Chapter 570
570 – Rapid Progress
"The heart is like a mouth inside our bodies." Continued Aisha, "The more you exercise this mouth, the more blood it will be able to store. Once your heart muscle gets stronger, you’ll be able to practice the Dragon Blood Technique. At that point, you’ll be able to stimulate you’re blood, increase your strength, change your body’s state, and further control your blood’s flow trend and speed as well as stanch a bleeding at will."
Dean nodded lightly.
Even if Aisha’s explanation hadn’t been as detailed, but as a modern person, he already knew about the connection between the heart and blood as well as the mysteries therein, which could be understood with just some pointers.
"Lengthen your heartbeat…" Said Aisha as she neared Dean’s scar-covered chest and listened to the heart slowly beating inside his chest.
Dean complied and gradually lengthened his heartbeat. When the heartbeat lengthened, just like when one breathed deeply, the amount of blood sucked into the heart was very plentiful. After bursting out, the blood immediately flowed into the rest of the body at a very fast speed. Due to the speed of the flow being to fast, the blood instantly reached the limbs, giving rise to a feeling of warmth.
Dean’s eyes lit up slightly when he felt the effect. He then closed his eyes and focused on controlling his heart, lengthening the heartbeat as well as increasing the amount of blood sucked into the heart more and more.
Thump! Thump!
Each heartbeat was very resounding, resembling a m.u.f.fled thunderclap striking in his chest.
Although the interval between heartbeats was very long, yet the rhythm was steady. Each interval resembled the process of acc.u.mulation and gestation.
"Not bad, you comprehended it very quickly." When Aisha saw that Dean understood the underlying mystery, as he lengthened the heartbeat and exercised the heart muscle, she couldn’t help but to nod in satisfaction. There was a trace of praise in her eyes.
In the dark ice cave, time flew by imperceptibly.
After an unknown amount of time, Dean started to feel tired and his control over the heart started to weaken. At the same time, hunger spread from his belly, which felt more like a black hole capable of swallowing his whole body.
He opened his eyes and immediately saw a.n.u.sha staring back at him. His exhausted heart skipped a beat. He quickly recovered his calm, saying: "I’m hungry, let’s eat something first before practicing again."
"Alright." Aisha withdrew her gaze and nodded. It was his first time, yet he managed to practice for so long, and exceeded her expectations. It was normal for him to be tired.
"Of the two Bone-Devouring Rats, eat one and leave the other to serve as a warning device." Said Aisha as she pointed at the two Bone-Devouring Rats in the corner.
Dean looked, then shook his
"Don’t, it's too dangerous to go out now." Said Aisha immediately.
When he saw her determined expression, Dean’s heart warmed up and he smiled, saying: "I never said that I would go out to look for food. I don’t have to look for it myself, I can let it come to me by itself."
"Hmm?" Aisha was taken aback, and looked doubtfully at him.
Dean first picked up the armor and Bone-Devouring Rat hide and put them on. Meanwhile, his heart recovered his normal heart rate, and the feeling of warmth started to fade. He had to stay warm and quickly find some food. The heat boost from blood flow alone wouldn’t last long.
He picked up the dagger, went to the pool, and cut his arm. Next, blood sipped out of the wound and dripped into the water.
Previously, when he was training his heart, he came up with the method of using blood to lure nearby underwater monsters.
Although he didn’t see any underwater monsters via his thermal vision, but he knew that the city’s drainage channels were linked. And even if some of the channels were blocked by collapsed roads, they were few in numbers, after all.
Besides, the range at which underwater monsters could smell blood in water exceeded the range of his thermal vision by far. This method was quite promising.
Seeing Dean’s actions, a.n.u.sha immediately understood Dean’s plan. Her lips moved slightly and she silently went behind Dean, not saying a thing.
When the pool was dyed red from blood, Dean covered his arm, and then controlled his heart rate. His heartbeat lengthened and sucked blood into his heart. Immediately after, he stopped to bleed from the wound on his arm.
Instead of forcefully pumping the blood out in one breath, he gradually squeezed it out of his heart, which required a greater control.
The squeezed out blood slowly flowed into the entire body, yet before it reached all the blood vessels in the arm, the heart throbbed again and sucked the blood back. By maintaining this cycle, there was no blood seeping out of the wound on his arm.
Aisha’s eyes lit up when she saw this and she whispered: "You’ve already learned how to stanch a bleeding by yourself."
Dean nodded slightly. So long as one learned to control their heart and knew the principles behind stanching a bleeding, they would not find this difficult to achieve. However, he was exhausted and therefore, found it fairly strenuous to maintain control over his heart at the moment.
More than ten minutes later after stanching the bleeding, the wound on his arm had glued together.
When he saw this, Dean stopped the control over his heart and allowed it to resume its normal rate. Simultaneously, he had a breather.
Just then, a red dot of heat source appeared before his thermal vision. It swam rapidly from his four o’clock. It seemed to head straight for the pool with blood.
Dean looked at the dense heat source and heaved a sigh inwardly. It was only at the Hunter rank. Besides, its girth was not large and it was less than two meters in length, which was quite small for an underwater monster
"It’s coming." Continued Aisha: "I’ll take care of it. You take a break."
Dean said without returning back: "Let me do it. There’s no need for you to go against such a small thing."
Aisha looked at him and parted her lips slightly. Just when she wanted to say something, the underwater monster had reached them. It was less then a dozen meters apart from the pair.
Dean’s eyes flashed with a cold glint. He thrust a hand into the water and swayed it, using it as bait.
The underwater monster resembled a giant shrimp. It had curved barbs on its tail and a row of sharp spikes on its back. It looked fairly fierce. When it heard the sound in the water, it immediately lunged to the surface.
Dean watched the pool. When it was about to arrive, he abruptly pulled his hand back from the water.
The giant shrimp-like monster suddenly leaped out of the water, seemingly intent on catching the bait.
However, when it jumped out of the water and saw Dean and Aisha squatting on the sh.o.r.e, the blood-red eyeb.a.l.l.s hidden deep in its carapace immediately turned and its body twisted. It wanted to leap back into the water.
Dean suddenly extended his hand and thrust the dagger at its head. Meanwhile, the previously pulled back hand turned into a fist and smashed at the carapace on its abdomen. With a bang, it slammed into the ice barrier opposite the pool.
He swiftly turned his fist into a claw, which latched onto its body and flung it toward the back of the ice cave.