The Fourth Level of Qi Induction

Bang!

The Crocodile Demon's massive body crashed into the water,

like a boulder plunging from a great height, sending enormous waves splashing across the surface.

The river churned violently,

wave after wave rippling and surging outward.

At the same time, a plume of blood welled up from the riverbed and spread in every direction.

"Did we do it?!"

With the Crocodile Demon gone,

the people all around finally recovered from their terror. Many stood on tiptoe, craning their necks to look around.

But by now, the Crocodile Demon had sunk completely beneath the water. Not even its shadow could be seen.

The river had grown even murkier, its surface rolling in layer after layer of waves.

"Changchuan, how is it?"

Seeing the broken bamboo pole in his son Han Dayong's hand and the empty water's surface, Han Qinhu walked up and asked.

However,

at that very moment,

under the effects of the Spirit Eye Technique, Shen Changchuan spotted something strange in the river.

Beneath the water, a dense mass of demonic power seemed to be gathering, creating ripples visible to the naked eye!

"Not good! Watch out!"

In an instant,

Shen Changchuan sensed an intense threat.

With no time to think,

he cast the perfected Light Body Technique almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind. Spiritual light swirled around him, making his entire body feel as light as a feather.

Then, he grabbed Han Qinhu, who was nearest,

and sprang backward,

leaving a gray afterimage in midair as he retreated in the blink of an eye to the riverbank, eight or nine zhang away.

At almost the same moment,

Whoosh!

An arm-thick Water Arrow shot up from beneath the surface like a sharp arrow, sweeping through the space where Shen Changchuan and the others had stood moments earlier,

and slammed into the trunk of a large tree behind them.

Bang!

The tree trunk, as thick as a water barrel, exploded in an instant,

sending water, spray, and splinters flying in every direction.

The tree was cut clean through at the waist, and its heavy upper half creaked as it toppled to the ground.

Not far away,

Han Qinhu, who still hadn't recovered his wits, stared at the scene,

his forehead damp with sweat as relief flooded him at having escaped death.

If Shen Changchuan hadn't pulled him away at the critical moment, there was no way he would have survived that strike!

At the same time,

the onlookers belatedly realized what had happened. They cried out in alarm and scattered backward.

Still shaken, they looked at Shen Changchuan with awe.

An immortal master's strength was truly extraordinary.

Not one of the more than two thousand people in Dawan Village could have dodged that river demon's attack!

Their faith in Shen Changchuan deepened.

Not a trace of contempt remained for his youth.

"This is troublesome!"

Shen Changchuan paid no attention to what the villagers were thinking.

He glanced at the tree that had been severed at the waist, his eyes full of wariness.

"That innate demonic art is so powerful. Its strength must be at least at the fifth level of Qi Induction!"

"On top of that, its defenses are astonishing, and it has a petrification ability that greatly strengthens them. My earlier attack barely broke through its hide. It didn't threaten the creature at all."

For a moment, Shen Changchuan felt utterly stumped.

The creature was simply beyond his current abilities.

Take that last attack, for example.

If he hadn't cultivated the Spirit Eye Technique and spotted it gathering power underwater, or if his Light Body Technique hadn't reached perfection, letting him react in the space of a breath,

he would never have dodged that strike, swift as thunder!

And Shen Changchuan still couldn't withstand a Water Arrow head-on.

If it hit him, he would be as good as dead!

Shen Changchuan furrowed his brow and racked his brains,

but he couldn't think of any way to deal with the creature.

"Right now, perhaps all I can do is be glad I didn't use the Gold Needle when I fought that beast earlier!"

At a loss, Shen Changchuan couldn't help but put on a bitter expression, trying to comfort himself.

Judging by the results of his Gold Thorn Technique,

even if he used the Golden Needle Artifact to amplify the technique's killing power, he could at most heavily wound the Crocodile Demon. He still wouldn't be able to kill it.

He might not even manage to wound it badly.

In that case,

if he had used the Golden Needle Artifact, he would certainly have lost it.

At least he'd been cautious enough not to use it.

Otherwise, he would have taken a huge loss.

"Grandpa, for the next while, seal off the riverbank and keep the villagers away from it as much as possible."

"I can't deal with it for now."

Looking toward the river, whose surface had grown calm again, Shen Changchuan thought for a moment before speaking to Han Qinhu, who was still shaken.

The Crocodile Demon hid in the river,

where it had the advantage of the terrain.

Its cultivation was also a whole level above his. There was no way to deal with it.

And since the attempt to lure it out had failed, the beast was cunning enough that this simple method probably wouldn't work again.

"Ah, that beast is really difficult to deal with!"

Han Qinhu had steadied himself by now, but his face was still clouded with worry.

"But if we don't get rid of it, what if it crawls ashore under cover of darkness and attacks the village?"

Dawan Village wasn't far from the river that ran through the entire mountain valley and plain.

And demon beasts were far more intelligent than ordinary wild animals.

If the river demon held a grudge and crawled out in the middle of the night, sneaking into the village to attack people and livestock, it would be a disaster.

