3-Star Ascension
Yaan once considered the Rank 3 Boundary Ascension Pill to be a valuable treasure beyond his means. This pill was a far off goal, a resource so valuable that he might need to work for many years before he could accumulate enough money to afford it.
But now, not only did he buy the pill with a mere fraction of his wealth, he was even able to purchase multiple supplementary tinctures and potions to enhance the effect of the medicine! The Boundary Ascension Pill didn't guarantee success when crossing the realm boundary, but it was by far the most reliable, most affordable, and safest method of ascension.
Last time, Yaan simply consumed the Rank 2 Boundary Ascension Pill and allowed it to run its course whilst he focussed on ascending from the Qi Gathering Realm to the Innate Qi Realm. Strangely enough, the body had a greater chance of successfully ascending if the fiend was simultaneously undergoing their Qi refining ascension.
Now though, Yaan couldn't undergo the Qi refining ascension, his dantian was crippled and he was no longer a cultivator. The previous success rate of 90% when using the Rank 2 pill alongside the Qi refining ascension would drop to 80% when ascending to Rank 3, but it was actually half this, just 40%, when undergoing the physical ascension alone…
A 40% chance of success, meant a 60% chance of failing and receiving serious backlash. When attempting to breakthrough a second time after already failing once, the success rate dropped even further.
Yaan wasn't willing to accept such awful odds. So, he gathered every pill, potion and tincture which could possibly be useful for him before beginning. He even made up an expensive medicinal bath to assist with the breakthrough!
After placing all of the pills and medicines on a tray to the side of the medicinal tub, he stripped down and slowly entered the bath. His expression changed as soon as his toes touched the dark green thick liquid.
"This is going to hurt, but I suppose I should just expect it at this point. Hah…"
He lowered himself into the tub at a moderate pace, then forced himself to go all the way under, remaining fully submerged for a full minute. He didn't close his eyes, and when he resurfaced, his vision was burning and he could hardly even see. Fortunately, he had memorised the positions of each medicine on the bath-side table.
Yaan tried to ignore the ongoing powerful corrosive sensations across his body and swallowed three pills and potions. He then rubbed a tincture across his forehead, before briefly dropping below the surface yet again. Once he could feel the other medicines taking effect, he resurfaced and immediately grabbed the Rank 3 Boundary Ascension Pill.
All of these medicines had the effect of amplifying the process ten fold. This meant ten time the success rate, ten times the improvement, and of course, ten times the pain.
He swallowed the pill without dwelling on it too much, knowing that overthinking it wouldn't help. No matter what, he needed to attempt the ascension…no, he needed to succeed in ascending!
Yaan had already experienced this sort of ascension once before, and although it was now a higher realm ascension, not to mention ten times more torturous when combined with the corrosive medicinal bath, the pain was still within Yaan's ability to tolerate. He calmed his breathing and slowly felt the changes taking place throughout his body, watching as each minute alteration grew exponentially, until the extreme changes left him feeling shocked.
His skin burned with a searing heat, itched tremendously, and felt like it was being frozen and chiselled off, all at the same time. Not only that, when he looked down, he saw that it really was flaking off!
As his smooth skin peeled away and fell into the dark sludge below, a new layer of more perfect, ever so slightly pale skin, was made visible beneath.
At the same time, his organs were twisting in his stomach, quite literally. This movement process would usually be small and barely noticeable, but his organs were now convulsing within his body rapidly and unpredictably. It was so extreme that every now and then, Yaan stumbled, almost falling face first into the sludgy medicinal bath. This horrific sensation within his body would probably continue until his organs settled into their newly adjusted positions.
His bones were strengthened as the bone continually compressed inwards whilst new bone formed around the outside layer. His bone density increased with each movement, slowly building up their durability to incredible levels.
Tendons and muscles disconnected, the reattached to one another and to the bone, forming a much more perfect system which would make injury less likely, and power generation twice as efficient.
Gradually, the changes to his body faded away, but one final change began to grow stronger. This final change was the blood refining step of the 3-Star Realm ascension!
The blood refining that Yaan had endured after consuming the Rank 2 Blood Refining Pill some months ago, resulted in a slightly unexpected change. Usually, reaching the 3-Star Realm would allow a demon to gain a single drop of blood essence, but Yaan already possessed nine drops of blood essence! When half of his blood was rapidly burned away just like that time from before, he suddenly remembered the pill that Ghu Nadda's great grandfather had given him when they first met.
The blood-red pill contained an extremely dense bloody energy which was filled with the essence of blood and slaughter, but most of all, vitality.
It was a good job that he quickly swallowed this pill, because just a few seconds after half of his blood was refined into a single drop, it happened once again. Luckily, this pill gifted by the Ghu Clan Elder was incredible. No matter how rapidly his blood declined, it recovered by half within a single second.
His rate of recovery became so extreme that it easily countered the decline in blood caused by the blood refining step!
As his body generated more and more blood, going past his body's usual maximum capacity, his blood became multiple times more dense, giving Yaan the urge to cough out a few pints of this excess blood.
But instead, he forced the blood to remain within his body. As the density of his blood grew stronger and stronger, an idea formed in his mind. Yaan realised that he had the chance to draw out far more power from his ascension than should usually be possible! Of course, this was all thanks to the strange blood-red pill.
Yaan had a wide selection of medicines placed beside him. This selection contained everything valuable and potentially useful his possession, just in case something came up. And now, the one thing he really didn't expect to use became the catalyst to facilitate his growth!
