I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 67: Chapter 65: Rapid Advancement

’This Blood God Skill can only be cultivated to the Inner Breath realm, but that’s enough. I’ve heard there are very few Innate Martial Artists in this world, so finding a Cultivation Technique that leads directly to that realm is unrealistic.’

After resting for a night, early the next morning, Jiang Zuo flipped open the Blood God Skill.

The number of Innate Martial Artists was so small, which showed that there was no stable path for advancement.

There might be Cultivation Techniques in this world that lead directly to the Innate Martial Artist realm, but the chance of one falling into his hands was minuscule.

’This Blood God Skill... it’s quite good. It seems to be a perfect fit for me?’

Jiang Zuo thought in surprise as he flipped through it again.

The core cultivation method of the Blood God Skill was to use one’s qi and blood for Body Tempering. Like other cultivation methods, its purpose was to temper and strengthen the body.

However, a normal person couldn’t get started with this Cultivation Technique on their own.

To begin this Cultivation Technique, a novice required a senior practitioner of the Blood God Skill to help guide the qi and blood within their body, circulating it to temper the skin.

Only after they became familiar with the circulation path of their qi and blood could they slowly begin to cultivate on their own.

Alternatively, one could first cultivate another technique to at least the Bone Refining realm, strengthening their own qi and blood, before switching to the Blood God Skill and getting started on their own.

However, the Blood God Skill cultivated through this method was ultimately inferior to one cultivated exclusively from the start.

And regardless of which method was used, one couldn’t expect to achieve success quickly.

This was because the core of the Blood God Skill was qi and blood, and each session would consume a great deal of it. One had to wait for their qi and blood to recover before they could continue cultivating.

Forcing the process would not only fail to achieve the desired result but also cause severe damage to the body.

This was especially true after reaching a certain level or for those who began cultivating at an older age. If the body couldn’t produce enough qi and blood, one would be stuck at that realm, unable to advance another inch.

In terms of cultivation principles, the Blood God Skill didn’t require external stimuli to achieve its goals. It strengthened the practitioner while also bolstering their qi and blood, making it, without a doubt, an extremely outstanding Cultivation Technique.

But when someone figured out how to absorb the qi and blood of others to cultivate, the Blood God Skill took on a sinister nature.

By constantly killing, one could obtain an endless supply of qi and blood.

With no lack of qi and blood, the cultivation speed of the Blood God Skill would be extremely fast.

And with enough qi and blood, the cultivation of the Blood God Skill had almost no bottlenecks, which was a terrifying prospect.

But the price for doing so was also immense.

Because this method of cultivation didn’t rely on one’s own generated qi and blood, the amount one could naturally produce was far from enough to maintain the required level for their realm.

To maintain their realm, they needed to supplement it by absorbing qi and blood from external sources every so often.

The higher their realm, the more terrifying the amount of qi and blood needed to replenish it became.

Otherwise, their realm would quickly drop.

The blood of beasts could be used occasionally, but using it too often would cause the cultivator to gradually become like a beast, completely losing their humanity.

In this respect, Xia Shiyuan wasn’t wrong at all to call the Blood God Skill the Blood Demon Skill.

Historically, the Blood God Skill was once all the rage, but it eventually fell into a state of being condemned and hunted by all.

Even the ruler of a kingdom wouldn’t dare to touch it.

A newly ascended Inner Breath Grandmaster would need hundreds of lives every so often just to maintain their realm.

What was more terrifying was that, over time and with repeated use, the effectiveness of absorbing qi and blood would diminish, requiring an ever-increasing number of lives.

Cultivation itself consumed a vast number of lives, but the number required to maintain one’s realm was even more terrifying.

There would be no need for an enemy kingdom to make a move; as soon as the news spread, the practitioner’s own kingdom would be on the brink of collapse.

Xu Wuan and Fangxiang Mountain had both been backed into a corner and were aiming to destroy the Cao Kingdom, so naturally they had no scruples.

