Breaking Through to Dou Ling

After leaving the cliff,

Xiao Yu became extremely cautious after nearly dying at a magical beast's claws last time, constantly releasing the Myriad Transformation Flame to conceal his presence.

At the slightest rustle of wind or grass, Xiao Yu immediately fled far away. It was not that he was a bird startled by the twang of a bow; unnecessary battles were simply best avoided.

What if he encountered another magical beast like the Wind-Piercing Eagle, or even a sixth-order magical beast? He had no desire to endure another desperate flight for his life.

After finding a secluded natural cave to serve as his base, Xiao Yu decided to leave the Magical Beast Mountain Range once he broke through to Dou Ling.

He now had no shortage of pill formulas, and several Storage Rings' worth of medicinal ingredients remained. Once he returned to a human city, he could select the useful pill formulas and purchase the necessary ingredients. That would be enough to support his cultivation all the way to Dou Wang.

Only after releasing a layer of Myriad Transformation Flame to conceal the cave completely did Xiao Yu enter with peace of mind.

The cave's interior was uneven and littered with debris. Clearly, few people or magical beasts had ever visited.

Xiao Yu cleaned the place up, finally making it look more comfortable.

After working through the night, Xiao Yu decided to rest before starting his cultivation, even though the sun had already risen in the east.

Once he had rested enough, Xiao Yu woke on his stone bed, stretched, rubbed his eyes, and got up to cultivate.

"I'll eat something first."

He took the jerky he had prepared out of his old Storage Ring and began feasting.

After eating his fill, Xiao Yu sat on a rock and began meditating.

The surrounding Dou Qi stirred, streaming toward Xiao Yu. Whirlpools of air appeared across the surface of his body as vast amounts of Dou Qi entered him, circulated along his cultivation pathways, and finally transformed into Lightning-Fire Dou Qi that flowed into the Dou Crystal in his dantian.

As this cycle repeated, Xiao Yu entered a state of cultivation in which both self and surroundings faded from his awareness.

After an unknown length of time, Xiao Yu opened his eyes and ended his cultivation.

Sensing that he had drawn a little closer to Dou Ling, Xiao Yu smiled faintly.

"I'll look through those pill formulas first and find pills that can raise my level at Dou Ling, so I'm prepared for the cultivation ahead. Otherwise, at my current cultivation speed, reaching Dou Wang in a year will still be rather difficult."

Previously, the Origin Condensation Pill had allowed him to leap three stars at the Da Dou Shi stage. Once he reached Dou Ling, advancing rapidly without the aid of pills would not be realistic.

With his cultivation speed alone, going from Dou Ling to Dou Wang would take at least two years without pills or a fortuitous encounter. By then, even the daylilies would have gone cold.

He extended his soul power into the high-grade Storage Ring and began searching the pill section.

Last time, he had only skimmed the pills' grades and had not had time to examine their effects.

His perception swept over pill formula after pill formula before finally settling on one for a fourth-grade pill.

"Mystic Essence Pill, a top-tier fourth-grade pill comparable to a fifth-grade pill. It can help a Dou Ling advance three stars in a short time. Each person can take it only once in their lifetime."

"Required ingredients: earth-rehmannia spirit flower, purple spirit ancient flower, mystic essence fruit, azure spirit seed, vast lotus seed, and three fourth-order magic cores."

"Refining procedure: ..."

"Heat control: ..."

"Excellent, excellent. Even the refining process is this detailed. That saves me quite a bit of effort."

"No wonder it can raise someone three levels. This thing actually takes three fourth-order magic cores to refine!"

He marveled inwardly at the Mystic Essence Pill formula, and could not help clicking his tongue when he saw that it required three fourth-order magic cores.

A single fourth-order magic core held a fourth-order magical beast's lifetime of energy. With the Mystic Essence Pill requiring three, its ability to raise someone three levels was hardly surprising.

However, Xiao Yu could not refine it yet. He would have to wait until he advanced to Dou Ling before considering it.

With his current soul power, using medicinal ingredients to neutralize the energy of three fourth-order magic cores would still be a stretch.

Only after breaking through to Dou Ling, when his soul power increased along with his cultivation, could he attempt to refine it.

The Mystic Essence Pill was the pill he needed most right now. The others were either too low-grade to be useful or too high-grade for him to use yet.

