Limit Reaction

At that moment, Zhong Yue could sense nothing. All his senses were completely sealed off. Even the pores of his skin had closed tightly, with not the slightest trace of mental energy, physical strength, or soul escaping. His soul was also more stable than ever before!

The Inner Demon born from his leap was completely refined, sending him into an unprecedentedly wondrous state.

Time seemed to stand still, yet also seemed to stretch endlessly—so long that the world grew old and barren.

This was the space between life and death. After the great terror and dread came unprecedented tranquility, unprecedented concentration of mental energy, and an unprecedented reaction beyond the limits!

The so-called reaction beyond the limits was the wondrous sensation formed when every organ in his body, every minute thread of his mental energy, and his soul all operated at high frequency and extreme speed.

Imagine that, at some moment, your eyes could capture the speed of moving objects at ten times that of an ordinary person. You would then see those moving objects moving ten times slower than usual.

If, at some moment, your thoughts were ten times faster than usual, you would feel time slow down!

And if your body, mental energy, and soul all entered this state of extreme reaction, then when you exerted strength, you could unleash power far beyond your normal limits. When you released mental energy, it too would become stronger than ever before!

If you cultivated, your cultivation speed would likewise become astonishingly swift!

Zhong Yue's body continuously absorbed the medicinal power within the three Feather Spirit Pills. That power was frantically transformed into his mental energy, nourishing his soul and causing the Suihuang formed from his soul to grow taller and more majestic!

This speed of absorbing medicinal power and transforming it into cultivation was something he had never even dared to imagine before.

But now, it had become reality!

Zhong Yue had no idea how much time had passed since he leaped from the cliff. In this state of superhuman reaction, his responses were incredibly fast, and time had slowed to a crawl for him.

After an unknown length of time, Xin Huo's voice suddenly came through: "Burst forth—"

Zhong Yue awoke and opened his eyes. The reaction beyond the limits was about to vanish. He saw that he was already falling at an unimaginably fast speed, about to crash into the bottom of the cliff!

Falling from the cliff at this speed, even if he had wings, he would absolutely be smashed to pieces!

Whoosh—

The instant he opened his eyes, he had already fallen to just above the treetops at the bottom of the cliff. The pine forest rose high into the sky, with towering trees more than ten zhang tall. That distance would be crossed in an instant. He would probably hit the ground the moment he blinked, and his entire body would be smashed into pulp!

Even Xin Huo's voice betrayed a trace of tension as he shouted, "Quick! Release, in a single instant, the power contained in your physical strength, mental energy, and soul! Release it savagely, or you will undoubtedly die!"

"Dragon Coiling Technique!"

Zhong Yue roared. A harsh crackling rang out as thunder surged, instantly condensing around him into a dragon coiling around his body. It bared its fangs and brandished its claws, terrifyingly ferocious!

"Contemplate Suihuang!"

"Ride the Thunder Across the Sky!"

Zhong Yue's roar mingled with the dragon's cry and the rumble of thunder. The dragon coiling around him twisted and transformed, and his soul left his body, taking the form of a hundred-zhang Suihuang and increasing the dragon's strength. In that instant, lightning flashed and thunder boomed throughout the forest at the cliff's base. Tree after tree crashed down, and it seemed as if a dragon wrapped in thunder was rampaging through the woods!

Wherever that dragon passed, mountains collapsed, the earth split, and the forest toppled.

Boom!

With the Dragon Coiling Technique and Ride the Thunder Across the Sky, Zhong Yue shifted a hundred zhang in an instant and crashed to the ground.

Waves of mud mixed with shattered rocks flew in every direction, leaving behind a deep pit. Zhong Yue knelt on one knee, both hands braced against the ground. Crackling lightning spilled from the surface of his body and drilled into the earth, scorching the ground black.

"I survived..."

Zhong Yue rose to his feet, but suddenly his vision spun. Every bone and limb throbbed with agonizing pain, his mental energy trembled as if it would tear his entire body apart, and his soul seemed ready to explode. His body swayed, as if he might faint.

Inside him, the medicinal power of the three Feather Spirit Pills had already been completely consumed in that brief moment. He even felt hollowed out, with his excited mental energy and soul drawing on the energy in his body!

In that final instant, he had nearly unleashed all his physical strength, all his mental energy, and all the power of his soul!

"Take three more Feather Spirit Pills!"

Xin Huo's voice came through. "Your mental energy is more excited than ever, and your body cannot bear the burden. You must use Feather Spirit Pills to replenish your energy. Otherwise, your body will be drained dry in moments, and then you will die."

Zhong Yue immediately took out three Feather Spirit Pills and swallowed them. He had heard of situations like the one Xin Huo described. In the tribes, when a woman carrying her child encountered an earthquake that brought down a house and a thousand-jin roof beam was about to crush her child, the woman might cross the distance in a single step and lift the thousand-jin beam with her bare hands, saving the child!

The child would be unharmed, but after lifting the thousand-jin beam, the woman would soon die. Her body would bear no wounds. It was probably that maternal instinct had triggered a reaction beyond the limits, draining her body completely. Without a miraculous medicine like the Feather Spirit Pill to replenish her, she had exhausted all her energy and died.

His current situation was much the same. Fortunately, he had enough Feather Spirit Pills to replenish what his body had expended.

Once the Feather Spirit Pills entered his stomach, he immediately felt their abundant energy rapidly replenish his physical strength and nourish his mental energy and soul. His sea of consciousness grew wildly, expanding!

