12 Increasing Potential

Outside the cave, a 'Meditation in Progress' sign was hung. Zhang Chen sat cross-legged and began to operate his spiritual power according to the Lifespan Burning Technique.

The way this Lifespan Burning Technique operated was very peculiar. It seemed to build a formation within the body, with acupoints as points and meridians as connections.

Zhang Chen knew nothing about the principles behind it, but he had some experience with formations from his time in the beast garden, and it felt somewhat similar.

After a day of work, he finally built the formation inside his body as required.

Next, he activated the formation with his dantian as the eye of the formation.

"Boom!"

There was a loud rumble inside his body, and something seemed to be ignited in the depths of his being.

His life force quickly flowed away, his skin sagged, his blood stagnated, his bones aged, and his organs rotted.

Zhang Chen realized that he was burning his lifespan!

At that moment, an indescribable power suddenly appeared and reset his life force, restoring his body. The burning sensation disappeared.

Everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion, and nothing had really happened.

Zhang Chen knew that this was the power of the modifier.

Although the fuel was gone, the Lifespan Burning Technique did not stop.

The spiritual power in his body operated in a way that he could not understand. It consolidated his acupoints, enlarged his meridians, and transformed his dantian.

Zhang Chen watched the changes in his body like a spectator, as his spiritual power transformed him little by little.

This process lasted a full day and night.

Zhang Chen opened his eyes with joy. "My aptitude has really improved!"

He had gone from having a low-grade spiritual root to a medium-grade one.

He could feel that he was even closer to the spiritual energy in the air.

"Let's see how much faster I can cultivate with medium-grade spiritual root."

Zhang Chen took out a blood storage bottle, poured out the demon blood, and drank it in one gulp. Then he immediately activated his blood nerves to refine the demon blood in his stomach.

A moment later, he felt a huge difference. His cultivation speed was twice as fast as before!

This was not to be underestimated. If he had previously trained for a hundred years, it was now equivalent to training for two hundred years. The gap would only grow larger over time.

And there was the limitation of lifespan.

If his aptitude was low, he would train slowly and wouldn't live long enough to catch up.

"If I advance to high-level or top-level, how much will my cultivation speed increase?"

Zhang Chen was eager to give it a try, but he had other things to do.

This time, it took him two days to improve his aptitude. It was time to give Li Mumin the blood essence he promised.

He did not want to lose his source of demon blood.

After taking a shower and getting dressed, Zhang Chen left his cave.

Inner Sect, Cave 14.

"Is Senior Brother Li here?"

"Give it to me." Li Mumin did not waste any words and demanded it as soon as he came out of the cave.

"Yes." Zhang Chen respectfully handed him the blood storage bottle.

"Not bad." Li Mumin put away the blood essence and took out a new blood storage bottle filled with demon blood, ready to throw it to Zhang Chen.

Seeing this, Zhang Chen said, "Senior Brother Li, I have some personal matters to attend to. Can I serve you again at a later time?"

"Heh." Li Mumin sneered and said in an unquestionable tone, "I don't care what your business is. You must exchange three bowls of demon blood for me every day.

"You said before that you would exchange at least three bowls of blood essence for me every day before I accepted you as my spokesperson. Now, do you think you can just decide not to do it?"

As expected, it was easy to invite the gods, but it was hard to send them away!

"You're right, Senior Brother Li." Zhang Chen admitted his mistake and continued, "Senior Brother Li, coming here every two days is too frequent. Can we change it to once every seven days?"

Li Mumin thought about it and realized that coming every two days was indeed troublesome. Sometimes he also needed to cultivate or handle things. As long as the amount of blood essence didn't decrease, it was fine for him.

"Okay, come every seven days from now on."

Li Mumin took out two more blood storage bottles and threw them to Zhang Chen.

"Thank you, Senior Brother." Zhang Chen quickly caught them and bowed to thank him.

Li Mumin ignored him and turned around to go back into his cave.

Watching Li Mumin's back, Zhang Chen thought to himself, In the eyes of this inner sect disciple, I'm just a tool.

But I have a modifier, and I will soon become incredibly powerful. I just need to be patient, develop slowly, and wait for that day to come.

After settling the matter of blood exchange, Zhang Chen returned to his cave abode and prepared to continue improving his aptitude.

He activated the Lifespan Burning Technique for the second time, and because of his experience, he was able to build the formation array in his body in half a day.

Upgrading a medium-grade spiritual root to a high-grade spiritual root required 240 years of lifespan.

However, Zhang Chen, who was in the Qi cultivation stage, only had 150 years of lifespan, which was already far beyond his lifespan.

The moment the formation was activated, his body aged visibly to the naked eye.

Although he trusted the modifier, the feeling of death filled his heart. Zhang Chen could not help but feel panic and helplessness, like a drowning person.

But at this moment, the modifier's power appeared again, resetting his vitality and restoring his appearance.

It was as if the previous scene was just a mirage.

Under the effect of the Blood Ignition Technique, his acupoints became thicker, his meridians became wider, and his dantian became more adapted to spiritual power.

The upgrading process this time took three full days.

"So, this is a high-grade spiritual root?" Zhang Chen, wrapped in spiritual energy, felt comfortable all over his body.

He did not even need to breathe. The surrounding spiritual energy naturally gathered around him.

Carefully feeling it, it seemed like his body was emitting an inexplicable charm that attracted the spiritual energy.

"Let's see how much faster I can refine demon blood now."

Zhang Chen took out the blood storage bottle, drank the demon blood, and ran the blood nerves to refine it.

"It's twice as fast as a medium-grade spiritual root and four times as fast as a low-level spiritual root."

With the cultivation speed of a high-grade spiritual root, even without the modifier, he could break through to the Foundation Establishment stage within the time limit set by the Blood God Sect.

"Great, keep going and reach the top-grade spiritual root in one go!"

Zhang Chen's face was full of excitement as he operated the Lifespan Burning Technique once more to construct a formation within his body.

Upgrading a high-grade spiritual root to a top-grade spiritual root required 500 years of lifespan, something only Golden Core stage cultivators could possess!

The moment he activated the formation in his body, Zhang Chen turned into a withered old man with white hair.

But the next second, he was restored to his original state under the effect of the modifier.

Four days later, Zhang Chen's face was full of excitement. He opened his eyes with a bright gleam: "From now on, I am also a top-grade genius!"

After successfully upgrading to a top-grade spiritual root, he did not need to absorb it himself. The surrounding spiritual Qi naturally flowed into his body.

This also made him understand why those top geniuses were different from ordinary people even when they were just children.

Their bodies were nourished by spiritual energy from a young age, making them naturally different from ordinary people.

However, what he cultivated was the Blood Nerve Technique. It mainly depended on the speed at which he refined demon blood.

As expected, his speed of refining demon blood doubled again, eight times faster than before with a low-grade spiritual root.

In the following days, Zhang Chen lived a very peaceful life. He spent all day in his cave abode practicing the demon blood refining technique and other techniques.

Apart from delivering blood essence to Li Mumin, he rarely went out.

With a top-grade spiritual root and the ability to devour demon blood indefinitely, his cultivation speed was unimaginably fast.

Time passed quickly, and soon half a year had passed, ushering in a new year, as well as the day of the inner sect competition.