The Zi Hour was more than half over.
The stove inside the ancestral hall had gone out. Grandpa Yang Xun was still digesting what he had gained from his breakthrough, motionless as a statue.
Cat Master had returned to the offering table. His round belly rose and fell as he slept soundly, snoring away.
Jiang Yi lifted his eyelids and let out a long breath. It felt as though a thousand-pound burden had fallen from him, leaving his whole body light and at ease.
"Sure enough, when cultivating the Dao and overcoming tribulations, one can ultimately rely only on oneself.
"The Heavenly Book serves my purposes, so it, too, counts as a crystallization of my own Dao wisdom and painstaking effort."
Having finished Supplicating the Heavenly Book, all doubt vanished from Jiang Yi's eyes, leaving only a resolve as still as a secluded pool.
"Tonight! I should be able to break through to the seventh level and overcome the tribulation!"
His resolve settled, he opened his Origin Gate!
As he circulated Refining the Ancestral Origin, all manner of spirit chances came swarming in at once.
Ding Fire Qi was gentle as water, like boiling broth cooking his Origin Gate. Bing Fire Qi blazed like lightning, crashing down with thunderous blows.
Jiang Yi felt both temples pounding wildly, his entire body subjected to cruel torture.
Because he had gathered and refined so many spirit chances, the Spiritual Qi of every attribute and nature became a separate ordeal. Bright Hall shone resplendently, roasting his body; Radiant Harmony burned him, searing his internal organs; Brilliant Flame raged fiercely, drying out his flesh and blood...
In an instant, boundless agony came surging upon him!
Jiang Yi seemed to have been cast into a vast, fathomless sea, his body tottering on the verge of collapse,