Taming beasts is not as good as taming yourself

"A possessing pet, you know."

After ending the call with Zhou Shanhai, Wu Xiao slowly pondered the term. He had naturally looked into the concept of possessing pets before, since this wasn't the first time Zhou Shanhai had mentioned it.

Wu Xiao was not opposed to having a possessive pet, as it could indeed greatly enhance his combat power.

But before that, Wu Xiao's top priority is to improve himself.

A simple example: Wu Xiao used the 3000 points he had acquired to exchange for a possessing pet. Regardless of the pet's aptitude, without these 3000 points, Wu Xiao's meat refining progress would be stalled. Moreover, the rarer the pet, the more resources it requires to cultivate.

Without points, coupled with the expenses of raising pets, Wu Xiao's combat power not only failed to improve in the short term, but actually decreased.

Therefore, the optimal solution now is to focus all resources on improving one's own combat power. Only when one's cultivation level hits a bottleneck and one has surplus resources will Wu Xiao consider other options.

"Meow!"

Seeing that Wu Xiao had fallen into deep thought after finishing his call with that bad guy, Mimi quickly spoke up. That bad guy had been urging Wu Xiao to contract with other pets, which made Mimi very unhappy, and she decided to scratch him the next time she saw him.

"Okay, you're the best."

Wu Xiao stroked the little fox's head; the little guy was quite jealous. However, he was also easy to coax; a few words of praise and the little fox happily jumped onto the bedside.

Then, the little guy puffed out its chest, meowed, and wagged its fluffy tail, looking quite adorable. However, after watching closely for a moment, Wu Xiao realized that this wasn't Mimi acting cute, but rather practicing its skills.

Mimi's two skills don't seem to have any deterrent effect at all; instead, they seem more like she's being affectionate.

Wu Xiao turned his gaze back to the illustration in his hand. Mimi had worked so hard, so he naturally couldn't slack off either. Now that he had a generous amount of points, Wu Xiao would begin preparing for his cultivation of the second stage of Body Tempering, the Flesh Refining stage.

Similar to the Skin Refining Realm, Wu Xiao first tested it on a simulator. Only after everything was in order would he begin his cultivation in reality.

On the first day of simulator testing, Wu Xiao prepared to use the blood crystal he was most familiar with to try his second stage of body tempering, the flesh refining stage.

After more than ten verifications, Wu Xiao confirmed that the efficiency of blood crystal meat refining was not high, especially when using medicinal baths, the absorption rate was less than 20%.

The reason is simple: when refining the skin, the blood crystal energy comes into direct contact with the skin, which is why the efficiency has broken through to more than 50%. However, when refining the flesh, the cultivation still requires a medicinal bath, so the blood crystal energy needs to penetrate the skin first before it can seep into the flesh.

If it's simply a matter of penetrating the skin's barrier, it's not a big problem. At worst, it just takes a little more time for the power of the blood crystal to slowly seep in. In the early stages, this is actually a good thing. With the skin as a barrier, the energy of the blood crystal can slowly enter, preventing the energy from rushing in all at once and causing the body to be unable to handle it.

The key point is that this skin not only acts as a barrier, but also intercepts the energy of the blood crystal. Although Wu Xiao's skin refinement has reached a high level, his skin can still absorb the energy of the blood crystal.

This change naturally caught Wu Xiao's attention. The Great Completion Realm should be the end point of body tempering, but the fact that his skin was still absorbing blood crystal energy made Wu Xiao see something different.

It seems that achieving mastery is not the end point of body training.

"Could it be the change brought about by this extraordinary power?" In the previous life, without extraordinary power, the Great Completion was the highest realm of body tempering deduced by various martial arts masters. But the extraordinary power in this life seems to have broken through this barrier, allowing the realm of body tempering to take another step forward.

To verify his hypothesis, Wu Xiao tested it with a simulator. The result was just as he had guessed: after mastering the skin refining technique, it could still absorb blood crystal energy to strengthen itself, but the strengthening speed was extremely slow.

Wu Xiao changed the blood crystal energy to unlimited on the simulator and strengthened it for several days, but the strength only increased by less than 3%.

Good news: there is a new realm above the Great Completion realm. Bad news: to step into the realm above the Great Completion realm, a massive amount of resources will be required.

Given Wu Xiao's current situation, it's impossible for him to use all his resources to explore realms beyond the Great Perfection. Entering the second stage of Body Tempering, the Flesh Refining stage, is the fastest way to improve his combat power.

Wu Xiao has mastered the cultivation method of the mature Flesh Refining Realm, but he has absolutely no clue how to reach the Skin Refining Realm, which is beyond the Great Perfection.

But this doesn't mean Wu Xiao will give up. Pursuing a breakthrough in martial arts has always been Wu Xiao's dream, but he hasn't reached the top yet, so how can he talk about breaking through the limit?

To break through the limit, one must wait until Wu Xiaojiang has mastered all four stages of body tempering and there is no further path on the martial arts path before seeking to break through the limit.

Having scrapped the medicinal bath method of body tempering, Wu Xiao began experimenting with a new method. This new method was simple: if the medicinal bath didn't work, he would take it orally.

Unfortunately, Wu Xiao had only achieved the Great Perfection of Skin Refinement, not the Great Perfection of Internal Organ Refinement. When the violent blood crystal energy entered his body, it was like a mad bull charging into a crowd, rampaging through Wu Xiao's internal organs. Wu Xiao's simulated body only lasted a few breaths before it died.

Unwilling to give up, Wu Xiao tried several more times. He thought of using his mental power to restrain the blood crystal's violent energy, but the blood crystal's energy was like a mad bull, and it was difficult to control with his mental power.

When ordinary mental strength failed, Wu Xiao directly used the Great Sun Divine Sense. However, as soon as the blazing Great Sun Divine Sense came into contact with the blood crystal energy, it was as if a spark had fallen into an oil drum, and the blood crystal energy was immediately ignited.

Then, a violent power erupted from Wu Xiao's body. It was a power far greater than the power of igniting muscles. To give a simple example, the Great Sun Divine Sense is fire, muscles are paper, and blood crystal energy is charcoal. The energy produced by burning the two is definitely not on the same level.

What is the price to pay for igniting the blood crystal energy and gaining such violent power?

The price was that Wu Xiao's internal organs were burned to ashes. It was clear that unless Wu Xiao reached the Refining Realm, the cultivation method of consuming blood crystals would not work.

The problem is that Refining the Dirty is the fourth stage of Body Tempering, while Wu Xiao is currently stuck at the second stage of Body Tempering, the Flesh Refining stage.

"Let's see if there are any extraordinary powers with milder energy properties." Exiting the simulator, Wu Xiao took out a police encyclopedia and began searching for other extraordinary items that could be used to temper the body.

"Dewdrops!"

Wu Xiao quickly found a water-attribute extraordinary material. This Condensed Water Dew comes from a water and wood dual-type pet called Water Dew Flower. Every morning, a drop of Condensed Water Dew can be condensed in the petals of the Water Dew Flower.

Collecting these condensed water dews creates a unique water-attribute material, an excellent resource for nurturing water-attribute pets.

Because these items are produced by pet beasts rather than by demon beasts, their production is relatively stable, making them cheaper than blood crystals.

Wu Xiao spent 100 points to exchange for half a bottle. Originally, Wu Xiao only wanted to exchange for one drop, as one drop of Condensing Dew would be enough for the simulator. However, the logistics department disagreed. Finally, after much pleading and persuasion, they agreed to let Wu Xiao exchange for half a bottle.

"Don't let me down," Wu Xiao prayed silently, holding the newly delivered Dew of Condensation.