“The Blood Qi Technique is a secret technique passed down by the Bi Luo Cave. You are not allowed to spread it without the permission of the sect. Those who violate this rule will be skinned and have their souls extracted. Remember this,” Elder Hu Huo briefly mentioned some things to pay attention to during cultivation, then warned.

“Yes.” The three of them answered in unison, their expressions serious.

Elder Hu Huo nodded and took out a jade bottle from his pocket, pouring out three pale purple pills and handing them to the three of them.

“Take them.”

Yuan Ming took the pill but didn’t swallow it. He glanced at the other two out of the corner of his eye.

“Elder Hu Huo, what kind of pill is this?” the tiger beast slave asked.

“It’s the Corrupt Heart Pill, a secret medicine of our Bi Luo Cave. After taking it, it will slowly invade your heart meridian. You need to take the antidote every month to suppress its toxicity,” Elder Hu Huo said in a flat tone.

The tiger beast slave and wild boar beast slave’s expressions changed upon hearing this.

Yuan Ming also frowned. The Bi Luo Cave intended to control them, the beast slaves, with the Corrupt Heart Pill.

However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. He didn’t think too much and swallowed the pill. The Corrupt Heart Pill dissolved in his stomach and a cold feeling spread throughout his body, stopping at his heart. It felt like a cold dagger was pressed against his heart, ready to strike at any moment.

Although the other two’s expressions were a bit ugly, they also took the Corrupt Heart Pill under Elder Hu Huo’s cold gaze.

“You have passed the test and have been taught the Blood Qi Technique. You have become official beast slaves of our Bi Luo Cave. From now on, you must come here every month and offer five portions of fierce beast blood to receive the antidote for the Corrupt Heart Pill,” Elder Hu Huo said, quite satisfied with the three’s attitudes.

“Elder, what are fierce beasts?” Yuan Ming asked.

“Fierce beasts are wild beasts that can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Their combat power is greater than the wild beasts you previously hunted. There is a canyon ten miles south of here, and fierce beasts appear in the forest on the other side of the canyon. The premise is that you must cultivate the Blood Qi Technique, otherwise, you may not return,” Elder Hu Huo said, looking south.

Yuan Ming remained silent, but his face was very serious.

The Blood Qi Technique sounded mysterious and difficult to understand at first. He hadn’t had time to carefully comprehend it, but he knew that it was not easy to cultivate.

Even if he cultivated the Blood Qi Technique, he would only reach the same level of combat power as before when he used the beast transformation technique.

He almost died trying to hunt the black bear before, let alone hunting even stronger fierce beasts.

A hint of gloom flashed through Yuan Ming’s eyes. In the eyes of Elder Hu Huo, or rather, in the eyes of the Bi Luo Cave, the life and death of these beast slaves with poor aptitudes was not important. What was important was whether they could be controlled.

The other two quickly understood the pros and cons of the situation, and their expressions became even more ugly.

“Remember, if you perform well, your future is bright. I hope you will take care of yourselves,” Elder Hu Huo said, not bothering to pay attention to what the three were thinking. He patted his waist and the giant hawk flew up again, carrying his body into the sky. The airflow within a dozen meters around him surged violently, as if a hurricane had been stirred up, causing the trees around him to sway.

The three of them were blown around, but their heavy hearts were somewhat relieved after the ordeal.

“This gray hawk’s momentum is far beyond that of ordinary wild beasts. It’s probably a kind of fierce beast, right? To be able to tame it like this, it seems that the Bi Luo Cave’s heritage is truly profound,” Yuan Ming guessed silently, unknowingly developing a bit of longing for the Bi Luo Cave.

“Two of you, we were able to gather here today, which can be considered fate. Let’s get to know each other. I am Wu Lu,” the tiger beast slave said, cupping his hands.

“Yuan Ming.” Yuan Ming picked up the white ape skin and returned the gesture.”Call me Lago.” The wild boar beast slave also gave his name.

“So it’s Brother Yuan Ming and Brother Lago. Both of you should have experienced the strength of the wild beasts here. Elder Hu Huo just assigned a task that is almost impossible to complete alone. He didn’t explicitly say that we have to act alone. If the three of us work together, we have a greater chance of hunting down the fierce beasts!” Wu Lu glanced at Yuan Ming and suggested.

“Great idea! The three of us working together can definitely kill the fierce beasts!” Lago’s eyes lit up and he immediately agreed.

“Let’s talk about hunting the fierce beasts later. What’s most important now is to find a safe place to cultivate the blood energy technique. We have all lost the ability to transform into beasts and we have no chance against those wild beasts. It’s safer to act together.” Wu Lu proposed.

“Brother Wu Lu has a long-term vision. It’s indeed better to find a safe place first.” Lago was slightly stunned, then said.

“Brother Yuan Ming, what do you think?” Wu Lu smiled and looked at Yuan Ming.

“Sorry, I’m used to acting alone.” Yuan Ming remained silent for a moment, shook his head, and left without waiting for the two to speak again.

He had already prepared a safe place to stay and he didn’t trust Wu Lu and Lago, whom he had just met, at all. He would probably worry day and night if he stayed with them. It was better to act alone.

“It’s said that the people from the Central Plains always boast about themselves as being the heavenly kingdom and the people of the Night Land are arrogant. It seems that the rumors are true. Speaking of which, it’s quite impressive to pass the test with the powerless white ape beast skin.” Lago sneered.

