“I'll pretend to relieve myself in the pool so none of you will ever dare soak in it again, wahahaha~”
Huh?
Feeling the Primordial Blood seeping through his pores and merging directly into his blood qi, Zhuang Xun suddenly realized something absurd.
He might... perhaps... actually be able to convert the Primordial Blood directly into panel points?
The source of panel points had always been Zhuang Xun's own flesh and blood.
Blood qi was also a part of one's flesh and blood.
And once the Primordial Blood entered his body, it directly merged with his blood qi, becoming a part of it.
This was different from converting precious meat. It didn't require digestion, circulation, synthesis, or any of those tedious steps; it could be converted the moment it entered his body.
“Holy crap, how many points can I get from this much Primordial Blood...” With half his face submerged in the Primordial Blood, Zhuang Xun stared at the pool, which had a radius of at least five meters, feeling an inexplicable wave of nervousness.
He quietly glanced at the Shengxue Cultists standing by the edge of the pool.
“Damn it, why aren't they leaving? Why do they keep staring at me? Let me give it a try... Holy crap, it actually works!”
Zhuang Xun felt the Primordial Blood get drawn away by the Character Creation Panel the moment it entered his body, followed by his panel points increasing by one. His heart skipped a beat.
Taking a deep breath, he stole a few more glances at the Shengxue Cultists like a primary school student trying to cheat on an exam, and began brainstorming.
“Unlike eating precious meat, which requires so many steps like digestion, converting Primordial Blood into panel points is extremely fast. However, if the level of the Primordial Blood drops too quickly, the Shengxue Cult will definitely stop me...”
“Who cares? Every drop I absorb is a profit. Wait, let me calculate the losses first...”
When he created the Debt-Lending Bladesman, he had only maxed out his Skeletal Structure, leaving his Comprehension untouched. Combined with the two hundred and eighty points spent to raise his realm to the Third Rank, he had used a total of three hundred and thirty points.
In other words, considering the maximum loss if the Debt-Lending Bladesman were to die, he needed to absorb enough Primordial Blood to yield at least three hundred and thirty panel points to break even.
Zhuang Xun glanced at the Blood Son and the Right Protector by the pool once more.
Two First Rank martial artists—one sick, one old. They were among the weakest of the First Rank.
“But this body of mine is young and strong, in the absolute prime of a martial artist's life. Plus, I have the heaven-defying basic attributes provided by maxed-out Skeletal Structure. Even if I can't beat them, escaping shouldn't be a problem. As long as I can hide for a while, I can dissolve the Debt-Lending Bladesman and make a perfect getaway...”
Thinking of this, Zhuang Xun decided the risk was low enough to warrant a gamble.
He immediately relaxed his body and began absorbing the Primordial Blood at full capacity. The blood level instantly began to drop at a rate visible to the naked eye.
In an instant, the Shengxue Cultists, who had been warily watching the Debt-Lending Bladesman to prevent him from causing trouble, were completely dumbfounded.
Zhuang Xun took advantage of their brief stupor to absorb the Primordial Blood with all his might. A massive torrent of Primordial Blood surged into his body, stretching his meridians to the point of aching, only to be immediately drained away by the Character Creation Panel.
Over and over again.
Within just a few breaths, the Primordial Blood Pool, which had been eighty percent full, was about to run dry.
Zhuang Xun knew he couldn't afford to be too greedy. Just as he was about to leap up and escape through the passage behind the Shengxue Cultists, a series of thuds echoed as they fell to their knees.
“Blood Ancestor!”
This emotional, tearful cry of “Blood Ancestor” forced Zhuang Xun to halt right where he was.
“Blood Ancestor? Who? Are they calling me? How did I become the Blood Ancestor?”
“That's right, I am the Blood Ancestor!”
In less than a second, Zhuang Xun accepted his new identity and remained in the pool to continue absorbing the Primordial Blood.
This time, however, he was using the Primordial Blood to cultivate.
Because there was no rush to escape anymore.
Furthermore, the realm upgrade function of the Character Creation Panel could only raise a character's realm to match the highest realm among his active characters.
To increase their strength further, the characters had to rely on their own cultivation.
Previously, Zhuang Xun hadn't wanted the Debt-Lending Bladesman to be associated with any faction, so he hadn't had him cultivate any martial arts. He had relied solely on the Character Creation Panel to force his strength up without any actual martial techniques.
Now, he directly controlled the Debt-Lending Bladesman to begin cultivating the Chiyang Technique.
As the Blood Ancestor, having just absorbed the Primordial Blood and recovered a portion of his memories, what was so strange about him knowing the Chiyang Technique?
With the Debt-Lending Bladesman's Third Rank physical body as a foundation, and since Zhuang Xun had already researched the Chiyang Technique through Bai Yujing and achieved great perfection in his comprehension of it, the speed at which he shaped his martial physique was near-miraculous.
Under the washing of the massive blood qi, his martial physique was shaped in an instant.
Ninth Rank, Eighth Rank, Seventh Rank, Sixth Rank, Fifth Rank, Fourth Rank, Third Rank... In less than a day, Zhuang Xun's Chiyang martial physique had reached great accomplishment.
At this point, his martial arts realm had caught up with his physical realm. He could no longer rely on the dimensional-reduction strike of his blood qi to rapidly shape his martial physique.
Thus, Zhuang Xun stopped cultivating and focused entirely on absorbing the Primordial Blood.
The already depleted Primordial Blood Pool sank even lower, to the point where the red jade bottom of the pool could be seen through the crimson liquid.
Before long, feeling his aching meridians, Zhuang Xun stopped. By now, the total amount of blood qi in his body had reached the Second Rank level.
He once again initiated a dimensional-reduction strike to shape his martial physique.
Three days later, his martial arts broke through to the Second Rank.
His physical strength began to grow rapidly, but this was a gradual process; he could no longer use the nesting-doll method to continue absorbing the Primordial Blood.
Furthermore, the remaining Primordial Blood was not enough to push his total blood qi to the First Rank.
Deciding to make the most of it, Zhuang Xun converted all the remaining Primordial Blood into panel points.
The Chiyang Technique, aside from the abilities of attraction, repulsion, and blood-spraying, also possessed the profound mystery of absorbing others' blood qi for oneself.
Even if he converted the Primordial Blood into panel points now, he could later create clones for the Debt-Lending Bladesman to feed on to raise his strength, yielding the exact same effect.
Moreover, it would make his image in the eyes of the Shengxue Cultists appear profoundly mysterious.
Zhuang Xun opened the Character Creation Panel.
— Character Creation Panel —
[Character Five: Debt-Lending Bladesman]
[Age: 20]
[Realm: Second Rank]
[Martial Arts: Chiyang Technique]
[Skeletal Structure: 100 (Supreme Skeletal Structure)]
[Comprehension: 50 (Average Comprehension)]
[Charm: 80 (Outstanding)]
—
【Panel Points: 1023】
Looking at the panel points column, Zhuang Xun felt incredibly refreshed.
The highest-grade precious meat that could be reliably purchased on the market in Mount Dazhou was only ten-year-grade.
Precious meat over ten years old had to be snatched up through competitive bidding and was rarely available.
Therefore, even at his fastest rate of accumulating panel points, it would take him at least two hundred days to gather 1,023 points. Converting precious meat into panel points was a slow process, and it couldn't replenish the vitality consumed by his clones during the conversion. He had to rest for about a day after each conversion.
This time, even without considering his sudden, inexplicable identity as the Blood Ancestor, he had hit the absolute jackpot.
Not only had his martial arts risen to the Second Rank, but by using these massive panel points to create clones for the Debt-Lending Bladesman to absorb, he estimated it wouldn't even take a month for his martial arts to break through to the First Rank.
With this, Bai Yujing's era came to a temporary close. The one who would carry all the clones next was—the Debt-Lending Bladesman!
Yan Pingsheng: Ooh ooh ooh ooh! (Clapping)
Yi Wangyou: Ooh ooh ooh ooh! (Clapping)
Debt-Lending Bladesman: (Suppressing a laugh, raising his hand to signal everyone to be quiet) Ahem, today, it is my great honor to serve as the main body. I'll just say a few brief words...
Yi Wangyou: Well said! Clap clap clap clap—
Yi Wangyou: @Bai Yujing
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