The Blood Pool suddenly underwent a drastic change! Shi Yan stood within the pool, the liquid only reaching his waist, yet the blood within seemed to awaken, solidifying into tendrils that coiled upward along his body.

In mere seconds, he was completely submerged, tightly encased by the sanguine mass. The blood within the pool resembled countless scarlet snakes, ceaselessly wrapping around him, molding him into a gigantic blood cocoon.

Agony spread throughout his being; Shi Yan’s mind felt as if it were being flayed by a torturer’s blade, an excruciating pain beyond endurance. It felt as though billions of minuscule insects were drilling into his body through every pore, squirming within his sinews, bones, and organs, gnawing at his flesh, inflicting torment akin to being carved alive by a thousand cuts.

Shi Yan was blinded, trying to scream, but no sound escaped; his body was utterly immobile. Filaments of a strange ** substance began to flow slowly through his meridians, like trickling streams.

Wherever these ** passed, the meridians, untouched by strange energies before, felt as if they were being torn asunder. The ** flowed with savage speed, splitting into countless streams that surged madly into the seven hundred and twenty acupoints across his body.

Shi Yan felt as if his seven hundred and twenty acupoints were suddenly expanded manifold; one moment they burned with intense heat, the next they plunged into an icy chill, an unbearable discomfort. The piercing pain in his mind intensified.

In a daze, Shi Yan perceived his acupoints undergoing bizarre transformations under the infusion of these strange **. Every single acupoint within him seemed to morph into tiny, furiously spinning vortices of energy.

Threads of crimson ** were injected into these vortices, seemingly digested rapidly, becoming part of the whirlpools. As they absorbed the **, the vortices grew larger, and with increased size, their rate of digestion of the ** accelerated.

Perhaps because the pain surpassed his capacity to bear, in his semi-conscious state, Shi Yan felt his body transforming into a vast vessel. The strange ** surging into him through his pores were altering his physical form in a way he could not comprehend.

More precisely, they were remodeling the seven hundred and twenty acupoints within his body! The moment this realization dawned in his mind, a moment later, an unbearable spike of pain erupted violently within his skull.

All of Shi Yan’s consciousness vanished, and he instantly fell into a swoon. After an unknowable span of time, Shi Yan slowly woke again.

He immediately noted that the pain in his mind and body was gone; the strange ** no longer flowed within him. Carefully sensing and probing, he found that aside from a lingering ache in his acupoints, everything else in his body seemed to have returned to normal.

Suddenly, he felt a warm current of energy, moving like a small snake through his meridians. After one minor circuit, his entire body felt comfortable, and his limbs seemed imbued with a little more strength.

Essence Qi! Shi Yan’s heart leaped; he realized the Blood Pool had ultimately granted him some benefit—the small snake-like flow within his meridians was clearly the Essence Qi possessed only by Martial Artists!

From the memories of the body’s previous owner, he knew that Essence Qi was the source of power for the world’s Martial Artists, the foundation for unleashing potent martial skills. Based on the strength of the internal Essence Qi and the level of one’s cultivation, Martial Artists were strictly classified into ten major realms: Post-Natal, Pre-Heaven, Human Rank, Hundred Tribulations, Earth Rank, Nirvana, Heaven Rank, Spirit Communication, True God, and God King.

Each realm was further divided into three Heavens. Martial Artists were the powerful entities of this world.

The greatest differentiator between a Martial Artist and an ordinary person was the presence of Essence Qi; as long as one possessed even a trace, regardless of quantity, that person could be called a Martial Artist. Many people lived their entire lives without ever obtaining Essence Qi.

Once attained, it could be strengthened through diligent practice, meaning any Martial Artist possessing it held a place in this world. Sensing the faint Essence Qi slowly circulating within him, Shi Yan felt a measure of peace.

He knew that even if he could never return home, he wouldn't starve in this world. Putting his mind at ease, Shi Yan quickly noticed that the blood cocoon covering his body remained intact, still tightly binding him.

Shi Yan exerted force to break free. “Riiip!” The blood cocoon tore open with a large rent, and Shi Yan sprang out.

