With less than three years remaining before the Five-Year Appointment, Lin Sheng finally decided that he could no longer afford to delay.
He had already completed the foundation that countless external martial artists could only dream of achieving.
Vajra body, Jade marrow and now Qi-Blood like Veil.
Every step had pushed his physique farther beyond the ordinary path, but Lin Sheng understood that none of this was enough.
The Five-Year Appointment wasn't merely an important event.
It was the deadline.
The moment when the accumulated Luck surrounding Su Yang would erupt, the moment when the Heavenly Mechanism would become unusually active, and the moment when Lin Sheng would inevitably be noticed if he remained beneath the world's acknowledgment.
Last time, the Heavenly Mechanism had sent a Rank 5 Flood Dragon.
Lin Sheng didn't intend to find out what it would send next.
He needed to reach Rank 4.
And to achieve that, he needed to continue strengthening all three aspects of his foundation.
His Jing was already advancing at an astonishing rate.
His Shen had never fallen behind.
Now it was time for his Qi-Blood to catch up.
Lin Sheng's gaze fell upon the enormous serpent corpse stored within his treasure abode.
Thankfully, he had been extremely careful with his consumption of the Rank 4 serpent materials.
He had used no more than thirty percent of the corpse.
The remaining flesh, bones, blood, organs, and other precious materials were still enough to support an extremely long period of external cultivation.
Blood Exchange wasn't like marrow cleansing.
Marrow cleansing required enormous quantities of spiritual energy because the practitioner was fundamentally transforming the deepest structures of the body.
Blood Exchange was different.
It required an enormous amount of nourishment.
Qi-Blood had to be generated continuously.
The old blood had to be expelled.
The new blood had to replace it.
And the easiest way to provide such an absurd quantity of nourishment was through eating.
Beast flesh, Beast blood, Beast marrow and Great medicines.
All of them could be converted into nourishment for the body.
Lin Sheng had enough.
But before entering seclusion, there were still several matters he needed to settle.
He first summoned Lou Feng.
The young man arrived quickly, unaware that the next seventy-two hours would completely change the direction of his cultivation.
Lin Sheng didn't waste time with unnecessary conversation.
He began teaching.
The entire Qi Refining realm.
From the initial gathering of spiritual energy and opening of the necessary pathways, through the process of stabilizing Qi, refining it, strengthening the foundation, and preparing the body and spirit for the transition toward Foundation Establishment, Lin Sheng explained everything he understood.
He didn't simply give Lou Feng cultivation formulas.
He explained the principles behind them.
Why Qi Refining practitioners needed to temper their bodies.
Why spiritual energy needed to be purified.
Why the quality of one's foundation directly affected the success of Foundation Establishment.
Why Shen, Qi, and Jing couldn't be treated as completely independent forces.
And, most importantly, where the hidden dangers existed during the transition from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment.
For a full seventy-two hours, Lou Feng listened.
Sometimes he asked questions.
Sometimes he remained silent for several hours as he digested what he had heard.
By the time Lin Sheng finally stopped speaking, Lou Feng's mind was almost numb.
Yet his eyes were brighter than ever.
"If you cultivate properly," Lin Sheng said calmly, "you should be ready to attempt Foundation Establishment in roughly two years."
Lou Feng's breathing became heavier.
Two years.
To him, Foundation Establishment had once seemed like an extremely distant realm.
Now he could actually see the road leading toward it.
After sending Lou Feng away, Lin Sheng summoned Su Yang.
The young man arrived soon afterward.
Lin Sheng looked at him for a moment before asking, "How is your comprehension of momentum?"
Su Yang didn't hesitate.
"Four Seasons Momentum."
He released his momentum.
The atmosphere immediately changed.
Spring.
The air seemed to become gentle, carrying the vitality of growth.
Then summer.
Heat spread through the surroundings.
Autumn followed, bringing a faint sense of decline and killing intent.
Finally came winter.
The warmth disappeared.
The atmosphere became cold and still.
The four seasons seemed to overlap within a single instant, continuously cycling through one another.
Lin Sheng watched silently.
"Near perfection."
Su Yang's eyes brightened.
"Master, you think so?"
"You're only one step away."
Lin Sheng nodded.
"That step is Intent."
Su Yang's expression became solemn.
Momentum was an expression of understanding.
Intent was something deeper.
It was the beginning of transforming comprehension into a genuine power that could eventually develop toward a domain and, at a higher level, a divine ability.
Lin Sheng raised his hand.
His fingertip gently touched Su Yang's forehead.
Su Yang instinctively stiffened.
Then his expression changed.
A scene appeared inside his mind.
The heavens.
Stars.
The sun.
The moon.
Lightning tearing across a dark sky.
Wind sweeping across vast mountains.
Rain descending like countless silver threads.
Clouds gathering and dispersing.
The changing seasons.
The movement of celestial bodies.
The rise and fall of natural phenomena.
Everything the Chip had recorded during Lin Sheng's observations was being transmitted directly into Su Yang's consciousness.
It wasn't merely information.
It was an experience.
Su Yang's pupils trembled.
He saw the heavens in a way he had never seen them before.
He saw movement within stillness.
Change within permanence.
The cycle of the seasons wasn't merely the passage of time.
It was a manifestation of natural order.
His Four Seasons Momentum began resonating with the scene.
