Back in his room, Ling Xu looked at the small pouch full of spiritual stones.
"I didn't expect brother Xiao to hand me his part of the reward." he said while observing their appearance.
He was enchanted by their brilliance which made them look extremely pure and so full of energy, being this the first time that Ling Xu had gotten a spiritual stone so close to him.
Before, while he was at Lesser Crimson Town, he only used silver teals as he had barely sold one high grade blood tempering pill and the blood condensing pills he bought were also exchanged with them.
"The rest of the beasts in the forest should calm down now that the fox in the Qi Refining Realm has been killed by the outer disciples."
…
The days passed and Ling Xu followed his usual practice, training in his sword technique in the morning as he would travel through the different levels of mastery and still learn from them even after reaching perfection.
Although he had realized that he wouldn't get the feeling on the sword he previously felt while ending the enlightenment, he tried to build a solid foundation with his sword's comprehension.
Ling Xu didn't believe in letting the enlightenment do the work without him making any real effort.
Afterwards, he would complete his turn of guarding the forest and once it ended and he was back in his room he would refine his bones.
Later at night, he would practice in the sword, trying to follow his own instincts as he liked the idea of not seeing where the sword moved and only cared about how it felt.
This kind of method seemed to help him a lot as it made his sword technique become completely integrated into his whole body, taking out any previous feeling that he had when he had just reached perfection through the enlightenment.
After he was one day away from completing the month since he entered the sect, Ling Xu could be seen in the middle of the night continuing with the refinement of his bones.
A strong flow of energy could be heard inside his room as his blood qi moved through every part of his body, refining his bones to their limit as he had already completed the ninth stage.
This process continued for an hour until he felt that his bones couldn't be refined anymore, preventing his blood qi from reaching into the bone marrow.
"My bones can't be refined anymore because they have reached the limit of their current strength. If I want to go through the third blood exchange I need to continue until they break off their current shackles."
Ling Xu continued refining his bones as his blood qi now looked more like it was trying to break them apart.
But this didn't seem to work at all since every strand of his condensed blood qi could be seen bouncing back as if they had hit a massive boulder that wouldn't budge from its place.
"Again!"
He persisted in trying to break through his bones limit as he repeatedly moved his blood qi, which didn't stop bouncing back and forth, going at it again and again.
"I won't stop until I succeed. After all, with the current level of purity in my blood qi, I don't have any excuse to not manage to undergo the last blood exchange."
…
After a stick of incense time passed, Ling Xu felt a small cracking sound coming from the inside of his body.
"Now is the time!"
Releasing the circulation speed from his blood qi, the sound from the bones cracking continued as every inch of them started to show small cracks that were slowly expanding.
"Ugh!!!" he clenched his mouth in pain, feeling the bones opening up as if they were about to fall apart.
But he continued throwing his blood qi at them as this was the method to undergo the third blood exchange, which was mentioned in the Introduction to Blood Qi Realm book given to him when he registered as an unofficial disciple.
The pain continued until Ling Xu couldn't withstand it anymore.
Just when his mind was about to pass out, every bone in his body had been opened up, letting in the condensed blood qi directly pass through the opened cracks.
Reaching the bone marrow without the need to seep through the bone itself, every strand of blood qi used in the process was intact and full of vitality as it didn't need to spend its energy.
Slowly regaining his consciousness, Ling Xu felt how his bones had started to heal from the outside, closing the cracks as if nothing happened.
But that wasn't the case as he could feel how his bones that where bursting full of energy had started to absorb his blood qi, merging it into the bone marrow.
In this process, he understood why not anyone tried to undergo the third blood exchange.
This blood exchange was different from the rest as it could be done by anyone at any time, once their blood qi was strong enough to crack the bones and pass through the gap directly to the bone marrow.
The reason was that if one didn't previously refine their bone marrow to their limit, it wouldn't be able to withstand the direct absorption of blood qi that wasn't weakened because it didn't need to spend its energy to seep through the bone.
If someone who had not refined their bone marrow to their limit tried, in the best scenario he would be severely damaged and his cultivation path would become several times harder.
In the rest of the body, Ling Xu's blood qi had halved as the rest was absorbed directly inside the bones.
…
After half a stick of incense, every strand of blood qi that was inside the bone was refined into the bone marrow.
