Archfiend

This call to break jolted the underground! Everyone on the outside excitedly stood up.

“B-breaking the bodily limiter… He’s breaking the bodily limiter!” Li Mu excitedly walked back and forth inside the room, as if the advancement was his own. Even his voice was somewhat hoa.r.s.e: “Once he charges through this barrier, h-he’ll be a middle-stage cultivator! The middle stage! The middle stage!”

The other two didn’t say anything, but they were the same, unable to even stand. Instead, they perceived the sea of spiritual light in the air that in this moment had reached the zenith, their feelings a series of complexities.

This, was the most significant barrier of the initial stage of Qi Condensation. 

Strictly speaking, the bodily limiter was the only obstruction that existed in the advancement of a minor boundary in Qi Condensation. The others were all c.u.mulative. As for this acc.u.mulation, it depended on a person’s apt.i.tude. They had already guessed that while Xu Yangyi’s apt.i.tude was astonis.h.i.+ng, this bodility limiter still caused people to harbor apprehension within their hearts.

“F-Fellow Daoist Xu seemes not to have brought a supplementary medicine!” Suddenly, Zhang Gongchang couldn’t refrain himself from shouting: “H-he’s using pure strength to challenge the bodily limiter?!”

Once these words were given voice to, everyone was rendered dumb. In other words… this advancement wasn’t of the other’s planning? That was to say… he had felt he could break through and immediately attacked? Thus… the other hadn’t brought anything! Including supplementary pill elixir?!

“Careless! Too careless!” w.a.n.g Chunlai sighed deeply, his anxious understanding exhibited in his speech, as if he was breaking through: “If he doesn’t rely on pill elixir, how is he going to break through the bodily limiter?”

“Fellow Daoist Li, how about you bring in a bottle?” Just as Li Mu said these words, he recalled something straight away and promptly pulled out a jade bottle: “This is the common advancement pill elixir. If Fellow Daoist Xu doesn’t dislike it, wouldn’t it be better for Fellow Daoist Li carry it in?”

Even if this person didn’t achieve the middle stage, his potential was astonis.h.i.+ng. In case he did attain the middle stage… there would be many advantages without a single disadvantage in them setting up good relations!

Birds of a feather flock together. Fringe cultivators like them were at the very bottom of the barrel. Everyone that they knew were all at the initial stage, and one or two middle-stage cultivators were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Was there even any better opportunity to get into the other’s good graces than witnessing him advance?

These words seemed to remind everyone, and w.a.n.g Chunlai’s eyes s.h.i.+mmered, and he likewise pulled out a jade bottled: “Inside this is pill elixir I prepared for my own use. Its name is the Azureflower Jadewater! Fellow Daoist Xu surely needs this right now!”

“I… I…” Zhang Gongchang was sweating up a storm. This opportunity to them could be said to be certainly considerable, yet in a reversal, he presently hadn’t brought any pill elixir!

Didn’t you guys come to do accounting?! The heck did you bring pill elixir for?!

He really did want to curse. Yet before their voices even fell, all of a sudden, time seemed to be drawn down to a hundredth of a second in the entire bas.e.m.e.nt. While it was quite fleeting, everyone sensed it! Not waiting for them to react, in the next instant, a light echo that seemed to be breaking gla.s.s resonated within the bas.e.m.e.nt! Each present cultivator understood what this was.

The bodily limiter had been shattered! However!

The distance apart of just as Xu Yangyi bellowed “break” was merely a few breaths! At this moment, Li Mu’s and w.a.n.g Chunlai’s raised hands appeared to be terribly amusing. 

“This… This is…” w.a.n.g Chun Lai fell back several steps, the jade bottle grasped in his hand somewhat unsteady: “One blow… One blow to shatter the limit…”

Li Mu looked vacantly at the closer door. If a cultivator’s apt.i.tude was to be discerned, besides from specialized tests, the time of advancement was the best occasion for examination. The size of the sea of spiritual light, this was the most important basis. A cultivator’s storage of the body wasn’t just dependent on the qi sea. While the qi sea was a major factor, the flesh and bones were similarly capable of storing qi. Else not, at Foundation Establishment and Core Formation, how could those terrifying divine abilities be resisted? Would death not come just from the sweeping of the corner hem of a jacket?

Only during advancement would the natural world sense how much qi a person was capable of storing and reciprocate this amount. Above ten meters, and every major clan would show consideration with great effort and attentive nurturing. Twenty meters was a true genius plucked out from among ten thousand. Thirty meters was the category of a provincial paragon of Heavens Law! Forty meters… Renown on the entire nation’s ranking!

As for fifty meters...

His back grew cold, it was simply unheard of! Moreover, there was the limit-breaking time.

The more formidable a cultivator, the faster the limit-breaking time. There were also some cultivators that didn’t rely on external forces to break the limiter. He once heard that the bodily limiter was an invisible membrane. He had asked a few times, and a middle-stage cultivator that had answered him only rolled their eyes: what’re you asking so much for? When the time comes, you’ll know.

