Chapter 566: The Second Change in the Fish-dragon Realm
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Absorbing Xuanwu Qi could quickly improve a monk’s cultivation. Of course, Zhang Ruochen would not enjoy such a treasure alone. He had already thought about who to give the treasure to.
He wanted to give the last bottle to the ninth sister and fourth brother in Yunwu Commandery. But Zhang Ruochen wasn’t sure if they could make it to the East Region Saint City before his wedding.
Zhang Ruochen walked out of the Scroll World with eight bottles of Xuanwu Qi.
Four days in the Scroll World was equal to one night in the external world.
It was early in the morning, and there was a faint chill in the air.
Zhang Ruochen found Kong Xuan and gave the six bottles of Xuanwu Qi to her. Zhang Ruochen asked her to give five bottles away, one for Huang Yanchen, Duanmu Xingling, Chang Qiqi, Si Xingkong, and Lei Jing.
Before she left, Zhang Ruochen specifically told her to hand over the Auspicious Vases to those five people in person.
Zhang Ruochen felt at ease about letting Kong Xuang handle the affairs. Kong Xuan’s cultivation had reached the Heaven Realm, so Zhang Ruochen knew she was perfectly capable of handling the task alone.
After Kong Xuan left, Zhang Ruochen called in Han Xue, Greedy Rabbit, and Monster Ape. He took the three of them to the Scroll World.
Blackie had taught Greedy Rabbit and Monster Ape top exercises, so the strength of the two beasts was not what it used to be.
Greedy Rabbit practiced was “Sky Swallowing Knack” , while Monster Ape practiced “Elder Devil’s Ten Skies”.
The evil energy and brutish aura emanating from the two beasts were very strong. As they followed Zhang Ruochen into the Scroll World, they seemed like two ferocious beasts who had just come out of reckless waste.
Especially the Monster Ape.
It was an archaean survival. After practicing “Elder Devil’s Ten Skies” , the giant monster ape archaean spirit’s Blood Meridian was activated.
Now, its body was more than 60 meters tall; it looked just like a black hill. Each step the ape took made a rumbling sound and shook the ground.
As for Greedy Rabbit, it looked rather funny with a big round belly and its two white, sharp teeth.
However, the Greedy Rabbit should not be underestimated, especially because it was able to swallow the Demon’s Heart of Di Yi. Besides, the technique, “Sky Swallowing Knack” that the rabbit practiced was not any weaker than “Elder Devil’s Ten Skies” , so its strength should not be underestimated.
Zhang Ruochen took them to the lower part of Sacred Prime Tree and said, “In the future, you two should follow Han Xue and practice in the Scroll World. Do not cause trouble.”
Zhang Ruochen then took out two bottles of flood dragon blood and handed them to Greedy Rabbit and Monster Ape.
In the Xuanwu Primitive World, Zhang Ruochen killed a number of redcloud pythons and collected a large amount of flood dragon blood. Now it was time to use it to help the two beasts improve their cultivation.
The enhancement of their strength would also help Zhang Ruochen a lot.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen also took out a bottle of Xuanwu Qi that had already been prepared. He handed it to Han Xue, patted her little face, and asked her to practice alone over there.
Having arranged everything, Zhang Ruochen could finally relax and begin improving his cultivation.
Never slack off on practicing. Only by constantly improving one’s own strength could one do more meaningful things.
The first step, of course, was to refine the Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil and continue practicing the Treasured Body of Three Spirits.
In the Completion of Heaven Realm, Zhang Ruochen’s body would reach saturation due to refining only one jin and two liangs of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil. But now, he had broken into the Ultimate Realm of the Heaven Realm and reached the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
Breaking through two realms in a row would allow him to refine more Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil.
With his current level of cultivation, could Zhang Ruochen succeed in practicing Treasured Body of Three Spirits?
The Treasured Body of Three Spirits was as powerful as a Saintly Being.
That was why Zhang Ruochen was very eager to materialize the Treasured Body of Three Spirits.
As long as he succeeded, he would become stronger in the same realm.
“Refining a kilo of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil could save a year’s penance. Even if the Treasured Body of Three Spirits was not achieved, I would obtain at least several years’ worth of cultivation .”
He took out the Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil and started the refining process.
In a blink of the eye, they were already halfway through the month.
Zhang Ruochen refined seven jins of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil into his body and integrated it with his bones, muscles, and flesh.
Together with the one jin and two liangs of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil he had refined before, he got a total of eight jins and two liangs and was quite close to the Treasured Body of Three Spirits.
Zhang Ruochen let out a sigh of relief and said, “My body has reached saturation and can no longer absorb any Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil. However, refining seven jins of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil is comparable to my seven years of penance. My cultivation has improved from the Initial Stage of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm to the Intermediate Stage of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.”
“Once my cultivation reaches the Advanced Stage of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm, I will be able to refine more Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil. Perhaps I can even practice the Treasured Body of Three Spirits.”
In total, Zhang Ruochen had reached the Ultimate Realm four times, so he was strong enough to fight against a higher realm.
However, apart from the advantages, there were disadvantages as well.
The disadvantage was that when breaking through a realm, Zhang Ruochen took ten or even a hundred times more effort compared to other Monks.
In the same realm, he would consume ten times or even a hundred times more resources than other monks.
