Four hours later Grey was back to his peak state. He opened the box and as soon as he made contact with the drop of blood essence, the drop of blood shot straight into his body. Along came a formidable force that immediately started to wreak havoc inside Grey’s body. Cracks immediately formed on Grey’s face and he sucked in a deep breath with his face contorting, showing he was under serious pains. Grey cut off his pain receptors the next second. It had only been one second yet he felt like a few minutes had gone by. His clothes were already drenched in sweat, luckily he could do this. He looked down at his skin and saw his scales appear on their own, before it started showing cracks. The cracks on the scales increased and before long, the scales showed signs of falling off. Grey took his time to watch the entire experience. It took only about a minute or two and the scales started to fall off. The scales falling off is the same as Grey’s skin falling off. Without the scales, his bloodied flesh came to view. The sight of this made Grey shiver in his heart. If he were to experience the pain of his scales falling off one by one, then he might go crazy from the pain. Time flew by and a day went by like this with Grey growing tired of watching his scales fall off one by one and then closing his eyes. His body had already become covered in a cocoon of his own blood. Looking at it from a distance, one would see a bright red transparent egg that had veins around. The veins looked lifelike, and Grey’s figure could be seen inside the cocoon with his eyes closed. Inside the cocoon, Grey had his eyes closed and he used his consciousness to study the changes his body was currently undergoing. He might not be able to feel pain due to his severed pain receptors, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t sense the other energies embedded in the blood essence. He sensed as the strength of his physical body started to show clear signs of improving after the damage. His vitality was also increasing rapidly, which was a great sign for him. The only thing he found strange was the fact that he didn’t sense any increase in his cultivation stage. He thought that refining something like this would actually make him break through to the Seventh stage of the Sovereign Plane in a short time. However, even after a day he didn’t sense any increase in his essence energy. He found it odd and decided to investigate, on sensing the situation of his essence, he almost couldn’t believe it. Due to possessing the orb, he was forced to refine his essence to surpass that of average Elementalists. Top forces typically employ special methods to ensure their most talented members possess high-quality elemental essence. The purer the essence, the stronger the Elementalist is compared to others at the same cultivation stage. This is a key factor in why geniuses can often leapfrog their cultivation stages and hold their own against opponents one or two stages higher. Grey is well aware of this, and his essence has always been superior to that of most geniuses on the Aurora Continent. However, its current purity far exceeds its previous state. A smile bloomed on Grey’s face when he thought of this. This was truly an unexpected surprise, he could feel his body brimming with power, and it was still rising. In his current state, defeating an Eighth stage Sovereign will be easier. The odds of beating a Ninth stage Sovereign still didn’t improve by much, but he believed that if he faced that young lady again, he would be able to defeat her in a shorter time since he could make her expend energy faster. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 Later that day. The cave was quiet and serene, with only the glowing red cocoon and a cabin disrupting the feeling of emptiness. Void rested inside the cabin, having decided to take a nap while Grey cultivated. Initially, Void had wanted to stay by Grey’s side, yet the intense heat radiating from Grey’s body made him uneasy. As he slept, a pain-filled roar jolted him awake, and he vanished from his resting spot. Outside the cabin, he saw Grey’s figure inside the cocoon, eyes wide with anguish as he howled in pain once again. Grey remained sitting cross-legged, but his hands clutched his head in agony. From his expression one could see that he was under serious pains. Void tried to communicate with Grey true their mental link and the moment he tried to do it, he was struck by a piercing pain and his body involuntarily shook. He looked in Grey’s direction with dread. The pain he felt from just the link alone is unbearable. Now he understood why Grey was screaming in such a manner. His body isn’t what’s being attacked, rather, it was his consciousness. Surprisingly, Grey’s body wasn’t the only thing that was undergoing a transformation. Inside the cocoon. Grey was almost wishing for death at the moment. It was as if his brain was being stabbed repeatedly by tiny knives while at the same time it was being shredded from the inside. What made it even worse for Grey was that it was completely unexpected, so he didn’t make any mental preparations. When the blood started to work on his body, he quickly cut off his pain receptors when he knew that it wasn’t a pain he wanted to experience longer than a second. Everything went smoothly and then just when he was about to refine the final part of the blood essence, a strange energy burst out from whatever was left of the blood essence and shot straight for Grey’s head. Sensing the danger, he hurriedly tried to set up a mental defense to block the energy from shooting into his head, gaining access to his consciousness. To his shock, his defense was ripped to shreds like it were paper before he was overwhelmed by the pain.