That was only because this clump of energy was too small. As long as he drank several large buckets every day, his meridians and muscles would eventually grow strong enough to reach the so-called second and third layers of Qi Refinement.
Then he should be able to unleash a second punch, or even a third, with those same invisible fist projections whenever he wanted!
"Damn it, I really am a genius!"
"I actually... entered the Dao just like that?"
The stifling feeling of being abandoned by Heaven vanished in an instant, replaced by soaring defiance: My fate is mine to command, not Heaven's.
Good news made everything feel brighter. Chun Xiaobai lay down on the ground, feeling that even the air around him had grown fresher.
"Let's ride this momentum and reach the second layer of Qi Refining first!"
After enjoying his happiness for a while, he emptied the Storage Bag onto the ground. Only seven hundred spirit stones remained. He counted out five hundred, smashed them one by one, and mixed them into three large buckets of spring water.
He downed one big bucket first, then sat cross-legged with his belly bulging round.
Activating his Divine Eye, he locked onto that yellow glow and used his thoughts to push it toward his legs.
According to the cultivation manual, circulating spiritual qi through every part of the body completed one Great Circulation.
Soon, with the help of those five hundred spirit stones-and after another ten trips to the toilet-he finally succeeded in washing his entire body with that yellow glow.
Both his meridians and his muscles seemed considerably tougher than before!
Worried that his cultivation room might collapse, Chun Xiaobai went out into the courtyard under the moonlight.
Clenching both fists, he gathered all the newly formed heat flowing through his body into them, then slammed a punch toward a rockery in the courtyard!
Boom!
The rocks before him shattered instantly, exploding into fragments that filled the air!
"Holy crap! That was awesome!"
Chun Xiaobai grinned so widely that the corners of his mouth nearly reached the back of his head.
But that punch had consumed quite a lot, completely emptying the "strength" he had painstakingly cultivated all night.
He plopped down on the stone steps outside the loft and rested for quite a while.
Once the exhaustion faded, he gathered his strength again and threw another punch, producing another scene of mountains crumbling and earth splitting!
Sure enough, unlike Rampage mode, he did not need to gulp down medicine to replenish his energy before activating it again.
Now, throwing a punch consumed the "strength" stored in his body. Once his body recovered on its own, he could unleash the same strike again.
Repeating this process worked on the same principle as a cultivator's cultivation, but it was better than spiritual qi.
When cultivators exhausted their spiritual power, the only ways to recover quickly were to meditate and absorb more, or take medicine. He only needed to wait for his strength to recover naturally.
This was even a little faster than pure spiritual cultivation.
"Damn it! I've finally become an immortal, and I've even got an advantage over ordinary immortals!"
"Hahaha!"
There were still two hundred spirit stones in the bag. Should he... drink them all?
After thinking it over, Chun Xiaobai decided to take it easy for now.
Spirit stones were, in plain terms, a special kind of rock. If he drank too many and developed kidney stones someday, there was no way to get surgery in this lousy place. That would be serious trouble.
Still, judging by the sensation of qi described in the manual-which, for him, was now a sensation of strength-he could only be considered a minor cultivator at the first layer of Qi Refinement.
But reaching the first layer of Qi Refining less than a week after starting meant his speed was not much worse than that of disciples with mid-grade spiritual roots, did it?
"But... does this really make me an immortal?"
Chun Xiaobai could sense that the invisible, formless fist projection he released produced no spiritual qi fluctuations at all. It was much like projecting internal force outward in novels.
Though it lacked flashy effects, its destructive power was astonishing.
He had actually shattered a rockery over five meters tall with a single punch.
If that illicit couple from the other day had taken a solid hit from it, the two of them would probably have gone straight to their graves.
No ordinary minor cultivator at the first layer of Qi Refining could possibly do that.
At that thought, Chun Xiaobai gained some confidence in his "bandit strength."
"Wait, it took eleven hundred spirit stones just to reach the first layer of Qi Refining..."
"Holy shit! This costs way too much!"
He had asked Bai Jin'er about it before. For ordinary disciples, ten spirit stones were the absolute limit needed to go from starting cultivation to the first layer of Qi Refining.
Yet he had spent eleven hundred spirit stones-over a hundred times as much as everyone else!
"Good thing this great king works as a mountain bandit." Chun Xiaobai curled his lip. "Anyone else really couldn't afford to cultivate like this!"
His earlier good mood dimmed a little.
Chun Xiaobai looked at the night sky, realized it was still early, and thought of his Rampage state again.
"Now that this great king counts as a first-layer Qi Refining cultivator, let's try activating Rampage mode and see whether it still leaves me completely drained."
If his first-layer Qi Refining foundation could withstand the consumption of Rampage mode, he could use this move routinely from now on.
So he simply sat cross-legged in the courtyard, focused his mind, and shouted under his breath, "Activate!"
Suddenly, his head grew heavy again, and his vision went black.
"Right, this time it's not just my head feeling heavy. Everything's gone black, too!"
"Don't tell me I've gone blind?"
He had only just muttered those words when he could suddenly see again. Except...
"Wasn't this great king in the courtyard? Where am I now?"
He looked around. His surroundings were terrifyingly silent, filled with an ancient air weathered by the ages.
There was plenty of light around him, but it was not moonlight. It was a faint glow emitted by the copper-colored walls themselves.
Looking down, he discovered that the floor was copper-colored as well, with mysterious lines carved into it.
"Where the fuck has this sent me?"
Chun Xiaobai instantly grew tense. He hurriedly stood up and raised his guard.
This place was far too strange.
"This great king was clearly in his own courtyard. How did I end up in this... 'iron cage' in the blink of an eye?"
He examined the space carefully and discovered that it had no doors or windows, only smooth, copper-colored walls on every side.
The walls bore no mysterious lines, but rather a series of mysterious illustrations.
He clenched his fists, assumed a defensive stance, and waited a while with his full attention on his surroundings.
No mechanisms or traps activated. Only then did he let out a small breath of relief.
Then he shifted his feet and took a tentative step forward, stepping onto those mysterious lines.
There was no danger.
Growing a little bolder, he gradually approached the copper-colored wall ahead.
Upon reaching it, he found a human figure carved into the wall. The figure held up one hand, its fingers pressed together like a sword, pointing forward.
In the second illustration beside it, the figure likewise extended one hand and thrust out two fingers, seemingly performing a follow-up movement to the first illustration.
"Could these be moves from some peerless martial art?"
Having grown up practicing his ancestral martial arts, he recognized at a glance that the illustrations on the wall depicted the moves of some kind of finger technique.
He slowly explored farther along the wall and discovered that a second martial art began at this point.
This was a palm technique. The illustrated figure's palms flew about, sometimes fierce and domineering like a tiger descending a mountain, sometimes light and graceful like willow fluff drifting on the wind.
Farther along the wall, it changed to a kicking technique.
Next came a fist technique.
After examining more than a dozen martial arts in succession, he reached the very center of these impregnable walls.
There were no martial arts illustrations here. Instead, the wall was covered in countless oddly shaped symbols, but he could not read a single one.
"Could this be some kind of internal cultivation method?"
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