Chapter 21: First Breakthrough

Miao Chun Hall

Wang Yu stood before a herbal shop, gazing at the sign hanging above the door, murmuring softly.

He had deliberately chosen this shop from among the dozen or so herbal stores in Huangshi City, because larger shops might be tied to the city lord’s mansion, while smaller ones might not carry what he needed.

This shop’s facade wasn’t large, but customers came and went steadily, indicating its stock of herbs was certainly substantial.

Wang Yu, cloaked in a hooded cloak, entered the shop.

Not long after, he emerged carrying several bundles of herbs, then headed straight for the next herbal store…

Several hours later, Wang Yu had visited three shops in total, spending a small gold ingot, and not only gathered all the ingredients for the Blood-Refining Decoction, but even acquired a full portion of the “Bone-Rotting Water” materials.

With a month still left before the Baizhen Pavilion’s magic vessel arrived, he naturally wouldn’t remain in the inn—and for safety’s sake, he didn’t even intend to stay within Huangshi City, but planned to find a secure spot outside the city to train properly.

Now, he still had one final task to complete.

Thinking thus, Wang Yu slung a large bundle over his back and headed toward another street in Huangshi City.

…

Iron Essence

In a blacksmith’s workshop somewhere in Huangshi City, a muscular, sun-darkened man stared wide-eyed at a small, blackened fragment in his palm, his face filled with astonishment.

“Do you know what this thing is called, Iron Essence?” Wang Yu, his voice altered, asked in a low tone, his hood drawn low.

“Of course! How could a blacksmith not know such a material? Ordinary iron, after ten hammerings, becomes ten-fold iron; after a hundred, it’s called hundred-fold iron. Only after a thousand hammerings—and then refined by a cultivator’s earth-fire—does it become Iron Essence. Even the most basic thousand-fold iron takes a skilled blacksmith over a year to forge. But if you add even a fingernail-sized piece of Iron Essence to a regular blade or sword, it can slice through iron like mud. Sir, how much Iron Essence do you have? I’ll buy all of it, and the price will satisfy you!” The dark-skinned blacksmith gazed at Wang Yu with eager eyes.

“I happened upon this single piece by chance. I intend to forge a longsword with it. How much do you charge?” Wang Yu replied coolly. He wasn’t surprised the blacksmith knew of cultivators, but he realized he’d underestimated the true value of Iron Essence.

This small fragment of Iron Essence had been a shard that flew off the small iron shield’s surface when pierced by the white sword light—he’d picked it up afterward.

After the Baizhen Pavilion had bought the Iron Essence box at a “high price,” he’d realized its worth and come to test the blacksmith’s knowledge.

“No more pieces? What a pity. For a longsword, this much would be sufficient, but this material is hard to melt, requires at least hundred-fold iron as a base, and demands three days and nights of nonstop hammering. So the fee is a hundred taels of silver—and half must be paid upfront.” The blacksmith sighed regretfully, then promptly quoted his price.

“No problem. Is this enough for the deposit? I’ll return in three days to collect the sword.” Wang Yu agreed at once, reached into his robe, fumbled for a moment, then pulled out half a small gold ingot and handed it over.

In the past couple of days, he’d learned the exchange rate in Huangshi City: one tael of gold could be traded for twelve or thirteen taels of silver.

“More than enough, sir. Come back in three days to collect your weapon.” The blacksmith took the gold, glanced at its surface, and noticed clear finger impressions—as if torn directly from a larger ingot. His heart tightened, and he bowed respectfully.

Wang Yu nodded and turned to leave the blacksmith’s shop, heading back to the inn.

But no sooner had he left the shop than a commotion erupted ahead on the street. Crowds surged toward a butcher’s stall, pressing together, murmuring excitedly.

“So huge!”

“I’ve never seen such a complete demon beast carcass!”

“Move aside, let me see!”

…

Demon beast!

Wang Yu froze, then hurried over and pushed into the crowd.

Before the large entrance of a butcher’s shop lay a filthy, tattered cloth, upon which rested the stiff corpse of a monstrous beast—resembling a giant rat, scaled up by more than ten times. Its belly was a bloody mess, but atop its head sprouted two yellow horns, each a foot long. Its four massive paws were as sharp as scythes, and its mouth held several elongated fangs.

This was a demon beast? Even dead, its grotesque appearance sent a chill through Wang Yu.

Could ordinary hunters really kill such things?

“I heard this isn’t an ordinary demon beast—it’s a true tiered demon beast! Impervious to blades and swords, capable of vanishing underground. They say a whole squad of hunters died trying to capture it, and only the city lord’s cultivator master finally slew it.” Someone in the crowd, seemingly well-informed, boasted to the others.

“A tiered demon beast! No wonder it looks so strange—different from ordinary ones. I wonder if it has a demon core inside? That’s priceless!”

“What are you thinking? Can’t you see the huge hole ripped open in its belly? If it had a demon core, the cultivator master would’ve taken it already.”

“Hmph, Li Family Butcher’s Shop scoring a tiered demon beast carcass? That’s a fortune.”

The crowd buzzed with chatter.

