Dou Shi!!

Night fell, and lanterns lit up one by one throughout Qingshan Town.

There were not many brothels, gambling dens, music halls, taverns, and the like in Qingshan Town, but there were a scattered few.

Though small, it had everything one could need.

Gu Fengchen merely sat cross-legged and cultivated in silence. This life of drunken indulgence did not suit him.

As Gu Fengchen cultivated Fire Burning Myriad Laws, his breathing gradually steadied, and the Dou Qi within his body slowly grew fuller.

Threads of pure energy seeped from the air after being refined by the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame, then flowed ceaselessly into Gu Fengchen's body.

Gu Fengchen clenched his teeth against his lip and continuously absorbed the energy around him. The volume of Dou Qi within him expanded at a visibly rapid pace.

In truth, aside from requiring the cultivator to possess a powerful flame, the Fire Burning Myriad Laws technique also required regulated breathing and guidance.

It used the Fire Attribute energy within the body and the Fire Attribute energy between heaven and earth to continuously stimulate and strengthen the body and meridians, causing more Fire Attribute Dou Qi to be born within the body.

What was best about the Taotie Seal was that it eliminated the possibility of going berserk from improper cultivation.

Thinking of all those characters in the novels of his previous life who had cultivated with extreme caution, only to suffer deviation at the slightest mistake, Gu Fengchen felt that the Taotie Seal truly was a treasure.

The reason so many techniques in this world could easily cause cultivation deviation was that even seemingly high-grade techniques actually came with many restrictions.

Take his Indestructible Golden Body technique, for example.

It did not make his entire body Vajra Indestructible. Its weakness lay at his navel; once someone attacked his navel, the Indestructible Golden Body would be broken.

Of course, the technique itself did not mention this. Only those who had truly cultivated it would know.

Furthermore, one had to retain a Virgin Body. Before cultivating the Indestructible Golden Body, one could not leak even a trace of vital yang.

If no one told them and they simply began cultivating that technique, they would not even know how they died.

Just then, Gu Fengchen's eyes suddenly widened. He sensed the World Energy abruptly surging toward him with all its might.

The meridians throughout his body swelled with pain. Gu Fengchen held his breath and focused, continuously refining his Dou Qi.

He gradually guided the World Energy that kept entering every part of his meridians.

This Dou Qi within his body could not only enhance his strength, but also relieve fatigue, clear his meridians, invigorate his blood, disperse stasis, and restore a man's virility.

With this circulation, he could sit cross-legged and cultivate for an entire day without his legs going numb.

The World Energy, like streams endlessly converging into rivers and seas, was continuously tempered by the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame into pure Dou Qi under his deliberate mental control.

The Dou Qi he absorbed had been purified through the Fire Burning Myriad Laws technique, making it far purer than directly absorbed energy.

Having read the Original Work, Gu Fengchen naturally knew what this meant. This was a sign that he was about to break through to the Dou Shi realm!

It seemed that because it was his first time cultivating Fire Burning Myriad Laws, the Dou Qi that had rapidly filled up in an instant had swiftly brought Gu Fengchen to the peak of Nine Star Dou Practitioner and given him an opportunity to break through!

Gu Fengchen's body practically turned into a black hole in an instant, endlessly absorbing the World Energy that crazily poured into him.

Though this energy was vast in quantity, it contained too many impurities and had to be refined. Otherwise, it could contaminate the Dou Qi he had painstakingly cultivated.

But Gu Fengchen had no such concern, because the technique he cultivated had used energy purified by the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame from the very beginning.

The Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame was, after all, a Heavenly Flame born between heaven and earth. Those impurities simply could not escape its incineration.

As the Dou Qi was continuously compressed, new Dou Qi began pouring into the Dou Qi Vortex. After repeating this process over and over, that Dou Qi energy actually began transforming into drops of liquid energy.

Finally, when the Dou Qi Vortex shrank to the size of a palm, it stopped spinning completely, and all the Dou Qi energy within it had turned liquid.

Gu Fengchen let out a long breath of Turbid Qi, then collapsed weakly, his chest heaving violently.

Though exhausted, the youth's eyes showed no trace of weariness.

In an instant, his clothes billowed without wind, his muscles bulged, and a fierce aura several times stronger than it had been hours earlier erupted from his body.

He immediately sensed the changes in himself. Two layers of skin peeled away, revealing new flesh that was crystalline and resilient. His physique had clearly improved and grown stronger.

So this is a Dou Shi?