Yet this wait was ten-somewhat years. Even though he hadn’t experienced it, he knew that Xu Yangyi’s limit-breaking speed… was astonis.h.i.+ngly fast! The limit break still overhead, it answered a following command and was cleaved through!

In this s.p.a.ce, they could only say nothing but a few words! A time of several seconds!

“Fiend…” Zhang Gongchang collapsed onto a chair with a thud. All in all, so long as he thought of this undisguised gap, it would cause his confidence to suffer an enormous blow. 

“Swish, swish, swish…” In the cultivation room, Xu Yangyi had already stood up. He had also heard that noise of moments ago. In that twinkling, he felt that the world seemed to drone, and subsequently, while unseen, he sensed that which appeared to be like gla.s.s breaking and transforming into motes of qi, scattering in the breeze.

But this qi didn’t fade away at all, rather it was immediately attracted into his frantically absorbing qi sea! It became the remuneration of his advancement! He also felt that world had become even more distinct.

Currently, he even thought he could use his eyes to distinguish the most difficult to differentiate of pixels. At the same time, his body lightened. Originally, when he hadn’t broken this bodily limiter in the past, he didn’t feel any restrictions. Yet now, he felt that his prior existence was fettered! 

His body appeared to float softly like a child of the wind. It seemed that with a stirring of a thought, he could go forth in any direction. However, this fluttering softness wasn’t a weakness. He was able to simultaneously feel a hidden power within his body that far exceeded the one of the past!

If he was up against those three scouts right now, he wouldn’t need a Spirit Traversing Talisman. He could merely rely on his own body’s speed to chase them down! At this instant, all that remained of the revolving sea of spiritual light besides him was the last ten meters. Without delay, it charged towards his body, striving to overtake itself!

He promptly used Innersight, and under a glance, an energetic light flashed within his eyes. His qi sea was possibly… approximately 1.5-times that of an ordinary middle-stage cultivator! It had transformed into a tremendous qi transmission device!

Among his meridians, all blockages had completely dissolved. Externally, this change didn’t appear to be great, yet he knew, the resiliency was many times stronger than the past!

“Alchemy requires the powerful support of qi and keen spiritual sense to act as the bridge. Not enough qi, then the spiritual sense won’t have the acuity to transport it to the place where it ought to go. Not enough spirit stones, then while there will be qi throughout the air, a place to set to task will be incapable of being found…” He sensed the powerful strength within his body and clenched his fist: “The reason why the Eternal Alchemy Canon broadens the qi sea… is only because my qi sea is far from attaining the requirement of refining a pill… As long as the speed of advancement follows, this shouldn’t be a problem at all and will mor

eover be unlikely to compel my qi to make my body explode.”

“At the same time, as the qi sea grows bigger, the contained qi will become greater. The time to persist in battle will be longer, and the meridians clearer. The speed of qi transfer will grow faster, and the arts even swifter… While it still can’t be seen for now, as long as there are more divine abilities, once it reaches four to five kinds…”

He inhaled deeply and continued to use Innersight.

Of his five viscera and six bowels, bones, and each of his muscles, their external appearances seemed to be the same as the past. However, beneath Innersight, he could see a layer of misty-white light within. This was qi reinforcing and transforming the manifestation of his body.

“Nonetheless…” He mumbled as he looked into his qi sea: “What is this?”

In his qi sea, there was a brownish-yellow object the size of a small stone suspended in the air. It was uncertain to say what this item was, and it was dull without the least bit remarkability. The exterior was like a peach pit and its surface was glossy and smooth. Yet as for this object that emerged within his qi sea, apart from a golden core and qi, what else could it possibly be?

“Could it be… this is a product of cultivating the Eternal Alchemy Canon?”

He was unable to make heads or tails of it. Only he cultivated this arcane effort and was the sole inheritor. Since this was his choice, he had to confront it. 

Meanwhile, the proprietor of the kiosk looked on in astonishment at the region of fluctuating qi as the qi naturally became weaker. However, it didn’t disperse, but was rather absorbed.

“S-success?” He looked on at that place, somewhat reluctant to believe, a cottage no higher than two stories tall. There was actually a middle-stage cultivator concealed within? Furthermore… one that had surprisingly succeeded?!

A total of half an hour was in accordance to the initial stage of Qi Condensation’s advancement, however, that was the conforming theory of the “shortest” time of an initial-stage Qi Condensation cultivator’s advancement!

“S-such fierce qi vibrations… H-he actually broke the bodily limiter in the fastest time?” As this thought bubbled forth in his mind, his first reaction was disbelief! However, recalling a fact, he discovered that this… was quite possibly true!

“H-h-how can this be!”

“If it truly is such a fiend, how could he possibly come to such a backwater place?!”

“No way! I have to go see it for myself!”

Somewhere else, an old farmer also scurried towards the small house.

“Good G.o.d… The sea of spiritual light that he drew upon is absolutely not minor! Half an hour… Merely half an hour! That’s the fastest theorized advancement time… Could he be a monster?!”

