In the camp, Huang Quan, carrying Du Long, rushed out of the secret chamber, showing no signs of distress, as if he had just entered a boring corridor instead of a secret passage filled with mechanisms.
"Ho-how is this possible!!"
Seeing his carefully prepared secret chamber being breached by the opponent like this, Du Long's face was filled with disbelief.
This secret chamber was specifically built by him to trap and kill enemies stronger than himself; the potent poison and mechanisms inside cost him a lot, and the brick walls used for the secret chamber were made of special Materials. Even a Blood Transportation Warrior would absolutely not be able to break through it quickly and would eventually be injured by the mechanisms and trapped to death inside.
Originally, he wanted to trap and kill the powerful old man in front of him inside, but he didn't expect the opponent to come out like this, without suffering any damage.
"It seems you're not being honest. You're done playing games. Now, take me to find what I want, otherwise..."
Huang Quan slightly moved his neck, speaking indifferently, but when his gaze fell upon Du Long, whom he was holding, he was startled.
Because at this moment, Du Long's eyes were wide open, and streams of dark blood were flowing from his ears, nose, and mouth. He had his mouth wide open as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
Seeing this scene, Huang Quan immediately reacted.
"Damn it, don't you dare die on me like this..."
He lifted Du Long, trying to find a way to save him, but it was already too late. Du Long's body suddenly convulsed, and then the light in his eyes faded, clearly indicating that he had completely lost his life force.
Huang Quan's face darkened, and he threw Du Long's body away with a strong force, like a cannonball crashing into the camp wall nearby, collapsing several walls in succession before stopping, finally being completely buried by the ruins of the collapsed houses.
"Bah, how unlucky, wasting my time..."
Huang Quan quickly searched the camp but found nothing. In the end, he could only spit fiercely, cursing as he left.
...
On the official road, two carriages sped away.
"This time, we got over eight hundred taels of silver and three bottles of pills."
Lao Zhou and Wang Dehai reported the spoils from looting the bodies to Lin Sheng.
Taking the three bottles of pills and sniffing them lightly under his nose, Lin Sheng recognized them as just ordinary blood nourishment pills.
"Take the pills and divide them among yourselves. Remember to give a bottle to Xiao Shi."
He only kept the banknotes, giving the loose silver and pills to the others.
"Thank you, Gongzi!!"
Upon hearing this, Lao Zhou and the other man's faces lit up with joy, and they immediately bowed in salute.
Lin Sheng just waved his hand, his gaze, however, falling on the back of the carriage.
"There were quite a few of these bandits. This harvest is a bit small. It seems the bulk was taken by Huang Quan's old fellow. You wouldn't know how much that old fellow made this time."
As he muttered to himself, he quickly noticed a thin figure behind them, shooting out from the bushes. In just a few breaths, he reached the carriage. If it wasn't Huang Quan, who else could it be?
However, Huang Quan's expression was a bit grim at this moment, clearly indicating that the result was not good.
Lin Sheng didn't ask much, just nodded, and began to close his eyes and Cultivate.
Huang Quan's face was heavy, and he didn't say a word. Seeing his appearance, Lao Zhou and Wang Dehai didn't go up to invite trouble.
The sound of hurried hooves quickly receded, and before long, it disappeared into the night.
...
After an unknown amount of time, at the bandit camp on the mountainside, several bandits with terrified expressions ran up from the mountain, their steps hurried and chaotic.
"Hurry... hurry, that ghost thing is catching up!!"
The bandits shouted as they scrambled up the mountain peak, using both hands and feet.
These people were originally the bandits left behind in the camp. After learning that Du Long had encountered a tough opponent and was almost completely wiped out, they packed up the camp's valuables and scattered like birds and beasts. Unexpectedly, they hadn't left for long before encountering something even more terrifying.
Behind the few people, a ball of black mist was rapidly approaching. Within the mist, a large black python was faintly visible. The python's eyes were completely black, and it occasionally flicked its tongue, looking at the fleeing bandits without any emotion.
The next moment, a few wisps of black mist detached from its body and quickly moved towards the bandits, entering their bodies in just a few breaths.
The bandits' bodies immediately stiffened, and then they uncontrollably turned around and walked towards the black python.
Their eyes were wide with obvious extreme fear, yet their bodies uncontrollably walked downwards. Even though they used all their strength, it was useless, as if their bodies no longer belonged to them.
