At the start of the game, you have one equipment slot; the effects of unequipping the equipment rema

The Blood Marrow Realm is the third realm of martial arts.

Unlike the Skin and Flesh Realm, which focuses on tempering the skin and flesh, and the Tendon and Bone Realm, which focuses on refining the tendons and bones, the key to this realm is to allow the Qi and blood to penetrate deep into the bone marrow. Using one's own skin, flesh, tendons, and bones as a furnace and the abundant Qi and blood as fire, the ordinary bone marrow is gradually tempered and transformed into a thicker and more powerful blood marrow.

Blood marrow is the source of qi and blood.

The upper limit of a martial artist's future achievements is largely determined the moment their blood and marrow are formed.

The quality of blood marrow is determined by the foundation laid in the Bone and Tendon Realm.

Wu Cai had mentioned this to him before.

Like an ordinary martial artist who has only completed one round of bone and tendon tempering, after breaking through to the blood marrow realm, the blood marrow will eventually become a thick, reddish-brown substance.

When one cultivates to the point of perfecting the Blood Marrow Realm, one's skin and membranes will be as thick as a drum, and one's strength will reach ten thousand jin.

Those geniuses who complete the second round of bone and tendon tempering can refine a special silvery-white blood marrow, with richer blood energy and greater strength. When they fully activate their blood energy, they can even emit a faint silver light on their body surface.

This is why Wu Cai told him to stay away from anyone whose body surface showed a silvery glow.

As for the three more rounds of training, Mu Yang was unaware of them.

Wu Cai had only heard of the steel bones formed by two rounds of refining, and he probably had never heard of the golden bones formed by the third round of refining.

"Phew~~"

Mu Yang took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.

Guided by him, the surging blood and qi within his body flowed like thousands of scalding red rivers, seeping into every inch of his bones along the meridians.

As blood and qi continuously flow in, the bone marrow inside the bones begins to undergo tremendous changes.

The originally dark red bone marrow neither turned crimson nor shimmered with silver; instead, it was tinged with a faint golden glow by the light emanating from the golden bones.

The gold grew richer and brighter.

Finally, it turned into drops of thick liquid, like liquid gold, slowly flowing in the bone marrow cavity.

"roar--!!"

Just as drops of pale golden blood essence began to form, Mu Yang's bones and muscles throbbed, as if a dragon were roaring.

Accompanied by the dragon's roar, the pale golden blood essence began to circulate in Mu Yang's bones, nourishing and strengthening the skin, flesh, tendons, and bones wherever it passed.

Every muscle, every tendon, and every bone forms a wondrous connection with the newly generated blood and marrow.

Even the speed of blood and qi circulation is several times faster than before.

This is a sign that you have officially entered the Blood Marrow Realm!

"4000 jin! To gain 4000 jin of strength just by entering the early stage of the Blood Marrow Realm, no wonder it's golden blood marrow condensed through three rounds of tendon and bone tempering. Impressive!"

Mu Yang opened his eyes and clenched his fist.

An ordinary martial artist at the early stage of the Blood Marrow Realm would only gain 1000 jin of strength, with a total strength of just over 4000 jin. But now, Mu Yangguang has directly gained 4,000 jin of strength upon entering the early stage of the Blood Marrow Realm, and his total strength in one arm is close to 25000 jin.

"No wonder those aristocratic families make their talented children train their bodies repeatedly; the difference between them is indeed astonishing."

Of course, the cost is also staggering.

The amount of blood and energy Mu Yang consumed was enough to cultivate three to five martial artists at the peak of the Blood Marrow Realm.

Not to mention, after breaking through the Blood Marrow Realm three times through the tempering of tendons and bones, each minor realm advancement requires a considerable amount of Qi and blood.

The total amount of Qi and Blood gained from the two top-grade martial arts manuals was only enough to condense a portion of golden blood marrow, barely enough to break through to the early stage of the Blood Marrow Realm.

If one wants to complete the blood and marrow condensation of the limbs and bones and break through to the middle stage of the Blood Marrow Realm, it would probably require at least three or four high-grade martial arts techniques.

Or perhaps another demon corpse of similar quality to Haiji.

Sure enough, if you want more horsepower, you'll consume more fuel.

However, Mu Yang didn't care. He had an equipment slot, and as long as he had the martial arts and the demon corpse, leveling up would be a piece of cake.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Mu Yang looked at the equipment bar.

[Equipped Items: 1. Rat Demon Corpse (Tier 3), 2. Copper Skin Skill (Superior Martial Art), 3. Iron Sand Palm (Superior Martial Art), 4. None]

Current number of available equipment slots: 1

......

After he broke through to the Blood Marrow Realm, the number of equipment slots unsurprisingly increased to four.

Looking at the empty equipment slots, Mu Yang thought for a moment and then pulled down a piece of dried pork hanging on the edge of the eaves.

