Third...

"It's said entire squads tried to contain him, but he simply flew away gracefully..."

"Gracefully? I heard he was naked."

"I heard that he could breathe fire and control the stars..."

"Brother, I got the news that he was in truth a woman disguised as a man."

Outside the Zhou Kingdom's capital, in an ordinary inn for jianghu warriors, many types of rumors circulated.

But almost all those rumors were about a strange man who suddenly appeared in the capital, bringing with him "ultimate destruction."

"Ahem... I heard he was just a victim, and had nothing to do with the destruction that took place there," Shu Meng shamelessly tried to defend himself while disguised and wearing clothes.

The others ignored him after seeing he didn't look like a jianghu's insider. Instead, they continued to talk about many different rumors.

Shu Meng sighed and left the inn after silently pocketing a few bucks from the guys who bad-mouthed him without them noticing.

"Blood Qi sure is handy..." he muttered as strings of red energy put down tael after tael in his hands.

It has been a while since he decided to call the new energy Blood Qi. It looked like blood and coursed through his veins and arteries.

It has been a few days since he quit his despairing situation and attained enlightenment. He stole the clothes he was wearing and the money he used to pay for the inn and the food.

As for a guilty conscience? He was an unemployed man in a cruel world, he couldn't care less about robbing a few pennies from one warrior or another.

His master had been dead for decades and no one remembered him, he had to strive for his daily life.

But the most important thing for him at that time was to continue and perfect his transformation.

He returned to the inn he was staying and to his room, he wanted to continue his practice.

The way he instinctively found to continue his transformation was to breathe in and use the most original knowledge of the world for himself. His body gained the ability to attract it.

His body also gained the ability to digest that for its own use and transform it into his own Blood Qi.

His Blood Qi would in turn nurture and transform his body even further, in a never-ending cycle.

Shu Meng wanted to practice in the capital, where the most original knowledge was more abundant, but his own strength was far from being able to compete against a whole royal city.

As for why the most original knowledge was more abundant there, he knew that because of the great number of people, more power of thoughts was derived from it, so more of it was attracted.

After a few days of continuous practice, the kingdom found his whereabouts somehow and he had to run away again.

But the days of practice paid off and he was much stronger and faster than before, the soldiers and cavalry could only eat the dust raised by his feet.

He could instinctively feel his body was nearing a certain kind of threshold.

Speaking of instincts, he gained many kinds after his transformation. After all, his body changed fundamentally.

After a few weeks of playing a game of cat and mouse with the kingdom, Shu Meng began to transform again.

Just below a tree top, on a thick branch, he was sitting cross-legged and practicing with ultimate concentration.

Currents of air began to converge towards him with rather strong momentum, shaking the huge tree violently.

His body began to tremble and he felt pain all over his body, this transformation was much more violent than the one of before.

His Blood Qi infiltrated deep inside his bones and marrow, like maggots that sought for nutrition, but it began to integrate with his bones and marrow instead of devouring them.

Hi, Blood Qi was numerous times more abundant compared to when he just transformed and could cover and penetrate his whole body.

From head to toe, from skin to marrow.

Black blood began to ooze from all his pores and orifices, and he threw up blood from time to time.

Many times he felt he was about to pass out, but he knew he would die if he passed out, and the mysterious book most likely wouldn't revive him since there was no source of energy to restore his body.

Thanks to his strong mental fortitude built over the long years, he managed to hold on until the pain began to fade and the transformation began to end.

He opened his eyes with a tired expression and looked at the ground almost a hundred meters below, he jumped without fear despite it being a huge height.

When he reached the ground, his feet created small pits but he was intact.

He took a deep breath and then howled like a beast for no apparent reason.

"I feel so... powerful!" he shouted and felt as if his Blood Qi was perfectly controlled and responsive.

His body told him... he was many times more powerful than before.

He channeled his Blood Qi through his blood vessels and punched the tree in front of him with all his might.

The ancient tree instantly collapsed, despite being about five meters thick. The reason for that was that his Blood Qi penetrated the tree along the shock wave produced by his punch and it more or less exploded inside the trunk.

Just by relying on the force of the punch, he couldn't do the same thing, but could probably create a huge hole in the tree trunk, and it would take him a few pure punches to take down the same tree.

Smelling bad as he was, he first sought for water to bathe himself and remove the blood and impurities all over his body.

Looking at his image on the surface of the water, he realized he looked a bit younger than before.

He remembered there was an inn close by, so he went there first, knowing well he would soon be discovered by the military force of the Zhou Kingdom.

But anyway, he didn't fear encirclement anymore. If he couldn't beat a great army, he could run away.

As he expected, he met many soldiers on his way and had a conflict with them, but it was too easy for him to scare them enough to crumble their morale.

Already at the inn, he bought new clothes from the owner with the money he "found" on his way, took a nice bath, and ate great food.

At the end of the day, an entire garrison of soldiers surrounded the inn to capture him, but he wasn't in a hurry.

He calmly broke through the encirclement with minimal but swift movements, the soldiers didn't stand a chance.

When some soldiers began to fire arrows and bolts from crossbows, he felt great danger.

He relied on his sharp vision and senses to barely escape, but full of superficial wounds.

Lesson learned, he still wasn't strong enough to run rampant. If a bolt of a crossbow hit him directly, he would be badly wounded.

He found another hiding place and began to heal himself. His Blood Qi greatly enhanced his body's capabilities, including the healing factor.

And by channeling his Blood Qi in a calm way toward his wounds, the healing could be sped up.

"If I transform one more time, I won't need to fear the most powerful weapons of this world..." he muttered to himself and decided to only show himself to the world after that.

"I also need to plan my future...

"What am I going to do now...

