The five dragons moved.
It wasn't the familiar circulation of Heavenly Qi that Lin Sheng had experienced during his cultivation of internal arts, nor was it some mysterious circulation of spiritual energy through his meridians, it was a circulation belonging entirely to his Qi-Blood.
The five enormous Qi-Blood dragons each occupied one of his five viscera, yet they didn't remain confined to their respective organs. Instead, they began moving in a peculiar circular pattern, the dragon within his heart slowly moving toward his spleen, the one within his spleen moving toward his lungs, the one within his lungs moving toward his kidneys, the one within his kidneys moving toward his liver, and the one within his liver completing the cycle by returning toward his heart.
It was as though his five viscera had become five points of a gigantic circulation.
Lin Sheng immediately became alert.
He could feel every movement.
Every rotation of the dragons caused his organs to tremble slightly, and with every cycle, the Qi-Blood became increasingly refined, the five enormous dragons no longer behaving as independent existences but gradually becoming part of a single greater circulation.
Then something else happened.
His pores opened.
Lin Sheng's expression changed.
Spiritual energy began entering through every pore across his body.
"Spiritual energy?"
He immediately focused his consciousness.
This wasn't supposed to happen during a normal Blood Exchange.
Blood Exchange was fundamentally a transformation of Qi-Blood through the replacement of old blood with newly produced blood, it shouldn't require the enormous consumption of spiritual energy that his previous marrow transformation had demanded.
So what was happening?
Was this still Blood Exchange?
Or had the transformation of his Qi-Blood reached a stage where it was beginning to interact with spiritual energy on its own?
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
"Thankfully, the Chip is recording everything."
He didn't interrupt the process.
There was no reason to.
Whatever was happening, he needed to understand it completely.
For the next twenty-four hours, the strange circulation continued.
The five dragons traveled endlessly through his viscera, their bodies repeatedly crossing from one organ to another while spiritual energy continuously entered his body through his pores.
His organs were changing.
The heart became stronger.
The liver became stronger.
The lungs became stronger.
The kidneys became stronger.
The spleen became stronger.
The improvement wasn't simply an increase in physical durability.
Their functions were improving.
His heart pumped Qi-Blood with greater efficiency, his lungs absorbed and circulated energy more effectively, his liver processed and generated resources at a frightening rate, his kidneys became increasingly capable of regulating the body's internal energy, and his spleen seemed to become an increasingly powerful source of nourishment for his entire physique.
The Chip notifications continued ringing inside his mind.
[Organ efficiency increasing.]
[Cardiopulmonary function improving.]
[Qi-Blood circulation efficiency increasing.]
[Cellular vitality increasing.]
[Internal organ refinement detected.]
[Origin Jing strengthening.]
Lin Sheng didn't respond to any of them.
He simply watched.
Every breath he took seemed to accelerate the transformation.
When he inhaled, spiritual energy entered through his pores and was pulled toward the circulation.
When he exhaled, the five dragons completed another cycle.
The process became increasingly smooth.
Then, gradually, the circular motion began shrinking.
At first, the five dragons had traveled through his entire body.
Then their circulation contracted toward his torso.
Then toward his chest.
Then finally...
They all returned to his heart.
The five dragons no longer moved between his organs.
Instead, they began circling one another.
Lin Sheng's heart suddenly became hot.
His expression remained calm, but his consciousness immediately focused upon it.
This wasn't ordinary heat.
It was heat produced by condensed Qi-Blood.
The five dragons began moving faster.
Their enormous bodies coiled around one another, and as they continued circling, the terrifying density of their Qi-Blood began increasing.
The heat became more concentrated.
The pressure increased.
Lin Sheng could feel something changing.
Five dragons...
Were becoming something else.
He watched as the five enormous Qi-Blood dragons gradually became indistinct, their bodies beginning to overlap as their Qi-Blood merged together.
Then, in the center of his heart, something new appeared.
A furnace.
Lin Sheng's pupils contracted.
"This..."
The five dragons had disappeared.
In their place was a gigantic furnace formed entirely from condensed Qi-Blood.
It wasn't an illusion.
It wasn't simply an image created by his consciousness.
It was actually there.
A Qi-Blood furnace had formed inside his heart.
Lin Sheng immediately understood.
"This should be the next qualitative transformation."
Qi-Blood like Furnace.
The name seemed almost self-evident.
But before he could examine it further, another transformation began.
Spiritual energy surged toward his body.
This time, it didn't merely enter through his pores.
It seemed to be drawn directly toward the furnace.
His skin began changing.
Lin Sheng felt the tight membrane beneath his skin loosen.
His Iron Skin had already changed dramatically after achieving Jade Marrow.
Every Blood Exchange had strengthened it, and the foundation of his Vajra Body had long since surpassed what most practitioners could achieve.
But this transformation was different.
Far different.
The entire structure of his Vajra Body began trembling.
His skin.
His muscles.
His tendons.
His bones.
The Qi-Blood runes that had formed from the fusion of his four perfected states suddenly began shattering.
Lin Sheng's body shook.
Pain exploded through every inch of him.
The runes shattered.
Then reconstructed.
Shattered again.
Reconstructed again.
It was as though the foundation of his entire physique was being dismantled and rebuilt at an even deeper level.
Lin Sheng clenched his teeth.
He didn't make a sound.
