Two months later. This year's spring was hot, placing a comfortable blanket of warmth on the entire Chaotic Province. The fierce lumps of snow had all melted, overflowing previous rivers and creating plenty of new ones. It was a beautiful sight, of which Wang Li was at the center of it all, sitting cross-legged next to a flowing stream of water - fish leaping out every once in a while. His eyes were closed in meditation, he looked incomparably relaxed.
But any spectator would notice the amount of surging energy being sucked from the surroundings into Wang Li's body without end. The suction force was quite frightening, opposing the peaceful scenery surrounding the brimmed youth.
"Woosh", a loud flap of wings caused the peaceful flowing water to shake, a large yellow bird settling beside the youth. In his calm response, the closed eyes of Wang Li opened - revealing a pair of sharp and piercing eyes. They seemed almost endless, like a dark abyss without any end, yet held a twinkle of light that was incomparably mystifying.
A year ago, or even two months ago, Wang Li was more beast than human, with an unbridled aura that spoke of the wilderness. Today, however, he was more like a refined and elegant blade, ready to erupt with fierce strength at any time. He had changed greatly.
"Today is the day, Grandpa?" Wang Li cracked open a smile, rising from his cross-legged position. He had been anticipating this day, as it held unmatched importance to him!
"Seems you're quite excited." Hua Taixu, dressed in his signature white robes, leaped from the Thunderhawk. He smiled warmly at the refined youth in front of him, almost cracking a tear.
The bond between Wang Li and Hua Taixu had grown past master and student, to one of father and son. Hua Taixu had never had children and had secretly always longed for an offspring of his own. Wang Li had fit this need perfectly, he was beyond satisfied.
He felt proud at managing to change that terrified boy into the grown youth that stood in front of him today. He had raised a genius all by himself.
And for Wang Li, he felt nothing but gratitude and love for Hua Taixu. He was the only other human he had interacted with and had truly taught him everything. In his heart, he had sworn to help Hua Taixu with anything he needed in the future - regardless of the cost.
"Can you blame me? I have a good feeling today's attempt will work!" Wang Li grinned, wasting no time as he sat down at the edge of the clear stream. He steadied his breathing and looked at Hua Taixu, prepared for what was to come next.
"Alright. We'll get started right away, I've already made sure there are no nearby beasts. Now for the two prizes here." Hua Taixu took a few steps, standing in front of Wang Li. The quiet hum of the stream passed behind the two. The Thunderhawk flapped it's large wings and flew into the sky, looking down and scanning the area. The following event could not be disturbed!
"Let's see it!" Hua Taixu swiped his hand as a bright green box appeared in his left hand, clasped shut. In his other hand appeared a shiny glass bottle, which contained a glistening fruit within it. The fruit was shaped like a heart and throbbed at its own steady pace - truly resembling a real heart.
"I want you to take the Demonic Core first. Normally you would have to absorb it slowly - but today I want you to directly eat it! I think you understand the risks of this; the eruption of energy will be massive! No mere mortal could think of handling this energy - you'll need to remain calm!" Hua Taixu explained, opening the clasped shut jade box. Immediately a violent Qi aura flushed out, a bright yellow core laying comfortably in the center. It seemed to release it's own dominating presence as if daring anyone to come to touch it. Occasionally, sparks of lightning would flash across its surface.
"As soon as you take the Demonic Core, you'll eat the Thumping Heart Fruit right after. This will be much easier, as the Thumping Heart's energy is much more peaceful, and will quickly work to activating whatever bloodline is hidden inside of you. From there, it'll all be up to you to see what happens!" Elder Taixu opened the jade bottle, a comfortable and cozy aura emitting from the fruit inside. It was completely different from the Demonic Core, passive rather than aggressive.
"Grandpa Taixu, I'm ready!~" Wang Li boldly declared, determination steeling across his face. He was ready and prepared, he knew what he had to do.
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"Then we'll start now! Here is the Core!" Hua Taixu wasted no time, as the lightning core suddenly flew from the jade box and flew towards Wang Li's mouth. Wang Li opened up wide, allowing the yellow Core to be caught in the room of his mouth. Immediately, he felt shocks of little discharges of lightning in his mouth.
Gulp!~
With one bold swallow, the lightning core was bravely consumed whole by Wang Li. Wang Li responded swiftly, forming a special seal under the instruction of Hua Taixu. He closed his eyes as his vision went to a mysterious and completely empty space within him - his dantian.
