He never expected there would be such a function. "This is even better than getting a different skill, with the fusion of the skill it will get even stronger!" He was very happy with the feeling after fighting the fourth stage big lizard. He was capable of coming out uninjured after killing it without getting a single blow.
But still, Ling Xu wasn't unaware that if he met a faster beast he would have had to defend against their attacks. So, he knew the importance of having a skill which upgraded his defense.
"Fuse them!" Like when he first learned the skill, Ling Xu started to feel his body in pain as if ants were gnawing at his skin.
Unfortunately for his mental health the pain was amplified many folds as the skin wasn't the only part that was changing. Ling Xu felt the pain moving to his bones as it magnified it even more.
"Damn it!" he even felt as if a hammer was hitting against his bones making him fall to the ground as he lost the strength to move his body. He felt his whole skeleton vibrate making the pain even worse.
His senses started to become dull as the seconds went on. "How much time is it going to take?!!" Ling Xu was going through hell right now as he felt that torture would be much better than this. It was way worse than before as the changes took even longer.
Ling Xu remained in this cycle of pain for three whole minutes, a lot more than what he had to go through when he first learned the skill.
Three minutes may seem short, but even someone who is dying burnt alive will feel tremendous pain even if it is just for a few seconds.
The time for the transformation of the body ended as Ling Xu finally recovered his senses. After he recovered, he felt the change on the sensation of his body right away.
But he decided to first check his status as he hadn't looked at it after he entered the path on the right.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (62,5%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence Shadow Will (2,25%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
"The grade hasn't increased?" Ling Xu felt surprised as he saw that the skill remained as a middle grade one. But he soon remembered the insufferable pain in his bones.
"It still feels like it has improved compared to before, let's see its effect." Ling Xu activated his skill once again as he saw the layer of Copper Skin come out, he realized right away that it looked much stronger as its color was more intense.
He started to move as he noticed something when he first moved his hand. Ling Xu threw a few punches in the air and felt they carried a little more weight.
"It seems that as I felt the hammering on my bones, their weight and density have increased. This will prove helpful when I have to face a strong attack as they won't break that easily." Wandering in his thoughts, Ling Xu suddenly remembered something important.
"Wait! What about that shiny object that the lizard was guarding." He moved and started to look at the pond trying to find where that brilliance came from. He could barely see through as the light was dim. But thanks to his improvement in senses, he managed to find the location after some time.
Seeing something he was very familiar with under the water he dived right away expectant. As he got there, he saw a box in the water resting on a rocky table that protruded from the ground. He went back to the ground and opened it with full expectancy.
"Please be something good." As he opened the box, he saw a stone that shone on the box. "Another one, why can't I get another equipment like my Wind Blood Shoes." Thinking that it ended there, he heard another notification from the system.
[Do you want to fuse the items?]
Ling Xu's mouth opened wide as he realized that not only skills, but items were also possible to fuse.
"It has to increase in grade this time."
Ling Xu took the luminous stone from his pocket and answered to the system to fuse them. The luminous stone which he took out from his pocket suddenly started to shine and merged into the one he just obtained.
The one remaining started glowing and glowing as it acquired the essence from the other luminous stone. The process ended and Ling Xu observed the shining stone.
[You have obtained Luminous Stone (high grade).]
"It looks brighter" he didn't really expect that the fusion would be possible for items as it was different from the skill, but after it happened, he felt happy.
Ling Xu could only see from the transparent stone that the amount of light it had increased.
"Let's try and see if it can increase the grade of my Refined Short Sword." Taking the luminous stone to his weapon, he saw another reaction. The stone disintegrated very fast as it started to envelop the short sword's blade.
When the light subsided and Ling Xu could see the finished product he was surprised. From a dark grey color which had a refined look to it just like its name, Ling Xu admired the dark blade in which his short sword had turned to.
[You have obtained Refined Short Sword (high grade).]
"It looks so strong." He felt surprised as the system didn't change the name of his weapon, but he couldn't care less as he admired the sharp edge of the sword.
The reason why the short sword changed in name when he first used the luminous stone to upgrade its grade from low to middle was because it hadn't gone through that process before. Making the new weapon change into a completely new one. But now, although its quality increased, it still was the same weapon.
…
Ling Xu walked to the entrance where he descended at first to the second floor of the cave.
