Chapter 10: A Moonless Night for Killing

Inside the cave dwelling, within a quiet chamber.

Lu Yang sat cross-legged and began to charge through the barrier.

With the elixir entering his stomach, combined with his continuous dual cultivation with Yun Miaoqing over the past half-month, his cultivation base quickly reached a state nearing its limit.

"Boom!"

The next second, as if stepping up a stair, Lu Yang felt a vast surge of true qi roaring within his body, 腾 like rivers and seas, invigorating his spirit immensely.

Second Layer of Qi Condensation!

"Before the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation, there are no bottlenecks; with sufficient resources, one can reach it simply by grinding through time. However, judging by the current situation, I恐怕 do not have that time."

The existence of Immortal Qingchen had stirred a sense of crisis in Lu Yang.

He would not forget that in his previous life, Liu Xin had openly killed his way into his cave dwelling; if Liu Xin could do it, why couldn't Immortal Qingchen?

Even a cave dwelling is not reliable!

"What is truly reliable is one's own cultivation base and strength!"

Thinking of this, Lu Yang simply gritted his teeth, took out all the remaining elixirs, swallowed them whole like gobbling dates without chewing, and then summoned Yun Miaoqing again.

Although doing this was somewhat wasteful, with at least thirty percent of the elixirs' efficacy lost, it allowed him to increase his cultivation base at the fastest possible speed. In Lu Yang's view, as long as he could break through to the Third Layer of Qi Condensation, these elixirs would have served their purpose and not been bought in vain.

Time flew swiftly; in the blink of an eye, three days and three nights passed.

During this period, Lu Yang ate nothing and drank nothing, and had nearly exhausted Yun Miaoqing until she was limp as mud, finally feeling himself break through a thin barrier.

"... uccess!"

Lu Yang looked inward at his body, feeling immense true qi flowing through his strange meridians and hundred vessels like rivers; though it seemed vast, in reality, not a sliver of further progress was possible.

At first glance, it seemed as if his cultivation up to this point was already perfect.

"This is the bottleneck."

One more step upward would be the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation, achieving the leap from early to mid-stage, making him an excellent disciple capable of holding certain positions within the Holy Sect.

Lu Yang did not pause, nor did he dare to relax, and directly took out the Primordial One Qi.

"Continue!"

The Primordial One Qi circulated, and then Lu Yang manipulated his own true qi to swallow it whole, watching as his true qi surged, rushing into his dantian like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea.

As the Primordial One Qi was continuously consumed, Lu Yang soon felt that the bottleneck, which had previously stalled him completely and was as difficult to cross as a mountain range, was gradually weakened; until the Primordial One Qi was utterly exhausted, that invisible bottleneck melted away like ice and snow, collapsing instantly!

In the dim quiet chamber, Lu Yang suddenly opened his eyes.

His gaze was like a torch, bringing light to the empty room.

In the time it took to close and open his eyes, another day and night had passed, yet from this moment on, Lu Yang's strength was already worlds apart from what it had been a few days prior!

"The mid-stage of Qi Condensation is simply not on the same level as the early stage." Lu Yang felt the changes within his body, his face breaking into a joyful expression: "If the true qi of the early stage is a small river, then the mid-stage is a vast ocean! It has increased more than tenfold! Only upon reaching this step can one be considered a true cultivator."

During the early stage of Qi Condensation, true qi was limited, and every spell or divine ability had to be used sparingly.

But after advancing to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation, one basically no longer needed to worry about such things; ordinary spells could be cast casually, and the consumed true qi could be replenished within a few breaths.

"Excellent! Excellent!"

Lu Yang walked out of the quiet chamber, took out a bone flying sword, and with a thought, the flying sword instantly split into ten strands of sword light, enveloping the entire cave dwelling.

Whoosh—!

In an instant, fierce sword light roared; Lu Yang activated the Divine Thunder Sword Control True Art, merging his body with the sword light, feeling an extreme sense of comfort and ease.

"I really must thank Liu Xin!"

"Without this 'Primordial One Qi' that perfectly suits me, I would never have been able to break through; I would have been stuck at the Third Layer of Qi Condensation for years at least!"

"No wonder Liu Xin abandoned the Yin-Yang Great Joy Assignment to cultivate that Primordial Dao Scripture."

"Pity its foundation is unrighteous, using humans as medicine; who knows how much killing and sin Liu Xin caused after obtaining it; everything stemmed from the Primordial Dao Scripture."

"Such an evil art deserves to be used by me!"

A surge of greed suddenly arose in Lu Yang's heart.

"No rush, endure a little longer... talk about it in the next life; there is plenty of time in the days ahead."

