Chapter 103

The days of guard duty felt very slow.

But fortunately Yunhe still had quite a few things to do.

Besides daily cultivation, he also needed to refine the wood- and fire-element demon beast essence blood, cultivate spirit bees, and practice spells.

Among the demonic path techniques he initially obtained, there were still some life-preserving secret arts worth cultivating, which might prove surprisingly effective at critical moments.

Fortunately, although time passed slowly, nothing major happened.

However, it did not let Yunhe relax his vigilance.

You should know that other market towns in the Qingyu Domain have, to varying degrees, suffered attacks by demonic cultivators; even though Huaisan Market enjoys the advantage of being near the Tianling Mountain Range, it is not enough to make demonic cultivators hesitate.

Attack, it will come sooner or later.

Therefore, after finishing his guard duty, Yunhe immediately returned to his cave dwelling, set up various auxiliary formations, and released the red-ring gold-spotted bee swarm to stand guard.

Even.

For safety's sake, Yunhe also retrieved the Second Stage formation "Wu Tu Pan Shi Zhen" originally placed on Huanhu Dao and set it up again inside his cave dwelling.

Anyway, the Demon Beast Body has already returned to Huanhu Dao; even without that formation, no bold demon beast would attack, while the Cultivator Body next needs a truly safe environment.

"This should be enough."

He took out the bottle containing the decayed wood jiao essence blood, gazed at the swirling dark green liquid within, and Yunhe exhaled lightly.

Last time when condensing the water-element spirit body, he used only a drop of the demon beast body's essence blood.

But this time, it was the entire essence blood of a decayed wood jiao.

Although after his refinement and purification the amount of essence blood had decreased considerably, it was still more than the demon beast body's essence blood he used last time.

"I don't know if over-refining will cause an imbalance in the five-element spirit body's phantom."

"So if anything seems off, I will immediately stop the refinement."

"To be safe, let's do it drop by drop."

Immediately he drew out a drop of the refined and purified decayed wood jiao essence blood from the bottle.

Yunhe's expression turned solemn.

The mana in his dantian qi sea immediately surged, operating according to the method of the "Great Longevity Grand Five Elements True Scripture."

Subsequently, he formed hand seals, unleashing a series of dense and complex seals.

The mysterious harmonizing force from the unseen caused the essence blood to undergo a wondrous change.

Suddenly, Yunhe's hand movement stalled, and he let out a low shout:

"The five elements mutually generate, Jia wood arises!"

Accompanied by a final harsh, awkward hum.

Hum—

The dark green essence blood suddenly expanded, transforming into a low-growling, roaring wood dragon that hovered and swam in the air for a moment before lunging fiercely toward Yunhe's dantian qi sea.

The next second.

The dragon's roar suddenly emanated from within his qi sea.

Roar—

Along with it, there was also a black small turtle, likewise unwilling to yield, letting out a roar.

If Yunhe were to sink his divine sense at this moment, he would discover that in his current dantian qi sea, the wood dragon and the black turtle hover above the liquid mana, gazing at each other, seemingly still harboring "hostility."

Precisely because of their competition, his dantian qi sea underwent violent turmoil, with large amounts of liquid mana surging uncontrollably.

However, compared to the later wood dragon, which had already become familiar with this place, and given that Yunhe's original mana was entirely of metal and water elements, the black turtle actually still held a slight advantage.

"Mm!"

Yunhe couldn't help but let out a muffled groan, instantly feeling an extremely terrifying and painful tearing sensation in his dantian, as if two forces were about to split his dantian in two.

But he had anticipated this situation; immediately he changed the hand seal, and the circulation of the technique shifted accordingly.

"Water strong, wood floats; water level, wood still; water falls, wood grows. Unite!"

For a moment.

The two forces originally colliding in his dantian began to merge, water-element mana and wood-element mana gradually establishing the trend of water supporting wood and water generating wood.

The stronger the water-element mana became, the more the wood-element mana rose with it, like water raising a boat.

Of course, as Yunhe said, water strong makes wood float; if water is too strong it only makes wood diminutive, so he needed to convert part of his water-element mana into wood-element mana.

