An hour later, everyone finished refining it one after another. Most of the impurities in their bodies had been expelled, and their physical strength had increased greatly!
Feeling the changes in their bodies, everyone smiled in delighted surprise. From then on, the Breaking Clan members no longer felt the distance they once had toward Tang Feng because he belonged to the Clear Sky Sect. Their eyes were filled with respect.
After that, Tang Feng decided to stay in the Breaking Clan, and his days became regular and fulfilling.
Time hurried by. One year later, night lay over the Breaking Clan, black as ink.
Tang Feng was now over thirteen and had shot up to nearly 1.8 meters tall. His shoulders and back were lean but resilient, like a sharp sword resting in its sheath. His features were unremarkable, their lines clean. He was not particularly handsome, merely someone whose looks grew on people.
Throughout that year, Tang Feng devoted his mornings wholeheartedly to creating his own staff techniques. Though he called them self-created, they were actually founded on the core essence of the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, incorporating the keen edge of the Soul Breaking Spear's techniques and combining both within his staff techniques.
The first form, "Thousandfold Waves," could already layer thirty-six staff shadows, each storing force at a different angle. Like raging tides battering the shore, the layers gave rise to one another.
Now, even without using his Martial Soul, Tang Feng could fight the Breaking Clan's low-ranking Soul Elders to a draw with his staff techniques and physique alone.
In the afternoons, the training grounds became Tang Feng's best touchstone.
Tang Feng refused no challengers. Whoever came, he took them on, and the loser treated the winner to drinks.
At first, his clan brothers still held back out of consideration for his status. Later, once they discovered that Tang Feng was simply a "martial fanatic," they let loose.
When someone excelled at spear techniques, Tang Feng used his staff as a spear; when someone was proficient in fist techniques, he turned his staff into a shield. Ending up covered in bruises was commonplace.
Seeing how seriously Tang Feng took it, the disciples his age had no complaints. Instead, they grew closer to him and often arranged to cultivate together.
Over the year, Tang Feng had become one with the Breaking Clan members, particularly the younger generation.
Of course, Tang Feng also understood that his foundations were now established and that this was the time to increase his Soul Power rapidly. He had not neglected his Soul Power cultivation.
Every day at nightfall, Tang Feng declined all invitations and returned to his residence to meditate cross-legged, as unshakable as thunder.
Tang Feng also set aside some time each day to keep his grandfather company while he refined pills and prepared medicines, lending a hand and learning the art of pill refinement. His days were ordinary and peaceful.
As for the second staff form, "Break Formation," Tang Feng simply could not be in two places at once. His current age was the golden period for increasing Soul Power, and he could not spend vast amounts of time on Self-Created Soul Skills. He could only work through it in his spare time.
This staff form emphasized "one strike of the staff, breaking through all eight directions." It required predicting every escape route the enemy might take and weaving the staff's momentum into an inescapable net spanning heaven and earth.
Its demands on mental power and Soul Power control were extremely exacting. This required rich combat experience and comprehension gained through countless life-and-death struggles.
The days flowed past like this, as placid as water in an old well, yet tiny ripples rose with every swing of the staff, every sparring match, and every completed pill.
Today, one year later, Tang Feng naturally broke through to level forty, like water flowing into a completed channel.
"Only three levels in a year. So-so." Tang Feng opened his eyes, his face showing the joy of breaking through a bottleneck.
Tang Feng knew that gaining three levels in a year at the Soul Elder stage was fairly good, and his foundations were far firmer than those of his peers.
Now, the night was deep. Tang Feng lay on his hard wooden bed with his arms beneath his head. Outside the window, the mountain wind moaned, stirring waves of sound through the pines like a rising tide.
The Ruyi Jingu Bang rested beside his pillow, its shaft still holding a trace of warmth from the day's training.
Tang Feng felt no drowsiness. His thoughts surged like the tide as he considered his future plans.
First was his choice of Fourth Soul Ring. His Clear Sky Hammer's three current Soul Skills all enhanced attributes, already giving Tang Feng sufficient explosive attack power.
But if he encountered a true agility-attack expert who refused to clash head-on and merely fought a running battle to wear him down, Tang Feng would be dragged into a quagmire.
"I have to make up for my weakness in speed," Tang Feng murmured to himself. "Preferably with a top-tier Soul Beast that combines strength and explosive power, such as... a Wind-Rending Golden Peng, a Scarlet Flame Demon Wolf King, or a Scarlet Flame Pterosaur."
Second was the age of the Soul Ring. With Tang Feng's current physique, the energy impact of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring was not beyond his endurance, but the mental impact accompanying it posed a deadly threat.
A dying Soul Beast's resentment was like a flood bursting through a dam. The slightest carelessness could let it crush his sea of consciousness and leave him witless.
