Chapter 143: Bone Marrow Replacement, Kidney Opening

The newly formed marrow was bright red and gelatinous, radiating a sense of exuberant vitality and brimming with power.

In contrast, the replaced old marrow was dark and pitch-black, partly congealed into hard lumps and partly as thin as water. It looked deeply abnormal, exuding a listless and powerless air of senility.

According to the description in the cultivation notes left by that Qi Refining stage senior, the marrow within the human body should naturally be bright red in color, gel-like in texture, and full of youthful vigor.

It was only due to acquired injuries, illnesses, aging, and various other conditions that the marrow within the human body gradually deteriorated and decayed.

Ultimately, when the marrow lost its hematopoietic function and could no longer produce fresh blood, a person's life would come to an end.

Shang Lu had "died" once before. After coming back to life, he had relied on the flood dragon meat given by Sanniang to nurse his body back to health.

That near-fatal trauma had also taken a toll on his marrow.

Even though Shang Lu's cultivation had already reached the peak of the Pulse Condensation stage, the marrow inside his bones was still in poor condition.

And even this was solely thanks to Sanniang's meticulous care and the nourishment of the Temple of the Five Viscera.

Otherwise, it would have been even worse—either completely hardening or turning into a malignant fluid.

Not only would it fail to nourish the mind and brain, strengthen the bones, and generate blood, but it would also cast a negative influence on the brain, bones, and blood, causing his bodily functions to deteriorate further.

In time, he would end up like a frail, hollow-kidneyed young master: possessing decent cultivation yet a wretched physique, prone to falling gravely ill at the slightest provocation.

As the new marrow entered the right ulna, Shang Lu immediately felt a surge of warm current flowing through his lower arm.

This warm current reinforced his muscles, bones, and acupuncture points.

Attributes such as the arm's strength and speed experienced a noticeable boost.

Propelled by this warm current, his blood-qi could also project outward more effectively, forming a faint barrier around the ulna.

It was akin to wearing a bracer armor; not only did it provide defensive properties, but it could also instantly manifest as a "thorny soft armor" to injure enemies.

And this was merely the result of refining and washing a tiny patch of marrow.

When the ulna, or even the marrow of his entire right arm, was successfully cleansed and replaced, the might of his right arm would undoubtedly undergo a massive enhancement!

By that time, Shang Lu would probably truly possess a pair of "Qilin Arms."

To Shang Lu's astonishment, the discarded old marrow was not wasted at all. Driven by the blood-qi within his meridians, it was actually pushed into the Temple of the Five Viscera.

First, it was refined into blood-qi by the spleen spirit. Immediately afterward, the liver spirit extracted the toxins and harmful substances from this blood-qi, and finally, the small intestine meridian separated the clear from the turbid, distilling out the quintessential essence.

Through this entire process, complete recycling of waste was achieved, generating a substantial amount of blood-qi from the old marrow.

This blood-qi would then be used once more in refining new marrow, completing a closed-loop cycle.

Shang Lu clicked his tongue in wonder, as this phenomenon was entirely absent from the notes of that Qi Refining stage senior.

On the contrary, the notes specifically recorded a method for expelling old marrow, emphasizing that if the old marrow was not purged in time, it would exert negative effects on the body and even drag down one's cultivation.

It seemed that turning old marrow into a usable resource was a special, unique function of the Temple of the Five Viscera.

Shang Lu continued to refine blood and transform marrow, replacing the old marrow bit by bit.

On this night, Shang Lu spent most of his time familiarizing himself with the method of blood refinement and marrow transformation. The amount of new marrow successfully refined and replaced in the end was not large—estimated to be only a little under half of his right ulna.

For a first attempt at refining blood and transforming marrow, achieving such results was already quite remarkable!

For many people, their first attempt at refining blood and transforming marrow either ended in complete failure or, despite expending every ounce of effort, yielded nothing more than a tiny fleck of new marrow.

For someone like Shang Lu, who lacked the backing of an aristocratic clan or a major sect, such refining results were enough to astonish onlookers.

However, Shang Lu was not entirely satisfied.

He was in a rush to break through his cultivation to the Marrow Cleansing stage, or at the very least, reach the threshold of Marrow Cleansing.

Only by doing so would he have absolute confidence, upon the arrival of the frontier army, to suppress their unruly arrogance and win their heartfelt submission.

Calculating the time, the frontier army should arrive in Luoshui County within these next few days.

Time was running out for Shang Lu.

