Chapter Thirty-Five: Blood and Spirit Rising Like Wolf Smoke
“This can’t go on. Back then, I should have hidden inside the corpse of a demon beast—it would have at least concealed my presence.”
Now, out in the open, wherever he went, countless wandering spirits swarmed around him, eyes fixed hungrily, eager to tear him limb from limb.
Baili Feihong’s heart sank to the depths.
He glanced at the Book of Skills.
Determination settled within him.
Only this method could carve out a chance.
Behind him, a sharp, chilling, sinister aura followed close.
Baili Feihong did not slow his pace.
At this point, he had only one path left—to advance the Blood Essence Technique, to elevate his Blood Refinement realm.
It had come to this—he had no choice but to temper his blood essence, to gain more vital energy.
Martial vital energy was the nemesis of ghosts.
Of course, it would also draw even stronger vengeful spirits to encircle and hunt him.
Two legs would never outrun four.
A squad of ghostly soldiers approached, riding clouds of mist.
In an instant, they surrounded him.
“Advance Blood Essence Technique.”
Baili Feihong chose to allocate points without hesitation.
The Blood Essence Technique displayed within the Book of Skills began to shift.
“Blood Essence Technique has reached its peak and cannot be upgraded. Entering deduction mode.”
“Deduction of Blood Essence Technique successful. 20 skill points deducted.”
“Blood Refinement Essence Art: Initiate (0/10000).”
“Upgrade Blood Refinement Essence Art!!”
The deduction of twenty skill points caused Baili Feihong acute pain.
He even felt the urge to punch something.
It would have been better to simply assign points and raise his Blood Refinement realm.
“Blood Refinement Essence Art upgrade successful. 10 skill points deducted. Upgraded to Proficient.”
A terrifying surge of blood energy was born within him; his blood boiled.
Blood, refined and thick as mercury, began to shine, as if touched with a trace of brilliance and profundity.
His body expelled vast amounts of impurities.
He was drenched in a sour, rancid stench.
At the same time, Baili Feihong seemed to enter a wondrous state.
His blood coursed through every limb and bone, seeping into every part of him.
Bones, meridians, apertures, organs—all absorbed the new blood essence.
The vital energy within him surged, his blood so hot it felt like magma.
The first tempering of the Blood Refinement realm was complete.
His blood, now akin to a potent elixir, nourished every cell.
Baili Feihong’s strength soared higher and higher.
He knew: this first tempering had not yet reached its peak. He could refine more essence, transform it into vital energy, convert it into blood essence, and continuously fortify himself.
Now, he seemed to command power beyond mortal limits.
He looked up once more at the ghostly soldiers.
His vital energy transformed into a river of blood; the blood-sea blade in his hand rose high.
“Kill!!”
The leader of the ghostly soldiers likewise sensed the overwhelming vital energy emanating from this human.
Without hesitation, the eighteen riders charged, their ghostly spears stabbing toward Baili Feihong with chilling force.
Baili Feihong’s lips curled in a cold smile. The long blade in his hand became a river of blood; the surging current smashed through a ghostly soldier in an unstoppable torrent. The terrifying vital energy ignited the ghostly aura on the soldier’s body.
In an instant, raging flames consumed him, reducing him to ash.
Terror spread outward.
“Vital energy like a river!!”
Within a hundred feet, the world became a furnace.
A river of pure, masculine vital energy engulfed the seventeen remaining soldiers.
“Blood River Slash!!”
As the blood-sea blade swept down, the river of blood became a blade, slashing at the seventeen ghostly soldiers.
The mist in the air was torn apart.
The seventeen fell beneath the blade’s surging energy, incinerated to nothing.
“Not bad—three skill points per soldier.”
Baili Feihong’s skill points now totaled seventy-three.
“Advance Blood Refinement Essence Art!”
“Deducting 20 skill points. Blood Refinement Essence Art upgraded to Mastery!!!”
A surge of potent energy flooded Baili Feihong’s body.
At the same time, countless moments of cultivating the Blood Refinement Essence Art flashed through his mind.
For this new martial art, Baili Feihong felt as if he had spent decades immersed in its study, only now attaining his current mastery.
His vital energy, ferocious and wild, could no longer be contained by his will.
It erupted like a wolf-smoke beacon, piercing through the evil mist, casting a stark light in all directions.
