Dyon sat, meditating with his eyes closed. He was used to quickly figuring out the solution to things, even when they were related to the complexities of the martial world. But, this seemed a bit different.
The truth was that Dyon had a possible solution already, two, even. The problem was that both would cause irreparable harm to himself. It wasn’t something to be done lightly. So, he had spent all of this time trying to think of other possible solutions.
He needed to get this Dragon Refining Arts tome to acknowledge his existence as being worthy of receiving its final 18 pages, but he was currently paying for the quick benefits he received from the Demon Sage.
All those years ago, he hadn’t hesitated to absorb outside sources of blood essence because his own cultivation talent was too poor to care about “overwriting”. The process of absorbing another’s blood essence was essentially like taking that person’s work as your own. What was even more troubling was the fact that Dyon’s past talent also masked the Demon Sage’s talent.
It was likely the universe’s way of punishing Dyon for taking short cuts. It was very rare for someone to receive the full blood essence of anyone near the power level of the Demon Sage, so much of the negative effects weren’t noticed by Dyon in the beginning. It was only now that he truly understood that cheating on the path to cultivation never came with perfect results.
As for the solutions Dyon had thought of, both required giving up blood essence.
The first was to pull blood essence from his new talent base and drip it onto the tome. The best-case scenario in this case was that it only took a single drop, the worst case was that it took even more…
The drawbacks to this were obvious. When one burned their blood essence in a life-threatening situation for a boost in cultivation, it could be recovered over time. This was because the blood essence would obviously be released within a closed environment and would be used to directly improve your own body. This meant with the proper pills and patience, it could slowly be retrieved.
That said, this process took a long time, and as is often the case, wouldn’t be perfect. If the pill grades used were too low, or the process of recollection didn’t occur quickly enough, blood essence could be permanently lost.
Unfortunately for the late Niveus Matriarch who died as a large result of burning her blood essence, she was too close to the end of her life to survive the hit her vitality took. This was why she practically sentenced herself to death the moment she burned hers.
However, by now, the difference between burning blood essence and removing a drop of it is clear. If Dyon did the latter, retrieving it would be impossible! This wasn’t the same as using a drop of blood to claim ownership of an item or sign a contract, this was no normal drop of blood.
If Dyon lost this drop of blood, his body cultivation talent would be permanently damaged. He didn’t know by how much because it likely depended on how many drops it would take for the tome to recognize him, but considering Dyon’s personality, he didn’t like the idea of taking any losses. He would rather spend the decades it would take to study dragon veins on his own before completing the technique, than give up his own talent.
Of course, if the originator of this technique heard Dyon estimate that it would only take him a few decades to recreate the technique, he or she would likely try and strangle the arrogant boy. For a technique like this, it wouldn’t be surprising if the creator was now a transcendent being who saw it as their life’s work. After all, most divine level technique originated from those who transcended, especially peak divine level techniques like this one.
The second possibility was less damaging to Dyon, but he was still unwilling. That was, of course, taking a drop of the Demon Sage’s blood essence that had yet to be integrated into himself.
The Demon Sage was highly lauded as one of the greatest body cultivators of all time, if not the very best. Dyon highly doubted that this tome would have the cheek to turn its nose up to that man. However, if Dyon did so, that would be a permanent portion of the Demon Sage’s blood essence he would no longer be able to absorb.
This might make Dyon seem a bit stingy, especially if the tome really did only require a single drop. But, he wasn’t entirely wrong here. Integrating past even 80% was labor intensive because every percent beyond that point was practically a heaven shattering change. If Dyon gave up a drop, that would be the equivalent of diving up a step or two towards that end.
One top of all of this, Dyon wasn’t in the business of kneeling down to techniques created by people who had long since left this world. If he wanted benefits, he would take them. Why would he ever give up something of himself to gain them?
Thinking to this point, Dyon threw out those two ideas. He knew that if it came down to it, he would use them as a final resort because this technique was a key piece to his plans for the future, but he wouldn’t do so until he exhausted all other avenues.