Hearing the words “city lord’s cultivator master,” Wang Yu’s pupils contracted slightly. He decided he wouldn’t leave the inn again until he retrieved his custom Iron Essence longsword—and then he’d leave Huangshi City immediately.

At that moment, four people emerged from the butcher’s shop. Two burly apprentices pushed through the crowd, lifting the demon beast’s corpse inside.

The other two were a large and a small fat man. The larger one, around forty, had layers of chin fat that jiggled with every step, yet beamed cheerfully as he bowed to the crowd, uttered a few polite words, then pulled along the smaller, gloomy fat man back into the shop.

The butcher’s door slammed shut with a clang.

Among the crowd, Wang Yu’s heart leapt when he saw the smaller fat man—it was none other than Dong Yue!

When they’d fled separately from the back of Baiyun Temple, he’d worried the boy might have perished—but now it seemed his fears were unfounded.

Dong Yue hadn’t just survived—he’d returned to his home in Huangshi City. His bold appearance now suggested his family had real influence, enough to protect a mere mortal acolyte from Baiyun Temple.

He wouldn’t seek Dong Yue out to reveal himself. After one last long look at the butcher’s door, he slipped away quietly with the crowd.

Three days later, Wang Yu rode a donkey-drawn cart, blending into the outbound queue, leaving Huangshi City behind.

He traveled westward, soon reaching a pile of scattered rocks twenty li from Huangshi City, where he found several abandoned stone huts and settled in.

Half a day later, he built a simple stove inside one of the stone huts and placed a small iron pot atop it.

Following the “Blood-Refining Decoction” recipe from Chongyun Daoist’s notes, he poured half a pot of water, then added measured packets of prepared herbal powder, piled in large quantities of firewood, and began slow-boiling.

Soon, the familiar herbal aroma rose from the pot.

Wang Yu, who had been slightly anxious, exhaled in relief. He poured a small amount into a bowl he’d prepared, tasted it, and finally relaxed.

The Blood-Refining Decoction he’d brewed himself was nearly identical to the one Chongyun Daoist had given him—its preparation was surprisingly simple.

In the days that followed, Wang Yu trained Yin Water Technique daily with spiritual stones as aid. When his spiritual sense was exhausted, he switched to practicing the Four Forms of the Wolf’s Charge. Every few days, he used yin spiritual energy to train and took a dose of the Blood-Refining Decoction to refine the “Drawblade Technique” and “Rending Wind Sword Art.”

With spiritual stones aiding him, Wang Yu’s Yin Water Technique advanced at an astonishing pace. After more than twenty days, when the last spiritual stone’s energy was depleted, he faintly sensed a bottleneck at the first layer—the cultivation speed slowed abruptly.

He’d heard Chongyun Daoist mention this before: a bottleneck was a barrier that formed when the breathing technique reached a certain point, where internal qi could no longer transform smoothly. To break through, one needed special methods to force it. If succeeded, cultivation surged forward, and progress resumed until the next bottleneck.

Almost all breathing techniques divided their levels by these bottlenecks. Yin Water Technique had twelve layers—meaning Wang Yu would have to break through twelve bottlenecks to complete it.

Chongyun Daoist had said the first six layers were easy to break through: anyone not utterly foolish, with sufficient resources, could eventually break through by simply refining their internal qi. But the last six layers depended entirely on talent. The gifted could surge ahead effortlessly; the untalented might spend years, even decades, stuck on a single layer.

So Wang Yu didn’t rush. He continued daily training, slowly refining the tiny amount of qi within him.

Several days later, on a morning, Wang Yu sat cross-legged on a stone bed, cultivating with the small vial of yin spiritual energy before him, when suddenly his body trembled slightly. A soft “hum” echoed as a faint blue wave rippled outward from his body, vanishing a foot away.

Breakthrough!

Though he’d never experienced this before, Wang Yu instantly understood. His heart surged with joy. As his mind shifted, the first-layer Yin Water Technique flowed seamlessly into the second-layer meridian pathway—no obstruction, no pause.

At the same time, he felt the spiritual seed in his dantian continuously exuding cool threads of energy, transforming into qi that merged into his body.

After a cup of tea, the spiritual seed returned to normal—but now his internal qi had more than doubled.

This was the Second Layer of Qi Condensation!

Breaking a bottleneck could increase qi so dramatically. No wonder Chongyun Daoist said only after reaching the second layer of Yin Water Technique could one learn those illusion techniques.

Wang Yu felt the “robust” qi within him, carefully checked his body for any abnormalities, and found none. When he resumed the second-layer Yin Water Technique, he clearly sensed he was absorbing external spiritual energy faster—and his spiritual sense had strengthened slightly.

Spiritual sense was mental power.

If true, then every time he broke through, his cultivation time would lengthen, and so would the duration he could maintain the overdrive synchronization mode.

After all, both depended on mental power.

Overjoyed, Wang Yu recalled how Chongyun Daoist had once raised his hand and summoned a blinding wave of icy mist. He immediately channeled the second-layer Yin Water Technique incantation, pouring qi into his palm, then slapped it forward into empty air.