10: I reward you

Deep in the abyss, Lin Fan's body plummeted rapidly. The surroundings were pitch black, so dark he couldn't see his own hand.

His wounds bled, and the corrosive demon bat's poison was eroding his Meridians. His consciousness gradually blurred.

"Boy, wake up! Protect your heart with spiritual power!" In the ring, the old man's voice boomed like thunder in Lin Fan's mind.

Lin Fan shivered, forced himself to focus, and mobilized the last of his spiritual power to painstakingly guard his mind.

He didn't know how long it had been, but the downward momentum suddenly slowed.

Plop!

He plunged into a cold, viscous liquid.

An indescribably violent energy immediately surged into his body through all his pores.

"Ah!!!"

Lin Fan let out a bloodcurdling scream; the intense pain instantly brought him back to his senses.

He struggled, trying to climb out of the liquid, but found his body completely unable to move.

That violent energy was rampaging through his body, tearing his Meridians and assaulting his Dantian.

"Endure it!" The old man's voice rang out again.

This time, however, it carried an undisguised excitement, "This is Dragon Blood! The true blood of an ancient Demonic Dragon! It's transforming your Physical Body! This is an enormous Opportunity!"

"Endure it, and you will be reborn!"

Reborn?

Lin Fan's teeth were almost shattered, and blood was already overflowing from the corners of his mouth.

He could feel that the poison in his body was being devoured and purified by this even more overbearing Dragon Blood energy.

At the same time, his damaged Meridians were also being widened and reshaped in a savage manner by this energy.

Pain, incomparable pain.

But within the pain, there was a glimmer of hope for new life.

He remembered Jiang Chen's face, and the humiliating scene in the assessment arena.

A powerful will to survive supported him, preventing his consciousness from being overwhelmed by the intense pain.

"I cannot die!"

"I want to become stronger!"

"I want revenge!"

Lin Fan roared frantically in his heart.

He gave up resisting and began to try and guide the violent energy, circulating the Cultivation Technique the old man had taught him.

This process was extremely difficult, but gradually, the violent energy began to become a little more docile.

He could feel that the strength of his Physical Body was increasing at an incredible speed.

The Cultivation Bottleneck of the Middle Stage of the Fifth Realm Condensing Core also began to loosen under the impact of this vast energy.

Fifth Realm Late Stage!

Fifth Realm Peak!

The Bottleneck was like paper, easily broken through!

And this was far from over.

The energy from the Dragon Blood Pool continued to surge into his body.

His Aura was rapidly climbing towards the Sixth Realm Nascent Soul Stage!

"Hahaha! Good! Excellent!" The old man in the ring let out a hearty laugh.

"The power of this Dragon Blood Pool is enough to push you to the Nascent Soul Peak! By then, coupled with this old man's power, there might just be a chance to fight Jiang Chen in the Grand Competition three months from now!"

Lin Fan's heart was also filled with ecstasy; it was as if he had already seen himself stepping on Jiang Chen in the Grand Competition, avenging his past humiliation.

However, just as he was immersed in this joy and the pleasure of rapidly increasing power...

A lazy, somewhat playful voice, without any warning, echoed in the empty cliff bottom.

"Tsk tsk, this place is really hard to find. Luckily, a kind person helped lead the way."

This voice!

Lin Fan's body suddenly stiffened, the ecstasy on his face instantly froze, replaced by terror and shock.

He laboriously turned his head, only to see two figures standing silently by the pool not far away.

The one in the lead, dressed in white, handsome and elegant, wore a playful smile on his face as he looked at him with interest.

Who else could it be but Jiang Chen!

And behind Jiang Chen, the black-robed figure, like a shadow, exuded an Aura that made both Lin Fan and the old man in the ring feel a pang of fear.

"Jiang... Jiang Chen!" Lin Fan's voice trembled, "You... why are you here?!"

"Why can't I be here?"

Jiang Chen spread his hands and said as a matter of course, "This Dragon-Severing Cliff is the territory of my Hongtian Holy Land. As a Saint, I can come and go as I please. Do I need to report to you?"

"It's you, an Inner Sect Disciple, sneaking into a Forbidden Ground at night. According to the sect rules, what crime should you be charged with?"