But Yunhe did not do so, because he still had plenty of decayed wood jiao essence blood, and while this harmonizing force was still being activated, he refined the remaining decayed wood jiao essence blood one by one.

However, the water-element spirit beast phantom and the wood-element spirit beast phantom in his dantian qi sea were no longer in a head‑to‑head confrontation.

The wood-element spirit beast phantom, the wood dragon, leaned on the water-element spirit beast phantom, the black turtle, appearing relaxed and at ease.

While the black turtle wore an expression of helplessness.

The beneficiary is the wood element; it only gives.

If this situation persists, conflict and disputes will inevitably arise.

Therefore, once one begins to construct the five‑element spirit body, one must quickly condense the remaining elements' spirit bodies, otherwise it will gradually become unstable.

And after the spirit bodies took form, Yunhe felt a stirring from the unseen.

His complexion suddenly turned pale.

His lifespan was being drained!

Moreover, this time the drain was greater than before.

Not only because the decayed wood jiao essence blood was stronger, but also because he used the harmonizing force to refine more essence blood.

True·life‑burning cultivation!

But the benefits are also huge.

He had originally barely managed to cultivate forty‑two drops of liquid mana; now it not only contains metal, water, and wood elemental power, but the amount has outright reached forty‑nine drops!

This mana has been purified again; it's nearly equivalent to three or four years of his bitter cultivation.

But in doing so, he has also lost an additional ten years of his lifespan.

Yunhe opened his eyes, clicked his tongue, and sighed.

This truly is cultivation that burns one's life.

The creator of this technique, though a genius, is surely a madman, unwilling to rest until he drives himself to a dead end.

But I like it.

After condensing the wood- and water-phase spirit bodies, his cultivation speed increased slightly, mainly shifting from originally absorbing metal and water spiritual qi to now absorbing three-phase spiritual qi.

But the increase is not much,

However, when the liquid mana reaches fifty drops, he can attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment Middle Stage!

He is now only a little bit away.

There is also a portion of the essence blood of a Southern Bright Bird.

This is genuine third-grade demon beast essence blood, even more potent than the essence blood of the Rotted Wood Flood Dragon!

But Yunhe did not immediately proceed to refine it.

Instead, he first rested and adjusted for seven days.

Afterward.

Then he began refining the Southern Bright Bird's essence blood.

"Senior Brother Hua, Junior Brother Yun has been in seclusion for over a year and hasn't come out, right?"

On the day of guard duty rotation, Chen Qi, who had come to replace Hua Lin, couldn't help but ask.

Both simultaneously looked toward Yunhe's cave dwelling in the market town; a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the gate.

Since it's guard duty, naturally they can shift the watch.

So Yunhe, whose cultivation had reached a critical moment, simply used a message talisman to trouble these two fellow sect senior brothers.

He informed them that his cultivation had reached a critical juncture, hoping the two senior brothers could stand guard for him for a while.

They were fellow sect Foundation Establishment cultivators; although they weren't particularly close, this request within their ability was naturally impossible for Hua Lin and Chen Qi to refuse.

Otherwise, would they really have to forcefully break through the seclusion and drag Yunhe out?

"Junior Brother, I'm not exactly complaining, but Junior Brother Yun's seclusion like this makes this guard duty"

Chen Qi said on the surface that he wasn't complaining, but his words inevitably carried some emotion.

Hearing this, Hua Lin could only smile helplessly and soothe:

"Junior Brother Chen, I imagine Junior Brother Yun must have reached a crucial point in his cultivation; otherwise he certainly wouldn't have made such a request. We Foundation Establishment cultivators, though our time is precious, this would only take a few extra months at most."

Even if they split the duty, each would only gain an extra two or three months, which wouldn't yield much improvement in cultivation base.

Saying that, he continued:

"Once Junior Brother Yun emerges from seclusion, we'll give him a good 'beating up'—at least to squeeze out some more spirit wine. I've heard Junior Brother Yun brewed several jars of honey wine, made from rare spiritual honey; by then, as your elder brother, I'll help you take an extra jar!"

Chen Qi glanced at Hua Lin, who was like an old good-natured fellow, and could only nod.

With the status of senior brother and a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivation base here, what else could he do?

He could only mutter: "One jar probably isn't enough."