His dantian was completely dark and silent, with nothing being there nor held there. It was incomparably silent - until a yellow orb landed right in the middle of it. Everything froze for less than a second, before the following event.
WOOSH!~
The Demonic Core suddenly exploded into vigorous and explosive bright lightning Qi, flooding Wang Li's dantian with incomparable ferocity. It was similar to endless waves of energy, clasping on each other with no end. Even Wang Li couldn't help but be shaken, his real body coughing out a mouthful of blood.
This kind of explosion of energy was deadly to a Body Transformation artist, not to mention a mortal like Wang Li!
"Eat this, quick!" Hua Taixu's currently had a grim face, his hand throwing that Thumping Heart fruit to Wang Li. He knew that timing was incomparably crucial.
Wang Li opened his mouth wide, still maintaining that hand seal, and swallowed the Thumping Heart fruit. It had the slight taste of freshly spilled blood, before quickly flew down to join the Demonic Core.
The little heart shaped fruit landed among the explosive waves of lightning energy, reacting almost spontaneously. Rather than exploding, it dissolved into a bright red flowing energy that carried with it a strange and odd feeling. But rather than fighting the opposing yellow energy, it quickly was dragged deeper into Wang Li's dantian - as if being directly sucked by some strange force.
Rumble! Rumble!
Something shook within Wang Li's dantian, immediately reacting with the Thumping Heart's Qi. All of the bright red energy was directly manipulated into a swirling tornado, pushing back the Demonic Core's bright yellow energy. Within this crimson tornado, some unknown being was awakening.
Wang Li watched all of this from an outsider's perspective, looking in at his dantian. He was shocked as he saw this occurrence - and his shock was also joined by Hua Taixu, who was inspecting his dantian.
This swirling bright red tornado only lasted for a short bit, before being sucked into the center - disappearing without a trace. What was left behind was the strange entity within the tornado - a bright red Ancient Seal.
This Ancient Seal's color wasn't truly red, it was just that it was covered in all of the Thumping Heart's Qi. It was in truth a large Seal, with ancient and mysterious lines and strokes that made it what it was. It released a boundless and ancient feeling like a majestic King landed upon the gate of the Royal Palace. Just looking at it made Hua Taixu's heart thump faster.
The Ancient Seal had been sparked to life by the Thumping Heart fruit, as if it had been hiding in a deep slumber. Its nonexistent eyes landed upon the surging Demonic Core Qi, and seemed to give an indifferent "hmph". It floated up into the surging Qi, and released an incredible devouring force - sucking up all of that rampaging Qi as if it was water!
At that point, both Wang Li and Hua Taixu's hearts shook. This Ancient Seal was the cause of all of Wang Li's Qi being stolen!?
The Ancient Seal didn't hesitate, in almost two seconds all of the Qi was completely absorbed into the Seal - changing it's color from red to bright orange.
But it was not done there. It suddenly exploded forth with all of the Qi it had absorbed, this time all of the energy being orange rather than red or yellow. This Qi was completely peaceful, even more so than the Thumping Heart fruit Qi. The Qi rolled out in powerful waves, leaving Wang Li's dantian and flooding towards his skin.
The Orange Qi quickly invaded Wang Li's skin and muscles, interlacing with them and strengthening his skin even further. His muscles, in turn, suddenly expanded and contracted with much fiercer energy. The strength they could be released just leaped exponentially! And just like that he advanced to the First Level, Second Level, and Third Level of Body Transformation - all in one short burst! His skin became brighter and brighter, its toughness had multiplied exponentially in a span of a few seconds!
But the Orange Qi was still not done yet, rushing forward toward his bones. Here he broke through to the Fourth Level, the Orange Qi interlacing with his bonds and strengthening them even further. Their durability surpassed Wang Li's already toughened skin by no small gap! Like this, he quickly landed at the Sixth Level of Body Transformation - on the verge of reaching the Seventh Level of Body Transformation!
It should be noted that at this time Hua Taixu's eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets. He had already let go of Wang Li - losing vision of his dantian and that mighty Ancient Seal. He fell down to the ground in extreme astonishment - truly paralyzed with shock!
Wang Li watched this with his own crazy amount of surprise and excitement. He was quickly grinning from ear to ear, horizon to horizon. He opened his eyes and got up from his cross-legged position, immediately stretching out.
Within each and every one of his muscles - he could feel incomparable strength! He couldn't help but grin fiercely!
All of their hard work had paid off!