Dou Zhe Expert

Returning to Wu Tan City, Yun Shu did not stay at an inn or tavern this time. Instead, he found an inconspicuous cave outside the city and tidied it up.

Since he had all the supplies necessary for survival on him, Yun Shu directly used his Storage Space to bring over a massive boulder and seal the cave entrance.

With that, this place was very safe.

"Time to break through!" Yun Shu arranged the cave a little, then sat down cross-legged and formed the cultivation hand seal. Before breaking through, he needed to adjust himself to peak condition.

Half a day later, Yun Shu abruptly opened his eyes. He could feel it—the time was right.

Taking out the Qi Gathering Powder from his Storage Space, Yun Shu swallowed it without hesitation. A surge of pure energy instantly burst from the pill and flowed into his body.

The Dou Qi within Yun Shu began wrapping around that pure energy and refining it, converting it into the white Dou Qi within his body...

Gradually, the Dou Qi in Yun Shu's body increased at a visible rate. The pure energy was continuously refined, but there was a reason Qi Gathering Powder was ranked as a Fourth-Rank Pill. An endless stream of pure energy kept pouring into Yun Shu's body.

Only when the influx of pure energy began to weaken did Yun Shu realize that the energy filling his body was about to reach its critical point—the best time to break through and charge into the Dou Zhe stage.

As the overflowing energy within him made Yun Shu feel painfully bloated, he quickly formed a seal. The Dou Qi in his body immediately began to contract wildly toward his lower abdomen.

When the Dou Qi had been compressed to the size of a palm, Yun Shu gritted his teeth and used all his strength to compress it even further...

Boom!

A soft, muffled sound rang out inside Yun Shu's body. The Dou Qi Cyclone had formed!

He had finally become a Dou Zhe Expert (doge)!

"Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained an Advancement Gift Pack!"

"I finally broke through!" Yun Shu felt utterly refreshed. After all, the Dou Qi of the Dou Zhe stage was worlds apart from ordinary Dou Qi.

Moreover, a Dou Zhe could perform internal inspection...

"So this is my Dou Qi Cyclone..." Yun Shu looked at the Dou Qi vortex within his abdomen.

But he soon noticed something was wrong.

Come to think of it, the Strange Fire in his body seemed somewhat different from the Strange Fires inside ordinary people. When normal people subdued a Strange Fire, they swallowed its flame seed, then used Na Ling to open an Alternate Dimension within their bodies, allowing them to store the Strange Fire inside.

Yun Shu's Fallen Heart Flame, however, seemed as though the system had opened an Alternate Dimension for it within his body. He had no idea whether this would affect his future use of the Fallen Heart Flame.

After all, Fallen Heart Flame was known as a cultivation cheat.

He could not afford to waste such a cheat.

The only regrettable thing was that the Fallen Heart Flame was still in its infancy, showing no signs of growing at all.

"It won't need to devour my Dou Qi to grow, like Yao Lao's does, right..." Yun Shu's expression changed. If that was really the case, then he needed to hurry.

He had to accumulate more Dou Qi and refine more pills.

The next day.

Yun Shu opened the Advancement Gift Pack the system had given him yesterday. It contained another Mysterious Fragment, as well as one chance at a random Lottery.

However, Yun Shu did not use them for the time being, because he had something more important to do.

"All right, now for the Universe Soul Refining Art!" Yun Shu took out this Soul Cultivation Method.

If Yao Lao discovered this thing, he would definitely kill for it. Fortunately, the system could prevent any outsider from probing his soul.

Yun Shu had learned this from the system the night before. Since no outsider could ever learn of the system, it would automatically protect Yun Shu's soul and memories whenever it was about to be exposed.

This was practically a free super reward—an artifact-level defense for his soul.

"Close your eyes, still your heart, and sit. Clench your fists and quiet your spirit."

"Click your teeth thirty-six times, and embrace Kunlun with both hands..."

Reading the chant written in the cultivation method, Yun Shu steadied his mind and began reciting it.

Gradually, Yun Shu's consciousness seemed to enter a special space filled with chaos...

"This is... my Consciousness Space?!" Yun Shu said in astonishment. He had not expected that merely beginning to cultivate this method would allow someone to enter their own Consciousness Space while fully awake.

"That's awesome!" Within his own Consciousness Space, Yun Shu felt as though he possessed inexhaustible strength, as if he were invincible in this world...

"Right, this is my own Consciousness Space. Being invincible is something I can just imagine..." Yun Shu quickly calmed down. He had bounced around in there a few times just now, but it was not particularly interesting.

What was interesting, however, was that he could actually summon the Strange Fire, Fallen Heart Flame, here. Strange Fire was tangible flame, while this place was his Consciousness Space. Consciousness was not tangible; it was more like some vague and intangible concept...

"This Soul Cultivation Method is really interesting!" Yun Shu had no idea what it meant for him to appear here. Was his body still cultivating...

"Right! Let's open the Attributes Panel and take a look!" Yun Shu thought.

Name: Yun Shu

Age: 15

Realm: 1-Star Dou Zhe

Soul: Mortal Realm Initial Stage

Attributes: Fire, Wood, Earth

Cultivation Method: Universe Soul Refining Art (Soul Cultivation Method)

Dou Technique: Heavenly Thunder Break (Mystic Low-Rank)

Strange Fire: Fallen Heart Flame (Infant Stage)

Ability: Divine Concealment Art

Items: Mysterious Fragment ×2, Mystic Heavy Ruler, Omni-Pill...

--

"It doesn't feel like I'm cultivating at all... Could it be that I need to recite that cultivation chant again?" Yun Shu said in surprise. He then sat down and recited the chant once more...

The instant the chant left his lips, the chaos before Yun Shu suddenly vanished. What appeared before him was the cave where he had been cultivating in seclusion.

"Huh? Why am I out again?" Yun Shu said in surprise, and this feeling...

It was like using a night vision potion while playing Minecraft.

The cave should have been dim, yet it was now as bright as day. And... he was floating?

"Am I in a soul state? Astral Projection? Or that legendary Divine Sense? Or is this this world's Soul Perception..." Seeing his body still sitting cross-legged in the cave, Yun Shu said in astonishment.

Then Yun Shu floated straight toward the cave entrance. He thought he would hit the boulder, but he actually passed through it and flew out of the cave where he had been cultivating in seclusion!

"Holy crap! That's awesome!" Yun Shu shouted excitedly as he soared freely through the sky.

But Yun Shu soon could not laugh anymore. After leaving the cave by roughly four to five hundred meters, just as he was about to continue "flying" forward, a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through his mind. Then his vision shifted, and the scenery before him changed from the sky back into the dim cave.

"Ugh... Looks like this Soul Perception has its limits too. Still, being able to sense that far must be because of this Soul Cultivation Method!" Yun Shu muttered, rubbing his brow.