Chapter 270 - 191: Mana Barrier, Second Breaking Limit

Chapter 270: Chapter 191: Mana Barrier, Second Breaking Limit

From that day on, Zhao Zuo continued his previous month’s cultivation routine. He used nearly thirty Lower-Grade Fire Element Seeds every day and would occasionally go out at night to hunt a single High-Level, One-Tier Demon Beast in the local zone for food.

After a few tests, he found that he was about forty percent stronger than when he was at the Ninth Layer of Qi Cultivation. He could now utterly crush an ordinary cultivator at that level. No wonder Qian Mingyuan of the Mutual Aid Association had thought he stood no chance against Chu Yijie.

In the days that followed, Zhao Zuo’s life became extremely regimented. He scaled back on refining Middle-Grade Magical Artifacts and purifying his Mana, and even cut down on grinding for experience, in order to focus entirely on cultivating the Mana Barrier.

Additionally, Zhao Zuo spent his daily "focus time" practicing the mana compression step. While the first two stages of the Mana Barrier could be overcome with a massive amount of resources, the third stage required... a powerful mastery over one’s mana, at least to the point where it could be controlled at will.

In other words... his mana had to break free from the influence of his Cultivation Technique’s major circulation and flow freely through his meridians, no longer following a rigid, preset program.

This step had stumped many people. The Golden Fire Refining Technique contained a technique for increasing mana control called Cloud Manipulation. Cultivating it to the Perfection realm allowed one to freely transform the form of their mana.

Each use of his Focus ability was equivalent to ten times the normal training duration. This meant that after spending six hours a day cultivating Cloud Manipulation for two months, he had only barely reached a proficient level of use, still a fair distance from the threshold required for mana compression.

However, with the aid of ample Spiritual Objects, the speed of his mana purification was quite impressive. By March, he could already feel the next bottleneck. It was naturally more difficult than the last, but fortunately, Zhao Zuo’s mana control had also improved. After five days and fifty thousand Spirit Stones, he finally broke through the bottleneck and completed the cultivation of the Second-Layer of the Mana Barrier.

In his bedroom, Zhao Zuo opened his eyes. He controlled the powerful Spiritual Pressure before it could even spread, withdrawing it back into his body in the next instant. Although his Cloud Manipulation had yet to reach the threshold for mana compression, his mastery over his own power had undoubtedly risen by several levels.

He stretched his body, which had been sedentary for a long time, as his Qi and Blood surged. He assessed his current state; his strength had increased by another forty percent. Yet this newfound power gave Zhao Zuo no room to relax. After all... his enemy, Chu Yijie, had already completed the Mana Barrier and was far stronger than he was.

An opponent of this caliber was like a boulder rolling down a mountain in pursuit of Zhao Zuo, forcing him to increase his strength as quickly as possible, or face the consequence of being crushed to pieces. Thus, until he officially completed the Mana Barrier... he couldn’t rest for even a moment.

"——Focus, activate!"

Zhao Zuo sat cross-legged, and the world seemed to become utterly silent. He immediately activated Cloud Manipulation and began to manipulate his mana. The training method involved transforming mana into threads; every ten threads he could control marked a new realm of mastery.

These realms were Entry Level, Proficient, Minor Success, Great Success, and Perfection.

At present, Zhao Zuo had reached the Minor Success stage. He was about two months away from Great Success. As for Perfection... even with the aid of his Focus state, he would need at least six months to get there. Beyond Perfection lay the legendary Extreme Realm, and even he wasn’t fully confident he could achieve it. After all, the records on the scroll described the Extreme Realm as a legendary state.

Looking back through the thousand-year history of the Moyun Sect, only the founding ancestor had ever successfully cultivated it.

Forty-five minutes later, Zhao Zuo opened his eyes. He lay down to recover his mental energy while absorbing the knowledge and skills he had acquired in his Focus mode. It was about half an hour before he finally escaped the state of having techniques and information constantly flood his brain.

He knew his primary goal was to increase the speed at which he comprehended Cloud Manipulation, which ultimately depended on his Focus mode. And the most direct way to extend the mode’s duration was to raise the level of the Qilin Seal.

With a mere thought from Zhao Zuo, a transparent panel appeared. This was a new ability that had developed after he’d absorbed the Qilin Seal and the Sky-Breaking Saber into his body, allowing him to summon the corresponding panel without physical contact.

[Level: Lower-Grade Magical Artifact +2 · Qilin Seal]

[Experience: 9678/1000]

[Status: Cannot be Advanced]

At the same time, three advancement paths appeared before his eyes.

[Initial Tier Advancement], [Intermediate Advancement], [High Level Advancement].

Given the choice, Zhao Zuo would of course choose the most perfect path: High Level Advancement.

The materials were as follows: Soul-Clearing Spirit Nourishing Jade, Obsidian Spirit Gathering Stone, and Hundred-Year Spirit Stone Marrow.

He needed about two hundred grams of each. Zhao Zuo had already inquired about the prices of these three materials at the Spirit Treasure Pavilion. The Soul-Clearing Spirit Nourishing Jade was a Third-Tier Artifact Refining material, priced at around thirty-four thousand Spirit Stones. The other two were Second-Tier Artifact Refining materials, and their prices combined were thirty thousand Spirit Stones.

To advance the Qilin Seal, Zhao Zuo needed to prepare sixty-four thousand Spirit Stones. However, at the moment... Zhao Zuo was still short by about thirty thousand. With a daily profit of three thousand Spirit Stones, he would need to wait about ten more days to gather enough.

There was another problem to solve. Because the three materials Zhao Zuo required were quite rare, this branch of the Spirit Treasure Pavilion didn’t have the Hundred-Year Spirit Stone Marrow or the Obsidian Spirit Gathering Stone in stock. This meant he would have to wait until early April to obtain the two materials.

Although Zhao Zuo was a second-class Honored Guest Elder and could mobilize some of the Spirit Treasure Pavilion’s resources, he was only permitted to transfer needed materials, Pill Medicines, or Magical Artifacts from other branches once a month free of charge. He had no authority to interfere with the Flying Ship schedules and routes.

Since he couldn’t advance the Qilin Seal anytime soon, Zhao Zuo had other ways to augment his combat capabilities. Between Body Refining and Magical Artifacts, he chose Magical Artifacts.

Upgrading a Magical Artifact was a direct way to increase his strength, but the Soul-Shaking Bell was connected to a Foundation Establishment family, making it an artifact that could not see the light of day.

Among his remaining Magical Artifacts, many could increase his combat power. He ultimately decided to upgrade the Black Flame Saber into a Magical Treasure. At the same time, the Spirit Wood Bead and the Gold Essence Bead needed to be upgraded to Upper-Grade Spiritual Objects as soon as possible. All told, he was short about eighty thousand Spirit Stones for these upgrades.

In the coming days, Zhao Zuo planned to challenge his limits. He would increase his daily output from refining two Middle-Grade Magical Artifacts to three. He also needed to quickly grind the necessary experience for the Black Flame Saber.

Faced with a life-or-death threat, Zhao Zuo completely unleashed his potential. Why had he abandoned the dense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power of the Inner Sect? It was because he worried Chu Yijie would find his location and threaten his life. Otherwise, what reason would he have to give up the much richer spiritual power available there?

At that moment, three Sound Transmission Spiritual Cranes were already hovering in front of Zhao Zuo’s Cave Mansion.

Just as Zhao Zuo had feared, Chu Yijie had indeed found the location of his Cave Mansion.

....