Chapter 478: Breakthrough! Middle Fifth-Rank!

The two thoughts wrestled for quite a while, but neither won out.

Yang Ling had a new idea.

“How can two Qilin Pickaxes be enough?”

“I want all four of my hooves to turn into Qilin Pickaxes!”

“Hahaha!”

Once he had made up his mind, he tried to steer this gene mutation.

Soon, he seemed to see himself turning into a silver-white qilin.

All four hooves were Qilin Pickaxes. He only had to take a stroll through the Mine Shaft, and clanging piles of ore would drop into his pockets, a hundred jin at a time.

“An absolutely perfect evolution.”

Yang Ling stared at himself, his eyes filled with approval.

But the longer he looked, the more he felt something was off.

Before long, the pair of horns on his head had turned into Qilin Pickaxes too.

“That’s more like it. Much easier on the eyes.”

Yang Ling nodded in satisfaction and continued admiring himself.

A few minutes later, the more he looked, the more dissatisfied he became.

His gaze slowly drifted downward.

“What am I thinking!”

Yang Ling’s whole body shuddered. He felt like he was becoming a little unhinged.

His current form was already perfect. There was no need to gild the lily.

The gene mutation continued.

About one shichen later.

Yang Ling’s attributes had stopped rising, settling at 180 Strength and 180 Agility!

His HP had jumped from 5,000 to 7,000!

A full 2,000-point increase! That was no small boost!

His Vital Qi was even more astonishing. It had broken through from 20,000 to 30,000!

The nature of his Vital Qi seemed to have changed as well.

Before, it had been more diffuse. Now, it had grown increasingly viscous.

“His Vital Qi density has increased! Even though it’s 30,000 points, every point packs far more explosive power than before!”

“Can these 30,000 points of Vital Qi rival my previous 40,000? Or even more?”

“Flesh-and-Blood Regeneration, Severed Limb Regeneration... These powers are related to my internal organs, flesh, muscles, and bones after the gene mutation.

They must also be closely connected to the mutation in my Vital Qi!”

“Right! If Vital Qi density has increased, then the power of all the martial arts techniques and skills it drives should increase too!”

“This is ridiculously overpowered. No wonder gene mutation can serve as a dividing line, separating Lesser Masters from ordinary Martial Artists!”

“Martial Artists? What do they have to do with me? Why would I think that?”

Yang Ling was a little confused. He continued admiring his qilin body, liking it more and more.

The gene mutation still wasn’t over.

He could clearly feel his Vital Qi continuing to increase, not just in quantity, but in quality too.

“This is the effect of the Crimson Ghost Ginseng and Perfect Vital Qi.”

“Once I finish advancing, I’ll eat the Golden Dragon Treasure Fish. Perfect!”

Time passed bit by bit.

Aside from its rather violent beginning, the gene mutation gradually slowed, then grew slower and slower.

One day, two days, three days...

Yang Ling was getting a little hungry.

For a full seven days, he hadn’t eaten a single bite of food or drunk a single drop of water.

Yet his qilin body was growing fuller and fuller.

Every detail was nearing perfection.

“By all rights, the gene mutation should be about to end.”

Yang Ling examined his body.

He felt there was something out of place, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

“Clearly, something’s wrong. But what exactly is the problem...”

“No, this is very wrong.”

At that moment, his Spirit suddenly stirred.

The Divine Ape Contemplation Diagram began operating on its own.

On the Status Panel, his Spirit increased point by point.

With every point gained, his mind grew clearer.

When his Spirit finally broke through 300 points, a flash of insight seemed to appear!

Yang Ling’s whole body shuddered, and he immediately circulated the Vajra Bright King Technique.

His Spirit increased by another 60 points!

Everything before his eyes was like a dream or a bubble, and it began to fade away.

He was still himself. It was as if the qilin body had never appeared!

After a full quarter of an hour of silence, Yang Ling finally drew in a slow, sharp breath, his heart still pounding with fear.

