Inspiration Opportunity (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

Night fell.

In his room, atop his bed, Qi Chuan swallowed a Qi Condensing Pill, sat cross-legged, and circulated the Evergreen Art, gradually refining the spiritual qi he drew in, along with the pill's medicinal power within his body, into his own spell power.

You circulated the Evergreen Art, absorbed spiritual qi, refined the medicinal power, and transformed it into your own spell power. You triggered a Sixfold Critical Hit and gained sixfold harvest. Your total mana increased slightly.

After one Great Heavenly Cycle, Qi Chuan opened his eyes and saw words appear before him.

Sensing his body, he felt that the spell power within him had increased a little further.

At this rate of improvement, reaching the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak was merely a matter of time.

However, Qi Chuan now had only five Qi Condensing Pills. At one pill per month, they would be used up in five months, which was certainly not enough.

Therefore, he still had to take on some family missions as a supplement.

Yet doing family missions, whether safe intra-family missions or extra-family missions involving a little risk, would consume time and affect his own cultivation.

But that could not be avoided.

To compete for the Inner Sect Quota, this was the only way.

Casting aside his many thoughts, Qi Chuan calmed himself and continued circulating the Evergreen Art.

After some time, faint, subtle prickling pain came from his meridians, signifying that today's cultivation had reached its limit.

Thus, Qi Chuan had no choice but to set aside improving his cultivation base and turn instead to cultivating spells.

As he formed hand seals and recited an incantation, a crimson fireball larger than half a fist slowly rose from his palm, radiating scorching heat.

A moment later, Qi Chuan withdrew his spell power. The crimson fireball dispersed, and a line of text appeared before him.

You successfully cast Fireball Technique once and maintained it for a period of time. You triggered a Twenty-ninefold Critical Hit and gained twenty-ninefold harvest. Your Fireball Technique proficiency increased slightly.

Qi Chuan felt that his mastery of Fireball Technique had improved once more.

So he continued diligently cultivating spells.

Not only Fireball Technique, but other Basic Five Elements Spells such as Water Arrow Technique were cultivated alongside it.

Time slowly passed amid such arduous cultivation.

One year and four months later.

On a spirit field atop his family's Independent Peak.

Qi Chuan bent over busily at work. Around him, under the sunlight, stalk after stalk of spirit herb swayed gently in the breeze. On one grass leaf, as it dipped and sprang back, a crystal-clear drop of morning dew fell from its tip. During its descent, it shone brilliantly beneath the sun.

A moment later, Qi Chuan finished his work and straightened up. Then he saw a line of text appear before him.

You diligently tended spirit plants for half an hour. You triggered a Twofold Critical Hit and gained twofold harvest. Your experience and techniques in tending spirit plants increased slightly.

A smile surfaced at the corner of Qi Chuan's lips as he looked at the words, but he did not pay them much attention.

He merely clapped his hands, gazed into the distance at the scenery there, and for no reason, a trace of unease rose within him.

"Success or failure hinges on today!"

Qi Chuan murmured to himself.

Over the past year or so, he had spent nearly all his time cultivating diligently.

Along with occasionally taking on family missions, including safe intra-family missions and certain extra-family missions Qi Chuan believed carried relatively little risk, he had earned some Contribution Points. He had exchanged all of them for Qi Condensing Pills to speed up the accumulation of spell power.

Finally, at this very moment, his cultivation base had reached the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak!

Yet after reaching the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak, Qi Chuan had instead calmed down. He temporarily stopped cultivating and came outside to work in the spirit field for half an hour.

He treated it as a way to relax and relieve pressure.

There was no other reason than the importance of this mid-stage bottleneck!

So long as he broke through it, his cultivation base could reach the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, giving him a chance to compete for the Wind Moon Sect's Inner Sect Quota.

If he failed to break through, then he would basically have no hope.

After all, the Transmission Elder's junior possessed a Fourth-grade Spiritual Root. By the day the quota was decided, his cultivation base would likely have reached at least the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak.

And if both were at the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak and of the same age, one possessing a Lower Eighth-grade Spiritual Root and the other a Fourth-grade Spiritual Root, which was superior and which inferior was obvious at a glance. The final Inner Sect Quota could not possibly fall to Qi Chuan.

