Chapter 64: A Cultivation Breakthrough and Broken Bridges

Three weeks later.

Whoosh!

A cloud of Qi spread from An, who was hovering above the ground.

Immediately, all the plants around began to reach toward him, greedily devouring this cloud.

Everything around began to overgrow and bloom. Plants matured and spat out seeds, which immediately sprouted and devoured the remains of the cloud, repeating the same cycle over and over, until everything around was covered in a thick layer of vegetation.

Hovering in the air, with his eyes closed, he felt a portion of his cells evolving slowly but surely.

Estimating roughly, he assumed that by now, more than sixty percent of his cells had completed their evolution, having stopped changing and aging.

His muscles tightened, saturated with excess Qi mixed with his own vitality; they were destroyed and restored, constantly repeating this process, becoming noticeably stronger and tougher.

Without descending to the ground, his body began to slightly stretch and compress in width; he became a little taller and a little leaner.

During the process of change, his hair grew from a crew cut to his chin in seconds.

'My Qi is beginning to solidify, becoming more like wet steam. Upon breaking through to Foundation Establishment, the Qi in the dantian transitions from a gaseous state to a liquid state... My energy is already on the threshold of transitioning to a liquid state…' Hovering, he didn't take his attention away from even the smallest details inside himself. Nothing escaped his notice.

Waiting for the changes inside his body to finish, he only opened his glowing green eyes when a new wave of Qi burst from within him. Due to its power, it spread throughout the entire plot.

Receiving a dose of this energy, the plants began to mutate before his eyes. They all began to grow very quickly, exceeding their previous sizes, changing the color of their leaves and stems, constantly trying to adapt in this competition of who could absorb more.

Some plants, having reached enormous sizes, began to deliberately attack others, absorbing them.

Hovering and watching this, he waved his hand and destroyed all the plants around himself.

‘Ninth layer of Qi Condensation. Most of my cells have gone through the evolutionary process, my body is stronger than ever... Oh, and I've grown a lot. Heh!" Creating a mirror from Qi, converting his energy into the Water element, he saw before him almost a copy of himself from his past life, only significantly younger.

He looked about seventeen years old, tall, nearly 190 centimeters, lean, but with defined muscles, long, just below his chin, dark brown hair, and cold green eyes.

'Heh, my body is only twelve years old, but I look the way I did when I was a high school senior, even more like a graduate... Only more built...'

'And still, it's strange that I look exactly the same as I did in my first life... Maybe that's why my soul chose this body, because of the complete resemblance?' Looking at himself, he lost himself in thought, drifting into theories that became stranger and stranger the more he pondered.

Descending to the ground, An took out three flasks from his pouch, with different second-rank pills, prepared for Elder Shoa and for obtaining the Alchemy Master status.

"Bok-bok."

"Stupid idea, feathered one… I can’t properly handle the energies of second-rank plants themselves. And using the transformation of my energy through the Dao of Wood would put too much strain on my body and mind…" He put the flasks back into his pouch.

"I'm leaving, I'll be back by the end of the day, most likely." An threw a glance at the rooster, who was completely ignoring his words.

The bird sat by the stove, holding a stick with a piece of fish skewered on it in one wing.

This time, Baldi turned and nodded several times, then turned back, carefully watching the cooking of the sizzling piece of juicy meat.

Stepping out of the gate, he saw a disciple in blue robes approaching his formation.

"Are you An?" Seeing a disciple emerge from the plot, the young man with blue eyes and black hair, in inner disciple robes, asked in an arrogant voice, radiating the overt pressure of the eighth layer of Qi Condensation.

"No." Without even looking at him, An activated Qi Legs and Qi Clouds and shot off at tremendous speed.

"Hey! Wait!" Not immediately realizing what had happened, the inner disciple chased after him, but after a few moments of pursuit, he understood that no matter how hard he tried, his speed was far inferior.

Frustrated, he reached into his ring for an artifact, and just as he took out a flying sword, he realized that An was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it! If it weren't for the mission given to me by my senior brother..." Stopping in place and watching the direction of the trees where An had disappeared, the inner disciple turned around and, putting the artifact back into his ring, walked back to the plot's formation.

"Fool..." Standing on the branches of a tree, slightly off the main path leading to the Outer Platform, where he had hidden from this disciple, An watched as the young man turned around, and upon reaching the plot, took a chair from his ring and sat down, crossing his arms on his chest.

'Something tells me I'm no longer sure that obtaining Alchemy Master status will make my life easier... No! Preserving my life is far more important than annoying people around me. If things get really unbearable, I just won't leave my plot until everything calms down…' Jumping down from the branches, he walked straight to the Alchemy Hall through the forest.

Arriving at the Alchemy Hall, he went straight to the corridor leading to the stairs upward.

Climbing to the third floor, he continued going up, and reaching the barrier, stopped before it.

