A World Worth Protecting

1

Wang Baole couldn’t hear the two words. He had given it all he had with that single blow to his forehead. If his physical body wasn’t so resilient, he might have smacked himself dead instead of unconscious.

That was why even though Wang Baole had the green lotus to help with his recovery, he still took another two hours before he finally opened his eyes. He looked around with confusion in his eyes. His head felt like it had just been split wide open. It was fortunate that he was used to waking up after being knocked out. Then, he recalled what happened prior to his being knocked out. His eyes widened, and he got up hurriedly and looked around him. He wasn’t outside the palace, he was still inside!

The illusory elder had vanished. What remained in the spot where he had sat was a floating, glowing, oval-shaped doorway. It seemed to be waiting for Wang Baole.

Wang Baole was overwhelmed with excitement at the sight. His head stopped hurting, and he stood up and hurried over. He studied the doorway, then looked around him. He wouldn’t be called Wang Baole if he still didn’t realize that he had passed the trial. Beside himself with excitement, Wang Baole burst out into laughter.

“What a smart daddy I am. A simple trial like this is a piece of cake!” Wang Baole said smugly as he patted his tummy. It wasn’t as bouncy as he remembered it to be. It was hard and muscular instead. He was ill-accustomed to the feeling and didn’t get a kick out of patting himself.

<em>Being too skinny isn’t a good thing. It’s better to have more meat on me, it’s more comfortable to touch.</em> Wang Baole sighed. He stood before the glowing doorway, took a deep breath, then stepped through.

His vision blurred and then cleared immediately. The doorway functioned like a teleportation portal, sending Wang Baole to a small world that the Vast Expanse Dao Palace had created solely for the inheritance of its legacy!

It was a small world that couldn’t even rival the size of the moon. In fact, it was a mere one-tenth of the moon’s size. It might be huge to an ordinary person, but its size was nothing to Wang Baole.

Regardless, he was still shocked by the world’s appearance when he first landed. The sky was pure white with red painted in the middle. The colors weren’t the skies’ true colors, but… a reflection of the land’s!

The vast white lands were devoid of plant life. White desert sand filled the entire world, and a huge basin was situated in the middle.

To be more precise, in the middle of this world was a ring of mountains that looped into a circle. The result was something that looked like a basin from afar. In fact, it resembled a crater lake!

That wasn’t what had taken Wang Baole aback. What had sent him gasping and had shaken him to the core were the countless corpses of huge beasts piled on the circular mountain range!

The dead beasts looked fearsome and terrifying. Wang Baole didn’t recognize most of them, but there were a few he recognized—beasts that belonged in the ancient legends of the Federation, beasts like the great dragons!

He saw several dragons—winged beasts of ancient western civilizations—as well as enormous, green serpents of the east.

He also saw the bodies of several giants, as well as piles of Never-Ending Clan corpses. There must have been at least a hundred thousand corpses on those mountains.

They had all been flung onto the mountains, their necks sliced open. If he could see into the mountains, he would be able to see the purple-black stain of the mountain rocks, as if they had all been drenched in blood!

The expression on his face turned solemn at the sight. He couldn’t stop the images from surfacing in his mind. Many years ago, someone must have exterminated hordes of beasts and Never-Ending Clan members here. Someone had slit their throats here, then watched them howl and shriek as their blood spilled, flowed down the mountains, and gathered in the basin… transforming the basin… into a vast lake of blood that now pooled in the middle of the ring of mountains!

The blood lake was reflected onto the sky. That was the pool of blood-red in the middle of the pure white sky!

<em>Is this… the Ten Thousand Spirit Blood Pool?</em> Wang Baole hovered in mid-air as he looked down at the blood lake in the center of the mountain range. After some time, he shoved down the shock he had been feeling. A strange light appeared in his eyes.

From what the elder had told him, Wang Baole already knew that the greatest property the Ten Thousand Spirit Blood Pool had was in strengthening the physical body. After witnessing the corpses with his own eyes, he realized what was going on here.

<em>It distills the blood of ten thousand spirits, then uses the nutrients in their blood to nourish the bodies of Dao Palace cultivators. That is how those who come here seeking a breakthrough achieve a vastly stronger physical body!</em>

<em>This is a rare opportunity!</em> Wang Baole took a deep breath. He wasn’t a clean freak, and he wasn’t bothered by the smell of blood or how the blood lake was formed. Even clean freaks would find it difficult to refuse this chance at achieving a breakthrough. An instinctive hunger began to unfurl inside Wang Baole as he gazed at the blood lake.

It was like how parched earth would hunger for rain. That was how Wang Baole felt at the moment. He only thought for a brief moment before his eyes flashed, and he dashed towards the lake.

He approached the lake and, without hesitation, crossed his legs and lowered himself, sinking to the bottom of the lake.

An unimaginable Blood Qi erupted from the lake and charged towards Wang Baole as soon as he came into contact with the water!

It seemed as if the Blood Qi had been waiting in the lake for numerous years. It had reached a certain fullness, and Wang Baole’s appearance presented it with an outlet. An overwhelming, tumultuous Blood Qi rushed into Wang Baole instantly, breaking into his body mercilessly and drilling madly into his every pore.

Wang Baole almost cried out. He felt as if flesh blood was drilling into his body, and as if countless iron needles were stabbing him. He shuddered violently as Blood Qi rushed crazily through his body, intensifying the pain. He started to feel as if something was trying to tear him apart from the inside. His body seemed on the verge of explosion.

Blood Qi was unlike Spirit Qi. It did nothing for his cultivation. It was only meant to nourish his physical flesh. Wang Baole couldn’t tell if he was delusional, but amidst the pain, he could feel his body strengthening after having seen no improvement for so long!

He was right, his physical body was becoming stronger. As Blood Qi continued to make its way inside him, his body continued to be torn apart. His meridians, bones, and internal organs were all ripped apart!

Upon closer look, one would see his blood, flesh, and bone disintegrating, inch by inch, as Blood Qi continued to drill inside him. They then reformed instantly as they were nourished by the Blood Qi!

There was no way this didn’t hurt!

No matter how stubbornly resilient Wang Baole was, he was currently in so much agony that he could pass out at any moment. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay awake. He was able to do that since he had been knocked out multiple times and was now used to it. Else, he would have long lost consciousness.

He wasn’t sure if the trial would end upon his losing consciousness, but he didn’t want to bet on that not happening. That was why he was going to try his best to keep himself awake!

The pain grew stronger. The sensation of his body being torn apart, and the deafening thunder that accompanied the sensation, were secondary to the pain. In fact, he soon found himself facing a more unbearable trial.

As his physical body grew stronger, the remnant thoughts of the dead that had remained in the lake—their madness and their resentment—erupted inside Wang Baole’s head as he continued draining the Blood Qi!

The pained howls of countless beasts lashed out inside Wang Baole’s mind as he struggled with his pain. Those beasts and Never-Ending Clan members seemed to have taken him over. He was experiencing the madness, grief, and fury they had felt in their last moments!

These remnant thoughts lashed out at Wang Baole, forcing him to lose his sense of self momentarily. He became a huge dragon, and his throat was slit open. Then he was some other beast, whose throat was also sliced open. He could feel himself transforming into these beasts and Never-Ending Clan cultivators.

It felt like he was experiencing death repeatedly. He couldn’t tell how many times he had died.

He finally couldn’t take it any longer. He passed out. That finally signaled the end!

The instant he lost consciousness… his physical body began to exude a strange scent while laying in the pool of blood. It suddenly broke through and unleashed… an incredible power that far surpassed that of an ordinary Nascent Soul realm cultivator!

His physical body had reached the Nascent Soul realm!