Chapter 1646: Treasure Blood

According to Hua Ci, An Zhe was so delighted after this business deal was concluded that he could barely close his mouth, repeatedly urging her to tell Lu Ye to come for tea when he had time. A client so large and stable, where else could one find? Including previous transactions with Lu Ye, the amount of spirit jade traded from Lu Ye alone was already one to two hundred million. For the realm behind An Zhe, this was an enormous sum, significantly aiding the development of the entire realm.

Lu Ye naturally had no time for tea. He hadn't even had time to drink the spirit tea Hua Qianying had given him previously. The Merfolk had no further need of his help, so he was not in a hurry to return to Three Realms Island. Through this experience, the Talent Tree's fuel was greatly replenished, making it the perfect time for intensive cultivation. Since he would be entering the sea anyway, entering from Three Realms Island or from here was the same, and it was actually more convenient here.

After greeting Yan Miao, Lu Ye plunged into the deep sea, allowing the ocean's power to permeate his body, and to hunt some spirit fish star beasts! With the Treasure Coin in hand, even if he encountered a Sun-Gazing realm cultivator, he would not be without the means to retaliate.

Time passed. Lu Ye occasionally returned to the Merfolk territory to rest, but he spent most of his time submerged in the sea. While his cultivation greatly deepened and accumulated, he also harvested a considerable number of spirit fish star beasts. Most were Star Host level; for these spirit fish star beasts, he didn't even need to use the Treasure Coin, he simply cut them down with his blade. Only when encountering a Moon-Gazing star beast did he need to employ the power of the Treasure Coin. The golden power of the Treasure Coin was irresistible even to Sun-Gazing cultivators, let alone Moon-Gazing ones. Once struck by the golden light, they could only submit to Lu Ye's will.

A month later, as Lu Ye was searching for spirit fish near the Merfolk territory, he suddenly felt something different within his body. At the same time, many insights inexplicably surged in his mind. He quickly halted his movements and examined himself.

Upon internal inspection, he perceived gleaming points within his flesh and blood. These were the condensed essence of his physical body. Every cultivator who enters the Star Host realm and begins refining their physical essence experiences such a change. The more gleaming points within the body, the better the physical essence has been refined. However, the refinement of physical essence definitely varies among different Star Host cultivators. Especially for cultivators of different factions, in the cultivation of the Star Host realm, body cultivators have a relative advantage because they inherently focus on cultivating their physical bodies, allowing them to refine their physical essence more effectively.

Within Lu Ye's body, dazzling points of light were abundant at this moment, shining brightly, clearly a sign that the refinement had reached its peak. Moreover, although the surrounding seawater was still permeating his body, Lu Ye clearly felt that it could no longer bring him any further improvement! In other words, his physical essence had been refined to its limit!

Of course, this was only the limit for his current realm. In the future, upon advancing to Moon-Gazing and Sun-Gazing, the upper limit of his physical strength would further increase. This was also why it had been so arduous for him to kill Bai Jin previously; Bai Jin's physique was simply not on the same level as his. Generally speaking, when cultivators reach this level of cultivation, they can begin preparing to advance to Moon-Gazing. Lu Ye now possessed this qualification. It wasn't easy!

Since advancing to the late Star Host realm years ago, several years had passed. Not to mention his previous cultivation, even with the help of the Talent Tree, the efficiency of refining spirit jade ultimately couldn't compare to cultivating deep within the Myriad Elephants Sea. But since his return to the Myriad Elephants Sea, he had cultivated intermittently under the sea for at least two months. After all this time, he had absorbed and refined an immeasurable amount of stellar energy, finally reaching this stage.

Had it not been for the Reincarnation Tree's prior instruction, Lu Ye would certainly have begun preparing for advancement. He could feel that advancing to Moon-Gazing would likely not be very difficult, as his spiritual power was extremely pure, practically free of impurities. This subtly and greatly increased the success rate of transforming spiritual power into magical power. But with the Reincarnation Tree's instruction, he temporarily had no thoughts of advancing. No matter what, he had to first visit the Great Yin-Yang Millstone. The old tree had lived for so long, perhaps existing since this very starfield formed. It naturally knew secrets others didn't. The Great Yin-Yang Millstone must certainly hold some benefit for advancing to Moon-Gazing.

However, at this moment, more than the ultimate refinement of his physical essence, Lu Ye was concerned about something else. He mused silently for a moment, then turned and headed towards the Merfolk territory. A short while later, he crossed the massive spirit jade mine, returned to the Imperial Conch Palace, and went back to his own dwelling.

He raised a hand, gathering his vital energy and blood towards his fingertip. In an instant, a drop of fresh blood appeared on his fingertip. The blood was not a vibrant crimson, but a dark red. While its surface appearance was unremarkable, Lu Ye could clearly perceive the terrifying power contained within this drop of dark red blood. If it were to suddenly erupt, it would be far more potent than even his full-strength strike, potentially even capable of clashing head-on with an average Moon-Gazing realm cultivator. The insights he had just gained while underwater surged into his mind once more.

Treasure Blood! It was something deeper than essence blood. If essence blood was the refined essence extracted from one's own flesh and blood, then Treasure Blood was the essence refined from essence blood. Ordinary cultivators did not possess this; they typically only had essence blood. So-called Treasure Blood was something only Bloodkind possessed! And it was primarily Bloodkind with Holy Blood lineage who could possess it. Of course, it didn't rule out some exceptionally gifted Bloodkind who cultivated Bloodkind secret arts to their peak, condensing their own Treasure Blood. However, these were extremely rare cases, because even Bloodkind with Holy Blood lineage only had the chance to condense Treasure Blood, not a certainty.

