Condensing the Dantian

Lu Wangchuan felt awkward for a moment, then cleared his throat and replied:

"This disciple has indeed broken through to the Bone Forging Realm."

A rare smile of pride appeared on Lu Xianyuan's face.

"You brat are slick-tongued all day long. Without putting some thought into it, there'd be no way to know your cultivation."

Lu Wangchuan gave a bitter laugh. After all, he was an old fellow who had lived for decades. Though Lu Wangchuan had lived two lives, he had only been in his twenties in his previous one. His experience was what it was; he was still somewhat lacking in polish.

"Still, this is ultimately a good thing. In this world, only those who are cautious enough can live longer and achieve greater things."

There was a trace of obscure heaviness in Lu Xianyuan's tone. Lu Wangchuan guessed that he might have some painful past.

"But this is still not enough. You need to speed up your cultivation. Bone Forging Realm cultivation and the first level of the Limitless Sword Dao alone won't be enough for you to handle the chaos to come."

Those inexplicable words made Lu Wangchuan's heart jolt.

"Instructor Lu, what do you mean by that?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, the Black Lotus Society will rise again before long."

"Wasn't the Black Lotus Sect already scattered? Even Huang Tianlong, their chief leader, was killed."

"That is only the surface. Do you think ordinary people can simply rise up and rebel in this world? The Black Lotus Society was merely thrown into temporary chaos by the intervention of other forces. Once they finish consolidating themselves, they will return in an even stronger posture. When that time comes, I fear an even greater storm will break out.

Jianghai City is not far from Qing Zhou. Sooner or later, it will be swept into it."

Only then did Lu Wangchuan come to a sudden realization. He had still been thinking with the mindset of his previous life, forgetting to account for the most crucial factor of this world.

This was a martial world where the weak were prey to the strong!

There truly were peerless experts capable of holding a pass alone against ten thousand men!

In his previous life, a rebellion might have succeeded with a mass of common folk. In this life, that was absolutely impossible. There had to be martial artists powerful enough to lead them.

It seemed there truly was an even greater force behind the Black Lotus Society.

As he pondered, Lu Xianyuan spoke again.

"Still, even without the Black Lotus Society, you must cultivate diligently. If you wish to accomplish something in this life, you must join an immortal sect!

The Mortal World has sparse spiritual energy, while immortal sects are mostly situated atop the spiritual veins of heaven and earth, where spiritual energy is boundless.

Moreover, there are no particularly good cultivation methods in the mortal world. Even the Limitless Sword Dao I gave you cannot be considered top-tier; it can only be considered at the Transcendent Tier. It is naturally ten times stronger than the Mountain Splitting Fist, but there are still many powerful cultivation methods above it!

Once your cultivation reaches a certain level in the mortal world, it will become difficult to make further progress. If you do not enter an immortal sect, then given enough time, such fine talent will sooner or later be wasted.

Yet the dangers within immortal sects may not be any fewer than those of the mortal world; they may even be greater. Only by making yourself stronger will you have more chances to preserve your life and more capital to climb upward."

"I see. This disciple has learned much."

After exchanging a few more words, Lu Xianyuan gave him further pointers regarding the precautions for cultivating the Limitless Sword Dao. Only then did Lu Wangchuan leave.

He returned to the Longtai Merchant House to purchase materials for brewing more Spirit Elixir.

Shopkeeper Tan immediately ordered a clerk to pack his goods. While they waited, Shopkeeper Tan smiled.

"Young Master Lu, I heard that you have a good relationship with Instructor Lu Xianyuan of your Dragon Tiger Martial Hall?"

Lu Wangchuan nodded.

"That's right. What is it?"

"It's nothing much. I simply wanted you to ask whether he would be willing to oversee our Longtai Merchant House's Jianghai City branch. As you know, these are troubled times. Without an expert to hold the fort, business simply cannot go on.

As long as he is willing to come, our Longtai Merchant House is willing to offer five thousand taels of silver every month."

"That much?"

Lu Wangchuan could not help being startled. A monthly salary of five thousand taels of silver was far too high.

