With displeasure, the minister rose to his feet, took a glance at Zhang Ruochen behind him and said, “Ninth Prince, won’t you bow down to Empress Chi Yao?”
“Rather than her, I only worship heaven and earth, as well as my parents.”
After these words, Zhang Ruochen went through the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the secret door. Then he walked step by step along the stone ladder behind the door toward the Savage God’s Pool.
The Fifth Prince, Situ Linjiang, Xue Kai, and Lin Ningshan stood up and glanced at Zhang Ruochen.
“It’s his untamed characteristic that will hurt him sooner or later!” Situ Linjiang slightly shook his head.
After the fight with Zhang Ruochen, Situ Linjiang had come to admire him for his Martial Arts talents. But Zhang Ruochen was so haughty that he should not worship the empress. He would get into big trouble in the future.
“Who do you think you are? You just have the cultivation of the Dawn State of the Yellow Realm, which can only be counted as the initial stage of Martial Arts. No one can predict whether or not he will be a superior in the future!” said Lin Ningshan.
Then, led by the minister, the Fifth Prince, Situ Linjiang, Xue Kai, and Lin Ningshan also walked down the stone ladder and entered into an underworld filled with the smell of blood.
In the center of the underworld, there was a giant bloody sacred pool, with both a length and width of more than 100 meters.
The bloody waves ceaselessly surged with the rolling pool water.
In the center of the blood pool stood an ancient altar made of tons of megaliths with epitaphs and patterns on each of them.
A stone table extended straight up to connect the altar on earth.
“It’s time for all of you to practice in the Savage God’s Pool. Please keep in mind that due to the strong power of blood in it, leave it as soon as possible when you can’t stand anymore. Otherwise, it may be life-threatening,” the minister sternly warned.
The five young geniuses, Zhang Ruochen, Lin Ningshan, Situ Linjiang, the Fifth Prince, and Xue Kai, walked into the Savage God’s Pool in turns.
The water in the Savage God’s Pool seemed hot enough to boil people.
“Ouch!”
The five young geniuses groaned when the pool water touched their skin and melted them. Immediately, their legs became mangled and bloody.
They bit the bullet and held on by operating their internal Genuine Qi to defend against the Power of Blood.
“If you operate Genuine Qi to defend against the Power of Blood, you will stop it entering into the body,” the minister casually said at the poolside.
In order to acquire the Power of Blood of the Savage God’s Pool, the five young people had to withdraw their external Genuine Qi. At that time, the familiar painful feeling appeared again to make their Meridians exposed.
Due to the strong Spiritual Power, Zhang Ruochen clearly detected that a trace of the hot Power of Blood entered into his body through the wounds and integrated into his blood and bones.
“It is indeed the Power of Blood! Hurray! With it, my physical quality is certain to be improved a lot! I need to take this chance!”
Slowly, as he closed his eyes, Zhang Ruochen walked to the center of the Savage God’s Pool step by step.
The farther that he walked in, the deeper the water became.
After only 10 steps, the bloody water has reached Zhang Ruochen’s waist.
The more that he touched the water, the faster the absorption speed of the Power of Blood became. Meanwhile, the pain grew stronger as well.
The minister at the poolside was surprised by him and marveled, “Awesome! How strong his willpower is, to walk into the central area the first time entering the pool… When the Seventh Prince first entered the Savage God’s Pool to practice, it took him two hours to adapt to the shallow area before he went into the central area.”
There were three areas of the Savage God’s Pool: the shallow area, the central area, and the deeper area.
The shallow area was also known as the boundary of the Savage God’s Pool, in where the deepest area could just only reach the knee of the warrior.
Generally speaking, the first time practicing in the pool, a warrior could only stand in the shallow area. None of them dared to enter the central area.
In the last decade, only the Seventh Prince walked into the central area his first time going into the pool.
The fact that Zhang Ruochen walked straight toward the central area his first time in the pool indeed shocked people there and caused great pressure on the other four young warriors.
It was the second time for the Fifth Prince to practice in the Savage God’s Pool. However, he was still afraid of the central area and stubbornly stayed in the shallow area to take in more Power of Blood to refine his body and build his physical quality.
Four hours later, Lin Ningshan was the first to leave the Savage God’s Pool. After all, the female physical quality could hardly compare to that of male warriors.