He decided to rest as he still had time before the countdown ended. "I should recover my energy first." Thinking that once he entered that door, he wouldn't be able to recover if he had to fight right away. Being stronger than before wasn't justification to walk into danger carelessly.
After all, he had spent a lot of energy fighting against the copper lizards. And as he fought the adult copper lizard, he had to spend almost all his blood qi to penetrate its tough body and kill it.
In the path to the left, Ling Xu only needed to make a swing of his sword to the beasts' necks to receive the kill confirmation.
A few minutes passed and Ling Xu was circulating his blood qi to recover.
[Map]: Dark Cave
[Mission]: Survive 3 hours
[Participants]: 05/10.
[Progress]: 1 hour, 29 minutes
He looked at the mission panel while recovering, to see if there was any change.
"Another person has died."
He then proceeded to stand up as he had recovered a big part of his blood qi. Thanks to entering the mysterious state, Ling Xu was able to recover faster as the energy between his eyes would enter his body and help its recovery.
[Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 28 seconds.]
[Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 27 seconds.]
[Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 26 seconds.]
Looking at the countdown, Ling Xu went to open the door. Touching the door, another message from the system appeared.
[You have cleared the 2nd floor of the Dark Cave.]
[Conditions met.]
[You have obtained the chance to raise the difficulty of the 3rd floor as a reward.]
[Do you want to raise it?]
"I thought they would give another box with equipment inside, but instead I get to raise the difficulty." Seeing the message in silence for a few seconds he made a choice.
"Raising the difficulty will make the third floor even more difficult. But this means that the reward will increase after clearing it." He took a step forward as he was about to choose the raised difficulty as he froze in place.
"Now that I know the difficulty will be higher, I should prepare and try to advance to the third stage of blood qi." Ling Xu's current realm was less than forty percent away before he advanced to the third stage of blood qi.
"Surviving is my top priority, if I can't advance to the third stage before the countdown ends, I won't raise the difficulty."
He decided on refining his body until the time was about to end. Ling Xu sat down and circulated his blood qi with an incredible focus.
His blood qi circulated very fast without any disturbances. He felt his muscles become sore from the constant refinement that made him slowly become stronger.
Every breath he took made his blood qi circulate stronger. Even now, Ling Xu's mastery of his cultivation technique slowly increased. Although it was far from comparable to his progress when his mind entered a state of complete clarity.
…
Minutes passed and Ling Xu suddenly felt the path between his eyes, which hadn't completely closed, open once again.
A stream of pure energy bathed his whole body making his mind become clear once again. That wasn't all as his blood qi followed its own rhythm running faster and faster every moment.
After a few minutes, Ling Xu suddenly felt his blood qi circulation change as it started to move smoother than ever. It followed the most efficient routes as it refined the muscles much faster than before, increasing his speed in completing the second stage of Blood Qi.
Ling Xu's muscles were tense from the ongoing refinement of his muscles and his mastery of Basic Blood Circulation technique kept increasing with every breath he took.
…
After a few minutes, Ling Xu felt his body soar as his muscles suddenly started absorbing his blood qi crazily once again.
"I'm breaking through!" he realized that he was advancing into the third stage of Blood Qi as his muscles kept taking in all of his blood qi, depleting it from his body.
Fortunately, just like before, the stream of energy coming out between his eyes allowed for a faster recovery of blood qi than the speed at which his muscles absorbed it.
The process continued and Ling Xu felt the last step as his muscles roared with endless strength making him feel invigorated once again.
"I can now feel safe entering the next floor." He said as he let go of any obsession about surviving or securing his safety.
After all, this tutorial was Ling Xu's first time ever fighting and he had been on edge for almost the whole duration. So as he felt that his strength was enough to advance and being able to fend for himself against a raised difficulty, his mind let go for the first time.
A few seconds passed and as he was about to end circulating his blood qi as he felt a change. Suddenly, the stream of energy that came from between his eyes started flooding in as if breaking from a dam.
As if advancing into the third stage of Blood Qi wasn't enough, Ling Xu's blood qi continued refining his muscles.
The cycle of his muscles absorbing his blood qi and the stream of golden energy helping restore it kept on as it maintained an insane speed of refining with the help of his increasing mastery of Basic Blood Circulation technique.
