A moment later, Xu Yang opened his eyes and let out a long breath, his face beaming with delight. As expected of a spirit pill. Its effects are incredible. I can feel that my current realm has stabilized, and I'm pushing toward the mid stage of the peak realm.
"More importantly, this spirit pill can strengthen my foundation and nourish my essence. I should be able to recover some of the potential I expended using the Heavenly Demon Great Art." At the thought, Xu Yang felt a surge of excitement.
After eating something, he began practicing the martial arts Old Man Tianjue had created. Until he broke through to the Xiantian Realm—in other words, the First Layer of Qi Refining—he should practice martial techniques to strengthen himself.
From then on, Xu Yang meditated to refine qi every day, worked hard to absorb the Peiyuan Pill's medicinal power, and practiced martial arts. His days were incredibly fulfilling. The spirit pill's effects far surpassed his expectations. It took him a full week to absorb a single pill completely, and his cultivation swiftly broke through to the mid stage of the peak realm.
Overjoyed, Xu Yang pressed on, and time flew by. In the blink of an eye, he had been living in the cave abode for about three months. By then, he had taken six spirit pills, and the true qi coursing rapidly through his meridians was immensely powerful.
Xu Yang had broken through to the peak of the peak realm a week ago. Now, he could clearly sense an enormous bottleneck. He had tried to break through several times over the past few days, but it had not budged at all, as immovable as a Bronze Wall and Iron Bastion. Only then did Xu Yang understand how difficult it was to break through to the Xiantian Realm. No wonder no Xiantian experts had appeared in the martial world for over a hundred years.
Fortunately, he had the secret Xiantian method created by Old Man Tianjue. He had already mastered it, and it was worthy of a great expert at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining. This method was more than enough to help him break through the bottleneck. After several days of preparation, Xu Yang finally decided to attempt the breakthrough today.
He sat cross-legged on the stone bed and took out a spirit pill, swallowing it before tightly closing his eyes and circulating his cultivation art with all his might. The true qi inside him began to flow rapidly. With the spirit pill's medicinal power aiding it, it grew more and more violent. Then, under Xu Yang's guidance, it charged toward the Baihui Acupoint at the crown of his head.
To enter the Xiantian Realm, he had to open the Baihui Acupoint atop his head and connect the bridge between heaven and earth. Only then could he absorb the world's spiritual energy and transform his true qi into Xiantian Gang Qi.
Xu Yang guided the roiling true qi within him as it repeatedly battered the bottleneck before the Baihui Acupoint. Wave after wave of pain pulsed through his head, and a thunderous rumbling filled his ears. He gritted his teeth and drove his true qi against the bottleneck with all his strength.
But the bottleneck was unbreakable. Though the impacts made it shudder again and again, it never shattered. Seeing this, Xu Yang immediately pulled his true qi back and began using the secret method. The true qi inside him slowly compressed until it became a drill, spinning fiercely. Cracks began to spread through the meridians around it, which clearly could not withstand such immense pressure.
Xu Yang did not dare delay. He quickly drove the drill toward the bottleneck. A deafening BOOM rang out in his head as the drill slammed into the barrier, and cracks instantly spread across it.
Under Xu Yang's full control, the two forces remained locked in a stalemate for a moment. Then the barrier could hold no longer. With a CRACK, it shattered, and the true-qi drill burst through, plunging straight into the Baihui Acupoint. Xu Yang then felt a coolness at the crown of his head, as though a great hole had opened there. A stream of cool air flowed down through the top of his head.
Once inside Xu Yang's body, part of the air immediately merged with his true qi, which began to transform. The rest fused with his body, rapidly strengthening his flesh. For a moment, Xu Yang felt utterly comfortable from head to toe.
A moment later, Xu Yang came to his senses and examined his body. Overjoyed, he found that his meridians had become crystal-clear and exceedingly broad, while a mass of Xiantian Gang Qi now filled his dantian. His body had also been strengthened, greatly improving his physical attributes in every way. The hidden damage caused by his earlier use of the Heavenly Demon Great Art had been completely healed.
Moreover, a wondrous spiritual sense had appeared between his brows. Under its reach, the scenery around him was crystal clear, all of it appearing in his mind. But this spiritual sense had only just formed and was still very weak; for now, it could cover only about three meters around him.
Even so, Xu Yang was extremely excited. With spiritual sense, he no longer had to fear anyone sneaking up on him. Under its reach, nothing could hide.
Xu Yang was eager to test the might of his Gang Qi, but a sudden change occurred. A powerful aura burst from his chest, pinning him firmly in place so he could not move. As he watched, two objects floated out from inside his robes.
