Blood Practicing Level 1 requires the practicer to break through all the dermal meridians . At Level 2, he needs to break open all of his muscular meridians . Only 1 or 2 out of 10 people with Blood Power Level 1 can make a breakthrough and reach Level 2 .

At Level 2, his strength will drastically increase, and he’ll be able to lift up more than 500 kilos in weight . It also strengthens his defense and makes him tough as a tiger .

Level 1 is the basics of Level 2 . Dermal meridians are intertwined with muscular meridians . The blood essence can pa.s.s through his skin into his muscle, and that’s where Level 2 starts .

Practicing Blood means manipulating blood essence . Blood essence must flow freely through his skin, muscles, tendons, bones, marrows, internal organs and ultimately the whole body . If the essence can flow wherever the mind wills, the power that comes forth will be immense .

Li Xing has mastered his blood essence in the dermal meridians . Now he tries to direct his blood essence into his muscular meridians, according to The Book of Ultimate Blood .

This time Li Xing detects his muscular meridians with ease . The part he chooses is located on his right forearm . He tries to send blood essence there .

The moment his blood essence touches the muscular meridian, Li Xing screams in pain, jumps and falls on the ground .

“G.o.d! Why does it hurt so bad!” Shocked and confused, Li Xing does not recall The Book mentioning anything about this pain .

Li Xing tries to calm himself down and starts thinking again: I couldn’t practice blood before, but the bead helped me reach Level 1 . Is my body still unfit for further blood practicing, thus the pain?

The more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense . Li Xing reaches for a dagger sitting next to his bed, clenches his jaw . With wide open eyes he hisses through his teeth, “If it has to be this way, so be it!”

Splurt!

He is determined . He cuts his left forearm open with a fierce stab .

Blood gushes out . His face twitches from the pain . He pulls out the dagger . Leaving the wound open he takes out the bead and puts it on his forearm . Then he closes his eyes and searches for the power .

This time the bead reacts immediately . In less than a minute a warm, mysterious energy flows into his arm and muscles .

Li Xing opens his eyes again and stares intently at his arm .

The inch-long wound is healing again at an observable speed . In three minutes the penetration wound disappears just like that . His arms are as good as new, only blood stains are left .

“Now we’ll see if the bead can increase my potential in addition to healing!” Li Xing suddenly becomes nervous . What if he is wrong? Maybe he’ll be stuck on Level 1 forever!

“I’m ready for whatever!” Li Xing makes up his mind . He moves his blood essences again into his muscular meridians .

This time, his blood essence pours into his muscular meridians like floodwater, meeting little resistance and causing no pain .

“So it’s confirmed!” Li Xing opens his eyes again in joy . The bead really can improve his potentials, and it can do so in no time!

“If G.o.d presents me with this opportunity, I’ll make the most of it!” Li Xing is filled with courage . He lifts the bead closer to the light .

The bead is no larger than his fingertip, round and smooth . It appears white but if he looks closely, he can see iridescent reflections .

“Mother left this bead for me . Who is she? Why have I never seen her?” Li Xing ponders for a moment and decides to move on .

The whole night Li Xing experiments with the bead . Like a crazed m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t he stabs himself again and again to test the power of this bead .

After a lot of testing, Li Xing finds that the graver the wound, the more he gets improved by the bead . He cannot recall how many times he stabbed himself or how much blood he lost before he is able to manipulate blood within muscular meridians all over his body .

“Must I keep hurting myself to improve my blood power?” Determined as he is, Li Xing cannot bear the thought of it . He shudders .

“No! This cannot continue!” he then recalls the time when Li Fei almost killed him with a single kick .

“I know! If I get beaten up regularly, I’ll get my powers up in no time!”

The very thought of this, however, sends a dry smile up Li Xing’s lips . “People are looking for wealth, while I’m looking for trouble!”

In his previous life Li Xing was bullied by kids his age . He’d got used to all the bullying so he doesn’t really mind getting beat up . Still, asking for it feels wrong somehow .

Li Xing can’t sleep, so he stays up all night, “practicing blood” .

Morning comes with a great prize . After tonight he has opened up about 1/20 of his muscular meridians .

Normally a regular blood power apprentice needs 5 years to open up all of their muscular meridians . More gifted apprentices may take a year . Even the prodigies need a month or two to complete the process .

But for Li Xing, it only takes about 20 days to open up all the meridians if he keeps it up .

In other words, Li Xing is a prodigy among prodigies!