Rising Two Levels in Succession

Beside the corpses of the black-clothed men.

Su Mo sat cross-legged, releasing his Devouring Martial Soul.

As he activated the Devouring Martial Soul, the essence blood and martial souls of the black-clothed men rapidly converged towards Su Mo.

The martial souls of these black-clothed men, including the one belonging to the middle-aged black-clothed man, were all Human Grade Third Tier martial souls, not of high rank.

Devouring the martial souls of these few individuals would have a negligible effect on the advancement of Su Mo's martial soul.

However, all of these individuals were at the Qi Cultivation Level Seven, with the middle-aged black-clothed man being at Qi Cultivation Level Eight. The energy contained within their essence blood was immense.

After Su Mo had only devoured half of their essence blood, his True Qi surged madly, directly breaking through his cultivation bottleneck.

He broke through to the Qi Refining Realm Sixth Level!

The essence blood was still being devoured, and Su Mo's cultivation continued to surge.

Early Stage Sixth Level of Qi Refining!

Mid Stage Sixth Level of Qi Refining!

Late Stage Sixth Level of Qi Refining!

Just as Su Mo's cultivation was nearing the Peak Sixth Level of Qi Refining, all the essence blood was completely devoured.

All the corpses had turned into dried husks.

Hoo!

Su Mo opened his mouth and let out a long breath of stale air.

He turned to look at Xi'er. Xi'er was staring blankly at Su Mo, her small mouth slightly open, her expression one of disbelief.

"Xi'er, now you know what's going on, right!"

Su Mo stood up and walked over to Xi'er.

"Brother Su Mo, this..."

Xi'er was utterly shocked, her large eyes gazing at Su Mo in amazement.

"Heh heh, this is because of my martial soul, it's the special ability of my martial soul."

Su Mo smiled slightly and explained to Xi'er.

Let alone Xi'er's shock, even he himself had been utterly shocked when it first happened.

Having a martial soul with the ability to refine essence into qi was indeed unheard of and unseen.

More importantly, the martial soul's rank could also be improved.

"Oh!"

Xi'er nodded, seeming to understand but not entirely.

"Let's go, Xi'er, we'll continue hunting demonic beasts!"

"Brother Su Mo, your injuries? They're still bleeding!" Xi'er said, looking at the wounds on Su Mo.

"It's nothing, just minor injuries, one pill will fix it!"

Su Mo waved his hand, took a healing pill, and after refining its medicinal properties, he led Xi'er further into the depths of the mountain forest.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Su Mo was like a steamroller, frantically reaping the lives of demonic beasts, killing as he went.

No matter what kind of demonic beast it was, as long as it ran on the ground, he annihilated it.

As for those that flew in the sky, he wished he could kill them too, but he just couldn't reach them!

Soon, Su Mo had ventured another thirty li deeper into the mountain forest. Along the way, he had annihilated over forty demonic beasts.

However, despite killing over forty demonic beasts and devouring their beast souls and essence blood, neither Su Mo's martial soul nor his cultivation had advanced.

These forty-odd demonic beasts were all only Level 1 Tier 4 and Tier 5 demonic beasts. The beast souls of Level 1 Tier 4 and Tier 5 had extremely low effectiveness in improving his martial soul's rank.

And the blood of these demonic beasts had only barely pushed his cultivation to the Peak Sixth Level of Qi Refining.

The blood of over forty Level 1 Tier 4 and Tier 5 demonic beasts was not even comparable to the essence blood of a single Qi Cultivation Level Eight martial artist.

As he ventured deeper into the mountain forest, the rank of the demonic beasts also grew higher.

Roar!

A deafening roar echoed, and a massive demon bear appeared ahead.

This demon bear was as black as ink all over, nearly two zhang long, weighing no less than three thousand jin. It was enormous, and its demonic aura was thick.

This was clearly a Peak Level 1 Tier 6 demonic beast.

"Hahaha!"

Su Mo rejoiced and swiftly flew forward.

Roar!

The demon bear, discovering that a human had trespassed into its territory, immediately became enraged, its roar shaking the mountain forest.

The massive body rumbled as it charged towards Su Mo, snapping countless large trees along the way. Its bear paw, the size of a millstone, whistled through the air as it swung towards Su Mo's head.

Although this demon bear was only a peak Level 1 Tier 6 beast, its colossal size and immense strength made it comparable to a Level 1 Tier 7 demon beast.

Whoosh!

Even so, the demon bear couldn't withstand a single sword strike from Su Mo. With a flash of light, Su Mo's sword severed its giant paw and half of its head.

Blood splattered, and brain matter oozed out.

Boom!

Immediately after, the demon bear's enormous body crashed to the ground.

Su Mo directly devoured its beast soul and essence blood.

After devouring the demon bear's essence blood, it was immediately refined into True Qi and integrated into Su Mo's Dantian.

In Su Mo's Dantian, the misty True Qi had accumulated to its critical point.

Su Mo attempted to break through to the Qi Cultivation Level Seven realm, but after two tries, he still couldn't breach the bottleneck.

"Still not enough, still a bit short!"

Su Mo continued forward with Xi'er.

He walked, he killed, he devoured.

Finally, after Su Mo killed another eight Level 1 Tier 6 demon beasts and two Level 1 Tier 7 demon beasts and devoured them.

His Dantian distended, and his True Qi surged once more. An aura several times more powerful than that of Qi Cultivation Level Six erupted from him.

"Breakthrough, Qi Refining Realm Seventh Level!"

In just a few hours, Su Mo had advanced from the Peak Qi Refining Fifth Layer to the Qi Refining Seventh Level.

If other martial artists knew of such rapid cultivation speed, they would likely be terrified to death.

"This leveling up is too easy!"

Su Mo rejoiced, sighing inwardly.

Originally, according to his estimations, he would need at least two days of killing in the Youfeng Mountain Range to advance to the Qi Refining Seventh Level.

He hadn't expected to break through to the Qi Refining Seventh Level in only half a day.

The speed was too fast!

The speed of cultivation advancement through devouring essence blood far exceeded his expectations.

Of course, the black-clothed men today had also "helped" him.

"If I killed here for half a month, wouldn't my cultivation soar to the Spirit Martial Realm?"

Su Mo's heart burned with excitement.

However, he quickly dismissed the thought.

Cultivating this way would inevitably lead to impure True Qi and an unstable foundation.

Furthermore, he had killed the guards from the City Lord's Mansion and thwarted Lin Xiao's plans. It was inevitable that the other party would send more people.

For Xi'er's safety, it was better to return home sooner.

Glancing at the sky, it was still early. Su Mo decided to hunt a few more demon beasts before taking Xi'er back.

Subsequently, Su Mo continued his slaughter. As evening approached, he annihilated over a dozen more Level 1 Tier 7 demon beasts.

After devouring them, Su Mo's cultivation reached the late stage of Qi Cultivation Level Seven.

His cultivation progress had been soaring.

However, despite his rapid cultivation progress, his Martial Soul still showed no reaction.

Even after devouring so many beast souls, his Devouring Martial Soul had not advanced.

Su Mo estimated that for his Martial Soul to reach the Human Grade Seventh Tier, he would need to devour at least several hundred Level 1 Tier 7 beast souls.

If he had to hunt each demon beast one by one, the workload would be quite significant.

It would be more practical to purchase them directly.

As it was getting late, Su Mo lingered no longer. He took Xi'er and quickly left the Youfeng Mountain Range, returning to Linyang City.