Chapter Eighteen: The Fruit of Bloodline

After breaking through to the Sky-Linking Realm, Li Ruoyu made use of the Marrow-Altering Pool to strengthen his cultivation, remaining there until the pool no longer yielded any effect for him. Only then did he set out in search of the Bloodline Fruit. The Bloodline Fruit was a truly rare and peculiar treasure, capable of helping those with extraordinary bloodlines refine and awaken their heritage, thereby unlocking latent powers within them. The location of the Bloodline Fruit lay at a considerable distance from the Marrow-Altering Pool.

Following the directions inscribed on his jade slip, Li Ruoyu spent half a day traversing the landscape before he found the place where the Bloodline Fruit grew. It was nestled within a secluded valley, at the heart of which stood the Bloodline Fruit Tree.

The Bloodline Fruit Tree stood five feet tall and bore only one fruit at a time, making it incomparably precious. Outside the Demonfall Valley, this tree had all but vanished, with the few remaining specimens found only in forbidden or perilous lands, inspiring awe and dread in all who heard of them.

The Bloodline Fruit shone with a golden hue, about the size of a clenched fist. It required countless years to ripen, and only when fully mature could it serve its purpose of refining and awakening a cultivator’s bloodline. The lower one's cultivation, the greater the benefit upon consumption. The origins of the Bloodline Fruit Tree were mysterious, as were its requirements for growth; it could not be transplanted, which added to its rarity and value. As Li Ruoyu gazed upon the golden fruit, he could clearly see the marks of its ripeness.

Once plucked, the Bloodline Fruit needed to be consumed immediately, lest its medicinal potency be lost. Thus, Li Ruoyu picked the fruit and quickly sought out a hidden spot to ingest it. Upon swallowing the fruit, he felt his blood begin to boil, his marrow surge within his bones. An indescribable pain coursed through his body as the fruit began to awaken and purify his bloodline—a pain as sharp as if blades were rending his flesh. His face turned pale, his teeth clenched tightly on his lip, sweat beading on his brow.

Li Ruoyu endured the agony in silence, suppressing any outcry that might draw unwanted attention. In Demonfall Valley, caution could never be excessive. He remembered all too well the time, just after leaving the Bone Wastes, when he had been hunted by a Crimson Sand Scorpion; his vigilance had lapsed for only a moment, nearly costing him his life.

As the only child of his family, Li Ruoyu would never allow himself to become the cause of his parents’ grief, to have white-haired parents mourn a black-haired son. How deep would their sorrow be, should the unthinkable occur? That, Li Ruoyu could not fathom. He was fond of reading, and even during his days in the Everlasting Nine Sect, he set aside time each day for books.

The saying, “Within books, one can find beauty like jade,” was not empty talk. Books contained the wisdom and insights of those who came before, sparing later generations from taking the same wrong turns. Often, while reading biographies, Li Ruoyu noted the many cultivators who, deceived and ensnared, met untimely ends.

“To enter the cultivation world is to step into an unfathomable abyss.”

Such words had been spoken since ancient times. This world brimmed with intrigue, traps, and hidden rivalries. A single misstep could cost one’s life.

Though the pain reached to his very marrow, Li Ruoyu bore it stoically. His lips bled where his teeth had bitten down, leaving a row of deep impressions, and drops of crimson blood, like intoxicating rubies, trickled down. As his bloodline awakened and was refined, his blood, once bright red, slowly darkened with streaks of black, eventually settling into a deep, red-black hue.

Three hours later, the sky outside was tinged with the last glow of sunset. Li Ruoyu lay exhausted in his secluded retreat, his entire body drenched in sweat, utterly spent. He had finally endured the effects of the Bloodline Fruit.

With a long exhalation, he sensed a profound transformation within himself. His blood had become entirely dark red, imbued with a mysterious power. Yet his left hand—save for the little finger—along with the entire palm, was now devoid of sensation.

“Could the refinement of my bloodline have affected my physique as well?” he mused.

He understood that the might of the Desolate Remnants Physique had been further elevated, but at the cost of rendering his left hand temporarily useless.

“If I am only at the Dust-Refining Realm and my left hand is already numb, then one day, should I reach the Physique Realm or surpass it, will I lose all sensation throughout my body?” Li Ruoyu wondered in silence.

Yet not all was ill. He realized that the loss of feeling in his left hand meant that, when unleashed, its power would be all the more terrifying.

He placed another potent elixir in his mouth to restore his strength and further stabilized his Sky-Linking cultivation.

Only a few months had passed since he entered Demonfall Valley, yet he had already obtained the Marrow-Altering Pool and the Bloodline Fruit—fortunes that deepened his foundation and advanced his bloodline’s evolution and awakening. No wonder, despite the valley’s lethal dangers, so many vied to enter.

With such opportunities, it was clear why those who survived Demonfall Valley emerged leagues ahead of their peers, as if separated by an impassable gulf.

Once recovered, Li Ruoyu took out the breastbone he had found in the Marrow-Altering Pool. Using a tool, he broke the bone and, as he suspected, found something hidden within. He retrieved it—a jade slip, unlike any ordinary one.

This jade slip was a deep purple, exuding an aura of great value. Li Ruoyu used the method described in “Common Knowledge of Cultivation” to inspect it, but the slip remained unresponsive.

“Could it be…?”

Li Ruoyu recalled something he had read in an ancient tome in the library of the Everlasting Nine Sect. It was a piece of information about jade slips: ordinary slips could be read by anyone who had entered the cultivation world, simply by pressing them to the brow and sensing with a sliver of one’s soul. But there was a rarer kind, infinitely more precious.

A “Legacy Jade Slip.”

Each Legacy Jade Slip could be used only once, requiring a drop of blood before one could access its contents with the soul’s sense.

Remembering this, Li Ruoyu hurriedly pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the slip. He then reached out with his soul to sense its message.

Within the jade slip was recorded a technique for the Physique Realm.

The Dust-Refining Realm required no such methods, for it merely involved the initial unlocking of one’s extraordinary potential through proper means. The technique recorded here, however, was one that defied all conventional logic. It read, “Why does life have an end, why do immortals wither away? Upon contemplating this, I created the Heaven-Severing Burial Method.” The Heaven-Severing Burial Method was a cultivation art that could only be practiced upon reaching the Divine Manifestation Realm. Unlike current methods, which, upon breaking through to the Sky-Linking Realm, focused on perceiving and manipulating the mysteries of heaven and earth, this method called for a complete severing from the world, relying on nothing but oneself, cultivating to a state known as Heaven-Severing Burial. The slip described it as the Heaven-Severing Burial Physique—not a mere physical constitution, but a unique attribute.