Chapter 363: 363
The moment the blood merged, Hei Gou felt an indescribable power erupt in his body .
This power brought with it pain, unlike any he had ever experienced before .
It was clear that the second mutation was possible; his body was shedding the skin, replacing the bones, and regrowing the meridians .
He had been initially a Celestial dog, but after the first mutation, he had gotten wings like a crow .
Now he was once more mutating, but as to what results this mutation would bring to him, he had no idea .
At the current point in time, it was also impossible for him to actually think about the final result, all he could feel was immense pain, and he was gritting his teeth hard, fearing that if he started crying out, he would bite his tongue to end his suffering .
Seeing the handsome face contort in pain, the friends were all worried about him . They knew that it would be painful, but for it to be this bad was something they had never expected .
Xue Wei began blaming himself . Although he wanted Hei Gou to be stronger, he was not willing to see his friend pa.s.s through such pain for it .
The others were also worried about him . Even Bai Tianyi, who usually mocked him, had a frown on his brows as he looked at the silent Hei Gou .
"He will pull through it, and then he will be like a new beast," Bai Tianyi muttered, both to himself and the others .
They all stood guard around Hei Gou, waiting for him to be okay . At some point in time, his body began making weird creaking sounds, and at this moment, he collapsed, unable to keep his consciousness any longer .
Seeing him lose consciousness, all of them heaved a heavy sigh of relief . Now he no longer needed to feel the immense pain .
While he laid on the ground, the creaking sounds did not diminish, and no one dared to move even a finger of his, black goo began oozing out his pores, and all impurities within were being excreted .
They had no idea how long it would take for Hei Gou to shed his old body and gain a new one .
After what seemed like an eternity, Hei Gou suddenly jolted, but he did not awaken .
What did change, however, was that all the heaven and earth essence in the surrounding air suddenly poured towards him .
At first, it was the air just around them, but as the suction force within his body became bigger and bigger, more and more essence was needed to sustain him, and a small whirlwind appeared on top of his body, sucking in essence from as much as twenty li away .
The heaven and earth essence within the Ascended"s Realm was immensely heavy . It was not as deserted as it was in the outside world, hence when he absorbed this much energy, they started fearing that his body would be unable to refine it all in time and he might even explode .
But no matter how worried they were, they dared not touch him as that was likely to make it even worse .
Xue Wei was regretting his choice immensely by now, but he looked steadily at Hei Gou, hoping that his friend would be able to pull through .
After what felt like an eternity, the whirlwind slowly started to decrease in size . They could once more see Hei Gou"s body, and when they saw him, they felt worried . He was lying completely still, not moving a muscle, as to whether he had died, or he was unconscious still, they had no answer .
From when they had merged their blood until now, a full two days had pa.s.sed, and after another two hours, Hei Gou finally started stirring .
From his fingers twitching until his eyes opened, everyone was worried, yet when he slowly sat up, they were all feeling relieved .
Hei Gou looked at himself, and then he frowned . "How dirty," he muttered while looking at the black goo that had oozed out of his pores .
It was not before now that the others realized how dirty he indeed had become, and they could not help but chuckle slightly .
"There is a river here," Xue Wei said with a grin, "go wash yourself . "
Hei Gou could not stand the disgusting feeling of having these sticky black impurities all over his body, and thus, he quickly went to the riverside .
The sound of splas.h.i.+ng water could be heard in the distance, and after half an hour, a clean Hei Gou emerged .
Although he had just experienced an immense pain of remolding his entire body, he was not looking haggard . Instead, he seemed immensely happy and excited .
"I say, this was worth it all!" he exclaimed when he returned to the others, and without waiting for even a moment, he unleashed his aura, which proved that his Qi had risen to the rank of a first layered Earth Saint .
"This is not all!" he continued, and suddenly his body expanded . He turned into a ma.s.sive black dog, at least five meters tall, with big crow-like wings, and black flames shrouded his legs .
These black flames had not been there before, but now they were present, and they gave off an intimidating aura, it was clear that they were not ordinary flames in black, they were much more domineering .
Xue Wei was shocked when he saw this, but then a smile appeared on his lips, and he felt grateful . If there had been no result after all that pain, then he would genuinely have kicked himself, but it seemed that the result was much more amazing than he had thought .
"My midnight flame is immensely powerful!" Hei Gou said proudly, "I even have the chance of wounding a nine-layered Earth Knight if I use all the midnight flame I have at my disposal!
"Unfortunately, it takes quite a long time for the flame to reappear . Not to mention this, I also found that I have a variant elemental affinity . " he continued .
