Cade brought out a hand-sized formation disc from his ring with its corresponding token, then placed it just outside the cavern’s entrance. He pulled out four spirit stones and slotted them into the disc, powering it up with a satisfying click. A blue energy field spread out from its center, covering an area roughly fifteen feet in diameter. This way, he could leave the cave and retrieve his Arrow without leaving the protection of the transparent blue dome.

  The disc was a fairly expensive object with no offensive value. Made by goldscales, its role was to stop anyone below the great circle of Foundation Establishment from entering, whether it was man or beast. Cade had bought it specifically for cultivating in the wild. As long as someone had the formation’s token, they could come and go as they pleased.

  His hands began to sweat at the mere thought of pulling out the prismatic bead. He took several deep breaths, wiping his damp palms on his trousers. Shit, am I actually afraid to take it out? A couple of breaths later, Cade finally stretched his ring hand as far as possible and dropped the bead onto the stone floor. He immediately backed away.

  Even with these precautions, he was still struck by the intense energy radiating from the tiny object. He retreated a few more feet until the sensation was just about bearable, then assumed a lotus position. Cade realized he had to acclimate to its relentless pressure first; otherwise, the little ball would seriously hurt him.

  It was already around midnight when he moved closer, shortening the distance by roughly a foot. Grimacing, he sat back down. His longcoat was completely soaked through with sweat, and dark blood continuously seeped from his skin. If anyone saw him now, they would surely run away in terror. The pain he experienced wasn't the issue. What stopped him from advancing quicker was the feeling of his body being torn apart by the shocking fluctuations the small orb released.

  When the first rays of daylight struck the horizon, Cade was only three feet away from the bead. The whole cave smelled like a slaughterhouse on a hot day. Despite his wretched appearance, he was extremely excited. His tolerance for the orb's energies was growing, and most importantly, he had increased the number of prismatic globules in his blood by roughly a tenth, to a little over 550.

  Initially, he didn’t expect just being in the bead’s proximity would bring him tangible benefits. After shortening the distance for the second time, Cade had decided to look into his blood with his insight, counting every spherule out of boredom. He did it again, just to be sure he wasn’t imagining things. What amazed him was that the changes weren’t limited to his blood. The progress of the spherules in the rest of his body was much slower, and he had only gained a few more throughout that time. He eventually worked out that under the influence of the bead's prismatic energies, his own little globules were growing, and when one reached full maturity, it split into two smaller ones. He had never noticed some of the spherules were larger than others until now. So far, only the big ones had multiplied, but this was enough to fuel his excitement.

  Since the prismatic spherules were scarcely found outside his bloodstream, their rate of multiplication would have been naturally much slower. However, that would hopefully change once he entered Flesh Fortification. And Cade was so close; he could feel his whole body vibrating as the barrier loosened. It would only take a little more for it to break.

  By evening, he had moved right next to the bead, and that was when the breakthrough into Flesh Fortification came. In that moment, he felt his voracious heart grow dense with prismatic energy, its capacity climbing rapidly. The rest of his body quickly followed. His muscles wriggled under his skin like serrated worms as they continuously expanded and contracted, greedily absorbing blood qi. His ability to generate power grew tremendously. His bones and joints creaked with pressure, continuously shattering and merging, becoming denser and harder with each cycle. This inhuman level of suffering nearly caused him to black out, a stark reminder that his pain threshold was far from infinite. Even his skin changed, growing significantly tougher as the blood qi inside it condensed, breaking down, refining, and strengthening its structures. An ordinary arrow would definitely struggle to pierce it.

  Sensing these changes, the young Asura grinned like a madman, despite every part of his body gnawing with a pain that would have turned any normal person into a slobbering husk. Finally, the changes in his body slowed, and Cade grew so accustomed to the pressure that he audaciously chose to pick up the bead. In that moment, something truly astonishing occurred.

  His voracious heart began greedily absorbing the energy from the bead, releasing it in dense waves into his muscles, bones, tendons, and even organs. Every part of him was bathed in the bead’s prismatic forces, a comfortable warmth wrapping around his body. The spherules in his flesh and bones began to grow and multiply quickly. Fifty turned into seventy, then one hundred. After several more hours, the growth drastically slowed as if arriving at a saturation point. He now had close to 2,000 spherules in total, 1,500 of which floated in his bloodstream.

  It was obvious that he hadn’t provided anywhere near enough energy to the spherules before, greatly limiting their growth. The amazing prismatic bead had changed that. However, their number had now stagnated. Cade assumed the growth of spherules everywhere else would pick up as he progressed through Flesh Fortification, hopefully matching the rate in his blood. At the same time, he could sense he had grown incomparably stronger. Cade had a feeling that if he chose to smash his fist into the cavern wall, he might just bring the ceiling down on his head. He was overflowing with power. Never in his life had he felt so powerful; it was pure ecstasy.

  For now, he had been absorbing the energy passively, not even considering reaching into the bead with his mind. But now he began to deliberate. It wasn’t out of necessity, but curiosity and greed for power. He didn’t believe he could progress any further before breaking through into the middle stage of Flesh Fortification, but it was hard to resist the massive temptation to try. Who knew what other benefits he could gain? Sadly, other than helping him shatter the barrier between realms, the bead wasn’t actually increasing his cultivation. He was still at the very beginning of the early stage. He was also running out of blood essence, having been forced to drink all his leftover reserves during the last two days as depleted blood constantly oozed from his pores under the bead’s unforgiving pressure.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Cade placed the bead back into his ring, noting with a heavy sigh that it had shrunk to half its original size. After pulling out a water crystal, he bathed in the cold stream and scrubbed himself with lime soap until the last vestiges of blood and sweat were gone. Refreshed, he put on a new set of clothes, then found a clean spot and sat down cross-legged. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, repeating his father’s calming mantra.