Glancing around, he found himself still in that peculiar stone cavern, surrounded by scattered bones. However, the blood in the Blood Pool had completely dried up, not a single drop remaining!

In the desiccated pool lay only several dozen broken pieces of bone; the viscous, scarlet blood that once filled the pool had vanished without a trace. A massive blood cocoon stood tall in the center of the pool, thin as a cicada’s wing and faintly luminous.

Yet, as soon as he looked at it, a small flame ignited at the base of the cocoon. The flame grew, and remarkably, it began to consume the bones within the pool too.

In a short time, both the blood cocoon and the bones in the pool were utterly incinerated. In the dried-up pool, a crimson light gleamed, where an ancient ring etched with complex blood patterns lay quietly.

Staring at the strange ring for a few moments, Shi Yan vaguely felt a profound connection between the ring and the Blood Pool. Hesitating slightly, Shi Yan stepped forward, picked up the ring, and slipped it onto the ring finger of his left hand.

A warmth instantly radiated from the ring. At that moment, Shi Yan felt a sense of vital connection to it, as if the ring had become an extension of his own body.

His incredibly faint Essence Qi suddenly moved uncontrollably, surging toward the dark-red ring. The Qi flooded toward his skin, but the flesh on his ring finger blocked it, preventing entry into the ring.

Alarmed, Shi Yan immediately deemed the ring sinister and tried frantically to remove it, but the ring had clamped firmly onto his finger, as if rooted. No matter how hard he strained, he could not pull off the peculiar artifact.

Unable to breach the barrier of flesh, the surging Essence Qi soon calmed and settled back into his lower abdomen. The red light on the ring flickered for a moment before its brightness faded, and the warmth emanating from it also vanished.

After wiggling his finger for a while and finding no further abnormality, he stopped worrying about it and turned his attention to assessing his surroundings, deep in thought. Soon, Shi Yan arrived at an unbelievable conclusion—all the blood from the Blood Pool had poured into his body!

The Blood Pool spanned ten square meters; though not vast, it contained at least several tons of blood. Even an elephant couldn't possibly drink several tons of blood in one go!

Shi Yan’s expression soured. He subconsciously scanned his body, trying to ascertain if there were any visible changes, perhaps becoming bloated.

It would have been better not to look, for upon inspection, Shi Yan jumped in fright again! Not only had he not become bloated, but he was, in fact, thinner than before—skin and bone!

His clothes, which had previously fit well, now hung loose by several sizes. His limbs and entire body lacked substance, resembling a skeleton draped in human skin.

It was less ‘thin’ and more like a desiccated mummy. Shi Yan’s face grew even gloomier.

He had not expected the Blood Pool to fail to return him to his familiar world, but instead bring about such a bizarre physical transformation. “Grumble!

Grumble!” A signal of hunger echoed from his stomach. Shi Yan suddenly felt an infinite appetite, the capacity to devour an entire elephant.

The cavern floor was littered with skeletal remains, but there was nothing edible. He looked at the dried-up Blood Pool and realized, with a chill, that he was probably never going back.

Shi Yan needed a weapon to venture out. He recalled the clamor of clashing metal during the guards’ internal slaughter.

But after searching the stone cave, he discovered that all weapons had corroded in the short time he was submerged, leaving none usable. Helpless, Shi Yan had no choice but to leave through the entrance tunnel empty-handed.

The air was humid, the heat intense, and the sound of trickling water reached him from a distance. Ancient trees towered upward, some perhaps several tens of meters high, their dense undergrowth acting like giant umbrellas, blocking the sunlight, allowing only stray beams to stubbornly pierce the marshy ground.

This was the Gloomy Forest. As soon as he emerged, Shi Yan understood his location instantly from the host body’s memories.

This forest covered a vast area. Because the trees were so dense, even daylight struggled to penetrate, rendering the forest perpetually dark and damp even at noon—hence the name Gloomy Forest.

The Gloomy Forest lay between the Merchant Alliance, the Blazing Fire Empire, and the Sacred Protection Empire. The Alliance was to the north, the Sacred Protection Empire to the south; the forest directly separated the two.

