Chapter 28 - 26: Unity Realm, Shocked Li Qingyi

Chapter 28: Chapter 26: Unity Realm, Shocked Li Qingyi

Time trickled by. An hour later...

BOOM!!!

A terrifying aura erupted from the cross-legged young man, causing the nearby onlookers to pale in shock.

Jiang Hao was undergoing yet another metamorphosis. A vortex the size of a water bucket slowly materialized above his head, rotating steadily like a Tai Chi symbol. As it spun, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi grew increasingly turbulent, surging frantically toward him before being devoured by the vortex.

"A spirit vortex... He actually formed a spirit vortex!"

"An expert of the Creation Realm."

A short distance away, several young teenagers watched in absolute bewilderment.

The essence of the Creation Realm lay in creating this "spirit vortex." Rumor had it that breaking through from the Peak of Meridian Opening to the Creation Realm was an incredibly arduous task. Yet the aura the young man had just exuded made it crystal clear that this was his first attempt. To succeed on the very first try and step directly into the Creation Realm—how could they not be astounded?

Even more shocking was his age. A Cultivator who reached the Creation Realm so young was undeniably a peerless genius. And yet, his face was entirely unfamiliar to them.

"To think you actually succeeded on your first attempt at the Creation Realm?" Gu Qingyan’s beautiful eyes flickered with surprise, filled with disbelief.

Jiang Hao gave no response. Instead, he frantically circulated the Nanmin Technique, using the spirit vortex to absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Guided by the Nanmin Technique, the immense Spiritual Qi poured into the vortex and was refined into surges of terrifying Spiritual Power. The power flooded into his Dantian while aggressively cleansing his entire physical body.

With every purifying wash of Spiritual Power, Jiang Hao could vividly feel his body growing exponentially stronger. Even the purity and intensity of the Spiritual Power produced by the spirit vortex were terrifyingly superior to anything he had felt before.

Only when he had fully solidified his footing in the Creation Realm did he slowly stand up. Feeling the earth-shattering changes within his body, he was internally amazed.

The power of the Creation Realm was on an entirely different level from the Vein Opening Realm. The gap between them was an insurmountable chasm, like the difference between heaven and earth. At this moment, Jiang Hao had the illusion that he could crush a Cultivator at the Peak of Meridian Opening Realm with a single squeeze of his hand.

He marveled, "Is this the terrifying aspect of the Creation Realm? If the Creation Realm is already this formidable, wouldn’t the Unity Realm be even more astonishing?"

He finally realized the sheer magnitude of the gap between him and Qi Tianyang when they stood on the Battle Platform. No wonder all of Xingyue City had burst into laughter and mocked him so ruthlessly. A Cultivator at the Peak of Body Refining Realm was indeed nothing more than a joke before an expert of the Unity Realm.

No, even in the face of the Creation Realm, the Peak of Body Refining Realm was essentially an insect.

Standing up, Jiang Hao instinctively glanced toward where the group of teenagers stood. Gu Qingyan couldn’t help but follow his gaze.

Instantly, the teenagers shuddered. Fortunately, the young man and woman merely swept a glance over them before leaping away into the distance.

"PHEW!"

"Thank goodness they weren’t bloodthirsty killers, or our lives would have been forfeit."

Watching Jiang Hao and Gu Qingyan gradually vanish from sight, the group finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Among them, the strongest was the girl they all called Sister Qingyi, but even she was only at the Seventh Level of Meridian Opening. The young woman was actually a Cultivator from the Xingyue City Earth Realm. A decade ago, she had been recruited by a faction known as the Beardless Sect and left the Xingyue City Earth Realm. She had only returned a year ago, immediately diving headfirst into Wuyang Mountain.

Her true identity was the beloved daughter of Patriarch Li of the Li Family in Xingyue City—Li Qingyi.

Staring at the spot where Jiang Hao and Gu Qingyan had disappeared, Li Qingyi voiced her guess. "Those two probably aren’t from the Xingyue City Earth Realm. They’re likely just passing peerless geniuses. Don’t mind them; catching the Nine-tailed Spirit Fox is more important."

"Yeah, Sister Qingyi is right. Our mission is to catch the Nine-tailed Spirit Fox to use as a medicinal primer to heal Patriarch Li. Business comes first."

At the mention of the Nine-tailed Spirit Fox, everyone’s expressions instantly wilted. In order to capture that Spirit Fox, they had been staking out Wuyang Mountain for half a year. They even skipped the Pill Master Tournament—a grand event rarely seen in centuries—yet still failed to catch it.

"We’ll definitely catch it," Li Qingyi muttered to herself, a trace of self-comforting confidence flashing in her beautiful eyes.

Time slowly flowed on.

Gu Qingyan was utterly stunned by the fact that Jiang Hao had broken through to the Creation Realm in just a month and a half.

Ever since he formed his first spirit vortex that day, she realized his so-called "trump card" was an equally terrifying martial soul. She spent her days doing everything she could to trick Jiang Hao into revealing his martial soul’s grade. However, every time she probed, Jiang Hao would expertly deflect her questions.

