"Hmm?" Max frowned in displeasure.
Immediately, he stopped sealing his pores and let the pool's blood energy enter his body without restraint. When he felt enough energy had been collected, he sealed off his pores once again.
Just as he was about to start refining it with his mana, his eyes flashed with a thought.
Since the [Barbarian God Physique] could completely suppress the refined blood energy, maybe it could help him refine this unadulterated energy, too. Even if it couldn't, there was no loss in trying, right?
Thinking this, he immediately circulated the [Barbarian God Physique] technique.
Rumble!
As if responding to it, the raging blood energy rumbled loudly and started wrecking-havoc inside him. In an instant, he was seriously injured.
"Fuck!" Max cursed, his facial muscles contorting in pain. He had never expected such a violent reaction from the blood energy.
His heart pounding in fear, he immediately rushed to deactivate the technique, only to realise that it seemed to have gotten out of his control.
'I'm dead!' He thought in horror and was about to ask the system for help. However, at that instant, the situation took a 180-degree turn.
The previously violent blood energy ceased all movements and became tame. Then, as if under some instructions, it started splitting into two parts, one dark liquid and one pure blood red mist.
The blood red mist started moving throughout his body before converging toward his heart and gradually merged with it while the dark red liquid was slowly expelled through his pores.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Following the merging of the blood mist, his rapidly beating heart gradually calmed down. Even though it was beating at a normal pace now, its blood pumping efficiency had increased at least by one-fold.
In the underground palace, the young man laying at the centre of the formation frowned and muttered in astonishment, "This tempering technique really is… unbelievable. Even at the elementary level, it can purify the blood energy to this extent and take initiative to first strengthen the heart."
"Perhaps I should have given it to him sooner?" His blood-red eyes flashed with a tinge of regret, then he shook his head, "It's alright. It's not too late even now."
…
After all the blood mist merged into and strengthened his heart, Max opened his eyes.
Although he found it strange that this technique could operate on its own, he was delighted to see it could directly refine and assimilate the unadulterated blood energy, sparing him the pain and time he would have to use to refine it with his blasting method otherwise. What more, the resultant blood mist was many times purer.
Just as he was about to unseal his pores to take in more blood energy from the pool to refine, he realised the discarded impurities were clogging them. It was black, slimy stuff and it stank.
Holding his nose to not inhale the stench, he hurriedly rushed out of the blood pool and cleaned himself with the water he had stored in his inventory to use in these types of situations.
After cleaning himself, he only wore a pair of pants and turned to re-enter the pool when he realised that even though he was in the pool for a few days, no one seemed to have noticed him. Even now, when he was causing a disturbance by bathing right at the edge of the pool, they still didn't notice.
He didn't have to think much to realise why this was so. It should be because of the system's doing.
Indeed, just then, system's voice sounded, [Don't waste time thinking about minor stuff, kid. Go and use the blood energy to cultivate to the peak of the first level before anyone realise something is amiss with you. Once you've reached the peak of the first level of the [Barbarian god physique], reconstructing your mana core will become many times easier.]
Nodding his head in acknowledgement, Max entered the pool and started refining the blood energy.
Five more days passed. He had refined and assimilated a lot of blood energy. Right now, he was nothing like Max from a few days ago in terms of physique.
His skin, which was already quite nice previously, had become smooth like a baby's, but it had become many times more resilient too.
His bones, blood, and internal organs were also refined and strengthened. He was more energised than before. His eyesight, hearing and other senses also seemed to have improved.
Furthermore, he could feel that almost no one-star attack could do much damage to him anymore. He knew he had reached the peak of the first level of the [Barbarian god physique].
While he was checking out the pleasant changes in his body and reveling in happiness, Amara, Ashroth and the demon elder were frowning. They could feel the energy level in the pool had decreased significantly.
[Kid, get out of the pool and keep your mana and aura within your body if you don't want trouble. Hurry!] System's warning sounded out in his head, startling him.
Without asking for the reason, Max rushed out of the pool, dried himself and dressed in the clothes he had when he came here.
Just as he sat cross-legged a few meters away from the pool, the elder opened his eyes.
Weng!
As his eyes swept over the pool, he didn't find anything wrong apart from the diminished energy. Frowning, he glanced at Ashroth, who had also opened his eyes.
"Did you have a breakthrough, elder?" Ashroth asked with uncertainty.
He could only think that the elder may have a breakthrough and used up quite a lot of energy during that. However, that didn't make sense because the breakthrough to the king realm would cause a lot of disturbance, but there was none.
"No." The elder shook his head before shifting his gaze to Amara, who was still cultivating.
The dip in the pool's energy didn't bother her, as the current energy levels were sufficient for her to cultivate for a long time. Moreover, she had a hunch that her master might have done something that caused the blood energy to fall so low.
"Mm?" The elder frowned even more. He could see neither Ashroth nor Amara were the reason behind the change. He then moved his gaze to the last person present, Max.
When his gaze landed on him, Max felt a mortal danger and his heart-rate sped up. He couldn't help but shudder and open his eyes. When he saw the elder looking at him with narrowed eyes, cold sweat drenched his back and he hurried to shift his gaze to the ground.
A moment later, the elder shifted his gaze, and the pressure on Max lifted, causing him to sigh in relief.
The elder then floated up above the pool. With a wave of his hand, all the blood sticking to his body fell into the pool below. Then, without even using his wings, he flew toward the stairs, exiting the underground chamber.
Ashroth frowned when he saw this and murmured while looking at the pool, "What just happened here?"
After glancing at Amara, he walked out of the pool, flapped his wings and flew toward the stairs. Unlike the elder, he could fly without using his wings.
After they had gone away, Max flopped to the ground and asked in a low voice, "Old man, what happened? Why did I feel a killing intent from that old man, and why have they gone out?"
[Hehe, kid. What do you expect them to do when you've used over 40% of the blood pool's energy? Although that old man didn't suspect you, he wanted to kill you out of frustration because he is on the verge of breakthrough to the king realm, but the remaining blood energy isn't enough for him to do so. Fortunately for you, he 'knows' you are that little doll's man, so he didn't kill you.] The system laughed.
Max shuddered in apprehension upon hearing this.
[That aside, congratulation, kid! I never expected you to complete the first level in such a short time, even though you had everything necessary to do so.] The system remarked.
"Tch! Just how low do you think of me?" Max clicked his tongue in annoyance before clenching his fist with a smile on his face. He was feeling amazing right now.
[Alright. Now it's time for you to pay up.] The system said.
