Chapter 161: Breakthrough to Sea Transformation

The battle in midair was nearing its end. The old man had been beaten by Qiong Qi into a wreck, his whole body burned and stripped of every piece of clothing. Now he barely had the strength to retaliate.

A sudden palm from Qiong Qi slammed him into the ground, punching a deep crater into the earth. Qiong Qi did not stop, but followed up with a brutal beating.

While beating him, he shouted, "You old thing, daring to delay the Emperor's cultivation! Watch me turn you into a pig's head."

Only after smashing the old man's entire body, shattering his True Essence, did he release his breath and toss the old man straight to Ye Liuyun.

Ye Liuyun then siphoned the old man's bloodline power. The saint's bloodline power was indeed far richer than that of an ordinary person.

Bai Hu clawed out the old man's Primordial Core and tossed it to Shi Yuan.

A human's Primordial Core is not much different from a Monster Beast's Crystal Core; both contain the saint's entire cultivation. Since Bai Hu was about to breakthrough himself, he gave it to Shi Yuan so he could also breakthrough quickly.

Ye Liuyun took the old man's Storage Ring. The old man's corpse was then devoured by Bai Hu and Shi Yuan. Their one‑stop corpse‑collection service was not wasteful at all.

After that, they dared not linger; having secured the Grand Hall, they boarded a Flying Boat and rushed back to the Saint Martial Branch Institute.

Back at the academy, he reported to Steward Yue, briefly stating that the Blood Demon Sect's Great Zhou branch had been completely eradicated by him, and then returned to cultivation.

Only Steward Yue remained standing motionless in the wind.

After returning, Ye Liuyun first re‑refined the Grand Hall, then enlarged it, and handed it to Qiong Qi to rearrange the Formation.

Lei Ming also emerged from the Storage Ring; seeing everyone return safely to the Saint Martial Academy made him overjoyed.

After Qiong Qi restored all the Formations of the Grand Hall, the group entered again to begin cultivation.

That night, Ye Liuyun rebuilt the entire inner wall of his Qi Sea. Once the inner wall was fully reconstructed, the True Essence within his Qi Sea immediately began to change, continuously drawing in surrounding spiritual energy.

Ye Liuyun's Cultivation Room had long been piled with Spirit Stones. At this moment, his body was like a black hole, endlessly devouring the surrounding spiritual energy.

Ye Liuyun had not expected that the final conversion of that small amount of True Essence would require so much spiritual energy.

"It seems I previously underestimated the difficulty of breaking through to the Sea Transformation realm!"

About a quarter of an hour later, the last strand of True Essence in his body fully turned liquid, and the True Essence in his Qi Sea immediately roiled like a sea struck by a storm, its waves surging and battering the surrounding Qi Sea barriers.

"Fortunately I rebuilt the Qi Sea; otherwise I couldn't have withstood such a strong shock!" Ye Liuyun thought inwardly with relief.

The liquid True Essence clashed and thundered within the Qi Sea, and Ye Liuyun's entire aura suddenly surged upward!

Finally he broke through to the Sea Transformation realm!

After his breakthrough, the waves in his Qi Sea slowly subsided. Yet his body continued to incessantly absorb spiritual energy, converting it into liquid True Essence.

Ye Liuyun felt the Qi Sea seemed to have expanded considerably, as if there were more True Essence than it could contain.

Not only had the Qi Sea expanded, his rate of absorbing spiritual energy had more than doubled, and he became even more sensitive to the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.

At the center of the Qi Sea was a vortex‑like cyclone, driving the True Essence to swirl within the Qi Sea.

In the Sea Transformation realm, each advancement for a Martial Cultivator adds another cyclone, accelerating the circulation and invocation of True Essence. This is the criterion defining each level of the Sea Transformation realm.

Now each droplet of liquid True Essence in his Qi Sea is over five times denser than his former gaseous True Essence, and it binds even more tightly with mysterious Qi, thunder and lightning power, and Golden Crow Holy Fire.

