Chapter 207 – Blood-burning Body, Preparation

The room, roughly twenty square meters in size, was brightly lit with dazzling lights.

The floor was made of thick, deep white stone tiles pieced together. Each tile had a hemispherical indicator light between them, emitting a continuous brown-yellow glow.

The room was almost completely sealed, with a suffocating stillness in the air that created an inexplicable sense of oppression.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged on the floor, wearing only specially-made shorts, his upper body bare.

In front of him was a luxurious, two-meter-long spear and a small bottle filled with a red liquid.

The spear emitted a faint silver glow, with a mysterious aura flowing between it and the bottle.

It was as if they were resonating with each other, with the silver and scarlet glows alternating in brightness.

“No wonder a single bottle of Divine Blood barely provides any professional experience; the Divine Blood itself isn’t important. The key lies in the spear.”

Watching the scene before him, a faint understanding emerged in Lu Yuan’s eyes.

This bottle of Divine Blood was sent back by Lin Zhiqin through a contact.

As Lu Yuan had predicted, between Mosa and Yellow Bear, Lin Zhiqin chose the latter without hesitation, almost without any internal conflict.

At this moment, under Lu Yuan’s arrangement, Lin Zhiqin was on a shuttle with Lin Mo, heading towards Yellow Bear’s headquarters in Xiabang.

The last time Lu Yuan had consumed a bottle of Divine Blood, he had gulped it down too quickly to notice its subtleties.

But with this second bottle before him, he quickly unraveled its secrets.

The upgrade system of the Mosa Sect is entirely different from that of the Crow Deity sect.

The latter simply involves absorbing death energy, condensing it, and continuously deepening the Crow Deity’s infection and modification.

Every Divine Messenger and Divine Servant of the Crow Deity sect contains red beads and death energy crystals, which are essences of evil power.

For Lu Yuan, absorbing these was very convenient, akin to taking drugs; his experience points would pile up rapidly.

But the former was different.

“Divine Blood in the Mosa system merely serves as an entry point. It initially modifies the consumer’s constitution into a form suitable for receiving the power of the evil deity of Mosa. What truly grants the Mosa followers their strength is the Mosa Sect’s Legacy spear!”

For example, the Silver Spear in Lu Yuan’s hand.

The spear carried the mysterious will of the “Deity of Combat and Hunting.” Gripping the spear and accepting the washing and baptism of this will, one’s Strength would grow increasingly powerful until it reached a certain limit.

“No wonder those eligible to receive this Legacy in the Mosa Sect are called… Spear Bearers.”

Spear Bearers must be the core followers under the “Deity of Combat and Hunting.”

The Spear Bearer system is far more hierarchical than the Death Messenger system.

Ordinary Divine Servants of the Crow Deity sect can potentially break through to the level of powerful divine servants or even to Divine Messenger simply by continuously absorbing death energy, provided they are resilient and lucky enough.

Spear Bearers, however, are different.

Without a Silver Spear, a Black Iron Spear Bearer can never ascend to the level of a Silver Spear Bearer.

The Rage King was the best example; Level A+ was his limit.

No matter how much Divine Blood he amassed, he could only tread water for the rest of his life.

Only by earning the appreciation and awards from the higher-ups in the Mosa church, being promoted to Silver Spear Bearer, and receiving a Silver Spear to undergo higher-level will immersion could one break through.

“But this method is completely useless to me…”

Lu Yuan frowned.

The Divine Blood used by Mosa to modify their core followers was immediately converted into professional experience the moment it entered his body, absorbed by the professional panel. His constitution remained unchanged.

He could sense the mysterious will within the Silver Spear, but he couldn’t channel it.

As a result, he lost the eligibility to upgrade through this pathway.

“There must be other ways to gain professional experience; I just haven’t discovered them yet.”

Lu Yuan picked up the bottle of Divine Blood in front of him, unscrewed the cap, and drank it all in one gulp, thinking, “If this really is the only path, then I might as well keep drinking Divine Blood. Although it provides little professional experience each time, as long as there’s enough of it, I can level up quickly enough…”

Since becoming a Silver Spear Bearer, no one from Mosa had come to contact him, it seemed like they had genuinely abandoned the southern part of the church district to him.

