Tiannan Prefecture border.
Thud, thud, thud...
Heavy hoofbeats echoed from the mountain forest.
More than a dozen fierce beasts, large and strong, resembling leopards and horses, yet with two horns on their foreheads, quickly leveled out from the mountain forest. Even on the steep mountain terrain, their flesh hooves with sharp claws dug into the ground with every step, bursting forth with extreme speed.
These fierce beasts were called Flood Dragons and Leopards, genuine Elementary Level Spirit Beasts.
They were riding beasts artificially cultivated by the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect.
At this time, each Flood Dragon and Leopard carried heavy saddlebags on its back, and on either side of the Flood Dragons and Leopards followed dozens of figures in plain clothes, moving nimbly. At a glance, there were dozens of them, and each person emitted a quite powerful aura, clearly all accomplished martial arts experts.
"Sect Master, how are you?"
At the rear of the team, a grey-clothed old man looked at the figure sitting cross-legged on the back of a Flood Dragon and Leopard beside him with some concern.
"It's fine. With the Sect's Spirit Pills, the injuries are no longer a major issue. I'll be completely recovered in a few more days."
The figure slowly spoke, opening his eyes to reveal bloodshot pupils. It was none other than Wanjun, the Sect Master of the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect.
He looked at the team hurrying on their way, his eyes filled with sorrow and melancholy.
He had never expected that in just a few short days, the vast Ten Thousand Spirits Sect would come to such a end.
But soon, the sorrow in his eyes dissipated, replaced by determination.
"Don't worry, this is just a temporary measure. The inheritance of our Ten Thousand Spirits Sect will not be cut off. There will always be a chance to rise again in the future."
"Elder Kong, has there been any reply from the Ten Thousand Sects Alliance?" Wanjun looked at the Elder beside him, asking softly with some hope.
"Not yet. It might not have reached the alliance yet. There should be a reply soon..."
Elder Kong said with some hesitation.
Upon hearing this, disappointment appeared on Wanjun's face, but it quickly turned into a cold snort.
"It seems the Ten Thousand Sects Alliance is indeed no longer the Ten Thousand Sects Alliance of the past... Instruct them to speed up and leave Tiannan Prefecture as soon as possible."
"Yes, I'll go now."
Elder Kong turned around, just about to leave.
Roar—
The Flood Dragon and Leopard, working hard to hurry, suddenly stopped, letting out a low roar, pacing restlessly.
The low roar carried obvious fear, and it instinctively retreated backward.
In an instant, as if startled, it turned its body and ran down the mountain. Even though the members of the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect beside it shouted loudly, it did not respond at all.
"What's going on!?"
"Damn it, how did the Flood Dragon and Leopard lose control!?"
Shouts of scolding rang out. The members of the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect, seeing that their interest was useless, all grabbed the Flood Dragons and Leopards, trying to control them.
"What happened!?"
Elder Kong and Wanjun naturally noticed this scene. Even the Flood Dragon and Leopard under Wanjun was in a frenzy, trying to throw him off, but he directly stunned it with his True Yang Change.
Both of their faces also showed some surprise and suspicion.
The Flood Dragon and Leopard were fierce and violent. Although they were Elementary Level Spirit Beasts, they were not afraid of death. They dared to show their claws and teeth even when facing high-level Spirit Beasts. Even their Ten Thousand Spirits Sect could only successfully tame them because of their special Bloodline.
This was the first time Wanjun had seen a Flood Dragon and Leopard behave like this in so many years.
But soon, he understood the reason for all of this.
Puff, puff, puff—
The next moment, the surrounding ground directly shattered, and sticky, pitch-black tentacles grew wildly.
"This..."
Seeing this scene, Wanjun's eyes widened, and his face showed disbelief.
But soon, a large number of tentacles surged out. On the thick tentacles, black single eyes split open, staring fixedly at everyone.
"Run!!"
Without any hesitation, Wanjun spat out a word, and his figure had already darted backward.
Splatter—
However, he didn't run far. He only felt a pain in his chest. He lowered his head in disbelief and saw a tentacle as thick as a baby's arm already drilling out of his chest. A black single eye on the tentacle kept blinking.
From the tentacle, slender tendrils extended and drilled into Wanjun's skin, sucking.
In Wanjun's unwilling and painful wails, his figure withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, until he became a decayed dry corpse and fell to the ground.
A moment later, all the noise in the mountain forest disappeared, returning to dead silence. Only dry corpses were left on the spot.
