The battle of the Domain of Nether Heaven taught Nie Tian a lesson, and made him realize that he was still far too weak.
The human world would surely experience lasting turbulence this time. Fortunately, his three domains weren’t plagued by the flames of war.
G.o.d domain experts were the only forces who could determine the result of this war.
He had realized that, given his current cultivation base, he wouldn’t be able to make a difference in this war.
Therefore, he had to improve his battle prowess as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
Under his command, Meng Li from the Divine Seal Sect took the Star Behemoth bone to the starry river outside the Realm of Maelstrom, and guarded it.
Since the Domain of Heaven Python belonged to him, and he was in the Realm of Maelstrom himself, he didn’t worry that there would be mishaps.
Right before going into secluded cultivation, he instructed Dong Li to do her utmost to gather high-grade spirit beast corpses, preferably eighth grade ones.
After that, he focused on refining Blood Essence in his residence in the Realm of Maelstrom.
The outsider corpses Fang Yuan had gifted him became the first batch of refining resources.
As he drained their flesh power through Life Drain, drop after drop of Blood Essence came to form in his heart.
At the same time, Dong Li informed the Domain of Heaven Python, the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, and the Domain of the Falling Stars to gather high-grade spirit beast corpses for him to sustain his cultivation.
To condense a drop of Blood Essence, he usually needed the whole corpse of an eighth grade spirit beast. Therefore, all of the eighth grade spirit beast corpses continued to be s.h.i.+pped over from the major sects in the three domains, and put into Nie Tian’s hands.
However, they were still far from enough.
Two weeks later, when Nie Tian had run out of them, he had a total of thirty drops of Blood Essence in his heart.
It happened to be at this moment that a subordinate of Fang Yuan’s found him and presented him with another ring of holding, inside of which were a dozen eighth grade outsider corpse.
Nie Tian thus resumed cultivation.
Meanwhile, the Divine Seal Sect, the Thousandsword Mountain Sect, and the Golden Vast Sect did everything within their power to find eighth grade spirit beast and outsider corpses for him. They went to various realms and traded for them with spirit jades and other cultivation materials.
Before long, new batches of spirit beast meat and outsider corpses were delivered to Nie Tian.
Only now did Nie Tian realize how important it was to have three subordinate domains and numerous subordinate sects.
Looking at the rings of holding that had been placed in front of him, he couldn’t help but sigh. “Copious cultivation resources are so important to Qi warriors.”
Those rings of holding came respectively from the Divine Seal Sect, Thousandsword Mountain Sect, Golden Vast Sect, Divine Flame Sect, Beast-controlling Sect, and other sects. Each and every one of them held a certain amount of spirit beast meat and outsider corpses.
“No wonder Qi warriors usually seek to join powerful sects. Independent cultivators can’t possibly get so much spirit beast meat within such a short time. Cultivators rely on all sorts of precious materials to make breakthroughs in cultivation and build domains. The stronger cultivators become, the larger their needs for cultivation materials will become.
“To be able to advance to the G.o.d domain, not only does a cultivator have to have outstanding cultivation talent, but an astronomical amount of cultivation resources as well.
“That means the less powerful sects may not even have the ability to cultivate a single G.o.d domain expert.”
Nie Tian came to a deep realization of how helpful sects could be to cultivators.
With these thoughts, he continued to focus on condensing Blood Essence, paying no attention to the turbulences in the outside world.
After prolonged, painstaking cultivation and countless numbers of spirit beast meat and outsider corpses, he finally acc.u.mulated fifty drops of Blood Essence in his heart.
Observing the diamond-like Blood Essence with his soul awareness, he grew very excited. “That’s it! Fifty drops of Blood Essence!!”
Then, he attempted to enter the origin of his bloodline, the Blood Realm, to seek the bloodline magics that he had longed for.
As his wisp of soul awareness approached the green aura in his heart, it was suddenly sucked into it.
The mysterious Bloodline Crystal Chains within the green aura instantly lit up.
The fifty drops of transcendent Blood Essence then started to hover around the green aura. All of them seemed to be ignited at the same time.
In a flash, all fifty drops of Blood Essence entered the state of Blood Essence Seething.
Nie Tian was struck by a curious feeling that he was floating in a sea of vigorous flesh aura. His wisp of soul awareness seemed to be pulled by a mysterious force within the green aura and stimulated by the fifty drops of seething Blood Essence, as it pierced through layer after layer of spatial limitations before eventually entering an indescribable dimension.
It was a surging sea of blood!
Deep within it, countless drops of sparkling and crystal-clear Blood Essence could be seen. Each and every drop contained life essence that was hundreds of times richer than his Blood Essence.
It was as if there was something somewhere in the sea of blood that contained the purest aura, that was the origin of life.
That aura was so immense that even the flesh auras of Grand Monarch Blood Axe and Grand Monarch Withered Bones were nothing in comparison.
As soon as his wisp of soul awareness was dragged to this place, all of the Blood Essence started to s.h.i.+ne with dazzling light.
Somewhere in the distance, the thing that emanated the origin of life suddenly sent out unique information.
Such information seemed to be vested with a profound awareness, as the moment it fused into his wisp of soul awareness, two bloodline magics were branded into the depths of his mind. “Life Shackle and Life Erosion...”
While the mysterious information was translated into two specific bloodline magics and became a part of his soul in that instant, he could vaguely sense that his fifty drops of Blood Essence continued to seethe.
Even his soul power was being consumed at an alarming rate.
During this process, he also lost track of time, and didn’t know how long he had actually spent in this uncanny sea of blood.
The moment he fully grasped the two bloodline magics, Life Shackle and Life Erosion, his wisp of soul awareness was pulled right out of the sea of blood, and he suddenly awoke from that mystical state of enlightenment.
Then, he found that his wisp of soul awareness was back in his heart, where the Blood Essence suddenly stopped seething, and started to fuse with one another.
Soon, the merging ended, and there were only twenty-seven drops of Blood Essence left.
“Once the Blood Realm is activated, my soul awareness will be able to enter it to obtain brand new bloodline magics, but a price of Blood Essence has to be paid,” He murmured quietly. “After the process, my Blood Essence will recondensate. I lost a total of twenty-three drops of Blood Essence and a significant amount of soul power to get these two bloodline magics.”
SHEW!
That wisp of soul awareness returned to his true soul. He opened his eyes and started pondering the details of Life Shackle and Life Erosion.
Both of them required Blood Essence to activate.
Life Shackle mainly targeted living beings with vigorous flesh power, such as Ancientbeasts and outsiders.
If his target’s bloodline was at the same grade as his, Life Shackle would allow him to suppress their internal flesh aura fluctuations, blood flow, and activation of Blood Essence, therefore largely reducing their battle prowess.
It would also have a certain suppressing effect on high-grade outsiders and Ancientbeasts, although the effect might be limited.
As for Life Erosion, what it would erode was lifespan.
This bloodline magic could be fatal to humans.
Once a human was enveloped by Life Erosion, they would start to lose their life power at an increased speed. They would rapidly grow old and weak, and their lifespan would shorten significantly.
For humans who had very limited lifespans to start with, a bloodline magic like Life Erosion was none other than a deadly weapon!
Many humans would rather suffer heavy injuries in battle than lose the slightest bit of their lifespan.
After all, limited lifespans were usually what troubled them the most.
Nie Tian’s eyes shone with the light of excitement. “Life Shackle and Life Erosion... One targets outsiders, while the other targets humans.
“Compared to Life Shackle, Life Erosion is even more terrifying when used in battle. Some may even consider it an evil magic!
“Both Life Grant and Life Erosion are heaven-defying means. One grants life, the other takes it away!”