But once the situation stabilized, they could only go into hiding. At most, they could secretly maintain their Grandmaster realm for a time, then silently wait for their realm to drop.

Cultivating the Blood God Skill, one could say, was rife with problems.

But for Jiang Zuo, none of these were problems.

’Simply put, isn’t qi and blood just the Physique Attribute?’

And Jiang Zuo’s Physique Attribute, thanks to Xiaoqing’s blessing, had already reached a terrifyingly high level.

’Cultivating the Blood God Skill should be very simple.’

Jiang Zuo immediately began to silently circulate the Cultivation Technique, guiding his qi and blood to flow slowly across the surface of his skin.

Soon, the guided qi and blood had already circulated once throughout his entire body.

Jiang Zuo had never practiced any other Cultivation Technique, but he could already feel that the Blood God Skill was far superior to the average one.

When ordinary people practiced Skin Refining, besides beating their skin, they could only rely on medicinal baths.

But whether it was beating the skin or taking a medicinal bath, neither method could evenly affect every inch of skin on the body.

But the Blood God Skill was different; as long as the qi and blood circulated past, the effect was the same for all skin.

After one full circulation, Jiang Zuo didn’t feel any drain on his body.

Unafraid of causing damage to his body, Jiang Zuo began circulating the Cultivation Technique again.

Two hours later, Jiang Zuo was already quite familiar with the Cultivation Technique’s circulation path. He no longer needed to concentrate on it and could silently circulate the technique while doing other things.

’According to the Cultivation Technique, a hundred circulations lead to Minor Achievement in Skin Refining, and a thousand circulations lead to Great Success, reaching the realm of skin as tough as cowhide.’

’I’ve been circulating the technique since this morning—it must be way more than a thousand times. My Skin Refining should be at Great Success, right?’

That evening, Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but mutter as he recalled what was written in the Cultivation Technique.

The sign of Great Success in Skin Refining was skin as tough as cowhide, but Jiang Zuo’s skin was already tougher than iron, let alone cowhide. As a result, it was impossible to see the effects of his cultivation.

’Hmm, my Physique Attribute increased by 2 points. For my Physique Attribute to still increase through cultivation at this level, it probably means I’ve achieved Great Success in Skin Refining as described in the Cultivation Technique.’

Jiang Zuo looked at his attribute panel.

It was much easier to judge from the attribute panel.

Under normal circumstances, a Martial Artist at Great Success in Skin Refining would have a Physique Attribute of at most twice that of a normal person, which meant an increase of 10 Physique points.

In reality, the increase was often not even that high.

Given that Jiang Zuo’s Physique Attribute was already very high, being able to increase it by another 2 points was an excellent result.

’But it feels like I can keep training. I’ll continue for now and see if there are any other effects.’

In just one day, he had completed a journey that took an ordinary Blood God Skill cultivator several years. Jiang Zuo was in no hurry to start the next step.

For the next few days, except when he was sleeping, Jiang Zuo was constantly circulating the Blood God Skill to temper his outer skin.

「One week later.」

Jiang Zuo stared at his skin in shock.

He was already a man in his forties. Even with his long lifespan, he was still a mortal, and after reaching the age of forty, a mortal’s body would begin to show obvious signs of aging.

Jiang Zuo’s skin had already started to show a fair number of wrinkles.

But after circulating the Blood God Skill for a week, whenever Jiang Zuo circulated his qi and blood and it was brimming, his skin would become as smooth as jade, and his body would look as if he were twenty years younger.

His Physique Attribute had shot up by 20 points, while his Strength and Agility Attributes increased by a lesser amount, 10 points each.

This was an increase on top of Jiang Zuo’s already formidable stats, which was an astonishing improvement.

Not only that, but Jiang Zuo also felt that compared to a week ago, his skin’s toughness had not only increased dramatically, but its regenerative ability had been greatly enhanced as well.

’It seems I’ve reached the limit for Skin Refining. I can start on Muscle Training now.’

