On crimson wings.

Yin Long swept the empty martial library with a slow glance, he hadn't been gone for too long so there hadn't really been any change. He had been thinking about it slightly as he went through book after book, but the library was simply far too empty. He hadn't seen a single other person enter it while he was present, but he didn't know if that was because this library was just that exclusive or if it was due to some unknown array preventing the people within it from seeing and interacting with each other.

"Whatever the case might be, it's at least beneficial to me."

If he could avoid getting disturbed while absorbing the bloodline or the strange strand of grass then it would naturally be for the best. He returned to the spot where he had stopped his reading and sat down once more, swiping his interspatial ring and bringing out one of the jade boxes. He didn't immediately open the jade box and instead closed his eyes, quietly recuperating and making sure that all his wounds had healed.

As for which of the two resources to use first, he settled on the heart filled with Demonic beast blood. Bloodlines were a marvellous thing, just having one was an undeniable advantage over those who didn't have one. Depending on the density and purity of your bloodline, you essentially transcended humanity, with some bloodlines so closely attuned to a certain law that you could unconsciously draw in all the energy of that type within your surroundings. At that point, you would be cultivating every second of your existence, you would automatically drain every cultivation resource suited to you without even knowing that they were around you.

Yin Long didn't expect this bloodline to belong to such a level, but just having it in his body would still be enough to slightly increase the efficiency at which he absorbed his cultivation resources. After all, between a normal human body and a slightly transcended body, it was unquestionable which one would be better at handing Qi and the like.

He finished regulating his state and finally opened the box, the bloody scent wafting out once more as the fresh heart was revealed. Yin Long stretched out his left arm and placed a finger on the heart, a sliver of his Qi seeping into the heart and taking control of the blood in it. All the blood was sucked directly out of the heart, turning into a hundred small needles that hovered quietly in front of Yin Long. After extracting the blood from the heart, he picked up the large hunk of meat and raised it up to his face.

For those who didn't already have a bloodline, there were two ways for them to transplant it into their bodies. The first one involved a specific array, one Yin Long didn't have at hand, so he could only rely on the second method, which was comparatively more barbaric.

He opened his mouth and sank his teeth into the meat, quickly tearing out chunks and swallowing the raw meat. He had extracted as much blood as he could discover in the heart, but a few drops still managed to slide down his throat as he tore through the heart so it was obvious that he had missed some.

Most of the blood was gone, but the flesh alone contained a fairly dense amount of Qi that was starting to spread through Yin Long's body. His soul immediately acted up and attracted the wayward energy, pulling it out of his body and into his soulsea so that it could have sole ownership of it. The heart that was the size of a watermelon was quickly finished, Yin Long's gaze landing on the needles hovering in front of him.

"Alright, let's get the show underway."

He sucked in a sharp breath and had the needles move, one stabbing down into each of his wrists. They pierced through his skin and stabbed into his veins, flowing in reverse as they headed for his heart in a rampant manner. The rest of the needles also stabbed into his body, ten of them stabbing directly into his heart while five of them stabbed into his throat, the remaining needles embedding themselves into the various veins spread through his body.

A hundred bloody needles quickly coursed through his body, going from the highest and lowest points down to the centre that was his heart. The heart was the crucial part in accepting this bloodline, his body wouldn't be able to produce more of this blood even after he absorbed it so he had to make his heart get accustomed to the blood, otherwise, it would reject the blood every time it tried to pass through his heart.

The one hundred needles quickly conglomerated on his heart, piercing into it from all angles. But just as all the needles pierced into his heart, Yin Long's face paled until it resembled a sheet of snow. And the reason was quite simple, he felt his soul release a tremendous hunger and leave his soulsea without his control.

It seemed to act entirely on the parasitic instincts inside it as it shot out of his soulsea and rushed through his body, stabbing through his heart along with the needles. The multicoloured sword unleashed a radiant yellow and crimson light, the sensation of all his veins getting eviscerated at once hitting Yin Long.

His mind blanked from the unexpected flash of pain, the yellow and crimson colour being the only thing that registered inside him. He quickly regained himself and grit his teeth, all the blood in his body flowing in reverse as the glow from his soul continued to grow more resplendent. His soul felt like a bottomless whole as it continued to suck away at both his own blood and the transplanted bloodline, it felt as if it would continue to absorb it all until there was nothing left of him.

