Chapter Forty-Five: Assaulting the Concentration Stage

After Li Xingyu felt he had reached his optimal state, he stopped cultivating. As hunger gnawed at him, he took out the prepared food and water, ate a little, and then retrieved the Jade Ginseng, pondering how best to consume this rare celestial treasure. At present, he possessed no skills in alchemy, so his only option was to take it directly. Of course, ingesting such a precious spiritual herb could not be as simple as boiling ginseng on Earth. The Jade Ginseng itself was actually quite small, with a diameter of only about three centimeters and a main length of less than ten centimeters.

After some consideration, Li Xingyu used his true essence to shield his esophagus, stomach, and mouth, then placed the Jade Ginseng into his mouth. As soon as his true essence touched the Jade Ginseng, it began to melt of its own accord, as befitted a spiritual treasure condensed from pure celestial energy. Once it entered his stomach, it began to release streams of powerful spiritual energy that surged into his meridians.

Though Li Xingyu's meridians had been continually strengthened and his true essence coursed rapidly through them, absorbing the spiritual energy and transforming it into his own true essence as it passed through his dantian, the sheer volume and quantity of spiritual energy quickly exceeded what his meridians could bear. Waves of excruciating pain radiated through his meridians, as if his tendons were being torn apart. If such an onslaught continued without a breakthrough, he might very well perish from his body being overwhelmed by excessive spiritual energy.

The intense pain assaulted his nerves, and Li Xingyu felt his consciousness was on the verge of collapse. Alarmed, he fought desperately to remain conscious, guiding his true essence in accordance with his cultivation method to assault the barrier between the Foundation Establishment and the Spirit Condensation stage. He kept telling himself that he absolutely could not lose consciousness; he could not rely on the improbable luck of someone like the First Emperor of Qin, who had survived such a crisis while unconscious and, upon awakening, had advanced multiple levels. That possibility was far too remote; he could not risk it.

Suddenly, Li Xingyu felt a tremor in his meridians as they expanded to nearly twice their previous size, and a new circuit for the flow of true essence opened within him. Though the pain in his meridians was no less than before, he found his consciousness could now barely withstand it. After countless attempts, he finally broke through and entered the Spirit Condensation stage. Yet he dared not stop, nor did he have time to savor the joy of this achievement, for the influx of spiritual energy continued unabated, and his newly attained realm was still highly unstable—his meridians and true essence alike were unsettled.

As his endurance and mental fortitude increased, Li Xingyu concentrated more on controlling his true essence. Gradually, he became familiar with the new pathways and his control grew stronger until, at last, his true essence stabilized. Yet, the energy cluster formed from the Jade Ginseng within him had only diminished by a third—its power remained vast, and it continued to transform into pure celestial energy, flooding his meridians. Although his meridians had been expanded by the breakthrough and both the strength and purity of his true essence had greatly improved—enhancing his capacity to absorb and convert spiritual energy—by the time the energy cluster had shrunk to half its original size, his body’s limits were reached once more.

Li Xingyu had not anticipated that the Jade Ginseng would contain such a vast reservoir of spiritual energy. His cultivation had just reached the initial stage of Spirit Condensation, yet his body already brimmed with true essence and spiritual energy at the very peak of that stage. It was impossible for him to achieve another breakthrough in such a short span, even within the same realm, and even if it were possible, it would be extremely dangerous due to his unstable foundation. To think he had just overcome a crisis only to face another so soon—he vowed to himself that he would never again use any spiritual herb or pill without first fully understanding its properties.

Had he been able to sense the changes in the ambient spiritual energy outside, he would have noticed that the excess energy within him was already condensing into invisible threads, seeping from his body. These threads drifted briefly in the air before being mysteriously drawn toward a corner of the cave, burrowing into the earth.

In the midst of his crisis, Li Xingyu suddenly wondered if he could encapsulate the remaining half of the energy cluster within his body—perhaps that would halt the release of spiritual energy and resolve his predicament. But how could he enclose something inside his own body, and with what? “No matter—let’s try using true essence. If it doesn’t work and I don’t die, I’ll think of another way,” he decided, for he had no time to deliberate further.

Wary that the energy cluster might rampage through his body at the approach of true essence, he first directed a portion of it into the meridians near the cluster, allocating a full third of his true essence as a precaution. Once this was done, he swiftly manipulated his true essence from all directions to envelop the cluster. To his surprise, it worked perfectly—the energy cluster was smoothly wrapped in true essence, isolated from his body, and ceased to emit spiritual energy. The ease with which the crisis was resolved left Li Xingyu astonished. Was his luck truly so remarkable?

Still, he had no time to ponder the matter further. Having just completed a breakthrough, his highest priority was to stabilize his realm and heal the damage done to his meridians. Though he had successfully expanded his meridians and broken through the bottleneck, the rapid advancement aided by external forces had left his cultivation base highly unstable, and his meridians had suffered considerable injury in the process.

Time passed unnoticed in cultivation. Li Xingyu remained in the cave for a year and a half, his cultivation now solidly at the very peak of the early Spirit Condensation stage. The damage to his meridians, nourished by true essence over more than a year, had fully healed. At last, he was a true Spirit Condensation cultivator—not only with an extended lifespan and increased combat power, but, more importantly, having truly entered the ranks of lower-tier cultivators. Though the Foundation Establishment stage was technically considered the beginning of true cultivation, those at that stage still resembled mere apprentices.

Now, Li Xingyu could begin to wield some of the magical tools used in the cultivation world, such as low-level flying swords, storage rings, and various offensive and defensive implements. When combined with spells, these would significantly elevate his power—provided, of course, that he possessed both the artifacts and the knowledge to use them.

Another major difference was that upon reaching the Spirit Condensation stage, he had developed spiritual sense, a unique faculty among cultivators. Spiritual sense allowed one’s consciousness to extend outward; ordinary people could only perceive their internal state, while perception of the external world relied on the senses—eyes for sight, ears for sound, skin for temperature, and so on. With spiritual sense, all these perceptions could be achieved directly, and it could even control the movement and transformation of objects that had been specially refined, much as one could manipulate things with their hands. Magical implements and even higher-grade treasures belonged to this class of refined artifacts.

The remaining cluster of energy from the breakthrough still lay quietly within him, wrapped in his true essence, causing no further trouble. Later experiments revealed that to safely and stably enclose it, he needed to use half of his current true essence. Yet, compared to the late Foundation Establishment stage, his true essence had increased at least threefold in quantity and greatly in purity, so even using half did not trouble him much.

Based on the intervals when he paused his cultivation to make calculations, Li Xingyu knew that about a year and a half had passed since his arrival in this valley. Including the time spent outside after leaving the Mu clan, it was close to the two-year period he had promised. Thus, Li Xingyu prepared to leave the valley and return to the Mu clan.

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