“Never mind, everyone has their own aspirations. Brother Lago, let’s go. When we were hunting beasts these past few days, I found a safe place. The two of us working together, I believe we can achieve something.” Wu Lu picked up the beast skin and walked in another direction with Lago.

Yuan Ming wrapped the ape skin around his waist, covered his body with mud to conceal his breath, and carefully made his way towards the cave he had previously stayed in. He immediately hid at the slightest disturbance, as he no longer had the ability to transform into a beast and had no suitable weapons to fight against the wild beasts here.

Fortunately, he was lucky and managed to avoid the wild beasts he encountered along the way. He arrived safely at the cave and moved some large stones to block the entrance. The cave was now dimly lit, with only a few faint rays of light shining through the cracks.

At this point, Yuan Ming’s tense heartstrings finally relaxed a little. He cleaned off the mud from his body and began to close his eyes and recall the blood energy technique’s formula in his mind, attempting to comprehend and cultivate it.

He first followed Elder Hu Huo’s method, sat cross-legged with his legs crossed, and assumed a posture of five hearts facing the sky. Then he silently recited the formula in his mind.

“Earth’s lungs have fire, enter from the abyss, rise up to the abdomen, shining like a torch…”

As he recited, Yuan Ming suddenly felt a warm sensation rising from the ground under him, passing through various parts of his body, and slowly gathering in his lower abdomen.

He was overjoyed and tried to stabilize the flow of heat in his abdomen as instructed. However, the warmth suddenly dissipated the next moment, leaving no special feeling at all.

“What’s going on?”

Yuan Ming frowned and pondered. He found that his movements were correct and there was no problem with reciting the formula. He tried again.

However, the result was the same as before. He could only feel a slight warmth in his lower abdomen, but couldn’t stabilize it. He could only watch it gather and disperse, disappearing without a trace.According to what Elder Hu Huo had said earlier, after completing a full cycle of the Heavenly Circuit, under normal circumstances, one should be able to maintain this heat flow in the Dantian, making it like a charcoal stove, heating the Qi and blood throughout the body, making the Qi and blood vigorous and strong, and gradually nourishing and strengthening it. This would be a long process, depending on one’s comprehension and aptitude.

When the Qi and blood were strong enough, during cultivation, one would feel the sensation of hair standing on end. At this time, the pores all over the body would open wide, allowing one to further attempt to sense and absorb the elusive spiritual energy contained between heaven and earth.

Once the spiritual energy entered the body through the pores, it would be transformed in the Dantian, and then stored as one’s own mana. When it reached a certain level, one could activate the beast skin through the Pelt Technique, combining it with one’s own flesh and blood, and then transform into a half-human, half-beast state, possessing far greater strength than usual.

However, Yuan Ming found himself embarrassingly stopped at the very first step of cultivation.

Afterward, he tried several times in a row, but all ended in failure.

Yuan Ming was not discouraged, as he had expected that the Blood Qi Method would not be easy to cultivate. If he could not succeed today, he would continue to explore tomorrow, believing that he would eventually succeed.

“Gurgle…”

At this moment, a rumbling sound came from his stomach, indicating that he was hungry.

Yuan Ming rubbed his empty stomach, stood up, cut a piece of black bear meat, swallowed it, and drank some water before continuing to cultivate the Blood Qi Method.

Time passed quickly, and half a month had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Inside the cave, Yuan Ming sat cross-legged, with his heart facing the sky.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth slowly gathered and followed the route of the Blood Qi Method, sinking into the Dantian.

The previous problem still persisted. The gathered spiritual energy quickly dissipated, vanishing almost completely in an instant, with only a trace of almost imperceptible spiritual power entering the Dantian and transforming into mana.

“It’s still like this. It seems that my aptitude is really lacking.” Yuan Ming opened his eyes, his expression somewhat solemn.

After half a month of hard work, he had made some progress, breaking through the bottleneck of spiritual power not being able to enter the Dantian, and incorporating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the Dantian.

However, the situation of spiritual power overflowing was still very severe, almost a hundred to one. After half a month of hard work, he had only accumulated a trace of mana in his Dantian, which was far from enough to activate the Pelt Technique. According to his current cultivation speed, it would take at least half a year to accumulate enough mana.

Yuan Ming couldn’t help but shake his head and smile bitterly. Let alone half a year, in a month, he would probably die from the poison.

Could it be that the Blood Qi Method was more suitable for people from the Southern Region to cultivate, and his Central Plains body was somewhat incompatible?

He couldn’t help but speculate.

More troubling was the fact that the food and water in the cave were almost gone, and he could no longer continue to cultivate so peacefully. Going out to hunt with his current flesh and blood body, if he encountered black bears or green wolves again, it would be certain death.

“Am I really going to be trapped here to die? No, I still have time, I can’t give up!” Yuan Ming clenched his teeth, bent his legs into the posture of his heart facing the sky, and prepared to continue his hard work.

At the moment, apart from continuing to cultivate, he seemed to have no other options, as stopping would only lead to death, and continuing to try might still offer a glimmer of hope.

However, after another half day and more than a dozen Heavenly Circuits, the trace of mana in his Dantian had hardly changed.

“Give me mana… I want to return to the Central Plains!” Yuan Ming’s heart was filled with nameless anger, and his strong obsession grew even stronger.

In the next instant, his vision suddenly went black, and he almost fainted.

At the same time, his right arm suddenly felt a slight heat, as if a scorching hot current had seeped in, and then disappeared immediately.