Breakthrough · Rebirth

Morning light had just begun to spread, and Heavenly Phoenix City was still shrouded in a thin layer of frosty mist.

Li Xuansheng sat cross-legged in Yinghua Hall's private cultivation chamber, Soul Power rising and falling around him like the tides. There were still seven days until the hunting party departed, and his breakthrough had reached its final stage.

Level sixty-nine to level seventy was a crucial watershed on a Soul Master's path of cultivation. It meant officially stepping from the "mid-tier" into the "high-tier." The Martial Soul Avatar would soon be unlocked, and one's ability to sense and wield the energy of heaven and earth would undergo a qualitative leap.

Li Xuansheng's breathing was long and steady as his consciousness sank into his dantian. After nearly a year of almost self-abusive Soul Power compression and purification, his Soul Power had become as condensed as mercury. As it surged through his meridians, he could even faintly hear the sound of tides. The level sixty-nine bottleneck was like a resilient membrane, repeatedly battered by that surging force.

Not enough.

He murmured inwardly and began actively guiding his Soul Power through the Li Family's core inherited cultivation art—Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Art. This was the foundation upon which the Li Family stood. Legend had it that the first ancestor had created it after witnessing a Divine Phoenix bathing in flames. Cultivating it to the deepest level could bring about an essential transformation in one's Martial Soul.

As the art circulated, the faint phantom of a Divine Phoenix emerged behind him. Its wings spread wide, crimson-gold flame patterns flowing across its feathers as it exuded an ancient, noble aura.

Time passed bit by bit.

By midmorning, the Soul Power density in the cultivation chamber had risen to more than eight times that of the