Two months had passed since Liang Zhen had stepped out of the cave, his body a testimony to the brutality of his transformation. He no longer felt the burning desire for survival or the exhilaration of battle. His heart, once full of conflicting emotions, now beat with nothing but the cold certainty of his path. Pain was just an echo, and victory was meaningless—both were simply consequences of his chosen method of cultivation.
Now, deep in the forest, he encountered his first **Bloodline Awakening** monster—a beast at the initial stage of its power. This creature, covered in scales as black as night, radiated a raw, primal force. It was a first-degree monster at the **Bloodline Awakening** level, meaning it had begun to tap into the deeper reservoirs of life energy, but it was still far from reaching its full potential.
Liang Zhen had learned, through the knowledge stored in the crystal, that The stages of human cultivation at each stage are divided into nine levels, and as for the monsters, each stage is divided into three levels : the initial, intermediate, and peak.
The monster Liang Zhen faced was only in the **Initial Stage**.
As the creature charged, Liang Zhen didn't hesitate. His body, forged through unimaginable pain in his cultivation of the **Eternal Body**, was tempered beyond what should have been possible for someone at his stage. Despite being at the **Iron Frame** level—merely the first stage of the Eternal Body—his strength had already propelled him to combat on equal terms with a monster at the **Bloodline Awakening** stage, though it was still just the initial level.
The battle was fierce, brutal, and unrelenting. The beast's claws tore into his skin, its fangs sinking into his flesh, and yet Liang Zhen did not flinch. His body absorbed the blows, and with each strike, his power seemed to grow. Blood stained the ground beneath him, mixing with the sweat and pain that marked his every movement.
But this pain was nothing new. It was the price he paid for power, and this battle would push him beyond his limits. For three days, he fought with the beast. His wounds, though severe, did not break his spirit—because there was no spirit to break. Liang Zhen fought not out of desire for victory, but simply because it was what he had to do.
By the end of the third day, the beast lay dead. Liang Zhen stood victorious, but the cost was steep. His body was covered in deep, festering wounds—evidence of the severity and harshness of the battle. His skin was marked with the scars of the struggle, each one a testament to the unbearable intensity of the conflict. His muscles ached, his bones cracked under the strain, but through it all, he stood.
The monster's strength, however, was not simply from its physical form. It had drawn upon the **Bloodline Awakening**, which was a process of absorbing and refining the blood and essence of other monsters and creatures, using it to rebuild and nourish its own body. This was a form of cultivation that brought strength through consumption, transforming the creature into something more deadly with each kill, each essence absorbed.
Yet for Liang Zhen, the victory meant little. The battle had left him teetering on the brink of death, but he refused to yield. He felt no joy in this. The wounds on his body were proof of the cost of his path. His strength had increased, but it was a cold, calculated power, born from suffering, not from any desire to surpass others. He had fought and won, but there was nothing to feel but the hollow satisfaction of survival.
In the aftermath of the fight, he recognized something strange. Despite the agony of his injuries, he could feel his power rising—not just from the monster's essence, but from something else. It was as though every moment of the battle, every second of pain and exertion, had forged a new layer of strength within him. The **Eternal Body** was a process that demanded everything and offered only the promise of more suffering—but now, with the battle behind him, Liang Zhen felt himself changing, growing stronger with each passing moment.
He knew that his cultivation method was unreasonable—that it defied logic. At his current stage, just in the **Iron Frame** of the **Eternal Body**, he had just defeated a beast in the **Bloodline Awakening** stage. To the world, this was absurd. But for him, it was just another step in his cold, relentless journey.
Liang Zhen did not feel superior. He did not feel anything. What mattered now was what lay ahead. He knew that the strongest cultivators in **Blackthorn City**, including his grandfather, Liang Tian Yi, were only at the **Elemental Control** stage. But for Liang Zhen, these human limitations meant little. The path he walked was beyond their comprehension, and whether it led to destruction or ascension was of no concern to him. All that mattered was the power he would gain from the suffering.