The surging sticky tentacles kept pulsating, and finally gathered into a mass like liquid, forming a tall figure. The figure's head was covered with strange eyes. It was Gongsun Yuanzhou.
At this time, Gongsun Yuanzhou stretched out his body.
Slender tentacles, withdrawn from the dry corpses all over the ground, wrapped around wisps of rich blood and vitality. In the blink of an eye, all the vitality was swallowed, leaving only a blood mass significantly richer than the other blood and vitality, which fell into his palm.
This was a deep crimson sticky blood mass, faintly presenting a dragon shape in his palm.
A hint of greed appeared in Gongsun Yuanzhou's eyes. He swallowed it in one gulp, then closed his eyes, a look of enjoyment on his face.
After a while, he opened his eyes again and let out a low roar towards the sky.
The roar was like a dragon and a lizard, causing all the beasts in the entire mountain forest to lie prostrate on the ground, trembling incessantly.
...
Water Dragon Mountain.
In a deep mountain cave, Lin Sheng sat cross-legged. The cave was dark and lightless, with only intermittent low roars suppressed to the extreme, as if enduring some immense pain.
Rip...
Along with the low growls, the sound of tearing flesh, which made one's teeth ache, suddenly sounded.
And this was just the beginning. The tearing sound continued intermittently without stopping. As time passed, several hours went by.
Not only did the tearing sound not stop, but its frequency and intensity became even more intense than before.
It wasn't until dusk the next day that the tearing and low roars showed a tendency to weaken.
In the mountain cave, Lin Sheng's eyes were tightly closed, his face filled with pain and distortion. The intense pain made his expression ferocious.
At this moment, his entire body was completely in the True Yang Change state.
Although he was sitting cross-legged in the mountain cave, he was like a thick city wall, covered in red scales all over his body, emitting a wild and savage aura.
But at this moment, the red scales all over his body were shattered, and wisps of bright red blood flowed out from his flesh, almost dyeing the entire cave floor dark red.
"Break for me!"
His gilded vertical pupils were filled with rage. As the roar fell.
Crack—
The crisp sound of scales shattering rang out.
The tough and rough scales all over his body shattered like building blocks that had lost their support points, and blood-stained scales shattered all over the ground.
Exposing skin tissue covered with scars and holes.
But soon, the skin soaked red with blood began to become thin and stiff, and the blood adhering to it flowed back, surging into the flesh.
In just one incense stick's time, Lin Sheng's skin had become greyish-white and dull, without any divine light, like a decaying husk.
Only on his face, the gilded double pupils still emitted hints of fierce light, even more so than before.
The next moment, two large hands reached out from the decaying husk, directly tearing the husk apart.
A thin figure appeared within the husk.
"Yi Pi Realm, it's done..."
The gilded double pupils flashed and the divine light dissipated, returning to normal.
Lin Sheng moved his neck and stood up, firecracker-like explosions constantly sounding from his body.
At this moment, his figure had become leaner than before. Even after releasing the tissue compression of the True Yang Change, he was still extremely thin and slender.
Exhale...
He let out a heavy breath, a look of relief on his face.
After several days of high-intensity cultivation, he had swallowed more than half of that Devouring Heart Pill, finally meeting the requirements for transformation.
And although he was mentally prepared for this transformation, the pain and difficulty were even more demanding than he had imagined.
He considered himself a person of firm will, and his tolerance for pain had reached a very high level, but the pain of this transformation far exceeded all the pain he had endured.
It was as if he had swallowed the entire Devouring Heart Pill at once.
But in the end, he successfully crossed this threshold.
Immediately, he began to feel the condition of his body at this moment.
"Huh!? Why is there still no obvious change? No, not only is there no change, but there's even a hint of regression! How could this be!?"
After feeling the subtle changes in his body, Lin Sheng's eyebrows furrowed, almost forming a 'river' character.
To complete the transformation, he had spent several days cultivating hard, and took a great risk, enduring unimaginable pain. Only he knew the taste of it.
But the final result turned out to be so dramatic. How could he be reconciled to this?
He frowned, and in his mind flashed the changes that should appear after completing the first stage of the Heavenly Serpent Bone Exchange Secret Method.
The second stage of the Yi Pi Realm is to completely refine the large blood circulation condensed in the first stage, turning those chaotic Bloodlines into pure energy to nourish one's own Bloodline, thereby advancing one's own Bloodline further or several steps.
Thinking of this, he narrowed his eyes and immediately realized something.
