Chapter 10: Blood Refinement of the Body

Under the night sky, Wolf Mountain resembled a giant silver-black wolf howling at the heavens.

On the mountain path, a figure gradually appeared, moving from afar, slowly approaching, and finally entering a small village.

The village had fewer than a dozen households scattered at the mountain’s base. It was dinner time, but no cooking smoke rose from any house. Instead, an eerie silence hung in the air.

Ye Yun stopped in the grassy field beneath the old tree at the village entrance, looking around with a deep frown on his face. He took another dozen steps toward the village and suddenly crouched down. There was a pool of blood on the ground, sticky with many dark, shiny strands of fur.

“Quick! Someone rush to the town to get help!”

An urgent voice rang out from a dark village house.

Then followed a series of panicked cries. A figure dashed out from the darkness, but before he ran far, several wild wolves chased after him, baring their fangs and claws, looking terrifying.

The wolves were almost upon him, just a step away. The young man seemed utterly desperate, gripping his woodcutting axe tightly, ready for a fight to the death.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!

A black shadow shot out from the darkness. With one palm strike and two kicks, in the blink of an eye, four vicious wolves were sent flying. They landed, whimpered a few times, and then lay still.

The saved youth stared at the newcomer in shock, his body trembling uncontrollably. Before he could even ask a question, the man had already leaped back into the darkness and vanished, leaving the youth standing there like a wooden stump.

Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!

After a short while, miserable wolf cries echoed through the night. A bit later, the villagers lit oil lamps and began clearing away the dozens of wild wolf corpses.

“By the way, that benefactor just now said his name was Ye Yun? He’s actually from the Ye Family. I never imagined the Ye Family would have such an approachable and incredibly strong young man.”

“Mm-hmm! The benefactor is a good person. From now on, we won’t have to worry about wolf packs attacking the village. With him around, I’m afraid even the wolf pups on Wolf Mountain will be wiped out.”

The villagers gathered happily, discussing the event, and started skinning the wolves. The wolf pelts were valuable, and the wolf meat was great for roasting and drinking.

Behind the small village, halfway up the mountain, stood a dilapidated stone tower. A faint firelight glowed from it now, tinged with a bloody red hue.

Beside the fire, Ye Yun, wearing only his pants, was using an animal bone spike to prick the soles of his feet and his arms, creating countless invisible bloody holes. His whole body resembled a bloody spider.

An ancient voice softly emanated from within him: “To cultivate the Indomitable Blood Body, one must control the blood energy within the body. Blood is the source of life, distributed in the bone marrow, meridians, cells, and muscles. Little Yun, you have already trained a robust physical body and can sense your blood energy. It won’t be long before you can control it, at most about five years. You don’t even have to go this far, directly dispersing blood… this is too painful.”

With each prick, Ye Yun shuddered, gritting his teeth. “Five years… I can’t wait that long, Uncle Han. When the blood started flowing from my skin, I felt all the blood in my body moving.”

Uncle Han said, “Good. Try using the residual inner strength in your body to control the blood flow. Make it faster and faster. Once you can freely control the speed of blood flow in your body, you can officially begin cultivating the Indomitable Blood Body.”

Ye Yun thought for a moment. “Uncle Han, does letting blood out faster and more make it easier to control?”

“Hmm, you’re going to…” Uncle Han’s voice gradually faded.

Holding his breath, Ye Yun took the bone spike and began forcefully stabbing his body, from his feet to his shoulders, constantly increasing the force. The blood holes became sesame-seed sized. Originally, his body was only covered with mung bean-sized beads of blood, but soon they swelled to the size of soybeans.

After more than eighty percent of his body was covered in these bleeding holes, Ye Yun’s breathing became rapid. With each inhalation, his meridians bulged, and countless blood beads were sucked back into his body, only to reappear on the surface. This back-and-forth movement was like a balloon inflating and deflating.

Ye Yun’s entire body turned pale, especially his face. Each time the blood beads contracted or expanded, a wave of pain washed over him. He closed his eyes, clenched his jaw, and made tight fists, his fingernails piercing the skin of his palms.

Making the blood repeatedly contract and flow back through countless wounds—this pain was like being sliced by a thousand blades.

One day, two days… dozens of days passed unnoticed.

Early morning, heavy fog shrouded Wolf Mountain.

A young girl and a boy, carrying a basket and a backpack filled with dried fruits and food, arrived at the stone tower. They looked around sneakily, placed the items in a corner, then quietly hid in the distant grass, staring intently at the tower.

The boy seemed about sixteen or seventeen, with a thin build. He whispered to the girl beside him, “Third Sis, the benefactor doesn’t seem to be in the house during the day. How can I ask to become his disciple?”

“That’s your problem. If you help your sister with work for a month, I’ll swallow my pride and ask the benefactor for you, okay? You know how powerful he is. Now, we don’t hear a single wolf howl at night. He must have wiped out the whole wolf den. If you can become his disciple, joining the Black Banner Army will be easy.” The girl was full of clever ideas.

The boy answered without thinking, “Deal! If I really become the benefactor’s disciple, not just a month, even a year is no problem. I’m counting on you, Sis.”

