As the sun hid itself beyond the horizon, the activities at Black Guardian Square gradually came to an end.
Many disciples broke out into smaller groups that held their own private gatherings, discussing either the events of the day or the contents of their upcoming joint missions. Most factions would be leaving Purple Plum Mountain the next morning, so this was the final opportunity for the disciples to finalise their plans for the future.
As for Zhao Yunxiao, instead of his usual practice of hopping around from private gathering to private gathering, he uncharacteristically returned to his residence early.
That was because his injuries from facing the sky lion were starting to act up. While he could definitely continue enduring the pain, he was afraid that the injuries would worsen if left untreated. Worse still, Gu Qiansi might end up sensing that something was wrong.
He did consider sending a clone in his place, but decided against it as some might see it as an insincere gesture. To avoid sabotaging his relationships with the various senior martial brothers and sisters of the inner sect, he had to reluctantly give up on the precious information that was basically there for the taking.
With the help of a medicinal pill and some light meditation, Zhao Yunxiao managed to suppress the internal injuries within the span of an hour.
That was when he finally stood up and walked over to the hanging carcasses in his residence.
There were ten carcasses, with individual containers carefully placed underneath each of them. By now, each of these containers had been filled with blood, all of them kept fresh with the help of a simple array.
Zhao Yunxiao ignored the bowls of blood for now, proceeding with the dissection of the carcasses.
These were all monsters and spirit beasts at the Essence Physique realm, with the sky lion even being at the Peak Essence Physique realm. There were naturally various uses for the different parts of their carcasses, and thus could be sold for a considerable sum of sect points.
As careful as he was about not damaging the goods, Zhao Yunxiao took a few hours before he was finally done putting the carcasses away.
That was when he turned towards the ten containers of blood.
The collected blood in each container looked similar, but closer observation would reveal distinct differences. They might all be red in colour, but the shade of red, the viscosity, the amount of blood, and the energy emanating from the blood all differed from container to container.
Of course, this only applied to the blood of different species. Almost no difference could be seen when comparing the blood collected from the four cloud lions.
After extracting a small amount of blood from each container, Zhao Yunxiao carefully stored away the rest for preservation.
Before long, he found himself standing in front of a big wooden chest, with seven small bowls laid out neatly atop the chest. Zhao Yunxiao carefully raised a small knife to his thumb, raising it just above the first bowl.
Slice-!
A few drops of blood fell into the first bowl, then the next, and the next. He repeated the process until a few drops of his blood had been introduced to each of the seven bowls, after which he skilfully patched up the small cut on his thumb.
Just like how there were obvious differences between the blood of the different monsters and spirit beasts, his blood was clearly different from them as well. His few drops of blood floated on the surface of each bowl, forming a distinct layer at the top.
Next came the crucial step.
Zhao Yunxiao turned his attention to the first bowl, which contained the blood of the Peak Essence Physique realm sky lion. Positioning his hands as if he were about to pick up the bowl and leaving the space of barely a centimetre between his hands and the bowl, Zhao Yunxiao started tapping into his dantian.
Essence energy gathered in his hands before forming into dozens of narrow threads that reached towards the small bowl.
Slowly but surely, the mixture in the bowl started to rotate, moving in a clockwise manner as though it was being stirred gently by an invisible spoon.
Zhao Yunxiao was extremely focused, taking extra care not to overdo things.
Not too fast, not too slow...
He might have already performed this blood experiment countless times in the past, but Zhao Yunxiao understood that he could easily still make a mistake during the process.
Control was key here.
As the mixture of blood continued to rotate within the small bowl, the few drops of blood from Zhao Yunxiao started to disappear, slowly assimilating within.
Sizzle-!
Bubbles rapidly formed on the surface of the mixture, each of them bursting into thick vapour that made it such that the contents were suddenly no longer visible to the naked eye.
And, just like the many times that he had performed this experiment in the past, it suddenly stopped – both the sizzling of the mixture and the formation of the vapour.
All that was left was a bright red liquid that remained in the small bowl, rotating at the same speed as before.
A failure.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao did not feel too disappointed by the result. After all, repeatedly performing and failing the same experiment over the years had long taught him to manage his expectations.
Instead, he indifferently opened up a scroll that was filled with words, all of them names of different creatures that he had successfully hunted in the past. Dipping a brush into the bowl of blood to use it as ink, he wrote down the words 'Sky lion' in the scroll before drawing a cross next to it.
He did not stop with just that.
Now that he was done with the sky lion, Zhao Yunxiao proceeded to repeat the process for the other six bowls with practised proficiency.
Sky lion, cloud lion, black-clawed ivory serpent, green flash jaguar, and three more monsters at the Primary Essence Physique realm – he quickly moved from one to another, logging each record in his scroll of failures.
That was when he came to the final bowl that contained the blood of a wartower tortoise – a giant tortoise monster that possessed a three-metre-tall shell, lined with hundreds of long spikes.
When Zhao Yunxiao was conducting the same experiment with the blood of the wartower tortoise, he finally encountered the very first positive reaction in his many years of performing this blood experiment.
As the few drops of his blood slowly assimilated into the blood of the wartower tortoise, there was neither any bubbling nor sizzling. The two different types of blood silently came together, forming a blood mixture with a uniform texture.
Zhao Yunxiao felt his heart skip a beat as he watched the new blood mixture continue to rotate peacefully within the small bowl.
For the very first time, his blood had not been completely overpowered and wiped out by the blood of the experiment subject. Instead, they had successfully assimilated as one without issue – a positive reaction!