Countless wandering souls that lingered illicitly nearby were ignited; the surrounding ghost street was enveloped in vital energy, as if engulfed in wildfire.
In an instant, half the ghost street was reduced to ashes.
The Book of Skills kept chiming with new information.
“Killed a wandering spirit, gained +1 skill point!”
“Killed an evil spirit, gained +1 skill point!!!”
...
The notifications came so quickly that Baili Feihong was stunned.
He had spent ages figuring out how to gain skill points.
Had even risked his life fighting demon beasts for a single skill point.
And now—good heavens.
Vital energy like wolf-smoke shrouded the area, burning a swathe of pitifully weak evil spirits to death.
Yet in return, he reaped a vast harvest of skill points.
“So as long as the conditions are met, the minimum skill point gain is +1, is it?”
At this, the fear in Baili Feihong’s heart vanished.
This was the true way to use the Book of Skills.
This was the proper use of a golden finger.
Who cared about grinding for experience? Let the ghosts have it.
Isn’t upgrading with skill points far better?
The wandering souls in Mount Dali were piled high as mountains.
With the peak power of a double-tempered Blood Refinement realm, not to mention evil spirits—even ordinary mortals caught within his vital energy’s blaze would be incinerated.
“Advance Blood Refinement Essence Art!”
Baili Feihong looked up at the area now cleansed of evil mist.
The ghost street was destroyed.
Countless wandering souls fled in panic.
Baili Feihong realized that at his current mastery of the Blood Refinement Essence Art, he could not yet control his vital energy.
At this moment, he was a colossal target.
He had become a thorn in the side of every vengeful spirit in Mount Dali.
“Deducting 40 skill points. Blood Refinement Essence Art successfully upgraded to Perfection.”
A glance revealed his skill points had crossed into triple digits.
He could feel his body growing ever stronger.
Hundreds of thousands of cultivation experiences crashed through his mind; countless insights surged up.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Baili Feihong upgraded his martial art again.
“Book of Skills, upgrade Blood Refinement Essence Art.”
“Deducting 160 skill points. Blood Refinement Essence Art successfully upgraded to Pinnacle.”
This time, even Baili Feihong was stunned.
The deduction was enormous—he had expected only eighty points.
The Book of Skills truly played by its own rules.
Suddenly, searing pain erupted from every cell in his body.
He felt as if he were being burned alive.
His body began to shrink.
Vast amounts of water evaporated from him.
An ordinary person would have died instantly in such a state.
Yet the energy from the Book of Skills protected him.
His head rang with a thunderous roar, as if exploding.
Vital energy shot through the clouds.
A mysterious region at his brow was blasted open by the surge.
His body, battered by this strange force, no longer felt like his own—he was being tempered in a furnace, like the Monkey King in the alchemical cauldron of the Supreme Elder.
Several minutes passed before the ordeal ended.
“Fourfold Blood Refinement.”
His vital energy was now as vast as the four seas.
His blood reached the ultimate degree of refinement.
No member of the Demon Suppression Division in Dongbin City had ever achieved the fourth tempering of blood.
Combined with his Nine-Blood Martial Master level, focusing on the cultivation of vital energy and blood, he had now refined mortal blood five times.
The division's Blood General, its guardian, had once pushed the Blood Refinement realm to inhuman levels.
To pursue this path to its end.
If one were to achieve fourfold Blood Refinement by traditional cultivation, the resources consumed would far outstrip even those for reaching the Spirit Refinement level.
Book of Skills:
Owner: Baili Feihong
Martial Realm: Blood Refinement (Divine Blood Refinement, fourfold tempering)
Skill Points: 586 (skills can be upgraded, synthesized, or deduced)
Skill 1: Culinary Arts, Proficient (EXP: 128/400)
Skill 2: Four Seas Fist, Pinnacle (can be upgraded with five skill points)
Skill 3: Blood River Blade Technique (four incomplete moves), Pinnacle (skill points can be used to complete, deduce, or synthesize)
Skill 4: Blood Refinement Essence Art, Pinnacle (skill points can be used to upgrade, deduce, or synthesize)
Most importantly, he still possessed several hundred skill points.
“How many skill points are needed to deduce the Blood Refinement Essence Art?”
“To deduce Blood Refinement Essence Art requires 500 skill points. Proceed with deduction?”
“Decline!!!”