After a brief rest, Shang Lu resumed refining blood and transforming marrow.

He kept at it deep into the night until his body could barely hold out any longer, only then stopping.

He prepared to recuperate and rest, intending to continue refining blood and transforming marrow once his body recovered the next day.

After soaking in the cold bath, Shang Lu lay down on the bed and invited Sanniang to sleep beside him.

Given Shang Lu's current level of cultivation, he was still incapable of actively embracing Sanniang.

Yet Sanniang doted on him; as long as he asked, she would allow him to hold her.

Sanniang's body was soft and exceptionally comfortable to embrace. Though somewhat chilly, for a hot-blooded young man like Shang Lu, it was not an issue at all.

Moreover, holding Sanniang allowed Shang Lu to relax completely, granting him the finest rest and recovery.

A similar sensation had been experienced previously within the Hall of Goddess Houtu at the Witch Temple.

After chatting with Sanniang in his embrace for a little while, Shang Lu closed his eyes, drove the Internal Classic Viscera Refining Diagram, and prepared to drift into slumber amidst his cultivation.

However, the moment he closed his eyes, his spiritual awareness entered the Temple of the Five Viscera, and he was astonished to discover that the mist shrouding one of the divine statues had receded by more than half.

Though not yet fully activated, the lower half of the deity's body was now visible.

This was a pitch-black divine statue, treading upon surging waves beneath its feet.

Although the upper body was still shrouded in mist and its face could not be seen, Shang Lu knew without looking that the face of this divine statue must be identical to his own.

If it turned out to be someone else's face, that would be truly terrifying!

"The five elements correspond to water, and the five colors correspond to black—this is the kidney spirit. Of course! The kidneys govern the bones and produce marrow; after refining blood to generate marrow, it fed back into the kidneys, causing the mist enveloping the kidney spirit to largely dissipate!"

Shang Lu quickly figured out the reason, followed by a surge of elation.

Judging by this situation, tomorrow he might be able to completely dispel the mist shrouding the kidney spirit statue.

Once the kidney spirit was activated, it would in turn reinforce the effects of refining blood and generating marrow, assisting Shang Lu in charging toward the Marrow Cleansing stage!

"Splendid, this is simply wonderful!"

Shang Lu was wild with joy.

When the next day arrived, Shang Lu went to the official office early in the morning. After handling a few urgent official duties, he instructed everyone to seek him out at home if anything came up.

Then he hurried back home, eager to begin that day's blood refinement and marrow transformation.

There was no Flesh Tuisui meat to eat today.

When Shang Lu returned home, he even went to take a look at it.

Although the Flesh Tuisui, soaking in the flood dragon blood, had grown a bit larger, it could not keep up with him hacking off pieces of flesh to eat every day.

Even so, perhaps due to absorbing the flood dragon blood, the color of the Flesh Tuisui was noticeably brighter and more vibrant than before.

Whether its efficacy had improved remained to be seen, but its appearance was certainly much more appealing.

As for the Qi-Devouring Centipede eggs, Shang Lu also went to check on them, but there were still no signs of them hatching.

Nor did Sanniang feed these eggs blood-food at the hour of the rooster's crow.

Instead, she had switched to a different feeding method:

Every morning at sunrise and at dusk just as the sun was setting, she would first use qi to guide the tiny centipedes inside the eggs, awakening them before feeding them flood dragon blood.

Fortunately, Sanniang had previously gathered a massive amount of flood dragon blood; otherwise, Shang Lu would not have enough to spare and would have to resort to feeding the Qi-Devouring Centipedes rooster blood, the efficacy of which would be vastly inferior.

After inspecting the Flesh Tuisui and the Qi-Devouring Centipedes, Shang Lu ladled a bowl of the marrow-refining soup that Sanniang had newly brewed.

The Flesh Tuisui meat could not be eaten every day, but the marrow-refining soup could be had in abundance.

Just like yesterday, Shang Lu first had Sanniang drink a bowl, poured some for Uncle Huai, and then gulped down the remaining marrow-cleansing soup in one breath.

Just as he was about to begin refining blood and transforming marrow, he heard a round of knocking at the door.

Opening it, he saw that the visitor was Witch Official Wang Chao.

Shang Lu inwardly cried out that it was bad, assuming the Witch Official had come to reclaim the little bell.

To his surprise, Wang Chao did not mention the matter at all.

He chuckled as he produced a wooden box and handed it to Shang Lu.

"This is the reward bestowed by the Witch Shrine for capturing the Blood Calamity Deity."