This was the seventh time Nie Tian’s bloodline talent had upgraded.
The first time, Life Transfer had been awakened. The second time, Life Stealth had been awakened. The third time, Life Drain. The fourth time, Blood Essence Extraction. The fifth time, Life Blend.
The sixth time, two bloodline talents had been awakened: Life Strengthening and Blood Essence Seething.
This was the seventh time.
The more bloodline upgrades he had achieved, the longer it had taken him to achieve new bloodline upgrades and awaken new bloodline talents.
Ten years had pa.s.sed since he had last acc.u.mulated enough flesh power.
Every time the green aura in his heart absorbed enough flesh power, it would fall dormant to digest the flesh power and brew wonders.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
One brand new Bloodline Crystal Chain after another appeared within the green aura in his heart.
Each and every one of them carried the profound truths of life.
“Hmm?!”
As more and more Bloodline Crystal Chains appeared, Nie Tian’s expression suddenly flickered. To his surprise, he found his seventh bloodline upgrade even more violent than his sixth.
With his sixth bloodline upgrade, two bloodline talents had been awakened: Life Strengthening and Blood Essence Seething.
However, the changes caused by his seventh bloodline upgrade seemed to be even greater.
Even though more Bloodline Crystal Chains still had yet to appear, Nie Tian had a peculiar feeling that they carried three different bloodline talents!
“Ten years of waiting and all the effort I spent acc.u.mulating flesh power has finally paid off!”
The flesh power fluctuations Nie Tian was now emanating were as intense as a sea in a storm. Even Pei Qiqi gasped with astonishment upon sensing them. “Nie Tian, are you...?”
Huang Jinnan, who had retreated to a farther location, didn’t sense anything. After all, he wasn’t a hybrid, and wasn’t as sensitive to flesh power fluctuations.
“My bloodline has just upgraded,” Nie Tian said, beaming with antic.i.p.ation.
Taken by surprise, Pei Qiqi went blank for a few seconds before snapping out of her daze. “Congratulations!”
Then, she took the initiative to walk away from Nie Tian, worrying that her special spatial power fluctuations would affect Nie Tian’s upgrade.
Soon, three brand new bloodline talents were branded in Nie Tian’s soul and body like ineffaceable imprints. “Potential Stimulation! Blood Essence Transcendence! Life Bestowal!”
Nie Tian grasped the essence of his three newly acquired bloodline talents in a flash.
Potential Stimulation was a way to use his Blood Essence to stimulate his body. Not only would it greatly enhance the intensity of his body, but it would also improve the effects of his previously-awakened bloodline talents to great extents.
That meant, once he activated Potential Stimulation, the efficiency of his Life Transfer, Life Drain, and Blood Essence Extraction would all improve significantly.
Furthermore, he would be able to achieve Life Blend, Life Strengthening, and Life Stealth within a shorter time.
Even the effect of Blood Essence Seething would be fiercer.
Besides all that, Potential Stimulation had another amazing use.
He would be able to use it on others to stimulate their potential to the fullest!
However, it would only work on outsiders, hybrids, or body-refiners like Yin Yanan, who had vigorous flesh auras running inside of them.
After all, Potential Stimulation only stimulated and enhanced flesh power, not spiritual power.
The second new bloodline talent was Blood Essence Transcendence.
As its name implied, Blood Essence Transcendence would allow him to condense Blood Essence that was more refined, and carried new a brand new wonder: the ability to extend his lifespan.
Aside from that, the capacity of his Blood Essence reserve was also increased.
Before he could only refine a total of ten drops of Blood Essence. After that, no matter how much flesh power he absorbed, he wouldn’t be able to condense another drop of Blood Essence.
However, now that he had awakened Blood Essence Transcendence, not only would his Blood Essence become more powerful and wondrous, but he would also be able to condense fifty drops at a time.
That was five times the original amount.
The third new bloodline talent was Life Bestowal, which would couple perfectly with Life Transfer and allow him to infuse his transcended Blood Essence into the heart of any living being.
