’Can’t different types of Sword Intent be condensed into the same Sword Pill?’
’When I have time, I’ll have to ask my master or go to the Library Pavilion to find some books on Sword Pills. I need to get a proper understanding of them.’
After successfully condensing the Sword Pill, Lin Yan took out the box he had looted from Yang Xuan. He opened it, revealing the True Blood Stone inside.
The True Blood Stone was arguably the most precious item in the Blood Exchange Realm. It contained a special energy that could help a Martial Artist in this realm break through to the next transformation. This energy wasn’t actual blood; the stone was named for its function.
However, the True Blood Stone also had a limitation: a Martial Artist in the Blood Exchange Realm could only use it once.
Ambitious Martial Artists who possessed a True Blood Stone would save it until they reached the Blood Exchange Third Transformation. They would use it to quickly break through to the Fourth Transformation and then make a push for the True Gang Realm.
’For me, the difficulty of reaching the Third and Fourth Transformations is the same. The sooner I break through, the sooner my strength will increase. I’ll also have a better chance of surviving any unexpected dangers.’
With his Martial Arts Tree, Lin Yan didn’t need to worry about being unable to reach the Blood Exchange Fourth Transformation. That being the case, there was no reason to save the True Blood Stone.
He glanced at the height of his Martial Arts Tree. It was already eleven feet four. In terms of progress, he was twenty percent of the way to the Blood Exchange Third Transformation. To break through, his Martial Arts Tree needed to reach thirteen feet, far exceeding the twelve feet required by an ordinary Martial Artist at this stage.
’I’ll do it all at once. I’ll seize this opportunity to see if I can break through to the Third Transformation. It would save me nearly a year’s worth of time and cultivation resources.’
Lin Yan held the True Blood Stone in his palm. It was warm to the touch, feeling less like a stone and more like an iron billet fresh from a furnace, with a faint energy surging within.
’This True Blood Stone really is strange. You can’t feel any heat until you touch it, and then it’s scorching hot. If I weren’t protected by my Blood Gang, an ordinary Skin Smoothing Martial Artist’s palm would probably be covered in blisters right now.’
After taking a moment to appreciate the stone’s peculiar nature, Lin Yan began to circulate the Eight Desolates Dragon Elephant Force.
The moment he activated the Eight Desolates Dragon Elephant Force, a searing heat emanated from his palm. A scalding energy instantly shot from his hand into his arm, surging up through his meridians and straight toward his Dantian.
It felt like magma, like a branding iron. A burning pain seared through his meridians wherever it passed. The blood vessels beneath his skin bulged, looking like strips of red-hot iron wire.
Lin Yan gritted his teeth, not stopping.
He already knew that absorbing the True Blood Stone would be painful.
But it was a pain any Martial Artist in the Blood Exchange Realm would gladly endure.
The moment the True Blood Stone’s energy flooded his Dantian, Lin Yan’s Qi Blood began to boil. It was like a pot of oil over a raging fire, churning and roaring. The pale golden mass of blood in his Dantian, which he had been constantly compressing, violently expanded under the impact of this foreign energy, only to reluctantly contract again under his control.
Expand. Contract.
Expand again, contract again.
With each cycle, a trace of impurity was squeezed out. It was expelled from his body through his pores, condensing on his skin as a fine layer of black sweat.
A faint, acrid stench filled the courtyard—the smell of impurities being forced from the depths of his Qi Blood.
The Blood Exchange Third Transformation: the third purification of Qi Blood.
Time trickled by.
Lin Yan sat motionless in the courtyard, his clothes soaked through with sweat. His complexion shifted from blood-red to paper-white, the veins on his forehead bulging as if he were enduring some immense agony.
Finally, at a certain moment...
With one final impact from the True Blood Stone’s energy, the pale golden mass of blood in his Dantian exploded.
Countless streams of golden blood surged from his Dantian, flowing back along the Eight Meridians to his entire body.
The gold of the newborn Qi Blood was several shades deeper than before. Wherever it passed, the inner walls of his meridians were coated with a layer of gold, but they quickly returned to normal as the Qi Blood continued to wash through them.
The breakthrough to the Blood Exchange Third Transformation was a success!
Lin Yan didn’t rush to open his eyes. Instead, his first act was to look inward, into his own mind.
When he saw the height of his Martial Arts Tree, he was stunned.
Back at the Blood Exchange Second Transformation, the height of his Martial Arts Tree had already exceeded his expectations. Now, it had once again surpassed the thirteen-foot mark, reaching a height of fourteen feet seven.
’My progress from the Second to the Third Transformation did indeed account for a two-foot increase, so that’s not the issue. This means that in the instant I broke through, the Martial Arts Tree’s height must have suddenly shot up.’
Lin Yan’s brow furrowed as his consciousness carefully scanned every inch of the Martial Arts Tree’s trunk and branches.
The trunk was sturdy, and the light from the Sword Skill Leaves was a bit brighter than before his breakthrough. But aside from that, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
’So what’s the cause?’
He replayed the breakthrough process in his mind. After a long moment, a flash of inspiration struck him.
At the moment of breakthrough, his body had twitched in an unusual way.
He had been so focused on compressing his Qi Blood at the time that he hadn’t noticed. Thinking back now, that twitch wasn’t a tremor caused by the surging Qi Blood, but a vibration from deep within his spine.
Stone Waist Thunder Ridge!
That solved it. It was definitely the Stone Waist Thunder Ridge at work.
Because he had broken through to the Blood Exchange Realm with Qi Blood Perfection from the Fourth-Time of Skin Smoothing, his foundation was greater. The growth he experienced with each transformation was slightly higher than that of an ordinary Martial Artist in the Blood Exchange Realm.
Last time, when he broke through from the First to the Second Transformation, it had grown a full three feet, far exceeding the usual two.
Of that, half a foot was likely thanks to the Stone Waist Thunder Ridge.
This time, however, it had grown a whole three feet three—even more than last time.

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