Among the six basic attributes, Essence manifested as Bloodline Power. Only by awakening andcondensing Bloodline Power could one be considered a body cultivator.
Although the body Wang Hao now possessed had cultivated hard-body techniques well, was extraordinarily gifted, and had an immensely imposing build, it had not condensed Bloodline Power. Condensing Bloodline Power was no simple matter, especially for the Human Clan.
The Human Clan was the only race created after the fact. Before Nüwa created humanity, there had been no Human Clan, so there was no question of Bloodline Power.
After all, Bloodline Power was the strongest manifestation of the propagation and inheritance of the bloodlines of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Devils from the Chaos era before heaven and earth first opened. The Human Clan itself had been formed by Nüwa using Breathing Earth mixed with Three Lights Divine Water and her own Great Dao of Creation. Where would they have gotten a bloodline inheritance?
Yet this also gave the Human Clan unlimited potential for development. Having no bloodline inheritance of its own meant it could accommodate any bloodline inheritance.
His previous incarnation in the Primordial Wilderness had awakened and condensed Bloodline Power through the Wu Race bloodline in his body. His current body was not a Nine Li tribesman born of mixed human and Wu blood, so he naturally had to find another way.
Wang Hao found a method in his previous incarnation's memories of the Primordial Wilderness. It was a cultivation method of the Yellow Emperor Tribe that could extract Essence Blood from Demon Beasts and merge it into one's own body, awakening a Demon Beast's Bloodline Power and even a Bloodline Divine Ability.
Although this came with considerable hidden dangers and could even prevent someone from ever breaking through the Heaven Realm and reaching a higher realm, none of that mattered to Wang Hao now.
He had never intended to take this body from the Smiling Proud Wanderer World back to the Primordial World, and he lacked the ability to do so anyway. Besides, his cultivation in the Smiling Proud Wanderer World could rise no higher than the Mortal Realm Fourth Layer. He could not even reach the peak of the Mortal Realm, much less a realm above the Heaven Realm.
So those hidden dangers and side effects did not matter.
What he needed to do now was merge the dog blood he had collected earlier from Qing'er and those other dogs into his body, stimulating the awakening of Bloodline Power. Most importantly, he wanted to awaken the Bloodline Divine Ability that came with it.
That was right: a Bloodline Divine Ability.
Animals were actually the precursors of Demon Beasts, or else the products of Demon Beasts' degeneration. Their bloodlines naturally came from their Demon Beast ancestors, so they naturally contained a bloodline inheritance.
The very first ancestor of dogs was a dog-shaped Chaos Devil God who controlled the Great Dao of Devouring and could swallow heaven and devour earth.
In myths and legends, Erlang Shen's Xiaotian Quan possessed a tiny trace of that Chaos Devil God's bloodline, which gave him the ability to devour the sun and moon.
Of course, the dogs of the Smiling Proud Wanderer World did not have such lofty bloodlines, but they had at least inherited a tiny trace of that bloodline's power.
As long as he used it to awaken a Bloodline Divine Ability, even the most worthless one would be quite powerful.
The only things he was unsure of now were whether he could awaken a Bloodline Divine Ability and what sort of ability it would be.
"Uncle, you can activate the Dao Comprehension Function. With comprehension comparable to an Earth Realm expert's, it won't be hard to awaken an innate Divine Ability from that dog blood. It's just that this world's level is too low, after all. Although the living creatures here have Demon Beast bloodlines, they're so thin they're nearly nonexistent.
"If you can find the fresh blood of a fierce beast or spirit beast that has undergone atavism and merge with it, Uncle, you'll have a better chance of awakening a relatively stronger Bloodline Divine Ability. For example, there's Dugu Qiubai's giant eagle from this world's Divine Eagle era."
Xiao Mengmeng offered a suggestion. Even if ordinary beasts had Demon Beast bloodlines, they were so thin as to be nearly nonexistent. It was simply unrealistic to expect to awaken a powerful Bloodline Divine Ability from a bloodline that thin.
So he really did have to choose carefully what he merged with.
