TL: Etude
Ye Tian's cloning talent was about 20 days away from its cooldown period, leaving him plenty of time. During this period, he spent his days either contemplating swordsmanship or nurturing his relationship with the War Blood Sky Dragon.
The War Blood Sky Dragon had just been born and its intelligence was still not fully developed, much like a human infant, requiring time to grow. Moreover, Ye Tian made a discovery: the dragon was particularly fond of consuming Qiong Beast Blood. Even if the blood did not carry the dragon lineage, the creature would still consume it. To the War Blood Sky Dragon, Qiong Beast Blood was akin to milk, facilitating its growth.
Seeing the War Blood Sky Dragon grow day by day, getting bigger even as it consumed large quantities of Qiong Beast Blood, Ye Tian was overjoyed. However, with both him and the War Blood Sky Dragon being large consumers of blood, the amount of Qiong Beast Blood needed for future cultivation would be enormous. Fortunately, he had a significant stockpile of Qiong Beast Blood, but he suspected he would need to frequently venture into the wilderness in the future to meet their needs.
A few days later, Ye Tian made a decision. He released Xiao Jin from his ownership, allowing the creature to become Ye Yu's beast companion. Xiao Jin grumbled for a while but eventually accepted the new arrangement obediently.
In truth, becoming Ye Yu's beast companion was not a demeaning thing. Ye Yu had consumed the Soulflower Ye Tian gave her and her cultivation talent had undergone a radical transformation. She was certain to become a Grandmaster in the future, and there was even a glimmer of hope that she would reach the King level. Thus, Xiao Jin quickly came to terms with becoming Ye Yu's beast companion.
A day before the cooldown for his cloning talent ended, Ye Tian withdrew from his contemplation of sword intent and sighed, murmuring, "Finally, my understanding of sword intent has reached nineteen percent. These past few months of arduous cultivation and contemplation have not been in vain!"
Nineteen percent sword intent meant that with just a bit more effort, he could achieve twenty percent, which was the threshold for practicing silver-level sword techniques. Ye Tian was highly anticipatory, as many silver-level sword techniques were said to possess special effects beyond merely increasing combat power.
Another day passed.
The cooldown for his cloning talent ended, granting Ye Tian two more opportunities to clone talents. The first opportunity he gave to the Blood-draining Talent, a top-tier talent in blood manipulation and precisely what he needed.
Once successfully cloned, he would be able to truly break the limits of blood refinement, allowing his skin, flesh, bone, and blood to reach unprecedented levels. He could then attempt the final step—breaking the limits of his internal organs to establish a perfect foundation.
"Merge!"
The Blood-draining Talent integrated into Ye Tian's body.
The transformation began.
Ten minutes later, Ye Tian successfully fused with the Blood-draining Talent and quickly understood its true utility.
"Consume blood to replenish vitality!"
Ye Tian immediately grasped the heaven-defying nature of this talent.
This was even more potent than the healing talent. While the healing talent could mend injuries, it could not replenish vitality, which was linked to one's life force and beyond the scope of simple healing.
For example, if Ye Tian had used some forbidden techniques that consumed his life force, the healing talent wouldn't be able to restore it. But now, with the Blood-draining Talent, he could consume large amounts of Qiong Beast Blood to draw vitality from it and replenish his own.
This was utterly groundbreaking.
"I've hit the jackpot, a big jackpot!"
Ye Tian was ecstatic.
Armed with both the top-tier Blood-draining Talent and the top-tier Healing Talent, any future injuries or severe side effects would pose no challenge; he would be able to recover swiftly.
Having acquired the Blood-draining Talent, Ye Tian immediately began practicing Purple Blood Refinement Technique
At that moment, Ye Tian astonishingly discovered that his Blood-draining Talent could perfectly synergize with the Purple Blood Refining Technique. The Blood-draining Talent allowed him to instantly absorb large amounts of high-level beast blood and store it deep within his veins. The Purple Blood Refining Technique could then draw out the power stored deep in the blood to refine the blood throughout his body.
As a result, when he cultivated the Purple Blood Refining Technique while activating his Blood-draining Talent, his rate of progress soared.
Based on this pace, Ye Tian was confident that he could break through the Blood Refining limit within ten days. This would be much quicker than breaking through the limits of refining skin, flesh, and bones. It was an unexpected delight.
However, rapid progress meant that he consumed more beast blood. In just a few days, Ye Tian had depleted all the beast blood he had stored. Regardless, he spent several billion to purchase a large amount of additional beast blood to compensate for the high consumption of high-level beast blood.
Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
On this day, Ye Tian finally sensed that he had reached the limit of Blood Refining.
"Break!"
Harnessing both his Blood-draining Talent and the Purple Blood Refining Technique, he amassed a huge amount of energy and instantly broke through the Blood Refining limit, stepping into a whole new realm.
At this moment, a tremendous change occurred in Ye Tian's blood. His blood became like mercury, even emanating a faint golden glow. By then, his blood had already surpassed that of ordinary people and was moving toward an even higher level.
Still, for the moment, even after breaking the Blood Refining limit, he could no longer elevate his blood to a higher tier.
"The next step is to break the limits of the internal organs. The internal organs are too complicated. Relying solely on talents will be almost impossible. I can only rely on a gravity array to crush and then reshape the internal organs in order to break the limits," Ye Tian planned.
For ordinary people, such an undertaking would be unthinkable. Even if they dared to attempt it, they would need a massive amount of high-grade healing potions and a lot of time to recover from their injuries.
But Ye Tian was different.
"I possess top-level healing talent and can completely heal quickly. As long as the internal organs are not completely shattered, I can recover quickly. Basically, as long as I heal in time, unless something goes wrong with my brain, I'll be able to recover," Ye Tian confidently thought, certain that he could break the limits of his internal organs.
At this point, he needed to find a gravity array with enough force to assist him in cultivation; otherwise, there was basically no way to break through the limit of the internal organs.
"A gravity array? I remember that the Demon Sea Base has a cultivation tower funded by several big families," Ye Tian recalled.
That cultivation tower had a variety of yuan force arrays, gravity arrays, and arrays that aided in speeding up cultivation, reaction time, and combat strength. However, the cost of training there was quite high, basically affordable only for the wealthy.
"Off to the cultivation tower!"
Ye Tian left his house and headed straight for the cultivation tower.
Demon Sea Base, Central Area, Demon Sea Cultivation Tower.
The entire tower stood at 500 meters, with fifty floors, each ten meters high, each housing numerous cultivation rooms.
At the entrance of the first floor of the cultivation tower, there was a specialized person collecting fees.
Ye Tian took out his identification card and asked, "How much for the highest-level gravity room for a day?"
"Highest level?" The staff member replied, "The highest level is the King-level gravity room, which is for King-level cultivators. There are only three, and all are currently reserved by three King-level individuals. The next tier, the Heavenly-level gravity room, is more than enough for top masters. You are just a Great Martial Warrior; there's no need for such a high-level gravity room."
"Then give me a Heavenly-level gravity room," Ye Tian said without hesitation.
"Alright, 50 million for a day," the staff member said.