If he used Life Bestowal on outsiders, he would be able to vest them with vigorous life force and enhance the power of their bodies.
If he used it on humans, he would be able to achieve something even more shocking.
It would allow him to extend their lifespans!
By performing Life Transfer and Life Bestowal simultaneously, and infusing a drop of his Blood Essence into another human being, he would be able to give him or her ten years of additional lifespan!
One drop of Blood Essence equaled ten years of additional lifespan! Such a wondrous effect was even better than that of the mysterious berries he had obtained in the b.l.o.o.d.y Grave Mountain Range.
Now that his bloodline had advanced to the seventh grade, he could have a Blood Essence reserve of fifty drops.
If he were to infuse all fifty drops into another human being’s heart, he would be able to prolong his or her lifespan by a total of five centuries!
Back in the day, he had obtained two Fruits of Life in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, which he had given to Wu Ji and Hua Mu. However, they had only prolonged their lifespans by a hundred years.
If his bloodline had advanced to the seventh grade back then, he would have been able to prolong their lifespans with no external help, and to better effect.
Humanity’s greatest inherent weakness was their feeble bodies and short lifespans.
The only reason why they were still able to contend against the other higher races was because they could make up for their shortcomings by developing their spiritual seas and practicing all sorts of power.
The only way they could extend their lifespans was to make rapid breakthroughs in cultivation.
However, that was too difficult a task for many human Qi warriors. Numerous respected figures like Wu Ji and Hua Mu had faced situations where they were in desperate need of extra years.
It wasn’t just them; even many Void, Saint, and G.o.d domain patriarchs had to face the same lifespan problem sometimes.
Therefore, in most Qi warriors’ eyes, things that could prolong their lifespans were far more valuable than treasures like soul crystals.
Fruits of Life existed only in legends. Only in farfetched legends did people manage to find them and prolong their lifespans with them.
However, Nie Tian had actually gained the divine ability to prolong other humans’ lifespans after his bloodline advanced to the seventh grade.
This was simply heaven-defying!
However slow-witted Nie Tian might be, he had to know what it meant to be able to prolong others’ lifespans.
With these thoughts in mind, he trembled with excitement, but also a tinge of fear.
“This bloodline talent is such a gift from the heavens! But I’ve got to keep it a secret. Once people find out about it, countless patriarchs with lifespan problems throughout the human domains would definitely stop at nothing to find me!”
While he was consumed with this shocking bloodline talent of his, he was suddenly struck by a feeling that his wisp of soul awareness he had sent into his heart was now being attracted by the green aura.
It was as if, buried deep under the three new bloodline talents, something was calling out to his soul.
A violent shudder ran through him. “It’s the origin of bloodlines: The Blood Realm!”
He almost skipped with excitement and ecstasy.
From his master, Wu Ji, and others who studied the outsiders’ wonders, he had learned a secret.
All of the higher races, including all kinds of powerful Ancientspirits and outsiders, had their own Blood Realms.
Those Blood Realms were the origins of their bloodlines, which were branded with a vast variety of bloodline magics.
Bloodline magics were different from bloodline talents. Bloodline talents were similar to humanity’s spiritual incantations, while bloodline magics were more like specific skills and ways to unleash bloodline power.
Some bloodline talents could be used as powerful attacking means as well, but that wasn’t the case with the majority of them.
For example, bloodline talents like Life Transfer, Life Stealth, and Blood Essence Extraction couldn’t used to kill his enemies.
Only Life Drain, Life Blend, Life Strengthening, and Blood Essence Seething would provide him with help in battle.
Even so, they weren’t technically attacking means. All they did was improve his battle prowess and performance.
Meanwhile, almost all bloodline magics were attacking techniques. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them the quintessence of the art of battle.
Normally, there were three ways for Ancientspirits or outsiders to obtain bloodline magics.
The first way would be to study the profound mysteries of their bloodlines and derive new bloodline magics from their enlightenment and epiphanies. However, since this was creating things from scratch, only a handful of the most powerful figures in a race could do it. They had to have extremely deep understandings of their bloodlines, and special opportunities had to present themselves.
