Late Qi Refining Stage

At this moment, deep beneath the desert of the Dawnsource Secret Realm, an underground space held a castle piled from yellow sand.

Within the grand hall deep inside the castle, upon the Desert Throne,

A skeleton wearing a brass-colored crown tapped the armrest with its broken bone fingers.

"Mission failed. Did your Earth-Element Clan truly give this operation your all?

Did I not tell you that Shi Xiang of the Stone Beast Clan was important, and that you had to bring him back?"

Half-crouched beneath the throne were two demon beasts. One was Shi Li, chieftain of the Stone Beast Clan; the other was Tu Yi, chieftain of the Earth-Element Armored Beast Clan.

Both were great demons whose intelligence had fully awakened.

"Your Majesty, our clan sent out all its elites in this operation. We lost no fewer than five fine warriors at Peak First Rank."

"What sort of damned Hunting Tournament was this? Were there actually people like that? Could someone at the Qi Refining Stage possess such combat strength?"

"There were many of them, Your Majesty. Shi Xiang was beaten to death by a crowd."

"Mm, Shi Li... investigate this thoroughly.

This past month has truly been stifling. That Heaven Sect actually dispatched five Golden Cores to patrol the skies.

I do not even dare step out of the sand castle for a breath of fresh air. We still have to endure another twenty days."

"Yes, Your Majesty. It will not be long. The esteemed figures of the Heaven Sect are merely acting on a whim.

Shi Xiang's situation is rather strange, though. It seems that all the demonic power in his body was scattered by something aberrant. Could a Golden Core have intervened?"

"It was not a Golden Core. Have someone retrieve Shi Xiang's corpse.

Endure a little longer. For now, we still cannot escape the Heaven Sect's control. It will not be much longer before I completely merge.

When that happens, we will truly become the masters of this secret realm and possess the power of the entire small world.

The Immortal Sect stands high above all others and is far too arrogant. Fortunately, these people did not discover the secret within Shi Xiang.

If that thread of Secret Realm Origin within Shi Xiang had been stripped away, it would have been troublesome."

This hunt had yielded quite a harvest, and it had also verified the true might of the Heavenly Stellar Lightning Arts.

With the formidable properties of Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder, Dong Lin now even had the confidence to battle a Second Rank demon beast.

After ten days of tempering, Dong Lin's dantian had finished being nurtured, and he was ready to officially begin his breakthrough.

For this breakthrough, Dong Lin planned to borrow the thread of purple qi born between heaven and earth when the rising sun first emerged.

Dong Lin no longer needed the Breath-and-Spirit Absorption Art to cultivate.

The Eight-Nine Mystical Art had its own cultivation method.

However, unlike Tao Yan, who needed to start over when switching cultivation methods, Dong Lin's transition to the Eight-Nine Mystical Art

Did not require him to disperse all his spiritual qi and begin anew. It connected seamlessly.

Early the next morning, with everything prepared, Dong Lin arrived at the roof of the thatched cottage atop that mountain.

A meditation cushion that Dong Lin had placed there long ago sat on the roof. Every dawn, Dong Lin came here to cultivate,

So he had left a cushion here for convenience. The place was secluded, and ordinarily no one paid it any attention.

During the ten days he had spent within the secret realm, Dong Lin had also attempted to cultivate the Purple-Qi Dust-Cleansing Formula, but regrettably,

That small secret realm could not produce purple qi. The sunrise and moonset within the secret realm did not seem entirely real;

They seemed to be nothing more than projections.

"Ten days of cultivation delayed," Dong Lin thought regretfully. "I hope the tournament rewards are generous enough."

Although the progress of his Dust-Cleansing Body Purification had yet to reach completion,

Dong Lin could now clearly perceive even the smallest details of spiritual qi flowing through the meridians within his body.

Dong Lin still could not fully observe inwardly, but there had already been some improvement. The benefits of cleansing his body with purple qi were gradually revealing themselves.

The Hour of the Tiger had arrived, and the great sun slowly revealed its majestic form.

Dong Lin focused his mind on his dantian and threw his whole heart into this breakthrough.

With the power of purple qi, the process of expanding his dantian went remarkably smoothly.

Circulating the mystical art, Dong Lin felt spiritual power flowing endlessly through his body,

Entering his dantian and slowly opening up the dantian within his body outward.

