Chapter 34: Annihilating the Beast Pack, First Blood Refinement
Over the next few hours, the Carrion Hyena Pack organized several more assaults, but aside from Chen Ming using his own advantages to leave behind a few more corpses, they made no real progress. Meanwhile, a number of Carrion Hyenas that Chen Ming had injured, or that had managed to injure him, began to suffer as the toxins he carried slowly corroded their bodies, causing their condition to worsen at a rapid pace.
At the same time, Chen Ming sat atop a Carrion Hyena corpse, quietly devouring the other bodies without the slightest anxiety.
As dawn gradually broke, the Carrion Hyena Pack finally realized that Chen Ming had no intention of retreating. In the end, under the lead of the Carrion Hyena Queen, they launched one last all-out assault. But by this point, the Carrion Hyena Pack was already in terrible condition, and they had no other choice but to keep throwing themselves forward.
After Chen Ming killed more than a dozen Carrion Hyenas, including the Carrion Hyena Queen herself, the pack's collective will finally collapsed. The remaining hyenas began trying to flee.
But the only exit of the cave had long since been blocked by Chen Ming and a small mountain of Carrion Hyena corpses. Even though the surviving Carrion Hyenas tried to dig their way out, the thick rock walls left them helpless.
Only after the cave entrance had been completely sealed by the Carrion Hyena corpses did Chen Ming finally advance. One by one, he killed off the remaining Carrion Hyenas that had already lost both their combat ability and their sense of resistance. In the end, this Carrion Hyena Pack of more than 30 members, including adults and young, was wiped out entirely within their own lair.
It was only after all of these Spirit Beasts had been killed that Chen Ming looked at the pile of corpses and found himself in a bit of a dilemma.
Because he had eaten so many dog heads and dog corpses earlier, his stomach was already more than half full. Even if he forcefully increased his digestion, there was still no way for him to consume this many corpses in a short time.
Even if he only ate the most essential parts, a great deal of flesh and blood would still end up being wasted.
Looking at all these corpses, Chen Ming suddenly thought of several methods he had once seen in the three introductory classics for Evil Spirit Masters: [Flesh Devouring Secret Manual], [Corpse Devouring Secret Manual], and [Common Rituals and Formations].
Unlike ordinary Spirit Masters in the Douluo world, who mainly relied on Spirit Abilities for combat, Evil Spirit Masters also possessed additional evil powers as supplements. Some of these came from the extended abilities of their own Martial Souls, while others relied on special secret arts and rituals.
If ordinary Spirit Masters in the Douluo world were like warlocks in a Western fantasy world who relied on bloodline, then Evil Spirit Masters were closer to mages...
Though, more specifically, they were closer to necromancers. But then again, who said necromancers were not mages?
As the greatest force of Evil Spirit Masters, the Holy Spirit Cult did not treat low-level evil rituals as secret knowledge. Chen Ming had also learned some of them from books.
"I trapped them in their lair and killed them all, so these Spirit Beasts should have quite a bit of resentment. According to the books, this should be a suitable environment for refining Spirits. The problem is that my Martial Soul does not have any Spirit-related talents. Second, my realm is too low. Third, even if these ten-year and hundred-year Spirit Beasts died with a lot of resentment, the intensity is still limited..."
"If that won't work, then let me think... what should I use this for..."
Chen Ming had no pity whatsoever for this pack of Carrion Hyenas.
In his previous life, when he was still a child, the environment around his home had not been very good. Back then, there was a pack of stray dogs nearby, and that pack had even attacked both adults and children. People had tried several times to deal with them, but they had never been completely wiped out.
As a child, Chen Ming had watched Wuxia dramas and dreamed of becoming a great hero. Faced with that pack of vicious dogs, he began training extra hard. He ran and jumped rope with sandbags tied to his legs, building up his leg strength, and eventually mastered the special skill of accurately kicking a stray dog in the belly and sending it flying.
In the end, not a single stray dog dared come within a hundred meters of Chen Ming's home. Even when they saw him or his family, they would tuck their tails and flee on their own.
It was precisely because of the environment of his previous life that Chen Ming clearly separated humans from beasts. Humans were humans, beasts were beasts, and pets were pets. Different groups required different attitudes.
In that bloody environment, Chen Ming, with blood and minced flesh smeared all over his mouth and body, squatted on the ground and thought calmly like a child considering what to do for a craft class.
"Not enough resentment, not enough bones, the environment is poor, and there aren't enough materials..."
"Forget it. I'll just try the simplest tempering method first..."
Chen Ming cleared out a barely clean patch of ground inside the Carrion Hyenas' cave, then dug a pit in the earth with his bare hands. One by one, he dragged the dog corpses over, cut them open to remove the internal organs, and poured the fresh blood into the large pit.
Chen Ming crouched beside it and stirred the blood with his hand, circulating his Spirit Power according to the method described in the books, while continuously tossing various internal organs into the fresh blood.
"How was the spell again... Kara... Mira..."
Chen Ming awkwardly recited the incantation while his hands kept moving. As time passed, the blood pit also began to change.
The fresh blood started boiling and bubbling as if it had been placed over a fire. The internal organs thrown into it gradually withered, their blood and vitality slowly squeezed out. Under the constant stirring, the fresh blood began to separate into layers. A thick, dark brown layer of impurities coagulated at the bottom of the pit, while the upper layer of blood became clearer.
After consuming nearly half of his Spirit Power, Chen Ming finally stopped and cautiously tasted a bit of the top layer of blood.
But the moment the blood touched his tongue, Chen Ming, who could even find raw dog heads edible, instantly made a twisted face as if he had bitten into raw ginger while eating braised chicken drumstick.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! There are even more impurities in this than when it's eaten raw. It looks decent, but the energy is too little, and the impurities are too many. Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey... I'd rather eat Blue Silver Grass than drink this stuff!"
Chen Ming stood up and made a retching motion, not wanting to look at that pit of blood again.
It was at that moment that Zhang Peng appeared soundlessly in front of Chen Ming like Gui Mei, wearing a half-smile as he looked at him.
"Good. Your performance was good. You made excellent use of your advantages, which earns extra points. But as for your ritual..."
"How should I put it..." Looking at that pit of waste, Zhang Peng could not maintain his expression anymore. "There is tremendous room for improvement."
"You haven't even practiced it before, and without any additional auxiliary materials, you tried to extract blood essence in such a poor environment, using blood of this quality. If you had actually managed to refine something worthwhile, then you could already be considered my accomplished Disciple."
"The rituals of Evil Spirit Masters are complex and delicate techniques, a highly precise and rigorous discipline. They are not something that can be completed by simply dancing like a shaman or reciting a spell."
"What is extracted from Spirit Beast corpses is not merely evil substances. It can also include pure vitality and the condensed crystallization of blood, which can be added into medicines for refining pills."
"This skill is actually something even the great sects on the Continent have learned, used to extract the noble bloodlines condensed within high-bloodline Spirit Beasts for alchemy or auxiliary cultivation. There are even techniques on the Continent for slaughtering Spirit Beasts in large numbers to artificially create secret-method Spirit Bones."
"Top powers, including the Xuanming Sect and Shrek Academy, even have the habit of specially training Spirit Masters who practice these secret methods. Maximizing the use of Spirit Beast corpses is something Spirit Masters ought to do. It's just..."
"Forget it. There's still plenty of time. I'll teach you after we return. When it comes to refining blood essence from Spirit Beast corpses, your Master is, at the very least, among the top 3 in the entire Holy Spirit Cult."
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