A curious yet familiar sound began to echo in his mind — rapid, agitated beats, growing faster and faster.
It was the sound of his heart.
It pumped blood in increasing quantities, as if producing without limit, trying to keep his body alive and stable.
But there was a cost: his lifespan.
Unbeknownst to Dante, the old master — who had disappeared — watched from a distance. His spiritual sense enveloped the young man's entire body, analyzing every molecule, yet his gaze remained fixed on the heart.
As the blood production increased, the elder sighed.
— Good… I thought the brat would die.
Blood in duality is a cruel tactic, but a necessary one.
When one passes through mana initialization, the body strengthens, yet something falls short: the heart and the blood.
Even if a meridian can be opened in the heart to enhance it, this only occurs in the final phases — and that is where the problem arises.
Dante's next step would be to absorb a thread of mana into his body.
However, mana is an unparalleled power — and even a body prepared to receive it still has three main flaws:
1. The blood evaporates.
2. The meridians become restricted.
3. The flow is disrupted.
Each flaw leads to the next.
When the mana enters, the body is elevated to another level — muscles, tendons, bones, and organs strengthen — but the blood remains unchanged.
A denser, stronger body generates more heat, and the blood, unable to keep up, evaporates, creating a bloody mist that seals the meridians and prevents mana circulation, leading to death or spiritual paralysis.
The Blood Duality method was created by the Second Patriarch of the Hidden Village, the Venerable Ancestor — the strongest man to ever set foot in that village, an eight-star cultivator at the second level.
He recognized the flaws in mana initialization and devised a solution: two opposing pools formed by his aura, designed to target the cardiac system and force the creation of infinite blood — almost like a benign blood cancer.
The infinite blood remained at the center, condensing, while its extremities were ravaged by heat and cold, fusing destruction and preservation.
Thus, the blood was transformed into living mercury.
This was the second — and penultimate — phase of mana initialization.
---
Back to Dante.
His body began to adapt to the two pools.
He, who had believed he was about to die, felt a strange normality — or something close to it.
The gaseous blood in his veins retreated like a condensing cloud, falling onto the blood that was being endlessly produced.
The crystallized blood, in turn, melted while maintaining a pseudo-frozen state as it fused with the rest.
The junction occurred just below the heart, between a main meridian and the great vein that sustained it.
The infinite blood reacted to both — merging as a base, completing the cycle.
The residues disappeared.
And everything fused together.
Then, a wave of that new blood coursed through Dante's body, filling every void.
It was thick like plasma, intensely red like tinted mercury, vibrating with living energy.
Dante, now breathing a sigh of relief, saw a black liquid expelled from his pores. The putrid smell was indescribable.
Residues.
Everything that no longer belonged in his body.
And thus, the Blood Duality was completed.