Chapter 24: Breakthrough!

Qin Ming sat cross-legged on a straw mat inside his room.

In his hand, he held a bowl of blood locust rice.

Each grain of spiritual rice glowed with a crimson haze, like insects, casting his face in a deep red glow.

Qin Ming grinned, a wave of satisfaction rising in his heart.

Merely smelling it, he felt a thick surge of blood qi rushing toward him.

Consuming blood locust rice demands high blood qi strength from a cultivator; it cannot be eaten in excess.

With Qin Ming’s current blood qi strength,

this bowl of blood locust rice should be barely tolerable.

He scooped a spoonful and put it into his mouth.

BOOM! A torrent of blood qi surged straight into his crown! Even though Qin Ming had prepared himself, he nearly couldn’t bear it—he quickly began circulating his blood qi according to the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra, refining his marrow and replacing his blood.

In an instant,

thick clouds of blood mist rose around Qin Ming’s body.

His insides burned with unbearable itchiness, as if countless insects writhed beneath his skin.

He felt every drop of his blood boiling and churning.

Through repeated compression and refinement of his blood qi, Qin Ming’s blood qi gradually began to thicken into a paste.

Qin Ming finished eating all the remaining blood locust rice.

Instantly, his entire blood qi condensed to a peak.

BOOM! Qin Ming opened his eyes, and the scabbed layers formed during blood replacement peeled off his skin in flakes.

The Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra, Level Four—broken! “Finally,” Qin Ming felt the powerful blood qi surging within him, his heart exhilarated.

“Reaching Level Four is equivalent to mid-stage Body Refinement.”

In just one year, Qin Ming had changed so drastically, even he found it hard to believe.

“Level Four isn’t enough—I must push to Level Five as soon as possible!” Qin Ming clenched his fists, thinking to himself.

In the days that followed,

Qin Ming tended his spirit fields and relentlessly cultivated the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra.

He lived in seclusion, and with the boost from blood locust rice, his Body Refinement progressed at lightning speed.

As he labored in cultivation, time slipped away swiftly.

Another half-year passed.

Inside the room,

Qin Ming’s eyes were tightly shut.

After days of repeated marrow-refining and blood-replacement, his blood qi had grown ever more compressed and refined.

Now, his blood qi had reached an unprecedented height.

Only one final barrier remained before he could break through to Level Five.

Without hesitation, Qin Ming consumed the “Abundant Blood Qi” stored in his spiritual sea.

Instantly,

his vision went black, as if a vast, surging ocean had poured down from above.

The pressure nearly crushed his breath away.

The blood qi boost from this “Abundant Blood Qi” was nearly as potent as that of blood locust rice.

WHOOSH—WHOOSH—WHOOSH—suddenly,

the sound of flowing blood filled Qin Ming’s ears.

The scene before him shifted abruptly.

His spiritual sense looked inward and saw his body’s interior now a boundless sea of blood.

The blood qi was thick as mercury paste.

Mysterious blood qi surrounded him.

Qin Ming stood within it, utterly insignificant.

Suddenly!

Deep within the blood sea, a colossal tidal wave began to churn upward.

Waves crashed violently, instantly submerging Qin Ming.

BOOM! His mind exploded with sound, his ears ringing with deafening noise.

His blood qi underwent another transformation, relentlessly strengthening his flesh, tendons, bones, and constitution. A lustrous, glass-like radiance

gradually appeared around Qin Ming, like a robe covering every inch of his skin.

This was the “Glass Robe” Qin Ming had formed by condensing his immense blood qi into mercury-like consistency! The moment the Glass Robe solidified, he had finally entered Level Five of the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra!

Body Refinement had undergone a complete metamorphosis.

Qin Ming’s current strength far surpassed that of ordinary Body Refinement cultivators of his level.

He pulled out his Azure Spirit Sword and slashed hard at his own skin.

A faint white mark appeared on his skin, then vanished instantly.

“It seems ordinary magic weapons can’t harm me anymore!” Qin Ming rejoiced inwardly, a strange sense of security arising.

More importantly, the “Glass Robe” possessed spell-resistance properties.

“Level Five is this powerful! The Sutra’s claims were all true!”

“I’ve completed the first five levels of the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra—I must get the remaining four levels from Brother Ruan as soon as possible.”

Feeling his power surge, Qin Ming began eagerly anticipating the later sections of the Sutra.

His rapid breakthrough was largely due to the immense blood qi boost from blood locust rice.

Otherwise, given the spiritual materials required by the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra, he might have taken years to reach this stage.

Qin Ming felt utterly elated.

After washing up,

all his blood qi retreated inward, hidden away.

His skin still looked like that of a spirit farmer—slightly wheat-toned.

Yet his overall spirit, energy, and bearing were utterly transformed: his aura was subdued, yet his eyes gleamed with vitality.

“Now, I’ve finally gained some real self-defense in this chaotic cultivation world.”

“Is this my first real trump card since arriving in the cultivation realm?”

“Sigh… it’s been so hard.”

The tension from recent bandit raids had greatly eased for Qin Ming.

His tightly wound nerves finally relaxed.

Only two months remained.

The one mu of Beast Tooth Rice in Qin Ming’s spirit field was about to ripen.

When it did, he could exchange it for the remaining sections of the Hundred Treasures Glass Sutra.

And he would be promoted to a Rank One Low-grade Spirit Planter.

From then on, he would enjoy a fifty-percent reduction in the Spirit Feather Sect’s spirit rice tax.

His status among spirit farmers would rise dramatically.

He would also gain a substantial increase in spirit rice income.

However, promotion to Rank One Spirit Planter required passing an internal knowledge examination on spirit planting.

As for successfully cultivating Rank One spirit plants, he had already grown Beast Tooth Rice and Yin Condensation Flowers.

Both had been recorded and reported by the Spirit Feather Sect’s registrar.

The only thing left was the spirit planting knowledge exam.

Qin Ming still intended to strive for Rank One Spirit Planter.

After all, with this title, he would gain numerous conveniences in his future cultivation life.

After his Body Refinement breakthrough, Qin Ming had no further cultivation methods.

He could only wait patiently for two more months until the Beast Tooth Rice ripened.

During this time,

Qin Ming frantically studied spirit planting knowledge in preparation for the exam.

In addition, he was learning alchemy.

He had bought a small alchemy furnace from Shopkeeper Liao and attempted to refine several batches of basic pills.

All ended in failure.

“It seems reading books alone won’t work without a teacher,” Qin Ming sighed helplessly, staring at the blackened herbs in the furnace.

Alchemy truly depends on talent—his aptitude here was mediocre at best.

I’ll have to wait until later, grow large quantities of spirit herbs, and accumulate experience through trial and error—hopefully, when the Yin Condensation Flowers ripen, Master Su will give me some guidance.

(End of Chapter)