Overlord in Cultivation Chapter 3: Refine Qi into Essence

“It’s gone!”

Narrowing his eyes with confusion, Su Yan had clearly seen a real dragon on his arm, but now it vanished.

He had seen it when he opened the coffin on the snow mountain, which might explain for all these incredible experiences he was through.

Calming himself down, Su Yan began pondering his experiences for the past few years. A hundred years ago, he was born with a body so strong and amazingly powerful that three or five people together would be no match for him.

In this new era, God & Devil Civilization, his physical prowess was amazing too.

Su Yan was no doubt one of the awoken. But what was the awoken? Just as its name implied, the awoken was to break the limit of human life and fully develop the potential of human body by absorbing the natural energy of heaven and earth. As a result, the human body would get stronger, obtaining supernatural power.

Su Yan could feel the explosive power in his body, like a volcano ready to erupt at any minute.

“Something did not add up.” Su Yan mused.

There had been a faint tattoo on his shoulder. But not until a few months ago could he see the outline of it.

“Is the dragon inside my arm?” Su Yan was completely dumbfounded by his guess. He knew about Kylin Arm, but did it mean he now possessed an actual Dragon Arm?

Puzzled by all this, Su Yan was sure that he must have missed something.

Then, thinking of his parents and younger sister whose whereabouts remained a mystery, Su Yan felt extremely oppressed.

“Anyway, I have to figure all this out. The priority is to find the dean of the Frozen College, who may shed some light upon these mysteries as he is the one who brought me here.”

Composing himself, Su Yan was lost in thought. “With my current capability, can I really find out what happened that year ?”

Flooded with so many unsolved mysteries, his head nearly burst.

“Su Yan, you must become stronger from now on!”

His fists clenching tight, Su Yan realized he was now in a world where the weak were the prey to the strong. And he instinctively believed that the mutation of earth was closely related with the snow mountain.

“Hey kid! Watch where you are going!”

Su Yan inadvertently bumped against a man who was tall and strong like a bear that nearly stumbled him down.

“Sorry.” Su Yan apologized and left in a hurry.

“You little thing deserve a good beat!” The arrogant young man was infuriated. “Doesn’t he know who I am? An apology and it’s over?”

“Gao Hua, he is the famous Su Yan.” A young girl by the tall man sneered, making everyone around look at her with surprise. Su Yan was indeed a “celebrity”.

“It’s him.” Spitting on the ground, Gao Hua cursed, “Damned unlucky! He nearly knocked me down and just made an apology. We’re not finished yet. Who the hell does he think he is?”

There were over 30,000 students in the Frozen College, and they all knew the name of Su Yan, who, credited with the first core member of the college and chosen as the key person to be trained, was undoubtably the man of the hour three years ago.

There were only about 300 core members in the college. However, Su Yan didn’t make any progress in the past few years, disappointing nearly all the faculty members.

Ranking at the bottom among all core members, Su Yan got quite a fame.

“He’s a core member just like you.” The young girl gurgled charmingly covering her mouth.

“Just like me?” Face suddenly turning purple, Gao Hua now felt extremely humiliated.

Students around were not surprised by his sullen look. Gao Hua was bound to be one of the social elites in future, enjoying endless wealth and fame.

As for Su Yan, though he was also one of the awoken, it would be too foolish to compare the two. One an elite of the upper ten, the other a social borer at the bottom. What a huge gap! But they were all just like Su Yan, whose fate would be decided by the approaching exam.

“So I am now a useless person?” Su Yan was irritated by some of Gao Hua’s words as well as all the ridicules he received along his way.

A hundred years ago, he had been a celebrity of his college and a talented athlete. But now he was looked down by all schoolmates! Emulative and indomitable as he usually was, he was now highly motivated to make a difference.

He, Su Yan, never feared anyone.

He was quite clear about the problem he currently had with cultivation, the energy inside his body disappearing mysteriously. As long as this problem was solved, it would be easy for him to get stronger. And he acutely felt that it was closely related to the dragon totem on his arm.

“Constructed with steel, these buildings are really tough.”

Observing the Frozen College carefully on his way back, Su Yan found the college was as big as ten football fields, emanating coldness of iron and steel which made it look strong enough to withstand the beast attack.

But even so, Base No.9 was often attacked by tides of beasts . The safest place in Huaxia Alliance was Huaxia City, which was surrounded by 10 bases. However, only the awoken were qualified to enter.

In every base there were tens of millions of residents. Apparently, awakening was the threshold to the upper ten. Failure meant a bleak future.

Su Yan found his room in the student dormitory. Opening the door, he saw a small room less than 10 square meters, which was already the best of the college that only core members could enjoy.

“Su Yan, you got quite a difficult condition!”

Seeing that there was only simple furniture in his dorm, Su Yan teased himself with a helpless smile. Taking off his shoes, he sat cross-legged on bed, eyes full of anticipation.

So many people had yearned for the God & Devil Civilization!

