Chapter 529: Chapter 233: The Army Sets Out, Yang Lu Changes, Mid-stage Cold Resistance
"This is too difficult. No choice, I have to think of another way. I’ve heard that his strength is very strong, similar to the leader. Such people surely have strong determination."
"There’s no way now. We’ve changed more than a dozen people in the past two days. Do you think... he might like men?"
"Stop talking nonsense. His strength is strong, be careful he hears you!"
........
On the second floor of the house, Xia Hong sat cross-legged on a wooden bed, in front of him was an iron cauldron with a diameter of twenty centimeters, containing some leftover medicine residue.
Xia Hong closed his eyes tightly, and the skin around his body was surging, while fine pores were constantly emitting thin strands of blood energy.
The blood energy grew increasingly dense, enveloping his body, seemingly like the process of cocooning, gradually forming an oval-shaped blood-colored sheath.
Pop........
As the blood cocoon fully formed, Xia Hong’s pores stopped emitting blood energy. Instead, the flesh and blood beneath his skin began to slowly rise, and then gradually contracted.
Starting from the top of his head, down to his face, neck, chest, and back...
All the way to the soles of his feet, after repeating the process of expansion and contraction, Xia Hong suddenly opened his eyes.
Boom........
The blood cocoon suddenly shattered, and although Xia Hong didn’t do anything, his body seemed to have grown heavier by several times, directly collapsing the wooden bed.
Xia Hong stood up from the ground and took a slight breath, gathering all the dispersed blood energy towards his nostrils and inhaling it back in.
"All the flesh and blood in my body have regenerated once, doubling in strength. Even if the skin is broken, the flesh can provide me with a certain level of defense. As long as I’m not hit in any vital area, ordinary injuries can be healed during combat through the regenerative ability of flesh and blood. This is the Mid-stage Cold Resistance, and this is just the effect of flesh regenerating once!"
Xia Hong felt the formidable strength within his blood and flesh, looked extremely exhilarated as he clenched his fist to sense his power, his eyes immediately shining with keen brilliance.
"Fifteen pounds of Jade Bone not only allowed me to break through to the Mid-stage Cold Resistance, but my strength has also increased to twenty-one鬃. Across the entire Longyou, apart from Li Tianhua, there’s no one stronger than me anymore!"
Hou Hu kept his word. As soon as he returned to Zhaoyang, he immediately ordered his people to deliver the twenty pounds of Jade Bone he promised earlier, along with five drops of Cold Apple Jade Dew, and included the formula for boiling the Jade Bone.
He even thoughtfully asked Xia Hong if he needed help to boil it.
This showed that he treated Xia Hong as one of his own.
Boiling Jade Bone requires more than the Cold Apple Jade Dew and Jade Bone. Zhu Yinhua, White Frost Grass, and eight other herbs, along with a massive amount of coal stone. Xia Hong could hardly refuse when Zhaoyang was willing to provide them.
In two days, under Xia Hong’s extensive supervision, all fifteen pounds of Jade Bone were boiled according to the formula.
Finally able to use Jade Bone for a legitimate Cold Resistance Level cultivation, Xia Hong picked up the boiled Jade Bone Soup and eagerly began his seclusion.
The effect of the first use was surprisingly good.
As he had expected, after consuming the Jade Bone, the biggest reaction was from his internal flesh. Unlike the sun exposure method, which brings cold light into the body to damage the flesh to achieve regeneration, the regenerative effect of the flesh after consuming the Jade Bone was a hundredfold, no, perhaps even thousandfold.
After consuming the Jade Bone Soup, his internal flesh began to collapse, transforming into strands of blood energy that seeped out from the skin, and then the powerful energy from the Jade Bone reorganized the collapsed flesh, forming new, stronger flesh.
"Mid-stage, Late Stage, Peak, flesh can regenerate three rounds in total, the first round having such effects. When my strength grows to thirty-six鬃, I’ll enter the second round, when my flesh strength and regenerative capacity will soar again. By the third time, with strength reaching seventy-two鬃, my flesh strength might rival that of Advanced Cold Beasts......"
In a past encounter with an Advanced Snow Mane, Xia Hong happened to break through the opponent’s shoulder flesh, so he was quite familiar with the flesh strength of Advanced Cold Beasts.
"If it weren’t for the current critical moment, I’d directly hunt a few Advanced Cold Beasts to get more Jade Bones and break through directly."
In the upheaval in Longyou, Xia Hong had to pause his cultivation for now. Given his current strength, in one-on-one combat, he could practically walk without fear in Longyou, making cultivation seem less urgent.
Moreover, hunting Advanced Cold Beasts carried too much uncertainty and urgency was not an option for him alone.
"Besides, having only Jade Bone isn’t enough. Cold Apple Jade Dew seems even more important than Jade Bone. Currently, Long Mountain has a stable output, and Hou Hu likely has some, but he clearly guards it a bit from me, so they aren’t easy to acquire. Finding them myself is too slow; a plan is needed to acquire from these two places!"
The formula for boiling Jade Bone was already known to Xia Hong.
Aside from other materials, the most crucial four are Jade Bone, Cold Apple Jade Dew, Zhu Yinhua, and White Frost Grass, with proportions of three pounds, one drop, three stalks, and three stalks respectively.
Three pounds of Jade Bone for one drop of Jade Dew, although Zhu Yinhua and White Frost Grass aren’t as precious as Cold Apple Jade Dew, they aren’t easily found either.
"I’ve found the Cold Resistance Level cultivation method, but sourcing materials remains an issue. Seems I need to figure it out from Longyou. I got twenty pounds of Jade Bone but only matched with five drops of Cold Apple Jade Dew. Was this intentional bait with Cold Apple Jade Dew? Hou Hu indeed has some clever thinking......"
Xia Hong detected Hou Hu’s little scheme and revealed a slight smile, recalling Zhaoyang’s arrangement of more than a dozen maidens for him in the past two days, his expression turned more peculiar.
"More than five thousand Earth-digging Realm, but only about a thousand remain at the camp. Counting the blood guard army stationed outside, it means at least three thousand people are unaccounted for. Highly likely they’ve taken action against other camps, just don’t know which ones. Xia Chuan should have received my letter and is probably watching the beehive. Great Xia intends to reach out, and now is the best time. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to inform Xia Chuan and would need to find an opportunity to send some news back."
After pondering in his room for a while, Xia Hong suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.
"Lord Hong, the leader requests your presence!"
"Alright, coming right away."
Despite hosting a grand banquet for himself for two days, Hou Hu hadn’t shown up or summoned him. Finally, today he had come for him.
Xia Hong collected his recently stabilized blood energy, subdued some of his flesh, and after ensuring everything was fine, only then opened the door and went out.