Time flew by like a white colt flashing past a crack. Since Li Chengjie had decisively declined Liao Haoxuan's invitation, another ten months had passed in the blink of an eye.
Over these ten months, Li Chengjie had thoroughly adhered to his strategy of "hold steady and develop," pouring nearly all his heart and soul into cultivation and alchemy.
Alchemy Room C-7 became his most frequent base, while that abandoned corner served as his secret space for cultivation and studying formations.
As for cultivation, he possessed the complete late Qi Refining stage experience and insights into the Mysterious Flame Art replicated from Han Li.
This was far beyond the scant, shallow inheritance Old Man Li had possessed.
Han Li's decades of exploration—his understanding of technique circulation, bottleneck breakthroughs, and the compression and refinement of spiritual power—was a treasury where every word was a pearl.
Cultivating according to this, Li Chengjie was practically following a tested, relatively level road step for step, avoiding countless detours and wrong paths.
Under the circulation of the Mysterious Flame Art, the Internal Spiritual Energy within his body was like trickling streams converging into a great river, growing ever more vigorous and pure.
The bottleneck from Qi Refining Level 7 to Qi Refining Level 8 was a formidable hurdle for many Rogue Cultivators and even sect disciples. Yet guided by Han Li's experience, Li Chengjie knew clearly how to mobilize his spiritual power, how to strike at the crucial points, and how to precisely control the force of his eruption at the instant that barrier was about to shatter.
That night, the moon shone brightly while the stars were sparse.
Li Chengjie was not in the alchemy room, but at his hiding place in the abandoned district. His aura had already reached the peak of Qi