In other words, he would not need to refine pills for some time.

That did not stop him from committing these pill formulas to memory, however. Learning about them and preparing in advance would keep him from scrambling when the time came to refine them.

Thus, he began studying the Mystic Essence Pill formula. He needed to understand and digest its refining techniques and the degree of flame control required, as well as adapt certain parts to the Lightning-Fire Pill Refining Method.

This was still an enormous amount of work.

One day...

Two days...

In the days that followed, Xiao Yu was either cultivating or studying pill formulas. His life was fairly peaceful.

Soon, after more than twenty days, Xiao Yu reached the threshold of Dou Ling.

Outside the mountain, countless streams of Dou Qi surged madly through every crevice toward the cave.

Inside, the once-peaceful cave began trembling under the impact of the Dou Qi.

Noticing all this, Xiao Yu forcibly drove the Myriad Transformation Flame to envelop the entire mountain, hoping to avoid detection by high-order magical beasts.

With that, the mountain seemed to disappear. Unless someone possessed exceptionally powerful soul perception, they would never notice it.

"Ugh..."

After doing all this, Xiao Yu felt a swelling pain throughout his meridians and let out a pained grunt.

Vast quantities of impure Dou Qi from the world poured into his body while he split his attention to sustain the Myriad Transformation Flame. With energy flowing both in and out, it would have been strange if his meridians did not hurt.

After entering his body, the impure Dou Qi circulated along Xiao Yu's innate cultivation pathways.

During normal cultivation, even if he absorbed impure Dou Qi, the Returning-to-Truth Lightning filling his dantian would purify it, removing the impurities and retaining the pure energy.

Breaking through to Dou Ling required absorbing a vast amount of energy, and Xiao Yu's absorption speed could fully meet the demands of his breakthrough.

But with so much impure Dou Qi surging in, he had no time to refine those impurities and expel them from his body. If he absorbed this Dou Qi into his dantian without purifying it, it would inevitably have a serious impact on his foundation.

This was where the Returning-to-Truth Lightning came into play. Enduring the swelling pain in his meridians, Xiao Yu activated it and sent it coursing through them, purifying the Dou Qi before it could enter his dantian.

Time passed little by little, and the swelling pain in his meridians gradually faded. This was not because his breakthrough had succeeded, but because the torrent formed by the merging of three streams of energy had stretched his meridians wider.

It was like a narrow woodland trail becoming a broad road after countless people had trodden it.

His meridians grew tougher and wider as a result, allowing them to hold more Dou Qi.

This was a tremendous benefit. In the future, Xiao Yu would be able to channel Dou Qi much faster. After all, once a road became wider, smoother, and more resistant to pressure, more vehicles could pass through it, and they could travel faster.

Only after an entire day had passed did his absorption begin to slow. By then, Xiao Yu no longer felt any swelling pain in his meridians. Presumably, even two torrents of energy passing through them now would cause no discomfort; his meridians had expanded to three times their original width.

In the future, the time he spent directing Dou Qi when using his techniques would likely be reduced by two-thirds.

As the second morning approached, his absorption finally ended completely.

By then, the diamond-shaped Dou Crystal in Xiao Yu's dantian had taken on the appearance of a sea urchin. This was the hallmark of a Dou Ling: the Sea Urchin Dou Crystal.

However, the spines on Xiao Yu's Dou Crystal were relatively short.

Suddenly, the Sea Urchin Dou Crystal began spinning rapidly. Its tiny spines gradually vanished, and the entire crystal grew increasingly round.

By the time the Dou Crystal stopped spinning, its spines had disappeared. Its surface was perfectly smooth, and the whole crystal was exceptionally round.

It resembled a glass marble radiating golden-red light, pure and translucent, yet filled with incomparably dense energy.

"Hah!"

Bang, bang, bang...!

Xiao Yu let out a thunderous shout. A powerful aura burst from him, and Dou Qi erupted in every direction, blasting apart multiple spots inside the cave with an unending series of bangs.

"I've finally reached Dou Ling. This feels so good!"

A tremendous sense of power filled Xiao Yu's entire body, leaving him somewhat intoxicated. The exhilarating pleasure of a breakthrough was simply impossible to resist. Once he had tasted it, he wanted more; once he felt that rush, he wanted to feel it again!