The blood in his body raced, and his heart thumped wildly.

“I was so close. Just a little closer, and I wouldn’t have been human anymore...”

Yang Ling murmured to himself.

He had never imagined that merely breaking through to Lower Fifth-Rank could be so dangerous!

“With Spirit this high, I thought I was a praying mantis at first, then later I thought I was a qilin...”

“How did those Fifth-Rank Martial Artists, whose Spirit is far below mine, manage to become Fifth-Rank without a hitch?”

“Is it because I’ve eaten too many good things? Because my cultivation level advanced too quickly? Because my foundation isn’t solid enough?”

Yang Ling couldn’t figure it out, but he had realized that the gene mutation was over.

The mutation had ended completely the moment he realized he was human.

“The whole process lasted about seven days.”

“During those seven days, my flesh, muscles, bones, and internal organs felt as if they were constantly being torn apart and reassembled.”

“Thanks to the Snow Spirit Marrow, I didn’t feel much pain.”

“Some Martial Artists probably fall at this stage. Without supporting spirit medicines, they wouldn’t dare attempt a breakthrough to Fifth-Rank.”

“I just didn’t expect the death tribulation not to kill me with pain, but to nearly get me killed by a hallucination instead...”

Every hair on Yang Ling’s body stood on end.

Even thinking about it still frightened him.

He wasn’t sure what would have happened if he had never escaped the hallucination.

Would he have died, or would he really have turned into a qilin?

“If I turned into a qilin, that thing would count as a mystical beast. Would I still be able to keep my own consciousness?”

“Probably not...”

“Good thing I made it through by the skin of my teeth. I’ve completely entered the Fifth-Rank realm!”

Yang Ling calmed himself, then opened the Status Panel.

His Strength and Agility were both 180!

His Spirit was 300!

His HP had reached 8,000!

Most importantly, his Vital Qi had risen from 30,000 to 40,000!

“A full 40,000 points of Vital Qi, and every point has more than twice the density it had before...”

“Holy crap!”

Yang Ling’s eyes were full of shock.

The changes from breaking through from Sixth-Rank to Fifth-Rank were truly terrifying!

“Kong Xinghu and the others probably had this same Vital Qi density.”

“With density increasing, there’s no reason their attack power wouldn’t increase too.”

“Facing Sixth-Rank Martial Artists, even someone at Qin Kunlun’s level would be able to exert absolute suppression.”

“The gap between Fifth-Rank and Sixth-Rank is just too enormous!”

“But against someone like Chu Ling, an Upper Sixth-Rank Martial Artist, an ordinary Lower Fifth-Rank would have a hard time handling her. They might not die, but they’d definitely take a beating.”

At last, Yang Ling truly understood the difference between a Lesser Master and an ordinary Martial Artist.

He took a deep breath, then happily opened the Status Panel and started adding points.

“I still have 161 Free Attribute Points!”

“Spirit is still grayed out. I can’t add points there...”

“Here goes. I’ll add 20 points each to Strength and Agility first!”

“Break through! Middle Fifth-Rank!”

In an instant, his Strength reached 200!

His Agility reached 200 as well!

That was exactly the peak level for Lower Fifth-Rank!

In an instant, that feeling of gene mutation returned!

But this time, he didn’t have Snow Spirit Marrow. As his flesh, muscles, and bones were repeatedly torn apart and reassembled, excruciating pain struck at once!

“I can take it! My Spirit is extremely high! It doesn’t hurt! Not one bit!”

Yang Ling’s expression was resolute as he continually hypnotized himself.

He didn’t know whether the self-hypnosis was working, or whether his exceptionally high Spirit had severed the connection between him and his pain nerves.

That piercing pain really did ease quite a bit!

“My HP and Vital Qi are stirring again!”

“My attributes seem to be increasing too...”

Yang Ling’s eyes lit up. If his attributes increased with every breakthrough, and he combined that with his Free Attribute Points...

Just how far could he grow this time?