"There's no need to go to all that trouble. I can't stay in this world for long anyway, and the limit on cultivation is too low. Even if I awakened a powerful Divine Ability, I might not be able to bear the cost of using it. I'd be better off with a minor Divine Ability that costs little, preferably a passive Divine Ability that costs nothing."
Wang Hao had long since made plans about which Divine Ability to choose. Those powerful Divine Abilities were strong, but their consumption was equally terrifying. If he forced himself to use one with his current meager cultivation, he might well be sucked dry first.
So he ruled out the powerful Divine Abilities first. Of the minor ones left, he favored the sort of passive skill found in games: its effects would still be considerable, and it would cost nothing. It was his best choice at present.
"You can make the decision, Uncle. I'm only offering suggestions on this matter; I won't interfere."
Xiao Mengmeng nodded, also feeling that Wang Hao had a point.
"Then I'll begin. Watch for the most crucial moment and activate the Dao Comprehension Function."
With that, Wang Hao took a jade bottle from his robes, poured a little wine into it to mix with the dog blood inside, and then gulped it all down.
The jade bottle had held a Small Return Pill before. He had swallowed the pill and repurposed the empty bottle to hold the blood he had taken from the dogs.
He had not swallowed it and begun the awakening immediately for two reasons: the circumstances had not allowed it, and awakening Bloodline Power, let alone a Bloodline Divine Ability, consumed a great deal of energy and nutrients, which could only be replenished by eating meat.
Before finding a stable source of food, it would have been difficult to attempt the awakening.
He had been worrying about how to deal with the matter, but who would have thought he would run into such a sucker?
Lord Hao will eat until your heart bleeds today!
After swallowing the dog blood, Wang Hao circulated the explosive force in his body and gathered it in his stomach and intestines, repeatedly striking them with a special method.
Explosive force was tremendously violent, capable of shattering even stone. The consequences of gathering it in something as fragile as his stomach and intestines were easy to imagine.
In an instant, countless wounds were torn open in his stomach and intestines. The dog blood entered Wang Hao's bloodstream through those wounds, then flowed throughout his body under the surging force.
Dog blood and human blood were incompatible to begin with, so the pain of forcibly merging them was easy to imagine.
Even so, Wang Hao endured it and continued controlling his force to merge the dog blood that had entered his bloodstream with his own blood.
His previous incarnation in the Primordial Wilderness had awakened Bloodline Power once before. Although the process was somewhat different, the two were essentially alike.
Wang Hao had naturally inherited that experience, so circulating his force now did not feel unfamiliar. Soon, he felt his blood begin to boil.
"Now!"
Sensing the change in his body, Wang Hao gave a low shout inwardly, and Xiao Mengmeng activated the Dao Comprehension Function for him.
The instant the Dao Comprehension Function activated, Wang Hao's comprehension increased countless times, reaching an unimaginable level.
Relying on his powerful comprehension, Wang Hao immediately deduced changes to the Nine Li Tribe's method for awakening Bloodline Power, adapting it to his current circumstances.
In ten seconds, he deduced a suitable Secret Method. He then spent another ten seconds circulating the new Secret Method to completely merge the dog blood with the blood in his body, thereby awakening Bloodline Power.
That was not all. Wang Hao continued circulating the force in his body with the new Secret Method, stimulating his Bloodline Power. Ten seconds later, he finally awakened the power of a Divine Ability hidden deep within his bloodline.
"Why is it this kind of Divine Ability?"
Sensing the information about the Divine Ability's power transmitted through his bloodline, Wang Hao wore a strange expression.
The Bloodline Divine Ability he had awakened was indeed high-level, in a sense. Strictly speaking, it was a spatial Divine Ability, but the place that carried it was rather troublesome.
The Bloodline Divine Ability was called Object Storage. It could expand a space to hold external objects, but the place that carried this Object Storage Divine Ability was his stomach and intestines.
In other words, the space inside his stomach and intestines had been expanded to a total of about three cubic meters. This was an expansion of the existing space and would not show on the outside.
That meant Wang Hao could now swallow three cubic meters of food without any change to his belly. But what use was that?
Was he supposed to turn himself into a glutton? Or use his stomach and intestines to store things in the future?