After she left the Savage God’s Pool, the burnt skin of her legs began to heal at a speed visible to the eye. Shortly afterward, they became as flawless as the smooth surface of jade.
The insufferable pain disappeared and was replaced with a feeling akin to being immersed in Ice Crystals and milk, which gave her a comfortable feeling that was cool and refreshing.
“How could I recover so fast?” Lin Ningshan was surprised.
“It is the absorbed Power of Blood that helped you recover from the condition of an injury on your legs! Practice, right now. Try your best to refine the Power of Blood into your own power. Otherwise, all your previous cultivation effects will be greatly diminished,” said the minister.
Lin Ningshan sat with legs crossed at once and operated Genuine Qi to refine the Power of Blood that remained internally.
Xue Kai also quit an hour later and walked out of the Savage God’s Pool.
Four hours later, Xue Kai, Situ Linjiang, and the Fifth Prince quit almost at the same time.
The moment they walked out of the Savage God’s Pool, they began to sit with legs crossed in order to refine the Power of Blood.
Now, Zhang Ruochen was the only one that still practiced in the Savage God’s Pool. Furthermore, he was in the central area.
“Amazing! A half day has passed and he still practices in the central area. At that time, the Seventh Prince could only hold on for one day. Incredible!” The minister was visibly awed by this.
In the Yunwu Commandery, the Seventh Prince, who had opened the seventh-class Sacred Mark at the age of three, could be considered a rare genius, once in a blue moon. He had been using various treasure comprehension abilities to refine his body from childhood, which laid a solid foundation for Martial Arts practice. His talent and perception could be considered number one.
Could the Ninth Prince, who just opened the Sacred Mark at 16, be compared with him?
After transforming the remaining Power of Blood, Lin Ningshan, Xue Kai, Situ Linjiang, and the Fifth Prince all refined their physical quality, showing that they had benefited a lot from it.
No one left the Savage God’s Pool. All of them stood at the poolside and stared at Zhang Ruochen inside the pool.
“Why is there such a great difference between us, even though this is the first time here for all of us?” Situ Linjiang found it incredulous and frustrating.
He thought that his willpower was strong enough to bear the pain that ordinary people could not bear. But he could never think that there was such a huge gap between him and Zhang Ruochen.
One day later, Zhang Ruochen still firmly stood in the central area of Savage God’s Pool.
He did not walk out of the pool until the middle of the third day. Then, he sat with legs crossed in order to refine the remaining Power of Blood inside his body.
Zhang Ruochen slowly opened his eyes the moment that he finished the refinement, with a flash of blood flowing in his eyes and quickly retracting back into his pupils.
“My physical quality has indeed improved a lot. If so, I absolutely can open 19 or even 20 Meridians when making a breakthrough to reach the Medium State of the Yellow Realm,” Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
After the Year-end Assessment, Concubine Lin had moved back into the Jade Palace again.
The moment that Zhang Ruochen arrived in the Jade Palace, he took out 10 small jade bottles with Marrow-washing Liquid in them from the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel and put them in a line.
“It’s time for the Medium State of the Yellow Realm!”
He emptied a bottle of Marrow-washing Liquid into his mouth, and then Zhang Ruochen began to develop the 12th Meridian.
…
At that moment, the minister reached the queen’s palace to report everything that he had witnessed in the Savage God’s Pool.
“Bang!”
The white Genuine Qi from the queen’s five fingers broke the glass into pieces.
“That’s really something. He could practice in the central area of the Savage God’s Pool for two and half days? I never imagined that he was so highly gifted! But it’s a pity that he hasn’t realized that people like to shoot others down before they even stand up,” said the queen in a deep voice.
The minister mentioned, “Your Majesty, the Year-end Assessment just ended. Thus, should anything happen to the Ninth Prince, you would be suspected.”
The queen sneered, “Do you think that I’m stupid? We certainly can’t kill him in the palace. But once he leaves the palace, it’s none of my business if he dies out there.”
The minister replied, “Actually, no matter how high the Ninth Prince’s gifts are, he’s just at the cultivation of the Dawn State of the Yellow Realm, which could never compare with the Seventh Prince. Thus, it’s unknown whether he will fully develop in the future. Your Majesty, it’s not necessary…”
The queen interrupted the minister and said coldly, “Whoever may threaten my son must die! Since he has not become stronger, we must kill the Ninth Prince to prevent trouble later.”
