A Dance with Darkness and Light: Re-Origination

50: Blood Essence

Since nothing came out of the investigation, add to that Faolan's pressure, even the king of Donar felt disinclined to make a scene out of this. After all, how many unidentified objects had gathered dust in Donar's treasury? Their claim wasn't that far-fetched, and although the scene was a ghastly one, to say the least, no one could be blamed for it.

"Let the young prince go, consider this incident as simply a lucky situation for him." The king told his people.

Faolan nodded toward the king before he and Bazuul left.

Even though it was still early in the evening, darkness had already shrouded the day. The autumn wind howled through the streets along with the ever-present thunder, a drastic change from the scene on the battle platform merely an hour ago.

Bazuul stomach growled after they returned to the embassy, intending to fill the hole in it, he walked toward the kitchen. To his surprise, Faolan grabbed hold of him by the collar, told the attendants to prepare something to eat and dragged Bazuul toward his study.

Unable to put up any resistance, Bazuul looked up with a discontent expression and asked, "What is this?"

Faolan merely shot him a glance and scoffed. Once in his study, Faolan threw Bazuul onto a seat and sat into his. Silently he observed his nephew for a couple of minutes.

Faolan finally raised his voice and asked. "What happened down there?"

"I don't know, as I've said, I don't know much about the sword," Bazuul answered confusedly.

"That's not what I mean. You're different from before, and I can clearly see your body brimming with vigor ever since the explosion."

Bazuul's mind blanked at this and realized what his uncle meant, the blood essence that entered his body. After a moment of silence, this time from Bazuul's side, he explained to his uncle what had happened.

"Well, that explains your hunger. Show me your body strengthening technique." Faolan said.

After doing so, Faolan analyzed the scripture for a while. "Mmh, I don't recognize this body strengthening technique, at least it's not one from our family. Where did you get it?"

"Old man Fu from the eastern city gave it to me," Bazuul answered truthfully.

Unaware of that person's identity, Faolan still nodded and said. "Ok, although it's a lower-ranked one there is some mystery within it even I cannot completely grasp. For now, this will do, but I advise getting a better one once we return home."

At this time, three knocks came from the door, and the voice of an attendant entered the study, telling them that the food was ready.

"Go eat something and then cultivate your body strengthening technique. Try to refine some of the blood essences. It should have incredible effects on your body's constitution."

Bazuul nodded and left the study, picked up the dish prepared for him and thought, "So the technique old man Fu gave me is a lower-ranked one. Guess I'll check the library after I've filled my stomach."

Without further ado, Bazuul left for his room after having satiated his hunger and drifted into the akashic library. Once inside, he began reading every book on "body strengthening" he had access to. He found several body strengthening techniques among these books, and the unknown author of these manuscripts even ranked some. Many described the essence and functions of a body strengthening technique, yet while all explanations were similar, they were also completely different from each other.

As Bazuul understood it, a body strengthening technique was at first an extreme form of bodybuilding. Extreme, in a sense, that it required one to build a solid foundation for every single muscle in your body. One in which every muscle must be of equal balance to the others surrounding it. After reaching that state, it would be time to increase the volume of the vascular body, meaning his veins, arteries, and meridians. While also increasing the intensity of his training. Stretching the tendons and ligaments in his body to the limit. A tenuous and painful procedure that tested the practitioner's tenacity and willpower. Also, depending on the person's constitution, one had to find a compatible body strengthening technique.

From the different depictions and explanations in these books, Bazuul's mind simplified the knowledge into a simple training regime that seemed to be the basis of all such techniques. Four simple pillars that consisted of ever-increasing stretching and bodybuilding, something that was akin to yoga, and meditation. A symbiosis of these four would transform the body slowly if done right, which was then followed by the growth in the capacity of one's mind. Obviously, some treasures and resources could help someone overcome those boundaries and therefore forego the struggles and pains. One such example was one recently acquired, blood essence. Apparently, a tiny drop from a strong beast was enough for a cultivator to overcome a realm or at least knock on the door of the next. That merely being effects on one's cultivation, not the plentiful benefits to the body.

After that, Bazuul eventually found a technique that aligned well with his constitution called the "Strong as earth, light as air." The moment Bazuul began reading he felt a deep sense of respect for the writer of this skill. It was written almost like a poem and told of old folklore. Unlike a normal story though, the reader would almost fall into a trance, preoccupied with visions showing the set and sequences of the body strengthening technique.

Prepared, he then left the library and entered the dark side of his domain. To his surprise, he found himself underwater once inside. He swam up to the surface and climbed up the edge of the now large bowl that once was something he called "yin-yang plate." Once up there, he realized that the liquid he was soaked in actually was blood. At this time a bolt shot through his mind before he thought in disbelief, "No way, nooo, no, no, no. That's...no way! That's... That's like...two thousand liters of blood essence! WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Not only was he once again remembered of his sheer luck ever since transmigrating into this world. Something he saw as a sort of plot-armor, but he was also frightened by the amount of blood essence. After all, how many lives must have been ended by that blade? And how many corpses did it suck dry?

Suddenly Bazuul's body began to itch. Slowly this itch increased in intensity until it eventually became unbearable. He growled as these sensations turned into pain. Eventually though, as fast as these sensations came, it also stopped. Bazuul concluded that this was the effect of the short bath he took in this pool of blood essence. Shockingly, such a short while in it had this kind of effect. Wasn't the use of such resources to proceed further in one's body's cultivation and forego the pain?

Then, a creepy chuckle escaped him. "Forget about the benefits this has to me. I don't even know if one person can refine so much blood essence in a lifetime. This is capital! Not only can I sell some, but I can also strengthen the people around me and further bind loyal subjects to me through that."

Bazuul left his domain and ordered his attendants to bring him all free containers in the embassy, large and small ones. It didn't matter. After that, he slowly began filling those containers with the blood essence and stored them into his ring. Still, the attendants had to go out, and buy quite a few more pots, bottles, and flasks until Bazuul's domain had been cleaned up.

Bazuul then reentered his domain and made himself familiar with his new body strengthening technique. Afterward, he trained with the dark fiend, further increasing his control over his abilities of gravity. Slightly unaware of it, but due to the battle experience gained against Jian Zheng today, and the short bath in blood essence, Bazuul had reached the peak of the eighth true qi realm. Not only that, but his body had transformed from the once rather frail-looking youth to a well-groomed and healthy young man. The vigorous atmosphere around him even had some wild tendencies reflecting his innermost character. All that in about six hours, although to the outside it was merely three hours.

It was already midnight, so Bazuul didn't bother with anything else. He drank a glass of water and went straight to bed.