Still hovering above the mouth of the volcano, the Prime Shadow kept a close eye on the horizon, ready to move at a moment's notice if they were spotted. Despite his strength, this was a very dangerous place to be, as it was in the heart of the enemy lands. If surrounded by the experts of this place, even he would not be able to escape unscathed, or at all.
With John here as well, he wanted to take no risks at all. Five hours after John entered the meridian essence, the Prime Shadow frowned, shifting his focus down into the lake of fiery essence.
"It's been five hours already. He should have reached his limit by now. He isn't dead…is he?" the Prime Shadow said worryingly, then sent his divine sense into the lake of meridian essence.
He instantly spotted John, eyes going wide with surprise.
"He's still absorbing the meridian essence! How is that….what is that healing energy," the Prime Shadow said, focusing on the ball of vital essence in John's hand. He inspected it for a moment, becoming more and more awed by the second.
"I've never felt such potent healing energy before," he said softly. "The quantity of Qi isn't that profound, but the quality is absolutely breathtaking. I've never felt such high-quality healing Qi before. It's as if the heavens itself created it. How did this boy come into possession of such an incredible healing source?"
After inspecting the healing orb, the Prime Shadow inspected John to ensure he was alright. A surprised look appeared on his face as he realized what John was doing, which was replaced by a smile shortly after.
"Crazy boy," the Prime Shadow shook his head, laughing lightly. "Just as a body has its natural limits, so does a cultivator's meridians. This limit is different within each cultivator, but for the most part scales with constitution and latent body talent. I wonder what will happen first. Will that marvelous healing Qi run out, or will he hit his natural meridian limit."
The Prime Shadow watched John steadily increase the durability of his meridians, then shook his head, shifting his focus to the horizon once more.
"Well, whatever the case, absorb as much as you can. The most optimal realm to absorb this meridian essence is the Dao Transformation Realm, so you won't get another opportunity like this for a long time, if ever."
…
As the battle of healing and destruction took place within his body, John was surprised to find out one thing regarding meridians that he had not been aware of before.
'No wonder I couldn't ever heal my meridians at any decent speed. Unlike the rest of my body, meridians do not care about healing quantity, only quality. While my healing factor from my Immortal Asura Body, Limiter of Healing, and Limiter of Life is amazing, that's only regarding his quantity. In terms of quality, my healing Qi is a far cry from Laia's healing Qi quality. Everything makes sense now.'
After realizing this, a large smile appeared on his face, his confidence in this idea growing.
'Meridians care more about quality than quantity of healing Qi. While the quality required to heal is a lot higher than the rest of my body, the quantity required is much less. Since I focused all of Laia's healing Qi on my meridians, from what I've just learned, the healing Qi should last for a considerably long time. This is the absolute perfect use for Laia's healing orb. My decision was the correct one after all.'
Comforted by his decision being the correct one, John returned his full focus to absorbing the Titan Demon meridian essence. The essence ceaselessly flowed into his meridians through his acupoints, damaging wherever it infused with his own meridians. Laia's healing Qi worked ceaselessly to eliminate that damage, allowing him to continue the process without stopping.
Slowly but surely he felt his meridians grow in durability. After a long time, he could tell the rate of improvement was starting to slow down, as if his meridians were starting to approach a physical limit, he would not be able to go beyond. Still, that seemed to be a while away, and Laia's healing Qi was still quite strong, indicating it would most likely last longer than what he needed the healing Qi to last.
John smiled lightly, ignoring the searing pain.
It seems like you are quite strong after all, Laia. Thank you for this marvelous gift.'
…
"Two days," the Prime Shadow mumbled, both in surprise and awe. Even with the healing energy he felt, he had expected John to reach his natural meridian limit in a day or so. It had been two whole days of ceaseless meridian essence absorbance; meridian essence from ancient Titan Demons. That alone was an incredible feat, once again reminding him just how much of a monster John really was.
"The meridian essence lake itself has lowered by a visible amount already," the Prime Shadow mused, staring at the boiling lake of meridian essence beneath him. The lake was absolutely massive, so for it to visibly change and lower, the amount of meridian essence John had absorbed had to have been beyond massive. That level of meridian essence would have caused any Dao Transformation cultivators meridians to explode from the sheer amount of demon meridian essence within, but John was comfortably increasing his meridians without any sign of failure.
The Prime Shadow watched on with awed curiosity, a small, approving smile on his face.
"Hmm!" he hummed, gaze snapping towards the horizon.
An instant later, he rushed into the meridian essence lake, and scooped John up with his full power. Before John could protest, he wrapped him up with his shrouding Qi and sped into the sky, figure disappearing a moment later.
An instant later, two figures appeared like flashes of light from over the horizon, their speed incredible. The figures were quite large, standing over fifteen feet tall. They had blood red skin, yellow eyes, powerful muscles, and a long, red tail that whipped behind them. Their shoulders and the top of their head were covered in short, sharp spikes, making them look incredibly menacing. Most eye-catching of all was the natural aura of flames surrounding their body, as if they were the incarnation of heat and fire. The very air seemed to burn in their presence, unable to withstand the scorching inferno around them.
Both of them were in the Half-Step Holy Manifestation Realm, powerhouses of the Titan-Devil Race. They stopped directly above the meridian essence volcano, eyes wide with surprise and anger.
"The ancestral grounds have been tampered with," one of them said angrily, and crushed a formation disk that had appeared in his hand.
Ten seconds later, space twisted and turned as a figure stepped out of the void, appearing before the other two. The one who had stepped out of the void was even larger than the two devils before him, standing twenty feet tall. Not only was his figure much more intimidating, the fiery aura around him was on a completely different level. It was as if the devil was a star himself, capable of reducing everything around him into cinders regardless of what it was.
His fiery aura was contained to just a few feet around his body, as if willingly withdrawn and contained by the devil. Despite the fiery aura being contained, the two Half-Step Holy Manifestation Devils felt as if they were burning alive, almost unable to withstand being in the presence of the newcomer.
Both of them immediately bowed their bodies, prostrating themselves before the horrifying devil.
"We greet the Titan-Devil Lord!"
