Chapter 33

At night.

In a hidden underground cave, a faint yellow light flickered.

Yuan Ming sat cross-legged in the cave, in front of him was a concave oval stone filled with the oil of a boa constrictor, which emitted a faintly sweet and greasy smell as the flame burned.

He held a green-covered book and was reading it intently.

"No wonder Zhao Tong wanted the face of the human-faced ghost spider. This Thousand Faces Mask is so useful, it can change a thousand faces, and only cultivators above the Core Formation stage can see through it," Yuan Ming said with a sigh.

Over this period, his understanding of cultivation had gradually become clearer. He knew that after the Qi Condensation stage, there was the Foundation Establishment stage, and after that, the Core Formation stage. Beyond that was the Deity Transformation stage, where one would be like a celestial being.

However, apart from the Qi Condensation stage, he only knew the names of the subsequent stages and was still unclear about their differences.

After a moment, he closed the *Compendium of Ferocious Beasts* and silently recalled the information about the ferocious beasts recorded inside, memorizing it in his mind.

"Stuck at the bottleneck of the second level of Qi Condensation for a long time, I wonder if this thing will be useful," Yuan Ming said to himself as he put away the book and held the palm-sized flesh ginseng.

According to the *Herbal Compendium*, flesh ginseng over ten years old can heal broken bones and remove necrotic flesh.

Over a hundred years old, it can revive the dead, strengthen qi and blood, and aid cultivation. When combined with herbs like poria, red-yellow essence, and five-leaf ginseng to refine the Lingzhi Pill, its effects can be doubled.

The one in his hand, judging by its size and shape, was already over a hundred years old. Unfortunately, Yuan Ming had no way to find someone to refine it into a pill for him. If he took it out, it might bring disaster to himself.

After all, a commoner without sin can still be accused of harboring a precious gem.

"I can only eat it raw; it's better than not eating it at all," Yuan Ming sighed.

After saying that, he sat cross-legged, adjusted his breathing, and began to silently practice the second level of the *Nine Elements Technique*, mobilizing the mana in his dantian to circulate throughout his body.

When his qi and blood were fully mobilized, Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes, picked up the flesh ginseng, and took a bite.

The fleshy texture he felt when touching it turned into a woody fiber sensation when he bit down, and a bitter taste spread in his mouth, making him widen his eyes.

"So bitter," Yuan Ming thought to himself, but he did not spit it out and instead forced himself to chew it despite the discomfort.

Before long, Yuan Ming had swallowed the entire piece of flesh ginseng.

Then, he continued to try to practice the third level of the *Nine Elements Technique*, carefully sensing the changes in his body.

However, to his disappointment, as soon as he started the third level of the *Nine Elements Technique*, the stagnant and oppressive feeling returned, and the mana flow was blocked as if it had hit a high wall, unable to advance.

"Doesn't work?" Yuan Ming sighed inwardly.

Indeed, even the most precious herbs need to be refined to unleash their effects.

Just then, Yuan Ming suddenly frowned and placed his hands on his abdomen.

Next, a warm current rose from his dantian, as if a warm stove had been placed in his abdomen.

Yuan Ming was surprised when he suddenly felt the temperature of the warm current in his abdomen rise sharply, from a warm sensation to a scorching heat.

He felt as if the warm stove in his abdomen had burst, and the flames were spilling out, burning his insides.

Yuan Ming became a bit panicked and quickly took off his clothes, exposing his chest and abdomen.

But this did not alleviate the heat, and his abdominal skin turned red and began to spread to his chest and abdomen.

Yuan Ming quickly took off all his clothes and sat naked on the ground, feeling slightly relieved.

However, this relief did not last long, and he was soon overwhelmed by the heat again. His skin turned red all over, looking like a cooked shrimp.

Yuan Ming even blew out the small oil lamp in front of him, but he still felt dry mouth and tongue, restless, and his heart was pounding like a drum in his chest.

At the same time, he felt the mana in his dantian becoming restless and uncontrollable, rushing into his meridians, causing needle-like pain throughout his body.

He had never experienced such a situation before, and Yuan Ming became a bit panicked.

However, he quickly calmed himself down and began to practice the *Nine Elements Technique*, trying to guide the mana back to his dantian.

Upon trying, he found that his mana was still under his control, but the circulation speed had increased, and the momentum was stronger.

At this moment, Yuan Ming had a sudden enlightenment.

He quickly recited the third-level mantra of the *Nine Elements Technique* in his mind and guided the mana to flow through his meridians, attempting to break through to the third level of Qi Condensation.