Lin Sheng withdrew his finger.
"The scene is already imprinted into your mind."
"You won't forget it."
Su Yang remained motionless.
His consciousness was still immersed in what he had just witnessed.
"Go into seclusion."
Lin Sheng's voice was calm.
"Don't think about anything else until you understand what you just saw."
Su Yang nodded slowly.
"Yes, Master."
After Su Yang left, Lin Sheng finally had no further matters to settle.
He entered his secluded chamber.
The doors closed.
Formation after formation activated.
Grandmaster-level formations began appearing around the courtyard, overlapping with one another until the entire area was transformed into a fortress of formations.
Defensive formations, Concealment formations, Killing formations and restraining formations.
Even Lin Sheng wasn't arrogant enough to assume that nothing could go wrong during his Blood Exchange.
His foundation was too powerful.
And precisely because it was too powerful, the consequences of failure would also be more severe.
Lin Sheng sat down.
The Rank 4 serpent materials appeared around him.
A massive amount of beast flesh had already been prepared.
The moment he began cultivating, his Qi-Blood erupted.
Boom!
A dense crimson aura surged from his body.
The faint veil surrounding him immediately became visible.
It wrapped around his body like an invisible garment, but unlike before, it was now extraordinarily dense.
Lin Sheng began eating.
One portion after another.
The flesh entered his stomach and was immediately refined by his terrifying physique.
Energy transformed into nourishment.
Nourishment transformed into Qi-Blood.
And Qi-Blood began flooding through his body.
Lin Sheng's expression gradually became solemn.
He could feel the first Blood Exchange beginning.
His blood became restless.
The Qi-Blood circulation accelerated until his entire body seemed to become a furnace.
Then—
His blood began changing.
Old blood was pushed toward his limbs and expelled through his pores.
At the same time, his body began producing new blood.
The process was painful.
Not because his body was being injured, but because an enormous amount of his physical foundation was being temporarily disturbed.
For an ordinary practitioner, this was the dangerous period.
The body would enter a state of weakness.
Strength would decline.
Qi-Blood would become unstable.
Even someone significantly stronger could potentially exploit that moment of weakness.
But Lin Sheng's situation was different.
His Vajra Body remained stable.
His Jade Marrow continued generating nourishment.
His Qi-Blood like Veil remained wrapped around his body.
The weakness that should have accompanied the first exchange...
Never came.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
"So that's it."
He could understand why ordinary practitioners were forced to proceed cautiously.
Their foundations weren't strong enough to support the transformation.
But his foundation was already far beyond the ordinary limits of Blood Exchange.
The first exchange continued.
His old blood was completely replaced.
The new blood circulated through his body.
Then the Qi-Blood like Veil changed.
The thin protective layer around his body suddenly trembled.
It expanded.
Then contracted.
Expanded again.
And finally compressed until it became even denser than before.
Lin Sheng could feel its quality rising.
The veil was no longer merely an external layer of Qi-Blood.
It had become extremely dense, almost as though countless layers had been compressed into a single sheet.
"Peak Qi-Blood like Veil."
Lin Sheng murmured.
One exchange.
And he had already completed an entire transformation that would normally require multiple exchanges.
He didn't stop.
The first exchange had been completed far too easily.
Lin Sheng immediately began the second.
The moment he initiated it, his Qi-Blood surged again.
The veil surrounding his body expanded violently.
It spread several meters outward.
For an instant, Lin Sheng's entire secluded chamber seemed to be submerged beneath a crimson tide.
The formations around him trembled.
Then the enormous veil suddenly contracted.
It was pulled inward.
Every strand of Qi-Blood returned toward Lin Sheng's body.
But instead of disappearing, the Qi-Blood converged toward his chest.
His heart.
The center of his circulation.
Lin Sheng's expression changed slightly.
The Qi-Blood gathered around his heart in a circular formation.
At first, it looked like a sphere of crimson energy.
Then it began rotating.
Faster.
And faster.
The circular Qi-Blood became increasingly dense until it seemed almost solid.
Then something unexpected happened.
The shape changed.
The perfect circular form began stretching upward.
It twisted.
It became thinner.
Then it began rising and curling like smoke.
Lin Sheng's eyes widened slightly.
The Qi-Blood no longer resembled a veil.
It resembled smoke.
A thick, crimson wolf-smoke.
It rose from his heart region, twisting around his torso before being drawn back into his body.
Again.
And again.
Every circulation made it denser.
Every rotation increased its quality.
The phenomenon was almost identical to the descriptions of the legendary Qi-Blood like Wolf Smoke.
Except this wasn't an illusion.
It was literal.
His Qi-Blood had transformed into something that behaved like smoke.
Lin Sheng stared at the phenomenon through his inner vision.
The second Blood Exchange had not merely strengthened his Qi-Blood like Veil.
It had pushed his Qi-Blood into an entirely new state.
Qi-Blood like Wolf Smoke.
His eyes gradually became sharper.
"Two exchanges."
He looked at the crimson smoke circulating around his heart.
"For an ordinary practitioner, this would already be an enormous transformation."
His expression became calm.
"But for me..."
The wolf-smoke suddenly surged.
Boom!
The entire secluded chamber trembled.
Lin Sheng's Qi-Blood erupted with renewed vitality.