Chapter 139 - Consecutive Breakthroughs

Yaan’s expression was calm and cold as he stared ahead.

With the mysterious sword in hand, he directly decapitated an Origin Soul realm Qi master.

CHI!

Ignoring the head as it rolled to the floor, withering away into a wrinkled mess alongside the felled body, Yaan stared at the sword for some time once again. This time though, he ended up looking away, realising that no matter how hard he searched, he was completely unable to see through the mysteries of this treasure.

But this fact only further consolidated his guess that this sword was an immortal treasure!

Regardless, right now, the important matter was his cultivation.

Yaan did not immediately slay another Qi master, but silently observed the changing state of his body and internal Qi system. He did not intend to use this slaughter aura to ascend right away, but rather, he wanted to observe the refinement of the slaughter aura for himself, so that he could better understand how he should go about managing his cultivation this time.

After a minute passed by, Yaan’s dantian felt so full that he wondered if it might burst. However, as time continued to pass, the refined Slaughter Qi seemed to mysteriously dissipate…

The excess Slaughter Qi was released from his body as an invisible energy, rapidly transforming and returning to the form of spiritual energy in the atmosphere.

Qi could accumulate within the dantian beyond the realm limit to a certain extent, but this was not a stable state, this condition could not be maintained for long. If the gathered Qi was not used to breakthrough to the next realm, and if it did not destroy the dantian by overexerting the dantian’s ability to endure, then the Qi would simply dissipate into the atmosphere.

Actually, now that Yaan’s Qi refining cultivation had reached the Qi Palace realm, it was practically equivalent to his vital energy cultivation. For this reason, the Slaughter Qi dissipated with greater ease, there was little to no chance of damaging his dantian now, aside from during an attempted breakthrough.

Back when Yaan was a child and cultivated his vital energy and Yuan Qi side by side, he had never worried about refining ‘too much Qi’. The main reason for this was because back then, he only killed living beings closer to his own level of cultivation. It was also thanks to his two cultivation paths being equal. Of course, at the time, Yaan had not realised any of this at all.

As the last remnants of the excess Slaughter Qi dissipated away, Yaan exhaled and opened his eyes, staring at the many remaining Origin Soul realm Qi masters with a hungry gaze.

He understood something just now; the breakthroughs between the layers within the Qi Palace realm were nowhere near as difficult to overcome compared to the breakthroughs between complete realms!

Any Qi master could break through from the 1st to 2nd layers, the only question was whether they had enough time to comprehend this gap before their lifespan expired. However, not every Qi master could ascend to the Spirit Core realm, some might fail even after cultivating diligently for a hundred years!

Yaan understood that the higher layers were more difficult to attain, but this didn’t worry him.

So what if his talent in Qi refining was lacking? So what if he could not comprehend the boundary? In the first place, he was not relying on talent or comprehension right now, he was cultivating like a true demon!

CHI! CHI! CHI!

Without further hesitation, Yaan cut down three more Qi masters. Their hatred in death steeped into the slaughter aura. Yaan could feel their un-resigned emotions storming into his body and mind as the slaughter aura enveloped him like a black cloud.

Whoosh!

He immediately exerted his control over the slaughter aura, using his Slaughter Qi to drag the bloodthirsty aura into his dantian, instantly refining it.

Yaan felt a jolt of excitement as he realised that now that his Qi cultivation and his vital cultivation matched one another, in that they were both at Rank 3, his efficiency in refining the slaughter aura had become staggering!

He was still lacking compared to an Origin Soul realm Qi master, so it would stand to reason that the efficiency of the conversion might remain low….but this was not the case!

Perhaps it was thanks to his Slaughter Qi, which Yaan maintained a forceful control over using his psyche power, but he was able to refine this monstrous mass of slaughter aura with no less efficiency compared to his days back in the Heavenly Path Sect.

In fact, the efficiency now was perhaps even greater compared to back then!

This was beyond Yaan’s expectations, perhaps because he underestimated just how poor his efficiency had been earlier on, prior to his development of Slaughter Qi. Now that his efficiency was back to normal or even beyond normal, his dantian was flooded with a tremendous surge of Slaughter Qi, instantly expanding the aperture under the build up of pressure…

Bang!

