The Third Bloodsurge was the last level of Palace Foundation. This level was just like its name suggested; from when the blood of a cultivator finally condensed into a single drop of longevity blood, this was the sign of a successful bloodsurge.
There was a widespread saying in the world of cultivation: The Physique grows one's Blood, the Blood feeds one's Life Wheel, the Life Wheel strengthens one's Fate Palace, the Fate Palace, in turn, helps strengthen one's Life Wheel, the Life Wheel, then, supplements one's Blood, the Blood augments one's Physique, and the Physique, then, protects one's Fate Palace.
Physique, Life Wheel, and Fate Palace; these three existences have always benefited and synergized with each other. One could not be missing from any of these.
A strong Physique allowed the blood energy to be strong. The strong blood energy would prolong the lifespan, the longer the lifespan, the stronger the Fate Palace would be, and a formidable Fate Palace allowed the cultivator to obtain an even stronger Physique.
The Fate Palace also lent its power to the Life Wheel. The Life Wheel would create Longevity Blood, the Longevity Blood would strengthen the Physique, and, then, the stronger Physique can protect the Fate Palace.
However, no matter how this system worked, all three were surely dependent on one's blood energy. If a cultivator's rank was too high, a weaker blood energy would not be able to support his formidable Physique, Life Wheel, and Fate Palace; thus, there was a need for the blood energy to become Longevity Blood.
Longevity Blood was extremely valuable to any cultivator. Each drop of Longevity Blood was created through many purification cycles. They were not only the pinnacle of blood energy, but they also contained the mysterious grand Dao.
There was another saying regarding the blood: "Ten thousand blood, one longevity; one blood, ten thousand years longevity." Many cultivators interpreted this differently during their training.
However, there was a common theme with their interpretations. It was that one drop of Longevity Blood required ten thousand bits of blood energy to form, and one Longevity Blood drop of an Immortal Emperor could allow a mortal to live for ten thousand years.
Although no one had tried to use an Immortal Emperor Longevity Blood on a mere mortal to prolong his lifespan; the above phrase should make it clear on how valuable it was regarding each drop of Longevity Blood.
To reach the stage of Third Bloodsurge wasn't anything impressive; a normal cultivator only needed a few months.
The crucial point of this stage was to use a Longevity merit law to improve the blood energy, and Li Qiye was doing just that.
The Life Wheel behind his back radiated its heavenly light while it rotated Li Qiye's blood energies in a circular pattern. Also, in the center of the rotation was a vortex. Once this vortex appeared, his blood energy became stronger and faster; it flowed like a torrential downpour.
Because of his Mortal Physique and Mortal Life Wheel, his blood energy was originally anything but impressive; however, at this particular juncture, his blood energy was reaching the level of Xiantian Physique and Life Wheel.
His blood energy flowed like a river, never stopping. It quickly finished one revolution around his Upper Dantian to his Lower Dantian. It became faster and faster until there was a giant vortex forming in Li Qiye's body, shaped like a round bloody crescent sun.
This was the magical and frightening part of the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law; this method could turn one's blood energy into an extremely powerful flow. Because of this unbelievable speed, the Fate Palace within Li Qiye's True Fate suddenly came to life.
In this moment, Li Qiye's True Fate had been completely awoken. It was akin to a huge Kun sucking up the blood vortex that was rotating because of his Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law.
The Kun kept on sucking in the vortex with extreme speed; the written incantations of the Kun Peng's Six Variants came into life with blinding lights. These incantations completely crushed the incoming vortex into smaller pieces in the refining process.
After the process, the blood energy became even purer and thicker with crystallized shinings. Then, the tempered blood was thrown back into the Life Wheel. The True Fate became even stronger as well as the Kun Peng's incantations. Each incantation resembled the Kun Peng as if they were made from real flesh; it slowly split into even smaller Kun Peng's as they flew to the four directions, filled with life.
The whole operation was very natural like this was how it always had been.
Li Qiye's Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law was actually purifying the blood energy, making it stronger, as well as using it to power the incantations within his Fate Palace.
