Chapter 267: Absorbing Elemental Energy

This was an extremely rare energy existing between heaven and earth. If merged into the human body, it played a vital role in advancing the Blood Martial Realm.

Moreover, it served as the optimal medium for cultivating the Soul Domain Avatar. Yet ordinary cultivators’ Constitutions couldn’t withstand it – forced merging would equate to suicide.

Cheng Lingyu had long considered the blood river’s intense blood energy. If harnessed as a vessel for the Soul Domain Avatar, its potential would be extraordinary.

Now he’d discovered blood soul energy, ten times more potent than blood energy without causing severe aftereffects. Successfully merging with it would complete half his Soul Domain Avatar cultivation.

Extraordinary paths required extraordinary means. The resources Cheng Lingyu sought were beyond most cultivators’ imagination – things others wouldn’t dare touch.

Like this blood soul energy: hard to detect, and even if found, most wouldn’t risk claiming it despite knowing its value.

While Hu Yuer watched others struggle through trials, Cheng Lingyu contemplated controlling the blood soul energy. Could his body endure it?

In the blood lake, the first nine trials (half of eighteen total) proved manageable. But beyond that, progress slowed drastically for everyone – Shui Yingyue, Ye Anlan, Yunxiu, experts from five major forces, and other cultivators alike. Some became completely stuck.

The stone pillar area held strange rules: advancement only, no retreat. Trapped cultivators attempting to backtrack found it impossible.

The blood lake permitted no casual comings and goings. Those who couldn’t press forward faced eternal entrapment.

Releasing Hu Yuer’s hand, Cheng Lingyu warned: “Stay back. I’m attempting something dangerous.”

Hu Yuer gasped. “What are you doing?”

“No secrets here. Merging with this eerie strength could greatly aid my Soul Domain Avatar cultivation.”

“Still too risky!”

Cheng Lingyu laughed. “The cultivation path is perilous. No risks, no rewards.”

He moved away, landing on a jade stone mostly submerged – only its tip breached the blood lake’s surface.

Sitting cross-legged, his hovering scroll emitted golden light repelling blood energy. Cheng Lingyu entered deep analysis, mentally simulating thousands of scenarios – some failed, some succeeded.

These mental simulations differed from reality but provided solid estimations. Calculations gave him fifty percent confidence. The critical factor: whether his body could withstand blood soul energy’s corrosive power.

Success meant simplicity; failure meant catastrophe. After preparing contingency plans, he acted.

Hu Yuer watched intently. Others remained too preoccupied with their own blood lake trials to notice Cheng Lingyu.

Closing his eyes, Cheng Lingyu emptied his true essence and mental fluctuations. He became tangible yet imperceptible – visible but undetectable.

He activated the Dreamless Technique, his fail-safe method. His relaxed body yielded to invisible forces, optimizing itself to devour all energies – seen and unseen.

This was Cheng Lingyu’s greatest secret, vaguely sensed yet never fully understood.

Blood patterns emerged on the jade stone – forming flowers, clouds, flora, fauna, mountains, rivers. A miniature cosmos representing the Great Dao’s truth, heaven-earth evolution’s mysteries, and Life and Death Evaporate’s endless cycle.

Blood threads crept up Cheng Lingyu’s body. Where they touched, clothes disintegrated, unable to bear the divine patterns’ imprint, vanishing into howling winds.

Hu Yuer watched in shock and horror, unable to comprehend this bizarre and dreadful power.

Cheng Lingyu’s body shook violently as his clothes disintegrated, exposing bronze-hued skin that resembled an indestructible body. Yet even this metallic flesh couldn’t withstand the encroaching blood-thread divine patterns.

These divine patterns bore the imprint of the Great Dao, deeply connected to the blood river and blood lake while embodying heavenly principles. Mastering them promised tremendous rewards.

Meanwhile, the patterns also manifested blood soul energy. Those unable to endure them could never hope to absorb this power.

Cheng Lingyu’s body, no longer under his conscious control, was being manipulated by the six-star pyramid from the mysterious space. As crimson threads crawled across his skin, devouring him, various energies merged into a mysterious power that simultaneously guided the divine patterns and protected his indestructible body.

His form resembled a vortex – failure to withstand the blood soul energy’s assault would’ve meant instant desiccation and death.

Yet aided by the pyramid, Cheng Lingyu’s body miraculously resisted the invasive patterns and began assimilating them. His flesh became a conduit, draining blood soul energy from the lake’s surroundings like bottomless pit exploiting the terrain’s advantage.

Countless strands of blood soul energy seeped from the lakebed, riverbanks, and soil. Though not overwhelmingly abundant, each thread represented millennia of accumulation – fused with saintly remains, Holy Artifacts, and Spirit Treasures over countless eras.

Layer upon layer, the blood-thread patterns merged with Cheng Lingyu’s flesh. Deceptively simple, this process could shred even peak Soul Martial experts. Each hair-thin pattern weighed tons, enough to crush ordinary cultivators. Only Cheng Lingyu’s indestructible body dared attempt this.

The assimilation subjected his Physical Body to brutal trials. Yet absorbed energy flowed automatically into his sea of consciousness, seeking connection with his Ten Immortal Souls and Soul Domain.

Unconscious yet aware, Cheng Lingyu’s body moved under the pyramid’s precise control through the mysterious space, executing each step with methodical perfection.

Hu Yuer bit her lip anxiously. Though she often quarreled with him, she’d unknowingly grown fond of this enigma.

Flames erupted along Cheng Lingyu’s blood threads – not ordinary fire, but True Fire of Burning Sky mingled with soulfire. Grand talismans materialized in the blaze, channeling cosmic mysteries and the power of all things to temper his body and spirit.

The burning patterns intertwined mystically with his Ten Immortal Souls, particularly the formidable Diagram of Heavenly Heart and Myriad Domains. This signaled the Soul Domain Avatar’s embryonic form – though merging such supreme souls would’ve been impossible without the pyramid’s accumulated energies.

Three hours passed. As jade stones paled, the last divine patterns sank into Cheng Lingyu’s flesh.

The blood lake’s energy suddenly turned violent, its toxic essence unleashed without the balancing soul energy. Meanwhile in the crimson waters, Shui Yingyue breached the twelfth trial’s stone pillar while others struggled.

When Cheng Lingyu’s meditation stone shattered, golden light from the hovering scroll enveloped him in protective radiance.

“Who are you really?” Hu Yuer whispered, drawn deeper into the mystery.

He awoke thirty minutes later. “You’ve changed,” she blurted, startled by the bloodlight flickering in his eyes – fleeting yet hauntingly mesmerizing.

“My cultivation level improved.” His Dreamy Magic Eyes sparkled. “I remain unchanged.”

Hu Yuer’s skeptical gaze lingered. “Really?”