At the same time, crimson magma seemed to flow through Gu Fengchen's eyes.

To ordinary people, heaven and earth remained as they had always been.

But in Gu Fengchen's eyes, this world had changed slightly.

He had become more sensitive to the Fire Element in the air. This should have been an additional ability gained from cultivating Fire Burning Myriad Laws.

Ordinary people naturally could not sense whether the Fire Element was abundant or scarce.

Even the Grandmasters of this world could not sense it.

Only those who cultivated Fire Attribute techniques—and techniques of a considerably high grade at that—could do so.

Within the Buddhist Sect, it was said that when two existences possessed "cause and effect," "affinity" would arise.

This was a concept of the Buddhist Sect.

Cause gave birth to effect, creating affinity and forming reincarnation.

The arising and passing of affinity was everything in the Buddhist Sect's worldview.

He had once read a Buddhist cultivation method called the Inverted Sitting Ghost Bodhisattva Method, which involved cultivating upside down with one's head on the ground.

Its meaning was this: Why does the Bodhisattva sit inverted? Because he laments that sentient beings refuse to turn back.

It was said to be an extremely secret inheritance of the Dou Qi Continent. Gu Fengchen had never heard of such an inheritance in the Original Work, which was enough to show just how secret it was.

As the saying went, only the Buddhist path spoke of reincarnation and understood inverted cultivation. Likewise, only someone like Gu Fengchen could sense the Fire Element between heaven and earth.

In other words, if a Heavenly Flame were nearby, Gu Fengchen could sense it more quickly.

There was only one reason for these changes.

Gu Fengchen had advanced to Dou Shi!

From Seven-Star Dou Practitioner to Dou Shi, Gu Fengchen had taken only one day!

As the final wisp of energy gathered back into Gu Fengchen's body, a terrifying aura many times more powerful than before spread outward, making his robes rustle loudly.

One Star Dou Shi—achieved!

Outside the window, he caught the faint sound of raindrops knocking down a fallen leaf, even amid the torrential rain.

Aside from his physical body, Gu Fengchen's hearing, vision, and other senses had improved to a certain degree after advancing to Dou Shi. His distance from this world had narrowed.

Furthermore, after advancing to Dou Shi, the healing ability granted by the Indestructible Golden Body would also strengthen. Wounds would heal faster after injury, shortening recovery time.

Of course, the greatest gap between a Dou Practitioner and a Dou Shi was still their strength. A Dou Shi was likely several times stronger than a Dou Practitioner!

Gu Fengchen thought for a moment, then his mind stirred. A large amount of golden gas instantly covered the surface of his body.

That golden gas was the color of the Dou Qi refined through the Fire Burning Myriad Laws technique.

The swelling Dou Qi appeared for a moment before drawing back again, clinging tightly to the surface of his body and forming a golden gauze garment made of Dou Qi, faintly patterned with flames.

Dou Qi Gauze!

And it was a premium version of Dou Qi Gauze!

Dou Qi Gauze was an ability that could only be used after advancing to Dou Shi. Covering the body with Dou Qi Gauze greatly enhanced one's attack, defense, and speed!

At that moment, the night watchman went out, and the midnight watch sounded. The agreed time had arrived.

Xiao Yi Xian and Gu Fengchen left their rooms at the same time. They exchanged a glance, then vanished together into the darkness.

It was already deep into the night. In theory, their departure should not have alerted anyone.

But if someone was deliberately watching them, that would be another matter.

Gu Fengchen, still inexperienced in the ways of the world, had ultimately overlooked certain things.

As they left, two figures appeared in the shadows of the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.

"Mr. Yao, where are those two going? Should we follow them?" Mr. Yao, dressed in white, and his confidant stepped out from the shadows.

"Follow them? Are you looking to die? We still don't know that boy's true strength. It wasn't easy for me to establish ties with them, and rashly going after them would be courting death. Though we don't know where they're going, we can make good use of this." Mr. Yao gently shook his head as though deep in thought, then curled his lips into a smile and said slowly, "Mu Li suffered such a huge loss—he definitely won't let this go. That man is extremely vengeful and will never swallow this humiliation. Besides, he sees Xiao Yi Xian as his personal possession. If he learns that she and that boy went out alone at night, hehehe... We might as well add fuel to the fire and send this news to Mu Li. It will also let us test that boy's mettle, see whether he's truly as strange as he seems. Since Mu Li suffered a loss this time, he should bring Dou Shi-level mercenaries to surround and kill him. As for whether the boy can survive, that will depend on his own fate."