A Bigger Treasure Trove than Li Yun

Li Yun slumped to the ground and rested as the intense hunger for blood subsided.

'What happened just now? Why the sudden thirst for blood? It's never been this intense before.'

With his thirst temporarily quenched, he tried to figure out what had caused the unexpected craving.

'Could this be related to my use of Raging Heaven?'

The first stage of the Heaven Raging Chaos Art was the only thing that came to mind, as the intense hunger had emerged right after he used it.

Normally, the thirst for blood would appear gradually, like thirst for water, increasing in intensity over time if not satisfied. It only came weekly, but now it had surged so suddenly and violently.

'But why? Why did this happen?'

Li Yun pondered deeply before a sudden realization hit him.

'Using Raging Heaven caused me some serious internal injuries. Could that be why I suddenly felt such a strong hunger for blood?'

Understanding dawned upon him as he grasped the situation.

'My body was injured, so it craved blood to heal. That's why the hunger was so intense.'

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that he was correct. He could even feel that all his internal injuries from using Raging Heaven had healed. There was no longer any pain.

Before this, he had never been injured so badly. In fact, he couldn't remember a time when he'd been injured at all. Since joining the sect, he had avoided fighting entirely. He spent his days cultivating in his hut and his nights secretly selling pills at the sect market.

Consequently, he rarely encountered situations that required him to fight. Even when he was caught in such situations, the Azure Sky Alliance handled everything for him. Although he had to pay them spirit stones weekly, the protection they provided was worth every stone.

'I'll need to keep a stock of beast blood with me at all times.'

Li Yun understood the gravity of his situation. If he was ever injured again like this without any beast blood on hand, he couldn't imagine what might happen.

'Also, this beast…'

He recalled the Chaos Devourer Art from the Primordial Essence Chaos Codex as he looked at the beast's corpse.

Currently, he only had the first stage of the Chaos Seed in his body—the black form. To evolve to the second stage, the red form, he would need to regularly feed it with beast essence.

'And this Chaos Devourer Art can help me do that.'

Thinking about the Chaos Seed, Li Yun speculated on the reason behind the backlash he had suffered after using the first stage—Raging Heaven—of the Heaven Raging Chaos Art.

He still trembled at the memory of that bone-chilling pain, of feeling his cells, tissues, and organs slowly breaking apart when he was in the Raging Heaven state. It was maddening.

The cause of that pain, he realized, was his weak body and low cultivation. His body was too fragile to handle the raw, berserk essence stored in the Chaos Seed, and his low cultivation only worsened the situation.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he focused on the matter at hand.

'Chaos Devourer Art… Let's test it.'

Li Yun touched the corpse of the Four-armed Berserk Ape and activated the Chaos Devourer Art.

As soon as the technique activated, he felt something entering his body from the corpse. To his shock, the ape's body began to wither before his eyes, becoming thinner with each passing moment.

In no time, under Li Yun's horrified gaze, the ape's corpse shriveled and mummified entirely.

Throughout the process, he felt the essence from the corpse flowing into his body, merging with the Chaos Seed floating quietly in his dantian.

However, there were no visible changes to the Chaos Seed, even after absorbing the entire essence of the Four-armed Berserk Ape.

'It seems I'll need to integrate more essence.'

He made a mental note to absorb the essence from every beast he encountered from now on.

After lightly cleaning himself, Li Yun scouted the surroundings for more beasts but found none.

'No beasts would dare roam near the Four-armed Berserk Ape's territory.'

He thought and ventured deeper into the forest. Having found two of the three items needed to ace the combat assessment, Li Yun felt confident in completing the task given by the system.

He only needed to find the last material, and he would be one step closer to achieving his goal.

However, the rarity of the Beastbane Root posed a challenge for him.

Passing through tree after tree, Li Yun kept searching for the elusive root but had no luck.

He did encounter many beasts along the way, but they were all too weak to challenge him. Most were at the 1st or 2nd level of the Qi Training Realm, and Li Yun easily dispatched them with a single swing of his sword.

Time passed as Li Yun ventured deeper into the forest, still searching for the Beastbane Root.

Five hours went by like this.

'Am I just unlucky?'

Li Yun thought with a frustrated expression as he failed to find even a trace of the root.

'Let's rest a bit.'

He leaned against a tree to catch his breath when he suddenly noticed a disciple appear in front of him.

The disciple eyed Li Yun greedily, but after a moment, he shook his head and continued forward without a second glance.

Li Yun shrugged it off.

Then, another disciple arrived—a female this time. She too looked at Li Yun with a greedy expression but strangely ignored him and went ahead.

'Is it a coincidence that they ignored such an easy target twice?'

Li Yun grew suspicious. He was one of the weakest disciples, yet he carried the second-highest number of points. Instead of trying to steal his points, they both ignored him—not once, but twice.

'Sus. Definitely sus.'

He concluded and decided to follow them, but more disciples suddenly passed by. Just like the previous two, they also ignored him.

Li Yun was flabbergasted. So many disciples had passed by, yet none had tried to attack him.

'Damn, is there a bigger treasure trove than me out there?'

He thought with an excited grin and hurried after them, greed lighting up his eyes.