After they found a suitable secluded spot, the group stopped so Wu Long could at least partially recuperate.

Hundreds and then thousands of talismans flew around them, creating a large formation which seemed to expand in layers.

“Eh? But isn’t this going to burden you more if you control a formation while you restore your condition?”

One Core Disciple asked in puzzlement.

“Mm, this one is not so hard to maintain, plus the process will get conspicuous very soon”

He smiled as he sat down on a rock in lotus position, taking out porcelain bottles.

He took a few medicinal pills and circulated the Chaos Refining Body Tempering Art to heal himself, or rather, undo the damage while using that which hurt him to strengthen his body even more.

As always, he could not do so with the self-inflicted harm from the internally running lightning and straining his body, but the minor injuries from the fight began healing quite quickly.

Though the wound on his forearm would take a while to heal, possibly days if he did not spend an entire day actively meditating and only passively circulating the technique.

After all, it was a wound from an attack of an Essence Awakening Realm opponent, but the benefits it would give him were a lot sweeter as well. Especially against same types of damage so he would gain an advantage in the fight with Gu Zhen as a result.

He also took a few Spiritual Qi Replenishing Pills, though considering his massive reserves which were now severely depleted, the small amounts they could restore were minuscule in comparison.

He only really used them as a catalyst to start replenishing his Spiritual Qi rather than seeking an immediate increase.

The Core Disciples and Xue Bing soon understood what he meant since a massive vortex of Spiritual Qi started forming above him.

‘Silver Tale Whale Heaven Swallowing Technique’

It was as if a giant maw opened up above him and a great suction started draining the surroundings of Spiritual Qi while the formations he spread earlier activated, concealing the unusual movement of Spiritual Qi while sucking in more from high up in the sky where it would not be as noticeable.

Silver Tale Whale was a Spiritual Beast Race with great ancestry. They were mostly a peaceful species, and neutral to any conflicts, though the fact they had a peaceful disposition did not mean they were weak.

This technique which they used to gather enough Spiritual Qi to cultivate was sometimes considered a hazard since they moved in large herds, and any area they passed was then drained of Spiritual Qi for some time, but it was rare that anyone dared to retaliate or try to drive them off with force.

Much like all of techniques of that race , this one was normally completely unusable without their bloodline, but Wu Long managed to adjust?it for his use, though it would have been much stronger if he did have their bloodline.

When their surprise subsided and he was in meditation for some time already, Hua Ziyan saw Xue Bing’s gaze on the meditating man, and smiled. The latter, in turn, noticing that turned her icy gaze to the former.

“Is him defeating an Essence Gathering Realm cultivator not at all surprising to you anymore?”

She asked to which Hua Ziyan gave a wry laugh.

“Hahaha, you know what? It should, but it honestly is not. Being around Wu Long can distort perception of what’s normal I guess”

Her latter words were laced with a little bit of introspection as she did not even think of this topic before she was asked.

“Is that not dangerous?”

“Hmm? Oh! No, I won’t run to try do the same hahaha! I know my limitations, plus he always explains how he does such feats which keeps us grounded in reality”

Hua Ziyan first did not get the meaning of the question, but?seeing a light worry in her gaze directed at herself, her expression that began fading into a pondering expression before widened into a smile once again.

“Hehe, what I meant before is that it can be very easy to forget he has his limits too…”

She then turned her gaze rapidly filling with devotion and appreciation to Wu Long who sat in a lotus position, as a pair of icy turquoise eyes first watched her do it and then joined with a thoughtful look.

The man in question was currently not only repairing damage and replenishing his Spiritual Qi, but also analyzing the results, comparing them to his expectations and making further progress in modifying his technique as well as general understanding of his new powers.

‘Hmm, I must admit, it was always an arduous process, and I always used concepts I barely learned when adjusting my techniques, but this time the difficulty is on another level’

He thought as he could not quite put his hand on the way to utilize the tremendous potential he felt in the Dao Runes.

His progress with bloodlines has also slowed down since he did not have any actual bloodlines to work with, leaving him only to theorize, extrapolating from his existing knowledge and accumulated experience, which was vast, but this way of doing things still had its limitations.

As his progress with both aspects of the new technique seemed to be approaching a bottleneck at which it would stagnate, his thoughts went to searching for a possible stimulus to facilitate a breakthrough.

‘Hmm, I might as well try to experiment with the Demonic Beast bloodlines again’

He finally thought of a temporary solution. There were quite a lot of Demonic beasts of higher tiers in this Secret Realm alone, and while most of them did not possess any special or particularly valuable bloodlines, he currently did not need that.

What he required was materials to experiment with and test out his theoretical approach, so if a bloodline carried even a little bit of strength of a particular Demonic Beast, it would be suitable for him. .

There was no need to worry about contaminating his bloodline for future as he would not tamper with his blood essence, only altering parts of the bloodstream.

He also had experience doing it when he was researching his technique in the past, as he used blood of Demonic Beasts bearing a distant very diluted bloodline of Dragons, such as Flood Drakes and related kin species.

This, of course, was long before he got his first real Dragon bloodline, but he successfully purged any impurities after he was done with his experiments with no lingering effects.

There were even a few times he made mistakes and contaminated his Blood Essence, which altered his true bloodline, but even then he managed to find ways to handle it and revert the harm he had done, never stopping his research on this in case he ever made similar mistakes.

He opened his eyes about half an hour after he sat down to meditate, with the ladies around him expressing surprise and worry.

“Eh? That’s it?”

“Wasn’t it too short of a time after something like that? Even if you used such mysterious methods…”

“If you are worried about time to get back, we can always abandon more exploration an quickly return the old route…”

The Core Disciples expressed their concern as a light smile touched his lips.

“Thank you for your concern.

Haha, it is true that I am worried about time, but then again any short amount of time will be negligible in recuperating and we cannot afford a longer one.

So it is better to get going, at least my Spiritual Qi has restored quite a bit”

He told them reassuringly, and proceeded to lead the group on a return path through the new route.

The trip back continued with almost no differences as he made sure to conceal their presence and they carefully moved avoiding any confrontations with no merit to them.

However, as they were passing through a valley, he made a signal to slow down and when they moved closer they saw only a single Demonic Beast in the 8th tier sleeping in the distance.

“Hmm? Is there perhaps another hidden treasure nearby?”

One of the Core Disciples curiously asked since there did not appear to be anything unusual in the vicinity.

“Haha, no, this time it is my own little errand”

Wu Long chuckled, looking at the Demonic Beast with a glint in his eyes.

This content is taken from 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