"There's no other choice. We'll have to send more people out on patrol at night."

"We can also gather people during their free time and build a fence around the village."

Shen Changchuan shook his head slightly.

Even if it came looking for revenge, there was nothing they could do.

Underwater, he would almost certainly be no match for the demon.

And they had only just used the bait. If they tried to draw it out again, it probably wouldn't work nearly as well.

For now, they could only do this.

"Once this busy period is over, after the Spirit Grain has been planted and the village's rice paddies have all been sown, we can cut down the trees around the village and reinforce the fence into a thick wooden palisade. Then we can put some people on night patrol."

"If it dares to come ashore, I can't promise I'll kill it, but I should at least be able to wound it badly and drive it back into the water."

Shen Changchuan spoke with quiet confidence.

Until they built the palisade, the village might be in danger.

But the more than two thousand people in the village had to cultivate ordinary fields for food, in addition to working the Spirit Fields.

The summer planting season had arrived.

Shen Changchuan couldn't delay the farmwork by forcing the villagers to take on more tasks.

They would have to wait until the summer planting was over.

"Then I suppose that's all we can do."

Before long,

after the aftermath had been dealt with

and the tasks ahead had been assigned,

Shen Changchuan returned to the Half-Mountain Courtyard and entered the Spirit Spring Secret Chamber.

Inside, Shen Changchuan sat cross-legged on a stone.

He thought back over the battle, weighing what had gone right and wrong.

He concluded that he hadn't made any mistakes in his approach.

The main problem was that he was too weak!

If he had been at the fourth level of Qi Induction, or even the fifth, the Golden Needle Stab would have at least badly wounded the Crocodile Demon, if not killed it outright.

But he wasn't.

"The peak of the third level of Qi Induction is still too low!"

Shen Changchuan murmured under his breath.

Back at the Shen Family Estate, that would have been a good way to disguise his strength, and a good thing for him.

But in a savage wilderness like this, it was nothing but trouble.

Without enough strength,

danger could descend at any moment!

Shen Changchuan couldn't help feeling a growing sense of urgency.

So from then on,

he began working even harder at his cultivation.

Other than making an appearance every three to five days to check on the Spirit Fields,

he spent almost all his time secluded in the Spirit Spring Secret Chamber, cultivating tirelessly.

More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

By then,

the ten mu of Spirit Fields outside had all been sown with grain seeds. The other two mu of experimental fields had also been transplanted with rice seedlings, using the planting methods he had worked out.

All that remained was to have people patrol every three to five days, pull the weeds, and kill any insects that appeared in the Spirit Fields.

The rest of the villagers,

meanwhile, had begun cultivating ordinary fields to secure their food for the coming year.

From then on,

for a long stretch of time, as long as nothing unexpected happened,

Shen Changchuan could finally take a step back and let others handle things until the Spirit Grain was ready to harvest.

And so,

he began his breakthrough to the fourth level of Qi Induction.

"It's time!"

Inside the Spirit Spring Secret Chamber,

Shen Changchuan took the jade bottle from his robes.

As he gazed at the Qi Harmonizing Pill inside, his face was solemn.

After more than half a month of hard cultivation,

he had fully tempered his cultivation to perfection, and his body had reached its peak condition.

At the same time,

after more than half a month of accumulation,

the spiritual energy inside the Spirit Spring Secret Chamber had built up considerably.

There could be no better time to break through!

Since that was the case,

Shen Changchuan didn't hesitate.

He removed the stopper,

poured the Qi Harmonizing Pill into his right hand,

and saw a thumb-sized, pale red pill that gave off a faint spiritual aura, its medicinal fragrance wafting through the air.

Shen Changchuan didn't hesitate.

He tossed the pill into his mouth.

Then he quickly settled into a meditative pose.

The Elephant Mountain Qi-Gathering Art circulated through his meridians, guiding his spiritual power through the cycles.

As the pill dissolved in his stomach,

a powerful medicinal force spread out from his lower abdomen, surging in every direction.

Shen Changchuan circulated the Elephant Mountain Qi-Gathering Art with all his might, directing the medicinal power through his body and refining it.

Time passed bit by bit.

Sweat beaded across Shen Changchuan's forehead.

The spiritual energy drifting through the air from the spirit spring was also rapidly consumed.

Three days later,

Boom!!!

Shen Changchuan felt the bottleneck within him suddenly burst open!

The magical power in his body surged forward by a great deal, in both quantity and quality!

Fourth level of the Qi Induction Realm!

He'd succeeded!

Feeling the doubled magical power surge like a mighty torrent through his dantian and meridians,

Shen Changchuan opened his eyes, a flash of lightning-bright brilliance in them.

Although he'd anticipated this long before,

he still couldn't help but show his joy.

"Going from the third to the fourth level of the Qi Induction Realm is a transformation from the early to the middle stage."

"Now I'm a cultivator in the middle stage of the Qi Induction Realm!"

Shen Changchuan clenched his fist, feeling the vast magical power within him,

and his mind felt more at ease than ever before!