Hua Lin smiled, patted his shoulder, and said: "Good!"

Suddenly.

Both of their expressions simultaneously froze; they looked at each other and saw a hint of surprise and solemnity in each other's eyes.

Immediately, the two simultaneously boarded their boats and flew toward the northwest.

Inside the secluded cultivation cave.

Yunhe slowly opened his eyes; a flash of red, green, and blue three colors flickered in his pupils and vanished.

His palm lightly supported.

In the center of his palm appeared the phantasmal spirit forms of three small beasts: a Xuan Gui, a Mu Long, and a Huo Niao.

Moreover, among these three small beasts, a mutually supportive relationship formed: the Xuan Gui assists the Mu Long, and the Mu Long leads the Huo Niao.

His palm lightly grasped, and the three phantasms dissipated.

Feeling the surging and mighty mana within his body, Yunhe revealed a faint smile.

"Foundation Establishment Middle Stage!"

After refining the essence blood of the Rotted Wood Flood Dragon, his mana obtained considerable growth under the power of reversal; refining the Southern Bright Bird's essence blood further caused his mana to surge once again.

He directly broke through the barrier of fifty drops of liquid mana, reaching as many as fifty-nine drops!

Afterward, he devoted himself to cultivation; while familiarizing himself with his changes, his mana naturally gained another drop, reaching exactly sixty drops.

With such a natural, smooth momentum, Yunhe then attempted to impact the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage barrier once.

Anyway, breaking through Foundation Establishment Middle Stage is unlike initial Foundation Establishment; without the aid of a 'Foundation Establishment Pill,' if the breakthrough fails, it will inflict massive damage on both body and cultivation base.

Originally holding a merely experimental attitude, he never expected to actually accomplish the breakthrough in one go!

He was promoted to a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator!

Speaking frankly, this is something Yunhe himself didn't anticipate; he originally thought he would need multiple attempts to weaken the mid-stage barrier obstacles before achieving success in one go.

"However, the greatest change from Foundation Establishment Early Stage to Middle Stage is simply the amount of mana; ordinary cultivators mostly attempt to breakthrough when liquid mana reaches fifty drops, but my mana reaches sixty drops, and only after cultivating to a state of roundness and satisfaction do I start attempting, making it naturally smoother."

"Although I possess a low-grade spiritual root, having constructed the three-phase spirit bodies allows me to be considered a medium-high grade spiritual root."

"Furthermore, the 'Taishou Da Wuxing Zhen Jue' is a top-tier technique; it inherently makes mana more pure, and speaking solely of mana, it should be able to match some veteran Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivators."

"This breakthrough, while unexpected, is also reasonable."

After all, it's the result of painstaking effort, using 'life-consuming' to shorten the process.

However, afterward, wanting to further advance cultivation by relying on the convenience of condensing spirit bodies will be difficult.

Because the mana gap between mid-Foundation Establishment and late-Foundation Establishment is larger.

Moreover, Yunhe could feel that as the number of condensed spiritual forms increased, the demand for essence blood thereafter also became higher.

This was discovered when refining the essence blood of the Southern Bright Bird.

Otherwise, the benefits brought by the essence blood of a third-rank demon beast would definitely not be merely an increase of ten drops of mana.

It is estimated that thereafter, obtaining essence blood of the same level as that of the Southern Bright Bird would at most increase only three or four drops.

But the consumed lifespan is roughly the same.

"No matter what, in this current situation, a breakthrough in cultivation base is timely rain."

He again turned his divine sense inward.

Within his qi sea dantian, his liquid mana has now reached ninety drops!

It increased by a full thirty drops!

This means that the power of the spells he casts will be greater, and both the power and the number of spiritual artifacts he can drive will also increase.

"Is breaking through to mid-stage just increasing mana by half? No wonder so many cultivators focus more on suppressing their realm; even a peak early-Foundation Establishment cultivator encountering one who has just entered mid-Foundation Establishment will be suppressed in mana."

"How much divine sense is there?"

Yunhe fully unleashed his divine sense.

"Huh?"

His brow suddenly twitched, showing a hint of surprise.

Immediately after, his figure swayed slightly and he disappeared into the cave dwelling.

(End of chapter)