There were many secret methods for additionally expanding one's dantian in the Late Qi Refining Stage, but Dong Lin no longer needed them.

Through the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, Dong Lin learned that his dantian during the Qi Refining Stage did not need further expansion.

That was because once this cultivation method broke through to Foundation Establishment, it would directly open up a dantian. At that time, his capacity for spiritual qi would increase dramatically.

All of this was connected to the quality of the Dao Foundation Dong Lin would ultimately forge.

Once Dong Lin reached the Qi Refining Peak Stage, compared with all the other monstrous geniuses,

He would be spared the step of using heavenly treasures to assist in nurturing the True Intent of his dantian. He would have ample time to cultivate the Five Elements Divine Art,

And thus forge the Innate Yin-Yang Primal Chaos Dao Foundation described in the cultivation method.

One could tell from its name alone that this Dao Foundation was extraordinary. However, Dong Lin did not yet know what made it special,

So he could only cultivate patiently, step by step, and wait quietly for the flowers to bloom.

This breakthrough into the Late Qi Refining Stage took Dong Lin a total of five hours, greatly shortened compared with the three days required last time.

"This thread of Innate Purple Qi had such a tremendous effect. If I could obtain a thread of the legendary Primordial Purple Qi, just how outrageous would the progress of this cultivation method become?"

Dong Lin began fantasizing again about what he would do if he had a million.

Through this breakthrough, Dong Lin's dantian capacity increased by one hundred and ten units. His dantian's total capacity now reached three hundred and twenty units.

By breaking through to the Late Qi Refining Stage with purple qi, the spiritual power intensity in Dong Lin's dantian had reached two hundred and twenty units,

An extra ten units of spiritual power had appeared out of nowhere. The progress was utterly terrifying.

"Is this what it feels like to be a genius?"

With the aid of a top-tier cultivation method, Dong Lin finally experienced the terrifying speed only true monstrous geniuses possessed when cultivating.

Over the next twenty days, having realized the importance of cultivation level, Dong Lin began raising his cultivation with all his strength.

After twenty days of tedious cultivation, the spiritual power intensity in Dong Lin's dantian reached two hundred and seventy units.

Every day, he could increase his spiritual power by at least three units. Compared to before, this was a full threefold increase.

Dong Lin now clearly realized how unusual his body was. Throughout the entire Qi Refining Stage,

He had encountered no bottlenecks whatsoever. The growth of his cultivation was as easy as eating and drinking.

As long as he cultivated, his cultivation rose. It was just like a game: effort brought rewards, like gaining experience while idle,

Giving Dong Lin a profound sense of unreality. Yet he had no idea why.

"Could it be that I have some special physique too? But when Xin Yan Hall tested me before, they found nothing."

Dong Lin shook his head in confusion and stopped dwelling on it.

The Hunting Tournament ended on schedule. Dong Lin also arrived at the venue in time for the final announcement of rankings and rewards.

"Brother Dong, over here!"

Baili Tianming and the others sitting in the stands waved at Dong Lin.

The results of this hunting competition had already been announced.

Baili Tianming had personally hammered three demon beasts at Peak First Rank to death,

Along with several late First Rank aberrant beasts, earning a total of one hundred and thirty-three points.

Working together with Baili Tianming, Zhao Shuheng also earned one hundred and twenty-nine points, slightly surpassing Tao Yan.

As the captain of the Star Eternity Squad and the strongest person on the team, Gu Chen had also lived up to expectations.

Without forming a team, he had nearly slaughtered his way through the entire trial grounds of the Dawnsource Secret Realm with one man and one sword.

Although he had not slain a Second Rank aberrant beast across ranks, Gu Chen had killed a full ten Peak First Rank aberrant beasts,

One per day on average. Terrifying indeed.

Gu Chen earned a horrifying two hundred and ninety-three points, ranking first among the entire sect's Qi Refining Realm cultivators.

"So this is Brother Chen's strength? He has twice as many points as I do."

Dong Lin sighed. "Could the gap between people truly be this vast?"

Even though Dong Lin had gained so much from this hunt, he had only barely reached half of Gu Chen's score.

However, that was also because Dong Lin had not continued participating in the hunt during the later days.

After all, Tao Yan was in poor condition. As her teammate, Dong Lin could not very well abandon Tao Yan and go hunting alone.