“The earth mutated, generating mysterious energy that could be absorbed to strengthen human body and break the limit of human life.”

“Such energy is called natural essence. The first step for cultivation is to awaken. If successful, human body would mutate, unlocking its potential to strengthen itself by taking in natural essence.”

“Once awakened, one could possess the strength that equals to 10 horses, namely 10 horsepower!”

“Good god!” Reading the Cultivation Manual, Su Yan was taken aback with his eyes wide open. Now people took one horsepower as 50 kilograms. So 10 horsepower would be 500 kilograms.

What did that mean? One punch generating a force of 500 kilograms!

Was that a human-monster?

Su Yan continued to study the manual attentively and found it only applied to the normal awoken. As it was recorded in the manual, an overmatch at the awakening peak possessed 100 horsepower.

A punch producing 5,000 kilograms of force? Su Yan was startled by the information he just gathered.

“Now I am just a new awoken, the weakest of all.” Su Yan murmured with a wry smile.

A lowclass awoken was only a bit stronger than ordinary beings. However, the regular awoken could constantly absorb the natural essence to get stronger. Su Yan was an exception.

“Hold your breath, concentrate your mind, run the Qi throughout your body, perceive the heaven and earth, and absorb the energy…”

Having read the process for cultivation carefully, Su Yan tried it at once. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body, feeling his hearing greatly improved. Then he sensed a mysterious energy pervading in the earth.

He was astonished, “This is incredible!”

Before, he had to sit for at least half an hour to feel the essence of heaven and earth.

Now he sensed it just a moment later. And he could feel his strong and sufficient spirit. Was it all because he started to restore his memory?

Casting all distractive thoughts aside, Su Yan began to take in the energy he just perceived, inhaling and exhaling with his mouth and nose.

Hum!

Indistinctly, the natural essence was attracted by his breathing, and wisps of warm energy flowed into his body through his mouth and nose.

Su Yan could feel it clearly that the minute this energy entered his body, there seemed to be a fire burning inside, his muscles vibrating excitedly.

His body was absorbing the energy and strengthening itself!

As if starved for many years, Su Yan took in the natural essence greedily, running qi throughout his body to get strengthened.

The mysterious essence of heaven and earth could be absorbed to build the human body like a perfect health tonic. As long as one took it continuously, he would sustainably better his physique.

That was the potential of the awoken!

Su Yan felt that his potential was huge like a bottomless abyss, assimilating all natural essence without the slightest exclusive reaction.

“What an era!”

Su Yan was excited, his eyes full of aspiration. Who didn’t dream to be an overmatch? Who didn’t long to soar the nine heavens? Who didn’t yearn to ascend to the top of the universe and compete with the starry sky?

“Keep your shirt on. Steady yourself.”

Wearing a hearty smile, Su Yan continued to absorb the natural essence, refining his qi into essence.

Time elapsed. The night fell, and the stars shone.

The whole college was silent at night. But there was a dorm emanating soft glow.

A figure sat cross-legged on bed with essence and qi circulating around, sparkling holy lights that looked majestic like a god.

The way Su Yan absorbed the energy was so amazing as if his body was about to break some seal, restoring its previous mightiness.

Just then, the dim dragon tattoo on his arm was ablaze like lightning, casting golden rays as if it awakened with its own spirit. The brighter it got, the essence Su Yan refined in his body became weaker.

“Damn you!” Su Yan cursed out of rage. The power he just obtained through his hard work was plundered all at once!

The dragon totem was now resplendent, shining with dazzling brilliance.

This time it stirred an extraordinarily striking uproar. Seeming to have absorbed sufficient energy, it turned so ultimately horrible that it exuded an air of primordial times and a heavenly power mighty enough to separate the heaven and earth.

Ang!

It was like a roar of a primeval dragon, shattering stars over the sky, while its body soared in the universe, overlooking all.

Hum!

A thundering noise burst out in his ears, causing a splitting pain in his soul that nearly made him faint. It was a roar so real that it could even destroy the earth.

That soul stirring roar was not only loud, but it also brought some memories with it.

What was that? Numerous lines of inscriptions arrayed in Su Yan’s soul. And every inscription, as if cast in gold, created glaring golden lights. Nearly tens of thousands of inscriptions were imprinted on his soul.

“Bronze inscriptions! It must be the dragon. The bronze inscriptions on the bloody coffin were all swallowed by that dragon. Therefore, this totem on my arm is closely connected with it.”

His fine face was now overwhelmed with extreme shock. He had read some of them back then, so he was sure they were the same inscriptions.

“Is all the energy I got through cultivation absorbed by this dragon totem? Now it has enough energy, so it passes the scripture to me?”

“That’s it!”

Su Yan was thrilled. Everything he experienced must have something to do with the dragon coffin. And there was a close relation between his dragon totem and the ancient scripture popping up in his mind, which were originally inscribed on the bloody coffin.

“Incipient Scripture (Chu Shi Jing)!”