Lu Yuan suspected that the higher-ups at Mosa might be perplexed as well. After all, his identity as Golden Bear was well-known, and they likely had trouble figuring out how to handle him.

He couldn’t be bothered to think about it, especially with an Elephant Deity Emissary causing him distress. Faced with such a headache, he couldn’t be bothered with anything else.

[Your [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)] profession has gained a boost, professional experience +50].

After Lu Yuan drank the Divine Blood, a familiar notification appeared on his panel.

Lu Yuan glanced at it, and saw that the level of his [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)] profession had risen to Lv2.

The panel also showed an additional 1 attribute point and 1 skill point.

Without hesitation, he used the skill point to unlock the last basic professional skill on his [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)] panel.

Then, as expected—[Blood-burning Body Lv1 (0/100)] appeared.

“Let’s give it a try.”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and slowly stood up from the floor.

The room he was currently in was a gravity training room specially designed for him by Yellow Bear.

It was currently set to an 80-times gravity environment.

This level of gravity exerted some pressure on Lu Yuan, but not too much.

Lv1 [Blood-burning Body], activate!

In an instant, Lu Yuan felt his blood begin to heat up rapidly.

It felt as though his blood was burning, transforming into a gaseous state and quickly integrating into every inch of his body.

“Creaaak—”

His body emitted slow, expanding sounds.

He could clearly feel his muscle fibers thickening and strengthening.

His skin became tighter and more resilient, his bones hardened, and even his internal organs grew stronger.

“Whoosh—”

Lu Yuan exhaled deeply.

The air in the entire room seemed to stir with his breath.

The pressure of the 80-times gravity environment was now barely noticeable.

The physical transformation in Lu Yuan’s body had completely stopped, far less exaggerated than that of the Rage King.

It was even less dramatic than the changes in his body after the first rank of transformation.

Yet, Lu Yuan could distinctly feel his constitution had significantly improved.

His Third Rank Transformation only deeply exploited the potential of his 20 constitution points, allowing his physical state to better withstand the explosive Strength during ultimate exertion.

The actual strength of his constitution remained unchanged.

However, the [Blood-burning Body] skill had genuinely enhanced his constitution.

The effect was strong!

But it came at a significant cost.

“It’s very similar to the demon techniques described in Xuanhuan Novels, where burning one’s essence blood results in a short-term power surge.”

Lu Yuan looked at his arm and noticed a thin layer of blood mist flowing over his skin’s surface.

It dispersed like smoke.

Blood-burning Body, just as the skill’s name suggests.

He was indeed “burning” his blood right now.

“But with my 20 constitution points, my body can take it. My bone marrow’s blood production efficiency is high. At this current blood consumption rate…”

Lu Yuan did a rough calculation, “I estimate I can keep this up for several days.”

How long does a fight usually take? This kind of consumption is practically negligible.

“A divine skill.”

Lu Yuan gave it a satisfied nod.

For the Rage King, it might offer only a marginal boost—perhaps making him a bit tougher.

But for Lu Yuan, who possessed [Ultimate Exertion], it fundamentally elevated his capabilities, sending his combat power skyrocketing.

Lu Yuan tried incrementally increasing the gravity.

Ninety times gravity…

One hundred times gravity…

In Smokeless City, one hundred times gravity was roughly his limit.

But now, after activating [Blood-burning Body], he kept increasing it until he hit one hundred and thirty times gravity, finally feeling that overwhelming pressure as if sinking from within the depths of the ocean, crushing all his senses and thoughts.

“Huff—huff—”

He took long, deep breaths, striving to adapt to this environment.

Then, his muscles rippled and surged.

He began training [Steel Bones] and [Ten Thousand Refined Body]…

…

Three days later.

“Boom!”

Lu Yuan threw a powerful punch at the large force-measuring device half-embedded in the wall in front of him.

With a loud and deep thud, the device showed a number—4532kg.

