Chapter 225 – Heaven Piercing Hostility
After only a short time, Yang Kai felt the bottleneck at the peak of Separation and Reunion Boundary Fourth Stage break as his cultivation surged upwards and soon arrived at the Separation and Reunion Fifth Stage before it continued to climb…
This sudden breakthrough caused Yang Kai to panic slightly. Although he desperately wanted to become strong quickly, this raging torrent of energy pouring into his body was beyond the limits of what he could safely accept.
His flesh became taut, and Yang Kai’s whole body began to bloat. His blood vessels swelled to the point where they were visible on his exposed skin, like countless earthworms squirming just beneath the surface, making for an extremely terrible sight.
After a moment, Yang Kai’s skin cracked and split in various places as all his muscles began to tear with blood oozing out. His whole body became a bloody mess.
Under this great pressure, his Proud Golden Body became more active than ever before, ravenously devouring and refining the energy. However, even combined with Yang Kai circulating his True Yang Secret Art to the absolute limit, he still could not fully control the incoming rush of energy.
*Pu Pu Pu…*
From Yang Kai’s body, countless small, muffled huffs accompanied splattering noises as a bloody mist burst forth, immediately followed by countless crimson lights radiating out, which instantly enveloped a half-kilometer radius in an extremely violent World Energy.
Old Demon cried out in horror, anxious like an ant on a hot wok, but he was incapable of doing anything to help, as he did not receive any response from Yang Kai.
Yang Kai desperately endured the overwhelming pain, gritting his teeth tightly as his body trembled violently. At this moment, he could not help feeling a sense of despair and hopelessness. The tremendous pressure on his body made him feel like he was teetering on the edge of death, unable to resist.
With the huge flood of Yuan Energy still pouring into him, Yang Kai could feel his body continue to bloat.
If this continued, eventually, he would lose control and burst from the inside out.
To make matters worse, Yang Kai’s crisis did not just consist of this turbulent influx of energy, but also the unparalleled hostility and Evil Spirit Qi that seemed to accompany this energy.
It was the aura of the two Monstrous Beasts, because they possessed such immense strength even after their deaths. Although the rules of Heaven and Earth here had condensed their Beast Cores and Essence into Blood Beads, it could not destroy their original spirits.
Fortunately, the threat of this Evil Spirit Qi, compared to the impact of raging Yuan Energy, was somewhat less.
Yang Kai only had to steadfastly focus his mind and not let the Monstrous Beasts’ aura affect him, while he thought about a solution to his current predicament.
In fact, the solution was very simple: As long as his body could absorb and refine this energy at the same rate it was flooding into him, everything would eventually be resolved.
However, knowing this method and implementing it were two very different things.
He was already operating his True Yang Secret Art as fast as he could. There was no way for him to circulate it faster.
The only other solution would be to let his True Yang Yuan Qi become purer and denser!
His True Yang Yuan Qi was like fire, while the energy flowing into his body was like a piece of wrought iron. If his flame was stronger, its temperature would naturally be higher, and it would be able to melt the iron faster.
With no time to hesitate, as soon as this idea popped into his head, Yang Kai grit his teeth and burst a drop of Yang Liquid inside his dantian.
One drop of Yang Liquid was equal to the total amount of Yang Qi in his meridians when they were fully saturated!
Once he burst that drop, his already bulging meridians engorged further. Puffing up, they sent a wave of surging pain, as if his body had torn apart, which caused Yang Kai to tremble violently.
Holding his breath, Yang Kai frantically squeezed his meridians, trying to us this burst of True Yang Yuan Qi to refine the violent flood of Yuan Energy. This tested his willpower immensely. Fortunately, his Unyielding Will played a key role in this critical moment, temporarily increasing his realm so that his strength was high enough to withstand the surging energy.
Persevering for what seemed like an eternity; the pressure suddenly began to subside. The drop of Yang Liquid Yang Kai had desperately burst was fusing with the True Yang Yuan Qi already in his meridians, becoming more pure than before. As his Yuan Qi became more pure, even the speed at which he could circulate his Secret Art increased.
With this approach, the energy flowing into his body could be refined faster.
Aware of this, Yang Kai’s spirits rose, and he quickly applied even more pressure to his meridians to increase the rate at which his Yuan Qi was fusing.
As time passed, and the True Yang Yuan Qi in his body became more and more pure, the efficiency of refining the inflowing energy also became higher and higher, soon increasing by more than fifty percent.
In addition, Yang Kai’s bloated body slowly began to return to its original appearance, like someone had poked a small hole in an inflated sac and allowed the air to leak out.
Old Demon finally breathed a sigh of relief and retreated into the Soul Breaker Awl as he continued to pray non-stop; since Yang Kai’s death would mean his death as well, how could he not be worried?
When the fusion speed of the True Yang Yuan Qi in his meridians began to slow, Yang Kai would burst a drop of Yang Liquid and again increase the pressure on his Yuan Qi.
Half a day later, when his True Yang Yuan Qi purified to a certain extent, Yang Kai circulated his True Yang Secret Art. He could almost hear a gentle humming sound from his body. It was the sound of his Yuan Qi flowing unimpeded through his meridians.
Feeling this sensation, Yang Kai knew that the rate at which his True Yang Yuan Qi refined the Yuan Energy from the two Blood Beads was now equal to the rate at which it poured into his body, which gradually allowed him to restore his normal form.
[I’m alive!] Yang Kai could not help but breathe a sigh of relief as he looked around himself and discovered that the two Blood Beads had not changed much. In fact, they appeared to have not changed at all.
