The first thing Zilan did after coming back from that mysterious state, was to immediately jump into the bath and clean himself up.

His entire body was covered with black sticky filth that had a horrid smell, even breathing through the mouth was of no use.

......

After taking a whole two hours scrubbing every inch of his body, Zilan finally got out of the bath. He then quickly dressed, took out a mop and started cleaning the black liquid filled room.

This needed to be done if he wanted to erase all evidence of his experiment otherwise if he called a maid or the inn keeper to take care of it, rumours that would most definitely not be beneficial to him might quickly spread.

Another hour passed and the sun finally set allowing darkness to envelop to earth.

Zilan didn’t bother putting on a shirt as he calmly sat on the floor with the crimson core in hand.

“The final step!”  

After taking a moment to steel himself, Zilan suddenly pinched his right thumb and a drop of his blood fell onto the core.

The blood was instantly absorbed by the core however, right after strange things started happening. The crimson core flew into the air by itself before coming to a halt just in front of Zilan’s forehead.

The strange inscription pattern began throbbing erratically with blue light as the core slowly but surely passed through his head and moved close to his soul.

There was no wound or any sign of disturbance on Zilan’s fore head but there was also no doubt that the core had gone into his head.

Zilan’s eyes were closed throughout the entire process but he could still feel that a foreign force had made its way inside him.

“Perfect!”

All Zilan could currently see was infinite darkness but once in a while he would hear the sounds of waves and explosions. These sounds were terrifying but Zilan knew that this was the sound of the core and his soul interacting with each other. If the core could survive the onslaught then everything would be complete.

Suddenly the darkness around him vanished and a huge sea that Zilan could not see the end of stretched below him. He floated around the area and tears unexpectedly poured down from his eyes.

“T.h..The Sea of consciousness.....I,.I’ve done it!”

Above him he could see a gigantic white planet giving of unbelievable waves of energy and powerful vitality.

“So this is the soul....Hm?”

As he looked on in awe, a small crimson rock that was leisurely circling the white planet caught his attention. The rock greedily absorbed the energy being emitted by his soul however it reached a point where an abrupt huge blast of white energy smacked the core far away.

Seeing this Zilan couldn’t help but sigh,

“It looks like the power held within the core has not yet been refined enough for me to instantly break through to the soul-compression stage. However the fact that I’m here means that I’ve already gone past the Divine Baptism.”

Zilan hastily flew after the red core and grabbed it. He then spoke a few words in an unknown language and the core flew up once again, but this time it floated underneath his soul.

“It’s time to revive my meridians.”

He then made a series of hand signs while speaking in a strange tongue, the movements seemed unbelievably fluid and well practiced.  

This went on for a very long time however Zilan did not stop for even a second. Above him, the crimson core steadily enlarged with every passing minute and peculiar spider web like cracks continued to extended around it.

“Break for me!” shouted Zilan as his hand signs suddenly stopped.

The now triple sized crimson core slowly started to crack shedding off its outer shell which quickly disintegrated turning into light blue energy that speedily rushed towards his meridians.

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Zilan’s body in the inn suddenly started glowing with deep blue energy surrounding him, the scales around his neck especially shining bright. Loud breaking and popping sounds could be heard coming from his body, the veins on his arms and head surprisingly bulged as sweat unceasingly flowed.

Each time he exhaled a faint light blue air escaped from his nostrils and mouth.

Zilan’s meridians instantly absorbed and circulated the energy around his body. They had been starved for many years and today was their first meal therefore they furiously circulated the energy everywhere countless times with no signs of it calming down. A cool and comfortable feeling spread throughout Zilan’s body.

In his sea of consciousness a large smile could be seen on his face as he laughed out loud. The outer shell of the crimson core had cracked causing the energy contained within the shell to quickly circulate however, what remained behind was the true treasure, a small light blue collection of fluid slowly rotating and releasing energy.

“I’ve done it! It’s complete, I’ve finally done it! Father, Mother your son is no longer worthless I can now finally start to avenge you.”

Zilan dared not think it before but deep down he looked down on himself more than anyone in the world did or ever could. “If only I were stronger, If only I were smarter.” So many if’s passed through his mind but one thing remained the same, he was weak and although that was not the main reason his whole life collapsed, it was a key factor.

In this world only strength mattered and he was denied the ability to even gain that strength. However now, everything had changed.

He relied on no one apart from his own knowledge and his Book of Path to gain this cultivation method. In the future he would also rely only on himself to get the better of his enemies no matter what happened.

“I’m no longer useless.” repeated Zilan.

He remained in his sea of consciousness till the morning, completely engrossed in the rotations of the light blue ball of liquid. The energy it released, circulated a few times around Zilan’s body before returning to it.

He watched this process continue to happen over and over yet he never got bored, it was as if he was looking at his most precious loved one or most valuable treasure in the universe.

“It’s time to finalize it.” resolved Zilan.

He then made a few hand signs and the ancient inscription pattern that he had drawn on the outer shell of the core appeared once more and stuck itself onto the ball of liquid.

“The never before seen cultivation method “the Path of Blood” has finally arrived in the Universe.”

Zilan had long ago decided to name his cultivation method, “The path of Blood” the same as the Book of Path predicted.

.........

Back in the inn, Zilan opened his eyes and a bizzare blue streak of lightning flashed, an instant later and it vanished.

He then directed his gaze towards his right wrist where a strange tattoo that resembled an intricate bracelet was wrapped around. The tattoo had twenty five black lines and a thumb-sized blue gem in the centre.

“The stronger I become the more lines will disappear. Only when the gem by itself remains will I have mastered the entirety of the Flow pythons core.”

The Path of Blood revolved around comprehending all the skills, special abilities and attribute contained in a particular Beast’s core. This was truly a horrifyingly powerful cultivation method for it to allow him to do this however that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Zilan designed the Path of Blood to allow him to comprehend different elements. It was normal for super geniuses to be able to have two elements, but in Zilan’s case as long as he had the prerequisite power, he could control every element in the Heavens not to mention absorb the Universe’s power which was at least ten times greater than spiritual power. It even had other uses that Zilan had yet to completely get a handle on.

Just as Zilan was celebrating he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He immediately grabbed it however the pain just grew more intense, when it was getting to a critical state it shockingly ended.

“What!?...” wondered Zilan.

He sighed in relief as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“What was that?”