However, if Henry Clark is willing, these two things can both be put to other uses to deal with this imminent crisis.

But once this step is truly taken, it may really be impossible to stop, and there will be no turning back.

If he cannot reach the peak, all that awaits him is hell.

After a moment of silence, Henry Clark let out a cold laugh. To still be hesitating and wavering at this point—his temperament was truly too weak!

Before entering this Ancient Spirit Gathering, he already knew that, in truth, he had no choice left. So what was there to hesitate about?

He lit the lamp inside the carriage and roasted those steel needles for a while. Then, ignoring the first snow falling outside, Henry Clark took a needle in his right hand, his arm steady as a vise, and precisely inserted each inch-long steel needle into his body.

A total of forty needles were inserted into various acupoints and meridians. He seemed to feel no pain at all, sitting cross-legged with focused concentration and closed eyes.

In the Cloud Realm, there are many races. Thus, everyone’s meridians and acupoints are different. Even brothers born of the same parents have some differences between them. Only the essential acupoints and the nine wheels of the body are more or less the same.

As a half-demon, Henry Clark had two parallel meridians, so he had to be even more cautious.

At this moment, these needles were precisely the golden needle acupoint-detecting technique he had learned in his previous life, derived from acupuncture therapy, and even more valuable than those top-tier martial arts secrets!

Ordinary martial artists can only identify one wheel meridian and a handful of common acupoints. It was not until medicine advanced in later generations that this improved somewhat.

But in his previous life, Henry Clark could, with this needle technique, accurately locate all the acupoints within a wheel meridian!

Whether in terms of cultivation speed or accumulation of true energy, it was far beyond what ordinary martial artists could achieve.

After inserting the steel needles, Henry Clark circulated his internal energy, letting it flow through his body like lead and mercury, and examined himself internally from head to toe.

In less than half a moment, his face had turned pale, and his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat. It was as if he was even more exhausted than after practicing swordsmanship.

“Nine meridians of the body wheel, first cultivate the fetal meridian, strengthen the original body, and solidify the source. Two parallel wheel meridians, sixteen acupoints each—not bad. But as for the Wind Spirit special acupoints, after searching the whole body several times, I only found five. Well, five it is—”

After all, he had just opened his qi sea, and his true energy was insufficient, making it impossible to fully examine his whole body. Being able to find most of them was thanks to Henry Clark’s experience from his previous life, and that was enough to satisfy him.

Once his cultivation improved in the future, he would naturally be able to fully master this wheel meridian.

What he cared about most was still the search for those Wind Spirit special acupoints—five in total, no more, no less. There was no surprise, but he didn’t feel disappointed either.

He waved his hands again, still steady and precise, pulling out each steel needle one by one, drawing thin lines of blood, completely unaffected by his physical weakness.

Henry Clark then took several small green crystals, each about the size of a pinky, into his palm. They were all second-tier beast crystals from green-faced wolves.

Without hesitation, he gave a sharp shout.

“Devour the origin!”

In that instant, Henry Clark’s left hand seemed to become a magnet. The surrounding spiritual energy, and even the nearby dust, were drawn in.

Within his palm, two thin, thread-like yet violent streams of essence began to flow down his arm, straight into his qi sea.

They circulated along the outer edge, gradually being tamed, while his blood and energy washed through his body like a sieve, flushing out impurities.

With his left hand, he took up the needles again, inserting twenty-seven of them densely into his lower abdomen.

He let the cycle repeat dozens of times, refining to the limit, before finally channeling it into his wheel meridian.

At the same time, Henry Clark spat out a mouthful of blood mist.

The moment this forcibly devoured beast crystal essence entered his body, it expanded his newly opened qi sea by a full twofold!

To high-level martial artists, this essence was nothing, but for him at this moment, it was a massive amount.

His qi sea could not contain it all, so it surged in all directions, overflowing and impacting every corner.

Most of the essence was forcibly guided by Henry Clark, like a flood, into the two large meridian entrances at the bottom of his qi sea.

Suddenly, a crisp cracking sound rang in his ears, and a sweetness rose in his throat. His whole body was wracked with pain, as if countless high-speed spinning drills were boring into him at once, and his consciousness nearly faded into oblivion.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before Henry Clark gradually regained his senses. Looking inward at his lower abdomen, he saw utter chaos there, with countless wounds left by the rampaging essence.

The only thing that comforted him was that beneath his qi sea, a section of meridian had clearly been opened up. Threads of internal energy flowed within.

In his perception, there were now eight tiny points of light in his body, distributed along the two parallel wheel meridians, facing each other, at the cost of that section of meridian being riddled with holes. The pain in his abdomen had hardly lessened.

Fortunately, most of the essence had been consumed. The remainder was gradually brought under his control.

Henry Clark gave a self-mocking smile. Ordinary people cultivate step by step, gradually opening their wheel meridians and strengthening their internal energy.

But with his dual-meridian body, any true energy circulating within him would, after splitting, clash with itself, causing unbearable pain and making it impossible to complete the process.