“I have a share of the Dragon Blood Fruit too?” Zhao Feng pointed at himself with a surprised look on his face. He was not expecting to have any at all.

“Of course. This Dragon Blood Fruit is around five hundred years old. If we split it equally, we will both be able to break through.” Mu Chen said as he took out a knife. Infusing it with his spiritual qi, he cut the Dragon Blood Fruit neatly into two equal halves, exposing the inside of the fruit.

The meat of the fruit was reddish white, and a dense energy could be felt coming from it. It also emitted a strong, pungent smell. The moment Zhao Feng smelled it, he could already feel the spiritual qi stirring in his body.

With a smiling face, Mu Chen handed one half of the fruit to Zhao Feng. Zhao Feng felt a warm feeling in his heart as he accepted his half of the fruit. His big brother really treated him well, even giving him an entire half of the Dragon Blood Fruit. Moreover, this was not just any Dragon Blood Fruit, it was five hundred years old, meaning it was even more precious, but Mu Chen had so easily given it away just like that.

“We shouldn’t eat the fruit at the same time. One of us should protect the other as they break through.” Mu Chen advised. After they consumed the fruit, it was likely they would be able to break through. During this time, they would be in a vulnerable state. It was similar to the state of comprehension that Zhao Feng had entered before. Mu Chen had protected him at that time.

“Big brother, you should consume the fruit first. You were the greatest contributor after all.”

“I agree.” Mu Chen did not reject it. Without hesitation, he swallowed the entire fruit in one gulp.

Zhao Feng’s eyes almost popped out when he saw this, but then he quickly regained his composure. His big brother was a supreme figure so he definitely knew what he was doing.

Normally, you would have to eat a spiritual fruit piece by piece and slowly absorb the concentrated energy within it. Similar to spiritual water, if one tried to consume too much at one go, he would suffer from qi deviation and die a horrible death. This was Zhao Feng’s concern, but he knew Mu Chen wasn’t an idiot who would play with his life, so he did not worry too much.

However in Mu Chen’s case, he did not worry too much about it. He had the stone tablet, a mysterious, otherworldly treasure, that could directly absorb any kind of energy and gradually release it for him to assimilate into his own body.

The moment the Dragon Blood Fruit entered his stomach, it started to release a massive amount of vitality and solar energy. The energy was so powerful and vigorous that it started to go out of control. Despite that, Mu Chen was completely calm.

As he predicted, the stone tablet within his body finally reacted. It trembled, and a powerful suction force came from it. The rampant energy was then instantly sucked into the stone tablet. A low hum was emitted from the tablet as the final character was finally lit up. The entire tablet started to vibrate intensely as the second section of text became brighter and brighter.

Mu Chen watched with shock as something slowly emerged from the stone tablet’s second section. To be precise, this thing was something resembling a thumb sized drop of liquid. This drop of liquid was a vibrant crimson red in color and emanated a tyrannical and overwhelming aura, unlike anything Mu Chen had seen before. The air around the drop of liquid warped and distorted, as if it could not stand this thing being in the same space.

The eight spiritual springs surrounding the drop of liquid and the stone tablet started to react, as they bubbled furiously. The spiritual qi in his body was circulating on its own, reacting to the presence of the liquid. At this time, a low hum was emitted as the drop of liquid suddenly flew upward and merged into Mu Chen’s bloodstream.

Instantly, Mu Chen felt a piercing pain through his body as the drop of liquid slowly made its way down his bloodstream. The pain was intensifying as the drop slowly traveled within his body.

Mu Chen gritted his teeth. Beads of sweat were dripping down his face as veins were popping up around his body. However he was able to maintain his posture and bear with the pain. This much pain, he was able to handle.

Zhao Feng, who was watching Mu Chen, instantly became concerned. Since he had met him, he had never seen his big brother react like this. Did something go wrong with his cultivation? He made his way closer to the sitting Mu Chen to see if there was anything he could help with.

“Don’t worry…just guard me.” Mu Chen managed to groan through gritted teeth.

“A-alright!” Zhao Feng backed off, but kept his gaze locked onto Mu Chen.

The drop of liquid seemed to be following his bloodstream, moving toward his heart. By now, Mu Chen already had his suspicions, but not about the stone tablet. He knew the stone tablet would not harm him, but he suspected that this drop of liquid was actually a drop of Origin Blood!

Origin Blood was extremely precious, and a single person only had a limited amount of it. If one lost all his Origin Blood, he would absolutely die. It was near impossible to recover Origin Blood once it had been lost.

Origin Blood was exactly how the first humans from the ancient era obtained bloodlines from demonic beasts! They had taken the Origin Blood of demonic beasts and infused it into their own bodies using special techniques. Many of them had died horrific deaths due to their body not being able to handle the transformation process. Some had turned into mindless monsters who killed indiscriminately and had to be killed, while others simply exploded. Despite the low success rate, many still did it because they wanted even more power. Once a human had successfully merged with the Origin Blood of a demonic beast and transformed, they would obtain some of the powers of the respective demonic beast. Their offspring would also possess the same bloodline. This was how bloodlines were born!

Mu Chen himself had never tried to merge with origin blood. He determined that it was too risky. During his past life, he had encountered a few people with bloodlines, but most of them were very thin.

The drop of Origin Blood finally reached Mu Chen’s heart and seamlessly merged into it. Once again, Mu Chen was hit by an intense wave of pain, but in his chest. This time, it was a hundred times worse than before. It felt like someone was stabbing him in the heart with thousands of poison needles at the same time. Mu Chen could no longer maintain his meditative posture as he collapsed to the side and started convulsing on the ground in pain. His whole body was turning red as veins bulged out all over his body, even on his face. Something was happening to him, but he didn’t know if it was good or bad.

“Big brother!” Zhao Feng shouted. He was at a loss. He wanted to help Mu Chen, but he had no idea what was happening, so he had no clue how he could help. There was nothing he could do except trust that Mu Chen could make it through.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Mu Chen’s heart beat powerfully. With every beat of his heart, a powerful blood carrying a tyrannical and overbearing aura, like that of a supreme monarch, was gradually being pumped into his veins. Bit by bit, his body was changing.

With every beat of his heart, the pain compounded and spread throughout his entire body, causing Mu Chen to groan in agony. Never in his life had he experienced such intense pain. He had been through a lot, surviving grievous wounds and deadly poisons. He suffered a lot of pain during those times, but that was nothing compared to this. It was like someone was tearing him apart from within, from inside his bones.

With the intense pain, every bone, every organ, every fiber of muscle, and every cell in his body was immersed in the new blood and was gradually transforming. Powerful heat waves started to rise from Mu Chen’s body as his temperature increased. The air around his body began to distort due to the intense heat.

Noticing this, Zhao Feng panicked for a bit, then his eyes lit up. He hastily dragged Mu Chen over to the spiritual energy pool and flipped him into the water with a splash. The moment Mu Chen’s skin came into contact with the cool water, some of his pain was alleviated. He floated face up in the water as the cool water counteracted the heat from his body, causing steam to rise up from the pool.

"Ouch!" Zhao Feng groaned in pain as he looked down at his palms that had been burnt red from just touching Mu Chen for several seconds.