Jiang Chen walked step by step to the edge of the pool, looking down at Lin Fan, who was unable to move in the Dragon Blood.

"You... you've been following me?!"

A "buzz" sounded in Lin Fan's mind, and a terrifying thought emerged.

He remembered Jiang Chen's actions in the assessment arena. A single thought made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave. Jiang Chen had done it on purpose! He had deliberately allowed him to come here, just for... for this pool of Dragon Blood!

"Not too stupid after all." Jiang Chen snapped his fingers, a look of 'teachable child' appearing on his face.

"You didn't really think that with your meager Cultivation, you could hide from my eyes, did you?"

"I was just thinking that killing you directly would be too boring. Why not let you find something good first, experience the feeling of soaring to the heavens in one step, and then I'll appear and personally crush your hope."

"See, isn't that much more interesting?" Jiang Chen's voice was gentle.

But to Lin Fan's ears, it was colder than ten thousand years of ice.

"Pfft!"

Lin Fan's mind was violently shaken, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

"Jiang Chen! You want to seize my Opportunity?!" Lin Fan roared.

"You can't say that." Jiang Chen shook his head and said.

"How can you say I'm seizing your Opportunity? I just like watching people perform, and you, you performed very diligently. I'm very satisfied."

"So, to reward you, I'll take this pool of Dragon Blood for you."

After speaking, Jiang Chen no longer paid attention to Lin Fan.

He took a step forward, and his entire body floated above the Dragon Blood Pool.

[Ding! Detecting an Opportunity about to be completed by the child of destiny!]

[Villain Task Issued: Intercept the child of destiny Lin Fan's Dragon Blood Opportunity and absorb it!]

[Task Reward: 8000 Villain Points! Luck Index +500! Dao Yan Heavenly Demon Body proficiency +30%!]

[Task Failure Penalty: The host will be transformed into the Holy Land's mascot (limited to one year)]

Jiang Chen's mouth twitched slightly. This wretched System's punishments were always so fresh and unconventional.

He took a deep breath, and the Dao Yan Heavenly Demon Body within him roared into operation.

Boom!

A Demonic Path Aura, even purer and more overbearing than the Dragon Blood Pool itself, erupted from Jiang Chen's body!

In that instant, the entire Dragon Blood Pool boiled!

The Dragon Blood energy that had been frantically surging into Lin Fan's body instantly changed direction, transforming into torrents of crimson, surging madly towards Jiang Chen in mid-air!

"No!!!" Lin Fan wailed.

He could clearly feel that the part of the Dragon Blood energy he had painstakingly refined into his body was being forcibly extracted from him by an irresistible force!

His Cultivation, which had just broken through to the Sixth Realm Nascent Soul, began to plummet rapidly!

Nascent Soul Middle Stage... Nascent Soul Early Stage... Condensing Core Peak... Finally, Lin Fan's Cultivation dropped to the Fifth Realm Condensing Core Early Stage.

He watched helplessly as the power that belonged to him was devoured by Jiang Chen, yet he was powerless to do anything!

"Junior! How dare you!"

In the ring, the old man also let out an angry roar, and a powerful Soul Power surged from the ring, attempting to stop Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen merely glanced coldly at the ring, "A remnant Soul hiding in the dark, dares to be presumptuous in front of me?"

With a thought, Jiang Jiu's figure instantly appeared in front of Lin Fan.

With just a flick of his finger, that Soul Power was instantly annihilated.

The old man let out a muffled groan, his Aura rapidly withered, and he no longer dared to make any move.

Above the pool, Jiang Chen was bathed in crimson energy.

This ancient Demonic Dragon Blood, to him, was simply the most supreme tonic in the world!

His Aura was skyrocketing at an even more terrifying rate than Lin Fan's had been before.

Seventh Realm Late Stage.

Seventh Realm Peak.

Bottleneck? In front of the Dao Yan Heavenly Demon Body and the vast Dragon Blood energy, it simply didn't exist!

At the bottom of the cliff, only Lin Fan's desperate roars remained, along with Jiang Chen's increasingly terrifying Aura. Hope, snatched away alive before his eyes, this was ten thousand times more cruel than directly killing him!