“Ten Thousand Refined Body at max level, strength attribute boosted to 19 points, basic boxing power reaching 4.5 tons…”

Lu Yuan casually took the towel that Peregrine Falcon handed to him with great respect and wiped the thin layer of sweat from his face and body.

In these three days, supported by the various high technology aids from Yellow Bear in the gravity training room, Lu Yuan managed to fully max out his [Ten Thousand Refined Body].

As expected, reaching the max level of the Ten Thousand Refined Body increased his strength attribute by 1 point, bringing it to 19 points.

This is theoretically the maximum limit of strength a normal human can achieve.

To go any further, a limit break is required.

“I still have 3 attribute points left. Should I use them?”

Lu Yuan glanced at his attribute panel, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately decided not to.

Each point of attribute increase after a limit break would cost 2 attribute points.

The consumption doubles.

The effects of Ancient Martial Arts techniques on his improvements have also been diminishing, making it increasingly difficult to rely on cultivation techniques for breakthroughs and attribute improvements.

Attribute points have become more valuable.

If he could break the limits by himself, Lu Yuan would prefer to save those points.

Feeling his current strength, Lu Yuan recalled the impressive displays of the elephant deity emissary.

He shook his head, sensing that there was still quite a gap.

His thoughts shifted to the true skill visualization diagram of the [Ten Thousand Refined Domain Breaking Technique] left by Xiang Lei.

A black hole-like vortex slowly appeared in his mind…

Lu Yuan had just begun to grasp its essence.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“My Lord.”

Lu Yuan looked up and saw Owl Blade, with his cold demeanor, standing at the entrance of the strength testing room, looking at him with an unusual expression.

It seemed Lu Yuan had an idea and his eyes flashed with a hint of excitement.

Owl Blade nodded and promptly spoke.

“The three stone balls that were lost in the bay of Shuangliu Port have been found.”

Lu Yuan squinted, tossed the towel aside, and walked briskly towards the door.

“Good.”

Five minutes later.

The three stone balls were quietly placed in front of Lu Yuan, each positioned separately.

The stone balls were grayish-white, made of some special kind of rock.

Each stone ball had the distinctive symbols of the demon mountain and eye, unique to the elephant deity sect.

On the surface, the stone balls appeared unremarkable.

Having been submerged in the sea for a long time, each stone ball had been thoroughly washed, leaving them clean and slightly damp.

Lu Yuan placed his hand on one of the stone balls, feeling its rough texture under his fingers.

Slowly, he extended his mental power into the stone ball and “saw” that it contained a bundle of “willpower” within.

Like a living heartbeat, it was faintly pulsating.

With each beat, a unique rhythmic wave emitted and quickly dispersed in all directions.

“Have there been any traces of the elephant deity emissary?” Lu Yuan asked Owl Blade as he moved from one stone ball to another.

Owl Blade’s expression turned slightly serious and he shook his head, “The entire southern part has shown no Level A and above evil energy waves detected at all…

However, traces of the Sleepless organization have been observed. It seems they haven’t left yet. They probably know we have the three stone balls and are unwilling to give up. They may still be waiting for an opportunity to snatch them.”

“Let them be.”

Lu Yuan withdrew his hand, paused for a moment, and then asked, “What about the preparations I asked you to make? How’s it progressing?”

“According to your instructions, we are assembling our strength and constructing the ‘trap battleground’… It should be fully completed within ten days.”

“Too slow.”

Lu Yuan shook his head and said, “The elephant deity emissary could appear at any moment. You don’t want us to end up like Javier’s Sleepless, getting beaten up and then giving away our stuff, do you? This is our home ground, we have no reason to lose.”

“Understood.”

Owl Blade nodded, “I will push them to speed it up.”

“Good.”

Lu Yuan was about to say more when he suddenly had a change in expression.

He gave Owl Blade a meaningful look.

Owl Blade understood immediately, quickly cleared everyone out of the room, and followed them out as well. Before leaving, he respectfully closed the door for Lu Yuan.

Once the room was empty, Lu Yuan lightly tapped his ear and answered a call.

“Teacher.”