Thinking of those two ways to use the Divine Ability, Wang Hao could not help shuddering.
The first was one thing, but the second was far too disgusting. Not everyone could be like Uncle Snake from Naruto, swallowing all sorts of random things and then spitting them back out.
That was too disgusting!
"Forget it. At least it lets me eat more in one sitting. And although there's not much room for improvement, it's a rare passive Divine Ability that doesn't require any extra consumption to maintain."
Although he was not very satisfied with this Bloodline Divine Ability, Wang Hao reluctantly accepted it. At least it had some use.
"Wait, I'm a body cultivator. Eating more can improve my cultivation speed. Now I can swallow so much food at once, and paired with that method for speeding up digestion, my cultivation progress can increase by at least tenfold!"
Wang Hao soon realized the benefit of this Object Storage Divine Ability, and his expression immediately turned excited.
How was this garbage? It was simply the strongest Divine Ability, perfectly suited to his current circumstances.
This world had no primordial Qi of heaven and earth at all. The only way cultivators could obtain energy was by eating, so the amount they could eat determined their cultivation speed. That was where the true wonder of this seemingly useless Divine Ability became apparent.
For him as he was now, there could be no Divine Ability more suitable than this one.
Although it had no offensive or defensive power, it was remarkably powerful for assisting cultivation. It was practically a cheat.
Of course, his Bloodline Power and Bloodline Divine Ability had only just manifested. To truly take shape, they would require a great, great deal of energy!
And right now, an arrogant sucker had conveniently offered himself up to be fleeced!
"Your father's rich, is he? Today I'll eat until you cry!"
Wang Hao did not stand on ceremony. The moment the dishes were placed on the table, his chopsticks flew. In the blink of an eye, he devoured an entire plate and washed it down with a pot of fine wine.
Later on, he was almost always waiting for the dishes to arrive. As for the handsome young man, who was still drunk, he kept urging Wang Hao to drink. Eventually, he even picked up a wine jar himself and poured wine into the pot for Wang Hao.
In that time, Wang Hao confirmed one thing: whether at an upscale establishment in ancient times or an upscale restaurant in the modern age, the dishes really were first-rate, but the portions were correspondingly small. One sweep of his chopsticks and they were nearly gone.
After some ten tables' worth of food and wine had been served in succession, the proprietor downstairs, Uncle Wang, finally realized something was wrong and personally came up to see what was happening.
"Sun..."
Uncle Wang clearly knew the handsome young man. He was about to step forward and persuade him when the young man grabbed him by the collar and poured a pot of Drunken Immortal Brew down his throat.
Poor Uncle Wang was already old, and Drunken Immortal Brew was an extremely potent wine. After one pot, his eyes rolled back and he passed out drunk on the spot.
"He won't drink with me anymore. You drink with me!"
The handsome young man glanced blearily at Wang Bo, who had rolled beneath the table. Then he turned to Wang Hao and pushed another pot of Drunken Immortal Brew toward him.
"I don't mind drinking, but the dishes are coming far too slowly, and they're a bit too low-grade!"
Wang Hao signaled to the waiter, who was sweating profusely at the side, to take Uncle Wang away. Then he turned back to the handsome young man, who was still acting arrogantly, and his gaze grew much colder.
He hated people who failed to respect the elderly and cherish the young more than anything. Today, he had to teach this fellow a lesson he would not forget.
"Waiter, go hurry the people in the kitchen! Tell them to be quick, or I'll chop you all down! And bring me all your finest dishes!"
Sure enough, the handsome young man could not resist being provoked. One prod and he fell for it, immediately calling for the waiter to bring the finest dishes.
Fortunately, by now the young man had sobered up a little. At least he no longer slurred his words, though he was still far from clearheaded.
Wang Hao chose that moment to push a pot of Drunken Immortal Brew in front of him and said, "Come, brother, you drink too!"
"All right, I'll drink too!"
Without a thought, the handsome young man took the pot, copied Wang Hao by lifting its lid, and drained it in one gulp. The slight clarity that had just returned to his face gave way to a drunken stupor once more.