Therefore, refining seven jins of Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil could only improve his cultivation from the Initial Stage of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm to the Intermediate Stage of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
Next, his goal was to break into the Advanced Stage of the the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
With a normal practice speed, it would take him ten years to break into the Advanced Stage of the first Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
However, now that he had many top cultivation resources, such as the Dragon Pearl of the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King, the Half-Saint flood dragon blood, the Xuanwu Qi, and Xuanwu Sacred Blood, Zhang Ruochen would be able to save a lot of practice time.
Each one of them was priceless.
Among them, the Dragon Pearl of Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King was the most precious. Zhang Ruochen wanted to take it for when he would go for a higher realm in the future.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen decided to take Xuanwu Sacred Blood.
Cyan-fire Xuanwu was a level eight savage beast, comparable to the Saint King. Each drop of his blood was like a top-level Pill that contained great Saint Power and Spiritual Blood.
Zhang Ruochen poured the first drop of Xuanwu Sacred Blood out of the Auspicious Vase and made it suspend over the palm of his left hand with Genuine Qi.
Like a red gem, the Xuanwu Sacred Blood started emitting a dazzling red light.
“Swish!”
Swallowing Xuanwu Sacred Blood felt like swallowing a mouthful of flames.
In an instant, Zhang Ruochen’s internal organs and meridians burned with a spluttering sound. Zhang Ruochen could not suppress the great power of Xuanwu Sacred Blood, so traces of flame were gushing out of his pores.
The flames spread out, and fires were burning within ten steps away of Zhang Ruochen; centering around his body.
Even with the Dragon Pearl protecting his body, Zhang Ruochen still felt extremely uncomfortable and his whole body was aching. His heart, lung, liver, and gall, to each meridian, each blood vessel, and each bone––they were all burning.
It seemed like he would be burned to ashes by the heat from Xuanwu Sacred Blood anytime soon.
Zhang Ruochen clenched his teeth, bearing with the pain. He slowly moved his hands, put his palms together and shouted, “The fifth level of ‘Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean’ , Devil-taming Mysterious Fetus Heaven.”
Zhang Ruochen controlled his body with the powerful Martial Soul. Then he started to run the Genuine Qi in his body according to the exercises of the fifth level of “Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean”.
As the Genuine Qi ran faster, the 36 meridians absorbed Xuanwu Sacred Blood faster as well.
Gradually, Zhang Ruochen devoted himself to the cultivation process. While experiencing the mystery of “Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean”, he ran the exercises to absorb Xuanwu Sacred Blood.
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but all of a sudden Zhang Ruochen’s pain completely disappeared. Instead, he felt a comfortable feeling spreading throughout his whole body through his 36 meridians.
After absorbing all the Xuanwu Sacred Blood, Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes again, letting out a long sigh of relief.
His clothes had been burnt to ashes by the previous flames.
Zhang Ruochen looked at his skin and saw a layer of golden luster on it as if there were golden stripes flowing on the surface.
He was like a man made of gold, sitting cross-legged under the tree.
“Bang! Bang!”
Zhang Ruochen hit his chest with his palm twice, making a noise of metal collisions, like an iron mallet hitting a golden bell.
“The Xuanwu Sacred Blood is such a powerful treasure! One drop enables me to break through to the Second Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.”
It was true.
Zhang Ruochen had reached the Second Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
Zhang Ruochen did not think that a drop of Xuanwu Sacred Blood would be that powerful that he almost died in the refining process.
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen didn’t take the Dragon Pearl of Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King. Otherwise, the power would be too unbearable, he might even explode and die in an instant.
Zhang Ruochen learned a lesson from this.
However, Zhang Ruochen managed to survive. Moreover, he broke through to the Second Change in the Fish-dragon Realm, which could be regarded as a blessing in disguise.
The Second Change in the Fish-dragon Realm was called “Skin Refining to Gold”.
The so-called “Skin Refining to Gold” was a technique that formed a layer of golden armor on the whole body of a monk. Its defensive power was several grades higher than the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth.
In particular, Zhang Ruochen’s golden skin was a blend of Cyan-fire Xuanwu and Golden Dragon’s strength. Not only was its defensive power much stronger than that of the Monks in the same realm, but his strength also multiplied.
Of course, as Zhang Ruochen had just broken through the realm, he was unable to control the wildly increasing power, which was why his skin shined with golden brilliance and became hard as iron.
As long as he spent more time consolidating his realm, he would be able to control his powers pretty well.
It did not seem like it took much time for him to refine Xuanwu Sacred Blood, but in reality, Zhang Ruochen spent a total of six months refining it.
Plus the time spent in refining Bloody Saint-cultivating Soil, Zhang Ruochen had stayed in the Scroll World for nearly seven months.
In total, twenty days had passed in the external world.
When Zhang Ruochen broke through the Fish-dragon Realm, he was able to take his Internal Qi and refine the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to become his own food; thus reaching the Foodless Realm. Because of this, he did not feel hunger and felt more energetic instead.
After refining the exercises of the fifth level of ” Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean ” for another half a month, Zhang Ruochen finally got full control of the realm.
“Cool down!”
The golden light on Zhang Ruochen’s body gradually faded, and finally disappeared.
His skin went back to normal and was no longer as hard as iron. His defensive power was not weaker, but stronger.
“With my current realm, it should not be difficult for me to successfully practice Treasured Body of Three Spirits, but the wedding is coming up, so I can no longer seclude myself for refining. I must go to the Chens first to send the betrothal gifts.”
Zhang Ruochen stopped practicing and began to think about the betrothal gifts. What kind of betrothal gifts could show his sincerity?