Quadruple coagulation

The mountains were high and the forests dense, with ravines crisscrossing everywhere. From time to time, the roars of Demonic Beasts echoed through the air. Deep within the dense forest, Long Chen rode on the back of Little Snow, his expression extremely ugly.

"Old bastard, old fool, old scammer!"

Long Chen kept cursing Tu Fang under his breath. He had truly been scammed this time. When he took out the map Tu Fang had given him, he had nearly fainted.

On that square-foot map, Long Chen had spotted the location of the Xuantian Dao Sect at a glance. However, it took him three full searches to finally find the tiny spot, no bigger than a mosquito's leg, in the corner labeled as the Phoenix Cry Empire.

Long Chen was dumbfounded at that moment. He found a neighboring Empire, silently measured the distance between the two, and then compared it to the distance to the Xuantian Dao Sect.

He was shocked to discover that he was over two hundred thousand li away from the Xuantian Branch, and that was just the straight-line distance.

The map marked several mountain ranges in between where high-level Demonic Beasts roamed. In other words, unless Long Chen wanted to feed them, he would have to take a detour.

Long Chen was so angry he started cursing loudly. That old man Tu Fang looked stern, but in reality, he was a scammer. Asking a kid at the Condensing Blood stage to travel such a long distance—wasn't that just asking for death?

What Long Chen didn't know was that the Xuantian Branch had strict rules and was extremely rigorous in its selection of Disciples.

Originally, Long Chen didn't have a Spiritual Root and had no qualifications to participate in the assessment; Tu Fang had already made an exception for him by doing this.

To provide an explanation to the Branch, having Long Chen travel alone across over two hundred thousand li of desolate wilderness was the price for him to obtain the quota, and no one could accuse him of favoritism.

Long Chen calculated that he needed to cover at least eight thousand li every day to reach the Xuantian Branch within a month.

If they were galloping on a flat road, it wouldn't be much for Little Snow at its current speed. But traveling through this wild, mountainous, and densely forested area, the path was already difficult, and he had to be on guard against attacks from Demonic Beasts.

In just seven days of travel, Long Chen had already experienced several major battles. There were many Demonic Beasts blocking the way along the road, all of whom were slain by Long Chen.

In seven days, they had covered over thirty thousand li. The speed was far behind what he had anticipated, which made Long Chen both furious and frustrated, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

"Crackling."

The fire crackled incessantly. In the wilderness, the flames were over a zhang high, illuminating the surrounding space.

Beside the fire, a giant snake over a dozen zhang long had been skinned and placed on a tree trunk, roasting with a sizzling sound as the aroma of meat filled the air.

Long Chen and Little Snow lay on the tree trunk, eating ravenously. Long Chen didn't usually eat that much, but eating more seemed to alleviate the frustration in his heart, so he let himself go and devoured the meat.

Little Snow was also eating crazily on the side. Its speed was much faster than Long Chen's. Long Chen only ate about a dozen jin, and all the remaining meat went into Little Snow's stomach.

Normally, starting a fire and roasting meat in the wild was a very dangerous act, as it would attract ferocious Demonic Beasts.

But Long Chen couldn't care about that anymore. His time was tight, and he needed to utilize every moment to travel—traveling by day and Cultivating by night.

As a Demonic Beast, Little Snow possessed a powerful Physical Body. Even running non-stop for days and nights was no problem for it, and it didn't need to Cultivate; as long as it had meat to eat, it was fine.

Anyway, there were plenty of ignorant Demonic Beasts on the road; he could just pick one for dinner. After finishing the meal, Long Chen began to Cultivate, while Little Snow, with a full belly, guarded Long Chen and began to doze off.

Little Snow ate its fill every day. What surprised Long Chen was that Little Snow's body grew a size larger every day.

Now, Little Snow was one and a half zhang long, and its height was basically the same as Long Chen's, looking even more majestic and powerful.

Furthermore, with each passing day, Little Snow's strength and speed continued to grow, which made Long Chen both surprised and extremely excited.

Little Snow was inherently a Rank 3 Demonic Beast and was still in its growth phase, becoming stronger every day. At the current speed, they might perhaps be unable to make it in time.

However, as Little Snow grew, its speed was getting faster and faster, so reaching the Xuantian Branch within a month shouldn't be a problem.

While excited, Long Chen was also filled with gratitude toward Meng Qi. Sending Little Snow to him had been a massive help.

With Little Snow guarding him, relying on its keen sense of smell, no Demonic Beast could sneak up on him silently, and Long Chen could Cultivate with peace of mind.

Long Chen slowly closed his eyes. In just a few breaths, his mind entered a state of clarity. At this point, he could enter meditation, reaching a state of self-oblivion.

A hundred-zhang divine ring appeared behind him, like a giant vortex, greedily sucking in the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and pouring it into Long Chen's body.

After the Spiritual Qi entered the Fengfu Star, the Fengfu Star slowly rotated. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, compressed by the Fengfu Star, became even purer, slowly merging into Long Chen's body, and finally penetrating into his blood.

When the Spiritual Qi entered the blood, the originally slowly flowing blood began to rush rapidly, like a mountain flood, actually emitting a rumbling sound.

As the Spiritual Qi permeated, the Impurities in the blood were constantly forced out of the body, turning into a sticky fluid like sweat, carrying a trace of a foul odor.

This was Condensing Blood—gathering the essence of the blood and forcing the Impurities out of the body to make the blood purer. Using such blood to nourish the Physical Body would make the body as if reborn, becoming even stronger.

"Boom."

