Heavenly Dao, You Old Thief!

"What exactly did I overlook? What could be providing this missing cultivation speed? Could it be another bonus from the Heavenly Dao boss? Or did I touch some threshold and create a Siphon Effect? Wait! Siphon... realm..."

Luo Hong instantly recalled something the Senior Brother from the Transmission Hall had said: when Cultivators broke through a bottleneck, their cultivation would rapidly improve over a Short Period of Time. Therefore, after breaking through a bottleneck, they needed to steady their state of mind and go into seclusion for a time.

Back then, the Senior Brother from the Transmission Hall had explained that this was the accumulated potential of Cultivators who had long been trapped by bottlenecks finally bursting forth. Since Luo Hong had never encountered a bottleneck, he had forgotten all about it.

Now that he thought about it, Old Demon Han in the original Mortal World story had also often seen his magic power surge after breaking through a realm.

These were clearly not gains that normal cultivation could produce!

In a sudden realization, Luo Hong grasped something. He no longer cared about his Dantian or anything else and hurriedly swallowed two Qi Harmonizing Pills at once!

Abundant spiritual qi rushed into his meridians, rapidly raising his Internal Spirit Pressure to its limit. Luo Hong continuously accumulated magic power until his meridians ached with swelling, then forcibly crammed the more than 20 points of stored magic power into his Dantian.

That single push broke through the Level 9 Qi Refining bottleneck. Just as his Dantian was about to contract, the flow of spiritual qi through Luo Hong's meridians abruptly accelerated. Newly refined magic power streamed endlessly into his Dantian, far exceeding Luo Hong's previous calculations.

This was the feeling. This was the boundary between immortals and mortals, the gift one could only receive after magic power reached a certain value!

Luo Hong completely understood. Every cultivation realm actually represented a new level of life!

As long as one crossed over it, even if only for an instant, it would trigger the rules of the Mortal World.

As for whether this was an energy-level transition, a Spirit Particle threshold aggregation effect, or some other principle, Luo Hong was not yet capable of figuring it out.

The repulsion speed caused by exceeding the limit by 20 points of magic power was still slightly faster than his current cultivation speed. Only when it gradually fell to 16 points over the limit did it reach equilibrium.

After deducting his own cultivation speed under the Great Method of Spiritual Pressure, the extra cultivation speed that had appeared from nowhere was exactly equal to the repulsion speed of 11 points of excess magic power.

Eleven points of excess magic power was exactly enough for Luo Hong to break through the bottleneck, so this definitely was not a coincidence. Some rule was operating in the dark, or perhaps there was a constant waiting to be discovered.

However, this assistance from the rules was not created from nothing. The increase in cultivation speed caused the medicinal power of the Qi Harmonizing Pills to be consumed at a skyrocketing rate.

If one attempted a breakthrough in a place without abundant spiritual qi, failure would surely follow.

About half a shichen later, the force of the Dantian's contraction began to weaken drastically, approaching zero within a few breaths.

At that moment, the familiar aura of the Heavenly Dao descended upon Luo Hong.

The magic power within his Dantian flowed into the technique's meridians, circulating through Cycle after cycle and gradually becoming more refined. None of this required Luo Hong's control; it simply proceeded naturally.

His Physical Body felt incomparably comfortable under the nourishment of magic power. His sense of time grew increasingly vague, and his thoughts gradually emptied.

This was the wondrous sensation every Cultivator experienced during a breakthrough. Great Powers called it "Unity of Heaven and Man"!

Each time he broke through a Minor Realm in the past, his magic power would become a little more refined, so Luo Hong was not surprised. After all, even his expanded Dantian could hold at most around 600 points of magic power, while breaking through to Level 10 Qi Refining required a Mana Limit of 1,023. It Could Not Possibly be reached without refining his magic power.

With a thought, two new entries appeared on Luo Hong's Physical Examination Table:

Mana Purity: 1.52

Dantian Capacity: 830

As his Mana Purity slowly rose, his Dantian capacity rapidly increased alongside it.