[Equipped Items: 1. Rat Demon Corpse (Tier 3)+, 2. Copper Skin Skill (Superior Martial Art)+, 3. Iron Sand Palm (Superior Martial Art)+, 4. Dried Pork (Unranked)+]

......

Looking at his overflowing equipment inventory, Mu Yang wiped his hands with satisfaction.

Just as he was about to look away, he suddenly noticed a "+" next to all the equipment.

"What is this? A new feature? A skill point allocation for Dark Blue?"

Mu Yang observed carefully for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to click the plus sign after the dried pork.

This equipment is just an extra; even if something goes wrong, it won't be a big deal.

But if the other three pieces of equipment malfunction, his cultivation level will likely plummet back to the Bone and Tendon Realm.

As soon as Mu Yang had a thought, a notification sound suddenly rang in his mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host has selected to enhance the main item -- Dried Pork. Please check the required enhancement materials: ( ), ( ), ( )]

......

A semi-transparent, dark panel, much smaller than the normal panel, appeared above the fourth equipment slot along with the notification sound.

"Strengthening the main body? Combining four into one?"

Mu Yang tried selecting "Copper Skin Kung Fu," and a yellowed, thread-bound book immediately appeared in the three material fields.

During this period, there was no change in the Qi and blood in his body.

Obviously, there will be no impact during the selection period.

Thinking it over, Mu Yang made another thought and canceled the "Copper Skin Skill".

"We can't just use the items in the equipment slot, can we? That would be too useless."

Mu Yang thought to himself.

Upgrading an item requires three pieces of equipment, and he only has four equipment slots in total.

This means that if that's the case, he would need to empty his equipment inventory to use the enhancement function.

If that's the case, then this new feature is practically unnecessary.

No, I need to verify this.

Mu Yang reached out and pulled a piece of dried pork from the eaves.

Silently recite in your mind that you will use it as reinforcement material.

The next second, Mu Yang's hand was empty.

Suddenly, a piece of dried pork was added to the "enhance materials" column.

Seeing this, Mu Yang was overjoyed.

With a wave of his hand, he filled the empty ingredient slot with two pieces of dried pork.

[Ding! Detected that the host has selected (Dried Pork), (Dried Pork), (Dried Pork) as enhancement materials. Would you like to use them to enhance the main item—Dried Pork?]

......

"Yes."

Muyang Secret Passage.

[Ding! Detected that the main body's tier is unranked, with the lowest affix quality being white; the material's tier is unranked, with the lowest affix quality being white. The enhancement conditions are met. The quality of any affix on the main body will be upgraded!]

......

As another notification sound rang out, on the ink-colored panel, three strips of dried pork seemed to weather away, turning into tiny white particles that merged into the dried pork in the enhancement slot.

As the white particles were completely absorbed, a faint blue light flashed across the surface of the dried pork.

[Ding! The main item - Dried Pork - has been successfully enhanced, and its attribute quality has been improved!]

[Muscle growth (white) → Muscle growth (blue)]

......

[Item: Dried Pork +1]

[Rank: Not Ranked]

[Equipment Effect: ① Muscle Growth (Blue): Grants a slight increase in strength.]

[Permanent fixation condition: Equip this item for one full hour, or slay any unranked wild beast or ranked demon beast while equipping this item.]

......

"The item's tier hasn't changed, the conditions for its establishment haven't changed, only the quality of its attributes has been improved..."

Looking at the description of "Dried Pork +1", Mu Yang secretly analyzed it in his heart.

It seems that this new enhancement feature uses three items of the same grade as enhancement materials to upgrade the quality of the main item's attributes.

"I don't know how effective it will be."

Mu Yang took the +1 enhanced dried pork out of the enhancement main slot and put it into the fourth equipment slot.

The next second, a very faint warm current surged.

If Mu Yang hadn't just broken through to the Blood Marrow Realm and hadn't become more sensitive to his body, he would have barely felt this subtle, warm current.

"Only fifty jin?"

Mu Yang frowned slightly.

Four ordinary dried pork pieces can increase strength by about 60 to 70 jin, while a "strengthened +1 dried pork piece" that has consumed three "ordinary dried pork pieces" can only increase strength by 50 jin.

That's roughly equivalent to losing one.

But on second thought, this seems to be equivalent to trading resources for time.

After all, it takes four hours to equip four pieces of dried pork, but only one piece of dried pork with a +1 enhancement only takes one hour.

Furthermore, it's impossible for Mu Yang to carry a large amount of dried pork with him, nor is it possible for him to not sleep and equip himself with one every hour.

From this perspective, strengthening actually offers good value for money.

Most importantly, resources are unlimited, but his equipment slots are limited.

Just like before, if the "abundant blood and qi" attribute on Haiji's corpse wasn't of blue quality, he wouldn't be able to break through to the Blood Marrow Realm at all, and would only be able to reach the third stage of the Bone Forging Realm.

Therefore, the further you progress, the more important equipment becomes with higher quality attributes.

"On another note, how many times can this thing be enhanced?"