Chapter 13: All Fear Comes from Insufficient Firepower! Boom!
The heavy stone door slammed shut. The glow of its defensive ward sealed the Cave Abode off from the outside world.
Zhao Hao leaned against the cold door and slid helplessly to the floor. His chest felt like a bellows with a hole torn through it. Every breath came with a harsh rasp and a burning pain.
Cold sweat had soaked his back. His clothes clung damply to his skin, chilling him to the bone.
He slowly raised a hand. His fingertips were still trembling uncontrollably.
He could almost feel Wu De's fat hand resting on his shoulder. That cold, clammy sensation, like a snake's tongue licking his skin, refused to fade.
Killing intent!
Just now, in that cramped alley at the market, he had felt it clearly! Beneath that greasy fat bastard's smile lurked a fleeting flash of undisguised killing intent!
If that sycophant Lu Gui had not happened to appear, Zhao Hao had no doubt Wu De could have found a hundred ways to make a "third-layer Qi Refining" inner disciple "die in an accident"—or suffer a fate worse than death.
An Old Devil at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage could crush him more easily than an ant!
No!
He could not go on like this!
"Cultivation! Strength! I need to get stronger, faster!"
Zhao Hao let out a low growl. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of air and sheer fury. The madness of a man driven to the edge of a cliff burned through every nerve, and he nearly ground his teeth to pieces.
He sprang to his feet. With a thought, light flashed repeatedly from his Storage Bag.
Thud, thud, thud...
He dumped out all five cultivator corpses he had just bought at the market. Still giving off the stench of fresh death, they landed in a jumble across the empty stone chamber.
Zhao Hao did not even glance at them. Like a cornered beast, he summoned the system panel, his eyes set with resolve.
His will became an invisible hand, and he ruthlessly dragged four of the corpses into the [Consumable Material Slot].
This time, his target was his own Spiritual Root!
[Main Item: Spiritual Root: Fire (High-grade) → (Supreme-grade)] [Consumable Materials: Early-stage Qi Refining Cultivator Corpses ×4] [Enhancement Success Rate: 120%]
Seeing the success rate exceed one hundred percent, Zhao Hao felt his heart, which had been pounding wildly with fear, settle a little—as though a great hand had seized it.
Breathing hard, he forced two words through gritted teeth.
"Confirm enhancement!"
[Ding! Enhancement successful!] [Spiritual Root: Fire (Supreme-grade)!]
Boom—!
An unprecedented feeling of clarity rushed from the crown of his head straight to the soles of his feet!
Zhao Hao's eyes flew open. In his perception, the entire world had changed!
Inside the Cave Abode, and even beyond the mountain, the fiery-red motes of spiritual energy he had once struggled to draw in now behaved as though they had seen their king. Even without him circulating his art, they rushed madly into his body!
It felt... like breathing!
With every breath, a vast amount of spiritual energy poured into him on its own!
Zhao Hao's heart shook, but he did not lose himself in elation. He instinctively placed the last cultivator corpse into the Material Slot to see whether he could go beyond this so-called "supreme grade."
[Enhancement Success Rate: 20%]
The success rate had fallen from thirty percent to twenty!
Zhao Hao's gaze sharpened, and the madness surging through him swiftly cooled.
A Heavenly Spiritual Root was already the pinnacle of this world. What lay beyond it? Would an enhancement cause some earth-shaking omen and draw the scrutiny of the sect's Golden Core Old Devils?
Keep my head down and grow stronger. Don't get reckless!
That thought extinguished his urge to continue enhancing.
His Heavenly Spiritual Root was now both his greatest protection and a death warrant. He had to handle it carefully.
He quickly took stock of his Storage Bag.
Several hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones, a hundred Essence Condensing Pills, and a vast quantity of talisman-making materials.
Wu De's threat was a poisoned thorn lodged deep in his heart. He had to turn all these resources into real cultivation—immediately!
After all, all fear came from insufficient firepower!
Without hesitation, Zhao Hao sat cross-legged, poured out an Essence Condensing Pill, and tossed it into his mouth.