He had finally encountered a positive reaction!
This meant that it should be safe for him to try to assimilate the bloodline of the wartower tortoise. If he could succeed in doing so, then he would also become someone who possessed his own special bloodline!
It might not have been the stronger sky lion, but that did not matter.
Zhao Yunxiao never thought about reaching the heavens in a single step, and having a single positive reaction was already way better than he had hoped.
That said, similar to how there were advantages to possessing a special bloodline, there could be potential disadvantages as well. In exchange for powerful attributes, certain bloodlines could result in negative traits such as poor sight or even a reduced lifespan.
While it was extremely rare for the negatives to outweigh the positives, Zhao Yunxiao had no intention of carelessly rushing into things. After all, this was something that would essentially alter his body composition for good.
The last thing he wanted was to end up sacrificing his freedom or lifespan for the sake of power!
Tomorrow, he would have to join his clone in researching the pros and cons of assimilating the bloodline of the wartower tortoise. There was way too much information hidden in the stash of knowledge that was the Sect Library, so only by doing it together could he gather as much information as he could in the shortest amount of time.
While he had already put in place means to preserve the blood of the wartower tortoise, these methods were only able to drastically slow down the decomposition process, not stop it entirely. As more time passed, the state of the blood would inevitably begin to deteriorate.
Whether this bit of difference would have a huge impact on the effect of bloodline assimilation was unclear, but Zhao Yunxiao definitely did not wish to take that chance.
If he ended up going ahead with the bloodline assimilation, then he wanted to ensure that he gained the greatest benefit out of it. To ensure that was the case, he would have to perform the assimilation as soon as possible!
Having decided that, Zhao Yunxiao once again brought out the scroll that recorded the results of his bloodline experiments. This time, after writing down the words 'Wartower tortoise', he proudly drew a circle next to it.
After cleaning up, he lit an incense and calmed his heart before popping a Winterwarmth Pill, ending the day with his daily meditation.
***
It was another early day for Zhao Yunxiao the next morning, though it was purely because he could not wait to start his day.
The sky was still dark when he completed his daily practice and left his residence, but he did not feel the least bit tired. On the contrary, his steps were light and his mood was bright. Even his internal injuries did not seem to bother him one bit, as he happily made his way over to the Lightwind Pavilion to start his day with a sumptuous meal.
In fact, he was so early that he left the Lightwind Pavilion even before the arrival of Nie Hanchang, who was usually the first to have his meal here prior to leaving for his hunting trips.
Zhao Yunxiao arrived at the Sect Library right at the break of dawn, where he quickly dived into the sea of knowledge.
He even willingly gave up on precious sect points by having his clone accompany him in information gathering instead of sending the clone to the Alchemy Chamber for his sect job duties, which clearly showed just how much he prioritised this matter.
As the greatest treasure vault available to outer disciples, the Sect Library truly did not disappoint. Just on tortoise-type monsters alone, there were thousands of records regarding the different types of special bloodlines.
General, positive, and negative traits.
Similar, contrasting, and complementary bloodlines.
Method to acquire and counter them.
All this information was packed into the nigh-uncountable books and scrolls, arranged neatly on the seemingly endless rows of shelves. Even though Zhao Yunxiao only intended to focus on tortoise-type beasts, it would still take hours to finish going through them.
While Zhao Yunxiao Two went through the information on the other tortoise-type bloodlines, Zhao Yunxiao himself sought out information specifically on the wartower tortoise. And as familiar as he was with the Sect Library, it did not take long for him to locate exactly what he was looking for.
Bloodline – Wartower Tortoise.
Type – Earth.
Pros – Increased overall strength and durability. Slightly increased lifespan. Increased affinity to the earth element.
Cons – Decreased resistance to sound attacks.
Active ability one – Temporarily increase body size, strength, and durability simultaneously.
Active ability two – Temporarily materialise a layer of extremely tough shell-like armour with spikes over the skin.
Zhao Yunxiao rubbed his chin in contemplation.
Overall, there was nothing too different when comparing the bloodline of the wartower tortoise to other tortoise-type beasts. It was likely that the main differences lay in the element of affiliation, as well as the extent to which the different bloodlines would alter the host's body.
As for the potential downside, it seemed to be a rather acceptable trade-off as well. Not only was it rare for cultivators to specialise in sound attacks, decreasing the chances of him encountering such an enemy, but he also had the rooster aspect of the Zodiac Scripture, which would counterattack this trait by increasing his resistance to sound attacks.
That said, this was all information recorded of past hosts of the wartower tortoise bloodline, but different people were bound to have different physiques, which could influence the effect of the acquired bloodlines. No matter how low the probability was, there was still a chance that he might experience something entirely different when assimilating the same bloodline of the wartower tortoise.
Should he take the chance?
Zhao Yunxiao closed the book in his hands, a determined light shining in his eyes.
What a meaningless concern.
World origin energy existed in all of nature, including within the earth. Therefore, an increase in affinity to the earth element would naturally also increase the rate at which he could absorb world origin energy, which essentially meant a smoother cultivation path ahead.
Just this benefit alone was already good enough reason to proceed, not to mention the other upsides.
As for the risk of experiencing something different due to differing physiques, that was basically a non-issue.
Uncertainties existed every step along the way when it came to cultivation. If he were too afraid to proceed simply because of this minute chance of experiencing something unexpected, then he might as well just give up on ever becoming stronger in the future!