"Jiang Hao, could the martial soul you awakened be of the Eighth Grade?

"Ninth Grade?

"No, if it were merely a Ninth Grade martial soul, you wouldn’t have the capital to accept a life-or-death battle with Qi Tianyang. Could it be... you possess a Celestial Tier martial soul as well?

"What grade of Celestial Tier martial soul do you have?"

Faced with Gu Qingyan’s relentless speculations, Jiang Hao would only ever reply with a wry smile, which annoyed her to no end. Even so, she had formed her own hypothesis, concluding that he possessed at least a Celestial Tier martial soul, or perhaps even a High-Grade Celestial Tier Martial Soul.

However, she soon completely overturned her own theory.

As time passed...

On the third day, Jiang Hao broke through to the Creation Realm Second Layer, condensing his second spirit vortex.

On the sixth day, a third spirit vortex formed.

On the tenth day, a fourth spirit vortex.

On the fourteenth day, a fifth spirit vortex.

...

When the forty-second day arrived, ten spirit vortices were already hovering above Jiang Hao’s head—Creation Realm Tenth Layer.

On this day, Gu Qingyan was completely dumbfounded, shocked beyond words. "A monster... Jiang Hao, you are an absolute monster."

And when the forty-fifth day arrived, Jiang Hao actually condensed an eleventh spirit vortex!

"Impossible. How could there be an eleventh spirit vortex?" Gu Qingyan was completely flabbergasted, standing petrified on the spot as she stared at the eleven spinning anomalies.

Since ancient times, countless billions of Cultivators had only ever managed to condense a maximum of ten spirit vortices. An eleventh spirit vortex was a phenomenon rarely seen in eons.

If possible, Jiang Hao would have wanted to form another spirit vortex. But unfortunately, eleven was already a number achieved by shattering his limits; a twelfth spirit vortex was utterly impossible. With no other choice, Jiang Hao chose to enter secluded cultivation after condensing his eleventh spirit vortex.

By secluded cultivation, it simply meant finding a relatively remote patch of mountain forest and entering a meditative state while Gu Qingyan stood guard for him.

Within the primeval forest, while remaining vigilant of her surroundings, Gu Qingyan instinctively glanced at the cross-legged figure, endless ripples of emotion stirring within her beautiful eyes.

It was obvious that he was attempting to break through to the Unity Realm.

"Three months. Can you truly reach the Unity Realm in such a short time?" she wondered.

Her beautiful eyes twitched slightly. Although their time together recently had left her regarding him as a celestial being, making her breathe heavily and shocking her beyond words on countless occasions, attempting the Unity Realm was not like attempting the Creation Realm. With the little time remaining, even "that person" she had mentioned might not be able to pull it off.

With these thoughts in mind, Gu Qingyan also closed her eyes to rest, though she never stepped away from Jiang Hao’s side.

And this brief rest lasted for five long days.

On the early morning of the fifth day, suddenly...

RUMBLE!

A thunderous boom exploded by her ears. Gu Qingyan’s eyes snapped open, looking at the figure with utter horror.

She saw that Jiang Hao was covered in sweat, his body trembling violently. The eleven spirit vortices above his head were frantically drawing closer to one another, squeezing together in a desperate bid to fuse. The repulsive force generated by the fusion of eleven spirit vortices was unimaginably terrifying, and it was still skyrocketing.

"The aura of the Unity Realm?"

The moment she witnessed this, Gu Qingyan’s delicate body shuddered violently. She shot to her feet, her eyes swirling with tempestuous waves of shock. That young man was actually making his bid for the Unity Realm!

Meanwhile, in a different direction.

Li Qingyi and her group were crouching low in the forest, carefully creeping toward something. Before them was a brilliantly multicolored Nine-tailed Spirit Fox, exuding an aura of profound spirituality and splendor.

At a certain moment, Li Qingyi let out a soft shout and tossed out a magical net, instantly ensnaring the Spirit Fox.

"We caught it! Sister Qingyi, we caught it!"

Seeing this, the rest of the group was overjoyed and cheered in excitement. Li Qingyi darted forward with a quick step and grabbed the Spirit Fox, her beautiful eyes crinkling with a joyful smile.

However, just as they were celebrating, without any warning...

RUMBLE!

A series of roars resembling muffled thunder echoed out. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi across a radius of dozens of miles converged madly toward a single direction, like a world-shaking phenomenon.

The group looked up abruptly, their eyes wide with disbelief.

"No way. Did someone else break through? And we just happened to stumble upon it again?"

Astonished, everyone immediately followed the flow of Spiritual Qi. In the nearby mountain forest, they witnessed a heavenly spectacle: eleven spirit vortices fusing madly together.

"The Unity Realm?"

"Good heavens, eleven spirit vortices? How is that possible? Someone actually condensed eleven spirit vortices?"

The moment their eyes locked onto the fusing spirit vortices, they were struck as if by lightning, their bodies trembling violently. And when Li Qingyi and the others finally got a clear view of the cross-legged figure beneath the vortices, it was like a bolt out of the blue, their eyes overflowing with absolute incredulity.