Archfiend

Chapter 29: Assailing the Middle Stage (1)

 Xu Yangyi entered the room. The style inside contradicted the outside world’s. There was an ancient stone bed, an ancient table, and a stone stool. At the side, there was a washroom crafted from stone.

If he put on a changpao of the olden days, he would be a match with the gigantic arena beyond the door. He really would’ve believed himself to have been sent back thousands of years ago in a dream. Setting his things down, he stretched his body and cracked his bones. Without the slightest remiss, he immediately sat down on the stone bed. 

Just as he sat down, qi threads slowly caressed his thighs, like ten thousand ripples of spring water. It was a warm and cozy kind of feeling on his skin, like sweet nectar pervading a long drought, making him unable to restrain his groans.

He shut his eyes, and nearly in accordance to his instinct of the past ten-odd years, revolved the Hundred Solutions, entering a profound world of cultivation. However, this thought merely flashed by, and he was able to forcibly restrain it.

“A Spirit Focusing Formation…” His gaze carried a wisp of excitement. In a Heavens Law branch, such a thing could only be had and not obtained. In kind, this formation was something that could only be yearned for by initial-stage Qi Condensation cultivators. The cultivation rate inside the Spirit Focusing Formation was a single fold greater than outside the formation!

What did it symbolize during the End of Days?

Qi was something that was quite difficult to speak about. It could be explained as the atmosphere, at least it was explained this way by modern Cultivation Civilization scholars. Qi in itself grew without end. Nonetheless, in the wake of humanity’s gradual progress in science and technology, the growing spread of occupied space and the climbing severity of industrialization left the swift decrease of qi uncontrollable.

Countless seniors had thought up of many solutions. During the Qing dynasty, qi had already began to weaken by a degree. As China entered a new age, the remaining qi was but a mere thin layer, to the extent that a cultivator’s cultivation had to be strictly monitored!

Thus, the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion’s lofty position had come about like so. As “one’s body” was already incapable of dedicatedly forging ahead, “external objects” had become cultivators’ only option for lack of a better choice.

The Spirit Focusing Formation was one of these things. Its circulation was the most widespread, and it was the most universal of the Dao of Talismans. However, while it was universal, it wasn’t something that a city-level branch could be equipped with. 

Xu Yangyi felt like it was as the books had said; a low-grade Spirit Focusing Formation could gather spiritual energy like spring water, a middle-grade one was like a creek, and a high-grade one was similar to the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. As for a supreme Spirit Focusing Formation… he had never heard of one.

The qi around him was as joyous as a fish in water. It was as if he was soaking in a qi spring. He knew that this was the result of the low-grade Spirit Focusing Formation.

He stood up and tried to leave the bed, but there was no effect. It appeared that this low-grade Spirit Focusing Formation had only been carved into the stone bed.

Xu Yangyi sat down on the bed in a lotus position and meditated with both of his hands placed before his dantian. He didn’t cultivate but rather enjoyed the cleansing of the qi. Within his mind, he was gradually immersed in a kind of profound state.

In Nantong Province, there were thirteen champions, lion kings vying for supremacy against each other to seize the gold that was a Core Formation cultivator’s prize. He didn’t know what the other champions were like, but from his observations of Chu Zhaonan, Xu Yangyi knew that the latter was extremely strong at the very minimum! If the others were as strong as Chu Zhaonan… then there was no question that this would be an extremely arduous and violent battle!

Thirteen champion, and only one could be left proudly laughing on the path of martial hegemony! Under the eyes of Foundation Establishment cultivators, he HAD to become Nantong Province’s paragon! He needed to be absolute, unstained by a single failure.

His eyes opened, a calm expanse. With Foundation Establishment cultivators in attendance and the prize of Core Formation cultivator on the line, his future would set sail here. For the retribution of his mother and father, he couldn’t allow a shred of a mishap!

His aura settled, and he opened up all of his pores, feeling qi seep in little by little from the outside. This was the first time he had cultivated since he had slain a demon. Yet just as he began to cultivate, he immediately felt something was different!

The strange box had increased his senses by a third. In the past, it had only been his sense of hearing, touch, and sight, but it wasn’t until he truly began to cultivate did he sense the obvious difference!

Looking on from the outside world, fluctuations began to emerge in the air around his body like ripples of water, in an instant. It seemed as if space was faintly trembling! Of course, this was merely in the vision of ordinary people. If a cultivator used a discerning eye to look, they would notice that milky-white qi currents were revolving around Xu Yangyi’s body. In the next second that he entered a state of cultivation, the speed of qi revolutions suddenly accelerated by a third! It was similar to changing a car’s engine!

This was an action he was wholly unable to accomplish in the past. Swish… The initial white qi current dug into his first pore and was immediately drawn in by his spiritual sense. Revolving a full cycle within his body, it swiftly entered his qi sea. 

Swooooooossshhh… The second… the third… countless qi currents vied against each other to surge into his body. This velocity was far quicker than other cultivators.

Xu Yangyi hung his head low, watching his nose with his eyes, and his heart with his nose, still like water. The present him was without self and nature. His body had transformed into a cycle with himself as the universe. He seemed to become immersed between a tranquil field of black and white.

