Essence; Physique; Bloodline

"While I did urge you to lay with some women, I didn't mean someone so much older." Lin Xinyue spoke with a light frown.

Lin Fei sighed and leaned back into the wall. "I know. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Besides, I don't think Elder Song is going to be a problem."

"While that might be true, it's still best to be careful. You're not strong enough yet."

Being reminded of that made Lin Fei aware of his own shortcomings. No matter how one might color the world, there is still one ugly, unchangeable fact of the world: Cultivation was difficult. And that single sentence changed so much.

People, cultivators specifically, were stubborn creatures who never backed off from their goals. They would keep banging their heads against the wall, hoping it would break or it would break them. There was no third path.

That also made them desperate. If an opportunity presented itself, how many would fight to the death for a single chance? Most.

He had seen many a time when he had traveled with his mother and they had come across any interesting event. His mother would simply waltz in, snatch the treasure, and kill anyone who resisted. That was the truth of the world they lived in. Simple, yet brutal.

And wasn't that the case for how they landed in their current circumstances? They found a treasure; some people demanded it be shared, and on denial had to face a life-threatening situation.

To prevent others from trampling all over him, Lin Fei knew his only option was to get strong.

"I haven't consolidated all the benefits I received yet."

After successfully cultivating his physique with the help of his mother, Lin Fei hadn't had a chance to fully appreciate the change. Except the physical one, that is.

And there was his even more mysterious bloodline. He still needed to see what made it so expensive compared to others. And at last, he also needed to address the new tab on Authorities in his status window. Lin Fei decided to start with that.

Essence understanding was the very first stage to comprehending the truths of the world. The laws that propped the foundation and the aspects that governed this reality.

Although previous Lin Fei didn't have much knowledge about the Void Sword Sect, even he had heard about how some of the talented disciples gained entry just by virtue of possessing a powerful physique, bloodline, or even just comprehending an element.

Compared to them Lin Fei had all three, but he wasn't just ready to dazzle the world with his brilliance. Until he made himself threatening enough or important enough, then ousting the facts would only land him in trouble. In layman's terms: he needed a strong backing.

Focus! He shouted in his head. Almost got sidetracked there.

The point was comprehending an element was a big deal.

Lin Fei's Essence Understanding rank in the Earth element meant he could sense his environment somewhat. It was not proper seismic sense or even innate reinforcement, but more a watered-down version of it.

Of course, that was due to his progress only going as far as 13%, which was admittedly not very far at all. On the other hand, he could barely sense the darkness surrounding him. It wasn't even a haze or anything, more like an illusory sensation that, on focus, would disappear entirely.

Since Darkness was somehow related to his bloodline, he deduced that advancement or usage in that aspect would affect the element. Of course he would still need to experiment to prove his conjecture.

Then there was his physique. Nine Elements Divine Physique was not some top-notch, heaven-defying talent. In fact, it was a fairly generic one in the grand cosmos. But there was one factor that made it both popular and dreaded.

It could be upgraded.

If words of that sage were to be believed, then he had no need to worry about cultivating a physique anymore. But Lin Xinyue had decided to err on the side of caution.

Upgrading this particular Physique was notoriously difficult, but it was at least possible.

On the surface the Physique wouldn't seem to provide any benefits, but underneath it would be working hard to help him comprehend related elements.

Since Darkness also fell under one of the nine elements, even if his bloodline lacked the ability to advance in that category, he could just make use of his physique.

There were other benefits to the physique, but they required a higher cultivation base.

At last, there was his bloodline. An enigma that was the decision of a whim of his.

Being at the very bottom rank, his bloodline was quite weak. He had an innate understanding of the abilities the Bloodline provided him. One of which was to detect weak energy sources.

Basically, it could help him detect cultivators if they weren't actively concealing themselves. And only weak cultivators. Of course, it would also work on inanimate objects, but again the weak limitation persisted.

It also seemed to have granted him some resistance to elemental energy, but the effect was negligible compared to what his physique provided.

The last thing, however, was what made it worthy of being called 'Abyssal Devourer.'.

The Bloodline allowed him to increase his absorption speed, basically devouring the ambient energies of the world. And these energies weren't just limited to Qi, but almost anything.

It would help him recover in a fast-paced manner. In a fight he could keep generating his reserves without having to concentrate.

Lin Fei took a deep breath and circulated the Earth Essence throughout his body using the Earthly Titan Body Art. Although he couldn't absorb any Qi yet properly, his cultivation art was hard at work supplementing the Essence in his body.

Activating his Bloodline ability, he watched in fascination as the rotation of each cycle grew by several fold. With rapid speed, his body started to absorb small particles of Earth Essence.

So, that's what made it so expensive, he thought. It was well worth it.