Is this enough...is throwing off the cliff enough to count as me killing him? Damn it, I'm so close to breaking through! I should have just taken the whole arm then I would surely get the Heart's blood right? I need to figure out how this works...

Xing Kai peered over the edge of the ledge precariously and anxiously waited, with the 4 bulging bags in his hand. It could be seen how important this task was for the Soul condensing expert, as even now his severed hand was tightly gripping the bags.

"Xing Kai get back off the edge, or are you going to chase the poor bastard down to his death?"

Xing Kai turned around and could see officer Jie and officer Di walking towards him. There was a perceptible gleam in their eyes and they constantly glanced at the bags in his hands. The other militiamen simply stared outright at the bags and were salivating and panting as if they were looking upon the undressed form of a beautiful princess.

Xing Kai chuckled bitterly in his heart and stepped away from the slippery edge. He walked back to the others and passed the bags directly to officer Jie. It was at this moment that their achievement really sunk in for the panting militiamen. One of the men on the cliff top could contain himself no longer and immediately began roaring with laughter and cheered into the night sky. The men all erupted in cheering and slapped each other's backs and even the older men were grinning from ear to ear.

A rope was dropped down the cliff and the men climbed up the cliff face, with Xing Kai following behind. He remembered how powerful the Heart's blood of the peak Stage cultivator was, but even that could not fulfil Xing Kai's body's requirements. He was certain that only a Soul condensing expert could bridge the gap, as peak Blood condensing Heart's blood would not give the qualitative boost in Xing Kai's body that he needed to break through the first layer.

As Xing Kai raised his hand to the lip of the cliff he felt a strange vibration. There was a scorching sensation on his ankle and a powerful tremor passed through his leg.

Xing Kai's eyes widened and he immediately froze as he hung on the rope. The sound of the cheering men faded away in his ears as he focused completely on his internals.

The powerful tremor in his leg made it difficult for him to sense what it was clearly, but he could track the rippling tremor pass up his leg's Jingmai and up past his navel and towards his head.

The powerful vibration could only be from one thing.

Soul condensing Heart's blood!

Xing Kai could finally see the drops of blood when it neared his soul fragment ring as the powerful tremors from the blood were completely extinguished.

The drops were small, and a deep red colour.

Powerful. Vigorous. Wilful.

Xing Kai felt these words appearing in his mind as he watched the struggling Heart's blood being pulled into the ring of Xing Kai's soul fragments...and was refined in a single moment with ease.

The derived, refined Heart's blood was quickly gathered by Xing Kai using his sense and he directed it to flow through his Jingmai according to the first layer.

The first cycling of the blood did nothing.

The second cycle was like a heavenly dam had broken onto the world!

Xing Kai's muscles greedily absorbed the Heart's blood as it filtered down through the Loumai and into the tissues. The changes were more significant in these few moments than the sum of his whole cultivating lifetime by far!

The muscles in Xing Kai's body became a rich and deep red in colour, but not only on the surface but deep down into every fibre of muscular tissue. The grains in the muscles deepened and tightened until they became clear striations, a sign of thorough muscular toning. Shockingly Xing Kai's Loumai, his blood vessels, actually embedded themselves in the grooves of Xing Kai's muscles, which provided them with an extra layer of protection beyond what was possible for the Blood condensing Stage!

Dense

This was first word that would come to mind seeing Xing Kai's muscles now. Like heavy granite and marble. They were deeply enhanced and refined, with incredible toning and bursting power. The explosive force they would produce could only be imagined.

However the Loumai also feed into Xing Kai's connective tissues and they experienced an even more remarkable transformation.

Xing Kai's tendons were the most greedy. A substantial amount of the essence of the Heart's blood was absorbed by the yellow and pale white tendons and they became pale white in colour entirely. It was like looking at a milky coloured metal, deceptively enduring and incredibly strong. Even an axeman that could fell a 300 year old tree with a single strike would fail to damage the tendon of his fingers!

But Xing Kai's ligaments would not fall behind however. They became more elastic and flexible, but yet also far more enduring and resistant. Xing Kai could feel that he could bend any of his joints to the extreme with ease now. His agility had grown greatly with this and therefore so had his effective combat speed!

Even Xing Kai's skin experienced a rejuvenating effect. His skin felt icy cold as another layer of skin was shed as dust and another layer regrew beneath it in a single burst of growth. The new layer of skin still showed his humble origins yet there was also a noble air to him now...the kind of indescribable air of health and vigour that noble children have, due to a lifetime of lavish eating. Xing Kai's entire lifetime of tough living on the farm was wiped clean, and he seemed as if he had never suffered poor eating, even though he still had the recognisable tan of a farmer.

The most unexpected change was to Xing Kai's bones. The bones also absorbed the Heart's blood, but Xing Kai could only perceive that the bone's surface seemed to have hardened...yet he was sure that there was more to it than just that. Although he couldn't identify any other changes, he knew  that his bones had more than just hardened on the surface.

Strange...

Xing Kai could feel his body thrumming with power and smoothly lifted himself over the edge of the cliff as if gravity had simply disappeared around him. 

This...could I have?

