Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

"Ahh!" Ji Quan was screaming like a madman, trying to bear the pain. "Kill me! I'm begging you, kill me..."

Covered in Lu Changsheng's blood, he could not even manage to kill himself, yet the agony was more than he could stand.

Lu Changsheng could clearly feel the true demon's aura on Ji Quan thinning away slowly as his own blood devoured the demon's blood. Several hours later, Ji Quan stopped moving.

"Is he dead?" Lu Changsheng wondered.

At once, he withdrew his blood back into himself. When it was gone, there was no corpse where Ji Quan had been. He had completely vanished.

As far as Lu Changsheng knew, only one thing could make a true demon disappear like that. That meant he was actually dead, which was hardly surprising given that Lu Changsheng had the power to kill true demons. He shook his head. "Ah... Who would've thought he'd actually die from that? So a true demon can't bear it either..."

For research purposes, Lu Changsheng was going through demons at a fearful rate.

True demons were meant to be immortal, but two of them had already died at his hands, and he had only been studying them!

However, his attempt to force a demon's conversion had at least answered the question. It turned out that a true demon could not be made into a blood descendant. His blood and a true demon's blood would always be at war with each other. Forcefully combining them meant one would get devoured down to nothing, killing the demon in the process.

With his question answered, Lu Changsheng threw out the idea of trying to convert true demons.

Just then, Chen Ping arrived and said, "Progenitor, Zhang Qing has been converted, and he's offered up a rare treasure from his family called a demon flower. Legend has it that somewhere in the demon nation, there's a stretch of demon soil.

“Plants grown out of that soil are called demon plants and have all kinds of unbelievable properties. Even among true demons, they're considered priceless treasures. An ancestor of Zhang Qing's came by a demon flower through sheer chance and stored it away after drying it. Zhang Qing wants to present it to you."

The news came as something of a surprise.

"Send Zhang Qing to me."

"Yes, Progenitor."

Zhang Qing was standing before him shortly after.

After converting, he had lost every scrap of his old resistance. He had felt the benefits for himself, down to the small issues his body had been carrying for years. All of them were gone!

Having realized the massive benefits one would obtain upon being the progenitor's blood, Zhang Qing came running with a treasure in his hands. What he wanted was Lu Changsheng's flesh bestowed upon him.

"Progenitor, this is the demon plant my ancestors had left behind,” Zhang Qing said, presenting a finely made wooden box.

Lu Changsheng opened it and found a dried blood-colored flower inside with a few missing petals.

"How do you use this demon flower? What does it do?" Lu Changsheng asked.

"Progenitor, it can be swallowed with water. As for what it does, they say the body changes in certain ways after you take it. You mustn't eat too much of it, though. My ancestors would only take a small piece of a petal at a time, grind it to powder, and mix it with water to drink.

“We're only ordinary mortals, so taking it never seemed to do much for us."

Zhang Qing was a little embarrassed saying it. He had taken some himself in hopes of improving his physical condition, but it had done nothing for him, which had been a great disappointment. It was precisely because the demon flower was a great treasure that had no effect on him that Zhang Qing was gladly willing to give it away.

Lu Changsheng nodded. He could not be bothered with water and powder. He plucked off a petal and tossed it into his mouth, expecting very little from it since Zhang Qing had gotten nothing out of the thing.

Thump!

Suddenly, a surge of vitality ran through his blood. It was a violent liveliness, almost like the petal had been a kind of catalyst to set the whole of his body on fire.

He immediately swallowed potent tonics of every kind, and the effect turned out to be unmistakably good. Within two hours, his fleshly body had grown stronger by a measurable degree.

Lu Changsheng ran a rough calculation in his head. If I eat a petal a day and the effects are consistent, I can almost double the speed of my progress. That would be around fifteen percent of progress a month!

The figure sent a jolt of excitement through him.

The effect was indeed very good, and that was merely one petal. What would taking two petals or even three petals do?

Feeling it out carefully, though, he found that he needed several days to fully refine a single petal, so there was no use eating more than one. If he consumed one petal at a time, the demon flower that Zhang Qing presented him would only last him two to three months. Even so, it was a fine thing to have.

Demon plants! I need more of them!

Lu Changsheng instantly understood what he needed to do next. To carry his fleshly body to Fourth Growth, Fifth Growth, or even Sixth Growth within ten years, he would have to consume demon plants. The more of them he could eat, the better the results. At Fourth Growth and Fifth Growth, he would need them by the handful.

"Zhang Qing, I am very pleased with the demon flower. This mass of my flesh is yours."

He flicked a finger, and a lump of flesh the size of an infant's fist separated from his body and flew to Zhang Qing, boring into him fast and strengthening his body as it went.

"Thank you, Progenitor," Zhang Qing responded delightedly, taking his leave.

"Chen Ping, while you're growing the temple, keep a close watch for word of demon plants. If there's any news of them at all, collect them at once, whatever the cost. If they can't be collected, tell me at once.

“For now, the temple can rest. I'll let you know again when we should keep expanding."

Chen Ping nodded.

The reason he had halted the expansion was that he was waiting for his own breakthrough into Fourth Growth. At Third Growth, he stood level with a greater demon but could not face any demon at a higher rank.

Taking over Drum Mountain City posed no problem at that level, but pushing outward would mean running into more greater demons and even demon kings sooner or later, which Third Growth was not quite enough to tackle.

Lying low was the only sensible course of action for the moment.

***

Back in the Demon God Ministry in the capital of Jing, a jade token shattered completely.

Crack!

"Oh? Ji Quan is dead? Bring me his file."

Ji Quan's file was in the hands of the ministry's senior official shortly after. He read it through carefully and found the part that mattered.

"The magistrate of Drum Mountain City reports what appears to be a true demon in the city, one that founded the Temple of Flesh and Blood and has thrown the place into disorder. Ji Quan was ordered down to investigate, and now he's dead...

“Only a demon can kill another demon, so it seems like there is a demon in Drum Mountain City after all. This is truly a season of troubles. The great capital of Jing was already dealing with the pressure from demon states, so there are no hands to spare for demon sightings now."

Knowing there was trouble in Drum Mountain City and being able to do anything about it were two different matters. Sending another half-demon would be sending a man to his death. Was he supposed to send a greater demon, then? Whoever had killed Ji Quan was most likely a greater demon himself, and the ministry was stretched so thin for greater demons that it could hardly spare any at all.

This matter would have to wait.

"Drum Mountain City and the Temple of Flesh and Blood... I wonder which greater demon's work is this? Once Jing gets reinforcements and some relief from the pressure, we'll go and destroy it."

The Temple of Flesh and Blood was written into the record and set aside. Once the ministry had free hands, it would never let a demon throw a whole region into chaos.

***

Two months slipped past in the blink of an eye. In a sealed chamber of the Temple of Flesh and Blood outside Drum Mountain City, Lu Changsheng's eyes opened. I've done it! Fourth Growth!

He called up the Status Panel.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Changsheng

Title: Flesh and Blood Progenitor

Flesh and Blood Martial Dao: Fourth Growth (1%)