The Final Retreat Before Setting Out for the Heavenly Examination

Clearwind Courtyard's vermilion gates were shut tight. A thin layer of dust had settled on the heavy hinges. Only the array's faint, flickering glow in the night showed that the little courtyard was sealed under an extraordinary restraint.

Inside the cultivation chamber, the air had thickened to the consistency of amber.

The Five-Element Spirit-Gathering Array had drawn ceaselessly from the Spirit Vein, while the endless primal water qi of the Abyssal Spring Pearl had mingled day and night with the steady, weighty earth qi of the Mountain-Pacifying Platinum. Together, they had produced this terrifying phenomenon.

Any ordinary Qi Refining cultivator who stood here would likely have found the immense spiritual pressure disrupting the circulation of spiritual energy in their body.

Chu Bai sat cross-legged, bare from the waist up.

Beneath the dense spiritual mist, a heart-stopping dark-gold sheen flowed across his skin. With each breath he took, the air throughout the stone chamber seemed to pulse along with him.

These three months marked his final retreat in Anping County.

The Origin Return Formula, honed to Subtlety, rumbled through his body like a colossal millstone.

Every wisp of five-colored spiritual energy that entered him was forcibly broken down and refined by that domineering will. Its most primal Five Phases particles were stripped out, then transformed into spiritual power as heavy and concentrated as liquid mercury, filling meridians as broad as great rivers.

The foundation that had still seemed somewhat unsteady after his breakthrough three months ago had been tempered day and night until it was as immovable as bedrock.

He had not only consolidated his cultivation. With resources piled upon him in almost extravagant quantities, he had increased both the volume and purity of his spell power by another considerable margin.

The harsh scrape of bones sounded through the Quiet Chamber