But what was even worse was the fact that he could feel his soul keening, calling out to him in what was practically desperation. It wanted more, just this wasn't enough, it could still go even higher and aim for something grander. He could feel something churning within his soul, but if things continued like this then he wouldn't have the luxury of finding out exactly what sort of thing was churning in there. He could only grit his teeth until they started to crack, mentally cursing at the soul that just acted without bothering with the opinion of its controller.

"Fine... You want more, I'll give you more!"

He squeezed the words out through bloodied teeth and quickly stroked his interspatial ring, bringing out not just the other jade box but also the vial filled with amber pills. He swallowed the grass that was covered by a sharp seen and threw one of the pills into his mouth, the grass so sharp that it cut open his throat as it moved through it. But with most of his veins already eviscerated, how could he possibly care about his throat getting cut up? He was already like a hound covered by a thousand fleas, one more just wouldn't matter.

The pill was quickly dissolved as it headed for his stomach, the grass unleashing sharp bursts of Qi as it fell into his stomach. And his parasitic soul greedily accepted the new sources of energy, actually drawing the entire stalk of grass towards itself. As a result, the grass pierced through his stomach and lacerated his flesh, rushing towards his heart and bringing with it all the energy from the borderline divine pill.

The grass stabbed into his heart and poured all its energy into Yin Long's soul, which turned incandescent as a result. The yellow and crimson light erupted with such intensity that it caused Yin Long's entire body to glow with a sinister light, serving as the final nail in the coffin that was Yin Long's consciousness.

His body slumped forward as his vision turned dark, a falling sensation overtaking him. Strangely enough, though his consciousness had turned dark, he could still feel the falling sensation. It was quite reminiscent of what he felt when he first died so he couldn't help but wonder if his life had just ended once more. If that was the case then he really was unresigned, he wasn't content with an ending like this.

The concept of time was blurry to him so he didn't know how much time had passed when the falling sensation finally started to fade, a glimmer of dim light appearing below him. He fell through the light and found himself overlooking a seemingly endless arid plain, people and beasts of all different types engaging in a bloody battle that stretched out far beyond the horizon.

He was overlooking the plain and the battle, but he couldn't move his vision or his body, he couldn't even feel his body. And before he knew it, his vision was raised to the sky, a massive crack spreading out and covering practically the entire dome of the heavens. And out from that crack came a gargantuan emerald dragon, its serpentine body stretching out for as long as the crack itself, seemingly without end.

It's eight thick limbs, four in the front and four in the back, stepped on the air as the beast flew despite having no wings, its sapphire-blue eyes coldly overlooking the battle beneath it. The dragon opened its maw and unleashed a blinding roar of lightning, countless golden arcs bombarding the bloody battlefield and reaping an untold amount of lives.

The beast snorted coldly at those that remained alive, all of them bowing with utmost reverence before they flew into the sky and passed through the crack, leaving behind the dragon and the now charred wasteland. But as the dragon hovered there, the earth cracked open into three massive yellow eyes that stared impassively at the hovering monster.

The eyes looked apathetic, but Yin Long could tell what they were feeling, or rather, he was feeling it himself. Jealousy. The eyes didn't feel any anger or fear as they stared at the dragon, there was only a suffocating amount of jealousy. The dragon glared coldly at the three eyes but didn't end up making a move on it, raising its head and unleashing another thundering roar that rocked the land.

It then flew into the crack, which vanished after the beast passed through it, the ruined wasteland returning to an eerie peace. The three eyes only lingered on the sky for a short while longer before closing, vanishing and causing darkness to envelop Yin Long's vision once more.

But this darkness didn't last for long before Yin Long suddenly felt a jolt, his eyes shooting open. He saw the familiar martial library around him, the floor right in front of his face. He quickly sat up and swept his surroundings, but he truly was still in the martial library, the only change being a pool of dried blood directly beneath his body.

He quickly checked his own body, but his eviscerated veins didn't show any signs of damage, not even his throat, stomach, heart, or the flesh that had been cut open showed any signs of damage. But he knew that the earlier scene hadn't been just a dream or an illusion, he could feel the presence of new blood in his veins, blood that radiated a faint sensation of power.

