Chapter 2: Transformation

  Blood Pool Mutation Sudden Rise!

  Shi Yan stood in the blood pool, the water only reaching his waist, but the blood in the pool seemed to have come to life, condensing like a vine and wrapping itself around his body, just for a few short seconds, his entire body was covered in blood, wrapped tightly and completely.

  The blood in the pool seemed to have turned into a crimson snake, still wrapping around him, enveloping him in a huge cocoon of blood.

  Excruciating pain spread throughout his body, and Shi Yan's brain felt like it was being hacked at with a sharp blade, the agony almost unbearable.

  It was as if billions of tiny insects were drilling into his body through the pores, crawling in his limbs, bones, and internal organs, gnawing at his flesh and blood, bringing him suffering like a thousand knives cutting him.

  The stone-hard eyes cannot see, wanting to howl, but unable to make any sound, and the body is also immobile.

  A wisp of strange energy flowed slowly along his meridians, like a gentle stream. Wherever it passed, the meridians in his body that had never been touched by external forces were torn apart. The wisps of energy flowed rapidly, splitting into countless strands, and frantically poured into all 720 acupoints throughout his body.

  Shi Yan felt that the 720 meridians in his body had suddenly expanded countless times, one moment scorching hot and the next icy cold to the bone, causing an indescribable suffering.

  The stabbing pain in his mind grew more and more intense, and in a daze, Shi Yan seemed to see that his acupoints were undergoing strange changes under those bizarre injections. Every single acupoint inside his body appeared to have transformed into tiny whirlwinds, spinning wildly.

  A thread of deep red, injected into those cyclones, seems to be quickly digested and becomes part of the cyclone. The cyclone, after getting those, becomes bigger and bigger, and the speed at which it digests those gradually accelerates.

  Perhaps because the pain had exceeded his endurance, Shi Yan felt as if his body had become a huge container in his dazed state. Those strange energies that were pouring into his body through every pore seemed to be changing his body in a way he couldn't understand.

  To be precise, they are changing the 720 acupoints existing within his body!

  As soon as this thought emerged in his mind, the next moment, a unbearable sharp pain suddenly burst out of nowhere in his mind, Shi Yan's consciousness was completely lost, and he fainted instantly.

  %%%

  It was unknown how long had passed when Shi Yan slowly woke up once again.

  He immediately found that the pain in his mind and body was gone, and there were no more strange flows inside him. When he carefully felt and comprehended, except for feeling a slight soreness in all the acupoints of his body, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

  Suddenly, he felt a warm flow of air, like a small snake swimming in the meridians of his body. After a small cycle, his whole body was comfortable and his hands and feet seemed to have gained several points of strength.

  Excellent!

  Shi Yan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately realized that the Blood Pool had indeed brought him some benefits. In his body, a small snake-like movement was visible in his meridians, which was clearly a sign of a warrior's possession of essence!

  Through another Shiyue's memory, he knew that Jingyuan was the source of power for warriors in this world and also the foundation for warriors to release powerful martial skills.

  According to the strength and weakness of the body's energy and the height of its boundaries, martial artists are strictly divided into ten levels: Post-Heavenly, Pre-Heavenly, Human Rank, Hundred Calamities, Earth Rank, Nirvana, Heavenly Rank, Spiritual Communication, True Spirit, and Divine King. Each level is further divided into three sub-levels: Upper Heaven, Middle Heaven, and Lower Heaven.

  Martial artists are the strong ones in this world, and the biggest criterion for distinguishing martial artists from ordinary people is to see if there is any spiritual energy existing inside a person's body. As long as a person has even a little bit of spiritual energy inside their body, no matter how much, they can be called a martial artist.

  Many people can't possess a Yuan in their entire lifetime, but as long as one possesses a Yuan, they can make it grow stronger through diligent cultivation. Therefore, any warrior who possesses a Yuan will always have a place in this world.

  Feeling the weak and gentle flow of the vital energy within his body, Shi Yan suddenly felt a bit more at ease. He knew that even if he couldn't return now, he wouldn't starve to death in this world.

