Leaving Steadfast

Gaofeng had considered being reborn now for a moment before he realized that the Nine Blood Rebirths technique outlined when it would be most optimal to use the technique. The ideal way of cultivating it was to be reborn for the first time after stepping into the qi-refining realm, and for future rebirths to happen after having cultivated to the initial stage of the realm three stages above the one in which one was previously reborn.

Thus, it would be ideal to be reborn in the Heaven-ascension realm after qi-refining, and then in the Transcendence realm, followed by the Great Deity realm, Great God realm and the Great Ancient God realm. Gaofeng had no clue about the cultivation beyond Ancient God, but he definitely didn't consider the Ancient God Realm to be the peak of all cultivation. Perhaps it was the mere beginning of one's true path… He couldn't be sure.

No matter what, he didn't think it was an appropriate time to be reborn even if he was at the qi-refining stage, as he had something he needed to accomplish in a short amount of time, namely he had to save Ming Xie's sister, to absorb the entirety of the Blood Ocean, and to take the Divine Enlightenment fruit for himself.

When thinking about the matters he had to accomplish, a greater sense of urgency overtook him, and he wanted to immediately leave for the Blood Ocean. There was never a better time than the present, so he spoke his mind to the Blood God, "I want to leave for the Blood Ocean." The Blood God then answered, "I will bring you there, one moment."

After the Blood God had spoken, a rumbling could be felt within the entirety of the Crimson Arena, and an invisible force acted upon everyone still within the boundary of the arena. Then this force teleported them outside of the arena, and the Crimson Arena itself shrunk down and changed its form to that of a red metallic bracer which formed around Gaofeng's right forearm.

When the bracer connected to his skin, the Blood God's voice could be heard in Gaofeng's mind, "Drop a single droplet of blood upon the bracer, and this item will henceforth belong to you. It would be a waste for the great Crimson Arena to stay hidden here among weaklings. Because of the unique properties, magic and inscriptions of the arena, it works similarly to a storage device, and although its greatest effects can only be seen when fighting directly within the arena, it will still empower its wielder in the bracer form."

After a brief pause, giving Gaofeng a moment to digest the prowess of the Crimson Arena, he used one of his nails to make a shallow cut in his hand, from which Gaofeng squeezed out a drop of blood. His blood wouldn't even have left his hand if he didn't squeeze it hard, and the drop which was squeezed out seemed to carry with it the weight and power of an elephant. This great might was due to his continuous refinement of his blood, making it carry far more power than that of any other cultivator in the same cultivation realm as himself.

The blood drop hit the bracer, and in that exact moment Gaofeng felt enormous power surge from the bracer and into his body, acting as an amplifier to his own blood energy and physical prowess. This amplification wasn't a simple one either. Gaofeng felt as if he had become ten times as strong as he had been before when activating the bracer. However, the bracer's power couldn't be maintained forever and was instead fueled by Gaofeng's own blood energy. This meant that it would be greatly useful for short bursts of great power, but not for extended fights.

Gaofeng quickly deactivated the bracer upon realizing this, and a feeling of some tiredness welled up in him due to the lost energy. This was only a small portion of his blood energy, however, and after resting for some minutes he would be in his peak state once again. This wasn't the time or place to rest. Instead, Gaofeng began walking in the direction of the Blood Ocean without further ado.

His decision to leave was made due to the urgency of his goals in addition to his belief that he would only slow down his progress if he got stuck on small benefits such as those fist sized green lights in the Observation Hall. Gaofeng would rather spend his time chasing after the majestic green suns.

Steadfast was pretty near the Blood Ocean, and so Gaofeng arrived at its shores soon thereafter. This Blood Ocean was truly magnificent. It stretched further than his eyes could reach, and a beautiful red hue reflected off the completely still surface.

Although he knew that Yin Specters would appear when he begun gathering the blood, there wasn't currently any in the vicinity, making the view of the ocean truly beautiful and peaceful. However, he couldn't spend his time merely admiring the ocean, instead he wanted to travel to its center and then begin absorbing it all.

While Gaofeng was getting ready to jump into the blood, the Blood God spoke, "It would be better to absorb this blood into the Crimson Arena and let the Crimson Arena extract its essence for you. This will also allow the Crimson Arena to benefit from the leftovers and it will speed up the process of absorption."

Seeing the reason in the Blood God's words, Gaofeng agreed. After agreeing, he jumped into the blood ocean and began swimming out towards the middle of the ocean. Naturally, since this ocean was so massive, the time it would take for Gaofeng to swim to its true core was very long. Luckily, Gaofeng's body was too powerful to be phased by this mere distance.

After about half a day, Gaofeng had arrived at the complete center of this ocean, and along the way the blood had increased in quality while the ocean had increased in depth. At first Gaofeng was able to observe the bottom of the ocean with his True Spiritual sense, but now he couldn't even fathom the true depth of the ocean beneath him.

When Gaofeng arrived at its center, however, he noticed something strange. Floating almost motionlessly in the center of the ocean was a white egg with softly glowing black patterns on it. These patterns were intricate to the point of even Gaofeng struggling with understanding their true meaning.

After attempting to comprehend these symbols for an extended period of time, Gaofeng suddenly felt enlightened. The symbols actually regarded the separation and combination of Yin and Yang, although not in the same way that Gaofeng was doing. They described a method of utilizing a fast clash of Yin and Yang to create an explosion of opposing forces. This was akin to purposefully destabilizing the Yin and Yang elements to get the complete opposite of Gaofeng's harmonious merging of the two elements.

Through seeing the detailed description of this way of utilizing Yin and Yang, however, Gaofeng felt that his own understand of Yin and Yang was increasing exponentially. Similarly, his understanding of his Primal qi increased along with this new epiphany, and the amount of his Primal qi began increasing, as the Yin and Yang qi within his dantian began merging at a rapid speed.

From 20%, his Primal qi soon reached 25%, and then 30%. It finally began slowing down when it reached 34% and completely halted at a total of 35%. Such an increase was massive. He also believed that his understanding of Yin and Yang separately might have already reached the Transcendence realm. This was a great stroke of good fortune, but… what was this egg? Perhaps he could eat it.