Seeing the three inscriptions, Chu Shi Jing, Su Yan immersed his mind right into the scripture, and it took him a whole night long to sort out the prequel.

He was extremely astonished. It was a cultivating manual.

Now he was a bit confused, because in the history of the new era, there seemed to be no such a thing as Cultivation Manuals for the awoken.

It wrote clearly in the Awakening Manual that one should strengthen his body by absorbing the natural essence of heaven and earth. But he instinctively believed that this manual he just got was frightening.

“It says the first realm of cultivation is Incipient.”

“In the new era, it is called awakening. Is it because the cultivation system is not completed yet?”

Realizing that, Su Yan was excited. Now humans in earth didn’t have a clue about the God & Devil Civilization. Everyone was still groping. Though a hundred years passed, mankind only settled down about thirty or forty years ago.

Now all the cultivation experiences came out of groping.

Thinking of that, Su Yan shook his head. There should be an advanced method for cultivation in the Huaxia Alliance, but it wouldn’t be publicized among ordinary people. Perhaps entering a higher school might qualify him for that.

Anyway, he just felt this scripture was extremely powerful. He now could only understand a small part of it. And the introduction alone was amazing, which noted that the human body was a miniature universe, harboring billions of human potentials.

That is to say, human potential is infinite. And one could tap the potential of human body by constantly enhancing it.

“Everything about the dragon coffin should be kept secret.”

“God & Devil Civilization did exist before and the Incipient Scripture is the best evidence.”

Su Yan now looked serious. Everything related with the dragon coffin, be it Zu Yan or the Incipient Scripture, should be kept to himself before he figured all this out.

“Now I’ll see how powerful this scripture is.”

As depicted in the scripture, Su Yan meditated and visualized the universe, the firmament and the stars.

Each body a universe. Su Yan tried to visualize the whole universe for many times. However, even with his strong spirit, each visualization was extremely exhausting.

Su Yan kept trying. And he made it after a whole day!

Boom!

Something banged in his ears. As if opening the gate to a new world, from this moment on, the blood and qi inside his body boiled and bubbled like a burning furnace.

And the image he visualized changed, a furnace inhaling and exhaling essence of heaven and earth at the center of the universe. At this moment, as if breaking free from shackles, all the pores of his body were open now, taking in all the natural essence with every breath.

Gasping with astonishment, Su Yan could only absorb the essence through his mouth and nose before. But now, with all his pores open, he himself was a furnace taking in the essence of heaven and earth and snatching the laws of nature.

All this dazzled him. But it was just a beginning. When he got stronger, this “furnace” would turn into a godly furnace, inhaling and exhaling the essence as well as the divine power of stars.

By then, how horrible would his body be? Could there be anything more terrifying than the stars?

“There, the dragon totem plunders again!”

Su Yan’s face turned black out of anger. This dragon totem was recovering, robbing the energy he just assimilated.

Then he was stunned. The dragon totem just took most of his energy, leaving him only a small portion.

Though only a small part of it, he cultivated several times faster than before.

“At least you the robber knows to save some for me!”

Quite speechless, Su Yan had no idea what the dragon totem was. So he continued cultivating. Besides, he didn’t bear any grudge against the totem, which was definitely not something that could be speculated with common sense. Therefore, he decided to worship it for the moment, and figured out its history in future.

Time flashed day by day. Su Yan just cultivated nonstop. He tried to visit the dean several times. But the dean never came back over the last three years, leaving Su Yan to involuntarily speculate whether the dean’s disappearance had something to do with him.

All the mysteries of his own filled Su Yan’s heart with desire to be strong, eager to figure everything out. Living in such an ambiguous state really stirred him.

Seven days passed in a flash. And the big exam was just around the corner. The whole Frozen College was devoted to cultivating and listening attentively on class.

Su Yan was in Class 6, which now got an atmosphere so depressive that everyone dared not to breathe freely, fearing they might somehow exasperate Mr. Jia De.

Jia De looked extremely sullen. Absent! Someone ditched the class before the big exam?!

How dare someone run away from his class? Didn’t he know that there were countless students eavesdropping under the window during his class?

In his twenty years of teaching, no one ever ditched his lesson, which was an achievement he was quite proud of, but also his forbidden area.

“This trash again! Doesn’t he know that I am the best martial teacher of Frozen College? How dare he skip my class?”

The whole class loathed Su Yan for this moment as they all sensed Mr. Jia’s murderous look. And they knew well of his temperament. Whoever dared to skip Mr. Jia’s class better wait for his doom.

“You all remember that the big exam is approaching! And for your information, the invigilator this time is an overmatch from Huaxia College.”

The whole class was astounded. Huaxia College, established 90 years ago, was the first and also the top college of Huaxia Alliance, which delivered countless heroes during the doomsday.

There wasn’t any wise person who didn’t long to enter Huaxia College. However, the number of the students who could be admitted to Huaxia College every year would never exceed 500.

As for Frozen College, no one ever entered Huaxia College since the disappearance of the dean.

Chapter end