After their wild battle, the quintet of girls were greeted by their master, Heifeng Jiansui who seemed to have finally finished his seclusion.

“So how did you like your first true battle experience? I hope the battle formation and your martial training was useful. Having a group of maids only useful for their beauty… well, I picked you all for your martial talent, so I would end up disappointed.” Heifeng Jiansui’s greeting ended up firing up all the maids. At this moment, Qinglan Weiwei immediately began narrating their epic adventures.

“Yeah, it must have been hard on you. In truth, battling above your level is an almost legendary activity for great masters, but one thing know about it is that it gets harder as the cultivation levels increase. Thus, battling a demonic beast with a formation of five isn’t all that great of an achievement…” Hearing Heifeng Jiansui’s words, their faces fell. They certainly recognized the truth of his words. After all, despite everything, they weren’t in life or death danger even once in their battle!

Seeing the dejected expression on his girls, Heifeng Jiansui suddenly felt like comforting them. “That said, all of you have worked hard. While I did grant you that battle formation, it is only a foundation art and not really suited for true fights. Since all of you have gained such skill with the art, I’ll grant you a better technique.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui passed five manuals to the girls.

“Fivephase Sacred Yin Array… Heavens, this manual has Dao Engravings from the first page!” Xuehu Ying was the first girl who cried out in surprise while the rest were simply dumbfounded. Most likely, they hadn’t even read manuals with a single Dao Engraving on them. Of course, Qinglan Weiwei was an exception.

“Young master, this manual is too precious for the likes of us… We definitely cannot---“ As the maids tried to return the manual, Heifeng Jiansui stopped their pleas.

“Well, despite having five of you, you still got beaten up by a single Demonic Tiger. If you want to keep my face, train with this manual. Perhaps you won’t end up as miserable the next time!” His words were effective; all the maids became earnest in their desire to master the formation art.

“This manual is an art that converges and amplifies your qi energy, bloodline energy and spiritual energy as one. After mastering it, you can use a spirit fusing technique to fuse your bloodline and battle spirits together. It is particularly suited to female possessors of the Sacred Beast bloodlines. If you train in it well, you can crush those with higher cultivation and numbers with ease.” Heifeng Jiansui proudly explained his personally created technique. Taking inspiration from the formation used by the Five Sacred Demon Immortals of his past life, he infused that essence along with the comprehension derived from the manuals he had read in this era to form this technique!

“”””“Young master’s grace to us is so grand, we will find it hard it hard to repay in this life! We will certainly spill our blood, energy and souls to serve you!””””” Hearing the five girls take such extreme pledges was slightly surprising to Heifeng Jiansui. He lightly patted all of the girls on their heads before proceeding.

“I will remind all of you, quickly master the martial arts that I have bestowed to you. They will create a sturdy foundation for your future cultivation. Weiwei, that applies to you as well. Quickly master that spear technique and step on the path of cultivation!” On hearing their master’s command, all the girls were filled with vigor. Especially the Feilong twins who were on the cusp of breakthrough.

“Anyway, if you go on further expeditions and build up a good pile of beast corpses, I can refine them to extract their blood essence for your cultivation. Since your current catch is for our food supply, I won’t do that for now.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui left, leaving the girls to prepare lunch.

+++

That week, the Feilong sisters mastered their martial art. Since their body training had reached the limit, Heifeng Jiansui created another martial art for them so that they might comprehend their Daohearts.

Now, only Xuehu Ying and Gui Tian’er were left. Since the two of them were the group’s weak links, the group decided that further expeditions would be focused on letting the two grow stronger. Not only that, but all the blood essence extracted from the corpses gathered would be used to quickly train them up!

This decision was highly effective, for the girls ended up breaking through and mastering their assigned martial arts in a month. After awakening their ancestral memories, they gained mighty martial arts that helped them catch up. Their physical training was quite deficient compared to the other girls who had been practicing since their childhood, but it was good enough to grant them a martial art for peering into their Daohearts.

Due to constant battle and training, the girls reached the stage where they were one step away from breaking through to the first stage of cultivation in a ridiculously low amount of time. But their master’s command was still in their hearts- master their martial arts, build a solid foundation.

With this in their hearts, they would only take this step after complete mastery.

+++

Meanwhile, Heifeng Jiansui and Ninebless continued to work on their forging together. After three months, Ninebless and Heifeng Jiansui could finally cooperate to refine a 1-Star Quasi-Earth item.

But the benefits of training Skytemper’s forging art were undeniable. Heifeng Jiansui’s bloodline slowly but steadily grew denser and thicker, until it seemed that he would break through the cultivation art he had stagnated in, Phoenixflame Marrowforge Art, by virtue of his bloodline density alone. As for Ninebless, her spiritual energy had reached the realm of 2000 year old spirits!

At this time, he finally created a blueprint for the Spiritual Rank needles needed for his breakthrough in the Phoenixflame Marrowforge.

“Ah, we have ended up spending so much time forging measly Spiritual Grade artifacts. What are you going to use them for?” Ninebless was truly annoyed. They had spent a week forging these artifacts instead of refining formation pillars!

“Actually, this is a training aid for a divine ability I am cultivating. …You can watch this from a distance.” Saying this, Heifeng Jiansui stripped himself naked and used spiritual energy to stab himself with those needles. Ninebless watched in shock as the needles fully entered the boy’s body without a drop of blood being spilled!

Heifeng Jiansui began carrying out the movements of the Phoenixflame Marrowforge Art. His fists and feet moved in manners that exuded immense charm and grace. As he moved, the bloodline energy in his body seemed to surge like a tide.

Revolving through his meridians and energy channels, the blood within his body seemed to grow denser and weightier. Finally, the bloodline energy gathered in his heart, the Sea of Blood and the transformation of his body finally ended.

Black flames purged all wastes from his body, and Heifeng Jiansui’s bodily height, weight and strength increased. Just like this, he had broken through the Large Success of the Phoenixflame Marrowforge!

Heifeng Jiansui immediately put on some clothes. The current transformation his body had went through was far too amazing. It seemed that a mastering the Phoenixflame Marrowforge would require Quasi-Earth needles…

Suddenly, Heifeng Jiansui thought of Ninebless. For some reason, Ninebless was kneeling before him, her head pressed against the ground. Heifeng Jiansui bent down to raise her up.

“What happened to you? Were you so awed by my majesty that you decided to kneel to me and pledge fealty?” Heifeng Jiansui lightly joked as he helped the spirit up.

“It was your bloodline suppression. The aura of a Black Phoenix is enough to make a spiritual being like me with the soul of a Phoenix prostrate.” Ninebless explained.

“Due to the blood energy of Phoenixes that formed you, you are now a Phoenix soul?” Heifeng Jiansui had an interested expression on his face while saying this.

“It isn’t simply due to that… Well, I might as well show you my greatest hidden secret. Even though it is quite precious to me, I am sure it won’t fall under your eyes…” Saying these words, the spirit called to Heifeng Jiansui to follow her.