"The strongest elemental affinities belong to the five elements, but there are thousands of elemental affinities in the world . some of them are weaker while others are slightly stronger, but none of them can defeat the five pure elements .
"Anyway, I have attained an elemental affinity with both darkness and death!"
It was clear that Hei Gou was filled with excitement; his eyes were s.h.i.+ning .
After a short while, he returned to the shape of a human, but he couldn"t hide the smile on his lips .
Seeing that he did not at all take the pain he had experience seriously, Xue Wei also felt relieved, and then he smilingly shook his head .
"You are okay now, let us move out again . "
They were far behind the other people who were trying to find treasures because they had no idea of where they were .
Xue Wei wanted to get to the summer area, just like everyone else, and he was not willing to give up too many of the treasures .
However, he was aware that they truly needed to upgrade their strength before reaching summer . That was the place where men turned to dragons, and the weak became stepping stones for the stronger .
As a result, he picked one of the vessels that he had previously looted from the many people in the Twilight Thunder Zone .
There were vessels of all kinds, s.h.i.+ps, and flying s.h.i.+ps . These flying s.h.i.+ps were running on essence stones, and essence stones were something that Xue Wei did not lack currently .
As a result, all of them were leisurely sitting on the top of the flying s.h.i.+p . Xue Wei made it fly southwards, while he sat down crosslegged with some rare resources in his hands .
Within one hand was the feather of a G.o.d-ranked Vermilion bird . Within the other was a desert rose .
Both of them boosted the purity of one"s flames, and the purer the fire, the more damage it would cause in battle, the purer the pills one refined would be .
Xue Wei could have focused on raising his cultivation base . Still, considering the sudden boost to it that he had gotten from the merging with the G.o.d"s blood, he felt that it was better to consolidate his foundations for some time and focus on strengthening himself in other ways .
If he only cared about his rank, then he was likely to become a paper tiger, if he even was capable of continuing to advance .
Because of this, he decided that it was much better to focus on his newly earned flame, which he had gotten alongside his fire qi and affinity with the fire element .
The trip was very peaceful . The pressure did not hinder the vessel that they were using in the Ascended"s Realm, and due to the s.h.i.+p"s speed and the fact that it relied on essence stones, their rate and advancement were much faster than before .
Although they advanced faster because they flew above the forests, they also lost out on many resources that could be found in the forests beneath them . Still, Xue Wei prioritized the resources from the Summer area over the ones here .
From time to time, they would encounter a flying beast that would attack them, but after making a quick work of them, they quickly advanced to summer .
A few people had noticed their presence during their trip, but no one knew who was wasteful enough to use a vessel fueled by essence stones to fly within the Ascended"s Realm .
As they arrived in summer, Xue Wei made the flying s.h.i.+p land . He had already used all the energy that was present within four desert roses, and a third of the energy from the G.o.d Vermilion Bird feather .
putting away the feather, and dusting the crystals of the desert rose off his fingers, Xue Wei rose to his feet .
The others had also awoken from their cultivation, and stepped off the s.h.i.+p, letting Xue Wei store it within his storage treasures again .
"So this is summer," Luoluo said as she looked around . She was not sure of what she had expected, but it was definitely not what she was seeing .
There were lush fields as far as the eyes could see . Within these lush fields where the scent of herbs from time to time wafting towards them, it was clear that treasured herbs were hiding within the tall gra.s.s .
But where there were treasures were also dangers . It was evident that the tall gra.s.s was housing some dangerous beasts, some of which were sneaky while others were just plain strong .
Xue Wei was exited . They would be able to increase their strength by fighting these beasts, and at the same time, they would get the treasures that they were guarding .
It was not only him who thought like this, but all his friends were also the same; their eyes were s.h.i.+ning with excitement and happiness .
They had managed to be calm and collected on top of the s.h.i.+p while flying towards Summer, but now that they were here, they wanted to stretch their legs and wave their fists around .
"Well then, let"s try hunting . " Xue Wei grinned as he entered into the tall gra.s.s, closely followed by his friends .
They followed the scent of the herbs, and after a short moment, they arrived in front of a Flaming Ginseng .
The Flaming Ginseng was rare amongst ginsengs, as it required hot weather all year round, the slightest coldness would make it wither .
This one seemed to be at least a thousand years old, and when looking at it, they found that the energy contained within was denser than usual . It was a real treasure to any Fire Qi cultivator .
Just as Xue Wei was about to dig it out from the soil, a hissing sound arrived at the same time as a red-scaled snake the width of an arm shot out from the tall gra.s.s and headed straight for Xue Wei"s head .