Chapter 21: The Immortal Body and the Seal of Azure Wood

After a whole day of tireless cultivation, Jiang Fan returned to his residence.

“As expected, the three stewards and the Wild Wolf Gang didn’t come looking for trouble. It seems Old Demon Xu took care of it for me!” Jiang Fan smiled faintly. “My cheap master does have quite the deterrent.”

Jiang Fan had already planned his strategy in his heart, but he hadn’t expected Old Demon Xu to really come through—not only defending him vigorously but also giving him a precious pill and a cultivation method.

“Right, didn’t Old Demon Xu give me a pill?” Jiang Fan opened the jade bottle that held the pill, revealing a round, pitch-black pill resting in his palm.

The pill emitted a strong medicinal fragrance, but mingled within the aroma was a distinct, heavy metallic scent—almost like blood.

“What kind of pill is this? Last time Old Demon Xu forced me to swallow one, and I didn’t have time to examine it closely. Why is there such a strong scent of blood? And this blood smell is remarkably similar to human blood—could it really be human blood?” Jiang Fan’s heart jolted as his mind involuntarily flashed to the three young disciples at Qi Refining Stage, third layer, who had been taken away by Old Demon Xu. Those three—two boys and one girl—had disappeared without a trace ever since.

Smelling the scent on the black pill, Jiang Fan immediately thought of human blood. Yesterday, he had caused a commotion on Nanping Street and was quite familiar with the scent of human blood. He was convinced there was no mistake.

“If I’m right, this must be a pill primarily refined from human blood—the Human Blood Pill.”

This must be the very pill Old Demon Xu concocted using those disciples who had broken through to Qi Refining Stage, third layer!

Sure enough, Old Demon Xu had never had good intentions. Once he learned that Jiang Fan had reached the second layer of Qi Refining, he would probably force him to swallow various precious pills to accelerate his progress to the third layer, so he could use him as a source for refining Human Blood Pills...

Jiang Fan suddenly hesitated to take the pill. After all, the main ingredient of this pill was very likely the fresh blood of accomplished cultivators.

But he didn’t discard it either. If the time came when it was necessary, he would still have to swallow the pill to push his cultivation to its peak, so he might stand a chance against Old Demon Xu.

“It seems I need to plan ahead! Once he finds out I’ve reached the second layer of Qi Refining, he might make his next move...” Jiang Fan took a deep breath and then pulled out the beast-skin scroll given by Old Demon Xu, muttering to himself, “First, I’ll master this spell technique; it’s better to have more ways to protect myself.”

Jiang Fan unfolded the beast-skin scroll and was puzzled to see no characters written on it.

“Old Demon Xu wouldn’t lie to me. There must be some special method to reveal the cultivation instructions recorded on this beast skin. Could it require blood recognition?” Without hesitation, Jiang Fan shifted the damage to Steward Ling of the Da Xuan Inn and bit his own index finger, letting a drop of fresh blood fall onto the scroll.

Sure enough, after breaking his skin, he felt no pain, and his wound rapidly healed. In the blink of an eye, his finger was as good as new.

This amazed Jiang Fan, who also marveled at the overwhelming power of the “Great Dao Heavenly Book”’s damage transfer ability.

“After transferring the damage, not only do I not feel pain, but the wound also immediately heals?” Overjoyed, Jiang Fan tried again. This time, he took out the bone-chopping knife he had brought back from the Wind Moon Pavilion. Activating the damage transfer, he slashed his own arm.

“Indeed, no pain, and my wound instantly recovers. Let me try the neck with a shallow cut first...”

Jiang Fan sliced his neck, leaving a blood mark that quickly vanished. Running his hand over it, he found no trace of any scar.

“Perfect, now let me cut deeper!” Jiang Fan grimaced, activated damage transfer again, and slashed deeply into his neck. A massive wound three inches deep appeared, nearly severing his throat.

Yet, he still felt no discomfort, and the wound was instantly restored.

“Excellent! Haha, it seems that as long as I activate damage transfer, I am essentially immortal!” Jiang Fan laughed wildly, excitement gleaming in his eyes. Suddenly, he raised the bone-chopping knife and looked at his left leg. “I wonder if I can chop off a leg and reattach it quickly?”

Hand raised, blade fell!

With a “puh-chi” sound, Jiang Fan’s calf was severed cleanly in two, bright red blood flowing with a metallic stench.

Yet he felt no pain, calmly reattached the severed leg, and a miracle happened—the leg astonishingly fused back together and soon fully healed.

“Hahaha... hahahaha...” Jiang Fan’s wild laughter echoed, but quickly he covered his mouth. “Good, good. Now I really have something like immortality. I just don’t know if Steward Ling’s leg can be reattached too...”

After a while of excitement, Jiang Fan cleaned up the blood and resumed studying the beast-skin scroll given by Old Demon Xu.

“Blood recognition didn’t work? Could it require spiritual energy to activate?” Jiang Fan thought quickly and then summoned a faint green, wood-elemental spiritual energy from his dantian, channeling it into the scroll.

Soon, the beast skin absorbed more than half of the faint green energy inside him before finally reacting.

Rows of golden characters appeared out of thin air on the scroll, and Jiang Fan’s joy knew no bounds.

He finally understood why Old Demon Xu had said he could only practice this spell after reaching the second layer of Qi Refining. At the first layer, his spiritual energy wasn’t sufficient to unlock the method recorded on the beast skin.

“‘Azure Wood Seal,’ one of the fundamental wood-element spells. Once mastered, it allows one to transform wood-element spiritual energy into a square azure wood seal, used to suppress enemies.

When the Azure Wood Seal appears, even a giant boulder shatters with a single strike. The larger the seal, the stronger its power; the more spiritual energy infused, the greater its potency.”

Jiang Fan quickly absorbed the information about the “Wood Spirit Technique” and eagerly continued reading. Before long, he had grasped the cultivation method.

“So this is a spell? It looks quite powerful!” Jiang Fan was excited and immediately began to practice.

He clumsily followed the hand seals recorded in the “Azure Wood Seal” cultivation method, starting to form the signs.

His first attempt failed unsurprisingly.

“This is really complicated, and tiring too. Luckily, I can transfer fatigue! Let’s keep going!” Jiang Fan ruthlessly transferred his exhaustion to Steward Ling without any mercy.

In the following time, he practiced the thirteen hand seals of the “Azure Wood Seal” technique tirelessly, trying repeatedly and failing again and again.

But he refused to give up. He had plenty of time and no need to worry about fatigue.

By dawn the next day, Jiang Fan had practiced the thirteen hand seals over ten thousand times.

He had progressed from clumsy and awkward to flowing and effortless, truly mastering the technique through sheer repetition.

At last, in this moment, he successfully formed the Azure Wood Seal for the first time.

“Done!”

A small azure-colored mini seal appeared in his palm. As he infused spiritual energy, the seal grew larger. Soon, his internal energy was nearly depleted, and the mini Azure Wood Seal had expanded to half a meter square, radiating immense power.

“So this is the Azure Wood Seal? Let me test its power!”

With eager anticipation, Jiang Fan commanded, “Go!”

The Azure Wood Seal instantly transformed into a streak of azure light, smashing violently into the stone table in his room. The sturdy stone table shattered with a loud bang, and the bluestone floor beneath it cracked into fragments...

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