Hard Training

Still half-asleep, Liu Ding heard a knock at the door. Muttering, he opened it to find Liu Yandong standing outside, and could only force a smile. "Grandpa, what is it? I'm sleeping."

"Such wonderful time, and you're using it to sleep." Liu Yandong furrowed his thick brows and pushed open the half-closed door as he entered.

"I'm used to cultivating at night." Liu Ding smiled bitterly. I've been cultivating day and night. I finally managed to take a short nap.

"I wrongly blamed my good grandson." Liu Yandong chuckled. "I knew you wouldn't disappoint me. But cultivation is cultivation—you must look after your body. Only by keeping your spirits up can you fight that battle well."

"Don't worry, Grandpa. I'll give it everything I have and definitely won't disappoint you." Liu Ding nodded. "Although I'm still at Five Soulforging Cauldrons, that's because my soul qi is too powerful and needs to be digested slowly."

"Oh, right. Grandpa found a medicinal liquid that can help you refine and absorb soul qi." Liu Yandong took three Small Jade Bottles from his robes and handed them to Liu Ding.

Looking at the Du Ling Juice he had made himself, Liu Ding's mouth twitched. He hardly knew whether to laugh or cry, but he feigned surprise. "This is Du Ling Juice from Ximen's Spirit Herb Pavilion? How much did it cost?" That was what he truly cared about.

"Hehe, it wasn't expensive. That girl Ximen Yaoji was very generous and insisted on giving me half off. It only cost one hundred and eighty thousand." Liu Yandong smiled. "Three bottles of Du Ling Juice make up one course of treatment. Make good use of them."

"Alright, I will." Fortunately, it had only been bought at half price. He would not lose money by selling it off again. Liu Ding tucked the Du Ling Juice into his robes. "I'll work hard. I'll take a medicinal bath soon."

"You can do it!" Liu Yandong made an encouraging gesture and strode happily out of the room.

Naturally, Liu Ding would not use those three bottles of inferior goods. He had not even been willing to sell the purest Du Ling Juice.

The Murong Family's Divine Pill Chamber was driven shamefully out of Bleser City amid furious condemnation. Murong Guang's standing within his family plummeted from then on, and he was banished to a remote, desolate town.

Liu Ding became increasingly skilled at refining Du Ling Juice, and the quality of his medicinal liquid improved as well. Its reputation spread, and praise came from all directions.

However, many Liu Clan disciples at the Five Cauldrons Realm suffered severe setbacks. At Nie Zhengxu's instigation, Zhe Spirit Liquid had damaged their cultivation realms. Though they had not been directly crippled like Liu Chengsheng and Liu Shu, let alone participating in the Sect Lord Contention, even repairing their damaged meridians would not be easy.

Yet what frustrated the maker of this Du Ling Juice was that while everyone else was vigorously advancing their realms, he spent his days and nights in arduous cultivation. Other than the soul qi in his realm growing increasingly robust, the critical threshold for a breakthrough never appeared.

Time flowed like water. The initial realm assessment was drawing near, yet Liu Ding was still cultivating bitterly in Everlasting Cave. As his cultivation grew more practiced, he went from cautiously drawing in the cave's unique condensed Yin Soul Qi to almost crazily devouring it.

No one knew that every night, a great medicinal cauldron was set up within the gloomy Everlasting Cave. Liu Ding had simply begun burning Dream Incense in this deserted cave to refine Yin Soul Qi, supplementing it with medicinal baths of Du Ling Juice and advancing on both fronts.

Amid the flickering specks of light from the candle flame, sandalwood incense, and Dream Incense, Liu Ding sat in the medicinal cauldron with his eyes shut tight and his posture strange. Every breath he took seemed utterly natural.

This grueling cultivation instead gave his temperament a steadier air, while revealing an unyielding stubbornness.

The muscles that were gradually becoming firm had taken on a pale complexion during these months of bitter nighttime cultivation, making him appear as frail as a woman. Yet only Liu Ding knew that the soul qi of the Five Cauldrons Realm occasionally swept forcefully through his meridians, carrying the feeling of Primordial Power waiting to erupt.

Within the candlelight, in the dim Everlasting Cave, faint streams of air seemed to drift like smoke into Liu Ding's crown from the medicinal cauldron. They flowed into his limbs and bones, then, catalyzed by the Du Ling Juice, settled into the galaxy-like vortex within his inner vision.

Today, I'll definitely break through to Six Soulforging Cauldrons!

Suddenly, Liu Ding sensed an unprecedented spiritual resonance arising within his body. His spirits surged, and the long-awaited conviction in his heart became firm once more.

He had never experienced this sensation when trying to break through to Six Soulforging Cauldrons before. It was a feeling of spiritual resonance, as though a cheerful melody had begun playing in his heart. Liu Ding could barely maintain his hand seals. Taking several deep breaths of the spiritual energy wafting over from the Dream Incense, he forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart and slowly relaxed his tense state of mind.

Heaven and earth are me; I am heaven and earth.

Unknowingly, Liu Ding felt as though he had merged with his surroundings.

The Yin Soul Qi of Everlasting Cave no longer needed to be forcibly devoured by him. Instead, it naturally flowed into his body. In the medicinal cauldron, ripples spread across the turquoise medicinal liquid, while wisps of Du Ling Juice's medicinal aura naturally fused into his body, ceaselessly settling together with his soul qi.

It was as though the medicinal cauldron had become a devouring vortex. The naturally drifting Yin Soul Qi gathered in great quantities, completely shrouding the cauldron and even Liu Ding's entire body. He looked as though he stood within black mist, indescribably strange.

The Yin Soul Qi blanketing the medicinal liquid no longer even needed Liu Ding to devour and refine it. As though sensing the changes occurring in his body, the black mist gradually thinned, then twisted and turned before undergoing a marvelous transformation in color—green, red, orange, and a dazzling spectrum of hues.

As this multicolored soul qi energy surged in, Liu Ding's young face also changed through seven colors, like neon lights flickering across it.

It was clear that Liu Ding had reached the critical point of charging toward Six Soulforging Cauldrons. He himself was like an insatiable vortex, rapidly devouring every kind of soul qi without the slightest restraint. Even the spiritual energy of the Du Ling Juice in the medicinal cauldron rose like misty waves, forming a spiraling vortex of fog around him.

Within the Soul Forging Realm, the first four cauldrons formed the foundation, while Five Soulforging Cauldrons marked a transformation beyond the ordinary. Breaking through to Six Soulforging Cauldrons meant entering the ranks of Soul Forging experts. The stronger one was at this realm, the more soul qi one could gather within the body; it could be said to be the foundation stone for breaking through to become a Law Soul Warrior in the future.

Although Seven Soul-Forging Cauldrons was a higher realm, in actual combat, a martial apprentice at Six Soulforging Cauldrons could still contend with one at Seven Soul-Forging Cauldrons if they were not inferior in martial skills. Once cultivators entered Seven Soul-Forging Cauldrons, however, their competitive spirit instead diminished, and they sought to calm their hearts and break through into the higher realm of Law Soul Warriors.

Thus, in a small place like Bleser City, where there were hardly any Law Soul Warriors, martial apprentices at Six Soulforging Cauldrons were instead powerful figures who dominated their region.

As time passed, the essence of the Du Ling Juice in the medicinal cauldron was gradually refined away. The medicinal liquid grew increasingly pale, and its original turquoise color turned into clear water.