Ding Hao slowly stood up and stretched his body.

The night wind blew.

“Uh… your clothes were incinerated again?” Only then did Ding Hao realize that he was naked.

Fortunately, all was quiet in the Bone-burying Forest, and he was not afraid of being seen. But Ding Hao thought to himself that he must make time to refine a set of non-flammable clothes. He couldn’t run naked each time he used Heaven Fire Qi, could he?

By now, Ding Hao felt himself full of energy. His entire person had returned to its former peak state.

His blood, flesh and bones were crystal-clear like jade, his blood Qi vigorous, and his vitality surging voluminously like the foggy sea. He had largely recovered from the negative after-effects of activating his rusted sword to the full.

The abundant essence energy and vitality in the Bi Fang thigh replenished Ding Hao’s Qi, which was around 80 to 90% depleted.

“I thought I would take another month to recover. I didn’t expect my recovery to be so fast!” Ding Hao was delighted.

After all, there were dangers lurking everywhere in the Bone-burying Forest. It was a very dangerous mission searching for the Sacred Hall ruins. If he could not recover in time from his injuries, Ding Hao would encounter a lot of obstacles.

“Well, Little Chap Ding, now that you have eaten the Bi Fang’s lean meat, your body already has a foundation. You should immediately refine that Bi Fang’s blood essence elixir. If you keep such a precious item with you, the others will be tempted to seize it. Delaying may lead to a lot of trouble.” The voice of the Saber Master resounded in Ding Hao’s mind.

“That crazy woman is right. Hurry up and refine the blood essence. Then we can talk about the rusted sword,” said the Sword Master.

“The rusted sword?”

“Did these two old freaks discover something?”

Ding Hao thought for a while and agreed with them. There was still some time before dawn. It would be good to refine the Bi Fang’s blood essence, since the ensuing journey would be full of dangers. Improving his strength a little would mean a higher chance of survival.

However, he already had the blood essence of the White Yin Gibbon in his body. Would that affect his integration?

Ding Hao spoke out his doubts.

“It doesn’t matter, since you have two Dantians. The blood essence of the White Yin Gibbon is of Yin nature and already integrated with the Hell Ice Qi Seed of your abdomen. You should integrate the Bi Fang’s blood essence with the Heaven Fire Qi Seed of your chest. Then you will be able to execute the double Beast Transform. You’re the Saintly Being of Saber and Sword, so the two won’t clash.”

The Saber Master said with great certainty.

Ding Hao was relieved.

He took out that crimson pearl the size of a longan from his Storage Ring, and swallowed it.

Integrating the blood essence of a divine beast was an extremely painful process. If one could not suppress the savage innate spirit in the blood essence, one would end up a half-human, half-beast monster. That person would be controlled by the tyrannical willpower of the blood essence and lose himself, ending up in great danger.

Furthermore, this fusion would take an extremely long time. It was difficult to complete it in one night.

The moment the crimson bead entered his mouth, Ding Hao felt like he had swallowed a piece of burning charcoal. His mouth burned at once, the aroma of barbecued meat wafting in the air.

After that, the burning charcoal turned into a ball of hot current. Like surging lava, it began sliding down his throat and gullet madly.

Wherever it passed, the intense pain caused by its scorching temperature would make Ding Hao grit his teeth.

This kind of pain was hard to describe. It was as if his Soul and Divine Senses were burning, immersed in lava.

Even with his willpower and spiritual strength, Ding Hao could not take the pain, letting out a yelp of pain at this moment.

Yet as soon as he opened his mouth, he spat out a column of fire, causing the space dimension to distort in the burning heat.

“Use your magic skills and direct this hot current into your six extra-channels. Integrate it with that previously integrated Bi Fang Fire of yours. Hurry, or your entire body will be burned into ashes…” The voices of the Saber Master and the Sword Master rang out in his mind at the same time.

Ding Hao did not dare to delay. Enduring the sharp pain, he focused his spirit and Qi, expelling all distracting thoughts from his mind. After activating the Invincible Fighting Method, he directed the lava-like heat current toward the unsealed meridians of his six extra-channels.

It was a long process.

Fortunately, Ding Hao had practiced the wondrous Invincible Fighting Method, and was also the Saintly Being of Saber and Sword. He had also integrated two Jades in Stone, peerless treasures of nature, in his body. His muscular strength was amazing. If it had been anyone else, even an expert at the peak of the Martial Emperor Realm, that person would have been instantly burned to ashes by the Primordial True Fire contained in the blood essence.

Through Ding Hao’s efforts, the heat current at last slowly circulated through his six extra-channels.

Fortunately, after eating a piece of the Bi Fang’s meat, there was a trace of its aura in Ding Hao’s body. This aura and the power of its blood essence seemed attracted to each other. Gradually, the power of its blood essence came under Ding Hao’s control, gaining momentum as it converged in the Middle Dantian of his chest.

Ding Hao emptied his mind of all thoughts.

He did not know how long it took. At long last, all the power of the blood essence was integrated into the Middle Dantian of Ding Hao’s chest, slowly merging with the Heaven Fire Qi Seed.

