My blood is a little differnet

As the first signs of dawn appeared, Ezra slowly opened his eyes. He started to remember everything that had happened before he passed out. He quickly checked his internal and external injuries, only to find that all his wounds had healed. "Why did I heal so fast? I didn't take any recovery pills, and even if I had, it would have taken about a month to fully heal," he wondered. A realization struck him: right before he passed out, he had felt his blood start to boil. He hadn't had time to figure out the effects of his new blood after the infusion. "Could my new blood have a healing effect?" he thought. He had never heard of blood that could heal itself before.

Curious, he walked over to a stone and broke off a sharp piece. "Let's see if I'm right," he thought. He made a one-inch cut on his arm and watched as faint starlight covered the wound. Within minutes, the cut was completely healed. "This is incredible," Ezra thought, thrilled. "If my blood can heal me, I'll have a great advantage in fights." He tried again with a bigger cut, about two inches, but this time, the cut only healed halfway. "I guess I can only heal about an inch at a time," he sighed.

While contemplating the possibilities, he noticed his cultivation had dropped to the low 8th stage. "Why did my cultivation drop? I clearly remember breaking through to the mid-8th stage." He didn't have much time to dwell on it as he noticed his cultivation was very unstable. With that in mind, he sat down cross-legged and began stabilizing his cultivation. A few hours later, he stood up, feeling more balanced. He raised his fist and swung it at a rock next to him, shattering it with a casual punch. "Wow, this feels amazing. I feel as if I can crush mountains."

He then remembered the storage rings he had taken from Jeffrey and the others. He first checked Mick's ring and found a few low-grade spirit stones, some low-grade recovery pills, and a scroll. "Light Slash, high-rank human skill. This skill, when mastered, will momentarily blind your opponent, allowing you to attack." "Hmm, this is a good skill, but I need to find a sword," he thought. Next, he checked Zack's ring but only found a few low-grade spirit stones and low-level recovery pills. Finally, he checked Jeffrey's ring with some excitement. Inside, he found two medium-grade spirit stones and around a dozen low-grade spirit stones.

Spirit stones were vital for cultivators, as they could increase one's strength by absorbing the essence within them and were also used as currency. They came in different grades: low, medium, and high. As he continued searching through Jeffrey's storage ring, he didn't find anything else of interest. In total, he had 18 low-grade spirit stones, 2 medium-grade spirit stones, and 6 low-grade recovery pills, along with the Light Slash skill. "I have fighting skills, but now I need a movement skill," he thought. Debating whether to return to Sylvaria to get a sword and find a movement technique, he started feeling hungry. "I'll find something to eat first. After that, I'll figure out what to do."

Ezra left the cave to find a creature to eat. Back at the Spirit Wind Sect, Braidan had just returned with the other disciples. "Did you get the treasure?" a few of them asked, but Braidan did not respond. A few of the inner core disciples were also waiting. Braidan felt a little scared because he hadn't completed the mission and feared they would be angry with him.

"Greetings, senior brother and senior sister," Braidan said, along with Jeffrey and the other disciples. The man was rough-looking with a sword on his back and a few scars on his arms. The woman had short blond hair, a sharp-looking face, and sharp eyes, with daggers at her waist.

"Did you complete your mission?" one of them asked.

"No," Braidan said hesitantly.

"I knew it! We shouldn't have tasked this lousy outer court disciple with such an important mission," Alice said with a disapproving laugh.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Alice. You don't know what happened," Braidan said, holding his tongue. The reason Jeffrey didn't lash out at Alice was that Alice was at the middle 9th level of the Qi Refining realm. The person standing next to Alice was Adrean, the number one inner court disciple, at the late 9th level of the Qi Refining stage. Even though Jeffrey was the top prodigy of the outer core disciples, he couldn't compare to Adrean and Alice, who reached their levels by the ages of 22 and 23, respectively. Alice and Adrean were likely to become core disciples soon and possibly elders. Furthermore, Adrean was the disciple of the sect leader, while Alice was the disciple of the first elder.

"What's there to not understand? You failed, and it looks like you failed miserably," Alice said, looking at Jeffrey, who had a broken arm and tattered clothes.

Braidan couldn't hold his tongue anymore. "It's not that simple! The kid who beat Jeffrey also beat Mick and Zack from the Rushing Wolf Sect and White Fog Sect simultaneously. Both of them were low 7th stage cultivators, and Jeffrey is at the mid-8th level," Braidan said angrily. This somewhat shocked Alice, and even Adrean looked surprised.

"How powerful was this opponent? He must have had a high cultivation to deal with Jeffrey and the others," Adrean asked Braidan.

"Don't look at me. I was busy holding off Xeno and Goji," Braidan replied. Adrean didn't care about Braidan fighting with the Rushing Wolf Sect and the White Fog Sect; he only wanted to know the cultivation level of this mysterious person.

Jeffrey, under the intense stares of all three, finally spoke. "He was at the middle 6th stage cultivation."

"You mean middle 6th stage Qi Gathering stage, right?" Alice asked, trying to figure out who could be that powerful without being from one of the top three sects.

"No, middle 6th stage Body Refining stage."

"WHAT?" Even Adrean couldn't stay silent anymore. Everyone turned to look at them. Adrean and Alice realized they should have been quieter.

"You two, let's go. We need to tell the elders what happened," Alice motioned for Braidan and Jeffrey to follow her. Similar reactions were happening at the Rushing Wolf Sect and the White Fog Sect.

"Let me get this right. This kid took out not just Zack but Jeffrey and Mick at the same time?" the 1st elder asked.

"Yes," Xeno replied hesitantly. He was currently talking with the 1st and 2nd elder of the Rushing Wolf Sect.

"Tell me again how this kid beat all three of them," the 1st elder said. Zack was still unconscious from Ezra's last attack, so Xeno could only relay what he had heard from Jeffrey.

"Stars. So you're saying this kid had stars shoot into his body, then he somehow broke through from the mid-6th stage Body Refining all the way to the mid-8th stage of Body Refining?" the leader asked Goji, who was meeting with the elders from the White Fog Sect.

"Yes, that is correct," Goji confirmed.

"We can't let the Spirit Wind Sect get their hands on whatever treasure this kid has. I think it's time to change the power structure in Sylvaria," the elders from the Rushing Wolf Sect were having the same thought as the elders from the White Fog Sect.

"We should try to ally ourselves with the White Fog Sect. We can't let the Spirit Wind Sect get any stronger," the leader of the Rushing Wolf Sect finally spoke. He looked over at two inner core disciples. "You two, go to the White Fog Sect and tell them the leader of the Rushing Wolf Sect wants to form an alliance."

"Yes, leader," they replied.