Entering the Grandmaster Refining Path Early (First Update, Please Vote)

On the fifth day Li Xiang lay in the coffin.

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In the deathly still underground tomb chamber, inside the Golden Silk Nanmu coffin.

Darkness was the only color here. Time's passage had grown indistinct; only the experience points rising drop by drop, like sand in an hourglass, reminded him that the world outside was still turning.

Li Xiang lay on the hard bottom of the coffin, brows drawn tight.

He could clearly feel that the Golden Cicada inside him, usually as ravenous as Taotie, had little appetite today.

Gone was the force with which it had gulped down Dragon-Vein Corpse Qi. In its place was a listless laziness, like an overstuffed man who could barely bring himself to lift his chopsticks before a lavish feast.

"Bzz—"

The Golden Cicada let out a feeble hum, protesting its endless overtime.

[Tempered by Dragon Vein Qi, your physique is undergoing a transformation—]

[Boxer experience +1]

[Boxer experience +1]

[...]

Li Xiang watched the experience bar creep forward only after a long wait and frowned in the dark.

"Giving up already?" he cursed inwardly.

"You've barely earned me any experience, and you want to clock out? You eat my food and live in my body, then let me down when it counts?"

Complaints aside, he knew the Golden Cicada was near its limit.

Dragon-Vein Corpse Qi was no tonic. It was a mixture of some of the most tyrannical, foul energies in existence. The Golden Cicada had devoured and refined it for four straight days; even among strange creatures, it was an anomaly.

Just as Li Xiang prepared to let it rest, something changed.

As though it had reached a critical point, the Golden Cicada