Luo Hong's sense of time had already blurred. He only felt that in the blink of an eye, his Dantian capacity had nearly reached 1,000.

"So fast. At this rate, the minor bottleneck at Level 10 Qi Refining will disappear. This is wonderful. No, the minor bottleneck at Level 10 can't disappear!"

Luo Hong suddenly snapped awake, and his ability to think rapidly returned.

The only opportunity to expand my Dantian comes when breaking through bottlenecks. After Level 9 Qi Refining, I planned to make perfect use of every bottleneck, whether minor ones or the major bottleneck at Level 12!

"At this rate, my magic power will soon be refined by an entire factor. If I don't stop now, I'm afraid I won't even be able to preserve the minor bottleneck at Level 11!

"I was far too naive. Cultivating immortality defies the cycle of life and death dictated by the Heavenly Dao; it is inherently an act against heaven. How could the Heavenly Dao possibly reward Cultivators? It's digging a pit for us!"

"Heavenly Dao, you old thief! Don't even think about tricking me into refining my magic power recklessly!"

Disregarding the damage to his meridians, Luo Hong forcibly controlled the rapidly flowing magic power and made it all return to his Dantian.

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Luo Hong looked up at the sky with an exceedingly grim expression. The moment the state of Unity of Heaven and Man ended, the Heavenly Dao severed its connection with him.

"I was wrong all along. The Heavenly Dao is not the boss. At most, it's a general manager—a general manager unwilling to give up even a shred of authority!"

The highest realm attainable in the Mortal World was [Dao Ancestor]. One only had to hear that title to know that the Heavenly Dao was nothing before one. Clearly, the Heavenly Dao would not allow a Dao Ancestor to emerge, so it was time to abandon all fantasies.

Cultivating immortality meant defying heaven. The enemy Cultivators needed to beware of most was the Heavenly Dao.

That old thief was truly insidious!

As cultivation rose in the future, the Mana Limit required to break through bottlenecks would grow ever higher. This old thief interfered while Cultivators were still developing in the Qi Refining Stage, making them think they had gained an advantage when he was actually ruining their foundations.

Once these Cultivators reached the Foundation Establishment stage, the size of their Dantians would create an enormous gap between their Mana Limit and that of the next realm, locking them permanently into their current realm.

By then, they Could Only use methods like the Triple Yuan Reversal Technique, dispersing their cultivation and cultivating anew to further refine their magic power, while also seizing the bottlenecks during multiple Foundation Establishment breakthroughs to expand their Dantians and fill this pit.

This move by the Heavenly Dao was truly ingenious!

"My Dantian capacity is now 1,005. I only need to cultivate step by step, and I'll be able to expand my Dantian once more when I break through the next realm. After repeating this several times, I can expand my Dantian to its limit and only then refine my magic power."

"By then, excluding those lucky freaks with abnormal Dharma Bodies, I may become the Qi Refining Stage Cultivator with the greatest reserves of magic power in history."

At this thought, Luo Hong's heart surged with excitement.

Then he coughed up blood.

Fortunately, his meridians were not badly injured. A soak in White Lotus Pill bathwater would heal them.

However, to confirm how many days this breakthrough had taken, Luo Hong first went to the main house. Judging from the Spirit Stone consumption of the Small Rain Cloud Array, exactly one month had passed.

"Yet it only felt like five or six days had passed to me. Cultivation truly knows no passage of time. If even a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator like me is like this, then it's Not Difficult to imagine those Core Formation Stage experts going into seclusion for decades at a time."

After his bath, his meridians still needed several days of rest, and it was unsuitable for him to cultivate during that time. Luo Hong therefore began studying the Silver Rune.

That sudden enlightenment that day was truly dangerous. I must have inadvertently entered the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, causing the Heavenly Dao to mistake me for one of its own and allowing me to glimpse a trace of the world's rules.

It was no different from a low-level employee wearing an invisibility cloak, sneaking into the general manager's office, and secretly reading the company's top-secret documents.