Chapter 46: Flesh Nourishing Pill
Soon after Yaan's completion of the first stage of the Agile Sword Art, he finally saved up enough funds to purchase a certain pill. With Ghu Nadda's assistance, Yaan was able to buy the uncommon Rank 2 Flesh Nourishing Pill for 90 Rank 2 recovery pills.
He only spent half of his accumulated funds on the pill itself, because he needed to purchase various accompanying supplementary pills in order to draw out the maximum effect safely. Yaan also wanted to save some money for his usual training, which he would continue with after using this body tempering pill.
Similar to the Bone Strengthening Pill that he used back in the Heavenly Path Sect, the Flesh Nourishing Pill was an uncommon body tempering pill that was sometimes used by rich cultivators to strengthen their tamed spirit beasts. When a beast consumed this medicine, the beast's physical flesh was rapidly strengthened in a short period of time. These pills actually belonged to a group of medicines called the 'unique body tempering pills'.
Yaan stared at the skin coloured pill with a bright gaze for some time, before resolutely throwing it into his mouth and swallowing. He didn't so much as hesitate for a single moment in his actions. He had worked too hard and for too long in order to acquire this medicine, there was no doubt in his heart that he was going to use this pill here and now!
Seconds later, his body trembled and blood began to leak out from the pores all across his skin. If you looked closely, you would notice that each and every one of Yaan's muscles was currently convulsing at an impossible frequency. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of oscillations with every passing second.
Blood continued to squeeze out from his pores, as well as his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, making Yaan look like a person entirely soaked in crimson paint. It was quite the grizzly spectacle, but Yaan was currently secluded within his temple, there was nobody around to bear witness to his shocking appearance.
His body continued to tremble, but Yaan simply grit his teeth and endured through the torturous pain. It was almost too much to bear, but when he thought about the fact that his flesh was undergoing a substantial enhancement right now, he found the will to push on.
It's not like he had any other choice anyway. Once the pill was consumed, the effect would continue for around half an hour and the pain would continuously ramp up until it was over.
The pain really was unbelievably intense. In fact, it was rumoured that some body cultivators who were too mentally weak to endure, actually killed themselves to end their suffering! Of course, such cultivators were simply too weak to cultivate the body tempering path in the first place.
Blood accumulated all around Yaan, until the lower floor of his temple turned into a blood lake with only him at the centre. It was an extremely jarring sight, but he grit his teeth and continued to persevere.
For someone his age, at his cultivation realm, Yaan's willpower was beyond normal. Not many cultivators went through so many painful experiences at such a young age.
Yaan's continual suffering ever since that unforgettable day when he was dragged to the Heavenly Path Sect, was comparable to that which the Ghu Clansmen were forced to endure during their younger years. Of course, Yaan's mental anguish and sorrow was probably something that the cold hearted Ghu Clansmen could never understand.
This sort of hardship often felt senseless at the time, but these difficult experiences built up a person's mental fortitude, contributing to their strength as time went on. Right now, Yaan was experiencing the true benefit of possessing a firm willpower.
After half an hour of agonising pain, he could feel that the violent energy from the pill was rapidly losing its momentum. His flesh had been strengthened and his Vital Energy had increased further. Usually, this would be the end of the pill's effect…however, Yaan had no intention of leaving things here!
Vital Energy was the energy that body temperers cultivated within their body. By building up this energy within their flesh and blood, the body would experience a subsequent empowerment. Until forming the Vital Core, it was impossible to manipulate this energy outside of the body, but as a 2-Star Realm demon, Yaan possessed a tiny degree of control over the internal Vital Energy which existed within his blood stream. This control didn't allow him to redirect his Vital Energy, but he could at least accelerate or slow down its movement within his body.
Whoosh…SPPSSH!
As he controlled his Vital Energy to force the pill's remaining medicinal effect to remain within his blood stream, he instantly suffered an agonising backlash and half a pint of blood unexpectedly erupted from his eyes!
Yaan fell forwards as his vision turned red and he couldn't see a single thing. It was shockingly painful and even Yaan couldn't help but let out a faint groan.
He pulled himself back up and showed a ferocious expression, not willing to give up just yet. He urged his Vital Energy to push the pill's medicinal energy back into his bloodstream. He did his best to ignore his ongoing blood loss and didn't stop pushing until the medicinal energy finally stopped trying to escape from his body.
Now, he could attempt a second cycle of the medicinal energy!
The previously retreating energy erupted once again. The effect was basically the same as before, but the pain and damage was three times more severe! Yaan started to turn pale from the blood loss. Even with his recovery rate, this was very difficult to endure.
He held out for another half hour, during which time, he finally surpassed the boundary for the late stage! His Vital Energy was now beyond 75% of the maximum capacity for the 2-Star Realm, meaning he was officially a Late 2-Star Realm demonic body cultivator!
Despite the arbitrary nature of the boundaries, Yaan still felt that his strength had increased by leaps and bounds.
He allowed the pill's effect to dwindle, taking the chance to catch his breath and recover his stamina. Once the medicinal energy reached a low enough level, he urged his Vital Energy to prevent it from dropping any further.
Gulp!
He immediately swallowed multiple Rank 2 Vital Recovery Pills and felt a powerful surge of energy spread through his body, healing over his wounds and restoring some of his blood. Since his blood loss was so extreme though, to the extent that Yaan was on the verge of passing out, he proceeded to swallow another pill; Rank 2 Blood Restoration Pill!
This pill was able to quickly recover approximately half of the blood in an Innate Qi Realm Qi refiner's body.