Inside the Cave Abode, day and night ceased to matter.
Zhao Hao entered a state of utter frenzy.
Cultivating with a supreme-grade Fire Spiritual Root was not merely a great whale drinking up water. It formed an unceasing vortex of spiritual energy around him!
Combined with his perfected Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art, he refined spiritual energy at an outrageous speed.
The medicinal power of an Essence Condensing Pill had barely entered his stomach before he wrung it dry. It became pure spiritual power that surged through his dantian.
Like an unfeeling cultivation machine, he stuffed Essence Condensing Pills into his mouth one after another, chewing them like wax. He could no longer taste them. All he knew was how to swallow.
The peak of the fourth layer of Qi Refining!
The bottleneck could not even raise a ripple before the raging flood of spiritual power swept it away!
The fifth layer of Qi Refining!
His accumulation of spiritual power did not slow in the slightest. It continued to soar at a terrifying pace.
At the instant of his breakthrough, a faint prickling sensation ran through his meridians. But with Wu De's shadow at his heels, only one thought remained in his mind—Faster! Faster still!
He ignored the strange sensation and swallowed another pill.
The peak of the Qi Refining Fifth Layer!
Another breakthrough!
Only twenty days had passed.
When the medicinal power of the last Essence Condensing Pill had been fully refined, Zhao Hao's tightly shut eyes snapped open!
An aura several times more powerful than before erupted from his body, shaking the spiritual energy throughout the stone chamber!
[Name: Zhao Hao] [Realm: Sixth Layer of Qi Refining (80/100)] [Spiritual Root: Fire (Supreme-grade)]
The sixth layer of Qi Refining! He was only one step away from late-stage Qi Refining!
He had gone from a mortal to the sixth layer of Qi Refining in less than two months!
"Wu De..."
Zhao Hao slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. As he felt the immense spiritual power coursing endlessly through his body, a powerful sense of control rose within him.
He stood, ready to test his current strength.
But the moment he raised his spiritual power—
"Hiss!"
A piercing pain exploded through his meridians, as if someone had packed his blood vessels with shards of broken glass!
His spiritual power circulated sluggishly, with a harsh resistance. It was nowhere near as smooth and effortless as before.
What's going on?!
He immediately focused his mind and looked inward with his spiritual sense.
What he saw sent a chill from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head, despite the composure he had gained from living two lives.
The walls of his once crystal-clear meridians were now coated with a thin layer of gray-black impurities. They seemed alive, writhing faintly each time his spiritual power washed over them, as though they had fused with his flesh and meridians.
He immediately checked the system panel.
[Status: Essence Condensing Pill Toxicity (Moderate)]
The accumulating pill toxins had already begun to erode the foundations of his cultivation!
If he did not purge them soon, he could forget about reaching Foundation Establishment. His cultivation might even regress!
"Pill toxins..."
Zhao Hao's eyes flickered. After that surge of alarm, an idea sprang to mind—the Hundred Poisons Body Tempering Art!
This art, which he had also enhanced to perfection, required him to absorb poisons to temper his body. The fiercer the poison, the better the results.
Were the pill toxins inside him not a ready-made source of the finest "nourishment"?
Zhao Hao immediately tried circulating the Hundred Poisons Body Tempering Art, guiding it to refine the gray-black pill toxins in his meridians.
It was his only lifeline!
But the moment the art began to circulate, something happened.
Like cats catching the scent of fish, the stubborn pill toxins did not submit to refinement. Instead, they reacted in an extremely strange way with his spiritual power and flesh!
Drawn along by the art, threads of pill toxin seemed to come alive. They burrowed into the depths of his flesh and took root there like seeds!
An itch and stabbing pain a hundred times worse than before erupted through every limb and bone!
"Hm?"
Zhao Hao's face went deathly pale. He endured the sensation, which nearly drove him mad, while his mind went blank.
Something's wrong!
Why does this Hundred Poisons Body Tempering Art seem to be feeding the pill toxins and helping them take over my body completely?!