Tenth Level of Blood Coagulation

A fang over a zhang long pierced directly through Feng Hai's body. Feng Hai looked at the fang in his chest, unable to believe his own eyes.

"Ah!"

Feng Hai let out a roar, his longsword slashing with full force behind him.

"Snap!"

It had to be said that Feng Hai was too powerful; with one sword strike, he actually severed the Rock-Earth Evil Spider's fang, and at the same time, he flew forward.

But what he didn't expect was that the Rock-Earth Evil Spider, having had one of its fangs severed, suddenly opened its massive maw, and a giant web descended upon Feng Hai.

That web was actually dozens of zhang in size, covering even Long Chen. Long Chen was startled and hurriedly fled backwards.

Fortunately, he was at the edge of the giant web, and when it descended, he had just managed to escape its range.

"Ah…"

Feng Hai let out a shrill scream. He was tightly wrapped by the giant web, like a big fish in a net, completely unable to break free.

The Rock-Earth Evil Spider's maw began to pull in the net. In the blink of an eye, Feng Hai's legs were drawn into the spider's mouth. The intense pain and fear made him let out shrill screams.

Even Long Chen, who usually considered himself quite brave, couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine at the sight of someone being eaten alive.

"Go to hell, you beast!"

Feng Hai roared madly. Everything below his waist had already entered the Rock-Earth Evil Spider's mouth. Finally, exerting all his remaining strength, he swung his longsword down at the spider's head.

"Rock-Breaking Strike!"

"Pfft!"

The terrifying Sword Qi directly sliced open the Rock-Earth Evil Spider's head, actually killing a Tier 3 Demonic Beast in one strike.

However, Feng Hai was in an even more miserable state. Half of his body was gone, and his chest had been pierced by the spider's fangs; he was now on the verge of death.

Long Chen sighed, walked over to Feng Hai, and said, "Tell me, why do you bother? Why come all this way to hunt me down? What kind of benefits are more important than your life?"

Feeling his life force rapidly fading away, Feng Hai knew he was doomed, and a tragic smile appeared on his face.

"Why bother? Yes, why indeed? Long Chen, you won."

Long Chen shook his head and said, "It's not that I won, but that you lost to your own greed."

Feng Hai coughed violently a few times, his face already pitch black; the potent poison had spread throughout his entire body.

"I am about to die, so I will tell you: it was Elder Sun who sent me to kill you. He wanted me to bring back your spatial ring and imprison your Soul in the Soul Locking Bead. If you want revenge, go find him…" After saying this, Feng Hai immediately breathed his last.

A powerhouse of the Senior Brother level from the branch courtyard, with cultivation reaching the Middle Stage of the Tendon Tempering Realm, had died so miserably here. It truly made one sigh with emotion.

Long Chen took off Feng Hai's ring and retrieved a fist-sized bead from inside. A gloomy expression appeared on Long Chen's face.

That's right, this was the Soul Locking Bead. It was a very evil tool that could capture human Souls.

By locking a person's Soul inside the bead, one could use all sorts of methods to torture it, making life impossible and death unreachable.

"Old bastard, your heart is quite cruel. To think you wanted to imprison my Soul; you must be coveting my Nine Star Hegemon Body Art."

Long Chen couldn't help but grit his teeth. It was just as he had thought; no matter where one went, there were always evil people.

"Feng Hai, although I know that you told me this just to make me go find Elder Sun for revenge.

Whether it's by me dying or Elder Sun dying, you would consider it revenge. I didn't expect you to become smart right before you died.

However, you succeeded. Before long, I will send him down to join you. I hope that when you get there, you will hurry up and Cultivate. Don't let me find you still being bullied by some old ghost when I send him down. I actually hope you can be the one bullying that old ghost."

He reached out and took the longsword from Feng Hai's hand. Although the sword's weight was average, its material was excellent. It could sever the tough fangs of a Rock-Earth Evil Spider with one strike, showing just how sharp it was.

The current Flame Blade wasn't powerful enough; it was better to use a physical weapon to trigger the Heaven Opening. With this longsword, the power of the Heaven Opening would become even more formidable.

Of course, Long Chen was a thrifty person, so he also collected the essence blood of the Rock-Earth Evil Spider, though the amount was pitifully small.

After cleaning up, he looked at Feng Hai's corpse. After hesitating for a long time, he still dug a pit and buried him.

Regardless of everything, they were fellow disciples. Once someone dies, the hatred fades. Everything was in the past, and he didn't want to leave him exposed in the wilderness.

After getting everything ready, Long Chen identified his direction and carefully returned to his encampment.

Three days later, Long Chen's body had fully recovered, and he began hunting madly again. Although Feng Hai was dead and the crisis was temporarily resolved,

Long Chen had seen just how large the gap was between him and a Senior Brother-level powerhouse; he was practically defenseless.

Before, when he battled Wu Qi, he knew Wu Qi's combat power was extremely terrifying, but he still hadn't expected it to be to such a degree.

As a small captain of the Law Enforcement Team, Wu Qi's cultivation was certainly among the best in the Tendon Tempering Realm.

Last time, Long Chen had offended him, causing him to be punished by Elder Tu Fang and lose all face. He didn't know when he might come knocking.

Therefore, he had to work hard to improve his strength before trouble came knocking; otherwise, he would only suffer. But his will wouldn't allow him to suffer, so he could only frantically increase his strength.

Thus, from this day on, Long Chen began to rapidly hunt Demonic Beasts. With that longsword, Long Chen could now solo Tier 3 Early Stage Demonic Beasts.