In a short while, Yuan Ming's eyes suddenly opened, shining brightly.

The bottleneck that he could not break through before was now easily passed.

In an instant, the mana in his dantian surged, and the circulation speed increased, reducing the time needed for one full cycle by half, greatly improving his cultivation efficiency.

Yuan Ming focused on practicing the technique, running through the full cycle repeatedly, sweating profusely, and a faint white mist rising from his head.

As he cultivated, the heat in his body gradually subsided, and the redness on his skin began to fade. The mana circulation in his body gradually stabilized, and the mana stored in his dantian increased significantly.

After several hours, Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes, a smile on his face.

Under the influence of the hundred-year-old flesh ginseng, he finally broke through and advanced to the third level of Qi Condensation.

After the joy, Yuan Ming did not stop cultivating but continued to sit cross-legged, stabilizing his realm.

...

Half a month later.

Beside a forest stream, a figure was rapidly darting through the trees, wearing a white ape hide and holding a bronze sword, which was none other than Yuan Ming.

At this moment, he was not using the Fur Technique but running at full speed in human form, and his speed was not slow at all.

Behind him, trees in the dense forest were constantly falling and colliding.

In the rolling dust, a gray-green boa constrictor, seven zhang long and as thick as a barrel, was quickly twisting its body, crashing through the forest, chasing after Yuan Ming.

Its eyes were amber yellow, and it had a blood-red mouth with sharp teeth, and a six-foot-long red tongue protruded from it.

Yuan Ming ran while looking back, seeing the boa constrictor getting closer and closer. Suddenly, he accelerated and leaped into the air, jumping about seven zhang away.

Seeing this, the boa constrictor's head lunged forward, and its body also leaped up, chasing after Yuan Ming.

In mid-air, Yuan Ming grabbed a vine hanging from an old tree and pulled it down hard, causing a vine trap on both sides to quickly contract.

The boa constrictor's body was caught in a rapidly shrinking rope loop, and before it could fully escape, it was tightly bound, with half of its body hanging in the air.

It struggled, pulling the vines and causing the thick branches above to shake violently, almost breaking.

At this moment, Yuan Ming, who had returned, leaped up high, gripping the bronze sword with both hands, and slashed down at the boa constrictor's head.

Just as the boa constrictor was about to be killed, its six-foot-long tongue suddenly coiled around Yuan Ming.

The old tree branch could not withstand the weight of the boa constrictor and collapsed.

The boa constrictor's tongue coiled around Yuan Ming, dragging him into its mouth.

Before Yuan Ming could react, his vision went dark, and his upper body was already swallowed by the boa constrictor, entering a moist and sticky cavity.

The boa constrictor's upper and lower jaws closed, exerting immense pressure to crush Yuan Ming's bones.

Yuan Ming immediately felt his chest and ribs under immense pressure, making it difficult to breathe. The stench from the boa constrictor's belly made him almost suffocate.

As the boa constrictor's mouth muscles contracted, pushing Yuan Ming further into its belly, a green light suddenly appeared in its lower abdomen. A green-glowing sword tip abruptly pierced through the boa constrictor's skin from the inside.

Then, as the boa constrictor's mouth muscles continued to contract, Yuan Ming's body slowly entered the snake's belly, and the bronze sword cut through the boa constrictor's belly, creating a large wound.

Yuan Ming, covered in mucus, crawled out of the wound in the boa constrictor's belly, holding the bronze sword in one hand and a dark green, melon-sized fleshy sac in the other.

This was the boa constrictor's gallbladder, the most valuable part of its body besides the blood, and something Zhao Tong had specifically asked Yuan Ming to bring back.

Yuan Ming had already killed three boa constrictors before, but each time, when he cut open their bellies, he found the gallbladder already broken, with the dark green bile corroding the abdominal cavity.

At first, he thought it was accidentally broken during the fight, but later he realized that the boa constrictor would break its own gallbladder when near death to prevent the hunter from taking it.

With no other choice, he chose to be swallowed by the boa constrictor and extract the gallbladder from the inside.

The boa constrictor, with its gallbladder removed, did not die immediately but continued to thrash and sweep its tail, trying to resist before dying, but it was futile.

After storing the blood in a blood sac, Yuan Ming took the sword to the riverbank to clean himself.

As he approached the water, he noticed something strange about his reflection. Just as he was about to examine it closely, he suddenly felt a chill.

His reflection in the water suddenly distorted, turning into a grotesque snake face.