Ling Xu felt his muscles soar for the second time in less than half an hour as his muscles were refined incredibly fast helping him feel the increase in strength that brought being advancing from the start of the third stage of Blood Qi to its completion.
His muscles were refined one time after another, strengthening after every cycle his blood qi made.
As the stream of energy had completely entered his body, Ling Xu's mind had reached a state of clarity that allowed him to let go of any control of his body so he didn't control anything and just went with the flow feeling every change.
After a short time, his muscles stopped making progress as they couldn't be further refined. This continued for a whole minute as Ling Xu's blood qi kept on circulating trying to refine his muscles.
After some time passed, his muscles made a reaction. As if they were stranded on a desert island, they became desperate trying to absorb madly any blood qi they made contact with.
This process wasn't anything similar to when he broke through to the second or third stage as it continued on absorbing madly his blood qi as if trying to leave it completely dry.
The absorption continued frantically as the stream of golden energy that at first overflowed in his body now looked thinning every breath he took.
Sustaining the state of extreme clarity Ling Xu was experiencing plus recovering his blood qi made it impossible for this energy not to be completely used up. This kept on as the golden energy thinned until almost none was left.
Fortunately, it seems that Ling Xu's muscles were satisfied as they stopped absorbing his blood qi the next second.
Ling Xu recovered his senses as the energy couldn't sustain anymore his state of clarity. He felt as his muscles burst with an incredibly energy as if breaking free from an invisible shackle.
After breaking free, his muscles started feeding back to the whole body the blood qi they had absorbed. Returning a blood qi that was purer than before as it had been refined by his muscles. Even the amount had increased again as when entering the third stage of Blood Qi his blood qi reserves had increased too.
Ending the circulation of his blood qi, Ling Xu opened his eyes as he stopped refining his body.
"This is amazing!" Not able to restrain his facial expressions, his face had a smile from eye to eye. He felt excited about what had just happened as he felt that his muscles had been completely reborn.
Ling Xu already knew that he had entered the third stage of Blood Qi, but although he didn't know what process he went through he knew that his muscles had also completely transformed.
Checking the timer, Ling Xu saw that he had been cultivating for a total of twenty-seven minutes. His mind moved and he called for his status panel next.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 3rd stage of Blood Qi (peak)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (4,75%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
He observed the new level of mastery he had reached but the next second he thought of something else that took all his attention away from the status panel.
"I wonder what my current strength is." Ling Xu neared the wall and he positioned his right arm ready to make a punch.
His blood qi moved as his body roared in strength. The punch was extremely fast as it arrived to the wall making a sound from the collision. Seeing the result he was amazed as it had left a complete imprint of his hand leaving several cracks around it.
It was clear that Ling Xu's current strength was enough to destroy the wall from a building with ease as it wasn't as solid as the hard wall of the cave which was underground.
Ling Xu then activated his copper skin iron bones once again spending some of his blood qi. He now had more than enough blood qi to activate it several times while in combat as his blood qi had become abundant.
He even felt the layer of copper skin tighter and tougher as the increase in quality of his blood qi had an effect on the skill too.
...
Ling Xu ended his preparations as the countdown neared the end. As he confirmed to the message on the door that he would like that the difficulty was raised he opened the door.
[You have raised the 3rd floor's difficulty.]
Ling Xu had done what he could to raise his chances of success as he advanced in his realm. He was excited already as he thought about what kind of reward he would be able to get if he cleared the third floor.
After he entered the door Ling Xu found himself on a grand path of stairs leading down without any turn like the one that sent him to the second floor.
Walking for a long time he started to wonder why the long distance as there was no need to make it that far from the second floor.
The answer came immediately as he reached the end of the stairs and his jaw dropped to the ground. It seems the third floor was far from the second as it needed enough space. Ling Xu saw the ceiling being so tall as if the cave was the size of a building. The height was estimated to be around four or five floors.
His eyes moved a lot as he observed the scene he had in front. Although the cave had the same earth looking like structure, he saw some pillars made of a strange rock that followed along a carved path made out of a clear colored stone.
The path was long and it had a platform that had space for a few beasts that were laying there. Ling Xu advanced patiently for a short while before he was close enough to see the beasts he was already familiar with. He looked at a group of six big lizards from the distance, fortunately they hadn't seen him.
"Is there something at the end?" He observed that the path continued as he saw a big door.