To his surprise, Shopkeeper Tan smiled again.

"Not high, not high at all. To tell you the truth, I had someone investigate Instructor Lu's identity. It turns out that he was once a Peak Master of the Divine Water Sect! Only because he was betrayed by his disciple, who challenged and defeated him at the Sect Grand Ceremony and seized his mountain peak, did he end up in Jianghai City.

For someone like him, being able to hire him for five thousand taels would be an incredible bargain."

Lu Wangchuan was startled inwardly. He had not expected Lu Xianyuan to have such a past. No wonder he had spoken with such feeling today, and no wonder he had always treated others with aloofness, unwilling to let anyone get too close.

Even a wolf would grow cold-hearted after suffering betrayal, wandering alone from then on.

"I'll do my best to ask him, but I cannot guarantee whether I'll succeed."

"Then I must thank you greatly. How about this—today's materials are on me. If you can make this happen, I will have an additional generous reward for you."

"We are old friends. There's no need to be so polite."

After a few pleasantries, Lu Wangchuan quickly left with the materials.

Of course, the matter was certain to fail. For someone as proud as Lu Xianyuan, it might be possible to hire him at a high price once in a while, but having him guard a merchant house every day was absolutely impossible.

An eagle could perch wherever it wished, but it would never choose to enter a birdcage for a scrap of meat.

Over the next several months, Lu Wangchuan continued cultivating desperately. Ever since Lu Xianyuan had mentioned joining an immortal sect, he had become even more driven.

As for the Black Lotus Society, he no longer needed to worry about it excessively.

With his current strength, even if he could not win, he could at least escape!

What he cared about was immortal sects—becoming stronger!

Strong enough to seize complete control of his own fate!

Finally, through his unrelenting efforts, his qi and blood surged wildly within him on this day, opening a vortex three inches below his navel!

He broke through once more, reaching the final stage of the Physical Body Realm—the Dantian Realm!

The Dantian formed a vortex within the body, capable of storing spiritual energy so that one could fight without exhaustion!

At this moment, the sea of qi in his dantian was fully formed. From now on, the spiritual energy he absorbed would no longer need to lie dormant within his meridians; it could gather in his dantian instead, allowing for far greater reserves.

"This breakthrough took me a full eleven months!"

Previously, breaking through from Bone Forging to Open Source had taken him half a year. By all logic, breaking through from Open Source to the Dantian Realm should have taken more than a year, not less.

The reason he had improved so quickly was not merely because of the higher-level Dao Embryo Breathing Method. Another reason was that Spirit Elixir had always been far more effective than Body Strengthening Soup.

Though cultivation became more difficult to advance the further one went, if nourishment also increased by multiples, that difficulty would be reduced considerably, and the time required would naturally be reduced as well.

"After breaking through Open Source, I could at most be considered upper-class in Jianghai City, still far from the very top. But after breaking through to the Dantian Realm, my strength should rank among the top ten in all of Jianghai City! I can already be considered one of that tiny handful at the tip of the pyramid."

He opened his information Light Screen.

Name: Lu Wangchuan.

Cultivation: Dantian Realm.

Qi and blood: 2043.

Cultivation methods: Dao Embryo Breathing Method (sixth level), Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps (first level), Limitless Sword Dao (third level).

Lu Wangchuan expended qi and blood to raise the Dao Embryo Breathing Method from the sixth level to the seventh, and the Limitless Sword Dao from the third level to the fourth.

One improved his cultivation, while the other enhanced his practical combat strength. As for the Heavenly Dipper Eight Steps, he did not have enough qi and blood, so he could only set it aside for now.

"I still need to find a way to obtain more qi and blood!"

Lu Wangchuan let out a long breath when Xiao Yue's voice sounded from the courtyard.

"Young Master, Eldest Miss has sent a letter."

A year had passed. His elder sister had probably started supporting her little brother again. Uh, sending him a red envelope.

Lu Wangchuan went outside, accepted the envelope, and opened it. Sure enough, it was exactly as he had expected.

This time, his sister had sent six banknotes totaling more than two thousand taels, considerably more than before.