Just as Lu Yang was pondering, suddenly, his eyebrows raised, and he looked toward the cave dwelling's main gate, for one of the strands of sword light he had sent out had just been triggered by someone.

"Someone is here?"

A flash of cold light instantly passed through Lu Yang's eyes, accompanied by a hint of relief; fortunately, he had acted decisively, willing to waste resources to break through his cultivation base as quickly as possible.

If not for this, he would currently be in closed-door cultivation, completely unaware of the outside world; wouldn't that have guaranteed his death?

"This must be taken as a warning..."

Thinking of this, Lu Yang quickly concealed the aura of his recent breakthrough, while the killing intent in his heart grew fiercer, like a hunter quietly waiting for prey to arrive.

"Click."

Accompanied by a soft sound, the cave dwelling's main gate was silently pried open; immediately after, three figures slipped in one after another from outside the cave dwelling.

The three wore black clothes and masks, revealing not a shred of their true qi; Lu Yang, hiding in the shadows, clicked his tongue in amazement; if he had not broken through and possessed a higher cultivation base, he恐怕 would not have been able to see through their disguise, mistaking them for three ordinary people; this skill of concealing their breath was truly exquisite.

"..."

The leading figure among the three black-clad individuals made a hand gesture without speaking; the others understood immediately and quickly scattered, preparing to search within the cave dwelling.

"Whoosh!"

The next second, the black-clad figure walking in front felt his vision blur, and then a brilliant strand of sword light, accompanied by a roaring sword hum, arrived before his eyes!

"Not good!"

The black-clad figure's face instantly changed drastically; he had no time to defend and could only roll sideways to try to dodge, but no matter how fast a person is, how can they be faster than a flying sword?

Swish—!

The sword light flashed once, and a pillar of blood shot toward the sky!

"Mid-stage of Qi Condensation!?"

The leading black-clad figure was clearly perceptive; from the power and quality of the sword light, he immediately recognized Lu Yang's cultivation base and cried out in shock on the spot.

At the same time, he cursed wildly in his heart.

Damn that Qingchen!

Is this fucking a newly entered disciple? A soft persimmon easy to squeeze?

And this Lu Yang, clearly at the mid-stage of Qi Condensation, could have easily crushed the three of us who are only at the early stage with a frontal assault, yet he actually came to deceive and ambush us?

What a dog!

Seeing the sword light coming, the black-clad figure formed a hand seal to release a strand of mysterious light to protect himself while hastily shouting loudly: "Misunderstanding! This is all a misunderstanding..."

"Boom!"

Lu Yang turned a deaf ear; the sword light slashed horizontally, instantly splitting the black-clad figure's protective mysterious light to the brink of shattering, while simultaneously, a mass of true qi roared outward from the darkness like towering waves, finally transforming into a huge hand several zhang in size with clear palm lines, directly grabbing another black-clad figure.

Squelch!

The next second, the huge hand exerted force violently, directly crushing the second black-clad figure until he exploded, tendons severed and bones broken, splattering red and white everywhere.

Such a brutal scene made the leading black-clad figure's eyes bulge as if they were about to split open.

On the other side, Lu Yang wore a satisfied expression.

"This Primordial One Qi Great Hand Seal is indeed not bad; although it doesn't show much power against opponents of the same realm, it hits the mark every time when used against those of lower realms."

While pondering, the sword light did not stop.

只见 more than ten strands of sword light roared within the cave dwelling, while the bone flying sword teleported and weaved through them, giving the leading black-clad figure no chance to catch his breath.

After a few breaths, the leading black-clad figure was already exhausted; Lu Yang seized an opening, controlled his sword and slashed, immediately causing another pillar of blood to shoot toward the sky.

"Phew! That was truly dangerous..."

Only after doing all this did Lu Yang finally breathe a sigh of relief; looking at the corpses and minced meat covering the ground, he recalled the battle just now and even felt a lingering fear.

Strictly speaking, this was his first time killing someone.

Although he had practiced that smooth combo of hiding in the shadows and ambushing countless times in private, it was ultimately the first time he had used it in actual combat.

"To be fair, my combat experience is far inferior to these three individuals; within the same realm, let alone three, I might not even be able to defeat one; however, as long as I manage to ambush them and seize the initiative to force them into a contest of strength, I can still easily suppress them凭借 my higher cultivation base."

"This is why fighting with magic power is inferior to fighting with divine abilities, and fighting with divine abilities is inferior to fighting with cultivation attainment..."

While reviewing and summarizing the precious experience from this challenge against a higher tier, Lu Yang also considered areas for optimization, believing it would surely be applicable in his next life.

(End of Chapter)