2 days later...
Misty Maze Forest….
Like always, the green lush forest and the tall mountain valleys were wearing the blanket of faint white fog, but unlike before, an enormous round half-transparent barrier was covering a huge floating island with a pyramid-like building at its center.
It was the same island and tomb, Rex got from Myriad Beast Continent, the insides of the tomb was going through some modification right now but on the outside, it was mostly the same, if there was something different then it was the strange octane white platform present on the flattened ground on the right side of the island.
The platform looked like it was made of pure white marble, an array was led on the surface of the platform, under the combined effects of the array and the platform itself, a large amount of spiritual Qi was accumulated around it.
The spiritual Qi was so dense that faint droplets of spirit water had now formed on the surface of the platform.
Zakiya was cultivating on one side of the platform, she was sitting cross-legged and her eyes were tightly shut, her heart was beating in fixed rhythm. Aside from that, her skin was now white as paper and her ears were slightly pointed, she was in her Bloodthirsty form. The form had both advantages and disadvantages, Zakiya had proper control of her form so she was enjoying the advantages of increased blood cultivation speed.
Nine jet black rings were spinning around her body, with an addition of a pitch-black sphere floating above her head. It was the effect of using her special main cultivation technique ‹Nine-Revolution Rebirth Art›, at Return To Nature mastery stage.
As the name says, the technique is divided into nine stages, with each stage it would be like rebuilding a new body using the previous one as raw material, every ring represents the completion of one stage and after nine rings are formed, a black sphere such as this one would appear.
It means Zakiya has completed all nine-stage, she was able to do it after ingesting Elixir Of Life which enhanced her body and the insights she received while fighting the poison all these years in seclusion.
The competitions of the technique were without a doubt Zakiya's biggest gain in all these years, completing it means, she has refined her whole body a total of nine times, it was just like refining a Treasure Artifact, again and again, to keep increasing its grade.
As a result, her strength skyrocketed, she stepped into a whole new league especially considering that she was already deemed invincible in her cultivation stage. This was where her absolute confidence to win the duel came from.
Zakiya stopped cultivating and the rings around her disappeared into her body, her long frosty eyelashes flickered as she slowly opened her eyes.
Her eyes landed on the humanoid ice sculpture or a human frozen into black ice to be more precise, at the center of the platform. The man imprisoned in the ice had long black hair, a calm expression, and the grand temperament of a… Freelancer.
It had been almost two days since Rex took the second Blood Tempering Pill and continued his halted blood cultivation. For these two days, his inner body was in chaos, his blood vessels were flooding with the rampant blood, it was almost like his blood was boiling. Unlike last time when his skin was hot and tender like fresh meat, this time it was rough and dry like tree bark, several scars showing the signs of muscle ripping and tearing were present on his body, the dried blood was covering his wounds.
'Just how is he able to absorb so much from a single pill? Even if he doesn't eat many pills and his body has a talent in the absorption of the medicinal effects, even talent has a limit,' Zakiya wondered.
She could sense that Rex has almost finished absorbing its effect that's why she stopped her own cultivation session to check on him.
Zakiya reached out to remove the ice but suddenly, smalls cracks appeared on the surface of the ice.
..Crack...Crackle…
The cracks then expended all over the sculpture, with a 'Boom' sound the ice shattered and got thrown in different directions.
Torn and dirty pieces of skin and clothes were also thrown around, frozen in those ice shards.
This sight slightly surprised Zakiya, although it was just a weakened thin layer of ice, it was still her prison ice he broke free from.
Rex first joined his hands then stretched his arms above his head, light crackling of bones sound came out of his body as he limbered up. He wasn't wearing clothes but a long coat made of shadow was covering his body.
He took a deep breath then placed his hand on his chest, feeling the change in his heartbeat.
'Give me an update,' Rex said.
[The new core is successfully formed, your normal heart rate has decreased by 30%, your base HP regeneration is further increased by 20%, your VIT and END experience the greatest boost of 40% and 35% respectively but because your current status is actually a comparison of the mediocre cultivator who has cultivated Qi, soul and blood path, you won't see a major change in status,]
"Blood Core peak stage? Not bad," Zakiya praised.
The Blood Core stage in blood cultivation was the same as the Golden Core stage in Qi cultivation.
Rex's back was facing Zakiya, when he heard her voice, he turned around to face her.
"Teacher, I thought I would be able to at least reach Core Breaking stage, you sure that Alchemist didn't sell you fake goods?" Rex asked in a doubtful tone.
Zakiya's lips twitched.
'Why just Core Breaking stage? Directly aim for Sky Qi Transformation stage and ascend to Higher Realm,' She inwardly snorted.
"You never get satisfied, do you? The first pill was a 1 Star Blood Tempering Pill, it let you reach from zero to Earthly Blood early stage, and this 4 Star Blood Tempering Pill let you reach the Blood core peak stage from Earthly Blood early stage, but you are not satisfied? You might not know but the effects were indeed at least 4 times compared to the previous pill, I even believe that you have absorbed more than 5 times compared to a normal person.
Tell me something, can one cultivator among four Earth Venerable stage cultivators reach Golden Core stage?" Zakiya asked.
Rex shook his head.
"Correct one in four aside, even one is a thousand would be an understatement, and it's just for Middle Realm, the pill let your reach Blood Core stage shows its value in itself, so the benefits you got were already quite high, after all, it is just a Blood Tempering Pill, if not for the quality it isn't that precious," Zakiya said.
Rex didn't refute her, he already had this idea.