Xing Kai felt a soft thud inside his body as if a bubble had burst inside of him. His mind wobbled for a moment...and he felt immediately that he had managed to break through the first layer!

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He could feel an incredibly blissful shudder running through his body and closed his eyes to savour the feeling. It was the most intense feeling of comfort but more than that...the achievement made Xing Kai deeply satisfied and content. This breakthrough was a nightmare to achieve by any standards, yet by gambling with his life he had won...and the satisfaction he felt in his mind and soul was far great than the physical one.

Let's see how far I can go

Xing Kai now redirected the refined Heart's blood according to the second layer manual he had memorised. In fact Xing Kai had memorised all the way to up to the 7th layer as the camp assumed he was already at middle Blood condensing Stage and was training to break into late Stage. He never denied or confirmed the senior camp officers, and took whatever cultivation manuals they gave him.

Xing Kai cycled the blood according to the route described. The routes were not very difficult for him to find and managed it with relative ease.

The first circulation of the remaining Heart's blood showed no results.

The second circulation was astounding.

Xing Kai noticed that this time none of the Heart's blood was distributed to the muscles, tendons or ligaments but instead went to his organs. Strangely this new circulation path meant that the Heart's blood only filtered down to the Loumai connected to his vital organs...this was surprising information to Xing Kai.

But the changes to the organs were even more surprising.

The membrane and tissue structure of the organs seemed to twitch and writhe. The membrane began thickening while the internal organ's structure began changing. 

Xing Kai's kidneys and liver where the first to be changed, and the organ lining became thicker slightly and the internal tissues moved slightly to form a slightly curve in the tissues. The functions were all unchanged but the slight curl to the tissue arrangement meant that impact forces were distributed throughout the organ more evenly...so they would be able to withstand greater impact!

Xing Kai was incredibly clear on the fact that internal damage was the worst and the easiest way to kill a person. In fact all deaths could be attributed ultimately to internal injuries. Without a strong inner core, a cultivator would have no resilience and endurance...they would only ever amount be a pathetic warrior.

The kidneys, the liver, the stomach and intestines, all experienced an increase in resilience and became tougher. Even the Loumai became thicker and less likely to be damaged.

However all these changes required massive amounts of the refined blood essence and it soon ran out.

This is not too bad

Xing Kai felt he was about half way through the second layer using the Soul condensing Heart's blood. He expected that since the first layer breakthrough required Soul condensing blood, then the second layer would naturally need lots of Soul condensing Heart's blood.

To only be half way through the second layer was not surprising.

"Officer Kai are you alright?"

Xing Kai looked towards the voice and found it to be another one of the officers. Xing Kai felt a shock and quickly grabbed his blood covered stomach and wheezed slightly. He nodded his head and sat down as if taking a rest. The man frowned with concern but seeing that Xing Kai was not in extreme pain he decided to not say anything. 

If the dust wasn't covering their sight they would have seen how badly I was injured...and explaining how I recovered from that would be even harder than explaining how I could exchange blows with a Soul condensing cultivator

Xing Kai's pleasure from breaking through was slightly marred by the sticky situation he placed himself in. The only way he could have survived that exchange with the Soul condensing expert was if he was at peak Blood condensing himself...but he didn't have the manual for the 9th layer, so how could he have reached peak Stage?

How would he explain it if anyone asked?

While Xing Kai wrestled with solutions in the dark the other militiamen became to settle down and supress their excitement. Occasionally they would glance at Xing Kai and look at him with deep respect and admiration...the men were beginning to understand that they were looking at someone talented.

The militia and the town's people had never encountered someone truly talented, so they couldn't see the value. To them, only immediate strength was useful, and talent was only a tool which may or may not pay out in the future. Even these elite militiamen didn't have much appreciation for talent as a talented person could easily die when he was weak.

But talent like Xing Kai's was too blinding to be ignored.

"Officer Kai, have my healing pill. It will help you recover faster"

Suddenly one of the militiamen spoke out loudly and drew everyone's attention. They looked at the man and could see a dull looking marble in his hand. All of the men, including officer Jie removed a small marble from their concealed pockets and stepped towards a stunned Xing Kai.

This is practically theft! I can't accept such an expensive thing from them

Xing Kai looked at the men and his brow furrowed with guilt. These pills were quite mediocre but still very expensive. Their effects were limited to a 10% chance of stopping a mild infection and helped blood circulation, but that was a huge benefit for the militiamen. Hence the 150 blood coins cost per pill.

Yet to Xing Kai's amazement they offered it to him.

They hardly know me yet they are so kind? Do they...

Xing Kai pushed his thoughts aside and swallowed the almost 30 pills quietly and the men smiled, happy that they could have helped Xing Kai recover. In their minds, practically all the Yao Grass belonged to him anyways, so they were perfectly happy in giving him their hard earned pills in exchange.

"If you're feeling well enough officer Kai, we'll begin making our way back" said officer Jie.

Xing Kai nodded his head and stood up steadily to match his blood covered appearance. He felt conflicted for consuming their pills given with good intentions, while he felt an inner hatred for them.

Hatred for forcing so many people of another town to starve. Hatred of himself for following along for his own selfish purposes.

The successful group of elite militiamen flowed into the forest and returned to the town on a slightly different track then used before.