Mortal: I became invincible after becoming sworn brothers with Han Li.

Inside the cave, Li Yunfan sat cross-legged on a futon, took out a red jade bottle, and as soon as he opened the stopper, a strong, fishy stench wafted out, causing him to frown.

He put the bottle stopper back on and placed it on the ground in front of him. Then he waved his hand and released a six-inch-long three-legged round cauldron. He then took out more than a dozen wooden boxes from his storage bag and arranged them one by one.

"Fortunately, when I was with the family, I had someone collect some of the necessary spiritual herbs and take this small cauldron with me. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have been able to refine the essence blood of these demonic beasts now," Li Yunfan thought to himself with a sense of relief.

When he asked the Li family disciples to help him purchase materials for refining puppets, he had a sudden thought and took out a jade slip and handed it to the clansman in charge of purchasing. The slip contained some spiritual herbs that he might use in the future, including a spiritual herb for refining the blood essence of demonic beasts.

According to the records in the animal skin book, before the Soul Devouring Undying Body cultivates to the Core Formation stage, the spiritual medicines used to refine the demon blood do not need to be too rare; those that are a hundred years old are sufficient. Only a few key spiritual medicines require rare varieties that have grown for four or five hundred years.

With the Li family's current wealth, the disciples who were out collecting and purchasing did not have much effort to gather most of the spiritual herbs recorded in the jade slip, and even managed to purchase two of the rare varieties that were four or five hundred years old.

After glancing at everything laid out in front of him, Li Yunfan took a deep breath, flipped his hand to summon the Purple Nether Heart Flame, and gently flicked it at the three-legged cauldron. The purple flames roared out and burst into flames at the bottom of the cauldron.

His Purple Nether Heart Flame is much better than the Innate True Flame, so naturally he wouldn't choose to use the Innate True Flame, which consumes a lot of spiritual energy.

As the Purple Nether Heart Flame continued to burn, the bottom of the three-legged cauldron quickly turned bright red.

Upon seeing this, Li Yunfan immediately raised his hand and pointed at the jade bottle containing the essence blood of the demon beast. The stopper opened automatically, and the foul-smelling, bright red essence blood inside instantly transformed into a red blood streak and flew into the small cauldron.

He then pointed to a wooden box in front of him. After the lid was opened, the spiritual herbs inside flew into the small cauldron on their own. He then slowly closed his eyes, focusing his divine sense on the inside of the cauldron, constantly controlling the size of the Purple Nether Heart Flame based on the refinement of the essence blood and spiritual herbs within.

After the spiritual herb was completely refined into his blood essence, Li Yunfan opened his eyes again and put another spiritual herb into it to continue refining...

Three hours later, Li Yunfan finally completed the refining process using the essence blood of demonic beasts, as recorded in the cultivation technique.

At this moment, the blood essence in the jade bottle in his hand no longer had that fishy smell, but instead emitted a faint fragrance, although its color was still bright red.

After taking out the animal skin book and carefully reviewing the cultivation method, he took a deep breath, tilted his head back, and poured the essence blood from the bottle into his mouth.

To his surprise, the refined essence blood not only emitted a pleasant fragrance, but also did not feel sticky at all when it entered his mouth. Instead, it flowed straight down his throat into his stomach like clear spring water.

He casually tossed the jade bottle aside, closed his eyes tightly, placed his hands in a hand seal over his dantian, and began to circulate the Devouring Spirit Undying Body technique. The spiritual energy within his body, carrying his essence blood, circulated throughout his entire body. With each cycle, his essence blood would decrease slightly, and every inch of his flesh and blood would feel a tingling sensation, making him feel extremely comfortable.

It took Li Yunfan two months to completely refine the essence of the demon beast into his body, and he could clearly feel the changes happening to his body.

Not only did his strength increase significantly, but a continuous surge of power also welled up within him, making him want to get up and swing his weapon.

Feeling the changes in his body, Li Yunfan couldn't help but smile with excitement. After briefly testing his current strength, he began refining the second bottle of demonic beast blood essence...

Because of its unique cultivation method, the Soul Devouring Undying Body is not divided into the same number of levels as other cultivation techniques; it is only divided into three stages: early, middle, and late.

In the early stages, only the essence blood of level 3 or lower monsters is needed; in the mid-stage, the essence blood of level 6 or lower monsters is needed; and in the late stage, the essence blood of level 7 or higher monsters must be used.

The amount of demon beast essence blood consumed at each stage depends on the degree of refinement. For example, the first cultivation in the initial stage uses the essence blood of a low-level level one demon beast. After it no longer enhances the body, the essence blood of a mid-level level one demon beast is needed, followed by high-level level one and even level two demon beasts, and so on.

Although Li Yunfan didn't know what level of demonic beast's essence blood Yue Tian had left behind, after he cultivated for the third time, that essence blood could no longer serve its purpose of refining his body.

"It seems this essence blood was left over from Yue Tian's cultivation, but I don't know if it's at the initial or intermediate level of level one..."

Li Yunfan frowned slightly as he pondered. After a moment, he sighed and decided that after the Sword Trial Tournament, he would first try to obtain the essence blood of a high-level level one demon beast. If that didn't work, he would have to find a level two demon beast.

However, according to his guess, Yue Tian must have used the blood essence of a level-two demon beast after entering the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. After all, although a level-two demon beast is equivalent to a cultivator in the early Foundation Establishment stage, in a one-on-one situation, a cultivator in the early Foundation Establishment stage may not necessarily be a match for a level-two demon beast.

After thinking it over, Li Yunfan put away the three-legged cauldron, then waved his hand and released a whirlwind of spiritual energy, which swept up the jade bottles and wooden boxes in front of him and blew them to a corner of the cultivation room.

He then took out a fist-sized piece of "patterned iron stone" from his storage bag, and squeezed it with his five fingers. Five faint vertical marks immediately appeared on the patterned iron stone, which would not be easily noticed at a glance.

Li Yunfan was still very happy. He had only just begun to refine his physical body and he was already able to make marks on the extremely hard iron stone. If he practiced a few more times, he would probably be able to embed his finger directly into it.

This only strengthened his resolve to pursue his path of body refinement!

With only ten days or so left before the Sword Trial Tournament, he put away the iron stone, closed his eyes again, and began to cultivate the Nine Revolutions Burning Heaven Technique.

While he was cultivating alone in his cave, the Luoyun Sect had already held a competition to select the remaining twenty-three participants for the Sword Trial Tournament.

In addition to the six people personally designated by the six peak masters, there was also Li Yunfan, personally recommended by Elder Feng.

Very few disciples in the sect knew his name; in fact, almost none of them recognized him. Therefore, the disciples participating in the competition were somewhat indignant about this mysterious figure, and some Qi Refining stage disciples were even cursing him inwardly.

If one spot is lost out of nowhere, wouldn't those disciples who were originally close to the end of the competition be unable to participate in the Sword Trial Tournament and win the generous rewards this time?

It's important to know that even if you rank at the bottom in the Sword Trial Tournament, the rewards are still extremely generous. At the very least, you'll receive a high-grade magic weapon, and if you rank higher, you can even get a top-grade magic weapon.

These Qi Refining stage disciples participated almost entirely for the reward, since apart from the elders' descendants, their cultivation level and magical artifacts alone would make it impossible for them to enter the top ten.

Twelve days later, on a huge plaza somewhere in the Luoyun Sect, thirty disciples in blue robes stood in formation, the majority of whom were male, numbering more than twenty. Li Yunfan was among them.