  Letting his guard down, Shi Yan immediately sensed that the blood cocoon covering his entire body still existed, tightly wrapping around him.

  The stone rock broke free with force.

  "Whoosh!"

  The blood cocoon burst open with a loud crack, and Shi Yan jumped out violently. He looked around and found himself still in that strange stone cave, surrounded by piles of white bones.

  However, the blood in the Blood Pool had dried up, without a single drop left!

  In the dried-up blood pool, only a few dozen broken white bones were left, and the crimson thick blood water that filled the pool disappeared without a trace.

  A huge blood scab, towering in the center of the blood pool, thin as a cicada's wing, and shining brightly. However, he only took one glance, and the blood scab suddenly ignited with small flames from underneath, which grew larger and even set the white bones in the blood pool ablaze. In just an instant, both the blood scab and the white bones in the blood pool were burned to a crisp.

  In a dry pool of blood, a red glow shines brightly, an ancient ring with intricate blood patterns quietly falls into the pool.

  Staring at the strange ring for a few moments, Shi Yan vaguely felt that this ring had something to do with the Blood Pool. After hesitating for a moment, Shi Yan walked forward and picked up the ring, putting it on his left hand's ring finger.

  A warm feeling came from the ring, and in an instant, Shi Yan felt a connection between the ring and his blood vessels, as if the ring had become a part of his body. The extremely weak essence within him suddenly lost control and rushed towards the dark red ring, but was blocked by the skin on his ring finger, unable to enter the ring.

  His heart skipped a beat, Shi Yan immediately felt that the ring was eerie, and hurriedly tried to take it off, but found that the ring had already been tightly clasped onto his ring finger, as if it had taken root and sprouted. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remove this strange ring.

  The essence surged but didn't break through the obstruction of skin and flesh, and after a while, it returned to normal and sank back into the lower abdomen. The red light on the ring flickered for a moment, and then stopped shining brightly, and the warm feeling on the ring also disappeared.

  He fiddled with his fingers for a while and found that the ring was not unusual, so he didn't mind anymore. He looked around at the scene and thought seriously about it.

  Soon, Shi Yan came to an astonishing conclusion - all the blood in the Blood Pool had surged into his body!

  The blood pool has an area of ten square meters, although it's not big, but the blood water contained in it weighs at least several tons. Even a large elephant can't drink several tons of blood water at once!

  Shi Yan's face looked a bit unsightly, and he subconsciously glanced around, wanting to see if there were any changes in this body of his, whether it would become bloated and unbearable.

  It's better not to look, but when I looked again, I was startled by the rocky cliff!

  He didn't get fat, on the contrary, his body was even thinner than before, it's like a skeleton wrapped in human skin. The clothes that were originally fitted became several sizes larger, and there was hardly any flesh on his hands, legs, or anywhere else.

  Rather than calling it thin, it's better to call it a withered mummy.

  Shi Yan's face turned even uglier, he hadn't expected that this Blood Pool not only didn't send him back to the familiar world, but also brought such a strange change to him.

  "Gulu! Gulu!"

  A hungry signal came from his stomach, and Shi Yan suddenly felt an endless appetite, as if he could eat an entire elephant.

  The cave was littered with corpses, and there was nothing to eat. He looked at the dry blood pool and suddenly realized that he might not be able to go back again.

  Shi Yan wanted to find a weapon to go out, he remembered that when the guards were killing each other, the sound of swords and knives was endless, but after turning around in the stone cave for a while, he found that all the weapons had been corroded in a short period of time, not one could be used.

  Helpless, Shi Yan could only leave empty-handed from the entrance passage.

  %%%

  The air is humid, the heat waves are rolling, and the sound of gurgling water comes from afar. Ancient trees rise from the ground, probably tens of meters high, with dense shrubs like giant umbrellas blocking out the sunlight, only allowing a small amount of sunlight to stubbornly project onto the wet ground.

  This is a dark forest, as soon as the stone rock comes out, it immediately understands its position from the original owner's memory.

  This forest is vast, because the trees in the forest are too dense, even sunlight can hardly penetrate, making the forest dark and humid even during the day, so it is called a gloomy forest.