He often sees blended attributes, but the tight fusion of true Qi and mysterious Qi is something he has never heard of nor witnessed before. He only knows that the power contained within his True Essence is terrifyingly great, already unlike anyone else's True Essence.

Nevertheless, becoming stronger is a good thing, so he didn't overthink and continued cultivating, solidifying his realm while converting more spiritual energy into True Essence.

He now understands that once he fills his Qi Sea with True Essence, he should breakthrough to the Primordial Core realm.

At the same time, he diverted his attention to absorbing bloodline power; the saint's and his disciple's bloodline power indeed did not disappoint. Ye Liuyun's bloodline power awakened another tenth.

Now his bloodline power is sixty percent awakened, but he finds that this method of enhancement introduces some purity issues in his bloodline.

Thus he prepared to take a Bone‑Cleansing Pill to specifically purge impurities from his bloodline.

But before he could begin, Director Nan Feng came to see him.

Yesterday Steward Yue had told him that Ye Liuyun hadn't yet broken through to the Sea Transformation realm, which had left him somewhat worried.

He came today to Ye Liuyun first to deliver the items he needed, and second to discuss with him the quota for entering Blood Thunder Peak.

Lately he has been under great pressure; many Elders oppose allowing disciples below the Sea Transformation realm to enter Blood Thunder Peak. He is indeed fretting over this.

He didn't expect that upon seeing Ye Liuyun today, he would notice his aura had changed.

"You've broken through to the Sea Transformation realm?" the Director asked in surprise.

"I have not failed my mission. I broke through last night!" Ye Liuyun replied.

"Ha ha, wonderful, now all problems are easily solved! Yesterday Steward Yue told me you hadn't broken through; I was fretting over this!" the Director laughed heartily.

"I apologize for causing you trouble; I am immensely grateful!" Ye Liuyun quickly thanked him. It seemed the Director had been constantly worrying about his affairs these days.

"No problem, doing something for promising juniors like you, even if it's a hassle, makes me happy!" the Director said naturally.

Ye Liuyun could see that the Director truly valued talent. Thus his impression of Director Nan Feng was extremely good.

He silently thought his luck was still quite good. The Ye Clan's founding ancestor and Clan Chief, the Heavenly Luck King, and the Director—everyone he had met treated him well!

"By the way, the items you were looking for, I've had someone fetch them from the Main Institute; the points were directly deducted from your merit points. Keep the items safe, then come with me to Steward Yue to handle the paperwork, and later move to the Inner Gate?" the Director suggested.

"As expected of the Director, you gathered the items so quickly! My Immortal Overlord Body can ascend another layer!" Ye Liuyun thought delightedly.

But thinking of his Grand Hall, he said, "Fine! However, my Grand Hall needs a place. I want to cultivate inside it, and my several pet beasts also need space."

"Hmm. The Qi in this Grand Hall is dense, indeed good. You can move next to my residence; I have space there," the Director said generously.

"Thank you, Director!" Ye Liuyun replied cheerfully, secured the items, and together with the Director left the Grand Hall, packed it up, and rushed to the Comprehensive Affairs Hall.

Upon arriving at the Comprehensive Affairs Hall, Steward Yue was stunned again.

"You kid, you broke through in one night?" Even the usually taciturn Steward Yue couldn't help but ask.

Ye Liuyun modestly said, "Actually I was close to breaking through yesterday; I was just a little short!"

Steward Yue immediately processed the paperwork, issuing him the Token and attire of an Inner Gate disciple. Afterwards, the Director hurriedly escorted Ye Liuyun away.

Soon after, the entire Outer Courtyard was set abuzz.

Because Ye Liuyun's name vanished from the ranking list, his residence was reassigned to the disciple who originally ranked eleventh.

Song Yi and Li Mengxi, upon hearing the news, were happy for him. Yet they also knew that the gap between them and Ye Liuyun was widening!