By the time the medicinal power of the three Feather Spirit Pills was exhausted, his sea of consciousness had already expanded to a hundred mu, and his mental energy had nearly doubled in strength!

"How much time has even passed? My mental energy has grown this much?"

Zhong Yue was stunned. From the moment he jumped from the cliff until now, at most the time it took to burn a single incense stick had passed, yet he had consumed six Feather Spirit Pills, and his mental energy had nearly doubled!

"At this rate of consumption, I'm afraid more than nine hundred Feather Spirit Pills will only last a month..."

He had originally thought that more than nine hundred Feather Spirit Pills represented a vast fortune. Now, it seemed he had still been too naive. Under Xin Huo's savage cultivation method, no matter how many Feather Spirit Pills he had, they probably would not be enough!

"Now, climb back up from the bottom of the cliff, then jump again."

Xin Huo said solemnly, "Your body is remarkably tough and somehow escaped injury, so this time you need to take six Feather Spirit Pills. Also, this time, jump while carrying a large rock. Yes, that rock there. Carry it up the cliff, then carry it back down."

Zhong Yue stared blankly at the boulder in front of him. It weighed at least a thousand jin and was even slightly larger than he was!

Not to mention jumping off the cliff with the boulder on his back—even climbing that cliff, steep as a sheer wall, would be incredibly difficult.

"Boy Yue, jumping from the cliff trains your explosive power, while climbing back up trains your control. Carry the boulder, contemplate the dragon, and let the dragon claws grip the cliff as you climb upward. Controlling the strength of the dragon claws and coordinating the Dragon Body with your own body will help you master every bit of your power."

Zhong Yue nodded. Immediately, his mental energy stirred and transformed into a dragon. This time, he contemplated the dragon far more swiftly than before, and his reaction speed was faster as well.

With the Dragon Coiling Technique, Zhong Yue hoisted the boulder onto his back and came to the foot of the cliff. He looked up. The clouds ran deep, and the cliff soared high; he could not see the top.

Crack! The dragon claw gripped the cliff wall and exerted a little force, shattering the rock. Zhong Yue frowned slightly. "Xin Huo wasn't wrong. My control really is inadequate right now, and I lack coordination. Only the dragon I contemplate can exert force exactly where I want it to and with precisely as much strength as I want. Only then can I be said to have mastered my own power."

He calmed himself and carefully sensed and studied the flow of power while the dragon coiled around him. Only after a long while did Zhong Yue set out again, carrying the thousand-jin boulder and contemplating the dragon as he climbed toward the summit.

The dragon wrapped around his body, extending its claws to grip the cliff face. Under Zhong Yue's control, it climbed upward step by step.

The climb was fraught with danger. The slightest carelessness would crush the rock, and Zhong Yue encountered several perilous moments in succession, nearly falling from halfway up the mountain.

Fortunately, the dragon had four claws. The other three still gripped the cliff, preventing him from falling, though the situation was still perilous in the extreme.

As he continued climbing, his control over the dragon he had contemplated grew more practiced, and his command of its strength became ever finer. The dangers grew fewer, and he drew ever closer to the cliff top.

At Drinking Horse Terrace atop the cliff, beasts roared throughout the mountains as they came to the lakeside to drink. A girl in red had hitched up her clothes, removed her shoes, and dipped her feet into the lake. Her toes swung back and forth, splashing up bright, snow-white flowers of water.

"Peachie, you said that Zhong Yue came here?"

A girl in black walked lightly across the waves and came from across the lake. "Where is he?"

The girl in red smiled brightly, sunny and radiant. "I only saw him climb onto Drinking Horse Terrace, but I didn't see where he hid. Strange—Drinking Horse Terrace isn't large. Where could he have gone?"

The girl in black stopped, her brows knitting slightly. The waves beneath her feet surged, revealing the back of a great fish. Its back alone was four or five zhang long. It was clearly a great fish formed from manifested mental energy!

"Zhong Yue of the Men's Court actually managed to take my Fish-Goose Twin Flight. He's a decent opponent."

The girl in black's expression was cool as she said softly, "But he is too timid. He actually hid himself away, without the slightest trace of masculine spirit. How contemptible. Peachie, since he doesn't dare show himself, let's go..."

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly looked toward the edge of the cliff. A savage dragon head poked up from below. The dragon extended its claws and gripped the cliff edge. A dragon coiled around Zhong Yue as he climbed onto Drinking Horse Terrace with a thousand-jin boulder on his back. He then set the boulder aside and panted heavily.

The two girls looked toward him. The youth was bare-chested, sweat glistening on his body and running along the lines of skin stretched taut over his muscles. Though he was resting, his entire person radiated a wild aura.

"The main character has arrived, Senior Sister. I have nothing left to do now, right?" the girl in red asked with a bell-like laugh.

Zhong Yue followed the sound and looked over. Seeing the two girls, he could not help being slightly startled. "These two Senior Sisters look somewhat familiar..."

The girl in red giggled. "Junior Brother Zhong, back then I was singing on the little boat. I didn't take off all my clothes and bathe where you could see me."

"Junior Sister Tao, are you implying that he saw me bathing?"

The girl in black looked displeased. "At most, he saw my shoulder. He didn't see anywhere else."

Zhong Yue's face darkened, and he thought uneasily, They are Yu Feiyan and Tao Daier of the Women's Court! How did they know I was the person from that night? That's right—Senior Sister Ting must have sold me out!