"Boss, how are you feeling?"
Big Head asked, his eyes darting between the machine's readings and Hong Fei's face.
Hong Fei curled his lip in irritation.
"I'm fine. Stop fussing."
Big Head fell silent, staring at the total volume of blood already drawn. The average adult's blood volume is roughly 7% to 8% of their body weight. But Hong Fei wasn't average—his enhanced bones and vital organs made his weight impossible to calculate conventionally. Estimating based on a standard 90kg frame, his total blood volume would be around 6300ml to 7200ml.
At 10% blood loss, most people feel fine. At 20%, weakness, cold extremities, and cold sweats set in. At 30%, it becomes life-threatening.
Hong Fei, however, wasn't most people. When Big Head first asked at 20%, Hong Fei waved him off.
"Keep going."
At 30%, the same answer. 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%—still nothing. Now, at 55%, Hong Fei showed no discomfort, no significant drop in blood pressure.
Big Head glanced at him, bewildered. Hong Fei silenced him with a look. The room was quiet except for the low hum of machinery. Then, Hong Fei frowned.
"That's enough."
Big Head hurried to finish, pulling out the needle. The wound healed instantly as Hong Fei stood.
"How much did you take?"
"5000ml."
"Five liters?!"
Hong Fei stared at him in disbelief.
Big Head pointed to the machine's display.
"Exactly five thousand, Boss. Not a drop more, not a drop less."
Hong Fei looked at the numbers and exhaled sharply. Five liters—enough to fill four large bottles of cola. He turned to Big Head, incredulous.
"Were you trying to kill me?"
Big Head's face twitched.
"Boss, I asked you seven times. You said it was fine every time. Your blood pressure barely budged, and all your vitals were normal."
Hong Fei said nothing.
Big Head ventured cautiously, "Boss, in clinical practice, repeated blood draws can stimulate bone marrow activity, speeding up blood production post-surgery. It aids recovery. And based on what I've seen, your body's blood production is... extraordinary. It far surpasses any human capacity. While you were losing blood, your body was already replenishing it. The rate of production nearly matched the rate of loss. That's why your symptoms were minimal—like an ordinary person losing only 10%. If you'd held out a little longer, we could've drawn even more—"
"Want me to slap you?" Hong Fei interrupted.
Big Head shut his mouth.
"Alright, handle this. I'll be back tomorrow. Oh, and after New Year's, I'll teach you something useful."
"Okay, thank you, Boss."
After that day, the amount of blood Hong Fei donated increased steadily. On December 31st, the sixth day, Hong Fei rested and prepared himself. Under Big Head's watchful eye, he began forging the Ten Rings.
"Stay alert," Hong Fei said. "Wait for my signal."
Big Head nodded firmly.
"No problem!"
The orange skill card was inserted into the slot, and the moment energy was injected, it actively activated and took effect. In an instant, the energy in his body flowed into it like a dam breaking, surging and tumultuous. The orange card accepted it all without wasting a drop, the total volume of energy dropped rapidly, and the light-filling line inside the card rose quickly.
Unlike the silence when using other skill cards, when the orange card was activated, a strong turbulent flow instantly burst out from Hong Fei's body. It raged around Hong Fei's body like a manic tornado. Big Head had to step back a few steps, but the high-speed airflow still made him feel that breathing was quite difficult at this moment.
The so-called "huge amount of energy" in the orange card's introduction was not false at all, because Hong Fei quickly exhausted all his energy to meet its requirements. He was truly in a state of having "not a single drop left."
The orange light shone brightly, and the violent wind around his body subsided slightly. Hong Fei suddenly looked up.
Seeing this, Big Head hurriedly stepped forward to prepare. In an instant, the corners of Hong Fei's mouth trembled, because he felt that he was being drained of blood.
If the blood draws from the previous days were like a stream with a slow, almost stationary flow, then the speed of blood loss now was equivalent to someone directly blowing up a calm volcano, with underground magma flows erupting and spewing out with a rumble in an instant.
"Quick!"
Hong Fei urged, and Big Head quickly adjusted the instrument to start the blood transfusion.
However, after the connection was successful, Big Head found that he had no way to control the speed of the transfusion at all, because Hong Fei's body was like an automatic pump with full force, actively sucking the processed blood into his body with a whoosh.
The total blood volume number on the screen was dropping rapidly, much like your bank balance changing constantly when your wife is on a shopping spree. The external blood consumption ended, and his own blood was being sucked again. Hong Fei didn't know where his blood was being absorbed, he just hoped this process could be faster.
Before long, Hong Fei's lips turned slightly pale, and the blood supply process finally ended. What happened to the promised small amount of blood? Tens of thousands of milliliters of blood, using the word "small amount" to describe it, was it aimed at an elephant or a whale? Just as he was about to take a short rest, his vision suddenly blurred, and he suddenly arrived in a dim, void space.
