Akata sat in meditation for a full six hours focusing on the Paragon’s Blood scripture. He made a few more advancements but it didn’t have much of a difference on his strength. “So it seems I’ll have to fight to actually advance in this technique. That’s perfect for me, it would be extremely boring if all I had to do was think about this and I became stronger.” Akata opened his eyes and his eyes were fierce with a fighting will. When he opened his eyes Ming Lu was on her way to him.

“Looks like you’ve finished comprehending all you can. I guess you’re ready to move on to the next step of actually absorbing the beasts blood.” She spoke with a smile on her face and a soft tone.

“Mn” replied Akata. He was raring to get stronger and he would do it by almost any means necessary. “I’m ready.”

“Good then let us get started then.” Ming Lu swished her sleeve and the Blood Rabbit appeared. The appearance of it caused Akata’s blood to rotate faster. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes to fully concentrate on using his Paragon’s Blood ability to absorb others blood. This was a critical moment for him and if he failed it would lead to severe repercussions for him.

Even though he had a technique to absorb blood it didn’t mean he would be successful in using it. It’s like if someone first taught you how to refine a pill, you necessarily wouldn’t be able to do it yourself on your first try. But refining a pill was different because you could get more chances even after you first messed up; but if you messed up absorbing beasts blood then your life could be on the line.

Akata circulated the blood in his body that was enhanced by the technique and reviewed the scripture in his mind. The first parts surfaced into his thoughts as he did so.

Take the blood of your enemies and use it for yourself

Take the life of your enemies and use it for yourself

What’s theirs is yours and what’s yours gets stronger

He mused to himself lightly, “I’ve taken the blood of the Blood Rabbit when I cut it. I also took the life of it when I defeated it. Now all that’s left is to take what it has and make it my own.”

Akata opened his eyes slowly and pointed his palm out towards the Blood Rabbit. A red glow sort of like a mist emanated from his hand soon the mist-like glow started to spread out. It seemed like the process of spreading out this red mist took a lot of mental and physical energy because Akata’s hand immediately started to tremble slightly. The mist didn’t head far only a meter or so in front of him towards the Blood Rabbit which laid there.

When it came into contact with the Blood Rabbit, Akata felt his blood circulating rapidly. The blood from the Blood Rabbit was being forcefully absorbed by the red mist. The blood was being taken into the mist and transferred into Akata. It was intermixing with Akata’s blood and was actually… consuming his own blood! Akata was instantly shocked and tried to stop his blood from being consumed, but it didn’t work. The consumption of his own blood was extremely painful and if it wasn’t for his own blood being taken over, he would’ve coughed up a mouthful of blood. It felt like each individual blood droplet was being burned into nonexistence. His eyes were bloodshot and he madly tried to incorporate the Paragon’s Blood ability to forcefully absorb the other blood.

His blood was being consumed all over his body. It started at his hand, then moved to his arm, and made its way to his cultivation base. Everywhere the blood was overtaken his skin turned pitch black. Only a few breaths of time had passed yet already half of his body had turned into a dark black spectacle.

Ming Lu was instantly shocked by what she saw. Even though her clan specialised in absorbing the blood of beasts, she hadn’t seen anything like this happening before. “I’ve never heard of repercussions such as this occurring before. And especially in this short amount of time. Is he going to fail this?” Ming Lu looked towards Akata but didn’t interfere, mostly because she knew there was nothing she could do, the other part was fear.

Akata continued to try and resist the consumption of his own blood as best he could. His blood continued to be consumed at a fast rate and Akata felt a sense of deadly crisis approaching. “If I don’t stop this from consuming my blood I’ll die. There will be no just taking my cultivation base. What can I do to stop it? There’s nothing in the scripture that tells me how to deal with this, Ming Lu didn’t even mention this possibly happening.” Thoughts flashed through his mind to try and think of a way out of this situation.

His blood continued to be consumed and it was at his cultivation base about now. It was now absorbing it and weakening Akata at an extremely rapid pace. Akata felt his body weakening and withering at an alarming speed. The consumption didn’t just stop at his cultivation base either but surprisingly started headed to his soul region. Akata felt extremely alarmed right about now, but he didn’t give up. His eyes shone brightly with a fighting will, this was still a fight to him. The battlefield was his own body and he was not going to lose on his own turf. His fighting will exploded out and the red rune in his soul region started rotating fiercely.

The Blood Rabbit’s blood in the soul region stopped in place and didn’t approach the red rune. The rune spun rapidly and seemed to resonate with Akata’s will to fight. Akata seemed to sense the rune trying to resonate with him and didn’t try to resist it. The rune and Akata appeared to merge together and it caused his body to grow in strength and his blood to circulate at a fast speed. The blood in the soul region was immediately absorbed by the glow of the red rune. The absorbed blood was then given to Akata causing him to experience a sudden thought of enlightenment.

