Chapter Twenty-Eight: Advancing Three Ranks at Once
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Once she sensed it, she finally understood. This force responded to softness, not force. If she opposed it, she only provoked its rebellious nature; if she went along with it, it behaved like an obedient child.
Even so, she still did not entirely trust the force, and kept a close watch on it. She also noticed that its true target was her dantian, which naturally made her even more vigilant.
If her dantian were destroyed, her path of cultivation would be severed. If she did not want that to happen, she had to protect it carefully.
With that thought, she immediately mobilized her spiritual energy to guard her dantian. If the force truly showed any intention of damaging it, she would fight it to the bitter end. Neither of them would come away unscathed.
Thus, she remained on guard as the force indeed flowed into her dantian. Yet instead of attacking, it wrapped itself around the spiritual root within.
Because her current cultivation was not high enough for her to see inside her body, she could not observe the situation directly. She could, however, feel her spiritual root being enveloped by a warm force. The root began to heat up, but she felt no discomfort.
As time passed, the spiritual root grew hotter and hotter, and pain began to accompany the heat. At first it was faint and almost negligible, but gradually it became increasingly distinct.
The pain that had briefly eased returned once more. It was not only her spiritual root—even her dantian seemed to be held up by some force. More power continued pouring in, and if she failed to absorb it, she feared that her body would be blown apart by the spiritual energy.
Although this sensation differed from the pain she had experienced while resisting the force earlier, it was no easier to endure.
Her body felt like a balloon being continuously filled with air. If the process continued, she would surely burst.
She had no idea whether she could absorb all this power, but she had to try. Anything was better than dying from the force tearing her body apart.
Calming her mind and steadying her breathing, she attempted to absorb the power surrounding her spiritual root, focusing her efforts there.
Although her spiritual root was now both hot and painful, and absorbing the energy only intensified her suffering, she did not consider giving up.
She had to persevere and see what happened. Besides, the pain was still within the limits of what she could endure.
She tried using her fire spiritual energy to absorb the force. To her surprise, the progress was excellent. The two forces did not clash; instead, they seemed to strengthen each other.
With the aid of her fire spiritual energy, the absorption proceeded much more quickly, and the pain began to lessen as well. Even so, her condition remained extremely poor.
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At that moment, she lay on the ground, curled tightly into a ball. Fortunately, no magical beasts or other people had appeared nearby. In her present condition, she would not have been able to withstand even a single attack.
While she struggled to absorb the power within her body, Xiao Jinghuai and the others were having no easier time. They were still fighting the pack of wolves, and their bodies were already spattered with blood. Their clothes had been dyed red, and exhaustion showed plainly on every face.
Su Yunyue had the lowest cultivation among them and had suffered the most serious injuries. There were simply too many wolves, and everyone was struggling to protect themselves. Naturally, no one had the spare strength to help her.
“Elder Sister, Your Highness, why hasn’t Elder Hong arrived yet?” Su Yunyue’s eyes were filled with fear and worry. She was even beginning to wonder whether she would die there.
Su Yunqi’s expression was grave. “She should be on her way.”
“Exactly. Focus on the battle and do not let yourself become distracted. We must hold out until Elder Hong comes to save us!” Xiao Jinghuai hurriedly added.
Inwardly, however, he was cursing Hongyi for being far too slow and leaving him to struggle desperately in that place.
The remaining two said nothing. They simply fought with all their concentration, unwilling to risk injury by allowing themselves to be distracted.
As for Hongyi, whom Xiao Jinghuai and the others were anxiously awaiting, she was currently locked in a stalemate with an elder from another group and had no idea what was happening to them.
An hour passed, and Su Yunyue could hold on no longer. Her entire body was covered in wounds, but the injuries to her legs were the worst. She could no longer stand and was forced to sit on the ground. Both her arms had also suffered broken bones beneath the wolves’ savage assault, and the pain was so severe that she could not lift them.
“Elder Sister! Save me!”
Having lost the ability to fight, she saw a ferocious wolf pounce toward her. Panic-stricken, she cried out at the top of her lungs.
Su Yunqi could not spare a hand, but she had noticed what was happening and was extremely anxious.
“Yunyue, have your spirit beast hold it off for a moment!”
Su Yunyue’s eyes immediately brightened. She hurriedly released her spirit beast.
An eagle appeared before her. Su Yunyue pointed at the wolf charging toward her and shouted, “Quick! Kill it!”
Unexpectedly, the eagle merely stood where it was, making no move at all, as though it had treated her words as empty air. Furious, she snapped, “Go! If I die, you’ll be affected too!”
Perhaps her words had taken effect. Upon hearing them, the eagle finally moved. It spread its wings and flew toward the charging wolf.
The eagle and the wolf clashed, and Su Yunyue was temporarily out of danger. Even so, she did not dare lower her guard. Raising the left hand that she could still move, she circulated her spiritual energy and struck at the wolves that were still trying to approach her.
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Seeing that Su Yunyue had escaped danger, Su Yunqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. She then released her own white crane.
They could no longer defeat the pack through their strength alone. At the beginning, they had considered killing the wolf king first, hoping to leave the pack leaderless. But it seemed the wolves had seen through their plan and were guarding the wolf king closely, leaving them no way to approach it.
Their spirit beasts were not yet completely obedient, which was why Su Yunqi had not intended to release hers at first. She had assumed the elders would arrive soon. But an entire hour had passed without any sign of them, so they could not continue like this.
Seeing this, Xiao Jinghuai also released his tiger. The other two hesitated briefly before releasing their own spirit beasts as well.
Although these spirit beasts had not been fully subdued, they were still willing to fight when their lives were threatened.
While the group struggled through the battle, Su Yunqing was having no easy time either. Her spiritual root was being nourished by that mysterious force, and the speed at which she absorbed it continued to increase. Because the absorption had become so fierce, the power surged toward her spiritual root in a frantic rush. There was simply too much of it, packed too tightly together, and even her meridians were scraped and bruised by the pressure, to say nothing of the pain in her dantian as it strained beneath the force.
After enduring the ordeal for an entire hour, the pain finally disappeared. The aura surrounding her began to rise steadily, and then she heard a crisp cracking sound.
“Late Qi Refining stage!”
“Peak Qi Refining stage!”
“Minor Perfection of Qi Refining!”
She advanced three minor realms in succession, yet her aura continued to climb. She immediately suppressed it with her spiritual energy.
Although she had been useless in her previous life, she had read plenty of books and understood that excess was as harmful as deficiency.
The path of cultivation was best followed through steady progress. Advancing too quickly would destabilize one’s foundation and affect all future cultivation. Thus, she carefully suppressed her rising aura until it finally stabilized.
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