Breaking Through to Dou Zhe

Ye Zhong's face was also filled with delight as he happily watched the entrance to the training room.

"Ye Yan still had a few days before he turned nine, right?"

Second Elder stroked his short beard and said cheerfully.

"That's right!"

Ye Zhong nodded. "He still had three days before turning nine!"

"A nine-year-old Dou Zhe... this is the first time such a genius has appeared in our Ye Family."

Fourth Elder, who was rather thin and usually had a fierce glint in his eyes, was much more peaceful than usual.

"The pressure from the Black Fire Sect and the other families has been growing lately. We need to make preparations as soon as possible."

Great Elder's expression was solemn.

"Rest assured, Great Elder. We've already prepared everything!"

Second Elder also turned serious and nodded.

"Pay special attention. We absolutely cannot let any important information about him leak out. His name being exposed doesn't matter!"

Just as they were discussing this—

Inside the training room.

Ye Yan opened his eyes and looked at the jade bottle before him. After taking a deep breath, he picked it up and tilted its mouth downward. Several round pills wreathed in blue-green light rolled out.

"Qi Gathering Powder refined by a seventh-grade alchemist really is different."

Ye Yan looked at the glossy, smooth Qi Gathering Powder in his hand and inhaled its refreshing medicinal fragrance, unable to help sighing.

Then, without further hesitation, he opened his mouth and swallowed the pill.

Ye Yan's expression remained calm. His hands formed a seal for absorbing Dou Qi, his breathing gradually steadied, and the Dou Qi within him, far exceeding his current realm, moved at his will.

After the Qi Gathering Powder dissolved in his stomach, it transformed into a gentle, pure medicinal force.

His Dou Qi carried that powerful, pure medicinal force and began refining it madly.

The Dou Qi within his dantian began surging wildly.

Inside the training room, the still air rippled violently like the surface of water.

Threads of pale white Dou Qi seeped up from the ground, then continuously flowed into Ye Yan's body.

Inside his body, at his dantian.

Ye Yan's vast Dou Qi swiftly enveloped that emerald-green pure medicinal force.

As Ye Yan refined it frantically, the green medicinal force was continually transformed into pale white Dou Qi.

With that medicinal force, the amount of Dou Qi within Ye Yan's dantian began expanding at a visible rate.

The medicinal force was still being refined, but Ye Yan sensed that something seemed wrong.

The medicinal force converted from this Qi Gathering Powder was steadily diminishing, as though it was beginning to run out of steam.

Meanwhile, his dantian, inadvertently enlarged after being strengthened by traits such as [Battle Qi Solidification], [Meridian Slight Expansion], and [Meridian Stabilization], was still far from reaching its limit.

Could it be that he needed to take a second Qi Gathering Powder?

Ye Yan was doubtful, but at this point, he had no time to think further. He hurriedly swallowed another Qi Gathering Powder, replenishing the weakening medicinal force.

An unknown amount of time passed.

With the medicinal force being refined within his body and the continuous influx of external Dou Qi, Ye Yan's Dou Qi had extended from his dantian and filled most of his meridians.

When the medicinal force from the second Qi Gathering Powder began weakening as well, Ye Yan, who had been paying close attention, discovered that the Dou Qi within him had finally expanded to a point where it could not increase any further.

The swelling Dou Qi made Ye Yan's dantian and meridians twitch slightly. The intense pain made him bare his teeth.

It's time! Ye Yan thought.

Immediately afterward, Ye Yan rapidly changed his hand seal. His index fingers and thumbs connected, his middle fingers touched, and all ten fingers formed a strange seal.

Following Ye Yan's movements, the vast Dou Qi within him swirled like a tornado, drawing the Dou Qi in his meridians into the dantian in his lower abdomen before rapidly contracting.

At the same time, Ye Yan's powerful soul perception took control of the Dou Qi within his body.

Ye Yan then began compressing it frantically, but the Dou Qi began resisting with equal ferocity.