It was over? Just like that? His soul had made such a grand display and tormented him so immensely yet it ended just as suddenly as it started? Of course, he could tell that a fair amount of time should have passed due to how dry the blood on the floor was, but to him it really hadn't felt all that long, even with how blurry his sensation of time had been.

Thinking about what had just happened, his expression twisted a little as he hurriedly sent his senses into his soulsea. But upon seeing that his soul was just floating there as quietly as it always did, he couldn't help but curse quietly.

"Don't just act like nothing you bastard, at least give me an answer or two."

It had acted and done something without even bothering to ask him about it, even putting his life at risk to accomplish it. Yet it didn't give him any answers as to what it had done or why it had done it, it simply hovered there as quietly and obediently as before. Yin Long was just about to retract his senses when his eyes jumped slightly, his gaze focusing on the handle of the rainbow-coloured sword.

"Two, three, four... I really didn't see it wrong."

There were still only seven orbs that revolved around his soul, but the number of leaves on the handle had increased to four, signifying another jump in his cultivation. He had expected his soul to use all the energy from the two resources to nurture whatever it was that was churning in it, but now it seemed like he had given it a bit too much energy so it diverted the rest over to his cultivation.

"Well, at least that means I got an additional bonus out of the entire thing."

That was the only comfort Yin Long could give himself right now, at least the two resources hadn't ended up being used solely for that unknown reason. He retracted his senses and stood up, his somewhat sore and stiff body releasing faint cracking sounds. He gave his limbs a few stretches to loosen them up, muttering quietly to himself.

"Alright, you made such a big fuss about it, let's see what you've presented me with."

He touched upon the new blood, his new bloodline, after he finished muttering and drew upon its power to test it out. A surge of power immediately gushed forth from the depths of his blood and spread throughout his entire body, a sinister aura seeping out from him as his forehead cracked open in the same manner as when he used the yellow law.

He was very pleased with the surge of power, it pushed him up to a level similar to the 5th or 6th Immortal Door so it was a non-negligible increase in strength. But just when he thought he had seen it all, he felt a slight itching on his back.

His robe tore open as a pair of wings with a wingspan of about two metres grew out from his back. Both wings were the same crimson as the one section from his soul, and they were covered in veins that were the same yellow as the yellow section of his soul. Those two sections had coincidentally been the ones to light up as his soul absorbed the blood, and from the looks of it, they had influenced the bloodline a fair bit.

He tried to flap the wings, but they moved in a very stiff and clumsy manner, not quite listening to his orders. But that was only to be expected, trying to control an entirely new body part that you had never had before wasn't an easy thing. He experimented with the wings for a few more minutes before a wave of tiredness washed over him, using a bloodline placed a rather great strain on one's body so it couldn't be kept active at all times.

He calmed down his bloodline, the wings on his back and the crack in his forehead vanishing without a trace. He moved his hand to his chin to rub it while he thought, but his hands stopped just as he touched his chin, his eyes narrowing faintly.

"This much shouldn't have shown up in just four or five months, right?"

He could feel that his entire chin was currently covered by a somewhat thick stubble, a small beard already in the process of growing. But with Yin Long's cultivation level and age, a stubble like this wasn't something that would grow in a short period of time. He checked the communication orb in his interspatial ring but it hadn't received any messages so the allotted time inside this training ground shouldn't have passed yet.

But he still felt a slight nagging sense of unease as he rubbed the stubble. When it came to things he knew and things he didn't know then it was obvious that he would rather put his trust in the things he knew. And he knew that the time he had been given to stay within this training ground shouldn't be enough to produce a stubble of this size. His thoughts moved around for only a short second before he made up his mind, shrugging his shoulders as his entire body loosened up.

"Whatever, I'll just take a look. No point in mulling over it since I'm feeling uneasy, might as well just put myself at ease."

He stepped forward when he finished mutter, a burst of sharp Qi erupting from his body and removing the stubble that had started to grow. He removed the dried blood on the ground using his law of blood, gathering it up into a small ball before tossing it into his interspatial ring, leaving the martial library and heading for the training ground's exit.