Breakthrough

Wang Daoyuan sparred with Wang Shouye every day, exhausting all the spiritual energy in his body two or three times before replenishing it. Each time, he felt his spiritual energy grow more abundant. As his cultivation gradually stabilized, his practical combat ability also grew stronger and stronger.

Wang Shouye went from initially standing still, to being forced to dodge, to finally rising and sparring with Wang Daoyuan.

After being beaten around for three months, he could finally remain undefeated when Wang Shouye fought barehanded. Of course, that was only because Wang Shouye kept his cultivation at the Sixth Layer of Qi Condensation and did not use any spells.

By now, Wang Daoyuan's foundation was exceedingly solid. Even if he rapidly broke through to Qi Refining Layer Nine, his foundation would not become unstable. Still, for the sake of his future, it was best to proceed steadily and surely.

The purpose of stabilizing his foundation had been achieved. It was time to break through to Qi Refining Layer Seven.

After thanking Wang Shouye, Wang Daoyuan returned to his cave abode and began his secluded cultivation breakthrough.

Sitting cross-legged on the stone couch in his cave abode, he took out five jars of thirty-year-aged Crimson Blood Brew from the Spirit Pearl Space and thought, My foundation is stable, my spiritual energy is abundant, and with this spirit wine added in, this breakthrough should be in the bag.

He first drank a jar of Crimson Blood Brew. Without needing refinement, its spiritual qi swiftly entered his meridians.

Wang Daoyuan circulated his cultivation method and guided the spiritual qi into his dantian. His dantian was already filled with spiritual qi. For the incoming spiritual energy to enter, it could only continuously compress the qi within his dantian, making it denser and denser.

After half an hour of effort, he finally guided all the spiritual qi from one jar of Crimson Blood Brew into his dantian. The spiritual qi within had reached its limit, unable to increase by even a thread.

At last, he felt that he was on the verge of a breakthrough. He hurriedly circulated his cultivation method, guiding the spiritual qi through the meridians across his body.

The spiritual qi of the outside world was drawn in and flowed into Wang Daoyuan's body. With every circulation cycle of his cultivation method, the spiritual energy within him grew stronger by a measure.

Outside the cave abode, spiritual qi continuously gathered toward Wang Daoyuan's body. The qi throughout the Pill Talisman Pavilion diminished, while spiritual qi from outside the Pavilion continuously flowed in to replenish it. A Spiritual Qi Wind actually arose within the Pill Talisman Pavilion.

Wang Shouye, who had been dozing off, sensed the disturbance and opened his eyes to inspect the situation. Once he confirmed that the spiritual qi was surging toward Wang Daoyuan's cave abode, he smiled in gratification. "Those three months of effort were not wasted. Daoyuan is finally about to break through. With the worst Five-element Spiritual Root aptitude and the most basic water-element cultivation method, the Kan Shui Jue, he can still trigger a Spiritual Qi Wind during his breakthrough. This kid's foundation is quite solid!"

Naturally, this Spiritual Qi Wind was extremely weak. It could only stir a few willow catkins and specks of dust. Unless one possessed keen spiritual sense, one would not notice the changes in spiritual qi at all.

Wang Shouye was a cultivator with a Dual Spiritual Root. It was said that the phantom of his Water Spiritual Root was also extremely high-grade. Moreover, he cultivated the Golden Core method, Fu Hai Jue, left behind by Wang Chengzhu. When he broke through to the Late Stage of Qi Condensation years ago, he had triggered a Spiritual Qi Vortex one zhang in diameter, sweeping up fallen leaves and dust. Even mortals could see it.

Inside the cave abode, Wang Daoyuan was enveloped in watery blue spiritual qi. The spiritual energy within him gathered in ever greater amounts until his meridians and dantian were completely filled, unable to absorb even another thread of qi. Then, as if he heard a crack, his dantian and meridians both expanded somewhat, while the spiritual qi in his body became even denser.

The Spirit Pearl in his Sea of Consciousness gave off a faint abnormal fluctuation.

Spiritual qi coursed through his meridians, gradually merging into his blood. Blood fused with spiritual qi became essence blood. The essence blood flowed throughout his body along his blood vessels, nourishing his internal organs, tendons, bones, muscles, and more, making them stronger.

Only when his essence blood stopped increasing and the strengthening of every part of his body came to an end was his Qi Refining Layer Seven cultivation fully stabilized.

Wang Daoyuan guided the spiritual qi back into his dantian, stopped circulating his cultivation method, opened his eyes, and rose to his feet. He felt utterly weak all over.

Three days had passed since he entered secluded cultivation. In truth, the actual breakthrough had taken only half a day; the rest of the time had been spent stabilizing his realm.

He had gone three days and three nights without food or drink, all while strengthening his body. He was nearly fainting from hunger. He had intended to scoop out two Pseudo Spirit Fish from the Spirit Pearl Space, but when his spiritual sense entered the space, he could not help but be startled.

The space had doubled in size, expanding to twenty mu. The quality of its Spirit Fields had greatly improved, barely qualifying as second-order Spirit Fields.