This pill was pure black and emitted an aura of death. It was clearly toxic, eating it would result in instant death. However, he planned to use exactly this pill!
"Huh…!" The blood in his body almost exploded out from his pores as his recovery reached an unprecedented high. Yaan didn't hesitate anymore, swallowing the black toxic pill, along with a Rank 4 Vital Recovery Pill.
The black pill was something that he found in Shin Jinni's spatial ring. Most considered it a poison, but some crazy demons with high cultivations actually used this type of pill to temper the body!
It was called the Rank 3 Vital Calamity Pill.
It was already dangerous to consume the Vital Calamity Pill when it was a rank below the user's own body. However, Yaan had the crazy idea to use the Rank 3 pill whilst he was ascending into Rank 3 himself! He would use his ascension, combined with the shocking medicines currently in his system, to overcome this poisonous elixir!
Gulp!
Instantly, the rapidly growing blood in his body began to decline. Within seconds, his blood volume and density returned to normal, but then instantly doubled, but it then continued to drop at an alarming rate…
"Shit!"
Yaan had once again underestimated a medicine.
He didn't think too much and directly swallowed multiple Rank 4 recovery pills. It was only because he was mid-way through a realm ascension that this excessive mass of energy was being continually sucked away. His body was currently a battlefield of different medicinal energies, all colliding, some combining, others battling against one another…it was pure insanity!
The energy rapidly exploded out into his body, it was absorbed, then decayed away with the Vital Calamity Pill's effect. Yaan ended up consuming more and more pills, potions, tinctures, and so on, trying to balance out the chaos in his body by adding even more chaotic elements to the mix.
It was somehow working, only he realised that this Boundary Ascension Pill…was also lasting for ten times longer than it should! He did not expect this!
His body was like a bottomless pit, searching for more energy to devour. If he didn't continuously feed the beast, he would end up devouring himself…or perhaps, the Vital Calamity Pill would destroy him first.
Five hours later, his situation stabilised, but only after he consumed far too many Rank 4 recovery pills, along with countless other Rank 3 medicines to balance out the various difficulties.
Honestly, it was quite lucky that he made it through this in one piece.
"You'd think I would learn, but I'll probably do something similar again." Yaan sighed and lamented his own eager idiocy.
Thump.
The moment he stepped out of the medicinal tub, Yaan only had time to sigh before falling unconscious on the floor. His body hit the floor weakly, but he didn't even care. He was so exhausted that this wooden floor felt like a fine silk mattress.
Three days later, Yaan awoke lazily. For some time, he just lay there with a blank mind, not caring enough to get up, or to even think. Eventually though, his memories flooded back into his mind and he sat bolt upright.
He quickly began meditating and examined his internal condition. Gradually, his expression became strange. After spending a full hour confirming that this was real, Yaan's shone with a brilliant light.
He had succeeded in reaching the 3-Star Realm! Of course, the fact that he wasn't half-crippled proved that the ascension was a success.
By gripping and unclenching his fist, Yaan could feel just how much strength was now present within his muscles due to the Vital Energy which filled each and every speck of his flesh and blood. Likewise, his bones and tendons increased in resilience accordingly to support the strong muscles, whilst his organs were now hardened like steel plate armour, and were able to process anything and everything perfectly and rapidly.
Even his brain improved, with his processing speed, memory and foresight reaching levels beyond any mortal.
His blood was also now far different compared to before. Firstly, he actually possessed 81 drops of his own blood essence! Normally, a 3-Star Realm demon would have a single drop of blood essence, so this situation was quite shocking! Possessing more blood essence could only ever be a good thing; it supported his entire body, accelerating his recovery rate and resulting in him releasing a more majestic aura.
And of course, there was his Vital Energy itself. Whilst the quantity of Vital Energy had increased substantially, this alone wasn't the biggest point. The improvement to his Vital Energy was a qualitative one - the energy was more pure, more perfect, more powerful. It was dense and filled with a primal aura…this energy was far more useful compared to before.
But what really shocked Yaan, was that his Vital Energy had already exceeded the initial stage and taken a big step into the early stage! He already possessed 12% of the Vital Energy needed to attain a 4-Star body and develop a Vital Core!
Of course, whilst this might seem like incredible progress, the earlier body tempering realms were much easier to progress through compared to the latter stages.
Yaan clenched his fist tightly.
The Vital Core…
Once he formed his Vital Core, he would be able to repair his dantian using his body's own natural regenerative ability! The 1-Star, 2-Star and 3-Star demonic bodies were each superior to the last, but the 4-Star Realm was a much bigger jump. At the 4-Star realm, a body temperer developed their Vital Core, a dense mass of energy located somewhere within the body.
With such powerful Vital Energy contained within this dense core, it became possible to use vital spells, vital treasures, and other unique methods only accessible to body temperers! Of course, Yaan intended to use his Vital Core to restore his crippled dantian. After that, he would search for a way back to the Qi refining path.
Restoring the dantian was only step one. After all, it was only possible to cultivate Innate Qi either alongside the demonic body, ascending the realms side by side, or if the demonic body was weaker than the Qi refining cultivation realm. With a 4-Star Realm demonic body, it was practically impossible to begin cultivating Innate Qi from scratch.
If he wanted to return to the Qi refining path, Yaan's greatest hope was still Rui.