In a rocky cave somewhere in Crescent Valley, Su Yu sat cross-legged on a slab of blue stone.
He had cleverly concealed the entrance with rubble, leaving only a few narrow gaps for air.
After half a day of meditation, the dull ache in his chest had finally faded, and the spiritual energy of Qi Refining Level 6 flowed merrily through his meridians.
He took out two Beast Cores and held them in his palm. The Ancient Sword immediately trembled with longing.
As the Beast Cores crumbled to dust, an incredibly pure stream of spiritual energy flowed back into him.
Su Yu circulated the Qi Nurturing Technique, and the spiritual energy in his dantian grew at a visible pace.
About ten more, and he could attempt to break through to Qi Refining Level 7.
Feeling the surging spiritual energy within him, Su Yu's eyes gleamed.
Outside the cave, sword winds suddenly rose.
He unleashed the Perfected Realm of the Gale Sword Style, each move wrapped in razor-sharp Wind Blades.
Green light crisscrossed the air. Within a radius of three zhang, every shrub was severed at the roots, its cut surface smooth as a mirror.
With the Gale Sword Momentum behind it, the style was indeed more than twice as powerful as before.
Su Yu sheathed his sword and headed deeper into Crescent Valley.
As soon as he entered, the air gradually filled with the earthy stench of soil.
Here and there, stark white bones lay between the rock crevices—all the work of Earth Splitting Bears.
These solitary, Level 1 High Rank demon beasts possessed enough strength to shatter stone and split monuments, but their sluggish movements were riddled with openings in Su Yu's eyes.
Beside a pool, an Earth Splitting Bear about a zhang tall was drinking.
Sensing a human, it rose onto its hind legs and pounded its chest, its yellow-brown fur bristling like steel needles.
With a deafening roar, its thousand-jin body charged forward, making the ground tremble.
Just what I wanted!
Su Yu lightly tapped the ground with his toes and drifted back like a willow catkin.
His sword stirred the airflow as he struck with Wind Sweeps Clouds, aiming straight for the bear's belly.
But the blade only grazed its thick fur, leaving a faint bloodstain.
The enraged giant bear rose upright and smashed its paws into the ground. Amid the flying rubble, Su Yu spun to its right and thrust into the earlier wound, Swift as Wind, Fast as Lightning.
The sword tip sank three inches into its flesh, making the demon beast's eyes redden with pain.
The ensuing struggle was like a dance with death.
Every time the frenzied Earth Splitting Bear pounced, it left claw marks a foot deep in the ground, but it always missed by a hair's breadth.
As he darted around it, Su Yu kept widening the wound. After more than an hour, the giant bear finally crashed to the ground, having lost too much blood.
Sword Light flashed across its throat, but there was no sign of a Beast Core.
As expected, there was only a thirty percent chance.
Su Yu wiped the sweat from his brow and sat down to meditate where he stood.
Twenty days later, in a secluded cave somewhere in Crescent Valley.
Su Yu sat cross-legged, with six neatly arranged yellow-brown Beast Cores before him. They glimmered faintly in the dim cave.
Six...
He murmured under his breath.
That was everything he had managed to gather over the past few days.
After he killed the first Earth Splitting Bear twenty days ago, he had still encountered a few scattered ones at first. But the farther he went, the more these demon beasts seemed to vanish into thin air.
Over the past few days, he had covered nearly thirty li of Crescent Valley's outer reaches, yet he had not seen so much as a single bear hair.
Could they actually be passing messages to one another? Su Yu frowned.
Demon beasts might not be very intelligent, but some gregarious species really did warn their kind through scents or roars.
Earth Splitting Bears were solitary, but if a few had happened to escape, perhaps they could release some kind of aura that kept the others away from this area.
Forget it. If he couldn't hunt any more, he would focus on cultivation.
He put away the Beast Cores and closed his eyes to meditate.
In truth, even without a large supply of Beast Cores to help him, his cultivation speed far surpassed that of ordinary people.
Before his soul merged with the original owner's, the original owner had been a Su Family genius who had advanced from Qi Refining Level 1 to Level 3 in only half a year.
Now that the souls of two lifetimes had merged, not only had his comprehension increased more than fivefold, but his cultivation speed had also risen by at least three times.
And with the occasional infusion of pure spiritual energy from the Ancient Sword, his path of cultivation was almost entirely unobstructed.
Qi Nurturing Technique, circulate!
As he activated the second layer of the Qi Nurturing Technique, the pale-yellow orb in his dantian began to turn slowly, drawing in all the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The spiritual energy in his meridians surged like a stream, flowing in an endless cycle. With each circulation, it grew a little more concentrated.
The monotonous cultivation continued for ten whole days.
Then, on this day, Su Yu suddenly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them.
He took out all the Beast Cores and lined them up.
Six, along with all these days of hard cultivation... It should be enough.
Sensing the Beast Cores' aura, the Ancient Sword gave a pleased ring.
As the first Beast Core was absorbed by the sword, pure spiritual energy flowed back into him like a rising tide.
As more and more spiritual energy poured in, his aura climbed steadily. His Qi Refining Level 6 cultivation continued to rise under the surging force.
His meridians widened under the constant wash of spiritual energy, and the energy in his dantian grew ever more concentrated.
At last, his aura settled firmly at the peak of Qi Refining Level 6!
Su Yu's eyes flew open, lightning flashing in them. Spiritual energy surged around him, and an invisible pressure of wind seemed to swirl with his every movement.
He could clearly feel that his spiritual energy was twice as abundant as before. His meridians had widened, and his spiritual sense had grown keener.
But that still wasn't nearly enough.
It was time to break through to Qi Refining Level 7!
He drew a deep breath, then closed his eyes once more and focused, circulating his cultivation technique to guide the spiritual energy within him against the barrier to the next level.
Qi Refining Level 7 was a watershed in the Qi Refining stage. Once he broke through, his spiritual energy would multiply several times over.
Break through for me!
He gave a low shout, and the spiritual energy within him crashed against the barrier like raging waves.
Once, twice, three times... Each impact loosened the barrier a little more.
At last, on the seventh impact, a faint sound came from within his dantian, as though some kind of shackle had been broken.
In an instant, an even more boundless surge of spiritual energy welled up from deep within his dantian, sweeping through his entire body like a flood bursting through a dam.
His bones, flesh, and meridians were all tempered in that moment, and the total amount of spiritual energy within him surged several times over!
Qi Refining Level 7—achieved!
Su Yu opened his eyes, a sharp gleam in them, and his whole bearing had grown more fierce.
He gently clenched his fist, feeling the power surging within him, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
At the same time, the pattern of the Qi Nurturing Technique's circulation in his dantian suddenly changed. Its previously stable cycle expanded abruptly, forming an even more profound network of spiritual energy throughout his body.
This was the third layer of the Qi Nurturing Technique.
It was time to return to the Su Family.
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