The concentration of spiritual qi throughout the space had doubled, rivaling the area near a high-grade first-order spirit vein.

Time also flowed faster within the space. After testing with incense burned inside and outside the space, he found that time inside flowed twenty times faster than outside.

He specifically set aside two mu of Spirit Fields and dug a large pond to expand his spirit fish cultivation and plant Aquatic Spirit Plants.

He also planted two mu of spirit grain. The Pseudo Spirit Fish were growing more numerous, and their consumption of spirit grain was increasing as well. In addition, he had begun experimenting with using spirit grain to brew low-grade spirit wine. The original area of less than one mu of spirit grain was no longer quite enough.

He planted three mu of Crimson Blood Ginseng. When refining Talismans, he consumed too much spiritual energy. To avoid affecting his talisman-making efficiency, he relied entirely on Crimson Blood Brew to quickly restore his spiritual energy, and the consumption was truly no small matter.

The remaining three mu of Spirit Fields were all planted with several spirit herbs used to refine Spirit Gathering Pills.

Four years had passed outside, while forty years had passed within the space. The ten Clear River Carp had grown to over a foot long and had reached the low-grade first-order realm. Before long, they should be able to reproduce.

The Pseudo Spirit Fish in the space that had been tainted with spiritual qi had already multiplied to more than three hundred, but not a single one had evolved into a low-grade first-order Demon Beast and become a true spirit fish.

The Clear River Carp were now strong enough to crush the Pseudo Spirit Fish, so there was no need to raise them separately. They were all kept together, and the Clear River Carp would also prey on the Pseudo Spirit Fish.

The Long-tailed Bees in the space did not disappoint Wang Daoyuan. They successfully raised a new queen bee, allowing the colony to survive.

The queen bee looked much the same as the worker bees, except it was more than twice their size.

The ordinary worker bees were still low-grade first-order Spirit Insects, while the queen bee was a mid-grade first-order Spirit Insect.

The spirit grain, spirit herbs, and other spirit plants in the space provided the colony with a stable source of nectar. Over forty years, the Long-tailed Bee colony had expanded from several dozen bees to more than five hundred.

The hive had also changed greatly. It had originally been only fist-sized, but now it was a large hive more than a foot in diameter.

The number of spirit bees had increased by only around five hundred, not because the queen bee reproduced slowly, but because the nectar sources in the space could only support a little over five hundred spirit bees.

Starting a year ago, Wang Daoyuan had been able to harvest some honey, though the amount was small. By the time outside the Spirit Pearl Space, he could harvest only one jin of honey each month.

The main nectar source in the space was spirit grain. Other spirit plants had overly long growth cycles and, comparatively speaking, bloomed for too short a time.

Now that he had added another two mu of Spirit Fields for planting spirit grain, staggering the planting times between plots could ensure that spirit grain was always in bloom within the space.

The nectar source was now more than three times what it had been. In the future, the number of spirit bees would certainly exceed fifteen hundred. With the twentyfold time flow, he would be able to harvest more than six jin of Spirit Honey every month.

Taking spirit pills and honey together could reduce the absorption of Pill Toxin. He had always taken spirit pills and Spirit Honey to accelerate his cultivation, yet he only needed about half a jin of Spirit Honey each month. At least five and a half jin could be sold.

Furthermore, as the colony expanded, it could produce more Bee King Jelly, which was far superior to Spirit Honey. Unfortunately, the Bee King Jelly produced previously had only been enough for the queen bee itself to eat, with none left over.

Merely breaking through from the Qi Refining Mid-stage to the late stage had brought such immense changes to the Spirit Pearl Space. Wang Daoyuan wished he could immediately break through to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Of course, he could only think about it. Even with such abundant resources, it would still take seven or eight years for his cultivation to reach the Qi Refining Peak. Adding the accumulation needed before the breakthrough and the search for a Foundation Establishment Pill, he might not be able to achieve Foundation Establishment even in twenty years.

While his spiritual sense was inside the Spirit Pearl Space, he could not feel hunger. Yet once he left the space, his body was nearly starving to collapse.

He found some cooking utensils in the cave abode and directly used a Fire Attribute Talisman to cook inside the Spirit Pearl Space.

After eating his fill, Wang Daoyuan carried two jars of wine and swaggered out of the cave abode.

Seeing his smug expression, Wang Shouye mocked him. "Isn't it just a tiny breakthrough? Look at you, so pleased with yourself you don't even know your own surname anymore."

Wang Daoyuan smiled. "How could that be? Didn't I come to thank Twelfth Uncle? Without your guidance over these past three months, could I have broken through this early?"

With that, he handed Wang Shouye a jar of wine. The two exchanged smiles, tipped back their heads, and drained the jars in one gulp.

Wang Shouye laughed loudly. "You brat finally broke through. I don't have to stay in this shabby courtyard anymore. These four years have suffocated me to death. I couldn't go out and wander around, and I had to keep an eye on you, this little clever devil. Worrying myself sick and working myself to the bone—was that easy for me?"

Before his words had even faded, Wang Shouye had already run out of the Pill Talisman Pavilion and gone to experience life amid the ten thousand zhang of mortal dust.