“It’s settled then. Whoever goes back on their word is a dog. Let’s go home. We’ll come back tomorrow.” The girl looked around again, pulled the boy, and they quietly retreated from the woods, disappearing into the depths of the forest.

Whoosh!

As soon as the two left, a figure in blue clothes descended from the sky. It was Ye Yun.

He had noticed them earlier but, having just returned from training, didn’t show himself. He stood there thinking for a moment, then followed them. Soon, he reached a sheer cliff overlooking the small mountain village below.

Villagers were herding sheep in the wild fields; children were running and playing on the grassland, carefree.

“A peaceful paradise… but when they encounter wolf packs or roaming bandits, how can they remain peaceful? If one lives as a carefree mortal, life and death are left to heaven. Few mortals live past seventy. Such a short lifetime, one can only submit to heaven and earth, living under the awe of their power, like ants.” Standing firm on the cliff, gazing at the tranquil village, Ye Yun seemed to suddenly see through the will of heaven.

“Heaven and earth are inherently heartless. Things like evil, slaughter, divine punishment, retribution, cause and effect—they are merely comforts people invent for themselves. That you can see through this proves you were born with extraordinary insight,” Uncle Han said.

“If I believed in heaven, then I would be nothing but a tiny speck of dust in this world…!”

After a period of silence, Ye Yun walked back toward the stone tower.

The basket contained braised rabbit meat and a jar of wine. The backpack held fruits and dry rations. Ye Yun took out the wine and took a few sips. “Such pure grain wine, Uncle Han.”

“You’re a lucky kid,” Uncle Han sighed.

Ye Yun took another sip, tore off a rabbit leg, and gnawed on it. Wiping his mouth, he said, “Uncle Han, these past few days, I finally managed to control my blood flow. Next, can I officially start cultivating the Indomitable Blood Body?”

“Eat your fill first. What comes next is the real hellish training. The first layer of the Indomitable Blood Body: Blood Dispersion. It’s simple—use your controlled blood to expand your body, your meridians, bones, muscles, cells, every part, even your heart. It’s simple, but the process is agonizing.”

Ye Yun slowly uttered four words: “I can’t wait.”

As for how terrifying the Indomitable Blood Body was, Ye Yun had already experienced it even before officially starting cultivation. His body was still covered in dense, unhealed wounds.

After eating, Ye Yun took off his clothes, revealing a solid physique dotted with red spots.

Uncle Han’s ethereal voice immediately sounded: “The bones are the hardest and most painful. Muscles, cells, and meridians are relatively softer. According to the technique, use the blood in your body to stimulate them, to expand and fill them. The more you can expand them, the greater their capacity and power will be.”

“Mm.”

Ye Yun nodded. He sat cross-legged in the center of the open-air stone tower, adjusting his breathing according to the technique. With each breath, he felt his body alternate between feeling light and heavy.

Inside Ye Yun’s body now, his blood was boiling like water. It felt like countless tiny crimson needles were piercing his muscles and meridians. Instantly, Ye Yun was in unbearable agony. His body felt like it was being bitten by millions of ants gnawing his flesh. The pain threatened to make him faint again and again, but he had to grit his teeth and endure.

The process was slow. The blood dispersing into his flesh moved at a snail’s pace. Ye Yun’s face was deathly pale, his eyes rolling back occasionally as if he might collapse at any moment.

Just as Ye Yun was about to give in, Uncle Han spoke: “Little Yun, hold on. Sometimes, the greatest pain isn’t physical. When you endure past it, you’ll find it wasn’t as agonizing as you imagined. Only when you experience the painful process of cultivation do you truly understand what it means to be a Cultivator.”

Creak!

After these words, Ye Yun’s pupils dilated. He clenched his jaw so tightly a grinding sound occasionally escaped.

A quarter of an hour… several hours passed, until the sun began to set.

By now, Ye Yun’s entire body was crimson and covered in blood vessels. The backs of his feet, calves, thighs, waist, chest, wrists, arms, neck, and even his face were crisscrossed with swollen, bulging meridians, each about as thick as a chopstick. His body looked like it was covered in a bloody net. Even his eyes were bloodshot, and a bloody aura seemed to seep from his pupils.

Ye Yun had bitten through his lip, and blood flowed from between his fingers. The pain was so intense he hadn’t opened his mouth once, all to allow the blood to expand his body limitlessly.

The twilight glow fell upon the stone tower, making it look like a golden pagoda. The forest echoed with the calls of various animals. As night approached, a mist began to form.

Tiny sparks seemed to fly from the stone tower. Ye Yun slumped, panting heavily. He took big bites of fruit, then ate a large pile of dry rations. Most of his body had returned to normal, but his skin still showed many blood vessels.

“Good. But what comes next is even more painful. The bones are the body’s backbone. You must control the extent carefully. Make sure not to break any bones. They can heal, but it takes a lot of time.”

“Uncle Han, only by breaking through to Blood Refinement can I use blood energy to repair the crack in my Dantian. At my current speed, how long until I break through the second layer?”

“Slowly, a month. Quickly, ten days. Don’t rush it. Repairing the Dantian with blood energy requires patience. If you don’t control the blood energy well, it’s easy to damage the Dantian again.”

Hmm…

Ye Yun let out a sigh of relief. In a month, he could practice internal cultivation again. Then, he could once more walk the path of cultivation.