Ling Xu could feel how his bone marrow had started beating, producing a vibration that could be felt in every part of the body.
When the beating seemed to have reached its maximum point and had started to calm down, a few strands of purified blood qi started to come out.
"The blood exchange has been a success." he sighted.
But not even a second passed when he felt the path between his eyes, that had been open for almost three weeks, leaking out the golden energy.
"What is going on?"
Confused by the fact that the path between his eyes acted with its own will, he stood on the sidelines feeling what it would do.
This time, the golden energy didn't swim around the body as always but instead it entered the bones as Ling Xu realized that the bone marrow had started absorbing it.
The few strands of purified blood qi were the only ones that came out as the beating of the bone marrow had become even stronger, making him feel its vibration even in his throat as if its sound would come out and speak for him.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The bone marrow didn't stop absorbing the golden energy as if it was an appetizer, until nothing was left of it.
At that point, the bone marrow had reached its strongest point as even its beating sound came out of his body.
But not even a breath passed and everything turned quiet, the sound that was coming out of it had stopped, making the whole room become deadly quiet.
Even the vibration from the bone marrow beating had disappeared as if it returned to its previous state.
All of a sudden, Ling Xu felt an energy that was very strange coming out from it, this was the blood qi that it had previously refined.
While this new energy came out, the rest of his blood qi that remained outside of the bones was also absorbed, instantly coming out transformed into this new form.
While it passed through the veins and fed energy to the rest of the body, Ling Xu felt an increase in strength like never before as his whole body seemed to be screaming with joy.
"I feel so full of vitality, as if my blood qi has also transformed and awakened, making the rest of my body follow this transformation."
Feeling it in more detail, he realized that it almost felt as if it wasn't blood qi anymore because it had changed completely.
Although he couldn't see the brilliance it radiated, he felt it had become even faster than when he stopped restraining its circulation speed before he went through the third blood exchange.
"Even though it is moving so fast, I don't feel the slightest strand of aura coming out from my body." he realized that while his blood qi had become stronger than ever before, his connection with it had increased even more as its purity had reached its peak.
Even the sound that he could previously hear like a strong torrent of energy had died down completely, not making a single sound.
After he realized that everything had turned right and nothing was off with his body, also checking the increase in density that his bones had gone through after undergoing the third blood exchange, he went to sleep.
The following day, Ling Xu woke up and instead of going outside to train in his sword technique he continued feeling his new blood qi, trying to understand the new changes better and become accustomed to it.
Then he went through his daily task, which had become easier than before after the origin of the chaos between the beasts had been killed by the outer disciples.
He also received his reward for the completion of the task as the fourth week had been completed and Ling Xu had already been at the Formless Sword Sect for a whole month.
Currently, the path between his eyes was open and it had accumulated one week of enlightenment energy after the other one was used yesterday. And once the day ended, he would recover it once again.
…
Back in the training ground, Ling Xu saw elder Wen arriving as he started supervising the training from the unofficial disciples in the Three Purities Sword technique, helping them correct their mistakes and progress further in their level of mastery.
As the class was reaching its end, elder Wen asked the disciples. "Is there someone here who wants to challenge me?"
Although he already expected for no one to speak as he had already sensed the cultivation stages from every one of the new unofficial disciples in the beginning of the last month and no one had yet completed the Blood Qi Realm or even entered the ninth stage in this small villa.
"I would like to test my sword technique if the elder allows it."
"Then if now one is going to challenge me I will…" the elder was saying as he had started to leave when he realized that someone had actually spoken up.
"Someone is about to enter the outer sect?" the new disciples asked in confusion, following the direction where the voice came from.
"Wait, is it him?!"
"How is it possible, shouldn't he still be in the seventh stage of Blood Qi after he challenged and beat Ma Dongpil less than a month ago?"
The disciples were shocked as they didn't understand why someone who was still in the seventh stage of Blood Qi would speak up, after all this challenge was done by those who needed the approval from the elder to register as an outer disciple and get the method of breaking through to the Qi Refining Realm.
"Yes that's right, even if he is talented and his strength is able to surpass his current stage, he should have barely had the time to advance into the eight stage." Another disciple added.
Looking at Ling Xu, elder Wen remembered him as he had gotten the impression that he didn't make any effort in learning any kind of sword technique before entering the sect when he practiced the Three Purities Sword technique and could barely display the entry level of mastery.