“My own blood is weak and fragile and therefore was easily consumed by the Blood Rabbit. Even though it was dead its blood had the absorbed strength of others. That’s not the only reason I was easily overtaken by the blood, this technique Paragon’s Blood is actually really harsh to whoever trains in it. It weakens your own blood so that you’ll absorb the best of whatever it is you need. But in turn absorbing blood is hundreds of times harder to do.” Akata mused to himself as he started his counterattack on the consuming blood.

His soul region was cleared out in the time it takes a spark to fly. Akata used this advantage while he had the chance. While the rune was absorbing the blood in his body, Akata was using the mist outside of his body to take in more blood from the Blood Rabbit. He didn’t know what the rune was doing or how it was able to help him, but he was going to let it continue to make sure that he succeeded.

In the blink of an eye the situation was reversed for Akata. His skin started healing and he was absorbing the blood of the Blood Rabbit at a fast rate. Ming Lu was shocked by this development and wondered what kind of freak Akata was. Even through the shock she let out a breath of relief.

“This is too shocking I’ve only heard of one person reversing the effects of failing to absorb beasts blood, and that was the First Patriarch. But even the history says it wasn’t as shocking as this; it says he was in a stalemate for weeks. But Akata not only wasn’t in a stalemate, he actually absorbed the blood that already consumed his. Not even the First Patriarch was able to do that, he had to destroy the blood that was invading his body first then absorb what was left.” Ming Lu was truly astonished by what she was seeing and if Ming Xu was here she would be surprised as well.

Akata’s withered body started healing and he was looking younger as he absorbed the blood. His absorbing rate was many times faster than when the blood tried to consume him. He felt this new blood to be nourishing and strengthening his own body. “This beast’s blood is truly wonderful, not only will I be able to see the techniques of the beast that are imprinted in its blood, but I’ll also gain the physical attributes of the beast as well. Once I fully absorb this beast I’ll be at a completely different level. I may even reach Mortal Rank Grade 2.” As he continued to absorb his eyes gleamed with a bright light as he thought about increasing his strength.

Red Cloud Hall

Three people were standing beside Sect Leader Fu with their hands behind their backs. They weren’t conversing with each other rather they were looking forward at a screen in front of them. The screen depicted Akata absorbing the Blood Rabbit’s blood. They looked on quietly and kept their thoughts to themselves. When Akata finally managed to start absorbing the blood they let out a sigh of relief and then grief. It was then that one of them spoke.

“If only we could give him a better beast to absorb from then he could increase his strength by a multitude of times.” The person that spoke was a middle aged man with a rugged face. He wore a rough green robe that stopped at his ankles. He didn’t speak with courtesy, he spoke as if he was talking with equals.

“I agree, there are many beast’s on this continent that are many times better than that trifling Blood Rabbit. It’s not even the best beast for when you start absorbing blood. It would be nice if we could gift him a Horned Blood Snake, its blood is much smoother and is better for absorption.” This person was a lady also in her middle ages. She wore a smooth green robe that glittered in the sunlight. Her black hair fell down to her back and her voice was soft. She too spoke as if she had status equal with the others.

These two people actually didn’t look to different from each other. In fact they were actually twins. They weren’t ordinary twins either but held much power, especially together. Together they were known as the Heaven and Earth Twins. A title that struck fear into anyone's heart who heard it. But to the people of the sect the man was Third Elder and the woman was Second Elder.

“Uncle Master, what do you think of this development?”

The person that spoke wasn’t either of the twins or the last person but rather it was Sect Leader Fu. She spoke in a delicate and respectful manner towards her master. She wasn’t speaking to either of the twins but instead to a young man dressed in a red daoist robe. His hair was white and it reached to his shoulders. His seemingly contrasting appearance made others want to venerate him. His eyes were closed but when he heard Sect Leader Fu speak to him, he slowly opened them. When they opened they revealed a vast array of stars as if a whole universe existed within his eyes. He didn’t look at Sect Leader Fu, or the twins, or even the screen. He was looking straight at Akata.

Though everybody’s strength in the room permitted them to see through objects, and the distance between them and Akata was well within the range of their sights; none of them were able to see through the barrier surrounding Akata and Ming Lu. That was because this barrier had an amazing amount of strength and blocked off everything. Even the laws of Heaven and Earth weren’t permitted to get through. The only one capable of seeing through this heaven defying barrier was the person that casually set it up. And that was First Elder! The master of Sect Leader Fu! The strongest person in the sect and actually the whole continent they were on.

It must be known that the Red Cloud Sect is considered to be the weakest sect in the whole Divine Crystal Continent. But each of these four people had enough strength to take over the whole continent by themselves! But they didn’t do so and in fact they restricted their cultivation base down to an extreme degree. Down to the point where they appeared to be in the Mortal Realm Earthly Rank. In fact they couldn’t suppress it more even if they wanted to otherwise they would. This was the absolute limit they could go.

Mortals practiced Mortal Realm cultivation. That Mortal Realm first started with the Mortal Rank and after that came the Earthly Rank. It might not seem like a huge jump but it was the difference between the mud on the ground and the clouds in the sky.

Sect Leader Fu highly respected these three people. To the other sect members they were merely Elders of this weak sect, but to her they were beings that could shake anything they pleased; especially her master.