Li Yuan was poring over the Blood Blade Sect’s manuals. This was the complete, authentic version.
Typically, disciples would either rely on oral transmission or partial copies; the full text was one of the sect’s most guarded treasures. But since Li Yuan requested it, Tie Sha willingly handed it over.
Li Yuan needed it to help pave the path forward for his own unnamed technique. That technique was currently at peak ninth rank, and reaching the eighth rank had required him to cross the river by feeling for stones. Now he needed more stones, meaning the insights from other cultivations.
At the moment, he was carefully comparing it with the Spirit-Release Technique.
The Spirit-Release Technique’s incantation read—
"A toad ascends to the heavenly gate, gathering breath as heavy as mountains. A great river flows through the four lands, exhaling the spirit as the moon bends into a bow."
But the Earthfire Roaming Technique of the Blood Blade Sect had a totally different verse—
"In a fit of rage, blood surges upward; hold the intention of the Red Serpent, let it roam freely. Flaring fury simmers in the heart of the mountain; earthfire tempers the body, roaming everywhere."
Quietly reciting the explanations and illustrations, Li Yuan closed his eyes to experience them, then murmured,
“A toad ascends to the heavenly gate, gathering breath as heavy as mountains... That means using a peculiar crouching stance to compress the abdomen’s space, using my breath to drive the blood, forcing it to compress.
“In a fit of rage, blood surges upward; hold the intention of the Red Serpent, let it roam freely... This means using fury and murderous intent to stir your emotions. When people get excited or angry, their heart rate rises, and the blood increases. Then...”
Li Yuan suddenly found this amusing.
“Could the Earthfire Roaming Technique be a method to raise one’s blood pressure? Isn’t that basically high blood pressure? Well, I suppose I’m in a different world. On Earth, that would be a disease. Here, it’s a cultivation technique.”
Then Li Yuan remembered how, before learning any ranked technique, he’d honed himself with a bunch of unranked martial arts to make his body stronger.
“So a strong body can handle high blood pressure. On Earth, people’s bodies aren’t tough enough for that.”
He recalled a line from that expert’s diary.
"I’ve discovered a clue! The key is to compress the blood, refine it, use one’s own cultivation to catalyze it, and apply external stimuli to spark a transformation..."
“So, essentially, the core of these cultivation techniques is to increase blood pressure while enabling the body to withstand it,” Li Yuan mused to himself.
“A great river flows through the four lands, exhaling the spirit as the moon bends into a bow... That’s a breathing technique to further compress the blood. To exhale the spirit, you have to gather breath first. Sucking in a huge volume of air compresses the blood, which turns the face red.
“Flaring fury simmers in the heart of the mountain; earthfire tempers the body, traveling everywhere... That’s storing up rage, repeatedly suppressing it, then unleashing it in a flash. Combined with high-grade demonic beast meat and this cultivation method, the blood’s flow is refined, compressing the shadow blood and circulating it to every corner of the body.
“It’s all the same principle. Compress the blood. Let’s give it a shot.”
Li Yuan had Auntie Wang cook up a pot of eighth rank demonic beast meat. While it was boiling, he strapped on weighted armor and ankle weights, then began a mad sprint around his private training grounds in the inner courtyard.
After a while, still unsatisfied, he slung on a pack holding 50 kg of iron and kept running, each step as powerful as he could manage. He moved through the arena like a whirlwind, his breathing loud and forceful.
After an hour, he felt fatigued and came to an abrupt halt. Taking a short break, he began to devour the pot of demonic beast meat. He wolfed it down, broth and all, finishing quickly. Then he closed his eyes, following the Earthfire Roaming Technique’s instructions for generating fury.
Conjuring fury wasn’t difficult. He just imagined his loved ones being murdered, and anger welled up fast. After burning with rage for a stick of incense’s time, Li Yuan stood up again, used his shadow blood to accelerate his circulation, and curled himself into the crouching stance of the Spirit-Release Technique to compress his breathing space. Next, he used its breathing method to gulp down air...
“Compress the blood, guide the blood, then absorb high-grade demonic beast meat and blood. That’s the key to reaching the eighth rank.”