Dou Zhe? Dou Zhe!

Night was silent, yet full of life. It was the time when insects and animals came out to forage.

Nearly three years had passed since he had begun studying pharmacology, and now the year-end was drawing near. A year ago, Lin Ming had broken through to the ninth stage of Dou Qi. Back then, when he reached the ninth stage, the family had arranged for Master Toso to refine a Qi Gathering Powder with Pill Patterns for him.

In truth, Lin Ming had reached the peak of the ninth stage of Dou Qi half a year ago, but at the time, he felt he was still not perfect enough, so he had kept suppressing his breakthrough. That suppression lasted half a year. By now, Lin Ming felt that if he compressed his Dou Qi any further, his Dantian might burst.

Seven stars fell in a streak of cold light; in boundless life, the road was unknown.

Thirteen wasted years in another world; now a brilliant world would welcome a Dou Zhe.

The family bonds of two lives were both gone, yet a trace of warmth shone into his heart.

In a foreign land, there were still people from home; I will open up this beautiful life!

So the path of a Dou Zhe would begin now.

He took out the Jade Bottle and tilted its mouth. A blue-green medicinal pill the size of a coin rolled out. The pill was round and lustrous in color, with tiny patterns on it that made the heart feel refreshed just by looking at it. This was precisely the Tier 4 Medicinal Pill, Qi Gathering Powder, that the family had given Lin Ming.

Without thinking too much, Lin Ming picked up the Qi Gathering Powder and placed it in his mouth.

As soon as the pill entered his mouth, a cool sensation spread out, and Lin Ming felt his mind become extraordinarily clear. Then, a warm current of pure energy also poured from his mouth into his body, before heading toward his meridians and Dantian.

Outside the house, currents of air surged, while inside Lin Ming's room, red, yellow, white, black, and green Five-Colored Light shone. Looking closely, all these lights representing Five Elements Energy were pouring into Lin Ming's body.

Inside his body, Lin Ming sensed that a mass of five-colored energy and the blue-green energy of the Qi Gathering Powder were clashing with each other. Lin Ming knew that this five-colored energy was the energy of his own five elemental attributes. He knew this was the critical moment of the breakthrough, so he immediately mobilized his Dou Qi to wrap around the blue-green energy emitted by the Qi Gathering Powder, wildly refining that energy and making it fuse into the Five Elements Energy. As more energy entered the Five Elements Energy, the five-colored Light Orb gradually grew stronger.

Feeling the Five Elements Energy growing more and more powerful, Lin Ming felt a faint ache throughout the meridians in his body. So Lin Ming knew he could not delay any longer. He brought his hands together, formed seals with his ten fingers, and produced a strange hand seal.

As the hand seal formed, the Five Elements Energy seemed to have been injected with chicken blood. It began to madly absorb energy and descend toward the Dantian. As the Five Elements Energy fell in, all the energy in his body was like a dam whose floodgates had opened, surging rapidly toward the Dantian. His Dantian, which had already been filled with energy, now let out sounds of unbearable strain, as if it were about to split apart. Lin Ming knew that if he did not take measures now, this breakthrough would definitely fail, and his cultivation would fall straight back to the Dou Qi stage. If that happened, it would take at least another two years before he could attempt to become a Dou Zhe again. So Lin Ming absolutely would not allow such a thing to happen.

Boom! A large amount of Spiritual Strength poured out, controlling the Dou Qi and madly compressing the Dou Qi in his Dantian again. Though the Dou Qi resisted, before Lin Ming's vast Spiritual Strength, it was like sheep entering a pack of wolves, without the slightest power to resist. The situation finally eased somewhat, but Lin Ming did not dare relax at all. While compressing the five-colored Dou Qi, he also controlled the Dou Qi to wrap around and refine the Qi Gathering Powder's energy, injecting it into the Five Elements Energy.

Time passed bit by bit like this, until at a certain moment, the Dou Qi found no more blue-green energy to wrap around. Lin Ming suddenly realized that the Qi Gathering Powder's energy had already been used up. When his awareness saw the palm-sized, five-colored Energy Orb in his Dantian, Lin Ming knew it had reached the final step. If he succeeded, he would break through to Dou Zhe and begin a brilliant life; fail? Failure was impossible. I, Lin Ming, have come to this world for thirteen years. How could I allow myself to fail here? So break through for me! Then all his Spiritual Strength gathered toward the Energy Orb and suddenly pressed down.

