Seven days later, in the dilapidated courtyard, Zhao Hao opened his eyes.
The sword wound on his left shoulder had long since scabbed over, but the chill of that brush with death still coiled around his heart like a venomous snake.
For seven days, he had lived like a rat hiding in a gutter, calculating even his every breath.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Heavenly Sword Sect had not appeared again. It seemed that after that strike, the man had lost all trace of him.
As for the Extreme Yin Sect, its flying vessel had been destroyed and its front lines were under pressure. It had troubles enough of its own.
The brief, deathly silence from both sides was his only chance to survive!
He had reached the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining. Only one breath separated him from that threshold.
But in that single breath, an accident could crush him to death.
He could not wait any longer!
Early the next morning, Zhao Hao changed into a set of worn cloth clothes and blended into the crowd of ordinary people leaving the city. With his head lowered, he soon disappeared through the gate.
Once he was far from any sign of human habitation, he plunged deep into the forest and sank underground without hesitation.
Earth Escape Art!
After traveling several hundred li underground in fits and starts, Zhao Hao stopped beside a tiny vein of earthfire near the Extreme Yin Sect's territory.
He did not want the thin spiritual energy here. He wanted the harsh terrain and the concealment it offered.
Twenty zhang below ground, a simple Cave Abode was quickly carved out.
He activated a palm-sized azure array disc, and a curtain of light covered the walls. He had helped himself to the disc from the Cave Abode at Ten Thousand Corpse Mountain; it could withstand a full-force strike from a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
But that was not enough!
Zhao Hao took the Blood Vein Bone Armor belonging to his Eighth Senior Sister, Lin Yaoyao, from his Storage Bag.
[Main item: Blood Vein Bone Armor (mid-grade magical artifact)]
With a thought, he selected the mountain of Spirit Stones piled inside his Storage Bag.
"Two hundred and fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones. Enhance!"
[Enhancement success rate: 100%]
"Confirm!"
[Ding! Enhancement successful! Blood Vein Bone Armor (mid-grade magical artifact) has advanced to (high-grade magical artifact)!]
"Not enough!"
Zhao Hao gritted his teeth and poured in more Spirit Stones.
"One thousand two hundred and fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones. Do it!"
[Enhancement success rate: 100%]
"Confirm!"
[Ding! Enhancement successful! Blood Vein Bone Armor (high-grade magical artifact) has advanced to (supreme-grade magical artifact)!]
A dim gleam flashed across the armor's surface and vanished. Its dense, solid aura was worlds apart from what it had been before.
Zhao Hao put on the supreme-grade magical artifact, something that would drive any Qi Refining cultivator mad with desire. The cold armor pressed against his skin, and he forced down the last trace of unease in his heart.
Then he called up the system, treated the residual pill toxins in his body as waste, and enhanced them away.
Once that was done, he searched the ten li surrounding the fire vein again. Only after confirming there was no trace of another cultivator did he return to his underground Cave Abode.
Zhao Hao sat cross-legged.
Crash!
He turned his entire Storage Bag upside down.
Low-grade Spirit Stones glowing with soft white light poured out like a mountain flood, instantly burying one corner of the small Cave Abode.
Nearly thirty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones!
Spiritual energy so dense it had almost taken physical form enveloped him.
Zhao Hao sat in the middle of the mountain of Spirit Stones. There was no excitement on his face, only the frenzy of a man staking everything he owned on a single chance to live.
Foundation Establishment!
He spread his fingers and clenched his hand toward the mountain of Spirit Stones before him!
"Come!"
A patch of nearly two thousand Spirit Stones was crushed to powder in midair. Violent spiritual energy surged out, and its concentration inside the Cave Abode soared again!
The perfected Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art erupted without restraint!
He was not absorbing the energy. He was devouring it!
"Urgh!"
Zhao Hao's body convulsed. His meridians swelled taut in an instant, while the perfected Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art ran at full force, groaning under the strain.
His body was like a furnace running out of control, furiously refining the spiritual energy flooding into it. A tearing, swelling pain spread through every meridian.
Zhao Hao's face contorted. Rather than slow down, he drove the art even more fiercely!
Break it down to build it anew! Today, I'll use these thirty thousand Spirit Stones to crush this damned bottleneck, along with every humiliation and fear I've endured!
"Refine!"
Inside his dantian, the gaseous spiritual power was compressed to its limit and began spinning at a terrifying speed!
Gas into liquid!
This was the most critical step, and the most dangerous!
Yet at the center of the spiritual energy vortex in his dantian, countless illusions began to emerge.
The pale Bone Blade of his Eighth Senior Sister, Lin Yaoyao, carried a bone-piercing yin chill as it seemed to stab toward his back once more!
The venomous curse of the Heavenly Sword Sect's female cultivator, whose heart he had pierced with the Evil Light Art, rang in his ears like a demonic shriek, sharp enough to pierce bone!
Scene after scene, voice after voice, became a Heart Demon Law intent on tearing his will to shreds.
Zhao Hao's spiritual sense gathered above his dantian and watched it all coldly.
"A pack of dead people. A heap of losers I trampled underfoot. And you dare block my path?"
His spiritual sense let out a silent roar. It was no act, but the roar of a beast driven to the brink, rising from the depths of his soul.
"Now become fuel for my Dao Path!"
"Get down there and be buried with it!"
His spiritual sense shuddered. Every illusion and every venomous grievance shattered, ground to pieces and devoured by the spinning vortex of spiritual energy!
With nothing left to hinder it, the compression sped up at once!
A strained crack sounded from inside his dantian.
One drop!
At the very center of the vortex, a drop of liquid spiritual power formed silently. It was heavier than mercury and gave off a faint black glow.
He had done it!
The moment that drop appeared, all the gaseous spiritual power in his dantian found an outlet and rushed toward it like mad!
One drop, two drops... a hundred drops!
Time passed slowly. Three days went by in the blink of an eye.
More and more liquid spiritual power gathered in his dantian, forming a small lake.
Inside the Cave Abode, the mountain of Spirit Stones visibly turned dull and crumbled to ash.
Ten thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones were exhausted in no time.
The spiritual power in Zhao Hao's dantian had finally completed its transformation from gas to liquid! A black lake of spiritual power flowed quietly within him, holding more than ten times the strength he had possessed before!
[Realm: Foundation Establishment Early Stage (1/100)]
He had reached Foundation Establishment!
Zhao Hao's eyes snapped open. Two brilliant beams shot from them, boring a pair of finger-sized holes deep into the stone wall before him!
He stood and casually clenched his fist. The air burst with a sharp crack under the strain.
He sent out his spiritual sense. Within a radius of one li, every rustle of wind through grass and every crawling insect was clear to him!
He had never felt power like this before.
But he had no time to take it in.
Bzzzz!
At the entrance to the Cave Abode, the defensive array disc he had set up himself let out a deafening, piercing hum without warning!
The translucent curtain of light flickered wildly. Ripples spread across it in rings, as though it might shatter at any moment!
Someone was attacking his array!
The joy on Zhao Hao's face froze, replaced by a cold as grim as ice.