“When did such an amazing cultivator come to this backwater village?!”

“Nuh-uh, I have to go take look! If I don’t go, how can I be at peace!”

Simultaneously, following the heavy droning of the door, the bas.e.m.e.nt finally opened.

“Congratulations on the end of your seclusion, Fellow Daoist! Henceforth upon advancing to the middle stage, may you enjoy eternal happiness as the immortals and your cultivation bound forwards unbridledly!” Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes, still not having the time to carefully perceive his surroundings as he heard four orderly and deferential voices on the outside. 

No one dared to be disrespectful. At the instant the door swung open, the spiritual pressure of the middle-stage of Qi Condensation spilled out like torrenting quicksilver. Even more important… was that his present qi bore a broiling heat!

A broiling heat that was difficult to put into words. It seemed that if he was willing, Xu Yangyi was capable of using this broiling heat to transform all things before him into flying as.h.!.+

What was happening?

Zhang Gongchang and the three others secretly pa.s.sed on to each other a meaningful look of the eyes. In the modern age, the characteristics of arcane efforts and so on were completely a non-secret. The internet had surpa.s.sed the paper crane’s transmission of information, and there were many, many flying swords circulating knowledge. Even though it couldn’t be said that the attributes of familiar arcane efforts had been seen, they were still heard of. Yet at this moment, they were all incapable of seeing through it!

What was the arcane effort that Fellow Daoist Xu cultivated? Via the senses, there was no doubt it was a fire-related arcane effort! However, how could a fire-related arcane effort possibly have such a feeling from the spiritual pressure?

Spiritual pressure, it was a kind of suppressive force. For example, if you were facing a leader, you would feel the other’s aura, merely, spiritual pressure was almost tangible. Nonetheless, were you capable of sensing what kind of person the other was through their aura?

Impossible!

Likewise, spiritual pressure was also simply unable to perceive the attribute of the other’s arcane effort. It was d.a.m.ned to here!

Xu Yangyi’s whole being appeared serene like a lake, completely detached from a fire-related arcane effort. Yet his spiritual pressure oddly carried a kind of roiling heat that could cause the heart to palpitate! He seemed to be a smelting furnace in human form! A blaze made human!

It was too strange… What the heck was this cultivated arcane effort? What was he doing inside? His clothes were still somewhat tattered and his facial hair still long, an appearance of just coming out from seclusion. But at this moment, not a single person dared to look straight at him! The trio dared not open their mouths again.

They understood that it was the other’s circ.u.mstance of just advancing and his cultivation yet to stabilize that caused this leak of spiritual pressure. Such a situation wouldn’t appear at all in cultivators already at the middle stage for a couple years. Their spiritual pressures could be restrained and unleashed at will. In any case, as they recalled there was possibly a silent fierce beast in human form standing besides them, everyone felt their backs grow somewhat cold.

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak, slowly walking instead. The world appeared to be like a newborn’s, seemingly novel. Each advancement wasn’t limited to cultivation, but also an upgrade in spiritual sense. Of course, the needed qi for the next advancement would be greater. Otherwise, the spiritual sense wouldn’t upgrade, and moreover, wouldn’t be able to keenly sensing the worldly qi. If greater amounts couldn’t be a.s.similated faster, then how would Foundation Establishment seniors and Core Formation masters break through?

He knew that in the true seclusion of a Core Formation cultivator, an expanse of qi within a range of a hundred li would tremble in wake with the other’s breathing. It was in no way comparable to his current piddling absorption.

He was silent and suddenly launched a fist towards Li Zongyuan.

“Swis.h.!.+” Li Zongyuan simply didn’t react. This was a genuine blur of the eye; a fist came before him! It was a single millimeter away from the tip of his nose!

“M-M-M-Master…” His voice quavered, and his legs shook. However, before he finished speaking his words, all of his hair blew back because he was subsequently welcome by the gusting of an intense wind! He couldn’t even open his eyes!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three successive crisp echoes rang out in the air. Places that the fist had waved over. Xu Yangyi pulled his hand back, nodding his head in satisfaction. 

“The fist arrives first and the wind follows…” Zhang Gongchang swallowed his saliva. The pa.s.sion, admiration, and envy in his eyes were nearly inconcealable! This was the might of a middle-stage cultivator! That fist of moments ago seemed to be no more than inconsequential posturing, but it was a heavy sword without edge, needless of great skill. In concerns to initial-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, it would be absolutely difficult for them to resist this fist!

For the fist’s wind to be capable of causing the other’s hair to rise back, one could imagine Xu Yangyi’s strength! There was also that banging sound. It couldn’t be anything else… It was the sound of breaking air! The true speed of the fist had cleaved through the air!

T/N: So that’s chapter 80, folks. So what does everyone think so far? Honestly, just from reading ahead, things heat up again in a bit, but this is a slow build up. What does everyone think about the quality I’m putting out? Anything that seems off? I think there are about 200~ consistent readers, so I’m interested to see you leave a review!