At that point, Qi Chuan could only compete for an Outer Sect Quota, putting him one step behind.

Although with the Hundredfold Critical Hit, even if he fell one step behind, as long as he became an Outer Disciple and cultivated diligently, he would surely have a chance to enter the Inner Sect once his cultivation base improved.

But entering the Inner Sect directly was certainly the best outcome.

In truth, however, the trace of unease within Qi Chuan today had little to do with the mid-stage bottleneck or the Inner Sect Quota.

Rather, it concerned the Hundredfold Critical Hit and his future path of Xiu Xian.

For next, Qi Chuan would attempt to break through the mid-stage bottleneck and verify the Hundredfold Critical Hit's effect on breaking through bottlenecks.

If it had no effect whatsoever, then his future cultivation would likely encounter many hardships and obstacles.

After all, how many bottlenecks, great and small, would one face in pursuit of immortality? If the Hundredfold Critical Hit was useless, he could only rely on his own Lower Eighth-grade Spiritual Root. That would be far too difficult.

But if it worked, things would be much better. His entire future path of Xiu Xian would become far smoother as well.

Thinking more is useless. I must test it myself before I can know the result.

Qi Chuan thought to himself.

Then he looked at the distant mountain scenery, took a slight breath, and returned to his room.

On the bed, Qi Chuan sat cross-legged.

However, he did not immediately circulate the Evergreen Art. Instead, he silently regulated his breathing, allowing his state of mind to gradually return to calm.

Only once his heart was still as water did he close his eyes tightly and begin circulating the Evergreen Art.

As the Evergreen Art circulated, the Qi Refining Third Layer Peak spell power in his dantian was drawn out and flowed through his meridians along its predetermined route.

This was actually only normal Heavenly Cycle Circulation.

After all, Qi Chuan had no experience whatsoever with breaking through the mid-stage bottleneck. It was completely unknown to him, and he could only grope his own way forward.

However, as the Evergreen Art circulated and all of Qi Chuan's Qi Refining Third Layer Peak spell power was mobilized, he vaguely seemed to sense a feeling that was there yet not there.

This feeling should have been a kind of Self-Perception regarding how to break through the mid-stage bottleneck.

Yet the feeling was far too hazy and indistinct to grasp.

If he rashly forced a breakthrough in this vague state, there was naturally a slight possibility of success, but that would be Blind Cat Catches Dead Mouse—a Fluke Mentality.

In the Vast Majority of cases, a rash breakthrough without direction would end in failure, damaging both body and spell power. In severe cases, one's cultivation base might even regress, one's potential decline, future cultivation become slower, and the chance of breakthroughs grow even lower.

Trying to rely on luck to attain immortality? The Heavenly Dao would teach you how to behave.

Qi Chuan knew that the worse one's spiritual root, the harder it was to overcome every kind of bottleneck. It was said that so long as one's spiritual root was good enough, one would encounter no bottlenecks before Core Formation.

He possessed only a Lower Eighth-grade Spiritual Root. The vague inspiration for a breakthrough he had caught at this moment could very well be inaccurate, or perhaps even completely wrong. He could not trust it lightly.

Therefore, Qi Chuan merely maintained the circulation of the Evergreen Art without choosing to break through. He only sensed that feeling, trying to make it clearer and more definite.

Amid that sensation, the Evergreen Art completed one full Great Heavenly Cycle, and his spell power returned to his dantian like Swallows Returning to Nest.

At once, that already extremely vague inspiration vanished without a trace.

Qi Chuan opened his eyes helplessly. Just now, he had carefully sensed and experienced it, but in the end, he seemed to have gained nothing at all. Even now, he remained At a Loss about how to break through the mid-stage bottleneck, with no clue whatsoever.

Is this what a Lower Eighth-grade Spiritual Root is like? At this rate, when will I ever break through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage?

Qi Chuan thought to himself.

But at that very moment, his eyes suddenly narrowed, for he saw a line of text abruptly appear before him.

You circulated the Evergreen Art through one Great Heavenly Cycle and attempted to capture an Inspiration Opportunity for breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage. You triggered a Seventy-twofold Critical Hit and gained seventy-twofold harvest. You successfully captured a trace of Inspiration Opportunity for breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage.