Perfect 🔥 Let's dive into **Chapter 3** — this is where Xu Lan starts to **push the limits of the Eternal Devouring Scripture**, facing multiple beasts, nearly dying, and experiencing his **first real breakthrough in cultivation**.
---
Chapter 3: Baptism of Blood
The forest grew darker the deeper Xu Lan ventured. The air was heavy with damp earth and the coppery tang of blood — some his own, some belonging to beasts that had already fallen under his trembling hands. His body ached, torn robes clinging to cuts and bruises, but his eyes burned with relentless determination.
Every beast he killed was another step forward. Every essence he absorbed tore him apart and rebuilt him in ways both wondrous and horrifying.
The Eternal Devouring Scripture whispered in his mind, each verse carved deeper with every use:
"Consume the essence of beasts. Burn their vitality into your marrow. What is borrowed becomes your own."
Xu Lan's hands still shook from his earlier battle with the three-eyed wolf. His meridians were no longer lifeless; they glowed faintly, threads of crimson qi coursing through him. But this newfound power was unstable, wild, and dangerous. If he stopped here, it might consume him from within.
So he pressed on.
A rustle in the bushes snapped him from his thoughts. His breath caught as two shadows leapt out: a pair of **Iron-Tusk Boars**, their ivory fangs glinting with killing intent. One he might manage — but two? His chest tightened. His first true test of survival had arrived.
The boars charged, tearing through the underbrush. Xu Lan rolled aside, narrowly avoiding being skewered. His ribs screamed in protest, but he forced himself up, clutching a broken branch like a spear.
"Come, then!" he roared, surprising even himself with the feral edge in his voice.
The first boar lunged. Xu Lan ducked low and rammed the sharpened branch into its side. It squealed in rage, thrashing violently, but he pressed his palm against its body, activating the scripture. Essence poured into him like molten fire. His veins lit up, meridians expanding under the strain — and then, with a deafening crack, the branch snapped, leaving him vulnerable.
The second boar struck. Its tusk slashed across his shoulder, sending him sprawling into the dirt. Pain blinded him, hot blood running down his arm. For a moment, he couldn't breathe.
Is this where I die?
The thought flashed by, cold and heavy. But then the warmth of the absorbed essence surged within him, fueling his body with unnatural vitality. He staggered up, eyes blazing red. His wounds burned, but the pain only sharpened his focus.
The surviving boar pawed the ground, readying another charge. Xu Lan crouched, then leapt aside at the last moment, grabbing onto its back with desperate strength. His fingers clawed into its coarse hide, his other hand pressed firmly to its neck.
"Give me your strength!" he screamed.
The boar bucked and thrashed, but Xu Lan clung like a starving beast. The scripture roared within him, drawing the creature's life force into his body. The boar's movements slowed, its strength drained, until it collapsed in a shuddering heap.
Xu Lan fell beside it, gasping for breath, body trembling uncontrollably. His vision blurred, blood dripping into the soil, but within his chest — something shifted.
A surge of energy burst from his dantian, spreading like wildfire. His crippled meridians cracked and reformed, threads of qi intertwining into a faint but stable flow. The crimson glow steadied, deepened, until it pulsed with raw vitality.
Xu Lan had done it.
He had broken through.
From trash who couldn't cultivate… to a true first-stage cultivator.
The forest around him seemed to acknowledge his change; the cries of distant beasts echoed differently now, like a challenge rather than a threat. His body, though battered, radiated power he had never known.
He collapsed against the trunk of a tree, laughing hoarsely through bloodied lips.
"First stage…" he whispered. "They said I'd never touch qi… and yet…"
But beneath the exhilaration, a shadow lingered. His reflection in a nearby pool of water startled him. His eyes, once dull and brown, flickered faintly with a predatory red. His breathing came in short, ragged bursts, more like a beast than a man.
The scripture had given him power. But it was changing him.
Still, Xu Lan clenched his fists, eyes narrowing toward the horizon where the sect lay hidden behind the mountains.
"I'll climb higher. Stronger. Even if I become a monster… I'll never be trash again."
And so, amidst the blood of beasts and the whispers of the forbidden scripture, Xu Lan took his first true step into the path of power — a path paved with corpses, both beast and man alike.