The pain wasn't merely physical.
It penetrated into the deepest layers of his existence.
Every rune represented the culmination of his Iron Skin, Bronze Muscles, Ox Tendons and Silver Steel Bones, and now those runes were being broken apart despite having already fused into the Vajra Body.
Yet they weren't disappearing.
They were changing.
The runes that had previously existed within his body began gradually becoming visible upon his outer body.
They appeared across his skin.
Then across his muscles.
Then his tendons.
Then his bones.
Countless intricate patterns emerged beneath the surface of his body, overlapping one another until his entire physique seemed to have become a living formation.
They glowed faintly.
Then brighter.
The moment they activated, spiritual energy from the surroundings was violently drawn toward Lin Sheng.
His courtyard trembled.
The gathering formations surrounding him began operating at full capacity.
Yet Lin Sheng didn't feel bloated.
That was the strange part.
Such an enormous quantity of spiritual energy should have filled his body to the point of bursting.
Instead...
It was disappearing.
No.
Not disappearing.
Being consumed by the furnace.
Lin Sheng's consciousness immediately descended toward his heart.
A strange vortex had appeared around the furnace.
A Qi cyclone.
If it could even be called that.
The vortex wasn't simply drawing spiritual energy toward itself.
It was actively pulling the energy into the furnace.
The furnace itself had become increasingly lifelike.
This wasn't like the Qi-Blood dragons gaining a certain degree of sentience.
This was fundamentally different.
The furnace wasn't merely alive.
It was functioning.
It was smelting.
Lin Sheng watched as endless spiritual energy poured into it.
"This is..."
He couldn't finish his thought.
The transformation continued.
One day.
Two days.
Three days.
The surrounding spiritual energy became increasingly thin.
Even the countless Qi-gathering formations engraved throughout his courtyard were struggling to maintain the supply.
The spiritual energy accumulated over years was rapidly being consumed.
By the fifth day, the spiritual energy density around Lin Sheng's courtyard had dropped dramatically.
By the seventh day...
The transformation finally stopped.
Silence returned.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
He remained seated for several breaths before finally standing.
His muscles shifted as he stretched his arms.
His bones cracked softly.
His body felt incredibly light.
"Staying in a meditative posture really isn't for the lazy."
He moved his shoulders and stretched his waist.
Then something fell from his body.
Lin Sheng looked down.
His dead skin was peeling away.
Not simply flakes.
Entire layers of dead cells were tearing away from his body, falling to the ground like a snake shedding its skin.
He raised his hand.
His skin looked different.
No.
Calling it skin almost seemed inaccurate.
His entire body was covered in intricate patterns.
The runes weren't merely carved into his flesh.
They seemed to have become part of his cells.
Every portion of his physique, from his skin to his muscles, from his tendons to his bones, seemed to contain countless tiny runes.
Lin Sheng stared silently.
His Vajra Body had undergone another transformation.
And this transformation was clearly deeper than anything he had experienced before.
He closed his eyes and looked inward.
His consciousness descended into his heart.
The furnace was still there.
But now...
It was filled with liquid.
Lin Sheng stared.
The entire interior of the furnace seemed to contain an enormous quantity of liquid energy.
He immediately recognized it.
"Liquefied spiritual energy."
His expression became strange.
Not ordinary liquefied spiritual energy either.
It was extremely pure.
The furnace had directly transformed gaseous spiritual energy into liquid spiritual energy.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
"Is this an innate function of the furnace?"
He immediately separated a small amount using his mental strength.
The liquid spiritual energy floated out of the furnace and entered his body.
Lin Sheng swallowed it.
The effect was immediate.
His body suddenly felt bloated.
An enormous quantity of spiritual energy exploded within him.
He immediately returned to his cultivation posture and began guiding the energy toward his acupoints.
One after another, his acupoints opened.
The first.
The second.
The tenth.
The twentieth.
The hundredth.
His entire body seemed to become a gigantic network as the spiritual energy poured into his acupoints.
His total number of opened acupoints had already reached one hundred.
Now, every single one began absorbing the liquefied spiritual energy.
They filled rapidly.
One acupoint.
Then another.
Then another.
The process continued until every acupoint was filled to the brim.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
His expression was one of genuine amazement.
"What a terrifying ability."
He had finally understood what the Qi-Blood Furnace represented.
External cultivation had always possessed a fundamental weakness.
Qi-Blood required enormous resources.
Great medicines.
Beast materials.
Spiritual medicines.
Powerful physiques could consume an astronomical quantity of resources simply to continue growing.
But spiritual energy was different.
Spiritual energy was everywhere.
The problem had always been how to transform that spiritual energy into something an external cultivator could directly utilize without relying upon an external cultivation system.
Now...
His Qi-Blood Furnace had solved that problem.
It could directly draw spiritual energy from the surroundings and smelt it into extremely pure liquefied spiritual energy.
And that liquid could be directly absorbed by his body.
Lin Sheng looked inward once more.
The furnace quietly burned within his heart.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Perhaps this is the real meaning of Qi-Blood like Furnace."
It wasn't simply that his Qi-Blood had become stronger.
His body had gained a furnace capable of continuously refining the energy of Heaven and Earth.
And as long as there was sufficient spiritual energy...
His external cultivation would no longer be limited purely by the number of beast materials he possessed.