  The Dark Forest is located in the center of the Merchant Alliance, the Empire of Flame and the Empire of Providence. The Merchant Alliance is to the north of the forest, while the Empire of Providence is to the south. The Dark Forest directly separates the Merchant Alliance and the Empire of Providence. The Empire of Flame is to the west. For merchant caravans from each country who wish to do business in other countries, the Dark Forest is a necessary route.

  In the dark forest, there are often monsters coming and going. Six or seven-level monsters are not uncommon, but the merchant teams, mercenaries, and warriors of the three countries who travel through the dark forest frequently know that the more powerful monsters generally only operate in specific areas, while only lower-level monsters will be homeless.

  Generally speaking, merchant caravans will not encounter any problems as long as they follow a specific route in the dark forest and avoid areas where high-level demonic beasts roam. Only mercenaries and warriors who specifically target high-level demonic beasts are likely to encounter them in the dark forest, resulting in severe casualties.

  High risk comes with high returns, mercenary adventurers who can kill 6th or 7th level demonic beasts in the dark forest will immediately receive a large amount of crystal coins. The body of a 6th level demonic beast already contains demon crystals, which are extremely valuable to warriors, alchemists and craftsmen, worth a city.

  Apart from the demon crystal, the fur, sharp teeth and claws, tendons and even venom of a demon beast are all extremely valuable. High-level demon beasts can be said to be treasure from head to toe.

  It's also because of this that many fearless warriors and mercenaries come to the Dark Forest to adventure, with the goal of obtaining high-level demonic beasts. However, only a small number of people reap the benefits, while many others underestimate the intelligence and strength of the demonic beasts, not only failing to achieve their goals but also becoming the demonic beasts' delicious prey.

  Coming out of the stone cave, Shi Yan observed the surroundings for a while and heard the noisy sounds coming from the direction of the distant water flow. Those topics were all centered around women, occasionally interspersed with a few sentences of "heh heh" lewd laughter.

  Just as Shi Yan was hesitating about whether to go over and take a look, he suddenly found that in the thicket of shrubs not far in front of him, there was a faint rustling sound, like someone was fiddling with the leaves of the thicket.

  Shi Yan subconsciously looked in that direction.

  All that could be seen was a woman with a slender figure in the thicket, slowly untying her white waistband, squatting down with her back to her, revealing a snow-white buttocks shaped like a peach, waving her jade-like hands behind her to shoo away the annoying mosquitoes, and happily urinating...

  The woman was apparently unaware of someone behind her and hummed a tune in the "gurgling" sound of the water, feeling very happy.

  Shi Yan was taken aback for a moment, then quickly reacted and rudely scanned her dazzling white buttocks, secretly praising that this woman's butt was so captivating, wondering what her true appearance would be like.

  "Bang!"

  The woman suddenly slapped her smooth and white left buttock, sending a bold mosquito to its death. Her buttocks first shrank inward violently, and then rebounded with an intoxicating wave after she quickly withdrew her hand, showing excellent elasticity, which also caused Shi Yan's heart to flutter.

  Under the reluctant gaze of Shi Yan, the woman finished her business, quietly fastening her belt and muttering to herself: "Damn mosquitoes..."

  Without warning, the woman suddenly turned around, and two blue-green electric lights flashed out, wrapping up all the mosquitoes gathered behind her. In the "crackling" sound, all the mosquitoes were electrocuted to death.

  As she turned around, the woman's true appearance was fully revealed. She had a delicate face like a bright moon, around 20 years old, about 1 meter 68 centimeters tall, with a rich and beautiful spirit, slender waist, full chest, and a lithe figure. On her light purple undershirt, she wore a silver-gray soft armor that clung to her body, but it couldn't hide the captivating curves of her figure, like a legendary mountain fox.

  His gaze was like a sharp knife, fiercely falling on her body, secretly praising that this woman could compare to the stunning beauties of his world.

  When Shiraga's greedy eyes wandered over her beautiful figure, the beauty suddenly became vigilant and, separated by several large banana leaves, she was able to accurately find Shiraga's eyes.

  A beauty's eyes suddenly shone with a sharp light!

  ……

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