Throughout the years, countless disciples had tried to cultivate the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law; however, they failed because their method was flawed and imperfect. They could only lament in failure.
Li Qiye's version was perfected through sheer effort and patience across the years. It was something that he couldn't have done by himself; however, he succeeded with the help of people like Min Ren, Tun Ri, and the Black Dragon King, amongst others…
After one day and one night of blood purification, he suddenly heard a thud; it was as if an extremely heavy object had fallen into his Life Wheel. At this moment, he felt like his mind was enlightened; everything was clear to him. His whole body was relaxed and surrounded with golden aura, and his blood aura, in the back of his Life Wheel, was brighter than ever before.
Li Qiye examined his body; he found a drop of flashing Longevity Blood; it was crimson like fire and extremely beautiful like it was a creation from the heavens appearing in the Life Wheel.
This drop of blood was the proof that Li Qiye had successfully broken through the stage of Palace Foundation and officially step into the Palace Expansion stage. [1]
If one was to say that Li Qiye took three months to reach the Second Awakening stage within the Palace Foundation, then no one would believe that it only took him one day and one night to create a drop of Longevity Blood; however, this was the frightening power of the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law.
A genius could reach the Second Awakening within a day, but it would take him at least ten days to form one drop of Longevity Blood. However, Li Qiye only required one day to accomplish this task; no one would be calm after hearing this news.
This was also why many geniuses chose the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law despite its flaws, in the past, because of its unbelievable speed for cultivation.
***
The next day, when Nan Huairen saw Li Qiye, he was very surprised and asked: "Senior… You… You… You have reached Palace Expansion already?"
"I reached it last night." Li Qiye insipidly stated.
If it was another person, he would be very proud; only the most heaven shattering geniuses would be able to form a Longevity Blood drop in one day; however, Li Qiye knew that this was all because of his merit law. He, personally, didn't have anything to be proud of.
After hearing Li Qiye's answer, Nan Huairen, in a daze, said: "Senior! I still remember that a few days ago, your True Face had still not reached the Second Awakening."
"Two days ago, I reached Second Awakening." Li Qiye was still as calm like water in a well, and he answered.
"You… You truly took three months to reach Second Awakening, but you only took one day to purify your first Longevity Blood drop?" After knowing the full story, Nan Huairen's frozen body weakly asked.
Li Qiye only smiled, without words. After a moment, Nan Huairen was both afraid and marveled by the speed: "The Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law is truly a wondrous method; no wonder many disciples in the past had tried to cultivate it."
His voice, filled with regrets, also rang again: "It is so unfortunate that the flaw of the method is also a fatal wound. Many geniuses tried to perfect this method, but no one had succeeded."
Nan Huairen curiously asked again: "At what stage will you switch to a different Life Wheel method?"
From his knowledge, he knew that one couldn't cultivate with the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law forever because of its unfixable flaw.
The best way to cultivate from the beginning to end, no matter if it was a Life Wheel law or Fate law, was to use the same method throughout; this was how one truly improved his cultivation.
A cultivator could change their existing cultivation method, but that would leave behind irreparable defects in the future for their grand Dao road. One day, when a calamity comes, this defect would be a fatal weakness.
However, for many cultivators, not many were exposed to the best merit laws when they first started their cultivation paths. If a person started with an Emperor merit law and stuck with it for his whole life, it was a good thing; However, if he started with a lower rank merit law, then his future achievement would be extremely limited.
From Nan Huairen's perspective, even though Li Qiye had cultivated the Revolving Crescent Sun Merit Law, in the future, he would need to change his method. Otherwise, he would ultimately be ruined by this merit law.
Because of this, Nan Huairen politely reminded Li Qiye: "Senior, you should quickly switch from this merit law; the sooner the better. Once you reach the dead end, it will be much harder to change; you will be unable to sever the control of this method from your blood energy."
[1] Palace Foundation, Palace Expansion, Physique Accumulation, Provision Palace, Inner Longevity, Heaven's Mandate, Warrior Canopy, Purified Rebirth, Heaven's Primal.