"Elder Shoa. Are you there? It's An." He asked, not very loudly, looking in the direction where the elder's office should roughly be.

“Hm?!” However, the next moment, he felt as if all the skin on his body had frozen and begun to crack, every pore on his body immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and his eyes filled with blood.

Covering his mouth with his hands, he fell onto the stairs, barely holding back the blood bursting from his mouth and nose.

He was enveloped in such a dense killing intent, without any energy, only pure directed desire to kill.

Falling onto the stairs, feeling his heart stop beating and his lungs compress, refusing to expand again, he began to tumble down the steps, trying to roll downward.

Falling down the stairs, from the third floor to the very first, frightening several disciples who crossed his path, An jumped to his feet and still spitting blood ran with all his might, forgetting about rule 18 and its consequences. Activating his Qi, he flew out of the Alchemy Hall and collapsed to the ground, beginning to cough uncontrollably.

"Kha! Kha!" Spitting out dark blood, An sat down and leaned against the steps at the very entrance.

Looking at the sky, his face smeared in blood, looking like a walking corpse, he was even afraid to look at the building behind him. 'A moment before the killing intent, I felt Elder Shoa's Qi… he enveloped me, and the next moment… What was that?! And Why?! '

Completely ignoring the threats and mockery directed at him by passing disciples, An continued trying to figure out what had happened. 'His Qi was evident… And for the first time, I could see his surface emotions in it… Contempt, disgust… But why. Why?! '

To his surprise, his calmness was overriding his agitated state, allowing him to analyze everything more or less rationally, with only a few emotional bursts.

'Was it all a lie? From the very beginning? But why? He's a Golden Core cultivator, why put on this circus, guiding and teaching me… Could it be that he really had such intentions from our very first meeting… Did he want something from me from the very beginning, ever since he realized I could see more than others? ' He was no longer a fool when it came to cultivation and the standards around him. He perfectly understood that not only his ability to see Qi, but also his single spirit root, was far too unique. Only one cultivator before him had possessed a single root, just like him.

What also troubled him was how greatly the opinions of people around him differed, take the disciples who humiliated him on his very first day here, when it was announced to everyone that he only had the Wood element root. At the same time, old woman Doshu, the head of the Scripture Pavilion, had a completely different opinion of his situation.

'I still don't understand what all this circus was for… If he could have just branded me on the very first day, making me a slave forever… Or are there reasons for his behavior that I don't understand, no matter how much I analyze…' An, wiping the blood from his face, suddenly raised his head to the sky, specifically toward the clouds hiding the two massive floating islands.

'Damn! Now I suddenly have problems with a Golden Core cultivator! Fuck…' He began to undress, right in front of the disciples walking around him.

Taking off his shirt and pants, he put them into the pouch tied with a rope around his stomach. He took out new clean clothes and quickly dressed himself.

Standing up, he looked around, expecting to see female disciples with red faces secretly glancing at him, but all he saw was complete indifference, only a few sharp insults, from both guys and girls.

Puffing out his lips, he turned around and quickly ran back inside the Alchemy Hall. Only this time, to the reception windows.

"I need information on where and how I can take exams to obtain statuses for non-combat paths. And also, is there an Alchemy Hall on the Inner Platform, and what are the rules for taking exams there!" Approaching a free window, behind which sat a half-asleep disciple, An slammed his hand on the table to wake him up.

"What? What do you want?" Hearing how he was being addressed, and having the audacity to slam the table, the disciple boiled over. He was just about to put the brat in his place.

"Ah!" The disciple didn't understand how, but right before his nose appeared An's finger. Unable to even register the speed of the movement, the disciple nervously swallowed.

Looking around and finding no one who even glanced in their direction, the disciple gave up. "I-I apologize! It will be done immediately!" He quickly jumped up and bowed, wiping the sweat from his face as he began rummaging through the huge cabinet behind him.

"H-here you go, please!" Finding what he was looking for, he turned around and bowed again, holding the brochure with both hands above his head.

Waving his hand, An pulled the brochure toward himself. Without wasting time, he turned around and ran toward the exit.

Rushing out of the Alchemy Hall, he decided to move farther away, as far as possible. Running toward the beginning of the path leading to his home, he sat down at the base of the wooden gates and took the brochure from his pocket.

‘The Inner Platform is no different from the Outer, there is also an Alchemy Hall... Oh, and only there is the possibility of taking exams for obtaining Master and Grandmaster status…’ As he flipped through the brochure with all the information on the Inner Platform and the Non-Combat Path Halls, it seemed to him that there was too little data in this brochure, everything seemed torn out and deliberately cut off, hiding more important information.

Still, knowing even this was better than nothing, he stood up and ran back to his home.

'Now I have no choice. First, I'll take everything I can from my plot. The longer I stay here among the outer disciples, the more dangerous it becomes for me…'

'I'll quickly gather everything I need, and I can leave.' Jumping from tree to tree, An went straight through the forest toward his plot.