The bandits walked up to the giant python, and then their bodies shattered with a crash, turning into balls of blood mist, which then converged and were completely absorbed into the giant python's mouth.
The black mist surrounding the giant python's body visibly thickened slightly. Its python head turned, as if it had noticed something, and it turned its body, arriving in front of a ruin on the side of the camp in just a few breaths.
Its python tail lashed out and went directly into the ruins, quickly dragging out a broken corpse that had long since lost its life.
Although the corpse was broken, the muscles on its body were heavily knotted and extremely sturdy, clearly indicating an unusual root bone.
The owner of this corpse was none other than Du Long.
The black python coiled the corpse in front of it, seemingly sensing something carefully, but soon began its next action.
Black mist surged around the black python, then detached from its body and quickly drilled into Du Long's corpse through his ears, nose, and mouth.
After all the black mist had completely entered, the black python's body immediately shriveled and fell to the ground, breaking into several sections.
Meanwhile, Du Long's corpse hovered in mid-air. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. The pupils, which had lost their light, blinked and turned completely black.
His form steadily descended onto his body. The original broken wounds had completely healed as before. On the exposed skin, intricate black patterns appeared, intertwining with each other, like constantly wriggling black snakes.
'Du Long' simply moved his body. His initial movements were quite mechanical and slow, but soon they became fluid and natural, no different from a normal person.
Soon, he frowned slightly. The next moment, he opened his mouth and spat out a ball of foul-smelling black sewage.
Then he lowered his head and examined his body. Although his injuries had completely healed and the toxins had been cleared, he still didn't seem satisfied.
The black patterns on his muscles intertwined. The next instant, coin-sized black pores appeared on his skin, from which flowed wisps of black viscous liquid.
In just the blink of an eye, the black liquid hardened, forming a layer of fine black scales that almost covered his entire body.
Both of his arms also turned into black claws, and the inch-long claw tips glinted with a cold light, making it easy to imagine their sharpness.
At this moment, Du Long finally felt somewhat satisfied with his body. Then he scanned his surroundings, determined a direction, and leaped away, moving at extreme speed, covering dozens of meters in just the blink of an eye.
However, he didn't walk on two legs like a normal person while moving; instead, he moved on all fours, resembling a wild beast.
The next day, dawn broke.
"Almost there, we're almost at Linjiang Prefecture. It should take another two or three days."
In the carriage, Huang Quan's unpleasantness from yesterday had long since dissipated, and he had returned to his usual carefree demeanor.
"However, by afternoon, we should reach a town of considerable size, which is perfect. We can rest and recuperate in the town. I've used up quite a bit of seasoning these past few days, so it's time to restock."
He talked to himself, then turned back to look at Lin Sheng, who was sitting cross-legged practicing in the carriage, and pursed his lips.
"Lin Sheng, practice also needs to have its time. Constantly burying yourself in hard training isn't always a good thing, especially when you reach higher Realms. Many times, it's not just about physical root bone; the requirements for the mind are also quite high..."
"Mind?"
At this moment, Lin Sheng also emerged from his cultivation state.
Nowadays, he basically doesn't rest at night but relies on the Ape Embryo Skill's quiet practice to replace sleep. Although it cannot truly restore energy like sleep, with the endurance increase from the body integration effect, his energy is quite abundant, and even not sleeping for several days won't have any effect.
Hearing Huang Quan talk about the so-called 'mind' at this moment made him think of the spirit attribute on his panel, which he had never possessed before.
From the literal meaning, it's easy to understand 'spirit'; it's nothing more than a person's consciousness, thoughts, mental state, will, etc.
But since he had never possessed it, he couldn't be sure what the spirit attribute on the panel specifically represented.
Therefore, hearing Huang Quan's words stirred something in his heart, and he immediately asked directly.
"Elder Brother Huang, I wonder what you mean by the 'mind' and what it has to do with cultivation?"
"Mind? Why are you asking about that? That's still far away for you; it's not something you should be considering now."
Hearing Lin Sheng's words, Huang Quan was clearly a little surprised. Originally, he had just said it casually, but he didn't expect the other party to actually be interested.
Although he said it was still far away for the other party, seeing that he was interested, he shook his head and continued to speak.
