Gathering Qi Powder, One-Star Dou Practitioner

As time passed, Wang Ming had been strolling around for quite a while. His room had just been tidied up, so he brought Xiao Li to his room.

"Li'er, you have now reached the Ninth Stage Dou Disciple. I just took a look, and you are in excellent condition. After fighting with members of your clan, your body, energy, and spirit are all at their peak. First, cultivate your Dou Qi where you are for half an hour to recover.

Then take the Gathering Qi Powder and condense your Dou Qi Vortex to become a Dou Zhe."

Wang Ming took a Jade Bottle from his Storage Ring. It contained the Gathering Qi Powder.

Xiao Li cupped his hands toward Wang Ming, then sat cross-legged on the floor and began cultivating his Dou Qi, adjusting himself to his peak condition.

Half an hour later,

Xiao Li slowly opened his eyes. Wang Ming had been sitting in a chair, watching Xiao Li cultivate for half an hour. Seeing that Xiao Li had finished, he handed him the Jade Bottle.

Xiao Li accepted the Jade Bottle. "Thank you, Teacher."

Wang Ming stroked his beard. "Why say such things between master and disciple? Does that not make us strangers?"

"This disciple was being overly sentimental. Teacher, I will begin breaking through to become a Dou Zhe." Xiao Li scratched his cheek somewhat awkwardly.

"Mm."

Xiao Li opened the Jade Bottle and tilted its mouth slightly. A pill the size of a Dragon Eye, alternating between blue and green, rolled out.

Looking at the round, full Gathering Qi Powder, Xiao Li was delighted. He was finally taking a medicinal pill, and it was even a Fourth Grade Pill.

Smelling its refreshing, peculiar fragrance, Xiao Li licked his lips. Without the slightest hesitation, he swallowed it in one gulp.

The moment the Gathering Qi Powder entered his mouth, a faint coolness spread through it. A moment later, a warm and pure energy surged directly from his mouth into his body, making Xiao Li's body shudder violently.

Xiao Li immediately formed hand seals with both hands to absorb Dou Qi. His breathing gradually steadied, and the faint Dou Qi within his body moved at his command, swiftly entangling the powerful, pure Medicinal Power before beginning a frenzied refinement.

Inside the room, the tranquil air suddenly rippled violently. Threads of pale white Dou Qi seeped out of the air and continuously drilled into Xiao Li's body.

The collision between the two energies in his body sent waves of stabbing pain through Xiao Li's Meridians. Fortunately, his channels were far tougher than those of ordinary people, and having trained since childhood, Xiao Li could endure this level of pain.

Within Xiao Li's body, Dou Qi wrapped around clusters of pure green energy. As he refined them frantically, green energy was continuously assimilated into pale white Dou Qi. With this added support, the amount of Dou Qi within Xiao Li's body was expanding at a visible rate.

Though the pure Medicinal Power was continuously refined, it seemed inexhaustible. Whenever Dou Qi refined one cluster of medicinal energy, an even larger cluster of green energy would rush over.

"Quick! Condense the Dou Qi Vortex! If it keeps expanding, you'll explode."

Wang Ming's voice rang out, jolting Xiao Li's spirit.

Xiao Li's hand seals abruptly changed. His index fingers and thumbs connected, his middle fingers touched, and his ten fingers formed a strange hand seal.

Although Xiao Li had never condensed a Dou Qi Vortex himself, he had seen how members of his clan did it. He had at least seen the pig run.

As Xiao Li's hand seals changed, the surging Dou Qi within his body seemed to be caught by a fierce suction force and rapidly contracted toward his lower abdomen.

The pale white Dou Qi in the channels throughout his body began retreating in unison. By the time all the Dou Qi had gathered in his lower abdomen, the pale white Dou Qi had already begun turning Milky White.

"Good! That's it! Use your Soul Perception to compress them! Compress the Dou Qi and form a Dou Qi Vortex!"

Wang Ming's voice came again. After who knew how many years, he was once more experiencing that tense, thrilling feeling.

Xiao Li nodded slightly, then focused his mind. Relying on his outstanding Soul Perception, he instantly seized control of the Dou Qi within his body and began compressing it madly.

Driven by Soul Perception, the mass of Milky White Dou Qi began resisting, churning violently without end.

Still struggling? Compress!

Feeling the Dou Qi's resistance, Xiao Li used his Soul Force to suppress and compress the unruly Dou Qi.

In the end, when the Dou Qi had shrunk to only the size of a palm, it solidified once again and stopped moving.

Xiao Li prepared to give it one more ruthless squeeze. The Soul Perception surrounding that mass of Milky White Dou Qi suddenly surged to its limit and crushed down fiercely!

Bang—

Huff—

Xiao Li let out a breath. Even the exhaustion in his body could not stop the joy on his face!

"It worked! I did it! I've become a One-Star Dou Practitioner!"

Watching Xiao Li like this, Wang Ming stroked his beard and smiled. Seeing how ruthlessly Xiao Li had compressed the Dou Qi at the end, Wang Ming did not know what to say.

Wang Ming stroked his beard and said, "Li'er, you can now use Internal Vision. Take a look at the Dou Qi Vortex inside your body. You are now a One-Star Dou Practitioner."

"Yes, Teacher." Xiao Li continued sitting cross-legged on the floor, his eyes slightly closed as his mind gradually sank into his body.

Internal Vision was an auxiliary skill that could only be mastered at the Dou Zhe level. The stronger one became, the more thoroughly one could examine the conditions inside one's body.

Xiao Li's mind sank into his lower abdomen. A palm-sized Milky White vortex was slowly rotating there, its outer edge wrapped in a layer of Milky White energy resembling a nebula.

As Xiao Li's mind observed the small vortex, he was quite satisfied. Though the vortex was still very small, the energy it contained was definitely far stronger than his previous Ninth Stage Dou Qi.

Frenziedly compressing Dou Qi could not go wrong. Even Xiao Yan said it was good!

A Dou Zhe and Ninth Stage Dou Qi were almost fundamentally different. The energy absorbed before becoming a Dou Zhe was called Dou Qi, while the energy absorbed after becoming a Dou Zhe was true Dou Qi!

Though the two differed by only one word, the gap between them was as vast as Heaven and Earth, utterly incomparable.

Xiao Li controlled the vortex with his mind. A strand of Milky White Dou Qi swiftly separated from the vortex, then surged in the direction indicated by his mind.

His mind continued controlling the vortex's intake and release. Once he became increasingly skilled, Xiao Li finally stopped in satisfaction, and his mind slowly withdrew from his body.

His tightly shut eyes suddenly opened. Milky White light lingered in his dark pupils for a full ten seconds before gradually fading away.

Xiao Li stood up. Dou Qi truly felt different from Dou Qi. If he used the Fiery Cloud Palm now, he might accidentally slap three Elder Brothers of the Clan to death.

Wang Ming watched his disciple play around with Dou Qi and helplessly shook his head. Nearly all children acted like this after becoming Dou Zhes; he had been the same back then.

"Li'er, well done. You have condensed your Dou Qi Vortex and officially become a Dou Zhe."

Xiao Li cupped his hands toward Wang Ming and thanked him. "I still have to thank Teacher for the Gathering Qi Powder. Only then was I able to succeed in one attempt."

Wang Ming stroked his beard and smiled. "It is only a small matter. It will not be too late to thank me after I pass all of my Alchemy on to you. Come, Li'er, choose a Cultivation Method."

After saying that, Wang Ming gave a slight flick of his right hand, and three scrolls of indiscernible material appeared in the next instant.