yang Unfold
To break through the shackles of the Blood Moving Realm, Shi Qingyun was making preparations. He intended to accomplish the feat of shattering that realm's limit and stepping into the Cave Heaven Realm in one stroke.
The essence between heaven and earth slowly gathered around Shi Qingyun, entering through every pore. He absorbed it all, turning it into the foundation for his ascent to a higher level.
Shi Qingyun continued absorbing that energy. Whether it was the essence qi drifting between heaven and earth or the essence within the Blood Pool, he refused none of it.
As the energy entered him, his body gradually began to swell, like a barrel on the verge of exploding.
Sensing his body's condition, Shi Qingyun knew the time was nearly right. He began his final preparations, slowly mobilizing the energy that was about to overflow within him and sending it charging toward the shackles on his body.
Shi Qingyun forcibly gathered that vast energy into a single current and slammed it into the chains of order.
The scene he had imagined did not come to pass. Dazzling light flared along the chains of order, and the runes upon them seemed to come alive.
They moved along the chains and coiled upon them, exuding a sacred, undying aura.
Shi Qingyun refused to give up, striking the chains again and again, yet without the slightest result.
Blood flowed from Shi Qingyun's tightly closed eyes. Not only that, blood gleaming with golden light slowly trickled from all seven orifices.
Sensing his body's condition, he knew that if this continued, the energy would inevitably erupt out of control. Though he did not need to worry about damage to his flesh, he feared he would lose his chance to challenge this limit!
Once again, he mobilized all his energy. Wisps of golden divine radiance mingled within it as he hurled it with unwavering resolve toward the chains of order, which were as hard as divine iron.
Yet the result was cruel. A few cracks appeared in the chains of order, and their runes flickered, but in the end, they became whole again.
Moreover, the chains of order showed faint signs of sinking back into Shi Qingyun's body. Worse still, the energy he had absorbed began rampaging within him.
Violent currents of energy charged through every part of Shi Qingyun's body. He could not help letting out a muffled groan, and even the five-colored cocoon of light surrounding him began to waver.
Was this how it ended?
Shi Qingyun thought with a trace of unwillingness. With the energy rampaging inside him, he could only busy himself suppressing it. Yet just as he thought it would all end like this-
Suddenly, the yin-yang qi that had appeared earlier began spreading through Shi Qingyun's body.
Only then did Shi Qingyun remember the earlier abnormality within him. The moment he had awakened, he had focused on increasing his strength and completely forgotten to investigate the changes in his body.
Shi Qingyun slowly stopped suppressing the rampaging energy, allowing it to wreak destruction everywhere. He steadied his mind and endured the pain.
He began searching within his body for the source of that disturbance. As he carefully examined his inner body, a glimmer of hope slowly rose in his heart.
Earlier, he had been so intent on absorbing energy to break through that he had never imagined such enormous changes had occurred deep within his bones.
Inside Shi Qingyun's body, every bone was entwined with distinctly black and white yin-yang qi. Faint traces of yin-yang qi were also forming within his flesh.
The yin-yang qi lay in the deepest reaches of his bones and flesh. Had Shi Qingyun not traced the disturbance to its source, he had no idea how long it would have taken him to discover it.
Yet that was not what astonished Shi Qingyun most. What he found most incredible was that the rampaging energy seemed to have answered a summons, gathering at the dantian in his abdomen.
At that spot, a vortex of black and white intertwined in a spiral was now rotating.
It resembled a swirling nebula, with the divine essence he had just absorbed serving as the brilliant stars scattered across it.
The scene within Shi Qingyun's body was like a universe opening into existence, instantly capturing his entire attention.
Shi Qingyun forgot the pain in his body at once, watching the beautiful tableau before him with rapt fascination.
The yin-yang qi seemed to have grown after being replenished by the essence of heaven and earth just now.
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