Bang!

A soft, muffled sound entered Lin Ming's ears. What followed was an unprecedented feeling of lightness and abundance. Lin Ming sank his awareness into his Dantian, and saw a pentagonal vortex the size of a clay pot slowly rotating. This vortex had five colors—red, yellow, white, black, and green—giving off an especially shocking feeling.

Sensing the Five Elements Dou Qi in his Dantian, whose quality far surpassed Dou Qi, Lin Ming could no longer hold back at this moment and laughed wildly.

Before becoming a Dou Zhe, what one absorbed was Dou Qi, which was very mild and was mainly used to nourish the meridians. That was why, at the Dou Qi stage, one could not take medicinal pills, because the energy inside medicinal pills was attribute-bearing Dou Qi Energy, which was relatively violent. The Dou Qi stage simply could not withstand the impact of this medicinal power. Of course, being mild meant its power and killing force were low. Meanwhile, the power and killing force of violent Dou Qi far surpassed Dou Qi, at least by more than ten times. And if Lin Ming used his Five Elements Dou Qi together, it would be at least five times as powerful as ordinary Dou Qi. That was why Lin Ming was laughing wildly now. His current Dou Qi was dozens or even hundreds of times more powerful than before.

After calming down, Lin Ming sensed his Dou Qi. It seemed he was already a One Star Dou Zhe? Lin Ming had heard that after others entered the Dou Zhe realm, they still needed to nourish themselves for about half a month before reaching One Star Dou Zhe, but he had directly saved that nourishing time. It seemed this was because his previous foundation had been extremely solid.

When Lin Ming began cultivating the "Chaos Spirit Five Elements Technique," he had known that he could carry out attribute conversion. Before, at the Dou Qi stage, attributes had not manifested, so he had no way to try it. But now that he had advanced to Dou Zhe, he had to start experimenting. After all, this concerned how he, Lin Ming, would use different alternate identities in the future to handle certain matters without making others suspect that it was him, Lin Ming. This point was crucial.

Lin Ming's Spiritual Strength surged out, manipulating the Dou Qi in his Dantian. According to the laws of the Five Elements generating one another—Gold Element generated water, water generated wood, wood generated fire, fire generated earth, and earth generated gold. Because Lin Ming wanted to display the Fire-Wood Dual Attribute, he now needed to convert away the gold, water, and earth attributes, leaving only the Fire-Wood Dual Attribute. First, he controlled the Earth Attribute and transformed it toward the Gold Element. This transformation process was actually very simple. The Earth Attribute followed his Spiritual Strength and fused into the metal lines, converting on its own. But as soon as the Earth Attribute here converted into the Gold Element, the balance of the Five Elements was broken, and the cultivation method automatically began converting the Fire Attribute toward the Earth Attribute, trying to maintain the Five Elements balance.

Lin Ming would not stand for that. If you do this, how am I supposed to hide the issue of having Five Attributes? By then, basically anyone two ranks higher than Lin Ming would be able to see his Five Attribute Dantian. At that point, he would probably be captured, interrogated and tortured every which way, then sliced up for research. Lin Ming split off another thread of Spiritual Strength to control the Fire Attribute and stop it from converting toward the Earth Attribute. Just like that, he controlled the Earth Attribute to convert toward the Gold Element, the Gold Element toward the Water Attribute, the Water Attribute toward the Wood Attribute, and finally maintained a Fire-Wood Dual Attribute that was basically balanced between wood and fire.

Lin Ming sensed it now. The Spiritual Strength needed to stop the Fire Attribute from moving toward the Earth Attribute was not too great. For him, it was very easy and would not affect Lin Ming doing other things. And controlling his Spiritual Strength at all times like this would help his control and the growth of his Spiritual Strength. Though the effect was negligible in the short term, after enough time accumulated day by day, he would still be able to see obvious results.

The breakthrough was complete, and he had become a Dou Zhe. After the New Year, Lin Ming would be thirteen. Lin Ming relaxed tonight, and soon entered his dreams.

