Outside the City Lord's main hall.
Heavy footsteps sounded, and the next moment, the hall door was pushed open.
As the warm sunlight poured in, illuminating the dim hall, it became much brighter.
Lu Chuan, clad in heavy armor, his gaze fell upon the sturdy figure sitting cross-legged in the hall, his eyes slightly narrowed as if he had noticed something.
"What is it? Have those rats made any more small moves?"
Without minding the other party's sudden intrusion, Gongsun Yuanzhou stretched his neck and slowly rose.
"There have been some movements, and the disturbance is not small. I fear the two of us might not be able to handle it."
Lu Chuan frowned slightly and spoke indifferently.
"Should we slow down our actions? The commotion has been too big recently; it's easy to play with fire and get burned."
Since Zhou Xingwen and the other died, and Tiannan Prefecture was controlled by the other party.
The Beast Suppression Army's recruitment methods have become more stringent and reckless.
Since he returned, in just a few days, they have consecutively raided several medium-sized forces in the city.
Such ruthless, decisive, and unreasonable methods made even him feel a bit startled.
Such actions completely disregard the thoughts of the local forces in Tiannan Prefecture.
Coupled with some information transmitted by the hidden agents, it was enough to make him unable to sit still.
"Oh? Heh heh, it doesn't matter. The bigger the commotion, the better. The world is vast, is there any land that isn't the King's land? Before, I could still let these parasites cling to the big tree and suck blood, but now that I have free hands, there's no need to keep these fellows anymore."
There wasn't the slightest trace of surprise on Gongsun Yuanzhou's face. Stretching his strong body, he spoke lazily.
"With Prince Yan here, even South Qi may not be able to resist. Sweeping clear the world and unifying the six directions is merely a matter of time."
Speaking of this, a fierce look appeared in his eyes, and his gaze fell on Lu Chuan.
"The front line has sent word to me to assemble the Beast Suppression Army. Therefore, the matters concerning the Beast Suppression Army must not only not stop, but rather speed up efficiency. This time, you will directly lead the team to clear out and bring back all those parasites in the city."
Saying this, he paused slightly.
"As for those rats in the dark, just let them come. It will just fill the gap in the Beast Suppression Army's high-end combat power. Having more test subjects is also a good thing. Go down."
After speaking, Gongsun Yuanzhou waved his hand without giving Lu Chuan another chance to speak, having lost interest in saying more.
"Gongsun..."
Seeing this, Lu Chuan frowned slightly, opened his mouth, and just as he was about to say something more, he felt a powerful aura emanating from the other party.
Immediately, his expression changed slightly, and a look of understanding appeared on his face. He stopped talking nonsense and turned to leave.
Bang—
As the heavy hall door closed, the hall returned to calmness once more.
*
*
In the bamboo forest.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes. At this moment, his face held a hint of surprise.
"There was no reaction!?"
He looked at his skin, which had not changed at all, and frowned slightly.
He had spent the entire day cultivating according to the method of the first layer of Heavenly Serpent Bone Exchange.
The cultivation of the first layer can be divided into two stages.
The first is to use a special Qi Circulation and Blood Transportation method to mobilize one's Qi and blood, causing one's Qi and blood to complete a rather strange cycle.
The second stage is to ingest a large amount of special medicine after completing this strange Qi and blood cycle, causing the Qi and blood to undergo some kind of change, thereby causing oneself to undergo a molting-like situation similar to a snake shedding its skin.
In his opinion, the most difficult part of cultivating the first layer of Yi Pi is naturally the second stage.
He just didn't expect that cultivating the first layer for an entire day would have little effect, or to be precise, no reaction at all.
This situation greatly exceeded his expectations.
"It should be because my Bloodline potential is too low."
After a moment of thought, he came to a conclusion in his heart. After all, those who can cultivate this secret technique are basically dragons among men, rare geniuses, whose Bloodline potential far exceeds that of ordinary people. Otherwise, they wouldn't have the courage to challenge this secret technique with extremely high difficulty.
As for his own Bloodline potential, he naturally knew it best. It was just like that of ordinary people, extremely weak.
Thinking of this, a self-mocking smile couldn't help but appear on his face.
"It seems that I should be the first person to cultivate this secret technique with such Bloodline potential."
After a wry smile, there was no hint of discouragement in Lin Sheng's heart.
He knew his Bloodline potential was low, but he didn't expect it to be this low.
However, the reason he had come this far was not because of his Bloodline potential. After adjusting his mood, he took out the Heavenly Serpent Bone Exchange book again and carefully read it.
Besides the introduction to the Qi Circulation method at the beginning, the following volumes of this secret technique are mostly illustrations, with a very simple drawing style. There are seven illustrations for the first layer of the Realm.
Out of these 7 illustrations, besides two that depict humans, the remaining 5 describe snakes.
