You Ying spoke last. Her voice was still hoarse, but it carried a greater solemnity than usual:
"Lord, let's begin."
Xiao Yan took out three pills from the jade bottle and placed them one by one in the palms of the three people.
The pill felt warm to the touch, like holding a small Core Flame about to ignite.
"All three took it at the same time."
Tie Gu comes first; your foundation is the strongest, so the medicine will dissipate in your body the fastest. Use your body to withstand it, don't use your willpower to fight it.
Xue Shou is next, you have the most hidden injuries. When the meridians are stretched open by the medicine, there is a swelling pain from the inside out, but don't try to tough it out. Tell me if it hurts, and I will help you guide it.
Finally, You Ying, your Martial Soul is predominantly Yin and cold, while the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill is predominantly Yang. When the two interact, there will be a momentary violent reaction, which is normal. Don't panic.
I'm here; I won't let anything happen to you.
The three exchanged a glance, made no grand pronouncements or passionate speeches, and simultaneously put the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill into their mouths.
The elixir melts instantly upon entering the mouth.
It transformed into a warm, magma-like current, sliding down the throat into the esophagus, lingering briefly in the dantian, before exploding with a bang.
Countless torrents of scorching medicinal power surged along the meridians to the limbs and bones.
Tie Gu's body was the first to react; his face flushed red instantly, a redness caused by the surging of blood and qi as the medicine's effects hit.
The veins on his forehead bulged out and spread along his temples to the top of his head.
The medicinal power of the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill was like a red-hot iron rod, rushing upwards along his meridians with overwhelming force towards those key points that had been blocked for many years.
Each impact sent a slight jolt through his body, but he gritted his teeth and made no sound.
Xiao Yan's Spiritual Soul Power accurately detected every slight change in the medicinal effects within his meridians.
His fingers paused slightly in mid-air, then he raised them, and a wisp of extremely thin Bone Spirit Cold Flame condensed at his fingertips.
The pure white flames, only as thick as a hair, shimmered with a chilling light under the pale blue Moonlight Stone.
He remotely pressed an acupoint on the back of Tie Gu's neck, and the wisp of Bone Spirit Cold Flame seeped into Tie Gu's meridians, like an ice line amidst the scorching torrent of medicinal power.
It precisely guided the medicinal power to avoid several of the most vulnerable meridian bifurcation points.
"Don't use your Soul Power to push the medicine's effects. Let it work on its own."
Xiao Yan's voice was calm and resolute.
"Your meridians can handle it, so don't try to control them."
Your previous failures to break through bottlenecks weren't because you weren't strong enough, but because you tried too hard to control them.
The medicine isn't your enemy; it's your ally. Let it find its own way out.
Tie Gu gritted his teeth and nodded, forcibly suppressing the Soul Power that was already poised to be unleashed.
This was extremely difficult for him.
Having cultivated for so many years, he had long been accustomed to using his Soul Power to guide everything, and every time he broke through a bottleneck, he took the initiative to attack.
But at this moment, Xiao Yan told him to give the initiative to the medicine itself.
It's like asking a captain who's used to steering the ship to suddenly let go of the rudder and let the ship drift with the current.
He closed his eyes and focused all his willpower on "letting go".
He let the burning medicinal power flow freely through his meridians.
This was a feeling he had never experienced before.
The medicinal power didn't need his guidance; it knew where to go on its own.
The potent medicinal power surged through the broad meridians of the Tie Gu, pausing briefly each time it passed through those congested points before surging forward again.
Those meridian points that had been blocked for many years actually began to loosen under the repeated impact of the medicine.
It wasn't forced open by brute force, but rather melted away little by little by the pure yang fire within the medicinal properties.
It's like a block of ice that has been frozen for many years finally encountering the warm currents of spring.
Tie Gu could clearly feel the stagnant blood beginning to break down under the influence of the medicine.
They transformed into tiny particles, merging into the surging torrent of Soul Power, and were then carried out of the body.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead and slid down his cheeks, but a smile appeared on his lips.
For the first time in two years, he sensed that those points were starting to loosen.
Xue Shou's situation is far more complicated than Tie Gu's.
As the medicinal power of the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill dissolved in his body, he took a deep breath.
Sweat instantly seeped from his forehead, streaming down his cheeks like beads from a broken string.
His body trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the intense pain emanating from deep within his meridians.
As the medicine surged along his meridians, it inevitably touched the scar tissue of those old wounds.
Those scars are like hidden reefs in the riverbed, which do not affect navigation when the current is calm.
But when the flood peak arrives, they become the most dangerous obstacles.
The medicine and the scar tissue pulled at each other, and each pull brought a tearing pain.
The pain wasn't from an external injury, but rather a throbbing, aching pain that spread from the deepest part of his body, causing him to clench his teeth involuntarily.
Don't bite your lip.
Xiao Yan's voice suddenly rang in his ears.
Xue Shou subconsciously loosened his jaw, only to find that his lip had been bitten and left a bloody mark, and his tongue tasted a salty, metallic flavor.
Xiao Yan had placed his hand on his back without him noticing, and a gentle, spring-like Soul Power slowly seeped into his meridians from his palm.
That Soul Power was completely different from the domineering medicinal power of the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill.
It Xiao Xin guided the medicinal power to bypass the most vulnerable old wounds, attacking the bottleneck from the side in a roundabout way.
"Your old injury is on the third meridian on the far left and the second pass above the dantian. Do not forcefully stimulate these two areas."
Allow the medicine to circulate through the meridians of the limbs.