"The Martial Dao Realms Body Tempering, Forging Tendons, and Blood Transportation are basically the stages of strengthening one's physical body. Body Tempering initially activates one's blood energy to merge with the body, Forging Tendons fully mobilizes the power of one's tendons and bones, and the Blood Transportation stage greatly strengthens one's blood energy and increases the degree of Fusion between blood energy, the body, tendons, and bones, erupting with strength far exceeding the Forging Tendons Realm."
"But the Bones Transformation and Divine Transformation Realm after Blood Transportation are different. Although they also have extremely high requirements for one's blood energy and root bone, the mind is also of utmost importance, especially the Divine Transformation Realm. If one's mental cultivation is not sufficient, hehe, let alone breaking through, they might directly suffer Qi Deviation and become insane."
At this point, Huang Quan paused, smacked his lips, as if his mouth felt empty. He took out his pipe, lit it, took a deep puff, and exhaled a large cloud of white smoke before continuing.
"Didn't I tell you before? For people without Bloodline Power, Blood Transportation is basically the end. Therefore, for the vast majority of ordinary people, Blood Transportation is their limit. That's why the subsequent Bone Transformation Realm is called Bones Transformation; it's about fundamentally changing one's bones and tendons, or to put it simply, one's root bone."
"Fundamentally changing one's root bone!?"
Lin Sheng's face showed surprise, but he quickly realized something.
"Changing one's root bone, you mean..."
"That's right, it's changing one's root bone, making one's root bone resemble those powerful exotic beasts."
Seemingly understanding what the other party was going to say, Huang Quan nodded in agreement before he could finish.
"However, it's not a complete replication of those exotic beasts. After all, the difference between humans and exotic beasts is too great. What I mean by 'resembling those powerful exotic beasts' is changing one's root bone to learn from the Innate advantages of those powerful exotic beasts."
"Compared to the Innate weakness of humans, those powerful exotic beasts are basically born strong. They don't need to Cultivate and can possess incredibly terrifying power after reaching adulthood. Through the observation and experimentation of countless predecessors, the physical structure of those powerful exotic beasts is inherently more adapted to this world and can extremely fully absorb the vitality of heaven and earth for their own use, thereby strengthening themselves."
Lin Sheng nodded slightly, as if he had understood something.
"So the Bone Transformation Realm is about changing one's root bone. Rather than saying it's about resembling exotic beasts, it should be said that it's about better absorbing the power of heaven and earth for one's own use."
"That's right, that's it. Indeed, talking to smart people saves effort." Huang Quan said with a smile and a nod.
"Since it's for better absorption of the vitality of heaven and earth, does it have to be by resembling exotic beasts, or can one forge their own path?" Lin Sheng asked back, as if he had thought of something.
"Of course you can, but it's impossible to do."
Huang Quan scoffed.
"The power of heaven and earth, how mysterious is it? How could it be so easy to comprehend? There have been many people with such thoughts throughout history, but without exception, they basically all died miserably."
"Resembling exotic beasts is because their internal structure is already existing and conforms to the rules. The fact that exotic beasts can live precisely shows that it is feasible. Therefore, cultivating in this direction, although there are still dangers, is much, much better than the former."
"Of course, nothing is absolute. There are indeed some rare successful examples of the former, but it was merely due to luck. Moreover, the Bone Transformation paths deduced are completely incomparable to the latter, and they cannot truly break through Bones Transformation. Even if they succeed by chance, they are just slightly stronger Blood Transportation Warriors."
The two chatted for over half an hour before stopping.
Lin Sheng felt greatly enlightened.
He had gained some understanding of the Realms above Blood Transportation.
"No wonder Bloodline Power is so important. With Bloodline Power, the difficulty of Bones Transformation will undoubtedly be greatly reduced."
"As for the so-called mind, it is used to suppress bestiality."
In the Bone Transformation Realm, when learning from those powerful exotic beasts, it can also make the cultivator's mind unstable, giving rise to evil thoughts and bestiality. Therefore, if the mind is unstable, at best the Breakthrough fails, and at worst, one suffers Qi Deviation, or even loses their humanity and turns into a half-human, half-beast monster.
"It seems the path of cultivation is far more difficult than I imagined."
Lin Sheng sighed in his heart, becoming even more curious about the spirit attribute in his attribute panel.
"I wonder when I can integrate the spirit attribute. I imagine the spirit attribute should provide a significant boost to the mind."
Soon, he suppressed the cluttered thoughts in his mind. The Bone Transformation Realm was still somewhat distant for him; it was better to first break through to Blood Transportation.