Because these illustrations involve the second stage of the first layer of Yi Pi, he didn't pay much attention at first, but now it seems quite unusual.
Although the drawing style is simple, the content described is quite detailed.
Especially, the illustrations actually depicted the complete blood vessels and muscle meridians of snakes.
"Snakes are like water, mimicking a hundred forms, without a fixed shape..."
Carefully contemplating the descriptions in the illustrations, a thoughtful expression appeared on Lin Sheng's face. Later, his eyes even gleamed, and a look of shock appeared on his face.
These illustrations dissected the snake as a creature extremely thoroughly, and even the last two drawings had already reached the cellular level.
It should be known that although there are martial arts and demon beasts in the current world, it is still an ancient world.
There is no modern technology like in his previous life, and much knowledge from the modern world is unimaginable in this world.
"I didn't expect that someone in this world could achieve this level..."
As Lin Sheng murmured, through the content described in these illustrations, he gained a deeper understanding of the Yi Pi Realm.
"Yi Pi, Yi Pi, it is not just simply shedding a layer of skin. Rather, it is through this molting method that Impurities and waste are expelled from the body. This situation is very similar to the cleansing of essence and marrow during the Breakthroughs of Forging Tendons and Blood Transportation, but the effects of the two are clearly incomparable."
It should be known that one is only qualified to cultivate this secret technique after stepping into the Bone Transformation Realm.
And a Martial Artist who has stepped into the Bone Transformation Realm, their physical body has already reached a state of Perfection. Not only have they completed the cleansing of tendons and marrow, but it is also a change in life form, with a great degree of improvement in all aspects of quality.
And the effect of Yi Pi is to further cleanse the tendons and marrow on this basis.
Especially during the process of molting, all the countless chaotic Bloodlines hidden within the body are dissolved and converted into pure energy to be supplied to the main Bloodline. While cleansing the meridians and marrow, it also changes the Bloodline potential. This is its principle.
"Since Yi Pi is performed through deep-level simulation of snakes, it might not be impossible to use indwelling Spirit Beasts to solve it, and the effect might even be better."
This thought flashed through Lin Sheng's mind, and he immediately switched his indwelling Spirit Beast.
He had quite a few snake-type Spirit Beasts indwelling. Although there were no snake-type Spirit Beasts of the High Level Spirit Beast rank, there were Elementary Level Spirit Beasts.
Indwelling Mystic Dark Yin Python, Black Crystal Ghost Snake.
With a thought, he had already indwelled two Elementary Level snake-type Spirit Beasts.
As the indwelling finished, his entire aura also became a bit colder. Without paying attention to this, he closed his eyes and concentrated, starting to attempt to mobilize his Qi and blood again to complete the Qi and blood cycle.
And this time, the situation was indeed greatly different from before.
The Qi and blood trajectory that was previously difficult to form no matter how he mobilized it, this time already had a bit more sense of control.
Feeling this change, Lin Sheng was overjoyed. His body immediately leaped up from the large stone, and he kept striking strange poses, moving and flashing like a large python.
On one side of the bamboo forest, over a hundred meters away from where Lin Sheng was.
On a thick green bamboo, Little Black opened its eyes and looked at Lin Sheng, who was constantly making strange movements not far away, with some confusion.
At this moment, it only felt like its master had turned into the spicy strip it loved to eat.
It blinked its eyes, and quickly shrank its neck.
Although it didn't know what Lin Sheng was doing, it didn't care.
It turned its head, its gaze passing through the dense bamboo forest to land on the earth-yellow shadow darting around in the forest a few hundred meters away. The next moment, it flapped its wings and shot over.
It's better to wait and play with the silly dog.
Time was lost in this cultivation until the sun set in the west and the sky gradually darkened, only then did Lin Sheng stop his movements and withdraw his mind from cultivation.
At this moment, he just woke up, not expecting this cultivation session to last for several hours.
Feeling the Qi and blood trajectory within his body, after indwelling a snake-type Spirit Beast, the cultivation of the Yi Pi stage already had good efficiency.
Now, the Qi and blood trajectory within his body already had a simple Prototype, but it was still far from completing the entire major Qi and blood cycle.
He estimated in his heart that if he continued at this efficiency, completing the major Qi and blood cycle would probably take over three months.
This efficiency could be considered quite good, but Lin Sheng was still somewhat dissatisfied in his heart.
After all, this was only the first stage of Yi Pi, and it required such a long time. Then the time needed to perfect Yi Pi would be even longer.
"It seems I need to find a few more high-level snake-type Spirit Beasts. That should greatly shorten the cultivation efficiency."
This thought flashed through his mind. Suddenly, his body paused, and an idea suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Although Yi Pi is a method created by imitating snake molting, it doesn't necessarily have to be just snakes. Pythons and boas can also be used. If that's the case, then dragons might also be applicable."
