12: Chapter 12: Merging with the Yellow Emperor's essence and blood to forge the foundation of the Human Emperor!

Lin Ye stood in front of those words for a very long time.

"This is simply too benevolent, leaving behind a Qi refining method and even a drop of essence blood."

It was somewhat touching.

This indeed fit the Yellow Emperor's image of being benevolent and loving his people.

But... the risk of absorbing this drop of essence blood was much greater than absorbing the Zhulong Divine Sense previously.

Zhulong had only given a trace of divine sense, yet it had already made him wish he were dead.

This was a complete drop of natal essence blood, and the Yellow Emperor's status was by no means lower than Zhulong's, yet his own physique had barely reached the steel grade.

The difference was several orders of magnitude.

But if he could succeed...

Cleansing the marrow and opening the meridians, forging the foundation of the human emperor!

This might not cause his strength to surge explosively in a short time, but it cleared the path for him to become the human emperor!

Once he truly became the new-generation human emperor in the future,

without doing anything at all, the Human Emperors Coercion emanating from his body would be enough to tear those demons and monsters on Blue Star into pieces!

"Moreover, I can first learn the decomposition and refinement of the Xuanyuan Qi Refining Technique. Combined with the harmonization of the kun tu jade essence, it's equivalent to having a double defense!"

Lin Ye sat cross-legged in front of the jade slab.

He decided to take this risk.

The Great Wilderness had countless opportunities, but cave secret realms triggered by such heavenly anomalies were not something that appeared at any time.

It was just that he was lucky enough to run into it.

If he couldn't even grasp this kind of opportunity, he might as well just find a place to bury himself.

But he didn't act immediately.

Lin Ye first silently memorized all the stone carving contents in the stone chamber three times, engraving them into his mind without missing a single word.

Then he firmly memorized the location, terrain, and marked points of that "treasure map".

After finishing all this, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to comprehend the Xuanyuan Qi Refining Technique.

The oral formulas on the stone carvings totaled no more than a thousand words, but every single word contained extremely profound mysteries.

In his past life, Lin Ye had followed his mentor to decipher a large number of ancient texts, and his foundation was much more solid than ordinary people's; even so, he still found it exceptionally difficult to read.

For the phrase "using heaven and earth as a cauldron", his initial understanding was to imagine heaven and earth as a giant pot, with himself being boiled inside the pot.

But after trying a few times, the spiritual Qi didn't flow according to his will at all.

That wasn't right.

He re-examined and repeatedly chewed over the meaning of those words.

Suddenly, he recalled a sentence his mentor had said back then...

"Ancient Qi refining is about 'breathing together with heaven and earth'. It's not you inhaling heaven and earth; it's heaven and earth pouring into your body by itself."

Thinking of this, Lin Ye adjusted his train of thought.

He wasn't going to grab spiritual Qi, but rather feel the breathing rhythm of heaven and earth itself.

The pulsation of the pillar of light outside the stone chamber, the slight tremors coming from the depths of the earth veins, the natural tide of spiritual Qi in the air...

Found it!

At that instant, an extremely faint trace of spiritual Qi slipped in through his pores, circled along his meridians, and finally sank into his Dantian.

There was no pain whatsoever, like water returning to the vast sea.

It succeeded!

But next, he still needed to practice this set of techniques until it was proficient, to the extent that it could operate automatically without deliberate thought.

Lin Ye didn't know how long he had been sitting.

There was no distinction between day and night in the stone chamber, only the faint fluorescent light emitted by those stone carvings on the walls.

His consciousness was completely immersed in the operation of the Qi refining technique, repeating the process of guiding Qi, decomposing, and recombining over and over again.

From initially only being able to refine a wisp of spiritual Qi per stick of incense, to being able to refine ten wisps per stick of incense.

From an operation that required complete concentration to maintain, to gradually being able to run automatically at the edge of his consciousness.

From stumbling exploration to the warm dark-golden Qi current in his meridians flowing smoother and smoother.

In between, he failed many times; sometimes guiding the Qi too fast injured his meridians, and sometimes improper decomposition caused the spiritual Qi to rampage inside his body.

Every failure brought a wave of severe pain, but after each pain, his understanding of this Qi refining technique deepened by a layer.

Gradually, the dark-golden Qi current in his body was no longer an intermittent trickle, but turned into an endless stream, automatically circulating back and forth along the meridians, imperceptibly tempering his muscles, bones, blood, and flesh with every single circulation.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air.

He didn't know how much time had passed specifically, but judging from the hunger in his stomach, at least a day and a night had passed.

Looking down at his hands, that extremely faint layer of dark-golden halo on the surface of his skin was a bit more solid than before.

The operation of that Qi current within his meridians had already become an instinctive reaction; even without deliberately operating it, it was still working slowly.

Almost done.

The Qi refining technique had been mastered, and he could proceed to the next step!

Returning to the jade slab, he took a deep breath and pressed both hands onto the jade slab.

According to the oral formula of the Xuanyuan Qi Refining Technique, he slowly guided the Zhulong Divine Sense in his sea of consciousness, letting a trace of dark-red dragon fire flow along his meridians to his palms and penetrate into the jade slab.

The moment the dragon fire touched the jade slab, the dark-golden blood suddenly erupted with a dazzling light!

