Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art

Xu Yuan might not know much about other cultivation knowledge, but when it came to meridians, he actually knew a thing or two. Because the meridian system was a crucial mechanic in *Cangyuan*. One that reflected directly on a player's experience bar. The more unobstructed meridians a character possessed, the less experience was required for each level-up. In the game, between a character with all one hundred and twenty-seven meridians cleared and one with none cleared at all, the experience needed for each level differed by roughly twentyfold. In numerical terms: to advance from level one to level two, if someone with fully cleared meridians needed five experience points, someone with completely blocked meridians needed one hundred. Because of this, if a character had all one hundred and twenty-seven meridians innately cleared from the start, they were granted a special title: Innate Body. Yet perhaps to accommodate players who enjoyed masochistic challenges, the developers of *Cangyuan* had added another option. Even if a player chose to start with an Innate Crippled Body, they could accumulate Source Qi through cultivation and then circulate their cultivation art to gradually unblock those obstructed meridians bit by bit, thereby increasing their cultivation speed. It was just that progress was agonizingly slow. To go from not a single meridian cleared to having all one hundred and twenty-seven completely unblocked, a character had to cultivate all the way to the realm of "Qi Reaching Origin" before the experience an innate cripple needed to level up finally matched that of an Innate Body. Yet the *Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art* before his eyes could actually bypass all these restrictions of meridians and Source Qi, completely clearing all one hundred and twenty-seven meridians right from the very beginning of one's cultivation! Even more importantly, clearing all one hundred and twenty-seven meridians was merely one of the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art's effects. *Body and soul forged to utmost solidity.* This description reminded Xu Yuan of another physique on equal footing with the Innate Body: The Innate Soul Body. Reaching this realization, Xu Yuan suddenly felt his mouth run dry. He remembered from the game's lore: If a character possessed both the Innate Body and the Innate Soul Body, Then their special title would become the Innate Dao Body. Back in the game, Xu Yuan hadn't cared much about innate physiques and natural talents. As a master player, he had always played on masochistic difficulties. What he wanted was a garbage start, pushing resource efficiency to its absolute limit, and the adrenaline rush of clearing boss fights with only a sliver of health left. Naturally, that had been in a game. In reality, the lower the difficulty, the better. And the manual before him could allow him to acquire the Innate Dao Body after birth... Heh. Should he say that this Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art truly lived up to its status as one of only three blood-red tier peak manuals in *Cangyuan*? Xu Yuan licked his lips, his dark eyes flickering faintly in the dim glow of the night-luminescent pearl. The Innate Dao Body in *Cangyuan* wasn't as preposterous as those in traditional mythological cultivation stories. It offered no natural affinity with the Heavenly Dao, nor could it allow one to directly perceive and manipulate the power of universal laws, and it couldn't even allow skipping cultivation stages. Fundamentally speaking, this physique merely made one cultivate a bit faster than ordinary people. Well, a hundred million "bits" faster. Yet that was more than enough. After a long silence, Xu Yuan gradually cooled down from the intoxicating power of this manual. *Born from death.* The subsequent effects of mastering the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art were indeed alluring, but with just a little thought, surviving the "death" required just to get started would be anything but easy. Opportunity always coexisted with danger; for an opportunity this vast, how great of a risk would he have to take? The Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art made it abundantly clear. To master it, one had to rely on immense willpower while on the brink of death to maintain consciousness and circulate the art. Yet on the verge of death, could a person truly remain conscious throughout? Xu Yuan recalled the brush with death he had experienced upon first arriving in this world, drifting out of consciousness from hypothermia in that cave. In that state, his mind had felt mired in a swamp; the lingering, invasive cold made it impossible to think about even the simplest matter, let alone circulate a cultivation art. What was more, according to the records in the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art, this near-death ordeal had to be repeated countless times. Could this barely even be called a slim chance of survival? Xu Yuan lowered his eyes, as though a bucket of icy water had been dumped over his head. He was indeed someone who enjoyed thrills and adventure, but that did not mean he had a death wish. After abruptly transmigrating to this world, he hadn't had a choice most of the time. Whether it was enduring his fear to speak with Ran Qingmo at the start or jumping into the bottomless abyss off Xuantian Cliff with her in his arms, it was all because he had no choice. If he didn't, it was certain death without a single chance of survival. Yet now that he was safe, expecting him—someone accustomed to living in a peaceful era—to risk life and limb cultivating a technique that could kill him at any moment? A feeling of hesitation gradually spread through Xu Yuan's heart... Wait! Amid his hesitation, Xu Yuan's breath suddenly caught. He abruptly realized that even now, he still didn't seem to have a choice. Because no corpse had been found, the original host's father would never give up. Unless Xu Yuan could survive until the day the "story's protagonist" took his father down. Otherwise, even if they left this cave abode, and even if Ran Qingmo could temporarily help him escape, Xu Yuan didn't believe he could vanish without a trace under the pursuit of a pack of "superhumans" capable of locking onto a person's aura using intent-souls. Furthermore, Xu Yuan had no idea which story route the "story's protagonist" in this world was currently following. In *Cangyuan*, there were a full twenty-five storylines. If the protagonist happened to follow one that never came into conflict with the original host's father, Xu Yuan would be hunted for the rest of his life. Moreover, even if the protagonist took a path hostile to his father, now that everything had become reality, Xu Yuan had zero confidence in whether the scripted deaths from the game would still take place. After all, Ji Qingyue's example had just played out right before his eyes. A heroine who was so beautiful and so important in the plot had been killed off by this big block of ice surnamed Ran beside him without a second thought. Did plot armor... truly exist? "..." Silence. Xu Yuan's clenched fists slowly relaxed. He rose to his feet and walked over to the woman curled up in the corner, coming to a stop before her. She still wore that tattered black robe. After a quiet moment, "What is it?" Her clear voice broke the pin-drop silence of the cave abode. Xu Yuan lowered his gaze. "I'd like you to do me a favor." Ran Qingmo slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. "You want to use that favor?" Xu Yuan's expression didn't change in the slightest. "I want you to teach me some basic knowledge about cultivation. I just realized that I've forgotten a lot of things, like drawing qi into the body, the heart source, intent-souls, and so on." "..." In the dim environment, her tranquil, beautiful eyes flickered with a hint of bewilderment. Ran Qingmo couldn't understand how a powerhouse whose qi had reached the Origin Realm could forget even the most fundamental cultivation knowledge. Shouldn't such things have long since become instincts carved into his intent-soul? However, Ran Qingmo didn't refuse. She said very seriously, "If it's that, no favor is needed. I can teach you." Xu Yuan slowly sat down across from Ran Qingmo and said softly, "Can we start now?" Ran Qingmo closed her eyes and pondered for a moment, seeming to assess the condition of her body. Opening her eyes again, she gave a slight nod. "All right." Pausing briefly, Ran Qingmo's tranquil gaze shifted toward the fine robes Xu Yuan wore. "Take off your clothes."