And coincidentally, among the Spirit Beasts he currently had indwelling, the most powerful were dragon-type Spirit Beasts, and they were genuine demon beasts.
Given the formidable power of the Scarlet Eye Flame Dragon, if it is truly applicable to the Yi Pi Realm, then it will definitely greatly improve cultivation efficiency.
Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated. He silently chanted, and the Scarlet Eye Flame Dragon had successfully indwelled.
At the same time, he immediately began to continue simulating the Qi and blood trajectory to complete the Qi and blood cycle.
And this time, as the cultivation method operated, he clearly felt the difference compared to before.
The Qi and blood within the body that needs to be mobilized in the Yi Pi Realm is not ordinary Qi and blood, but blood hidden deep within the bones, meridians, and muscles. This is a part that ordinary cultivation methods find difficult to access, so it is extremely difficult to control. The secret technique calls it 'waste blood'.
Before indwelling the Scarlet Eye Flame Dragon, although he could successfully draw out the waste blood in his body, it was quite strenuous and the efficiency was not high. Therefore, according to his estimation, it might take several months.
But now, after indwelling the Scarlet Eye Flame Dragon, mobilizing the waste blood in his body again was much easier than before.
In just the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the amount of waste blood he had mobilized was already comparable to the amount from several hours before.
At this moment, the Qi and blood trajectory that had initially formed a Prototype was visibly fuller.
Soon, he withdrew from the cultivation state, his face full of joy.
"It really works! Snake Jiao transforming into a dragon, after indwelling the Scarlet Eye Flame Dragon, the cultivation efficiency has almost qualitatively improved. At this rate, I'm afraid it won't be long before I can complete the first stage of the major Qi and blood cycle."
Although he was overjoyed, he did not continue cultivating. Instead, he planned to rest properly, because after a day of arduous cultivation, he felt a sense of fatigue at this moment.
This affects both the body and the spirit. Mobilizing the hidden waste blood in his body consumed more physical strength than he had imagined, and the drain on his spirit was also significant.
Although the loss of physical strength was nothing with his physique, the drain on his spirit could not be ignored.
At this moment, the feeling of spiritual fatigue kept coming. If he continued to cultivate, his efficiency would also be affected. It would be better to rest properly.
Although the current cultivation of the Heavenly Serpent Bone Exchange secret technique has been smoother than expected, he does not underestimate this secret technique in the slightest.
Because once the major Qi and blood cycle is formed, this secret technique cannot be stopped. It must be cultivated all the way to completion, otherwise, he will suffer a backlash.
Besides the extreme danger during cultivation, the secret technique's backlash is the key reason why countless geniuses have fallen under this method.
Once the Qi and blood cycle is completed, there is no turning back. It's either success or death, fully demonstrating the domineering and ruthless nature of this secret technique.
He picked up a goat beast that Little Black had dropped from the ground beside him and quickly skinned and processed it.
A light smile appeared on his face.
"If even I cannot cultivate this Heavenly Serpent Bone Exchange to completion, then who can!?"
Reward and risk are often directly proportional. With such a high-difficulty secret technique, the effect after successful cultivation should not be disappointing.
"Let me see what kind of wondrous effects this secret technique has."
While muttering to himself, flames had already risen, and before long, the aroma of roasted meat filled the bamboo forest.
*
*
Baiyun Temple.
At this moment, Baiyun Temple was much more desolate than before.
In the large Taoist temple, only a few very old Taoists remained. The originally neat temple courtyard was now covered with fallen leaves.
Outside the Taoist temple, three figures looked at the even more dilapidated temple.
"This outpost has been completely abandoned. Personnel and supplies have all been handled."
Among the few people, Huang Quan exhaled a smoke ring and was the first to speak.
"Having been here for several years, suddenly leaving, I do feel a bit reluctant."
Lan Man held a black umbrella, her fingers twirling a strand of hair, and spoke with some sighing.
"Yes, but the new outpost is good. People like us can't stay in one place forever. A person moves to live, a tree stays to die. People always have to change." The last to speak was the strong-bodied Jin Qianbao. Looking at Baiyun Temple, his words carried a hint of emotion.
"That's true. Lao Bao, I didn't expect you, a rough person, to be so sentimental." Huang Quan glanced at the other party and said with a chuckle.
"Is that so? I just spoke from feeling." Lao Bao replied with a smile.
"All right, the new outpost is handed over to you. Clean up the loose ends. Thousand Faces sister is already preparing to make a move. I'll take my leave first."
Lan Man suddenly spoke at this moment. As she spoke, she flicked her finger and sent a delicate iron box flying, which landed in Huang Quan's hand.
"This is something sent by that person. Remember to take it to the bamboo building."
After speaking, Lan Man said no more. Her figure flickered and disappeared.