Half a year slipped quietly by amid the spiritual energy of the Icefire Yin-Yang Well.
Over those six months, Li Long devoted all his energy to accumulating soul power and deepening his fusion with his left arm bone.
Cultivation above rank seventy progressed more slowly than before, but the dense spiritual energy of the Icefire Yin-Yang Well and the various medicinal meals Qian Yue prepared provided steady support. As the lingering hundred-thousand-year soul power within his left arm bone continued to emerge during the fusion process, his total soul power rose from the seventy-eighth rank to rank eighty in half a year.
His breakthrough came on an ordinary afternoon. While practicing the Guidance Method at the junction of the two springs, he felt cracks appear in the barrier between ranks seventy-nine and eighty under his sustained assault. As those cracks widened, the barrier was pierced completely. His soul power surged out of the channels of rank seventy-nine and into the realm of rank eighty, settling steadily within his meridians.
When he opened his eyes, he rolled his shoulders and stretched his back. The rank-eighty soul power circulating through his body felt much more substantial than before, as though his meridians no longer carried water but some denser liquid.
Dark gold patterns surfaced on the skin of his left arm as his soul power circulated. They extended from his shoulder joint to his wrist, forming a complete counterpart to the patterns of the external soul bone on his right palm.
He stood, walked to the edge of the springs, and washed his face, then sensed Qian Yao's and Qian Yue's conditions.
Both women had broken through to rank sixty one after the other half a year earlier.
Qian Yao had broken through slightly before Qian Yue. After remaining at rank fifty-seven