325 A Ghastly Face (1/2)

But no matter how complete the [Blood Refining Art] is, if the essence of the technique is flawed, it would not be beneficial for Leon to practice it.

”Reap, wash, and assimilate… With the power of blood, one will never know weakness…”

Reading the first part of the manual, Leon began to frown. After he finished the rest of the first passage, his lips subconsciously twitched.

The wording of the first passage was too vague to understand the core values of the technique. What was the focus? What is the goal of practicing this technique? It did not explain anything in detail.

Leon did not know anything about the [Blood Refining Art], but he could immediately tell that the technique was problematic at a glance.

The introductory verses were one of the most important sections of a technique.

It must not only impart the core teachings of the technique but also give the practitioners a clear direction of practice.

If an introductory verse is vague, it becomes susceptible to misinterpretation. Misinterpretation then leads to variations. In the end, the chance of practicing the technique incorrectly was highly probable.

Nevertheless, Leon did not give up on the [Blood Refining Art] immediately and continued to study it. The manual was recorded with notes of the core disciple's experience and doubts during their practice.

He felt that the [Blood Refining Art] would be useful for him, but what he needed was not another Awakening cultivation technique either.

As such, he was not seeing how the [Blood Refining Art] could be useful to him. The contradiction baffled him.

Shortly after reading through all the cultivation manuals in their entirety, Leon gained a more in-depth understanding of the technique and drew some conjectures.

The original version of the [Blood Refining Art] should have been entirely different from the current version when it was first founded by the Bloodfiend Sect.

Leon would not find it surprising if the original technique were altered due to its incompleteness or incompatibility to Awakeners.

Whichever the case was, he believed that the original version [Blood Refining Art] focused on something else entirely.

Generally, when Leon hears the name [Blood Refining Art], he would not think of it as some Awakening cultivation technique. Instead, he would think it is a body forging method.

When he thought of this point, he figured out why the [Blood Refining Art] might be useful. He was in dire need of body forging methods, and the original version might have been one such method.

He might have completed his meridian tempering previously, but this was much more useful for energy cultivation than body cultivation.

After all, only energy cultivation place particular emphasis on channeling energy through the countless meridian pathways, while body cultivation focuses on the overall strengthening of the body.

Leon recalled the little bit of body cultivation knowledge from treating body cultivators in his past life and remembered that body cultivation had five primary areas of focus in body forging.

These five areas of focus are flesh, blood, bone, marrow, and viscera. If Leon were to divide these into stages and named them, they would be called Tempering Flesh, Refining Blood, Forging Bone, Cleansing Marrow, and Consolidating Viscera.

The order of these five stages did not matter in body cultivation. The only true measurement for the level of body cultivators is the weight of their punches.

Leon had the [Black Turtle Heavenly Guard] for flesh tempering, but he was still lacking body forging methods for the other four areas.

”If I can grasp the original version of the [Blood Refining Art], I will make better progress in the blood refining stage. The Bloodfiend Sect's headquarters might have a copy of the original version. I should pay a visit when I get back.” Leon mused.

If Leon learns that his mother had burned all the books, scriptures, and manuals on the Blood Mountain before leaving, he would be quite depressed.

”It'll be some time before I get back, though. How can I make use of this [Blood Refining Art] now?” Leon began to ponder with a frown.

”Reap, wash, and assimilate… With the power of blood, one will never know weakness.” Leon repeated the first verse again.

”This verse should at least be original… Hm?” Leon was in deep thoughts when he felt Lumi's presence appear next to him.

”What do you want—” Leon turned to ask when he suddenly froze at an unfamiliar and ghastly face smiling creepily at him.

”What the fuck!”

Leon was so spooked he almost fell off the tree branch. However, he recovered quickly and reacted immediately.

Swoosh!

Leon reflectively backhanded the ghastly face away with a flaming strike. The ghastly face was very weak. After one flaming palm, it sent blazing away until it vaporized into nothingness by the fire.

”Fucking hell! That scared me. Where did this thing pop out from?” Leon cussed.

The ghast face appeared spiritual and had no body.

”Lumi, stop cultivating! We have company!”