Li Fan suspended a jar of blood in midair and crushed it with a flick of his fingers.
The fierce aura of Kunpeng essence blood gushed out, writhing as if alive, inching outward with an unsettling vitality.
With a wave of his hand, Li Fan encapsulated the blood within the boundaries of his cave heaven domain and began to analyze and comprehend its properties carefully.
The purpose of this study was clear: to replicate the three divine abilities that Ye Feipeng had demonstrated in his previous life—Kun Devour, Peng Flight, and Bloodline Transmission.
Among these, Kun Devour had become almost irrelevant to Li Fan since he acquired the Five Elements Cave Heaven. Peng Flight, however, offered a form of escape technique worth adapting.
The most critical ability, and the one Li Fan urgently sought to master, was undoubtedly Bloodline Transmission.
This ancient beast-originated technique allowed the wielder to imbue their own essence blood into others, subtly influencing and eventually altering their thoughts.
Over time, this transformation would turn the recipient into a loyal subordinate who would unwaveringly serve the master of the essence blood.
In his previous life, Ye Feipeng, who initially loathed his demonic beast bloodline, had eventually grown proud of his Kunpeng heritage. His disdainful term “demonic beast” had gradually morphed into the reverent “sacred beast.”
For now, Li Fan had managed to temporarily subdue individuals like He Zhenghao and Gao Yuan through coercion and persuasion. But managing a large number of people this way posed significant risks.
The disciples of the Medicine King Sect, who were familiar with each other, would be even harder to control without direct measures. Li Fan needed them primarily for refining pills and occasionally as combatants. Watching them constantly wasn’t feasible.
Without a method to enforce his control, he couldn’t fully trust them.
Thus, mastering ‘Bloodline Transmission’ became a necessity.
Under his meticulous observation, every particle of Kunpeng essence blood seemed to possess its own consciousness, emitting sharp, unsettling cries that made Li Fan frown.
Extracting a single droplet, he absorbed it into his body through his fingertip, closely monitoring how it transformed his physical being.
As soon as the Kunpeng essence blood made contact with his flesh, the sharp sounds abruptly ceased.
The blood became eerily silent as tiny tendrils extended deep into his tissues, anchoring themselves like parasites.
Scarlet flashes of light pulsed along the tendrils, siphoning energy from his flesh into the essence blood.
Moments later, the essence blood began to bubble as though boiling, undergoing a self-evolution.
In no time, it mimicked Li Fan’s own flesh so precisely that even he, the host, could barely discern the difference without close scrutiny.
Despite completing its transformation, the Kunpeng blood didn’t release its grip. Instead, it transmitted streams of dark red energy back into the attached flesh, initiating an enigmatic transformation.
To Li Fan’s astonishment, the altered tissues sprouted their own tendrils, attacking adjacent unaltered flesh like predators.
“So, this is homomorphic evolution…”
Li Fan murmured thoughtfully. Harnessing the power of his cavernous domain, he obliterated the corrupted tissues and the original Kunpeng essence blood in a burst of ash. ṟΝÖＢĚS̈
The abrupt loss of a portion of his body caused his face to flush, but he recovered almost instantly.
“The indestructibility of the cave heaven makes a cultivator nearly immortal. This new method truly excels in such aspects. If this were an ancient Nascent Soul cultivator, recovering from such damage would be far more challenging,” Li Fan remarked with mild admiration.
After recovering, he absorbed another batch of Kunpeng essence blood and consumed a comprehension pill to delve deeper into the Bloodline Transmission process.
Time after time, he purged the corrupted flesh, then resumed his analysis, repeating the cycle.
Finally, when the room was nearly empty of essence blood, with only one jar remaining, Li Fan halted his efforts.
A glimmer of insight flashed in his eyes as he pondered.
“It seems that the process by which Kunpeng essence blood transforms the body mirrors the methods of the new cultivation system. Both extract and analyze a portion of the target, then mimic and replace it with an overwhelming proliferation of the substitute.”
“Ultimately, they achieve dominance by substituting the original entirely.”
With a single thought, Li Fan took out a slumbering Foundation Establishment stage cultivator of the Medicine King Sect from the Medicine King True Cauldron.
He extracted a drop of his own essence blood, wrapped it in spiritual energy, and slowly infused it into the cultivator’s body.
The cultivator instantly awoke in shock, but they were firmly restrained by the “Binding Insect” divine ability, unable to move.
The cultivator stared at Li Fan in panic, struggling violently yet futilely.
Li Fan, however, remained unfazed, focusing intently on manipulating his drop of essence blood.
At first, the infiltration process went smoothly.
The essence blood expanded its influence, quickly occupying most of the space within the cultivator’s body.
However, something must have been exposed.
The cultivator’s body began rejecting the parts controlled by Li Fan’s blood, causing violent convulsions and uncontrollable spasms. They coughed up mouthfuls of fresh blood before succumbing to death in a short time.
“Apologies,” Li Fan said flatly.
With that, he raised his head and looked to the sky.
The clouds were light, the wind calm—there were no unusual phenomena.
“It seems the heavens have no objections to you old-school cultivators,” Li Fan muttered.
He then selected another Medicine King Sect cultivator and resumed his experiments.
…
Seven days later.
After yet another failure, Li Fan paused for a moment.
“I’ve been too hasty,” he reflected.
“Expanding too quickly triggers the body’s natural backlash.”
…
“If I treat the target cultivator as a complete world, then my drop of essence blood is equivalent to a cultivator practicing the new path of cultivation.”
“I may not possess the Kunpeng divine abilities, but surely I can progress step by step.”
Suddenly, Li Fan seemed to have an epiphany.
This experiment was notably longer than the previous ones.
Li Fan also exhausted a great deal of mental energy.
However, the results were gratifying.
The “lucky subject” remained entirely unaware of the changes happening within their body, sleeping soundly and peacefully.
Yet Li Fan could sense a subtle, wondrous connection between himself and the subject.
It wasn’t as controllable as a clone, which could act as an extension of one’s limbs.
Instead, he could clearly perceive the state of the subject’s body and even vaguely sense fleeting thoughts crossing their mind.
Li Fan glanced at the system panel.
Sure enough, a new divine ability called “Bloodline Transmission” had appeared on the list.
Strangely, Li Fan did not seem particularly excited.
During the process of comprehending Bloodline Transmission, he had faintly sensed certain truths.
He recalled a fleeting inspiration he had experienced before—a revelation that had been forcibly erased from his memory.
If the “lucky subject” before him were to represent the Xuanhuang Realm,
And the cultivators of the new path of cultivation were the “mutated essence blood” subtly transforming the Xuanhuang Realm,
Then…
What role does the fabled Immortal Ancestor play in all of this?