In truth, Yun Yao did not want Zhou Xue to leave her either. She was only four-what mother could bear to let her child go? But Yun Yao also feared that Zhou Yong and everyone in the Righteous Qi Sect would spoil her rotten, so she had steeled herself against the pain and proposed sending Zhou Xue to the Cloudmist Palace.
After leaving the forbidden grounds, Zhou Yong hurried back. Once home, he said happily to Yun Yao, "My wife, I've solved Xue’er’s problem!"
"Husband, what have you solved?" Yun Yao was rather bewildered.
"My wife, I just went to see my senior brother and asked him to teach Xue’er."
"You know how profound his cultivation is. There couldn't be anyone better suited to teach her."
Zhou Yong spoke to Yun Yao with delight.
"The Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain are so desolate. Xue’er is still so young, and she's never endured hardship. Cultivating under your senior brother would be far too hard on her."
"Husband, Xue’er is still too little. I can't bear it!"
As soon as Yun Yao heard that Zhou Yong wanted Xue’er to cultivate with Li Dalong in the Forbidden Grounds of the Rear Mountain, her face turned pale, and deep worry filled her eyes.
"My wife, I've spoken to my senior brother. Xue’er will cultivate with him during the day and come home at night. We'll be here to keep her company, so don't worry!"
"Weren't you just worrying about how Xue’er would grow up? You even wanted to send her to the Cloudmist Palace! If she cultivates with my senior brother, she can still spend her evenings with us."
"Zhou Yong, if you hadn't spoiled Xue’er, would I have to worry about sending her to the Cloudmist Palace for my mother to teach her? Are you blaming me for wanting to send her to her grandmother?" The moment Yun Yao heard his words, she exploded!
"All right... all right... all right, my wife, I was wrong! It's all my fault. I've spoiled her too much. From now on, I'll listen to you, all right?" Seeing that Yun Yao was angry, Zhou Yong hastily offered an appeasing smile and begged for mercy.
"My wife, don't be angry. I've arranged it with my senior brother. Xue’er will start cultivating with him tomorrow. Also, we shouldn't publicize the fact that she's cultivating under him."
"Just tell the kitchen to send Xue’er’s meals to our home each day. My senior brother will collect them himself."
"All right! I'll do as you say," Yun Yao said with a sigh.
With Li Dalong's current cultivation, no one could possibly detect him using spiritual power to transport Zhou Xue or collect a few simple meals.
Once Yun Yao agreed, the stone weighing on Zhou Yong's heart finally fell away.
He gazed at Yun Yao's lovely face, then stepped forward and gathered her into his arms. Leaning close to her ear, he whispered, "My wife, Xue’er is getting older now, and she'll spend her days cultivating with my senior brother. We could give her a little brother!"
"Husband, it isn't even dark yet!" At Zhou Yong's words, Yun Yao instantly flushed crimson and bashfully tapped his chest with her delicate fist.
The couple's bedroom secrets would not be recounted here.
After Zhou Yong left, Li Dalong returned to his cave abode, activated the Spirit-Gathering Array, and resumed cultivating. He knew that teaching his little niece Zhou Xue during the day would leave him much less time to cultivate. Lately, he had also sensed that Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy was changing at an accelerating pace. The spiritual energy in the forbidden grounds was more than three times as dense as when he had first arrived. The entire Cultivation World was producing far more heavenly treasures as well. Even many cultivators who had been trapped at bottlenecks, unable to advance, suddenly found those bottlenecks loosening and broke through one after another. Cultivation had become easier for the cultivators of the Cultivation World, and their overall cultivation had risen by an entire tier.
For Li Dalong, the sect's recent incidents and the disturbances in the wider cultivation world, combined with the fact that he had spent several years at the late Out-of-Body stage, gave him a sense of crisis. Although all he lacked to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage was the right opportunity, that breakthrough had yet to come. He therefore planned to keep cultivating and see whether he could break through.
As he was pondering his failure to advance, the familiar system notification sounded.
"Ding-dong. Would you like to check in now?"
"Check in."
"Check-in successful. Congratulations, host. You have received one Fire Essence Jujube."
"Fire Essence Jujube?"
"System, explain the Fire Essence Jujube."
"Fire Essence Jujube: a spiritual treasure originating in the Immortal World, containing pure fire spiritual power. Eating this jujube raw allows you to use its fire spiritual power to force your way through a cultivation technique's bottleneck. However, there is a risk of forcibly igniting your spiritual power. Consume with caution!"
"What a treasure! Just what I need to break through my bottleneck." Li Dalong paid no heed to the warning. Cultivators walked a path that defied heaven itself. He had already endured having his cultivation crippled, his dantian destroyed, and his meridians severed. Why would he fear the mere risk of his spiritual power catching fire?
Without the slightest hesitation, he willed the Fire Essence Jujube into his hand. The fiery-red little jujube, about the size of two thumbs, gave off a rich, sweet fragrance. Li Dalong tossed it into his mouth and bit down. It was crisp, sweet, refreshing, and juicy, with a rich jujube aroma. The moment his teeth broke its skin, an immense surge of fire spiritual power poured out of the tiny fruit, wrapped in that fragrance.
Li Dalong swiftly circulated the Righteous Qi Formula and began guiding the immense surge of fire spiritual power into his meridians. As it entered, the spiritual power already within them was rapidly stimulated and grew lively. As more and more spiritual power gushed from the Fire Essence Jujube, the energy in his meridians went from lively to boiling.
After guiding the spiritual power through several complete circuits, Li Dalong began driving the boiling energy against his bottleneck. An entirely new sensation, unlike anything he had ever experienced, spread throughout his body. The fire spiritual power had stimulated his own spiritual power's vitality. As this explosive, lively energy flowed through all his meridians, it also repaired the tiny injuries left by his usual cultivation and burned away the impurities remaining from pills he had previously taken. Fortunately, Li Dalong possessed an innate spirit body, and his meridians were several times wider than an ordinary person's. Faced with this vast, raging spiritual power, he suffered no problems beyond the swelling pain in his meridians and the unbearable numbness and itching as his hidden injuries healed.
Within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had absorbed all the Fire Essence Jujube's spiritual power. Li Dalong began circulating his energy and attacking the bottleneck with all his might. As his spiritual power battered it like towering waves, one after another, the bottleneck slowly began to loosen. One crack appeared, then two. Seeing more and more cracks spreading, Li Dalong compressed his spiritual power as tightly as he could and drove it toward the bottleneck with his full strength. Heart-rending pain swept through his entire body. He had broken through!
Once his spiritual power surged past the bottleneck, it was like switching from a country lane to a highway. His meridians had become far wider and tougher. As his spiritual power circulated, the energy within the Spirit-Gathering Array poured into Li Dalong's body and meridians like floodwater through an opened sluice.
Li Dalong began examining his body with his divine sense. His body was stronger, his spiritual power more abundant, and his strength had made another tremendous leap beyond the Out-of-Body stage. He had reached the Early Spirit Transformation Realm.
After his breakthrough, Li Dalong did not continue cultivating. Instead, he carefully savored the changes the Spirit Transformation stage had brought to his body and the sensation of his enhanced divine sense. His divine sense was now at least twice as strong as that of an ordinary Spirit Transformation cultivator, and its reach was at least three times as far.
Before you continue