The second way they would be to learn bloodline magics was from their accomplished clan seniors.
The third way would be to obtain them directly from the origin of their bloodlines: their Blood Realms.
All of the ancient races had their own Blood Realms, which didn’t exist in the real world, and were almost impossible to find.
However, powerful outsider experts would have a slim chance at entering their Blood Realms when their bloodlines upgraded, or they were deriving enlightenment from the profound mysteries of their bloodlines.
It was said that only tenth grade grand monarchs could understand the profound way Blood Realms worked, and leave behind the bloodline magics they had created in them.
As for Nie Tian, from the day he had awakened his Life Bloodline, he had already awakened a number of bloodline talents. However, he didn’t know how to fully display the might of his bloodline power in battle.
What he lacked was bloodline magics.
To begin with, his bloodline was still at a low grade. His understanding of it was far from deep enough for him to create any bloodline magics from scratch.
Besides, he still hadn’t found the origin of his bloodline, or a senior who shared his bloodline.
To obtain new bloodline magics, his only option was to find the Blood Realm of his bloodline and obtain new bloodline magics from it.
However, over the years, he had never felt the summons of the Blood Realm of his bloodline, and thus didn’t know where to find it… until today!
A sense of exhaustion overtook him as his wisp of soul awareness sensed the summons of the Blood Realm with rapt attention.
After pondering for a while, he gradually realized that he would have to be in peak condition if he wanted to find and enter the Blood Realm of his bloodline.
‘Peak condition’ meant he had to have all fifty drops of Blood Essence in his heart.
“Only after condensing fifty drops of Blood Essence will I have a chance at entering the Blood Realm and finding the bloodline magics I need to maximize my battle prowess!”
With this thought, he suddenly noticed that the ten drops of Blood Essence in his heart had started to merge with each other.
At the same time, he had a feeling that his body was now desperate for a tremendous amount of flesh power.
Such strong yearning came from that green aura, as well as his entire body!
“Now that my bloodline has made an advance, I’ll have to start acc.u.mulating flesh power again to prepare for its next upgrade. The amount of flesh power that green aura absorbed the last time was already astronomical. I wonder how much flesh power I’ll have to get for it this time...
“Aside from that, after this upgrade, the amount of flesh power my internal organs, bones, blood, and meridians can hold had also multiplied. That means I’ll also have to spend a great amount of flesh power filling that hole.
“Lastly, now that my Blood Essence has become more refined, how much flesh power will I need to condense a drop of Blood Essence now?”
Nie Tian went blank. He suddenly felt that he was like a black hole that sucked all living beings into itself. The amount of flesh power he would have to gather drove him to despair.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
He smiled bitterly for a long while before activating Life Drain to channel the last remaining flesh power from the Goldskin Beast skull.
After entering his body, the vigorous flesh power streamed directly into his heart, where it fused into the merging ten drops of Blood Essence in an attempt to condense a drop of transcendent Blood Essence.
Hours pa.s.sed, and the drained Goldskin Beast skull suddenly crumbled, its ashes scattering into the wind.
Only then did a drop of new Blood Essence come to form.
Nie Tian made some calculations in his head, and realized that the amount of flesh power he needed to form a drop of transcendent Blood Essence was roughly the amount of flesh power an eighth grade outsider or Ancientbeast normally held.
“Only after condensing fifty drops of Blood Essence will I have a chance at entering the Blood Realm. And fifty drops of Blood Essence equals fifty eighth grade outsiders or Ancientbeasts. Jeez!
“Besides, my internal organs, bones, meridians, and blood also need more flesh power.
“I suppose the amount of flesh power that green aura will need to get ready for its next upgrade will far exceed what it takes to condense fifty drops of Blood Essence... When will this end...?”
Gazing into the starry river, Nie Tian sighed with mixed emotions, having a headache over the unimaginable flesh power shortfall he was facing.