At this thought, Tang Feng rolled over and sat up. From his storage pendant, he took out the immortal-grade Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew. It was an Immortal Herb shaped like a begonia, its petals translucent and crystalline, holding two dewdrops that shone with a pale golden halo in the night.
"I'm counting on you." Tang Feng murmured to the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew. Without hesitation, he brought its flower stem close to his eyes. The instant the dewdrops left the petals, they became two fine streams and dripped precisely into his pupils.
The expected stinging pain never came. Instead, a cooling sensation spread from the depths of his eyes, like an autumn stream flowing over a parched riverbed.
The reaction came extremely quickly. Tang Feng felt the world before him suddenly become ten times clearer. Every chisel mark on the stone walls and every vein in the pine needles outside the window appeared in the finest detail.
Then a hum rang through his mind, as though morning bells and evening drums were sounding deep within his sea of consciousness.
Tang Feng saw his consciousness become a lake, its mirrorlike surface reflecting the stars.
The two dewdrops entered the lake, stirring a thousand layers of ripples. Every spreading ring expanded the lake's boundaries.
Agonizing pain struck on the third breath. It was not physical pain, but the torture of having his soul torn apart and forged anew...
The Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew was forcibly expanding Tang Feng's Sea of Consciousness, washing his will into the purest nourishment.
Tang Feng clenched his teeth and gripped the edge of the bed with both hands until his knuckles turned white.
Within his sea of consciousness, Tang Feng's awareness began to condense, deflecting the incoming mental tides layer by layer, guiding and absorbing them.
The process lasted a full six hours. When Tang Feng opened his eyes again, the stone chamber was still the same stone chamber, but the entire world had changed.
Tang Feng felt that his eyes could see the dust particles drifting in the air. He could sense the faint breathing of the clansmen keeping watch fifty zhang away, and could even catch the subtle Soul Power fluctuations of pills taking shape in his grandfather's pill-refining room.
"It worked."
Tang Feng let out a long breath. His sea of consciousness had formed, and the range of his perception had expanded more than tenfold. His mental power was so condensed it was almost tangible, no weaker than a high-ranking Soul King's. He could now fully withstand the mental impact of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
That left only one final question: when should he go hunting for a Soul Ring?
In three months, the Four Single-Attribute Clans would hold their biennial gathering, and this time, it happened to be hosted by the Breaking Clan.
Tang Feng wanted to attend. His original intention was to use the occasion to ease the tense relationship between the Clear Sky Sect and the Four Single-Attribute Clans.
But Tang Feng immediately realized that, with his current strength and position, he was a man of little standing whose words carried little weight. He could not represent anything within the Clear Sky Sect, and whatever he said would carry no weight at all.
"Without enough strength, everything I say is empty talk." Tang Feng shook his head and murmured, "Only after I break through to Soul King and use my talent and strength to gain some say within the sect should I attend the four clans' gathering in Heaven Dou City two years from now. Then I'll have firmer ground to stand on."
With that thought, Tang Feng made up his mind. I'll meet the four clans next time in Heaven Dou City instead! With more than two years, I can definitely break through to Soul King.
Early the next morning, Tang Feng found his grandfather, Yang Wudi, and said directly, "Grandfather, I broke through to level forty last night. I'd like to ask you to help me obtain my Fourth Soul Ring in the Star Dou Great Forest."
Yang Wudi was overjoyed. "Really! That's so high! To think that my grandson would break through to Soul Ancestor at such a young age! You could practically be called the continent's number one genius! Hahaha!"
Tang Feng did not grow proud over this. Instead, he continued calmly, "There's one more thing I'd like your permission for, Grandfather. After obtaining my Fourth Soul Ring, I plan to stay in the Star Dou Great Forest and train alone. Through life-and-death battles with Soul Beasts, I'll rapidly improve my strength amid trials of life and death."
Yang Wudi's delighted expression stiffened, and difficulty showed on his face. "The Star Dou Great Forest is fraught with danger, and there are countless Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Going alone... wouldn't that be too risky?"
"The Great Soul Arena would work too, actually, but I can't use the Clear Sky Hammer there, and it would also lose the point of tempering myself between life and death," Tang Feng explained slowly.
"The Star Dou Great Forest is different. There, I won't have to worry about hiding the Clear Sky Hammer. When I encounter Soul Beasts that aren't strong, I'll only use my staff techniques. When I encounter ones I can hardly match, I'll use the Clear Sky Hammer against them.
"And Soul Beasts genuinely want to kill me. Every battle will be a fight to stay alive. Only then can I truly grow."
"Well..." Yang Wudi fell into a dilemma. On one hand, he worried about his grandson's safety; on the other, he wanted to see Tang Feng truly grow. Combat was indeed the fastest catalyst.