Archfiend Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Assailing the Middle Stage (One)

Entering the inside of the room, the style inside was in contradiction to that of the outside world. There was a stone bed done in an ancient style, an ancient table, and a stone stool. At the side, there was a washroom made of stone.

If he put on a changpao of the olden days, he would be matching with the gigantic arena outside the door. He would truly believe himself to have been sent back a thousands years ago in a dream.

Setting his things down, he stretched his body, cracking his bones. Without the slightest remiss, he immediately sat down on the stone bed. 

Just as he sat down, threads of spiritual energy slowly caressed his thighs like a myriad ripples of spring water. It was a warm and cozy kind of feeling on his skin like sweet nectar pervading into a long drought, making him unable to restrain the sound of his groan.

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 smidgen of excitement. In the branch of Heavens Law, such a thing could only be had and not obtained. In kind, it was a thing that could only be yearned for by initial-stage Qi Condensation cultivators. The rate of cultivation inside the spirit focusing formation was a single fold greater than on the outside of the formation!

What did it symbolize during the End of Days?

Spiritual energy was something that was quite hard to speak of. It could be explained as the atmosphere, at least it was explained like this by modern cultivation civilization scholars. It in itself grew without end, however, following humanity's continual progress in science and technology, the growing spread of occupied space and the climbing severity of industrialization rendered the rapid decrease of spiritual energy unable to be controlled.

Countless seniors had thought up of many solutions, During the Qing dynasty, the spiritual energy was already began to weaken by a degree. As China entered a new age, the remaining spiritual energy was but a mere thin layer, so that a cultivator's cultivating had to be severely controlled!

Thus, Bountiful Treasures Pavilion lofty position had come about in this way. As "one's body" was already incapable of dedicatedly forging ahead, "external objects" had become cultivators only option without 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 was not something that a city-level branch could be equipped with. 

He felt that 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 like that of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. A supreme Spirit Focusing Formation… he had never heard of one.

The spiritual energy at the side of his body was as joyous as a fish in water. It was as if he was soaked in a spring of spiritual energy. 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 wasn't a result. It appeared that this low-grade Spirit Focusing Formation had only been carved into the stone bed.

He 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 spiritual energy. Within his mind, he was gradually immersed in a kind of profound state.

In Nantong Province, there were thirteen Rank Ones, lion kings contesting for supremacy altogether to seize the gold that was a Core Formation cultivator's prize. 

He didn't know what the others were like, but from his observations of Chu Zhaonan, this was a man that was extremely strong at the bar minimum!

If… the others were as strong as Chu Zhaonan, then this would absolutely be an extremely arduous and violent battle!

Thirteen rank ones, and there could only be one left proudly laughing on the path of martial hegemony! He, beneath the eyes of Foundation Establishment cultivators, had to become Nantong Province's first exalted!

He needed to be absolute without a single failure.

His eyes opened, a calm expanse. With Foundation Establishment cultivators in attendance and the prize of Core Formation cultivator, 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 released the pores of his entire body, feeling spiritual energy seep in little by little from the outside.

This was the first time he cultivated after he had slayed a demon. However, just as he began to cultivate, he immediately felt something was different!

The strange chest had raised his five senses by a third. Before, 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, in an instant, fluctuations began to emerge in the air around his body like ripples of water. It appeared as if space was faintly trembling! Of course, this was merely in the sight of ordinary people. If a cultivator used a discerning eye to look, they would see that milky-white spirit currents were revolving around his body. In the next second that he entered a state of cultivation, the speed of spiritual energy revolutions suddenly accelerated by a third! It was similar to suddenly changing the engine of a car!

This was an act he was absolutely incapable of accomplishing in the past.

"Swish…" The initial white-colored spirit current dug into his first pore and was immediately drawn in by his spirit sense. Revolving a full cycle within his body, it swiftly entered his sea of essence. 