The numerous insights Lu Ye had just gained all came from the Bloodkind's lineage inheritance. This made his mood somewhat strange. To be honest, before this thing came into existence, he didn't even know of Treasure Blood's existence. It was only after his physical essence reached its peak just now that this drop of Treasure Blood naturally formed. Lu Ye believed this was related to his refining of a large amount of Holy Blood. Ordinary Holy Bloodkind would at most refine three to five drops of Holy Blood. How much Holy Blood had he refined? Hundreds of drops, certainly. His holy nature was so potent that arguably no other Bloodkind could compare. Therefore, even Treasure Blood, which was difficult for Holy Bloodkind to achieve, could naturally manifest within his body.

Lineage inheritance was a very wondrous thing; it wasn't direct verbal instruction or personal teaching. But when one's own bloodline advanced to a certain degree, the hidden mysteries within the bloodline would naturally reveal themselves. In the starry sky, many powerful star beasts, exotic beasts, and even demonic beasts relied on lineage inheritance, as their numbers were extremely scarce. Just like Amber: after its birth, it had no elders to teach it directly, yet it could still transform into a Lamenting Spirit. This was lineage inheritance, a kind of instinct. The insights that just surged within Lu Ye were a form of lineage inheritance, pertaining to Treasure Blood. All at once, he perceived many wondrous uses for Treasure Blood. Directly detonating the energy contained within it was merely the simplest method, and also the most wasteful.

With a slight shift of his thoughts, the Treasure Blood in his hand flared with light, then twisted and transformed, quickly forming a human figure. A figure identical to Lu Ye! A doppelganger! By using Treasure Blood, one could easily transform it into a doppelganger of oneself! The art of doppelgangers was a very practical secret technique; many cultivators actually mastered it, but few could cultivate this secret technique to its peak, to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing. There were also many types of doppelganger techniques. For instance, Master Yun Xuechu's Little Butterfly doppelganger from back then utilized external objects, attaching a wisp of divine sense to it. Little Butterfly's true form was merely an artifice created by an artificer. Such doppelgangers looked different from the main body, and could even be said to be different kinds of beings. There were also doppelgangers directly condensed with the aid of treasures, similarly achieved through external forces.

The doppelganger before Lu Ye now was not created by external forces, but formed from his own Treasure Blood. Such a doppelganger was more profound and perfect than typical doppelganger techniques, making it difficult for others to spot flaws.

However... Lu Ye's thoughts stirred. He activated the power of the Talent Tree and condensed another doppelganger. He already had doppelgangers! Now, with three Lu Yes standing together, looking at each other, the scene was exceptionally bizarre.

After silently comparing them, Lu Ye quickly realized that the doppelganger condensed from his own Treasure Blood seemed slightly inferior to the one created by the Talent Tree. This difference wasn't in appearance, but in its inner workings. Although he could control the Treasure Blood doppelganger as easily as his own limbs, and it could perfectly mimic him, manifesting his full strength, compared to the doppelganger condensed by the Talent Tree, it lacked the ability to rapidly devour and refine. Furthermore, Lu Ye could feel that the distance between himself and the Treasure Blood doppelganger could not be too great, otherwise, he would lose connection. This was clearly inferior to the Talent Tree doppelganger. Although the Talent Tree doppelganger also had a distance limit from the main body, that distance was far greater. He had to admit that the Bloodkind's lineage inheritance was powerful, but when comparing only the doppelganger technique, the Talent Tree was clearly superior.

For Lu Ye, the Treasure Blood doppelganger was somewhat of a white elephant. Its only advantage was its speed and suddenness, unlike the Talent Tree's doppelganger creation, which left traces. So if the Treasure Blood doppelganger were used in combat... Lu Ye couldn't help but let his imagination run wild. It seemed like a good option, capable of catching an opponent off guard!

In any case, the emergence of Treasure Blood was unexpected, and it was certainly beneficial for Lu Ye to have an additional means of combating foes. Moreover, Lu Ye felt that his understanding of Treasure Blood was still superficial. Even with the many insights that had just surged, he couldn't immediately grasp the full value of Treasure Blood. These things would require slow exploration and practice in the future.

He then suddenly recalled that when he received the Holy Blood lineage inheritance back then, the inheritance contained information about cultivating the bloodline to its peak, to the point of rebirth from a single drop of blood. Back then, Lu Ye was merely in the True Lake realm, and naturally scoffed at it. Now that his cultivation had reached Star Host, his perspective was far broader than before. Looking at it now, there were no clues about rebirth from a single drop of blood, but who could guarantee that if his Holy Blood lineage advanced further, Treasure Blood wouldn't undergo unexpected changes?

Lu Ye realized he had an additional task for the future: to condense Treasure Blood. Just now, only one drop of Treasure Blood had formed, a result of his physical essence being refined to its extreme. But he could condense more Treasure Blood and store it within his body, to be used when needed. Thinking about it, one drop of Treasure Blood could transform into a doppelganger. What if he had ten drops? A hundred? A veritable army of Lu Yes! Each one capable of exerting his full strength! What reassured him most was that the doppelgangers formed from Treasure Blood could even conjure clothing, unlike the Talent Tree doppelgangers, for which he always had to provide a set of clothes.