"Ugh..."
A muffled groan escaped Fang Ze's throat.
The moment the seven leaves of the Blood Spirit Grass dissolved in his stomach, it didn't turn into gentle, nourishing energy. Instead, it erupted like a dormant volcano.
It felt as if he had swallowed a mouthful of molten iron.
The scorching heat surged through his meridians, tearing through the fragile, blocked pathways of his Tier-1 body.
"Too... weak..." Fang Ze gritted his teeth, his face turning a terrifying shade of purple. "This body is too trash. It can't handle the raw medicinal efficacy."
In his past life, the Clan Leader's son had consumed this grass with the help of three Elders protecting his heart, and he had taken it alongside gentle neutralizing pills.
Fang Ze had none of that. He was doing something suicidal.
But high risks yield high rewards.
"Suppress!"
Fang Ze roared in his mind. He didn't panic. He mobilized the pitiful amount of Qi in his dantian and began to circulate a forbidden technique from his memories—the Asura Blood Refining Art.
It was a technique used by demonic cultivators to forcibly extract potential from herbs, ignoring the damage to the body to maximize absorption.
Crack. Crack.
Sounds of bones fracturing echoed in the silent cave.
The violent energy began to remodel his skeletal structure. His old, weak bones were being crushed into powder by the energy, then reformed into something denser, harder, and whiter.
Sweat mixed with a black, foul-smelling sludge oozed out of his pores. This was the 'Marrow Cleansing'—the expulsion of impurities accumulated over fifteen years of mediocrity.
The pain was beyond human limits. It was the pain of being ground to dust alive.
A normal fifteen-year-old would have fainted or gone insane from the shock.
But Fang Ze sat cross-legged, unmoving as a statue. His eyes were open, bloodshot but eerily calm.
He treated his body not as himself, but as a tool being forged on an anvil. If the tool breaks, so be it. But if it survives, it will be sharp.
Time lost its meaning.
One hour. Two hours. Four hours.
The violent red glow surrounding his body slowly dimmed, absorbed completely into his flesh and blood.
Boom!
A dull sound exploded inside his body.
The barrier of Tier-1 Body Refining shattered instantly.
Tier-2...
The energy didn't stop. It surged forward like a broken dam.
Tier-3!
It continued to rise until it hit the peak of Tier-3, finally slowing down as it encountered the bottleneck of Tier-4.
"Break." Fang Ze whispered a single word.
He gathered the remaining wisps of the herbal energy and slammed them against the bottleneck.
Pop.
Like a bubble bursting, the obstruction cleared.
Tier-4 Body Refining.
Fang Ze exhaled a long breath of turbid, grey air. The foul smell in the cave was overpowering.
He stood up. His bones crackled like frying beans.
He was still thin, but the starvation-induced weakness was gone. Under his pale skin, his muscles were now compact and streamlined, hiding explosive power. His height had even increased by an inch.
Fang Ze walked to a small puddle of water in the cave to wash off the black filth.
As the grime washed away, it revealed skin as smooth as jade. But what caught Fang Ze's attention wasn't his skin, but his eyes.
They were clearer, deeper. The dullness of a servant was gone forever.
"Tier-4," Fang Ze clenched his fist, feeling the strength of four bulls coursing through his arm. "And my aptitude..."
He sensed his blood. It felt heavy, vibrant.
Grade-A Aptitude.
"Not S-grade yet?" Fang Ze frowned slightly, a hint of dissatisfaction flashing in his eyes. "The raw consumption wasted 30% of the efficacy. What a pity."
If the Righteous Path cultivators heard this, they would vomit blood in anger. Going from Grade-F (Trash) to Grade-A (Genius) in one night was a miracle, yet this demon was dissatisfied.
"No matter. Grade-A is enough to crush everyone in the Fang Clan."
Fang Ze dressed in his tattered robes again. The stench was gone, washed away with the water.
He looked outside. The horizon was turning a pale grey. Dawn was coming.
"The Awakening Ceremony begins at noon," Fang Ze calculated the time. "I need to get back before anyone notices I'm gone."
He stepped out of the cave.
The world looked different now. The buzzing of a fly fifty meters away was audible. The texture of the leaves was visible in the dim light.
Fang Ze didn't smile. He simply adjusted his expression, letting his shoulders slump, his eyes lose focus.
In a blink of an eye, the sharp, jade-like genius vanished.
The cowardly, trashy servant Fang Ze returned.
"Let the show begin."