Moreover, Long Chen found a fast way to hunt: go up and land a full-power Heaven Opening strike, and then it was easy.

As long as he shot a poison arrow into the Demonic Beast's wound, he basically didn't have to do anything else; he would just lead the beast around for a ride.

In any case, Demonic Beasts were inherently violent and had very low intelligence. As long as they didn't encounter a Demonic Beast stronger than themselves, they would never run away.

With this method, Long Chen's hunting efficiency went from one every two days to two per day.

Three days later, Long Chen had absorbed the essence blood of seven Demonic Beasts and successfully advanced to the Blood Condensation 9th Stage.

After advancing to the Blood Condensation 9th Stage, Long Chen's strength became even greater, but it was a pity that he didn't have any heavy weapons in his hands, so he couldn't truly unleash the power of his Physical Body.

Long Chen secretly vowed that after going back this time, he would definitely get a big weapon for self-defense; otherwise, he would have all this strength but no way to unleash it.

After advancing to the Blood Condensation 9th Stage, Long Chen began to have his own confidence. He no longer needed to be so timid and began to let go and go all out.

As long as it wasn't a Tier 3 Late Stage Demonic Beast, Long Chen could handle it one-on-one with the help of his poison arrows; there were basically no problems.

As time passed, the surrounding Demonic Beasts became fewer and fewer, and Long Chen had to increase his search range.

Thus, the tens of thousands of li of the Chaotic Stone Wilderness became a young man's hunting ground, from which the roars of Demonic Beasts could be heard from time to time.

Time passed quickly. On this day, after Long Chen finished absorbing the Demonic Beast's essence blood, the blood in his body flowed madly, like a raging sea. The whistling sound could be heard clearly for several li around.

"Boom!"

A terrifying wave of air swept in all directions, and a powerful pressure radiated outwards. At this moment, Long Chen was like a divine soldier descending into the world, looking down upon eternity.

"Haha, I've finally entered the Tendon Tempering Realm!"

Long Chen stood on a giant rock and laughed wildly, feeling the surging energy in his body, wishing he could punch through heaven and earth.

"Eh, something is wrong. I haven't entered the Tendon Tempering Realm yet. My meridians haven't changed in the slightest; they haven't received the slightest nourishment."

Long Chen suddenly discovered something strange. He found that his blood had returned to its previous state of deficiency—the state he entered after every advancement.

After every advancement, his blood volume would be greatly expanded, like an irrigation canal; every time he advanced, it would expand several times over.

After each expansion, although the blood didn't decrease, the canal had widened, making his Bloodline appear deficient.

Actually, this was a phenomenon that inevitably appeared after every purification, but this was the tenth time already.

It was the time to normally advance to the Tendon Tempering Realm, but when Long Chen saw this phenomenon, his heart couldn't help but tremble violently.

"Could it be that the Blood Condensation Realm of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art also has thirteen stages?"

Long Chen was dumbfounded. He had to know, from the Blood Condensation 9th Stage, he had killed a total of thirty-seven Tier 3 Demonic Beasts just to accumulate enough essence blood to advance.

He had almost killed all the Demonic Beasts within a radius of thousands of li. According to the difficulty of advancing in the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, wouldn't advancing to the 11th stage require killing seventy Tier 3 Demonic Beasts?

The 12th stage would require one hundred and forty Demonic Beasts, and the 13th would require two hundred and eighty. Long Chen counted on his fingers and couldn't help but feel like a deflated ball.

He still had to kill five hundred Tier 3 Demonic Beasts to advance to the Tendon Tempering Realm. Five hundred! Tier 3 Demonic Beasts, not five hundred fat pigs. Wasn't this a joke?

To make a small Blood Condensation Realm rookie kill five hundred Tier 3 Demonic Beasts, what kind of Heaven-Defying difficulty was this? How long would he have to kill for?

Long Chen was so angry he wanted to curse. This was simply a scam, and the kind that would kill you, yet he was helpless.

Without spirit blood, spirit bones, or Spiritual Roots, the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was his only way out. After cursing for a while, he had to accept his fate.

"Eh, wait, there is actually a trace of gold in the color of my blood."

Long Chen was suddenly startled. When he looked inside, he saw dots of golden light appearing in his blood, like gold sand scattered within it.

"What a strange Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. Fine, continue killing."

Cursing was one thing, but life had to go on. Long Chen started searching again. However, when he killed a Tier 3 Demonic Beast and began to absorb its essence blood, he discovered that the active essence within the blood was already ineffective.

"How could this be?"

Long Chen was greatly alarmed. After those active essences were absorbed by Long Chen, the amount of gold sand in his blood seemed to increase just a little, but the effect was extremely weak, almost imperceptible.

"It's over, it's over. This is over. I'm afraid the next advancement will require the essence blood of a Tier 4 Demonic Beast." Long Chen's heart suddenly went cold.

Based on the perverted difficulty of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, this deduction was likely correct.

I'm afraid Demonic Beasts below Tier 3 Middle Stage basically wouldn't have any effect; at the very least, it had to be a Tier 3 Late Stage Demonic Beast.

It was estimated that only the essence blood of a Tier 4 Demonic Beast could make Long Chen's cultivation skyrocket again. But a Tier 4 Demonic Beast? Long Chen could only chuckle; he had no intention of becoming a snack for a Demonic Beast.

"Forget it, I've been out for over a month now. It's time to go back and take a look. Although I haven't advanced to the Tendon Tempering Realm, with my current strength, it should be enough to deal with them."

Long Chen stood on the giant rock, looking south. That was the direction of the branch courtyard; it was time to go home.