Xu Yang hurriedly looked. Floating before him were a small statue with three heads and six arms, and a pitch-black little sword. He was instantly dumbfounded. These were the treasures Li Yuan and his senior brother had fought over. After obtaining them, he had never paid them much attention, thinking they were just children's toys!
Who would have thought they could unleash such a powerful aura? As Xu Yang watched, the statue crumbled into specks of ash. A streak of golden light appeared before him, seemingly wrapped around a drop of liquid. Before Xu Yang could get a good look, the golden light had already shot toward him and entered his body.
The Black Little Sword suddenly emitted a streak of black light as well. With a WHOOSH, it shot into his dantian. As the two vanished, the powerful aura disappeared without a trace. Xu Yang immediately sprang off the stone bed. He had just started to examine his body when a dazzling golden light burst from within him, followed by a wave of pain. Xu Yang promptly passed out.
Xu Yang's body slumped to the ground. Golden light flashed across it from time to time, and his muscles alternately swelled and returned to normal, making for an incredibly bizarre sight.
A day soon passed. Xu Yang's body settled down, and his consciousness slowly returned. The moment he woke, he was startled. He hurriedly rose from the ground, sat cross-legged on the stone bed, and used his spiritual sense to inspect his body.
As soon as he looked within, Xu Yang's face froze. His body had changed dramatically. His meridians had become more resilient and broader, while his sinews, bones, muscles, and even his internal organs had grown incredibly tough. He was on an entirely different level from before he had passed out.
Then he looked into his dantian. A mass of gaseous Gang Qi hung within, roughly three times larger than the one he had seen before. A small black sword circled and danced around it, periodically drawing in and expelling Gang Qi. Xu Yang discovered that the Gang Qi became even purer after passing through the sword.
Xu Yang's face lit up. The purer his Gang Qi, the greater its power. He had never expected the little sword to have such an ability. Then, in a corner of his dantian, Xu Yang noticed a patch of golden light. It seemed to sense his arrival and shot toward him, merging into his spiritual sense.
Xu Yang was startled and was just about to withdraw from his dantian when a mass of text and images suddenly appeared in his spiritual sense. He hurriedly read through it, then burst into loud laughter.
The golden light contained a cultivation art, profound beyond compare, and also explained the statue's origins. It had been a legacy left behind by a great expert from the Spirit Realm. The expert had perished in a great battle, leaving behind only a remnant soul that had stumbled into this world by chance. Its power was too weak to seize another body and be reborn, so it had left behind its cultivation art and a drop of True Spirit Blood before crumbling into ash.
The statue had been condensed from the great expert's magical power and was naturally indestructible. Only when it encountered a cultivator would it collapse on its own and reveal the legacy within. Unfortunately, the statue had passed from hand to hand for ages without ever falling into a cultivator's possession. In the end, Li Yuan's master had stumbled upon it by chance. Along with the Black Little Sword passed down in his family, it had become a treasure of his lineage.
Now that Xu Yang had broken through to the Xiantian Realm and become a cultivator at the First Layer of Qi Refining, he had naturally triggered the statue's reaction and obtained the legacy within. As for the Black Little Sword, it had not been left behind by the great expert. It was an heirloom of Li Yuan's master, shrouded in mystery, and its origins were unknown.
The cultivation art passed down by the great expert was called the Indestructible Golden Body Art. It was said that upon reaching the Mahayana stage, one could become deathless and indestructible, and be reborn from a drop of blood. Even more astonishingly, one could cultivate a golden body, with two sides to a single whole; after fusing with it, one's strength would surge. Xu Yang's face lit up with excitement. He secretly vowed to cultivate this art all the way to the Mahayana stage.
To cultivate this art, one needed True Spirit Blood. Every time one broke through a major realm, one needed a different drop of True Spirit Blood. True Spirits were immensely powerful and exceedingly rare; they could only be found in upper realms such as the Spirit Realm. In the lower realm where Xu Yang lived, traces of them were rarely found.
Fortunately, the cultivation art offered a solution: it contained a secret technique for extracting bloodlines. Xu Yang could seek out demons or monsters with True Spirit bloodlines, kill them, and extract the True Spirit Essence Blood from their bodies to cultivate.
Xu Yang felt relieved. He had nearly gotten a scare for nothing. As long as there was a solution and he could cultivate the art, that was enough. Otherwise, the cultivation art would be useless to him.
Now that he had absorbed a drop of True Spirit Essence Blood, he could cultivate the Qi Refining Realm portion of the Indestructible Golden Body Art. As for the essence blood he would need later, he would wait until he had grown stronger.
Thinking of this, Xu Yang glanced at the Black Little Sword again. It continued to draw in and expel pure Gang Qi, with no other unusual movements. He relaxed for the time being, withdrew his spiritual sense from his body, and returned to the outside world.
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