Chapter 7: Ten Thousand Blood-Energy, Blazing Solar Body!

Any drug, before it ever hit the market, had to go through animal testing and three phases of clinical trials. Only after it was proven safe could it be released. Ethan Letherdale had no time to verify safety. He also did not have the spare cash to buy materials for repeated experiments. So he could only use himself as the first lab rat. Besides, only by taking it personally could he understand the Potion's effects with real clarity. When it came time to sell the formula, he would need hard numbers. A sliver of fear stirred in his chest, but it was not fear of danger. It was fear the Potion would not work. After all, he had tested the accuracy of that Mysterious Tattoo on his chest more times than he could count. It had never been wrong. Not once. "Come on." He stopped thinking and went all in. With a low growl, Ethan drove the sharp needle into the deltoid of his arm. His thumb pressed the plunger down, slow and steady, pushing the Potion into his body. When it was done, he tossed the empty syringe aside. He faced the mirror, staring at himself and waiting, taut with nerves. Thump, thump…! A moment later, his heartbeat surged several times stronger, loud as a war drum. Worse, it sped up. Seventy to a hundred. In the blink of an eye, it blasted past two hundred. "Ungh!" A muffled groan tore out of him as every muscle in his body locked tight. In the mirror, his naked body looked like a shrimp yanked from boiling water, flushed a violent red. Starting from his heart, blue veins bulged up like thick earthworms, crawling outward until they webbed across his entire body. "Ah…!" He felt like a volcano on the verge of eruption. A hoarse roar ripped from his throat. The next second, thick black impurities seeped from his pores, mixed with bloody fluid. If he had been able to soak in Body Tempering Liquid at a time like this, it would have eased the pain and helped him absorb the Strengthening Potion's effects more thoroughly. But Ethan had no money to buy Body Tempering Liquid. More importantly, he wanted cleaner, more accurate data. "Ah!" The entire process lasted about ten minutes. With another roar, filthy blood sprayed outward several inches from his skin. Like a volcano that had finally finished erupting, Ethan collapsed to the floor, limp. After a short while, he regained a bit of strength. He pulled the Blood-Energy Meter from the cabinet and tested himself. "This is…!" The number on the screen froze him in place. 1423! He snapped back to himself and tested again, then again. The readings barely changed, all hovering above fourteen hundred. This kind of cheap, home Blood-Energy Meter was not perfectly accurate, but its error margin was at most a dozen points. Which meant Ethan's Blood-Energy had truly broken fourteen hundred. "One shot… a thousand." He looked at the Potion sitting beside him. The haze in his eyes cleared, replaced by pure shock. The Stellar Potion, the baseline he had used, could raise Blood-Energy by at most two hundred per injection. Ethan's shot had boosted him by a full thousand. That was not a small improvement. That was a fivefold gap. As expected of a Perfect Formula Potion that repaired every flaw. "It worked. I did it!" When the reality hit, Ethan's face split into wild joy. A Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion with this kind of effect… forget the Stellar Group. Across the entire Dragon Nation, even across all of Blue Star, it would be one of a kind. The value of this formula was probably far beyond what he had dared to imagine. A thousand Blood-Energy was the threshold to become a Martial Artist. A single shot that added a thousand meant his Potion was not merely "boosting" Blood-Energy. It was dragging an ordinary person across the boundary into the realm of a Martial Artist. No, that was not the right word. It was evolution. "Two hundred kilograms!" He collected more data next. Once Blood-Energy broke a thousand, it felt like some invisible limiter shattered. His physique began to transform at a staggering pace, and his Punch Force reached 200 kilograms. Under normal circumstances, if he practiced an Energy Training Art, he would have a high chance of opening a Martial Meridian. Once Meridian Opening succeeded, he would be a Martial Artist. That was why this stage was also called a Pre-Martial Artist. "Again." After a brief pause, Ethan picked up the second injection. A thousand Blood-Energy was the entry requirement to become a Martial Artist, not the ceiling. In fact, the higher the Blood-Energy, the stronger the physique. Meridian Opening became easier, and once you became a Martial Artist, your strength rose higher as well. In other words, Blood-Energy before Meridian Opening determined a Martial Artist's potential. Some heirs of powerful families would spend absurd sums before Meridian Opening, using Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion after Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion until it stopped working entirely, all for the sake of raising their talent as high as possible. If one shot gave a thousand, what about two? What about twenty-eight? Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion could be used repeatedly. The effect would weaken sharply with each use, but he needed more data. That was why Ethan had thrown down three hundred thousand and made so many doses in the first place. Without hesitation, he pushed the second shot into his body. As a Perfect Formula Potion, it would not lose effectiveness even without a waiting interval. "Ungh!" He grunted again. Just like before, his body turned into a volcano about to erupt. 2276! More than ten minutes later, the second shot's effects faded. When he saw the number on the Blood-Energy Meter, excitement hit him like a wave. Over two thousand Blood-Energy! He could clearly feel his physique surging upward again. Most importantly, compared to the first shot, the second shot had still increased his Blood-Energy by eight hundred. The decay was only twenty percent. The Stellar Potion's second injection decayed by more than fifty percent. Powerful effect, low decay. It was practically perfect. "Keep going." Ethan drew a deep breath and grabbed the third shot. After that, he injected one after another. When his left shoulder was too battered to take another needle, he used the right. When both shoulders were covered in punctures, he stabbed his thigh. After every shot, his Blood-Energy and physique rose again. He recorded every data point with meticulous care. As the decay stacked up, the gains grew smaller and smaller, but even by the twenty-seventh shot, he still gained eight points of Blood-Energy. 10006! His Blood-Energy had broken ten thousand. Ten Thousand Blood-Energy was ten times that of an ordinary Martial Artist. His physique had reached a terrifying level, barely inferior to a true Martial Artist. "This…" Right as Ethan's excitement peaked, something inside him stirred. Blazing Solar Body! When his Blood-Energy broke ten thousand, he actually awakened a Transcendent Physique. A Transcendent Physique, as the name implied, was a body far beyond ordinary humans, often carrying powerful special effects. His Blazing Solar Body was born from quantitative change becoming qualitative change. His Blood-Energy had been condensed tenfold, like five fingers becoming a single fist. In raw power, it surpassed what he had before by a wide margin. With the Blazing Solar Body formed, Ethan's physique doubled again. He had no suitable equipment to test himself, so he could only estimate. His Punch Force should have reached two tons. A typical Martial Artist, with only one Martial Meridian opened, had Punch Force of about one ton. In other words, purely in physique, Ethan already exceeded an ordinary One-Meridian Martial Artist. And once he opened a Martial Meridian, the True Energy he cultivated would burn hot like the sun. It would be extraordinarily condensed, and it could restrain all yin and wicked energy. That was all the insight he had for the moment. How far it could truly go, he would only know after becoming a Martial Artist. "This is perfect." Transcendent Physiques were usually Innate. It was rare for one to be forged later in life, and their value was not something a simple Blood-Energy boost could compare to. Using this Potion repeatedly in large quantities could… no, to be precise, it had a chance to produce a Transcendent Physique. He still needed extensive repeated testing. But even if it was only a chance, the formula's value soared again. One phrase described it best: priceless. More than half an hour passed before Ethan's emotions gradually settled. Holding a stack of recorded data, he could not help glancing at the last remaining shot. The twenty-seventh shot had only increased his Blood-Energy by eight. Even if he injected this one, it would probably add five or six at most. Compared to a base of ten thousand, it barely mattered. "In that case…" After a brief pause, Ethan turned on his computer and logged into the "black market." The Online Black Market used overseas servers to bypass domestic blocks. In that sense, it resembled those shady streaming sites. The difference was that the Online Black Market was not just about porn. It sold every kind of gray and black product imaginable. Among them, Martial Artist Potion that had not received market approval was a major category. "Brand-new Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion. Does not conflict with any Blood-Energy Strengthening Potion currently on the market. First use increases Blood-Energy by at least 600. Personally tested and confirmed…" Ethan photographed the final shot and posted it, along with a description. A thousand Blood-Energy per injection sounded too outrageous, and he had not confirmed it through repeated testing anyway. He played it safe and wrote six hundred. To boost credibility, he included a small portion of the formula. One part in particular was the key that patched the Stellar Potion's defect. As for the price, Ethan thought for a moment and typed in three million. After all, Stellar's Potion had been inflated to one million. His was five times as effective. Selling it for three million was already a massive discount. [Coming tonight or not?] Just then, the phone he had tossed aside lit up with a new unread message.