2nd Layer Qi Palace realm!

Before Yaan could even properly process this rapid breakthrough, he immediately focussed on condensing the 2nd layer of the Qi Palace. Compared to forming the 1st layer of the Qi Palace which acted as the palace’s foundation, forming the 2nd layer was actually much easier.

Though, this ease was in part thanks to the surging Slaughter Qi within the dantian’s atmosphere! This was also why Yaan lacked the luxury to stop and assess his breakthrough; he could feel that his dantian was still filled to the brim and beginning to shake unstably, symbolising that he had already reached the peak of the 2nd layer!

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have killed three this time-’

Bang!

Yaan only had time for this brief thought, before yet another shockwave erupted out from his body!

A 3rd layer began condensing atop the Qi Palace before the 2nd layer had even set!

3rd Layer Qi Palace realm!

If any normal Qi master were to see this, their jaw would likely drop slack to the floor. This sort of progression betrayed all common sense in Qi refining! It was well known that the foundation needed to be solidified and comprehended before someone could continue cultivating, no matter breaking through to the next realm!

Yaan’s expression paled slightly as he felt that the Slaughter Qi within his dantian was still extremely thick. Realising that this situation was not good, he urged his psyche power to gather into a powerful psyche avatar, then used this avatar to exert a strong control over the tumulus Slaughter Qi within his dantian.

Under this fine control, the Slaughter Qi was forcefully subdued. The innate nature of this Qi was that of chaotic bloodlust, it did not take this forceful control lying down. Regardless, Yaan’s psyche power maintained its control, ignoring the rapid depletion of psyche power from the sea of consciousness in order to achieve this.

Like this, Yaan forcefully condensed more and more Slaughter Qi into the 2nd and 3rd layers of the Qi Palace. He made sure that most went into the 2nd layer at first, creating a firm enough foundation for the 3rd layer to sit upon.

After a few minutes, Yaan heaved out a sigh of relief. The formation of the Qi Palace was not yet complete, but at this point, it had at least settled down and was no longer as pressing as before.

He calmly continued to refine and better the Qi Palace, until a three layer tall pitch black palace could be seen sitting imposingly within the centre of the dantian.

With an increased strength of the Qi Palace, the Qi ocean below was also thicker and darker, as was the gaseous Slaughter Qi forming the Qi cycle throughout the rest of the dantian.

Yaan observed the situation within his dantian and throughout his body and Qi system. After a while, he blinked in wonder.

“This…might be easier than I expected!”

At this point, the Immortal Ancestor spoke up.

“Slaughter Qi is indeed extremely compatible with the Fiend Transformation. This variant Qi is akin to the very manifestation of demonic race nature; surpassing talent with ferocity and risk. The efficiency is high, whilst this sort of Qi is very suitable to forcing breakthroughs.”

Yaan glanced across at the white haired immortal, but he didn’t say anything. Every now and then, this man would speak unprompted, informing Yaan of certain things for seemingly no reason. Other times, when Yaan was struggling and sought him out for advice, he refused to explain even the slightest thing. Yaan had grown accustomed to this strange attitude, but it still made him wonder.

‘Is this a unique personality trait, or does he have some objective in helping me at times and ignoring me at others…?’

In the end, he shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He had long since realised that trying to see through the thoughts of an immortal was an impossible task.

No matter how intelligent and perceptive a Foundation Step cultivator might be, what did that matter when an immortal was able to effortlessly deceive their senses? When Yaan looked at the Immortal Ancestor, he could only see what this immortal wanted him to see. In this situation, trying to read his expression, his body language or his tone of voice was not possible. Beyond that, immortals were all old monsters with at least many hundreds if not thousands of years of experience. No immortal could be looked down upon, Yaan knew that he was not this person’s match when it came to intelligence, despite his psyche cultivation.

Returning his focus to his own cultivation, Yaan’s eyes shone with an expectant light.

He had experienced the cultivation process which would led him upwards through the layers of the Qi Palace realm. Now, he knew what needed to be done, there was no longer any need to carefully examine every minor change.

The end was almost in sight…