  I need to get my priorities straight. What do I need most right now? Blood. And after I obtain blood? I have to stabilize my realm and read through all the new information in the Book of Life. Everything else was now secondary, including the bead. After all, it wasn’t going anywhere.

  Cade needed blood; he was beginning to run on fumes. His voracious heart had the ability to produce blood qi from spiritual energy, but after the breakthrough, this was still nowhere near enough to cover his passive use. He continued to slowly lose blood qi even when he wasn't doing anything. Worse still, he felt this process was now faster than before, whereas according to the Book of Life, it should have slowed. Those newly acquired prismatic spherules seemed to have raised his passive blood qi consumption by a considerable amount. No such thing as a free meal in this world. It’s not too bad right now, but what if I advance a few more times?

  Sighing, Cade stood up. He unleashed his life sense to its fullest and nearly exclaimed in surprise, seeing its maximum range had doubled to nearly five miles. Regrettably, he couldn’t currently detect any Rank 2 spirit beasts in the area. No matter. I need a break from this stinking cave anyway. He unhurriedly picked up the barrier formation disc, then jumped into his Arrow.

  The night sky was clear, covered with a sparkling blanket of stars. Thanks to the lack of clouds, the moon shone brightly, even though only a thin crescent was visible. To the Asura, it was as bright as a sunny day. Apparently, his night sight, which was already excellent, had gained a substantial improvement as well. Damn, I love this bead! I can’t believe I randomly stumbled upon it. I’m really starting to believe in fate. I’ll soon be boring people with lectures about karma like Master Lao Ren.

  He missed the ancient Asura. Cade chuckled internally, recalling how many times he had pissed off the old man during the rebirth with his endless list of questions. He wanted to visit Chthon and meet his Master in the flesh, and for that, he needed blood. Judging from how ravenous his prismatic spherules were, likely oceans of it.

  Cade rapidly ascended in his speeder, rising close to a mile above the ground. Thanks to his improved vision, everything below appeared in vastly greater detail. He randomly focused his eyes on the tip of a broken-off tree branch lying in the tall grass and saw a small red centipede stretching itself towards the night sky, its antennae twitching rhythmically. The small creature turned towards the wind, tasting the air. This world is an amazing place, brimming with precious life force. Even though his whole body still hurt and his voracious heart was running on fumes, Cade felt like he could move mountains.

  He flew at a leisure pace, admiring the view below. Out of curiosity, he pulled out his timekeeper, but its display crystal was dim. This only made sense, considering he was in the middle of nowhere. Just as he sent the wristband back into storage, his life sense picked up three potent life signatures. They seemed to be in a group, and they were all Rank 2.

  Cade immediately changed direction and, in no time, found himself floating high above the creatures. Two smaller ones were in the early stage, while the larger one was approaching the middle stage, though not quite there yet. However, it wasn’t their cultivation rank that caught his interest, but the creatures themselves. He had only ever seen a life form similar to these beasts in one of the old bestiaries he had purchased in Kettle. It was a werewolf.

  The creatures below him were incredibly similar to werewolves in terms of their overall build. Their legs bent backward at the knee, jointed like a cat’s hind legs; they also had fully developed arms not unlike those of a human, except longer, ending with vicious claws. Their muzzles were similar to that of a large cat, surrounded by a thick mane. The rest of their bodies were covered with short fur in different shades of brown; it was hard to tell, as all colors were muted at night. Their eyes were yellow, with vertical slits for pupils. In terms of overall size, the creatures were somewhere between seven and nine feet tall. They were lean and didn't have much muscle—a type of build that prioritized economy of motion over brute strength.

  Cade kept an eye on them for a while, watching as the group hunted and killed a couple of twisted-antler deer. There was a definite hierarchy in their pack, but they showed no signs of advanced intelligence. They wore no clothes and used no tools. The largest one was the obvious leader and ate first, roaring at the other two when they came too close. Cade decided to call them werecats for lack of a better word.

  The young Asura wasn’t initially enthusiastic about facing all three at once, but after watching them hunt, he changed his mind. These werecats had a decent cultivation for the region, but it didn’t seem to translate well to their combat ability. He felt he had a large advantage in speed and a huge one in strength. These three werecats would provide enough blood essence to refill his heart several times over, which was exactly what he needed right now. Having witnessed their capabilities, he was no longer concerned. He had to make this fight as quick as possible while minimizing blood loss on the creatures’ side. He was starting to feel the first pangs of hunger, and he certainly didn’t want to enter another bloodrage.

  He slowly lowered his altitude to around eighty feet, making sure not to alert the creatures. Maneuvering carefully, Cade stopped directly above the largest of the werecats. The beast was currently gorging on its second kill, while its two pridemates shared a smaller catch. He breathed in deeply, bringing out his shortsword from storage. The young Asura sent his Arrow into the ring, then fell upon the unsuspecting creatures like the wrath of a starving god.