Yaan's body was far more powerful compared to a Qi refiner. The recovery rate brought on by the pill was even more rapid, but it was only able to restore slightly less than 10% of his blood.
Naturally, he had already anticipated this. He swallowed another two of these pills, along with even more Rank 2 Vital Recovery Pills. If a Qi refining cultivator were to see the ridiculous number of pills that Yaan was consuming, just to balance out the damage caused by other pills, they would probably faint from shock.
SWOOSH!
Just as the Rank 2 Flesh Nourishing Pill's medicinal effect started to dwindle once again, his rate of recovery instantly skyrocketed. As his blood restored and his flesh regenerated, Yaan's eyes became bloodshot and he again urged all of his Vital Energy to force the pill's retreating medicinal effect back into his blood stream. From there, the medicinal energy once again filled his flesh, beginning the third cycle of enhancement!
The second cycle already improved his Vital Energy from 75% up to 79%, but every improvement after this would become increasingly difficult. The damage inflicted upon his body was also not to be underestimated. The damage and pain tripled once again, despite the effect not improving at all compared to the previous two cycles.
Were it not for the various recovery pills continuing to assist his with his body's healing, Yaan would be unable to endure this third cycle. Even with his enhanced recovery, he was forced to swallow another handful of Vital Recovery Pills and one last Blood Restoration Pill.
The obscene number of recovery pills that he had consumed would result in his body exploding in normal times, but this crazy consumption was necessary if he wanted to keep up with the third cycle!
Thanks to all of the pills which continued to supplement his regeneration, his rate of blood loss was slowed down by as much as 70%. With this, Yaan managed to hold on for another torturous half hour, before the Rank 2 Flesh Nourishing Pill's medicinal energy was finally used up entirely. At this point, there was no possible way to drag out any further medicinal effect from the pill.
This was the only method to make full use of the Rank 2 Flesh Nourishing Pill. This pill could only be used once in his lifetime, so gaining the full effect was extremely desirable. Very few people would force themselves to undergo the dreaded second cycle after experiencing the first though, and enduring the third cycle was simply insanity.
Yaan was too exhausted after this ordeal. He passed out on the blood-soaked floor, with a content smile plastered across his pale face
When Yaan awoke hours later, he was surprised to find that the lake of blood had vanished from his floor. No hint of red could be seen anywhere, bewildering him for a moment and making Yaan seriously consider the possibility that he had just dreamt of everything from before.
However, after sensing the power contained within his body, he dispelled such thoughts. His Vital Energy had improved from 66% to 83%! This was a 17% increase that allowed him to ascend past the late stage boundary!
For body temperers, improving their Vital Energy became increasingly difficult as it built up to greater heights within the realm. In particular, upon reaching 75%, each incremental improvement was a joyous event.
This spectacular result was only possible because Yaan managed to endure the full three cycles, whilst also using up many other Vital Recovery Pills and the highly expensive Blood Restoration Pills.
In total, this cost him 150 Rank 2 recovery pills, leaving him with around 70 Rank 2 recovery pills to support his cultivation from here. Luckily, his current job paid very well, but he didn't worry too much about his lavish spending anyway. Money was there to be spent after all, there was no point uselessly hoarding wealth.
And besides, there was another benefit that Yaan discovered; the strengthening of his physical flesh. This was actually the main use of the Flesh Nourishing Pill. In fact, the increase in Vital Energy only came about because his small body couldn't contain such a powerful flesh enhancing effect.
Yaan never forgot Rui's final advice, right before she fell into a deep sleep within the stone ring. She mentioned that he should find methods to increase the strength of his physical body, not just his Vital Energy. Right now, consuming the unique body tempering pills was the only method Yaan knew of to achieve this.
His flesh, namely his muscles, were now far more dense and toned compared to before! Although he didn't develop some unique constitution like the time he used the Bone Strengthening Pill, he didn't expect to get so lucky anyway. The fact that he had developed the Progressive Bones Constitution back in the Heavenly Path Sect was already an unexpected stroke of good fortune.
A body temperer's strength came from their Vital Energy, which filled every spec of their body and filled it with power. However, the Bone Strengthening Pill and Flesh Nourishing Pill were not designed to increase Vital Energy, but to nourish the physical body directly.
Now, Yaan's muscular strength alone had doubled, just like that! His defence was also a level higher now; his muscles wouldn't become damaged so easily after using and receiving attacks.
Stronger flesh also meant that he would waste less Vital Energy when fighting, but also that he could strike with more power than before! His muscles were not huge by any margin, but his appearance was quite toned.
Yaan stood up and looked around, pondering for some time. No matter how he thought about it, he was unable to determine where the blood had gone. Before he passed out, this bottom floor of his temple was definitely soaked with blood, yet now, not a single drop could be found! He looked around and checked, but Yaan was certain that nobody had entered and cleaned up whilst he was unconscious. Such a thing didn't make much sense anyway.
The only explanation he could think of was really a bit bizarre though…did he reabsorb the blood back into his body?
Yaan looked down at his hand and clenched his fist shut tightly.
Finally, after so many months of gruelling work, he was definitely more powerful than he had been during the nine faction competition! Despite having a crippled dantian and no Innate Qi, his physical body alone would allow him to battle against Late Innate Qi Realm Qi refiners without losing out. Combined with his exquisite sword arts, Yaan was confident that most late stage Innate Qi Realm cultivators wouldn't be his match. Perhaps, if he went all out, he could even hold his own against some weaker cultivators at the peak stage!
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