After circulating the Cultivation Technique for two more days with no further changes, Jiang Zuo decided to begin Muscle Training.

The Blood God Skill’s method for Muscle Training was slightly different from Skin Refining. In addition to circulating the Cultivation Technique along a set path, one also had to perform corresponding physical movements.

Only by doing so could one train all of their muscles.

Muscle Training required a much greater consumption of qi and blood, but Jiang Zuo still felt no strain whatsoever.

Aside from handling some daily tasks and sleeping, Jiang Zuo spent the rest of the day circulating his qi and blood to temper his muscles.

「One month later.」

Jiang Zuo stood on the bank of the Li River, gazing at his own reflection on the water’s surface.

When he circulated his qi and blood at full power, his entire body began to emit a faint, crimson glow.

’A crimson Hulk? Hmm, I feel more like Younger Toguro at 60% muscle liberation.’

Jiang Zuo looked at his reflection in the river, extremely satisfied.

Great Success in Muscle Training was described as developing "muscles like mountains," but those who could actually achieve this were few and far between.

And Jiang Zuo felt he had already reached the absolute limit, with no room for further progress.

After reaching Great Success in Muscle Training, Jiang Zuo’s Strength skyrocketed by 50 points, his Physique increased by 40 points, and his agility by 30 points—a truly exaggerated improvement.

And over the past month, Jiang Zuo had been feasting on rich meals of fish and meat every day, eating an incredible amount.

After stopping the Cultivation Technique’s circulation, Jiang Zuo’s body gradually returned to normal. He even looked a bit shorter than when he had been circulating the technique at full power.

’Next up is Bone Refining. It shouldn’t be difficult either, but tempering the bones will be extremely painful.’

Jiang Zuo then began Bone Refining.

Bone Refining was similar to Skin Refining, but much more painful. It was said that one’s entire body would feel as if it were being devoured by ants.

Bone Refining was indeed painful, but not as much as Jiang Zuo had expected. He found it completely tolerable.

While Jiang Zuo was silently cultivating his Bone Refining, nearly two months had passed since the rebellion of Xu Wuan and Fangxiang Mountain.

One day, Xia Shiyuan came looking for Jiang Zuo.

"The incident has come to a close. The assets of Fangxiang Mountain and the Xu Family have been seized. However, nearly all of Fangxiang Mountain’s wealth is unaccounted for. As for Xu Wuan, he had already arranged an escape route, and most of their liquid assets were secretly carried off by some of their more promising clan members."

"Of the assets seized from the two families, after setting aside a portion for the state treasury, the remainder is worth about 700,000 silver."

Xia Shiyuan heaved a large wooden chest and placed it in front of Jiang Zuo, briefly explaining what happened to the two men’s wealth.

Of course, the two families’ fortunes were worth far more than this, but Xia Shiyuan wasn’t lying.

Fangxiang Mountain must have had a hidden treasure trove somewhere, but now that he was dead, there was no way to find it.

The members of the Xu Family could be tracked down, but even they didn’t know where the wealth had been taken.

"It’s fine. This is enough."

Jiang Zuo wasn’t greedy. 700,000 silver would last him a long time.

"Very well. Zhao, if you need anything, you can always find me at the Garrison Army headquarters."

Xia Shiyuan nodded. Without another word, he turned and left.

During the past two months, he had secretly made inquiries about Jiang Zuo.

He was surprised to discover that Jiang Zuo had been living quietly by the Li River for more than twenty years.

In all that time, aside from wiping out two gangs, he had done nothing else of note.

Realizing that Jiang Zuo was likely a hermit who disliked socializing, Xia Shiyuan decided not to impose.

Being decisive and leaving now might even open the door for a deeper acquaintance in the future.

Not long after Xia Shiyuan left, Wen Shulin slowly approached.

However, he wasn’t coming from the direction of his usual courtyard estate, but rather from the direction of Lizhou.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!