"Let me check, how is your Blood Core," Zakiya said then placed her hand on his shoulder.
Rex didn't resist and let her probe him.
In Qi cultivation, when cultivator reaches the Golden Core stage they form their core in their dantian, its type depends on the elemental Qi they have like the cultivator that cultivates Wood Qi will form Wood Core, if they cultivate Poison Qi then they will get Poison Core.
When Rex walked on soul path, he had to form his Soul Core too but the soul and Spirit Qi are different existences than normal Qi, he formed his Soul Core in his Beast Core instead of his dantian as he already had to focus on separating his Yin and Yang Qi in his twin dantian at that time.
It wasn't anything extracting to form Soul Core in Beast Core instead of dantian. There are also some exceptional soul cultivators in the monster race, if it wasn't like that then they would never be able to walk on the soul path because they don't have dantian, to begin with.
In blood cultivation, Rex had to form a Blood Core, the Blood Core was formed at the place where all the blood in the body gets pumped to the rest of the parts, in simple words… Heart. A Blood Core is not as big as Golden Core, it's usually even smaller than a marble.
It forms at the centermost part of the heart which allows it to extract and mix Qi in the blood while it is getting pumped to the rest of the body.
Zakiya checked for a moment before retracting her hand with a satisfied smile on her face.
"The size is normal but the quality is extraordinary, your lineage is highly pure, the Blood Core is normally like a round stone with rough surface imbedded inside the flesh but yours is like a red pearl, its surface is smooth and soft," Zakiya said.
If she had never met Rex and had seen this type of Blood Core in someone else, she would be seriously shocked but now after seeing too many Not-So-Common things in Rex, her vision has broadened… To an absurd level.
Rex nodded in understanding.
[I have a feeling that her common-sense won't appear so common after she returns to Higher Realm,]
'I am seeing that you are having too many feelings these days, focus on the work,' Rex said.
[Oh, sorry, you see it looks like I caught on your habits after living with you for so long,]
Rex acted like he didn't hear any sarcastic comments and focused on the changes in his body.
His skin has become softer, the blood vessels have expanded, all his five senses got sharpened by a notch. He now had the confidence to take on the Leech albeit he still didn't have an attack that could kill it.
"Teacher, Luna has shown you the full form of Leech, right? If you were to fight him at full strength how long would it take?" Rex curiously asked.
"It depends, if I have to just stop and trap it then 10 seconds are more than enough, in Shadow World, it would lose all its senses and can do nothing. Crimson Sun Emperor thought that the Leech would be almost invincible inside the tomb but there are always unexpected factors like you using the Ancient Poison, my Shadow Laws and its law ability is also an unexpected factor. If it is about completely killing the Leech and I go all out, use that… It would take some time then... Hmm… I would need about 2 to 3 hours," Zakiya said extending her three fingers.
Rex's face was stiff, he was sure Zakiya could defeat it, after all, she was a genius from an Ancient Clan that also ignored Crimson Sun Emperor.
If she couldn't, then Crimson Sun Emperor would definitely get chased by Ancient Clans, although they worry about their face but if the gains are enough then who would stay back.
Leech might be strong in its domain, but powerhouses are called powerhouses for a reason, they all have their hidden cards just like Leech was Crimson Sun Emperor's card.
If Leech fought outside the tomb then its territorial advantage would disappear.
Furthermore, after doing some research Rex also found a huge weakness of Leech, it lacked intelligence, last time the one giving it the orders was Luna.
Because of all these things, Rex didn't doubt that Zakiya can defeat it, what surprised him was the time she needed to defeat the Leech.
'Just what kind of attack does she have? Dammit, if I was strong enough I would have vaporized that Leech in an instant using Atomize alone sigh… I need a stronger killer move,' Rex thought.
"You have said, the new Ancient Teleportation Portal has completed, does it work?" Zakiya suddenly asked.
"Hmm… It works here, but to truly test it, I have to first go to Lower Realm and set up the other half there, only when it can work between two different planets would it be worthwhile to continue investing so much in it. That's why I would be heading to Lower Realm tomorrow morning," Rex said.
Zakiya nodded, she was an expert craftsman so the matter of Ancient Teleportation Portal had caught her eye, she wanted to see if it can really work, because if it can, then it would mean Rex can make good use of the lost technology from the Ancient Era.
After a brief discussion with her, Rex left for the castle.
He didn't try to breakthrough to the Sky Body Formation stage right now as he needed time to relieve the strain of raising cultivation base in blood cultivation rapidly and also getting used to the increased strength.
For now, he planned to go to Lerna and tell her about him leaving for a while.
...
Next morning…
Rex was standing at the terrace of the castle with a mysterious looking wooden scroll in his hands.
He turned his head and looked at Altan, Andusk, and Jiang Shuang standing far away from him with cameras in their hands, his lips convulsed.
'Does these bastards think I am some kind of endangered rare beast?' He thought.
"Chief, use it without any hesitation, even if something unexpected happened and you perished in the process, we will inherit your legacy and advance Frozen Flame to the universal level, you can leave this mundane world without regrets," Altan said while waving his hand in the air.
"…" (Rex)
"Don't worry, if I really die, I would take you with me," Rex said with a smile yet not a smile.
Altan's face stiffened.
"He is… Joking, right?" Altan turned to Andusk and asked.
Andusk ignored him.
Jiang Shuang looked at Altan, wondering where did he inherit this seeking death trait from.
Rex removed his focus from the trio, took a deep breath then activated the Ancient Teleportation Scroll by injecting his Qi into it.