Ye Yan tightly shut his eyes and pushed his soul perception to its limit, slowly compressing the Dou Qi at last.

Until...

Boom!

A muffled explosion sounded within his body.

The scattered, vast Dou Qi inside Ye Yan's body transformed into an almost solidified Dou Qi vortex.

If my soul perception hadn't been strong enough, dealing with that solidified, surging Dou Qi would have taken quite some trouble!

Ye Yan let out a breath and collapsed onto the floor.

He only felt dizzy and disoriented, while his chest rose and fell violently.

But when he sensed the abundant energy within his body, a smile curled across Ye Yan's lips.

The beginning was always the hardest. Now that he had laid a solid foundation, although the later realms would also require groundwork, they would not be as painstaking as the Dou Qi stage.

Ye Yan rested for a while. Once he had recovered, he inspected the vortex in his dantian again.

As it spun, the vortex faintly gleamed with a crystalline texture.

That made Ye Yan grin.

As far as he knew, the vortices Ye Zhong and the others had condensed at the Dou Zhe stage were merely pale white or milky white.

This meant that he had already surpassed countless others from the very first step.

Moreover, in another three days, he would have his yearly chance to draw traits again!

Ye Yan controlled the vortex with his mind, making it spin continuously. Once he grew familiar with it, he withdrew his focus and exhaled a breath of stale air.

Meanwhile.

Outside the door.

The few people who had been carefully sensing Ye Yan's condition had their hearts in their throats.

In their perception, Ye Yan's aura had risen and fallen repeatedly, and for one instant, it had even dropped below the Dou Zhe realm.

Everyone was so frightened that they began questioning Ye Zhong's skills as an alchemist.

Could the Qi Gathering Powder he refined be fake?

"I'm just saying, Great Elder, you really ought to study your alchemy craft more seriously."

After sensing that the aura in the training room had stabilized, Second Elder teased Ye Zhong.

"A single Qi Gathering Powder made Ye Yan's breakthrough so full of twists and turns."

Ye Zhong said nothing, merely keeping a cold expression.

Once the aura within the training room stabilized, he pushed open the door and entered.

He did not know what had happened either!

He had never seen such a complicated situation before.

Normally, advancing to Dou Zhe either succeeded directly or failed outright.

This was the first time he had encountered a case like Ye Yan's, where he had clearly seemed about to fail, only to suddenly succeed.

Seeing them enter, Ye Yan stood up and greeted them.

"Not bad. Your aura is solidified and stable. It's already comparable to that of an eight-star Dou Zhe!"

Second Elder's eyes lit up as he patted Ye Yan on the shoulder.

"Looks like Great Elder's title as a seventh-grade alchemist isn't fake after all."

Great Elder's vision went dark at those words.

"Oh, there's more to this story!"

Ye Yan looked toward Ye Zhong.

"Why did your aura keep stabilizing and dropping during your breakthrough?"

Ye Zhong did not know what else to say, so he could only ask directly.

Ye Yan then briefly explained what had happened.

"You're saying that during this breakthrough, you took two Qi Gathering Powders and your dantian didn't burst from the medicinal force?"

Ye Zhong was utterly stunned.

The ingredients he had used to refine this Qi Gathering Powder were all at full potency. Even when he had made his own breakthrough in the past, he had needed to reduce the age of the medicinal ingredients.

Yet Ye Yan had taken two Qi Gathering Powders.

Only after he extended his hand and carefully sensed Ye Yan's internal condition did he finally relax.

Then he looked at Ye Yan with a broad smile.

The others also stared at Ye Yan in amazement.

Good lad, he truly was the Ye Family's chosen prodigy.

The few of them exchanged glances, and the determination in their eyes needed no words.

They would spare no effort in the Ye Family to nurture him.

And now that Ye Yan had broken through to Dou Zhe, what he needed most was a sufficiently good cultivation technique.