Reaper of the Martial World

Book 6: Chapter 401: Vats (1)

Later that day, Dyon stood with a room that exuded an ancient feeling almost too difficult to describe.

After his Master finally worked up the courage to see her mother again, there was an eruption of emotion that Dyon felt he needed to take a step back from. He didn’t dwell on the feeling for too long, but at the very least, he was happy that his Master could see her mother once more.

“To think the Celestial Beasts have fallen so far.” Little Yin’s immature voice echoed through the colossal room, a slight childish sadness within them.

It had to be said that Little Yin and Little Yang weren’t of this era. As Celestial Hamsters, even though they didn’t tell Dyon, they knew very well when they were first laid: The Celestial Era.

It was for reasons pertaining to the traditions of the Celestial Hamster, the two were unable to hatch until just recently.

Simply put, the celestial blood within the twins, if compared to the current celestial beasts, was like comparing a raging sun to a small pit of fire.

When the twins had heard of the ancient blood reserves, they had thought that maybe this place would at least have blood comparable to their own. Or, if not that, maybe at least close. After all, it was asking too much to match a royal lineage like theirs.

However, the reality was truly too pitiful. This blood reserve that the celestial beasts put so much hope in, even willing to put their lives on the line to protect, wouldn’t even be good enough to come from servants of the Celestial Era… It wasn’t even good enough to come from slaves of those servants either…

In the eyes of the twins, even common grade beasts from the Celestial Era had greater bloodlines than this.

The room itself was in another space entirely, similar to the Elvin Tombs. It was commonplace for longstanding civilizations to have separate worlds house their most prized possessions. For example, the Daiyu were able to call out their ancestor to fight Dyon because of this as well.

However, unlike the Elvin Tombs, it wasn’t protected by an ancient game. That said, it hardly made the room any less imposing.

A massive dome of grey hung overhead as a singular narrow path stretched forward before sparsely splintering outward from time to time.

Below this pathway was what Dyon could only describe as a sea of black liquid.

The liquid was completely still, but emitted an odd scent Dyon couldn’t put his finger on… It smelt nothing like the blood he knew it was, but rather like refreshing spring waters, which was odd considering its less than appetizing color.

The room was far too large for Dyon to get an accurate gauge of it sides. But, with his divine sense, he could faintly see the outline of various beasts on its side.

It wasn’t that the room matched Dyon’s divine sense in size, but rather that the aura given off by the blood distorted Dyon vision.

However, that didn’t take away from the fact that the room still stretched hundreds of kilometers in every direction…

“If they have this much blood… Just what is the issue?…” Dyon frowned, not entirely understanding.

“This is regular blood, not blood essence. That’s the difference.” Little Yang explained. “The return you receive on blood essence is two-fold. Not only do you receive the previous owner’s talent, you also receive their cultivation.

“However, regular blood is different. Although you do receive both talent and cultivation as well, the expected return per given amount is far less.

“If a celestial gave you their blood essence, even if you were a mortal before hand, as long as you took it slowly and progressed, when you reached 100% integration, you’d too become a celestial.

“However, if that same celestial gave you normal blood, you’d be lucky to become a meridian formation expert. And, over time, your cultivation would fall as well.”

Dyon suddenly understood. The root of becoming a body cultivator wasn’t just about tempering your existing blood, it was about tempering your blood source.

One had to remember that the body experienced constant turnover. Skin, blood, bone, organ, cells of all kinds were constantly swapped.

So, what would happen if you simply replaced your own blood with someone else’s blood?

Eventually, your bone marrow would once more start making blood cells tailored to your original talent level, which would result in the power boost you received slowly fading away.

However, blood essence was different. It was capable of fundamentally changing the quality of not just your blood, but the quality of your blood source as well.

“The only way to make regular blood like this viable, without constantly having to repeat the procedure, would be to use specialized blood manipulation techniques.” Little Yin picked up where her brother left off.

“Still, as you might expect, the return on these techniques is also pitifully low. For example, if one wanted to upgrade their talent from the fourth grade to the third grade using this blood specifically, it would take the amount found in a relatively large lake… You’re talking quadrillions of liters…

“The amount they have here is relative to about ten or so oceans worth, which, yes, is much more than a lake… But, since it takes so much just to advance to the third grade, just how much do you think it would take to reach the second grade? What about the first?

“If they wanted to help a single beast reach the peak of what celestial beasts once were, even this entire vat wouldn’t be enough.”