Chapter 61 - 61 Someone Poked My Belly

The blood essence of the Qingguang Beast and Lingyun Beast is extremely precious, and when sold, it’s strictly one drop per sale, no more, no less. However, for the unvalued Luo Zhi Bird and Cold-Backed Turtle, buyers are scarce. When a customer finally appears, discounts and promotions are common, typically buy one get one free, or even buy one get two!

That is to say, the blood essence marked as just one drop within Liu Mingyue and Yu Xiaoyu’s jade bottles was at least two drops in reality.

Zhang Xuan was preoccupied with igniting the furnaces for the two of them and poured out a drop without looking closely, tossing the bottle aside carelessly. He hadn’t expected there to be leftovers that this fellow took away.

“There’s still two drops left?”

“Are they really the blood essence of the Qingguang Beast and Lingyun Beast?”

“Since Miss Yu and Miss Liu both ignited a spirit pinnacle with what they had, how could it be fake?”

There was a stir of excitement amongst the crowd once again.

Sure enough for a major clan, so wealthy to use a drop and discard a drop of such precious blood essence…

“What, is nobody willing? Rest assured, gentlemen, I, Chen Hao, have been enrolled in the academy for three years and have reached the pinnacle of the Physique Realm, Fourthfold of Source Pool Realm. I’ve assisted teachers in igniting furnaces for several junior students before, so I have hands-on experience…”

After introducing himself, Chen Hao scanned the crowd again. This time, several youths hurried over.

“I want to try…”

“I also want to try…”

These individuals came from modest backgrounds, and it would be a great accomplishment for them to even ignite a middle-tier Source Pool in their lifetime. Having the chance now to light a spirit pinnacle, they certainly wouldn’t want to miss out.

“Alright, it’ll be you two then.”

Chen Hao chose two who seemed more astute and bowed with his hands clasped toward Lu Mingrong. “School Head, I’d like to attempt to help others ignite their furnaces, if I may?”

“This…”

Understanding that the man intended to challenge Zhang Xuan, Lu Mingrong frowned and glanced at the young man. Seeing him casual and showing no displeasure, he nodded, “As students wish to try, it is permissible. However, if you can’t complete it, to prevent the waste of blood essence, I will personally intervene!”

Though he spoke of preventing waste, he was actually concerned that if the other successfully ignited the furnace, it might upset Zhang Xuan. If such a situation arose, he would preemptively take over and claim the credit for himself…

That way, the open class wouldn’t be quite so awkward.

“Of course…” Relieved, Chen Hao nodded eagerly, his eyes shining with excitement.

As an admirer and supporter of Liu Mingyue, he had harbored resentment since the Miscellaneous Duties Teacher humiliated her the day before.

He had thought today’s open class would be the opportunity to embarrass Zhang Xuan, but now the prospect of turning the tables was irresistible, and he’d approached without hesitation.

With a good performance this time, surely Mingyue would think more highly of him…

With this thought, he couldn’t help but glance at the girl to see her bruised face twitching with nervousness, clearly engrossed in thought.

“Don’t worry about me!”

With a huff, Chen Hao approached the two new students, took out the formation flags he had prepared, and started setting up the formation. After more than ten minutes, he completed a small-scale formation, known as the Furnace Li Huo Array, designed for igniting furnaces.

“Unexpectedly, the son of Apothecary Chen Xiao has set it up quite standardly…” Lu Mingrong silently nodded in approval.

The name Chen Xiao, the Patriarch Chen, clearly carried weight, and allowing a student to help others ignite their furnaces and openly challenge a teacher reflected consideration for the Patriarch’s status.

The formation the young man had set up was the standard method for igniting furnaces, where the encompassing Li Huo Array would potentially make ignition easier.

That was the same method he’d used to help Mo Yanxue with her practice before.

He’d thought a student challenge would be just for fun, but to his surprise, the challenger was truly skilled, with the steps executed flawlessly.

“Come over here first!”

He called over one of the new students. As the student sat down beside the formation and closed his eyes, Chen Hao gently tapped, and a firefly-like sparkle ignited, activating the formation.

“Let’s use the blood essence of this Lingyun Beast! Ordinarily, someone of your stature would never have even heard of it, much less used it. Consider yourself lucky!”

A clear shout, and Chen Hao uncorked the jade bottle that Liu Mingyue had prepared earlier with a drip of blood essence immediately appearing in the very center of the formation.

Hum!

Enveloped by the formation, the blood essence released a green glow and turned into tiny flames floating midair.

This was precisely the basic method to ignite the Furnace… “Li Huo Burning Blood Flame”!

“How impressive!”

“Worthy of Young Master Chen…”

Surprised exclamations arose from the crowd.

Some teachers couldn’t do this so smoothly, yet a student not only completed it successfully but also so standardly. It was beyond imagination, no wonder he dared to step forward and challenge openly.

Chen Hao, too, let out a sigh of relief.

Although he had learned the method, he wasn’t always successful every time. Completing it in one go like this was also a matter of great luck.

“Get ready, I’m going to send the Flame used to start the Fire into your Source Pool now…”

With a clear shout, Chen Hao reached out into thin air and grasped a small flame in his palm, patting it into the acupoint called jianjin on the initiate’s shoulder.

The Li Huo Burning Blood Flame followed the meridians into the body, becoming a cluster of tiny stars that quieted down as they were swallowed by the Source Pool.

Knowing this was a process where quantitative change leads to qualitative change, Chen Hao was not in a hurry, continuing to grab and infuse the flames, perspiring heavily for a short hour before he had transferred all the flames from the formation into the initiate’s body.

At this moment, if one could see through the initiate, they would be able to see their Source Pool filled with tiny flames, like countless stars in the sky.

“Just one last step…”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Chen Hao exhaled a breath of stale air and brought his index and middle fingers together, aiming at the area where the initiate’s Source Pool was located and poked toward it.

Immediately after, a stream of forged zhenqi burst out from his fingertips, charging straight into the initiate’s lower abdomen.

A single spark can start a fire that burns the ‘Origin’!

Normally, once this zhenqi enters, it should activate all the stars, thus forming a Furnace that can forge Origin qi, but for some reason, the result today was rather disappointing. Along with the poking, the initiate still had his eyes closed, a look of confusion on his face, without any reaction.

Seeing that he had used all his strength and still there was no movement, Chen Hao became anxious.

That Miscellaneous Duties Teacher just casually feeding blood essence to Liu Mingyue could achieve success, how can you be so clumsy? Feeding all this strength into the Source Pool and still nothing…

Feeling frustrated, his fingers did not stop but kept on poking.

One poke, two pokes, three pokes…

In the blink of an eye, he poked over 30 times, transmitting more than thirty streams of zhenqi, yet the new initiate in front of him was like a corpse, without any feedback whatsoever.

Cold sweat broke out on his scalp.

Logically, it should have ignited by now… Why isn’t it working?

This is the blood essence of a Lingyun Beast, way stronger than any Fire-Starting Material he had used before.

After continuously poking another dozen times, feeling the strength in his body nearly drained, and still no change from the other party, Chen Hao couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Do you feel anything?”

“Me?”

The initiate still kept his eyes closed and recounted his actual sensation, “It feels… like someone keeps poking my belly.”

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