Your limbs and meridians are relatively intact and can withstand the direct impact of the medicine.
After the meridians in the limbs have been tempered and strengthened by the medicinal power, then return to attack these two areas.
Xue Shou closed his eyes and guided the medicinal power to his limbs as Xiao Yan instructed.
The medicinal power originates from the dantian, flows along the meridians first into the legs, and then into the arms.
He could feel subtle changes occurring in the meridians of his limbs under the tempering effect of the medicine.
The inner walls of the meridians became more resilient and elastic, and the originally small branches also widened under the nourishment of the medicine.
When the medicine circulated through his limbs and returned to his torso, he found that the old wounds that had previously caused him excruciating pain did not seem so unbearable.
The You Ying's reaction was the most unusual.
The medicinal properties of Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill are predominantly yang.
Her Dark Night Bat Martial Soul is yin and cold, a dark attribute Soul Power that is cold, reserved, and good at concealment.
When two diametrically opposed energies converged in her meridians, they produced an extremely subtle reaction.
Her body was enveloped in a dark, shadowy light, unique to dark-attribute Soul Power. The light was deep and restrained, like a night sky without stars or moon.
But within that darkness, a faint wisp of gold could be seen, like the first rays of dawn before daybreak in the night, stubbornly squeezing out from the gaps in the clouds on the eastern horizon.
The two colors intertwined, collided, and merged on her body, creating an extremely strange picture.
Black and gold swirled across her skin, as if engaged in some silent contest.
Xiao Yan focused more of his attention on You Ying.
It wasn't because her situation was the most dangerous, but because the moment of yin and yang convergence requires extremely precise control.
When the two forces of Yin and Yang merge, if it's too fast, they will repel each other, causing an energy backlash; if it's too slow, they will wear each other down, causing the medicinal effects to be wasted.
He simultaneously controls the Bone Spirit Cold Flame and the Green Lotus Core Flame on the Dou Qi Continent.
Having had two Heavenly Flames, one cold and one hot, coexist within him for so long, his understanding of the interaction of Yin and Yang is deeper than anyone else's.
He probed a very fine strand of Spiritual Soul Power into You Ying's dantian; the Spiritual Soul Power was as fine as a hair but incredibly precise.
It guided the scorching medicinal power to slowly merge with the cold, dark-attribute Soul Power within her body.
The two forces were initially mutually exclusive.
The yang energy of the medicine wanted to burn upwards, while the yin Soul Power wanted to sink downwards.
However, guided by Xiao Yan's Spiritual Soul Power, they began to permeate each other at an extremely slow speed, like two streams finally forming a whirlpool at their confluence and then merging into one.
This process lasted for nearly half an hour.
There were no extraneous sounds in the quiet room, only the occasional faint crackling of the flames.
The You Ying's face alternated between red and white.
Each breath is precisely coordinated with the flow of energy within the body.
At a certain moment, the dark black light and pale gold light emanating from her body suddenly surged simultaneously.
The light shone intermittently throughout the quiet room, then quickly subsided, transforming into a dark golden light that was even deeper and more restrained than before.
The light swirled around her body before merging into the edge of the Dark Night Bat wings on her back.
The edges of the bat wings now had a faint layer of golden lines, as fine as hair, yet exuding a sharp, chilling aura.
Level 61, Level 62, Level 63!
Within a few breaths, three clear cracking sounds came from within the You Ying's body.
That wasn't the sound of bones shattering, but rather an echo from the depths of the soul as bottlenecks were continuously broken through.
Her cultivation level jumped directly from level 61 to the peak of level 63, and she was just one step away from level 64.
She opened her eyes, and those usually sharp but somewhat weary eyes were now filled with barely suppressed excitement.
Immediately afterwards, Xue Shou also broke through.
His breakthrough came most fiercely.
Once the medicinal power had finally bypassed those old wounds and accumulated enough strength in the meridians of the limbs, it broke through the bottleneck of level sixty-one from the side.
At that moment, a surge of Soul Power far exceeding anything before erupted from his body, dimming the Zhu Huo in the quiet room.
The blood-red blade on his lap emitted a low hum on its own, and the blood-red light flowing on its blade became even more intense than before, as if it had transformed from a solidified blood clot into a flowing river of blood.
Level 62, Level 63 -- a promotion of two levels.
He opened his eyes, looked down at his hands, those hands that had held knives for countless years and were stained with countless drops of blood, and were now trembling slightly.
The Tie Gu will has the deepest foundation, and the process of overcoming challenges is also the longest.
But when the medicine finally completely opened up those meridian nodes in his body that had been blocked for many years.
Everyone in the quiet room felt an extremely powerful surge of Soul Power.
The fluctuations were far more intense than those experienced by You Ying and Xue Shou during their breakthroughs, like a long-dormant volcano finally erupting.
Tie Gu suddenly opened his eyes and let out a long-suppressed roar.
There was no pain in that low growl, only a sense of exhilaration that swept away two years' worth of pent-up frustration.
Like the roar of a trapped beast finally breaking free of its cage.
Level 64, Level 65 -- also a two-level jump.
He leaped up from the futon, a faint golden light shimmering on his bronze skin—a sign that the remaining medicinal power was still tempering his body.
Xiao Yan reached out and pulled Tie Gu up from the ground, patting him on the shoulder.
This man, known in the Dark Hall as a tough and unyielding figure, now had slightly reddened eyes.
His Adam's apple bobbed several times, but in the end he said nothing, only nodding heavily at Xiao Yan.
All three Soul Emperor successfully broke through their limits with the help of Xiao Yan's pills.