I bear witness to immortality in the human world.

Chapter 54 Changes
After completing the second coagulation procedure, Wu Ming felt a clear change within just a few days.

His refined blood and qi, flowing through his meridians, stimulated the muscles and skin of his entire body, making his muscles even stronger and causing the skin to undergo daily transformation.

The skin membrane, which wraps around the body's muscles, is not only an important layer of defense for the human body, but also the key to protecting the body from damage caused by its own force. If the skin membrane is too fragile, even if one has mastered a high level of force-generating skills and can concentrate all the strength of the body into a single point for explosive release, it will still tear the skin and flesh, causing muscle damage.

but,
When the skin membrane strengthens and firmly envelops the muscles, it can easily withstand the force exerted.

After transitioning from primary to secondary blood clotting, the body undergoes a transformation. While the increase in strength may not be significant, perhaps only around 30%, the body's resilience, endurance, and other aspects will be greatly enhanced.

A private meditation room.

Holding the Crimson Python Spear, Wu Ming flicked his arm and suddenly exerted his strength, the spear thrusting forward sharply, striking and stabbing repeatedly at an extremely fast speed, leaving only faint afterimages. In a flash, he thrust out a full sixteen times!
This is the most powerful killing move after mastering the Falling Leaf Spear Technique. It is called "Falling Leaves Without a Trace". It refers to the tree canopy shaking, causing countless leaves to fall. After the spear thrusts repeatedly, not a single leaf can be seen on the ground. All the leaves are touched by the spear tip. "Without a trace" also refers to the spear's thrusting, which is invisible and swift as the wind.

Previously,

Wu Ming still found it quite strenuous to use this move. If he forced it, his muscles would fall into a state of temporary fatigue and he would need some time to recover. But now that he had entered the second stage of blood clotting, even though only seven days had passed and his body's transformation was not yet complete, he could use this move without any pressure. After firing sixteen shots in a row, his body still contained plenty of stamina.

"No wonder it is said that a second-stage blood coagulation can easily deal with three first-stage blood coagulation opponents when their skill levels are comparable. This so-called 'easily' does not mean a direct confrontation, but rather that it relies on the endurance and physical strength that the body possesses after the transformation to pull against an opponent with first-stage blood coagulation. An ordinary first-stage blood coagulation opponent is naturally far from being a match for them."

Wu Ming holstered his gun and stood there, seemingly lost in thought.

Even a martial artist who has achieved secondary blood clotting is still human, not a being with three heads and six arms. If faced with three martial artists who have achieved primary blood clotting and are surrounded by them wielding spears and attacking wildly, they would find it difficult to resist and would be beaten to death by a flurry of punches.

In reality, a martial artist who has achieved the first stage of blood clotting is physically inferior to a master who has achieved the second stage of blood clotting. It is very difficult for them to form a pincer attack from both the front and the back. A master who has achieved the second stage of blood clotting only needs to rely on their physical advantage to move around and distract others without getting surrounded. They can then move freely, look for weaknesses, and find an opportunity to strike one person first. The remaining two are no match for them.

At least for Wu Ming, after he entered the second stage of blood coagulation, if he were to deal with the three versions of himself from the first stage of blood coagulation, he would be confident of victory. Even if he couldn't win, he would at least be in an invincible position.

"With my current skills, I'm basically unbeatable in the second stage of blood clotting, but if I were to face the third stage of blood clotting..."

Wu Ming recalled the marksmanship that Hong Jiu had once demonstrated in front of him.

Wu Ming had heard that Hong Jiu's skills had reached the realm of unity, but when Hong Jiu instructed him, he did not incorporate the power of 'unity' into the spear technique. Therefore, Wu Ming could now replicate the spear technique that Hong Jiu used back then.

However, in terms of pure strength and speed, even though Hong Jiu is old and his blood and physical strength have declined, he is still superior to him. The difference is not small. At least, Wu Ming cannot do the kind of thing that he can do now: with the strength of two fingers, he can drive an unsharpened spear into a hard bluestone brick with a flick of his wrist.

"Having broken through the three blood clotting stages, one's martial will has been honed to a very firm level. If I were to use the Demonic Bewitching Technique, it would probably be completely ineffective. The Lin Word Technique might not be very useful either. I can only rely on my microscopic level of perception to barely resist in terms of moves. But if the difference in strength and speed is too great, even if I have a slight advantage in moves, it will still be difficult to defend against."

After some thought, Wu Ming concluded that he still had no chance of winning against the three previous blood clotting attacks.

Three times of blood clotting, three times of refining the primordial spirit.

All of these represent qualitative changes!

"To go from secondary to tertiary blood clotting, one needs to accumulate extremely rich blood energy to reach the threshold for breakthrough. Even with my current cultivation progress, it would probably take more than two years to reach that point."

"As for the Three Refinements of the Primordial Spirit..."

Since Wu Ming studied the Daoist manual, he has learned the method of cultivating the soul. Every night, he sits in meditation, contemplates the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, and conjures up three kinds of inner demons, which he then suppresses with the Lin word technique.

Through repeated refinement, the spirit and soul continue to improve.

It must be said that the "Lin" technique is indeed a Taoist method containing supreme mystery, far more powerful than the methods for subduing inner demons recorded in the True Explanation of Taoist Methods.

At least Wu Ming had tried using the "Subduing Demons and Stabilizing the Mind Technique" recorded in the True Explanation of Daoist Methods to subdue the three mental demons of greed, anger, and ignorance that he had visualized. It required a lot of spiritual power to subdue the mental demons one by one. However, by using the "Lin" technique, he could suppress all the mental demons in an instant. The two techniques had similar effects on strengthening the spiritual soul after subduing the mental demons, but the difference in efficiency was at least ten times, and they were simply incomparable.

but,

The gap between the second and third refinement of the primordial spirit is also very large, and it requires accumulating enough powerful soul force to break through. Even with the supreme technique of the "Lin" character, Wu Ming estimated that it would still take about a year to reach the threshold of the third refinement.

With the Linzi Technique in hand, Wu Ming felt that the bottleneck of the Three Refinements of the Primordial Spirit could not hold him back. And as long as he completed the Three Refinements of the Primordial Spirit, the threshold of the Three Blood Condensation would also not stop him. However, all of this would take time.

"It takes a year to refine the primordial spirit three times and more than two years to condense blood three times. It seems that the only way to make a big improvement in strength in a short period of time is to understand the mystery of the unity of skill and technique."

Wu Ming muttered to himself.

He has been in the Cautious Punishment Division recently and has felt considerable pressure. This pressure has little to do with Guo Xiang, the inner disciple of the Black Fiend Sect, whom he provoked a few months ago, but rather with the increasingly serious situation of demons running rampant recently.

Even before joining the Censorate, Wu Ming knew that the rampant spread of demons had become increasingly serious in recent years. After joining the Censorate, he was able to access its files and gained a deeper understanding of the demonic scourge.

In the past month alone, the Demon Suppression Division has been short-staffed and has been frequently transferring personnel from the Cautious Punishment Division.

The Night Patrol originally had twelve squads of men, but four of them were recently transferred to the Foreign Affairs Division to assist the Demon Suppression Division in dealing with the demonic calamities outside Jingye City. Now, only eight squads remain.

Although Wu Ming's team, which was under the command of Zhou Huai'an, was not among the four teams that were to be conscripted, Wu Ming felt that if the rampant monsters outside the city continued to escalate, it would be only a matter of time before they were conscripted. After all, the Night Patrol Division was a relatively leisurely office. Wu Ming had been there for several months and had only encountered two thieves stealing.

(End of this chapter)