It was time for another year's Family Annual Meeting.

Lin Ming first went to meet up with Grandpa Liu. Seeing Grandpa Liu, Lin Ming called out first, "Grandpa Liu."

"Xiao Ming is here. Then let's set off!" Grandpa Liu replied to Lin Ming with a smile.

"Xiao~ Ming~! You broke through to Dou Zhe!" Grandpa Liu's trembling voice entered Lin Ming's ears.

"Yes, Grandpa Liu. Xiao Ming broke through a few days ago and directly became a One Star Dou Zhe. And it's the Fire-Wood Dual Attribute," Lin Ming said in a calm tone.

"Hahaha! Good! Good! The heavens have eyes! Xiao Ming, your hard work wasn't wasted. You can become a respected Alchemist now. Hahaha." Grandpa Liu laughed as he spoke, and faint traces of tears could be seen at the corners of his eyes.

Looking at Grandpa Liu's heartfelt happiness, Lin Ming knew this old man had put down the worry in his heart. Many people in the family had been worried, afraid that after Lin Ming became a Dou Zhe, he would not have the fire-wood attributes and would be unable to bear the blow, losing his fighting spirit. So one could see just how happy Grandpa Liu was now, after learning that Lin Ming had broken through to Dou Zhe and still had the Fire-Wood Dual Attribute, from the fact that someone of his strength had tears flowing.

Lin Ming walked over and held Grandpa Liu's hand, saying with a smile, "Grandpa Liu, just wait for me to refine medicine for you. When the time comes, you'll eat pills like candy beans, break through one star a month, and advance one rank a year. By then, you'll be able to bring the family to its peak, and Xiao Ming will get married and have children under your protection, spreading branches and leaves for the family."

"Haha, you kid, you only know how to talk nonsense. Grandpa Liu is already this old, and you still want me to break through one star a month and advance one rank a year? But Grandpa Liu does want to live a few more years, to watch you bring the family to its peak, watch you marry and have children, and spread branches and leaves for your Lin Family and for the clan," Grandpa Liu said with a sigh.

"Don't worry, Grandpa Liu. You will definitely see it. When the time comes, Xiao Ming's children will still need to be handed over to you to raise," Lin Ming said.

"Good! Good! When the time comes, Grandpa Liu will help you raise them!" Grandpa Liu said with a smile.

Lin Ming and Grandpa Liu walked toward the place where the Family Annual Meeting was being held.

Entering the main hall, Lin Ming and Grandpa Liu walked toward the very front. Once they reached the front, under everyone's gazes, they arrived before Mittel Tengshan. Lin Ming saluted and called out, "Clan Leader."

Mittel Tengshan looked at Lin Ming, then smiled and said, "Haha! Good kid. Sit down."

Lin Ming sat down in the seat beside Mittel Tengshan. Ever since that clan meeting three years ago, another chair had been placed beside Mittel Tengshan's seat. Everyone knew whose chair it was.

After Lin Ming sat down, he began waiting for the annual meeting to begin. After roughly another half hour, the annual meeting began. It was still the normal process, with Mittel Tengshan first beginning the ancestor worship segment. After the ancestor worship was completed, the younger generation's cultivation test began. It was still the Ninth Elder presiding over this cultivation test.

The Ninth Elder brought out the testing Magic Stone Stele, then began calling names.

"First, Lin Ming." The Ninth Elder called Lin Ming first.

This had been the norm for the past few years, so these people only watched Lin Ming, looking at him as he walked step by step toward the testing Magic Stone Stele.

"Ninth Elder, this kid, Lin Ming, has come for the test." Lin Ming saluted the Ninth Elder and spoke.

"Go on," the Ninth Elder replied.

Lin Ming walked up to the testing Magic Stone Stele and stretched out his right hand, pressing it against the testing Magic Stone Stele. Dou Qi circulated out.

At this moment, a radiance that had never appeared in all these years lit up on the testing Magic Stone Stele, shining so brightly that everyone below the platform could not open their eyes. Then these lights gathered on the testing Magic Stone Stele and formed several large words:

"Dou Zhe, One Star."

"Th-this is Dou Zhe?"

"It-it's Dou Zhe!"

Someone below the platform stammered.