Seizing the Opportunity to Break Through

At that very moment, Li Jun felt an unbearable heat burning all over his body.

At the same time, a stream of information appeared in his mind—records concerning the Supreme Dawn Breathing Method.

"The source of all arts, the fundamental scripture of the human body's hidden treasury." Li Jun was astonished. He felt that this time, he might truly have picked up a treasure!

The road of immortal cultivation began in the era of spiritual energy revival. At that time, humans used all manner of breathing methods to open the hidden treasury of the human body and prove their Dao to become immortals.

After that, spiritual energy surged like a tide, the Great Dao flourished day by day, and the cultivation world welcomed a glorious golden age.

On the foundation of breathing methods, human cultivators created even more efficient cultivation arts. Tailored to different physiques and spirit roots, they pushed the human race to the pinnacle as the chief of all spirits. In history, this was known as the Extreme Dao Era.

And now, spiritual energy had declined, the spirit realm was hidden and did not show itself, and the Spirit Transformation Realm was already the highest peak of the mortal world. This was the Dharma-Ending Era.

And this Supreme Dawn Breathing Method was a supreme scripture from the era of spiritual energy revival. It represented the power of utmost yang and was an exceptional scripture for tempering the body.

After Li Jun studied it carefully, he discovered that this breathing method was not like those high-level spells, which could bring a massive increase in strength the moment one learned them.

The benefits it brought to a person would gradually reveal themselves over time.

For example, the strength of his body and meridians would improve significantly with every breakthrough.

Most importantly, once the Supreme Dawn Breathing Method was learned, it would form a wisp of innate fire within the body.

If this fire was used to refine pills, it could add a trace of innate fate principle to the pills, enhancing their medicinal effect while also helping people comprehend the Dao. Its wonders were beyond words.

"This wisp of innate fire has come at just the right time! From now on, with this fire assisting me in alchemy, my pills will have extremely strong competitiveness!"

Li Jun's eyes shone brightly. Being able to obtain this fire made all the suffering he had endured before worth it.

His Mystic Yin Corrosive Spirit Root did not absorb spiritual energy slowly, but because it was compatible with all kinds of spiritual energy attributes, the spiritual energy required when breaking through realms was extremely vast.

It was precisely because of this that every time he broke through a bottleneck, the spiritual energy he consumed far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators.

In the Qi Refining Realm, he could still pile up Spirit Stones to make up for it, but this was not a long-term solution.

So Li Jun had thought of refining pills, using large quantities of high-grade pills to feed his spirit root in pursuit of a new breakthrough.

"So hot! So hot!"

Feeling the heat inside his body, Li Jun guessed that if he did not vent it in time, his body might truly explode.

"The birth of innate fire is feedback from opening the hidden treasury of the human body. I can't waste it!"

Li Jun took out Spirit Stones, sat cross-legged on the spot, and began circulating the Myriad Apertures Universe Art with all his might.

He wanted to borrow this power and seize the chance to break through!

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the cave, Li Jun opened his eyes.

"Whew! Finally, the fifth level of Qi Refining!"

At this moment, his body was no longer burning hot.

The innate fire hovered quietly above his dantian, making his heart incomparably calm.

Aside from the breakthrough in his cultivation, Li Jun had borrowed that burning power to directly open Star-Shattering Finger to the fifth finger!

In addition, he had also practiced the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique to the fifth layer!

"With my current strength, I'm afraid I can clash head-on with cultivators at the seventh level of Qi Refining."

Li Jun estimated his own strength and arrived at this answer.

For one, his spirit root was very special, and the yin baleful power carried within his spiritual energy had a corrosive special effect; for another, the cultivation arts he practiced had all been strictly selected through the [entries], and their power was extremely impressive.

Not to mention that after cultivating the Supreme Dawn Breathing Method, his meridians had been extended and his dantian had also expanded. The spiritual energy he could store was far beyond that of cultivators at the same level.

Supplemented by the high-speed spiritual energy recovery ability brought by the Myriad Apertures Universe Art, his combat power had already caught up to cultivators at the seventh level of Qi Refining.

"It's time to leave. I wonder what's happening outside."

He had been here for more than half a month. Things outside should probably have ended by now, right?

Li Jun came to that stone wall, raised his hand and summoned a wisp of innate fire, then touched it to the wall.

"Buzz, buzz!"

With that stone wall as the center, the innate fire continued spreading, and in the end, it actually covered all the stone walls!

Li Jun looked at the stone walls. A moment later, all the murals vanished, turning into dust and scattering with the wind.

A passage appeared in that soft stone wall, and gusts of fresh breeze continuously surged out from within.

Li Jun bowed toward the stone wall, then stepped into the passage.

"There's a place like this beneath Cangwu Mountain, and the elders of Azure Cloud Sect never discovered it before?"

As he walked through the passage, he increasingly felt that these tunnels had probably existed for a very long time.

After moving forward for about fifteen minutes, the air grew increasingly damp, and a faint light appeared at the end of his vision.

Li Jun put on his mask artifact, directly changed his appearance, and also changed into a different set of clothes.

Afterward, he slowed his pace and walked toward the exit step by step.

"An underground palace?"

At the end of the passage, Li Jun looked at the scene before him and felt deeply shaken.

Ahead of him stood a magnificent palace.

The top of the palace was a domed structure, while all around it were carved railings and jade-like steps. Auspicious beasts and drifting clouds were engraved across the walls, lending it an incomparably imposing air.

At the center of the palace stood a massive raised platform, like an altar, towering right in the middle of the hall.

Li Jun walked over carefully and took a closer look. It really was an altar.

"Huh? This was actually built by the Fire Kingdom?"

He fixed his eyes on the murals on the altar. What they depicted was roughly this: to drive away evil, the Fire Kingdom emperor ordered geomancers to build this altar, borrowing the terrain of the dragon vein to enshrine a Spirit Beast called the "Heavenly Spirit Silkworm," so that the Fire Kingdom might enjoy everlasting peace.

"Could there really be such a Spirit Beast?"

Li Jun looked above the altar. There was indeed an enormous silkworm cocoon there, but no sign of life showed from it.

"Forget it. This place is a little sinister. Better to leave as soon as possible."

He thought of the Black Box he had picked up in the mire that day. His Awakening Sword had been forged by a geomancer of the Fire Kingdom.

Combining that with the underground palace before him, Cangwu Mountain had probably been the Fire Kingdom's territory a very long time ago.

He just did not know why this place had now become the territory of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Li Jun circled the altar once. After discovering nothing unusual, he was about to turn and walk out of the palace.

However, the instant he turned around, he suddenly discovered that dense clusters of human silhouettes had appeared all around the palace!

"Who's there!"

Li Jun drew his sword, his gaze cold and sharp. These silhouettes had appeared far too suddenly; he had not sensed even the slightest thing.

Bang!

Those black shadows closed in, and one slashed its blade toward Li Jun.

"What strange people!"

Li Jun hurriedly dodged, taking the chance to see their appearances clearly.

Their skin was pale, the corners of their eyes tilted upward like cats', the whites of their eyes were dark red, and sharp fangs jutted from their mouths. Quite a few of them even had horns, with veins bulging on their arms, making them look extremely ferocious.

"Good. Their strength isn't very high."

Li Jun swung his sword to counterattack, piercing one silhouette with a direct thrust.

However, what he had not expected was that after the silhouette was stabbed through the heart, it could still move!

"How is that possible!"

He executed the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique. This time, he directly cut his opponent in half at the waist!

However, the next scene surpassed Li Jun's understanding.

The severed silhouette turned into dust and dispersed. After that, it actually transformed into a human silhouette again and charged straight at him once more!