Immediately, he suppressed the restlessness in his heart and concentrated on observing the situation in his body. He saw that the large blood circulation condensed in the first layer was still present at this moment. On the contrary, the blood circulation condensed before molting was more solid and pure, constantly circulating in his body.
"Indeed, although I successfully molted, I did not successfully refine these extracted miscellaneous Bloodlines."
Lin Sheng frowned, already realizing the problem in his heart. Obviously, the reason for this result was still his weak Bloodline potential.
Although there were many chaotic Bloodlines in his body, there was no main Bloodline that could suppress the others.
Therefore, when completing the large blood circulation of the first stage, he had completely extracted all the chaotic Bloodlines in his body. It could be said that there was no Bloodline in his body now.
Without the Bloodline of an exotic beast, no matter how abundant the energy condensed from his large blood circulation was, there was no object to nourish. Although he successfully molted, it was just further squeezing his own flesh.
This caused the current situation where his strength did not increase, but his physical fitness in all aspects declined to a certain extent.
"Damn..."
Even with his good temper, he couldn't help but let out a vulgarity.
This feeling was like spending a lot of effort to stew a pot of high-quality fatty meat, but not only did he not get a bite, he ended up with a hand full of blisters.
Feeling the blood circulation still constantly circulating in his body, a fierce look appeared on his face.
"Cannot fuse without Bloodline Power!? Then I will force you to fuse!!"
The fierce look flashed and disappeared. Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes, his mind completely immersed in his body.
Under his deliberate suppression, the blood circulation constantly circulating in his body became slower and slower, until it finally stopped completely.
Then, the extremely pure blood and vitality seemed to be held by a large hand, forcefully stuffing it into the meridians and flesh, as if wanting to directly stuff it into the flesh.
Lin Sheng's idea was very simple. Since there was no Bloodline potential and it couldn't fuse on its own, then he would just stuff it back into his body.
Bloodline potential all comes from ancient powerful exotic beasts. If the Bloodlines of those ancient exotic beasts can be used as Bloodline potential, then why can't my own!?"
This was what he thought in his heart. At this moment, there was no exotic beast Bloodline in his body, only pure self Bloodline.
Regardless, this power painstakingly condensed could not be wasted.
However, the situation was not as simple as imagined. Even though he deliberately controlled this blood and vitality energy to force it to fuse with his own flesh, this blood and vitality energy showed a very strong resistance, seemingly extremely repelled.
Lin Sheng's expression did not change, but he continued to increase his strength. Under his strong external pressure, this blood and vitality energy kept deforming, and at this moment, several lumps were clearly protruding from Lin Sheng's body in the mountain cave. As his strength increased, the degree of protrusion became more obvious.
Even in the end, blood spots appeared on his skin, as if if he continued, his skin might be stretched and torn.
Feeling this situation, Lin Sheng had to stop.
With his Physique, this kind of injury was naturally insignificant, but the fear was that even if his skin burst, he might not be able to integrate this blood and vitality energy into his flesh.
As his suppressing force dissipated, the blood and vitality energy in his body quickly circulated again, restoring the blood circulation.
Seeing this scene, Lin Sheng fell into contemplation, and soon had a plan in his heart.
"Since it cannot be directly absorbed, then..."
As he muttered to himself, he had already immersed his mind in his body again. This time, he did not choose to directly suppress the entire blood circulation, but instead peeled off a small portion of blood and vitality power from the blood circulation.
After this mass of blood and vitality energy was peeled off by him, it was placed in his Dantian and began to be squeezed. Under the pressure of powerful force, this small mass of blood and vitality energy began to constantly deform and twist.
Despite this, this small mass of blood and vitality energy did not show any signs of further damage.
"True Yang Change!"
Lin Sheng's face was expressionless, and he directly activated the True Yang Change.
The True Yang Change itself was created by compressing the meridians and flesh.
After activating it at this moment, his already solid body was further compressed.
The power erupting from his Dantian instantly doubled or tripled.
This time, this red agate-like blood and vitality energy was squeezed to the extreme and finally completely shattered.
Lin Sheng followed suit, continuing to compress the shattered blood and vitality energy until it became purer, only then did he stop.
With a thought, he guided these shattered blood and vitality energy to integrate into his flesh.
This time, there was still a strong repulsion between the two, but it was significantly weakened compared to the first attempt.
In the mountain cave, Lin Sheng's eyes flashed with brilliance.
"Fuse for me!"
This time, the fragmented blood and vitality energy was finally directly forced into the flesh.