At that moment when the last ounce of blood essence power was completely integrated into the Heaven Fire Qi Seed, Ding Hao’s whole body shook.

The scene in front of him suddenly changed—

Everything in front of him had turned into a boundless, horrific sea of fire. Flaming waves were surging, linking the sky and the earth. There were crimson leaping flames even within the clouds in the sky. There were simply too many fire elements. At a glance, it was like flowing liquid, able to roast everything.

Numerous Celestial Gods and Devils howled mournfully in the endless flames. In the end, they incinerated into ashes, scattering down like dense raindrops.

Suddenly—

“Screech!!!”

A colossal single-horned bird spread its enormously wide wings, soaring into the sky from the endless sea of fire. Its wings were stained with scorching liquid flames cascading down its body, stirring up huge scarlet waves on the surface of the sea.

It was a Bi Fang.

A colossal Bi Fang almost as large as the sky.

It seemed to be the overlord of the heaven and earth. The endless sea of fire surged, controlled by its will, generating huge waves thousands of meters high.

It opened its beak and inhaled. Countless Gods and Devils were swallowed into its stomach. Then it opened its beak again and puffed. Horrific flames emerged out of its beak, incinerating these countless Gods and Devils.

It flapped its wings and flew away. In the blink of an eye, it was already tens of millions of kilometers away.

The sea of fire followed behind it, spreading. Wherever the fire passed, there would be many thousand kilometers of scarlet flames.

In a boundless land far away, there were powerful Gods and Devils, innumerable warships, formidable ancient fortresses, powerful God and Devil formations, and soaring towers of power as dense as forests. That was the country of the Gods. But they were instantly incinerated as that colossal Bi Fang approached. Everything was overwhelmed and engulfed in that sea of fire.

This scene was simply too horrific.

The Bi Fang was like the master of the world. Wherever it passed, it would annihilate Gods and Devils.

After the initial shock, Ding Hao suddenly understood that he was witnessing the remnant blood memories in that drop of blood essence. It was vaguely replaying the appalling war scene from the Archean Period.

At that time, the rules of the heaven and earth were no different from those at the world’s creation. The Gods and Devils were still alive, dominating the universe. Every primordial inhabitant of the Untainted Land had the power to move mountains and rivers. They could tear apart the land, mountains and rivers any time. The Bi Fang was obviously an overlord of that era, comparable to the Gods and Devils, at the top of the food chain.

Compared to that horrific Bi Fang in the blood memories, the Bi Fang they had just killed in the Bone-burying Forest was obviously just a fledging. It was greatly inferior to its ancestor in strength.

Even if that Bi Fang had only 1% of its ancestor’s power, those six powerful figures of the Demon Clan, Ding Hao and Tianshu would all have been incinerated by its flames.

Suddenly, that Bi Fang soaring in the sky seemed to have detected Ding Hao’s presence. It swooped down, drawing closer to Ding Hao’s line of vision.

In a split second, it turned into a stream of flowing light, directly entering Ding Hao’s body.

The next moment, Ding Hao felt all the illusions in his mind disappear.

In its place was a fiercely savage spiritual force emanating uncontrollably in his mind, madly attacking his Divine Senses. It was very aggressive, almost crushing and refining his Divine Senses in an attempt to replace them.

This was the spiritual force in the Bi Fang’s bloodline memories. It was about to devour its host’s spirit and mind.

If Ding Hao could not resist this invasive spiritual force and was devoured by it, he would lose his mind, turning into a savage Bi Fang bent on killing.

Ding Hao was shocked and immediately activated his Mind Essential to fight back.

This was the most dangerous and critical stage of integrating a divine beast’s blood essence.

Once he completely suppressed its remnant willpower and refined it, it was as good as subduing that species’ bloodline willpower in its blood essence. He would then possess the innate powers of this divine creature.

In Ding Hao’s sea of consciousness, the two forces began to fight each other in a protracted battle.

He seemed to be treading on thin ice cautiously. He did not dare to be the least bit careless.

This process was many times more difficult than integrating and refining the White Yin Gibbon’s blood essence. It was also infinitely more dangerous.

After all, the Bi Fang ranked very high among the 36 Big Dipper Divine Beasts. Its blood lineage contained the willpower of an Archean species, many times stronger than the White Yin Gibbon’s. Ding Hao seemed caught in a battle of wills with a living Bi Fang.

In the beginning, he was suppressed by the aggressive willpower of the Bi Fang’s blood lineage. Then slowly, they were on par. In the end, he gained the upper hand. In Ding Hao’s mind, the whole process seemed to have taken many centuries.

Gradually, after an unknown period of time, that brutal and aggressive aura was finally refined. The last trace of it disappeared.

Ding Hao looked inside his body.

The formerly golden-colored Qi Seed had turned crimson by now. Its spherical shape had also changed, assuming the form of a two-winged Bi Fang, with a single horn and a long tail. It looked vivid and real, like a living creature.

Was this the result of integrating the Bi Fang’s blood essence?

Ding Hao had not expected such a change. He did not know how this Qi Seed, transformed into a Bi Fang, would help in his strength.

A thought flashed across his mind, and he started activating this odd-shaped Qi Seed.