Chapter 89: Energy Gathering, Level 81!

"White... I won't just burn myself to death like this, will I? Why does this feel so unreliable?" Blue Sky said, unable to suppress his unease as he watched great torrents of Ash-Blood Starfire pouring out of his body and his flesh withering at a visible rate.

"Haha, don't panic. Look—your heart is transforming!" White did not answer the question, but cried out in excitement instead.

Then an image appeared in Blue Sky's mind. In it, a nearly desiccated heart suddenly began to flow with vast amounts of silvery-gray blood across its surface. Under the influence of that blood, the originally crimson heart likewise turned silvery-gray.

This... was his heart now?

Blue Sky knew the image must have been transmitted by White, so he hurriedly asked, "White, what's going on? Why has my heart changed color like this?"

"Haha, what do you know? This is the blood essence of Flame Marsh remaking your body. From the looks of it, your luck is pretty good—you seem to have a very high chance of forging a special constitution!" White's voice came through, thick with excitement and anticipation.

"All right then..." Hearing White's explanation, Blue Sky said no more and waited in expectation for the final result.

It seemed things were moving in a good direction. Even if he did not gain any special constitution, so long as the bodily transformation succeeded and he rose to top-tier cultivation talent, everything would be worth it.

Soon after, Blue Sky found that the transformation of his heart seemed complete. The silvery-gray heart beat powerfully, sounding like thunder drums, and with each pulse, vast amounts of silvery blood surged forth and spread through his entire body.

This was Ash-Blood.

"Haha, the heart has already been transformed by Flame Marsh's blood essence, and it has begun to produce Ash-Blood on its own!" White laughed heartily. The instant it saw the silvery Ash-Blood pouring out from Blue Sky's heart, it knew that Blue Sky's fate had already been changed.

Blue Sky did not understand the changes in detail. He could only watch passively as, in the image within his mind, the silvery-gray heart beat furiously while countless streams of silvery Ash-Blood gushed out from it and rapidly spread to every part of his body. As time passed, not a trace of crimson blood remained inside him, completely replaced by silvery Ash-Blood.

White kept explaining excitedly beside him. In essence, it meant that under the power of Ash-Blood, under the burning of Ash-Blood Starfire, his life level was leaping upward continuously. Flesh, bones, organs, even cells and genes—all of it was ascending at a terrifying speed.

At long last, the heart's beating returned to normal, and the transformation of the body by Ash-Blood was basically complete. Blue Sky withdrew his consciousness back into his body.

The instant his awareness returned, Blue Sky was abruptly overwhelmed by an unprecedented hunger. He had never been this hungry before, as though he had gone half a century without food. His eyes nearly turned green.

"Why aren't you cultivating yet?! Your body urgently needs energy replenishment!" White bellowed, then reminded him, "Start cultivating from the first movement. Your body has been baptized by Flame Marsh's blood essence; your previous cultivation has all been wasted. Just begin again from the start and lay the most solid foundation!"

"Got it!" Blue Sky gritted his teeth against the urge to gnaw tree bark and began the cultivation movements.

To his immense astonishment, his body truly seemed to have undergone a tremendous change. Before he had even assumed the first posture, merely by calming his mind and breathing quietly, he could already sense the boundless cosmic energy around him.

He tried to draw it in, and instantly an inexhaustible tide of cosmic energy surged toward his body. Without even relying on the first basic form, every tiny strengthening within his body after the cosmic energy entered could be clearly perceived in his mind.

For safety's sake, however, he still took up the first basic form. Cosmic energy was far too dangerous; without the aid of the basic movement, who knew whether his body might suddenly swell and burst apart.

The basic forms had long ago been taught to Blue Sky by White, and he had already mastered them thoroughly. The moment he settled into the first posture, an even more violent torrent of cosmic energy immediately rushed into his body.

In less than a minute, Level 1 of Energy Gathering was complete.

In ten minutes, he reached the Level 9 he had once been at.

In half an hour, he broke straight through the barrier of Level 19 of Energy Gathering, and the materialization of spiritual power began.

Yet it still did not stop. Blue Sky remained immersed in the exhilaration of his rapidly rising strength. One basic form after another followed in succession, and ever more vast cosmic energy surged in as his spiritual power condensed and ascended at a breathtaking pace.

Level 30. Level 40. Level 50...

For a full three days and three nights, after Blue Sky completed all eighty-one sets of basic forms in one breath, he discovered that he had actually reached the peak of the human race's Energy Gathering Level 81.

"This... this is way too exaggerated... I actually trained all the way to Level 81?" Having no further cultivation method for breaking through to the Stellar tier, Blue Sky stopped after finishing the basic forms, his face filled with shock as he felt the power within his body—power that truly belonged to him.

"So this is the cultivation speed of the most top-tier genius in the cosmos... It's really too ridiculous..." White was equally stunned. For those three days and three nights, it had kept the projection active, personally witnessing Blue Sky's inhuman cultivation speed.

"Hurry and check your body! See what has changed!" White said eagerly. After being transformed by Flame Marsh's blood essence, Blue Sky's body seemed to have truly forged that legendary constitution—yet one crucial proof was still missing.

"Mm... no rush." Blue Sky did not immediately inspect his body. Instead, he intended to first familiarize himself with his current strength. As for the effects of materialized spiritual power, he was full of expectation.

First, he put away the Crimson Gold Divine Armor. It was extremely convenient: with a thought, the armor rapidly shrank and likewise turned into a ring, which he put on his hand.

The effect of materialized spiritual power was truly astonishing. Blue Sky closed his eyes and spread his spiritual power outward. In an instant, everything within a radius of a thousand meters around him appeared in his mind like a three-dimensional model, every detail laid bare.

Then that vast spiritual power acted upon his body, and his entire form rose slowly into the air, truly soaring into the sky by his own strength.

Looking down at the towering mountain range below, Blue Sky's thoughts moved. He directed a portion of his spiritual power to become a transparent giant hand, which grabbed fiercely at a mountain body in the distance. At once, several million tons of rock were effortlessly torn free, without the slightest strain.

Next, Blue Sky twisted his spiritual power into a single strand, shaping it into a battle blade. Divine charm flowed across the blade as he sent it cleaving toward a mountain peak.

With a thunderous boom, the massive peak was split directly in two. Then the second effect of divine charm was triggered, and the mountain body shattered again, breaking into two halves.

"Strong... so strong!" Blue Sky was frightened by his own destructive power. Elated and bursting with confidence, he once more turned his spiritual power into a long sword and thrust it toward Flame Marsh's corpse. He wanted to see whether his spiritual power could pierce Flame Marsh's scale armor.

Clang, clang, clang!

A stabbing pain shot through his mind, but Flame Marsh's scales remained completely unharmed, not even a white mark left behind.

Blue Sky: "..."

"Pfft. With your current level, you haven't even reached the Stellar tier, and you think you can break Flame Marsh's defenses? How arrogant!" White's mocking voice arrived as expected.

"Fine, fine. I was just trying it out..." Blue Sky said gloomily. He naturally knew that without the Crimson Gold Divine Armor, even having reached Energy Gathering Level 81 now, he still could not harm Flame Marsh in the slightest, not even its corpse.