Looking down, he saw his body was illusory and transparent, and he immediately understood that he had entered a Soul state. The next instant, an orange card-disk that covered the sky descended from the heavens. Standing in front of it, Hong Fei was like an astronaut floating in space looking towards Earth. Suddenly, a ray of light that had almost solidified escaped from the card.
Hong Fei did not dodge or avoid it, gritting his teeth. Because what followed would be the most important and difficult part of the entire preparation process: splitting a sliver of Soul.
At the current scientific level on Earth, there is still no actual research evidence to prove the definite existence of the Soul, but whether it comes from the Aesir of Asgard or more distant gods, it can all indicate that the Soul truly exists. Otherwise, those entities holding relevant divine offices of "Soul" and "Death" would become a joke.
After obtaining Dragon Power, although Hong Fei had already been able to actively enter the Dragon Power dimension in a Soul state to temper the fusion, he still didn't know how to split off a sliver of Soul. Now, he understood. High-end weapon forging often only requires the most primitive methods of material acquisition.
When that orange thread wrapped around his body, Hong Fei immediately felt his entire body being soaked in scorching, boiling magma. Incomparable, excruciating pain erupted suddenly, and he immediately gritted his teeth and glared at the sky. The orange thread pulled taut and began to tug.
Hong Fei felt another kind of extremely real, excruciating pain: as if someone wanted to completely peel and tear his physical body off from under his entire set of skin. The orange thread, exerting force towards the card, dragged a more illusory figure out of Hong Fei's Soul.
In the outside world, his real physical body lay tilted on the experimental bed, his muscles tense all over, blue veins bulging, pores instantly opened, and in the blink of an eye, crystal-clear beads of sweat had seeped out. Under his soaked clothes, Hong Fei trembled slightly. However, in just a brief moment, a dazzling golden light suddenly rose.
Dragon Power actively protected its master, immediately calming the trembling body. After its power filled his body, it followed the path where the two had fused into one and rushed into the Soul. In the void space, the sound of a dragon's roar instantly shook the universe. The vast and mighty golden power formed an incomparably huge and real Divine Dragon in this space in the blink of an eye.
Dragon head, dragon body, dragon claws, dragon tail, every detail was in a state of perfection. Its body traced beautiful trajectories as it swam, and in the blink of an eye, it seemed to teleport behind Hong Fei. The long, slender dragon body coiled and swirled behind Hong Fei. Its size was far larger than the orange card floating in front of Hong Fei.
The dragon body, spanning across the boundless starry sky, made one feel awe-struck at a single glance. The golden vertical pupils noticed Hong Fei's pain, and the next moment it suddenly opened its mouth, immediately spewing flames with golden starlight from its throat.
As the raging fire touched his body, Hong Fei not only did not feel pain, but on the contrary, it was as if he had soaked in a hot spring on a bone-chilling winter day, with every corner of his body filled with a warm aura. On one side was the orange card, on the other was the Divine Dragon.
Hong Fei was in the middle, and his face, which had just looked fierce and terrifying, also became peaceful and serene. The speed of the Soul splitting gradually accelerated. A moment later, the orange thread successfully pulled an extremely illusory Shadow out of his Soul body. After it was taken into the orange card, the square card body shattered with a boom.
Energy, blood, and Soul intertwined simultaneously. The Divine Dragon stopped its movements and watched the subsequent forging process together with Hong Fei. The three mixed into one, turning into a viscous substance, its color changing rapidly, like a rainbow hanging in the sky after the rain. However, before long, the superfluous colors gradually receded, leaving only the most dazzling gold.
The viscous substance wriggled and constantly changed shape, and finally the whole mass of substance divided into ten small clusters. The next moment, Hong Fei's eyes suddenly changed. He saw a Shadow that seemed to be thousands of meters tall suddenly appear in the void. His entire body was wrapped in uniquely styled armor.
Although Hong Fei was certain that this was just an illusory shadow, the oppressive force carried by the other party was extremely powerful. This Shadow calmly extended his incomparably huge hands, first holding the ten separated clusters of substance in his palms, and then brought his hands together.
A humming sound suddenly spread out, and circles of strange patterns with various different lights rippled on the back of his hands. After a long while, he slowly opened his hands, without any extra movements, like a tool who had completed his task, and his figure subsequently vanished into nothingness.
In the emptiness, nothing remained but ten golden rings shimmering with an eerie glow. Their surfaces crawled with intricate, unknowable patterns in deepest black.
The rings drifted toward Hong Fei like celestial bodies drawn by gravity. As they moved, their brilliant golden light condensed inward, the metal itself transforming—the lustrous sheen fading to the muted patina of ancient bronze.