Chapter 363: Summer (1/2)

The moment the blood merged, Hei Gou felt an indescribable power erupt in his body.

This power brought with it pain, unlike any he had ever experienced before.

It was clear that the second mutation was possible; his body was shedding the skin, replacing the bones, and regrowing the meridians.

He had been initially a Celestial dog, but after the first mutation, he had gotten wings like a crow.

Now he was once more mutating, but as to what results this mutation would bring to him, he had no idea.

At the current point in time, it was also impossible for him to actually think about the final result, all he could feel was immense pain, and he was gritting his teeth hard, fearing that if he started crying out, he would bite his tongue to end his suffering.

Seeing the handsome face contort in pain, the friends were all worried about him. They knew that it would be painful, but for it to be this bad was something they had never expected.

Xue Wei began blaming himself. Although he wanted Hei Gou to be stronger, he was not willing to see his friend pass through such pain for it.

The others were also worried about him. Even Bai Tianyi, who usually mocked him, had a frown on his brows as he looked at the silent Hei Gou.

”He will pull through it, and then he will be like a new beast,” Bai Tianyi muttered, both to himself and the others.

They all stood guard around Hei Gou, waiting for him to be okay. At some point in time, his body began making weird creaking sounds, and at this moment, he collapsed, unable to keep his consciousness any longer.

Seeing him lose consciousness, all of them heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Now he no longer needed to feel the immense pain.

While he laid on the ground, the creaking sounds did not diminish, and no one dared to move even a finger of his, black goo began oozing out his pores, and all impurities within were being excreted.

They had no idea how long it would take for Hei Gou to shed his old body and gain a new one.

After what seemed like an eternity, Hei Gou suddenly jolted, but he did not awaken.

What did change, however, was that all the heaven and earth essence in the surrounding air suddenly poured towards him.

At first, it was the air just around them, but as the suction force within his body became bigger and bigger, more and more essence was needed to sustain him, and a small whirlwind appeared on top of his body, sucking in essence from as much as twenty li away.

The heaven and earth essence within the Ascended's Realm was immensely heavy. It was not as deserted as it was in the outside world, hence when he absorbed this much energy, they started fearing that his body would be unable to refine it all in time and he might even explode.

But no matter how worried they were, they dared not touch him as that was likely to make it even worse.

Xue Wei was regretting his choice immensely by now, but he looked steadily at Hei Gou, hoping that his friend would be able to pull through.

After what felt like an eternity, the whirlwind slowly started to decrease in size. They could once more see Hei Gou's body, and when they saw him, they felt worried. He was lying completely still, not moving a muscle, as to whether he had died, or he was unconscious still, they had no answer.

From when they had merged their blood until now, a full two days had passed, and after another two hours, Hei Gou finally started stirring.

From his fingers twitching until his eyes opened, everyone was worried, yet when he slowly sat up, they were all feeling relieved.

Hei Gou looked at himself, and then he frowned. ”How dirty,” he muttered while looking at the black goo that had oozed out of his pores.

It was not before now that the others realized how dirty he indeed had become, and they could not help but chuckle slightly.

”There is a river here,” Xue Wei said with a grin, ”go wash yourself.”

Hei Gou could not stand the disgusting feeling of having these sticky black impurities all over his body, and thus, he quickly went to the riverside.

The sound of splashing water could be heard in the distance, and after half an hour, a clean Hei Gou emerged.

Although he had just experienced an immense pain of remolding his entire body, he was not looking haggard. Instead, he seemed immensely happy and excited.

”I say, this was worth it all!” he exclaimed when he returned to the others, and without waiting for even a moment, he unleashed his aura, which proved that his Qi had risen to the rank of a first layered Earth Saint.

”This is not all!” he continued, and suddenly his body expanded. He turned into a massive black dog, at least five meters tall, with big crow-like wings, and black flames shrouded his legs.

These black flames had not been there before, but now they were present, and they gave off an intimidating aura, it was clear that they were not ordinary flames in black, they were much more domineering.

Xue Wei was shocked when he saw this, but then a smile appeared on his lips, and he felt grateful. If there had been no result after all that pain, then he would genuinely have kicked himself, but it seemed that the result was much more amazing than he had thought.

”My midnight flame is immensely powerful!” Hei Gou said proudly, ”I even have the chance of wounding a nine-layered Earth Knight if I use all the midnight flame I have at my disposal!

”Unfortunately, it takes quite a long time for the flame to reappear. Not to mention this, I also found that I have a variant elemental affinity.” he continued.