The Blazing Fire Empire lay to the west. Any trade caravan wishing to travel between nations had to pass through the Gloomy Forest.

Monstrous Beasts frequently roamed the Gloomy Forest, and those of Level Six or Seven were not uncommon. However, merchant groups, mercenaries, and Martial Artists from the three nations who traveled through the forest often learned that the truly powerful beasts tended to remain in specific territories, with only lower-level beasts wandering aimlessly.

Generally, as long as caravans stuck to established routes and avoided areas where high-level beasts were known to congregate, they usually encountered no trouble. It was only the mercenaries and Martial Artists specifically targeting powerful beasts who frequently encountered them, often resulting in heavy casualties.

High risk accompanied high reward. If a mercenary or adventurer managed to slay a Level Six or Seven beast in the Gloomy Forest, they would immediately receive a massive amount of Crystal Coins.

Beasts at Level Six already possessed Demon Cores, which were invaluable assets to Martial Artists, Alchemists, and Artificers alike. Beyond the Demon Cores, the hides, tusks, bones, and even the venom of these beasts were highly prized—high-level monsters were treasures from head to toe.

Because of this, fearless Martial Artists and mercenaries often risked the Gloomy Forest in pursuit of these high-level beasts. Nevertheless, only a minority ever reaped the rewards; many underestimated the intelligence and sheer power of the beasts, failing to achieve their goals and instead becoming monster meals.

Emerging from the stone cave, Shi Yan observed the surroundings. He heard noisy chatter drifting from the direction of the distant water flow; the topics seemed overwhelmingly focused on women, punctuated now and then by vulgar chuckles.

Just as Shi Yan hesitated about investigating the source of the noise, he suddenly detected a slight rustling sound from a nearby patch of dense shrubbery—the sound of someone disturbing the leaves. Shi Yan instinctively looked in that direction.

There, within the thicket, a woman of graceful figure slowly untied her pristine white sash. She squatted down with her back toward him, revealing a pair of snow-white buttocks shaped like ripe peaches.

She gently waved her delicate hands behind her, shooing away annoying insects, all while humming a cheerful, unknown tune, clearly in high spirits. The woman was unaware of his presence.

Amidst the sound of her steady stream of urine, she was happily trilling a little melody. Shi Yan froze for a moment, then quickly recovered.

He stared frankly at her dazzling pale backside, silently praising how captivating her rear alone was, wondering what her face looked like. “Slap!” The woman suddenly slapped the side of her smooth, tender left buttock, dispatching a bold mosquito.

Her gluteal flesh instantly tightened inward in a captivating motion, and as she quickly drew her hand away, it rippled with intoxicating waves, indicating superb elasticity. This sight stirred a flicker of desire in Shi Yan’s heart.

Under Shi Yan’s lingering gaze, the woman finished relieving herself, quietly re-fastened her sash, and muttered to herself, “Damn mosquitoes…” Without any warning, the woman suddenly spun around. Brilliant arcs of pale blue electricity flared from both hands, enveloping the cluster of insects that had gathered behind her.

With a series of crackles, all the mosquitoes were instantly annihilated. As she turned, the woman’s true appearance was fully revealed.

She possessed a delicate face as exquisite as the bright moon, appearing to be around twenty years old, standing about one meter sixty-eight tall. She was exquisitely beautiful, with a slender waist and a full bust, possessing a graceful, sculpted figure.

Her pale lavender under-shirt was overlaid with silver-grey soft armor, the material clinging to her curves and failing to conceal the breathtaking lines of her form—like a legendary wild mountain fox spirit. Shi Yan’s gaze was sharp, burning fiercely upon her.

He silently praised that this woman rivaled the most famous beauties of his former world. As Shi Yan’s greedy eyes relentlessly roamed over her stunning figure, the beauty suddenly became alert.

Even separated by several large banana-like leaves, she managed to pinpoint Shi Yan’s eyes exactly. A piercing, arrow-like glint suddenly flashed in the beauty’s eyes!

... : Recommend, collect, tip—all are required, hehe ^__^.