Leon wasn't very familiar with blood cultivation. He only knew it was one of the most detested demonic cultivation methods in the Divine Realm. Although, he would like to believe there were no evil technique and only evil people, it's hard to defend against the animosity everyone had for blood cultivation.
This is because every blood cultivator chooses the diabolic path of extracting and refining the blood of others rather than the orthodox path of refining and strengthening their own blood.
The diabolic path allows swift progression of cultivation, but every time they extract the blood, they also extract the grievance and resentment of the host along with it, which slowly start to influence the minds of the blood cultivators and transform them into mindless fiends that only knew how crave more blood and power, a bloodfiend.
"I didn't expect blood cultivators would have such a trick up their sleeve. If I hadn't wish to test the vitality of a blood cultivator again, I would have just gone straight for the head." Shaking his head, Leon mused.
To say he wasn't interested in the blood cultivation method, he would be lying. Being able to survive a ruptured heart was akin to a second life. "I think I understand how they can survive. Blood cultivators are like the masters of blood, they can continue their own blood circulation even without their heart. But such feat should be very taxing on their minds." Leon continued to ponder.
Once blood circulation stops, they would undoubtably die like anyone else. However, he wouldn't be surprise if they are able to repair their own hearts. It was much easier to patch up the holes with their own blood than to personally drive the circulation of their blood.
Seeing how much Elias treasured his life, choosing to escape when he couldn't win, Leon believe a person like that would not self-destruct. Most likely what just happened was the result of some sort of blood evasion technique.
Coming to that conclusion, Leon did not bother to give chase and search for a dead man. Looking at the blood splattered ground, there was a great price to pay for the execution of such a high-level evasion technique. He refused to believe that the person can still survive with a punctured heart after such a huge loss of blood.
"Time to explore the deeper parts of the forest." With a deep breath, Leon's eyes glowered with anticipation. The freedom and excitement of venturing into the unknown. What would the deeper part of the forest have in store for him?
He flicked out a fire beam with his fingers and dispersed the mist blocking his path to the end of the safe boundary. The fire beam disappeared into the thick mist beyond the boundary like a drop in the ocean.
Undoubtably, the dangers on the other side would be much greater, but Leon tread forward fearlessly.
"Ueeekkk!"
A layer of flames erupted from his body and warded off the harmful mist. The vengeful spirits issued shrill cries and backed away like they had just seen the bane of their existence.
Leon took steady steps deeper into the forest, unaffected by the presence of the vengeful spirits. As long as he had his flames, the vengeful spirits would not attack him. He calmly surveyed the surroundings as he went.
20 yards in, he discovered the first rare yin-attribute herb, a Frozenleaf Grass. It wasn't what he needed, but since he found it, he will take it. There could be useful in the future.
"However, this herb… requires the special biome of the Extreme Misty Forest, otherwise it will quickly die. I won't be able to store it in the Worldspace…" Leon creased his brows in thought. "Unless…"
His eyes quickly lit up as he glanced around. "Unless, I create miniature biome of the Extreme Misty Forest in the Worldspace. There's lots of empty plots in the grey zone I could use."
Having settled his thoughts, he did not harvest the Frozenleaf Grass just yet. He entered the Worldspace and enclosed an empty plot of soil in 5 by 5 by 5 yards of ice, which took half an hour to complete.
"This size should be good enough for now. I can just expand it in the future when the situation calls for it."
Exiting the Worldspace, Leon materialized the Book of Life and began channeling the yin-energy filled mist into the hollow ice cube he constructed inside the Worldspace inside the heavenly treasure. The Book of Life swallowed the energy voraciously like an insatiable god.
"Truly worthy of a Heavenly Treasure." Leon's face involuntarily twitched. The Book of Life's ability to draw in the energy greatly outstripped his own ability to absorb energy from the heaven and earth. "Wait a minute!"
Leon's eyes widened in realization. "If I use the Book of Life to absorb the energy from heaven and earth, before entering the Worldspace to cultivate, I could achieve twice the result with half the effort."
Once the thought entered his mind, Leon had the urge to leave the forest right away to test his theory. However, he forcefully suppressed the urge and shook his head. "Finding the herbs for the Soul Enhancing Pill and Soul Mending Pill is equally important. It can wait after I finish my business here."
