Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chen Fan didn't seem to care at all.

He wasn't in a hurry; a sense of belonging couldn't be forced. He needed time, patience, and to understand the ancient demon race bit by bit, from the smallest details.

On the morning of the eighth day, Chen Fan arrived at the animal pen as usual.

The ancient demon in charge of guarding the Netherworld Beasts was named Bone Claw, a one-eyed old demon. His left eye socket was a dark hole, uncovered by anything, with the skin around the edge rolled up and healed into a dark red scar.

It is said that when he was young, his eyeballs were shattered by a maddened Netherworld Beast's tail.

Bone Claw squatted on a rock beside the animal pen. When it saw Chen Fan approaching, it stretched out three scale-covered fingers and pointed deep into the pen.

Chen Fan looked in the direction he was pointing.

At the end of the enclosure, a Netherworld Beast lay motionless on the muddy ground. Its body was smaller than its companions, and the black skin on its belly had an unnatural grayish-white hue. Its gill-like breathing pores opened and closed, emitting a hoarse, wheezing sound.

With each breath, its entire body convulsed violently, and its tail weakly carved shallow grooves in the mud.

"I'm sick," Bone Claw uttered simply.

Chen Fan walked up to the sick Netherworld Beast and squatted down.

The giant beast smelled the scent of living humans, its murky eyes rolled over, and its large mouth opened slightly, revealing a half-circle of backward-pointing teeth.

This is the instinctive reaction of the Netherworld Beasts; regardless of whether they are healthy or sick, they will bare their teeth at any creature that approaches them.

It's not because of aggression, but because in their understanding, there are only things in the world that can be eaten and things that cannot be eaten temporarily.

Chen Fan reached out and placed his hand on the Netherworld Beast's forehead.

It felt cold and slippery to the touch, like touching a piece of leather soaked in sewage. He used the faint bloodline power within this ancient demonic body to probe into the giant beast's body, exploring along its thick meridians.

In his perception, the condition inside the Netherworld Beast was completely clear.

A large clump of tangled bone fragments was visible in its abdomen; these were undigested bones from a previously ingested demon beast, now lodged in its stomach and intestines. The edges of the bone fragments were as sharp as knives, already tearing through the inner walls of its intestines, causing slow bleeding.

It's not a terminal illness.

It only needs someone to help break up and expel the bone fragments, and a few days of rest will allow it to recover.

However, the treatment required the expenditure of bloodline power and would also necessitate the use of spiritual herbs. In the eyes of Bone Claw and the entire Black Rock tribe, expending such resources on a sick Netherworld Beast was utterly absurd.

The Netherworld Beast is not a pet, not a battle beast, and not even a valuable resource.

Their sole purpose was to serve as temporary mounts for the ancient demon warhorses, while most of the Nether Beasts were slaughtered after reaching adulthood, their bones ground into powder and mixed into body-tempering potions, and their flesh used as inferior meat at tribal banquets.

Chen Fan withdrew his hand and looked at the bone claw.

"It's incurable," Bone Claw said first. "After I kill him, I'll give you a share of the bone powder."

Chen Fan remained silent for a moment.

If it were in his true nature, what would he be doing right now?

They probably won't do anything.

He was not a savior, and had no obligation to save every sick demon beast. Having struggled in the cultivation world for over a hundred years, he had witnessed countless separations and deaths a thousand times more tragic than this.

The life or death of a mere Netherworld Beast was not worth his time and effort.

But he is now an ancient demon.

A low-ranking beast slave living in the Blackrock Tribe.

Although the ancient demon race is cruel and bloodthirsty, showing no mercy to outsiders, they have an almost obsessive protectiveness towards their own possessions.

This is not kindness, but an instinct.

The ancient demons believed that everything has its use, and useful things should not be easily discarded. Even the lowest beast slave must protect the meager share of property they are responsible for.

Chen Fan stood up, said nothing more, and turned to walk towards his stone house.

Inside the stone house, in the corner of the wall, there were several pottery jars containing herbs he had collected a few days earlier.

He collected those items casually while familiarizing himself with the surroundings, originally intending to use them in case he got injured.

He picked out several dark red grasses with serrated leaves, and found a small handful of grayish-white dried moss in the pile of pottery jars.

Both of these are the most common herbs on the ancient demon planet: dark red grass promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis, while gray moss astringes and stops bleeding.

Chen Fan had never seen these two spiritual herbs in the human cultivation world, but he was able to extract knowledge about them from the memories of the ancient demon's body.

When they returned to the stable, Bone Claw was gone.

The old demon had little patience for these sick beasts. His duty was to ensure that the number of Netherworld Beasts was roughly correct, and it was perfectly normal for a few to die from illness.

Chen Fan put the two herbs into his mouth and chewed them up.

The bitter juice instantly filled my mouth, leaving a spicy aftertaste.

He took the chewed medicine paste out of his mouth, pried open the Netherworld Beast's mouth, and poured the medicine paste mixed with a little water into its stomach.

Then Chen Fan rolled up his sleeves and put his hands into the murky pool water, covering the belly of the Netherworld Beast.

He activated the meager bloodline power of this body, shattering the bone fragments blocking the Netherworld Beast's intestines piece by piece.

The whole process lasted for about an hour.

When the last piece of bone fragment was shattered, Chen Fan's back was soaked with sweat.

The bloodline power of this body was far too weak; after only an hour of exertion, he already felt dizzy and lightheaded.

He withdrew his hand, took a few steps back, and steadied himself by holding onto the wooden stakes of the animal enclosure.

The Nether Beast rolled over in the water, its murky eyes darting around as if looking at him.

Its abdomen was still rising and falling slightly, but its breathing was noticeably more steady than before. Its large mouth opened and closed, but did not reveal its backward teeth; it simply exhaled a string of bubbles.

Chen Fan turned and walked back to the stone house.

The next morning, when he returned to the animal pen, the Netherworld Beast was already able to swim on its own.

Its body was still weak, but the grayish-white color on its abdomen had mostly faded.

Seeing Chen Fan approach, it surfaced, opened its mouth wide, but did not make a threatening hiss; it simply floated quietly.

Bone Claw stood by the animal pen in the distance, glancing in this direction with his one eye, but said nothing.

In the days that followed, Chen Fan continued to live that simple and regular life.

Every morning, he would move beast carcasses to feed the Netherworld Beasts; in the morning, he would practice the Blood Tempering Technique; in the afternoon, he would clean the beast pens; and at night, he would study the ancient demon cultivation methods.

Although the Blood Tempering Technique is the most basic technique of the Ancient Demon Clan, it contains the core essence of the Ancient Demon Cultivation System.

The more Chen Fan studied, the more amazed he became by the ancient demon race's understanding of the physical body.

Human cultivators temper their bodies by repeatedly flushing their meridians and bones with spiritual energy, expelling impurities from their bodies—a purification that comes from within.

However, the ancient demon's method of body refinement is completely different.

The ancient demons believed that the physical body was superior to all things.

They believed that everything in the universe possesses its own power.

Mountains have their power, water has its power, wind has its power, and fire has its power.

The bloodline of the ancient demon is the mark passed down through generations in the bloodline after the ancestors devoured and refined all things.

The essence of Blood Tempering Technique is not purification, but rather the stimulation and awakening of the dormant ancestral power within the bloodline.