"What is my goal?"

He remembered the days he spent in suffering and loneliness, all for his goal. Now he basically achieved it, and then what?

After sighing, he shook his head. He knew this kind of answer wasn't easy to get, he needed time.

After that day, he began to practice crazily all the time. Only stopping to rest and do essential things.

When he was hungry, he would go to a village and buy food. If his money was low, he would steal it from thugs or rich men, he was never a saint.

The third transformation was much more difficult to achieve. Months passed by and there was no sign of saturation in his body, it was still accumulating Blood Qi slowly.

After almost a year of living like a rogue and hearing all kinds of rumors about himself, he was quite tired.

The Zhou Kingdom began to spread the lie that he was a demon and had to be arrested. If anyone had news about him, he would be heavily rewarded.

The only reason he managed to get away every time they encircled him was his great physical prowess.

But then, after a whole year of hard life and practice, his body felt saturated with Blood Qi and his instincts screamed.

"Finally..." he got up from the tree branch and jumped to the ground almost a hundred meters below, "I'm much stronger than before, even without going through that kind of transformation...

"How strong will I be after another transformation?"

He took a deep breath and looked at the ancient tree in front of him, it was majestic and evergreen. Its trunk was about ten meters wide.

He put his fist very close to the trunk and channeled his Blood Qi with all his power.

It was a wild inch punch, his fist glowed like raging crimson blood. The tree trunk exploded in an instant and the huge tree began to fall down, its height was a hundred meters high.

"It's much easier to exert my strength now... I have greater control over my Blood Qi."

BANG!

The huge falling tree caused ripples in the forest, and many wild animals close by were scared shitless.

After doing some warm-up, he climbed another high tree to begin his transformation. He was sure there weren't soldiers close by.

He found an interesting tree, it was one of the tallest and biggest he had seen, and there was a hole big enough to fit a man in its trunk close to the tree top.

He entered the hole and found it rather comfy, the gentle breeze of the forest hit his face and calmed him like caring hands.

He began to absorb more and more of the most original knowledge available in the area, despite his body being already saturated with Blood Qi.

His body couldn't refine it anymore and began to be overwhelmed by the huge amount of it accumulating. But he didn't stop, he continued to urge his instincts and let them take more control over the situation.

His mind began to drown in his own tempestuous screaming instincts as he willingly let himself be carried away by the waves.

The rate of absorption of most original knowledge began to speed up and his Blood Qi began to circulate faster and wilder than before. The accumulated most original knowledge was little by little carried away by the terrifying torrents of Blood Qi coursing through his vessels.

Shu Meng felt it was about time and concentrated his attention despite his instinct's interference.

As if it felt Shu Meng's consciousness was back in full control, his body began to tremble fiercely, trying to calm the tempest bred inside. And indeed, Shu Meng couldn't do the same as his instincts did.

But it was already too late, the transformation began.

The torrents of Blood Qi began to crumb the accumulated most original knowledge and forcefully transformed it into more Blood Qi. His body was unable to fully contain it, and his veins and organs were constantly damaged and repaired in a never-ending cycle.

The only reason the rate of repair was the same as the rate of damage was the accumulated most original knowledge in his body fueling everything.

Sometimes, a crack would form in his skin and a huge amount of Blood Qi and Blood would flow out. He was like a vase on the verge of breaking.

Every time a vein or an artery ruptured, it would quickly heal with the help of the same thing that damaged it, the Blood Qi.

But the transformation wasn't undergoing only on that scale, the smallest bits of his body were also being damaged and repaired constantly with no end in sight.

Shu Meng felt the pain coming from his core, it already surpassed his bearing capacity. Normally, he would have been turned unconscious. But the pain that made his mind turn into a blank also awakened him back almost instantly.

It was like a candle's fire constantly going out and being lit.

Blood was oozing from all his orifices, and there were even open wounds in his skin. His internal organs were on the verge of collapsing, but the transformation showed no signs of stopping.

"What should be... will be..." Shu Meng muttered unconsciously as if comforting himself.

Eventually, his body, somehow and for an unknown reason, began to absorb more and more most original knowledge.

Shu Meng felt his own body calling out for him, and a warm feeling submerged his mind. He subconsciously knew what was it that submerged his mind, most original knowledge.

From amidst the endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction, Shu Meng grasped it with all his will, he grasped his own desire, to control.

At that instant, something changed. It wasn't a biological change, no, it was something deeper and hidden from the eyes.

Despite having his eyes closed, Shu Meng began to see everything inside his body as clearly as if doing it with his very eyes.

His body trembled violently as if grasped by something. His Blood Qi began to calm down and his body stopped absorbing more most original knowledge.

Instead of creating more Blood Qi, his body began to use the available resources to only heal the mess made by the transformation.

However, his body couldn't return to the same state as before. In a way, his body forgot how it was before, and it only knew how it could be at that moment.

Every fiber of his being was being healed and began to show a strength never seen before.

Steam began to surge from his body as if a furnace was lit inside himself. Black blood was being purged by his body constantly, and many impurities and other things were expelled.

Meanwhile, Shu Meng's consciousness felt like it could swim in his own blood, it could reach every piece of his body and gave him the sensation of absolute control.

When he wished for a certain small vein to be closed, his blood began to clog there. When he wished to open it again, the clogged blood was cleansed away by his Blood Qi.

Shu Meng didn't know at that time, but black blood began to flow down the tree's trunk, creating an eerie vision. An unpleasant smell began to be carried away by the wind, making many animals shudder and feel nauseous.

He didn't know how long it took, but Shu Meng finally opened his eyes, his body was fully healed and... transformed.

"First things first..." Shu Meng almost puked, "Take a nice bath."