His spiritual sense was confronted with this boundless darkness, yet it wasn’t stifled. Instead, it was serene and quiet. This darkness didn’t agitate the heart to distress. It was only calm like peaceful waters. Within the darkness constructed by his spiritual sense, streams of milky-white qi came floating in from the edges of the dark, drifting into his qi sea below. At the same time, each one of his bodily senses left him, and were replaced with a kind of invigorating comfort, like his whole body was submerged in a hot spring. 

He didn’t need to breath. Every single one of his pores was breathing. Such a feeling was even more intense than drugs, yet it didn’t have the after effects of the come down. It was more comfortable and refreshing than making love, yet there wasn’t a momentary release, rather a long-term climax that circled around the entire body.

Xu Yangyi was like a stone statue, a stone statue swallowing and expelling heaven and earth. If said that a person was beginning to do something else, their entire being would already be in a state of utter intoxication, after qi entered the body.

Thus, it was said that cultivation was a practice void of time. With the opening and closing of eyes, it was possible that years would pass. 

This was a delight that ordinary people were unable to experience, penetrating the heart to the extremes of heaven and earth, the sun and the moon. After a cultivator cultivated, it would be quite difficult for them to be enamored by outside matters again. Not to mention that such a comfortable sensation, like a fish in the water, also brought with it a substantial upgrade in power.

At this instant, he truly felt the immense advantage that came with his spiritual-sense upgrade. Under the support of the Spirit Focusing Formation’s two-fold increase, he only sensed his qi sea surprisingly give off a swelling fullness. 

In the outside world, his brows faintly twitched, yet he didn’t cease cultivating. On the contrary, he unleashed all his fire power, and absorbed qi with every fiber of his being!

He understood it very well. The initial stage of Qi Condensation was actually around ten times stronger than a mortal, and one couldn’t abstain from food. Flying through the heavens was a matter of Foundation Establishment, and artifacts couldn’t be used. This was because a Qi Condensation cultivator’s pitiful amount of qi wasn’t enough to provide for an artifact’s absorption, not to even speak of a Core Formation artifact.

From what he could see from his qi sea through his spiritual sense, the most direct observation was that it was like a very small pool. Not to even mention a sea, to call it a small lake was extremely generous. Qi sea was nothing but a general term.

However, as Yuyang City’s champion, his boundary was undoubtedly the highest at the Heavens Law Yuyang City branch. This small pool had been drawn into his body since he was thirteen to now, an eight whole years. He had looked on as it had started as a mere tiny qi sliver to the current pool that had reached full capacity! The moment it reached maximum capacity… was when one advanced to the middle stage of Qi Condensation!

The more one cultivated, the more difficult it was to advance. Eight years for a single level; he didn’t have a comparison for how fast this speed was. Right now, he simply wasn’t in the state of mind to make comparisons. He was only focused on the billowing qi of his qi sea, drawing upon his entire concentration. Strands of spiritual force poured into him with great effort. It appeared to be overflowing, yet he knew...

There was still a bit to go!

The only difference was the last strand… Originally, it still would’ve required him at least three months of accumulations, but at this moment, with the significant increase of his senses and the added effect of the Spirit Focusing Formation’s two-fold boost, qi wildly entered his qi sea. He had a premonition… that the day his initial-stage Qi Condensation qi sea would reach its limit would be in the next few days.

The sands of time trickled by, little by little. In his state of cultivation, he simply hadn’t calculated how much time had passed, but on the outside world it was surprisingly already late at night!

On a wide, empty street, ten police cars suddenly emerged. Like protectors, they pressed in on both sides of four high-quality cars in the middle, silently traveling on the provincial road. 

The four cars had evidently undergone expert retrofitting. Due to the 1.5-centimeter-thick bulletproof glass, one could only see their inverted reflection. Even the windshield was the same. The tires adopted the use of special rubber that ordinary small firearms couldn’t penetrate by any means. The car’s bottom had undergone even more special processing. A light explosion couldn’t possibly overturn it.

“Seven reporting the situation. There are no special situations.”

“Twelve reporting the situation. The surroundings have already been completely cleared.” 

“Three reporting, everything is normal.”

Within the police cars, continuous exchange took place almost five seconds for each round. If anyone was here on this late-night street right now, they would certainly discover through the windows of the police cars that every officer inside were all first-class inspectors! Even if one walked in front of the cars, a third-class superintendent was seated in the front passenger seat!

The four vehicles were identical. They were all distanced a bit over ten meters apart, forming an array. In the front and back, there were two cars each. If someone wanted to attack at this instant, they wouldn’t know which car was holding the target they needed to strike.

Such a powerful formation already demonstrated the status of the person in the car.

“Deputy Minister.” Within the first car at the front, the driver murmured, “You still have a meeting tomorrow morning at the Capital Office.”

Seated behind, there was an old man with a full head of white hair and a nose that was a bit like an eagle’s hook. He was sitting in the middle and wearing a suit. On his slim face, he had a pair of eyes that resembled a bottomless abyss. He watched the quickly receding nightscape beyond the window, and said indifferently without any discernible emotion, “Put it off. I won’t be accepting any business within these five days. No matter where the person comes from.”

At both of his sides, there were two youths with eyes shut in rest. Odd enough, they weren’t wearing suits but rather double-piece ancient changpaos.

Although it was already late at night, from time to time within the darkness red or gold suspicious gazes swept over the car. However, in the next second, these gazes immediately retreated as if they had been pricked.

The auras of the two changpao-wearing cultivators were at the Great Circle of Qi Condensation! They were as striking as sharp swords in the black night!