"Swooooooossshhh…" The second… the third… countless currents of spiritual energy vied against each other to surge into his body. The velocity was by far much faster 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 spirit sense was confronted with this boundless darkness, yet it wasn't stifled, rather it was serene and quiet. It didn't make the heart agitated in distress. It was only calm like peaceful waters.

Within the darkness constructed by his spirit sense, streams of milky-white spiritual energy came floating in from the edges of the darkness, drifting into the sea of essence below. 

At the same time, each one of his entire body's sense left him and were replaced with a kind of invigorating comfort like his entire body was submerged in a hot spring. 

He didn't need to breath. Every pore on his entire body 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 revolved around the entire body.

Xu Yangyi was like a stone statue, a stone statue swallowing and expelling the heavens and earth. If it was said one was just beginning to preoccupy themselves with a side matter, their whole being would already be completely intoxicated after the entry of spiritual energy into the body.

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

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

At this instant, he truly felt the immense advantage that came with the advancement of his spirit sense. Under the support of a two-fold increase of the Spirit Focusing Formation, he only felt his sea of essence surprisingly give off a fully-swelled sensation. 

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

He understood it quite  clearly. The initial stage of Qi Condensation was actually around ten times stronger than a mortal, and one couldn't fast. Flying through the heavens was a matter of Foundation Establishment, and artifacts couldn't be put to use. This was because the pitiful amount of spiritual energy wasn't enough to supply for the absorption of the artifact, not even to speak of a Core Formation artifact.

From what he could see from his sea of essence with his spirit sense, the most direct observation was that it was like a very small pool. Not even to speak of a sea, to say it was a small lake was extremely lenient. Sea of essence was nothing but a general term.

However, as Yuyang City's Rank One, his boundary was undoubtedly the highest of the Heavens Law Yuyang City branch. This small pool had been drawn into his body since he was thirteen to the present eight whole years. He had looked on as it had started as a mere tiny sliver of spiritual energy to the current pool that had reached full capacity! 

Once it had reached maximum capacity… was when one advanced the the middle stage of Qi Condensation!

The further 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 completely concentrating on the billowing spiritual energy of his sea of essence. Strands of spiritual force poured in with great effort. It appeared to be overflowing yet he knew...

There was still a bit to go!

The only difference was the final strand… Originally, it would still would've required him at least three months of accumulations, but at this moment, with the substantial increase of his five senses and the added on effect of the double-fold Spirit Focusing Formation, spiritual energy wildly entered his sea of essence. He had a premonition… the day that his initial-stage Qi Condensation sea of essence would reach its limit would be in the next few days.

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

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

The four high-quality cars had evidently underwent expert retrofitting. Because of 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 method. The base 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 car, the uninterrupted discourse could nearly be said to take five seconds for a single exchange. If there was anyone present on this late-night street at this moment, they would certainly discover through the glass of the police car that every police officer on the inside were all first-class inspects! Even if one walked in front of the car, a third-class superintendent seated in the front passenger seat!

The four high-quality vehicles were identical in exterior and 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 certainly wouldn't know which car held the target they needed to attack.

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

"Vice Minister." Within the first car in the front, the drive said softly: "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 the hook of an eagle, sitting in the center and wearing a western suit. On his slim face, he had a pair of eyes that seemed like a bottomless abyss, looking outside the window at the rapidly withdrawing nightscape. He spoke indifferently without any inflection of mood that could be heard: "Put it off."

"In these five days, I will not accept any business. No matter where any person comes from."

At both of his sides, there were two youths with eyes shut in rest. It was strange though that they weren't wearing western suits, but rather double-piece ancient changpaos.

Although it was already late at night, from time to time within the darkness, a red or perhaps gold gaze swept over the car, carrying suspicions. However, in the next second, it immediately retreated like it had been pricked.

The aura of two cultivators were that of the Great Circle of Qi Condensation!

It was simply as striking like a sharpened sword in the black night!

Chapter end