After completing the miniature biome, Leon planted the Frozenleaf Grass inside and watched it for two hours. "No signs of deterioration. Great! It works!"
His efforts were not in vain. Leon smiled with satisfaction. "Continue!"
Exiting the Worldspace, darkness entered his sight and coldness seeped straight into his bones and soul, making him involuntarily shiver. Night had arrived. The howls and screams of many vengeful spirits could be heard in his immediate surroundings.
Leon was greatly startled and quickly constructed a new layer of flames to ward everything off. "I didn't expect this degree of coldness to affect me." Leon frowned. He was at the 9th layer of the Body Tempering Realm. It was equivalent to 9th step elemental resistance.
"This degree of change in night and day is so great. No wonder the forest is off-limits at night. However, it is still manageable for me." Surveying the surrounding, Leon felt a bit creeped out from sensing thousands of vengeful spirits eyeing him from the darkness.
"If someone said this place was a part of the Underworld, King Yama and Hades might agree." He comically thought, before continuing his venture.
50 yards deeper, he encountered the first mutated ghoul. "Is this really a ghoul? Such rosy red complexion. It looks more like some mad cultivator suffering from energy deviation."
"Rahhh!" The mutated ghoul charged at him under the veil of darkness and mist. Leon stood out like a torch in the darkness. He couldn't see them, but they could see him. He relied on his other senses to detect his surroundings.
"A Level-5 Mutated Ghoul, huh?" Leon was a bit surprised. A Level-5 Mutate Ghoul with the physical strength off a 6th step Awakner. He caught ghoul's claw attack and crushed its wrist. "Urahh!" The ghoul screamed.
"It seems it can still feel pained." Leon determined. A Level-5 Mutated Ghoul was nothing to him. He toyed with the ghoul by tearing all its limbs apart to further his investigation, before killing it by decapitation. He soon crouched over the body and inspected its blood.
"Such strong blood vitality! No wonder the blood cultivator tried to rear these mutated ghouls. They are practically heavenly tonics to them." Leon frowned. "It's a bit impure, but if I refine it, I can create longevity blood from it.
Leon's eyes glowed with gold as he thought about the possible profits he could earn. Longevity blood was a mystical elixir capable of replenishing lifespan. "Even if I sell it at an exorbitant price, I'm sure the nobles will still be more than happy to bleed out their coffers for it."
Life did not have a fixed value. To be able to buy longevity blood was akin to buying life. Of course, the nobles would buy it at all cost. To earn the noble's favor while solving the royal family's money problem. This was killing two birds with one stone.
He hadn't expected such enormous gains on such a short trip. His luck definitely wasn't this great before. Leon attributed everything to the karmic virtue he accumulated.
"If I accumulate enough karmic virtue, wouldn't I become invincible?" Leon thought, before shaking his head. It would be an impossible amount, if he had to factor in fate and destiny.
For example, if a person was fated to die young, he would need to change his destiny to overcome his fate and to change his destiny, a ridiculous amount of karmic virtue was needed. Of course, this was all just mere speculation on his part. No one really knows how the Fate, Destiny and Karma Laws works.
Leon reentered the Worldspace once more and drained all the blood into a tub from the Mutated Ghoul's dismembered corpse. He had to refine the blood while it is still fresh or it would be wasted.
After he finished draining, he threw the corpse outside, and collected all the supplementary herbs. They weren't necessarily required, but with the supplementary herbs, they efficacy of the longevity blood would be stronger and it would not dry up after extended periods of storage. The main ingredient was the strong vitality in the blood.
He soon became to purify the blood vitality with his flames. The roughly 5 liters of began to reduce in volume, but in exchange, it glowed with a stronger crimson light. In the end, he was left with 1 liter of purified blood vitality.
He flipped out pill cauldron, refined the supplementary herbs and threw everything into the cauldron. Half an hour later, 10 bottles of longevity blood laid out in front of him. He took a whiff of the longevity blood and nodded in approval.
"Each bottle of longevity blood will be able to replenish 3 years of lifespan."
"I could have used rare herbs and increased the efficacy to 5 years, but if I did that, how would I be able to maximize my profits? Kekeke." Leon mused evilly.