A boom sounded within Long Chen's body. The blood vessels inside his body had actually become a size thinner. A smile appeared on Long Chen's face; he exhaled a breath of turbid air from his chest and opened his eyes.

At this time, the east was already showing a fish-belly white. He stroked the jade pendant in his bosom, and a trace of warmth welled up in his heart.

This was the only item his parents had left him. This piece of jade was extremely magical; it could allow him to quickly eliminate distracting thoughts and enter a meditative state, making his Cultivation efficiency increase exponentially.

He could barely feel the passage of time; it felt as if he had just closed his eyes when dawn arrived. However, Long Chen could feel the changes in his body.

"Whoosh."

He punched out, and the space vibrated. The wind from his punch whistled, striking directly at a large tree ten zhang away.

"Bang."

That large tree, as thick as a water bucket, snapped in response.

"The power of my Physical Body has grown stronger again. Without using battle skills, I can achieve such a terrifying effect. The Condensing Blood stage is truly incredible." Long Chen clenched his fist tightly, his heart burning with excitement.

Now, the blood in his body had been purified four times, and the power of his Physical Body had surged to a level that even shocked himself.

However, the Condensing Blood stage was different from other Qi Gathering stages. After condensing the blood once, he needed to let his body continue to produce blood, refilling the blood he had refined away and allowing his blood vessels to return to their original state before he could proceed with the next condensation.

Usually, this required about half a month, but Long Chen didn't have this concern. He didn't know if it was the effect of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, but when he first Condensed Blood, it only took a few hours for his blood to be refilled.

The second time, it took a day; the third time, it took two days. Now it was the fourth time, and Long Chen estimated that it might take four days before he could enter the next Condensing Blood.

But regardless, the current Long Chen was already a Rank 4 expert of the Condensing Blood stage.

"Awoo."

Suddenly, Little Snow called out. Long Chen hurriedly put away his smile and said, "Alright, alright, we'll hit the road immediately."

It turned out that Little Snow saw Long Chen smiling foolishly and had started urging him to get on the move. Little Snow kicked its hind legs and, like a streak of white light, darted straight ahead.

"Haha, Little Snow, your speed is another notch faster than yesterday!" Long Chen shouted excitedly. Little Snow's speed had increased again, so they wouldn't have to rush around like their butts were on fire in the future.

"Awoo."

"What? You say as long as there is enough meat, you can continue to improve? Alright, today we'll try to see if we can take down a Rank 3 Demonic Beast to treat you," Long Chen laughed loudly.

Continuing forward, when the dense forest ahead disappeared, a desert appeared—ten thousand li of yellow sand, boundless and filled with desolation.

Long Chen hurriedly unfolded the map to take a look and nodded. His route was not wrong; this desert was a road he had to pass through.

He looked at the map carefully, found a blade of grass to use as a scale, and measured the distance of this desert, unable to help but gasp.

"Little Snow, this desert is thirty-five thousand to thirty-seven thousand li long. And there is a section that is a sandy desert; not only is there not a drop of water, but on the sandy ground, we can't run fast at all. It might take four or five days. Can you handle it?" Long Chen was a bit worried.

In the desert, the sandy ground was too soft, which would significantly reduce Little Snow's speed while its energy consumption would be even greater, which was very disadvantageous for them.

"Awoo."

"No, no, 'should be no problem' is absolutely not enough. We must be absolutely certain. We don't do things without assurance."

Little Snow said it should be fine, but Long Chen didn't dare to take the risk. Normally, not eating or drinking for three to five days was nothing, but sprinting for three to five days in the desert, while being exposed to the scorching sun without any water to replenish, was extremely dangerous. Even a Demonic Beast's body couldn't handle that.

Long Chen thought for a moment and returned to the dense forest. He had originally wanted to cut down a few large trees, hollow out their cores, and make a few water buckets.

However, Long Chen was very lucky; he actually saw a bamboo forest. He didn't know the species, but it grew extremely tall, as thick as a person's waist, and each segment was over three feet long. These were practically ready-made water buckets.

Long Chen cut down over forty segments in one breath, found a clear pond nearby, filled the bamboo with water, and put them into his spatial ring.

Fortunately, the space inside the spatial ring was static, so he didn't have to worry about them spilling out due to the bumps on the road.

After preparing all this, Long Chen felt much more at ease. With water, even if they didn't have food, they could hold out for a long time.

As they galloped forward, the vegetation in the desert indeed became less and less, and in the end, it was completely barren, just a stretch of yellow sand.

A terrifying heatwave struck, which was basically no different from the temperature of real flames. Facing such a heatwave, for a Pill Cultivator who dealt with flames, it could basically be ignored.

"Little Snow, are you alright?" Long Chen asked.

Little Snow didn't answer but let out a cry and galloped toward the depths of the desert.

It was just as Long Chen had expected; Little Snow's speed in the desert was greatly restricted, only about seventy or eighty percent of what it was in the forest.

Moreover, the soft sandy ground caused Little Snow to consume more stamina. By nightfall, they had only covered over five thousand li, and that included a portion of the journey on the desert ground. Tomorrow would be all desert, and they definitely wouldn't be able to travel further than today.

The desert at night was bone-chillingly cold, with water freezing into ice, completely different from the daytime. What made Long Chen most helpless was that in the desert, the Spiritual Qi he could absorb was practically negligible, so he simply couldn't be bothered to Cultivate and just lay on Little Snow to sleep.

"Awoo."

Sleeping until the middle of the night, Little Snow suddenly let out a roar, waking Long Chen up.