A majestic, vast, and heavy power as if ten thousand mountains were pressing down simultaneously rushed straight into his body along his arms!

"Ugh——!!"

Lin Ye clenched his teeth tightly, veins bulging on his forehead.

Severe pain exploded!

It was ten times more painful than absorbing the Zhulong Divine Sense back then!

He felt his blood boiling, his bones being crushed inch by inch and then reorganized, and every piece of muscle tearing apart and healing at the instant of tearing.

"Fortunately, my physical body has gone through multiple rounds of strengthening; otherwise, I would definitely have exploded directly into a blood mist right now."

Cold sweat broke out on Lin Ye's forehead, but he didn't interrupt.

He continued to operate the Xuanyuan Qi Refining Technique, decomposing that drop of yellow emperors essence blood into the tiniest dark-golden particles.

Then he refined it bit by bit with the heat of the Qi refining technique, finally fusing it with his own blood, bone marrow, and meridians.

This process was extremely slow.

Not knowing how long had passed, Lin Ye's consciousness was suddenly pulled into an illusion.

He stood on a vast and boundless battlefield.

The sky was obscured by dark-red smoke and dust, the earth was cracked, and corpses piled up like mountains.

On one side were human warriors draped in animal skins and wielding bronze weapons.

On the other side were barbarian soldiers and monsters with ferocious faces whose numbers far exceeded the human race; some had four arms and six legs, while others had human faces and beast bodies.

Both sides were charging at each other like a meat grinder.

The sound of battle drums shook the heavens and split the earth.

Fresh blood flowed into streams on the ground.

Then Lin Ye saw a person.

That person stood at the highest point of the human race, draped in a dark robe and wielding a giant golden sword.

The sword blade was as wide as a door panel, and the entire body flowed with dazzling golden light. The two sides of the blade were respectively engraved with the sun, moon, stars, rivers, and vegetation.

The moment he raised the sword, the gazes of tens of thousands of human beings all converged onto him.

Then he swung it down!

A golden sword light cleaved through the fog, cleaved through the smoke and dust, and cleaved through the roars of all monsters and demons on the battlefield.

Wherever the sword light passed, the barbarian soldiers fell in batches like harvested wheat.

Ten thousand armies bowed their heads.

The xuanyuan sword——!

Lin Ye only felt the blood all over his body boil instantly!

Because the will contained within that sword light... Those who inherit this blood shall carry on this ambition.

That was neither domination nor conquest.

It was protection!

At the very last moment of the illusion, the Yellow Emperor turned his head and glanced at him.

He didn't speak, but the things conveyed in those eyes were heavier than all the words he had ever heard.

The illusion shattered.

Lin Ye opened his eyes abruptly, panting heavily, his whole body already soaked in sweat.

He looked down at his hands.

The dark-golden halo and the previous dark-red dragon fire intertwined, forming a unique vermilion-gold pattern that spread all over his body.

He clenched his fists tightly, and his bones emitted a low, metallic clashing sound, like two divine weapons striking each other.

Lin Ye carefully sensed it.

Physique...

From the steel grade, it leaped in one stroke to the refined-iron grade!

"No, is it even possible that it's higher?"

Standing up, Lin Ye moved his limbs.

Every single muscle all over his body was cheering and leaping, filled with an unprecedented sense of power.

He sank into his sea of consciousness, attempting to absorb the Zhulong Divine Sense.

One trace, two traces, three traces.

Three traces of divine sense were drawn into his body simultaneously!

Severe pain was still there, but it had weakened by more than seventy percent.

Under the nourishment of the kun tu jade essence and the tempering of the yellow emperors essence blood, his meridians had become incomparably tough.

As soon as the Zhulong Divine Sense entered his body, it was rapidly decomposed and refined by the Xuanyuan Qi Refining Technique, merging into his limbs and bones.

"Absorption efficiency... has tripled at least!"

Lin Ye swallowed a mouthful of saliva. The opportunity in this cave was much greater than he had imagined!

Lin Ye tested the strength of the Human Emperors Coercion once more.

He walked out of the stone chamber, found a small beast hiding in a rock crevice in the passage, and urged a trace of the dark-golden breath in his body.

The small beast didn't even run; it directly collapsed onto the ground shivering, emitted a rapid squeaking screech, and then passed out on the spot.

Lin Ye withdrew his coercion, a trace of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

Low-tier exotic beasts would directly flee in fear.

Facing high-tier fierce beasts, this kind of suppression on the mental level could also weaken their combat effectiveness.

In a life-and-death struggle, this was the key factor in determining victory or defeat!

As for those demons and ghosts on Blue Star...

Not to mention them; it was properly a dimensional reduction strike!

He returned to the very center of the stone chamber and solemnly bowed in the direction of the jade slab.

Then he glanced at the stone carvings on the stone wall, especially the treasure map marking the location of the xuanyuan sword fragments.

The location of one of the fragments was not too far from here, but with the originally remaining three days plus the time he spent cultivating inside the stone chamber, he estimated that only the last day of the trial remained.

There was no time to collect it.

"No rush, the xuanyuan sword is mine; sooner or later, I'll collect all of them."

Lin Ye engraved everything into his mind, turned around, and strode out of the cave.