[It seems I have severely underestimated the energy contained in these Blood Beads…]
This life and death struggle had sparked some thoughts within Yang Kai and allowed him to gain a new kind of insight in addition to his upgrade in strength.
The most important task of a Separation and Reunion Boundary cultivator was to prepare for the breakthrough to the True Element Boundary. They would constantly increase the purity and richness of their Yuan Qi until it reached a certain limit, at which point it converted into True Qi, and they would successfully step into the True Element Boundary.
Previously, in order to enhance his strength, Yang Kai would simply try to increase the amount of energy stored within himself, but having experienced this life and death trial, he found that this was not the only way to achieve a breakthrough. There were other methods as well.
He found that even if the amount of energy in his body did not increase, it would still be possible to raise his cultivation.
When his Yuan Qi reached a certain level of purity, he would naturally break through! Moreover, with each successive breakthrough, his Yuan Qi would become more and more pure, gradually transforming into True Qi.
However, for an ordinary cultivator without Yang Kai’s unique advantages, namely that his dantian could store a massive quantity of energy, their only option would be to assimilate energy from external sources, then slowly compress and fuse it together with their Yuan Qi in order to cause a purifying effect.
Just half a day ago, Yang Kai was facing a desperate life-threatening situation, but having survived, he inadvertently found a new cultivation method uniquely suited to him. This discovery made it clear what he should do from now on while he remained at the Separation and Reunion Boundary.
Gaining this new enlightenment made Yang Kai’s whole body feel light. It was the wonderful feeling of having a clear path and objective.
Meanwhile, the energy from the two Blood Beads continued to flow into his body without pause, surging forward like a vast majestic river, all of which added to his own personal strength.
The Evil Spirit Qi, along with its accompanying hostility, was also refined, but instead of fusing with Yang Kai, it gradually squeezed out of his meridians and gathered on the surface of his body before being scattered into the wind.
Yang Kai was naturally aware of this unusual situation, but now that he was at a critical juncture in absorbing this inflow of energy, he had no time to worry about such matters.
Nevertheless, this also served to confirm just how tyrannical these two Monstrous Beasts had been. Even after being dead for countless years, even after condensing into Blood Beads, their innate presence remained.
In order to absorb these two Blood Beads completely, Yang Kai expended a full ten days of effort and consumed more than half the Yang Liquid in his dantian before he purified the energy they contained.
What confused Old Demon, however, was that even though Yang Kai had absorbed such a massive amount of energy, his cultivation had not continued to rise. His realm remained firmly at the Separation and Reunion Fifth Stage. This discovery could not help but leave him puzzled, uncertain of the reasons behind this mysterious situation.
When the two Blood Beads finally completely disappeared, the last ray of Evil Spirit Qi also leaked out from Yang Kai’s body and gathered with the rest of the qi in the periphery.
After ten days of effort, the area around where Yang Kai meditated filled with a thick murderous aura as the Evil Spirit Qi divided into two parts; the two Monstrous Beasts were reborn to fight once more, and they swirled around him as they fought one another.
The Evil Spirit Qi had already enveloped a radius of half a kilometer, and with the last ray finally emerging, the Spirit Qi forms that had faced off against one another suddenly began to clash.
As the battle began, the Spirit Qi forms gradually coalesced into the shape of two Monstrous Beasts.
On the left was a one hundred and fifty meter tall figure with a snow-white body. Its entire form was without the slightest impurity, a proud majestic face, two razor sharp fangs adorning the sides of its mouth, a long whip-like tail as strong as steel, swayed evenly in the wind.
Without a doubt, it was a White Tiger!
On the right, an enormous beast stood three or four hundred meters high, its body seemed to tower into the clouds, almost as if it went on without end, but from its giant form one could faintly make out the shape of an Ox, which shook the Earth every time one of its four hoofs fell.
“Heaven Shaking White Tiger, Earth Splitting Divine Ox!” Old Demon could not help but exclaim.
When the two beasts fully formed, they both roared towards the Heavens.
The whole atmosphere of the valley instantly changed, like all the color had drained from the world as this all-encompassing aura suddenly enveloped Yang Kai’s whole being.
Yang Kai only felt his whole body freeze. An overwhelming hostility gripped him so tightly he could no longer move a muscle. What appeared in his eyes was no longer the surrounding jungle, there were only the two Monstrous Beast prints engaged in mortal combat; a variety of Monstrous Beast arts flew, which caused the Heavens to shake and the Earth to crack, waves of wind and energy thrashing about violently.
This was an epic struggle. These two Monstrous Beasts had built up resentments towards each other when they were alive, which eventually lead to their mutual destruction. Reduced to only their essences, even after death, their fight continued.
The battlefield they fought on now was inside Yang Kai’s body, which had absorbed their essence.
When they were alive, they had been evenly matched, neither one managing to triumph, and after death it was still so, each one was an opponent worthy of respect!
Despite the situation, Yang Kai was comfortable, but after his initial surprise his mood soon became calm as he watched these two Monstrous Beasts engage in their life and death struggle.
This kind of Heaven shaking war was not something a cultivator of his level could easy witness, and although it was a battle between Monstrous Beasts, there were still many insights and enlightenments that he could still obtain.
Gradually, Yang Kai forgot the passage of time, his mind entirely focused on the two Monstrous Beasts and attentively observing as the only witness present. He sat cross-legged on the ground, the mass of swirling hostility around him, visible to the naked eye, seemed unable to affect him in the slightest.