Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

Chapter 247: Chapter 141: Late-stage Qi Cultivation (Part 2)

Five distinct energies flowed through the river of his meridians, each with its own role, constantly transforming according to the laws of mutual generation and restraint.

DRIP... DRIP...

On the four walls of the Cultivation Room, Spiritual Qi had condensed into crystalline droplets that trickled down the corners.

The Spiritual Qi was liquefying!

This was a phenomenon that should only occur within the Cultivation Secret Realm of a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator, yet here it was, happening for real in a secluded county courtyard.

However, this extreme cultivation speed also subjected Chu Bai’s body to a pressure unimaginable to ordinary people.

Chu Bai’s eyes snapped open. A five-colored light swirled madly in the depths of his pupils as a thin trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth.

He slowly lowered his head to look at his arms.

Beneath his skin, Dark Gold patterns faintly pulsed in time with his breathing—a sign that the Iron Bone Casting Body Technique was operating at its peak.

This Secret Technique was incredibly domineering. Each session meant his original bones and muscles were violently compressed, shattered, and then reformed.

As his cultivation deepened, Chu Bai found that ordinary Spirit Grass from the Marketplace, and even the premium Spiritual Cuisine from the Treasure Pavilion, could no longer sate the black-hole-like hunger of his body.

His monthly stipend of a hundred taels of silver was but a drop in the ocean against such terrifying consumption.

Fortunately, he had not spent the last half-year in quiet meditation.

By taking on missions to purge wandering spirits and eliminate roaming Demons, his Demon Slaying Officer’s token had been stained with untold amounts of Demon Blood.

The fangs, claws, and Demon Pill fragments from those Demon Beasts were continuously funneled to the Treasure Pavilion through the Wuu Family. In return, he received massive quantities of High-Tier Water and Earth Element materials to support his Body Refinement.

This year and a half of seclusion was the longest period of dormancy Chu Bai had undertaken since entering his official post.

Now, Magical Power surged through his meridians like thunder, his Divine Thought covered a hundred-zhang radius as if it were the palm of his hand, and his body was as indestructible as black gold.

Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer (100/100).

His accumulation had reached Perfection.

「Midnight.」

Chu Bai sat cross-legged in the center of the stone couch, his body wreathed in a five-colored radiance.

His skin now had a dull, Dark Gold sheen. This was especially true for his bare arms, where his muscles were defined like twisted steel cables, and every pore seemed to exhale a fine, multi-hued mist.

The great chasm between the Middle and Late Stages of Qi Cultivation was, in his eyes, nothing more than a flimsy dam about to be burst by a raging flood.

’A year and a half of dormancy... over two thousand taels of silver spent... steeped in Demon Blood a hundred times...’

Chu Bai slowly opened his eyes. The whites of his eyes were gone, replaced by rapidly spinning, five-colored vortexes in the depths of his pupils.

With a beckoning gesture, the jade bottle containing the Qi Transformation Pills flew into the air.

The instant he uncorked it, three pills as brilliant as stars fell into his palm.

These advancement resources, specially provided by the Merit Department, emitted a pure fragrance that seemed to penetrate one’s very Divine Soul.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Chu Bai tilted his head back and swallowed them.

The Pills entered his stomach and, in an instant, transformed into three searing torrents of energy.

This power was not violent. Instead, it was exceptionally pure, like three red-hot blades instantly slicing through the Magical Power already overflowing his meridians.

In the Cultivation Room, the liquefied Spiritual Qi was drawn in by an invisible force, forming a massive vortex that funneled violently down toward the Celestial Spirit point on the crown of Chu Bai’s head.

Had any ordinary Qi Cultivation Cultivator faced such a massive infusion of Spiritual Qi, their only fate would have been death from ruptured meridians.

But Chu Bai was different.

The Guiyuan Technique within him had broken through to the Microscopic realm long ago.

From the perspective of his Divine Thought, what flooded into his body was not chaotic Spiritual Qi, but innumerable, minuscule motes of Five Elements Spiritual Power, each shimmering with a different light.

Chu Bai let out a silent roar in his mind.

Five Elements Mutual Generation, an unending cycle.

Under this Micro-Level control, his body was like a furnace of unparalleled precision.

He directed the path of every single wisp of Spiritual Power through his meridians with absolute precision.

’Faster!’

With a nudge from his Divine Thought, the circulation speed of the Spiritual Power in his body instantly increased by thirty percent.

At such a speed, an ordinary Cultivator’s meridians would have long since caught fire from the friction and shattered.

But at this moment, the Iron Bone Casting Body Technique that Chu Bai had practiced daily for a year and a half revealed its true might.

His bones groaned, yet they rang with the clear resonance of a bell chime. His Flesh and Blood trembled, yet they were as dense as Fine Steel polished a thousand times over.

’More!’

Far from holding back, Chu Bai actively dropped his defenses, allowing the liquefied Spiritual Qi outside to seep directly into his every pore.

Excruciating pain swept over his entire body.

It was an inhuman torment, like having one’s soul ground on a millstone and one’s marrow forged in a blazing fire.

A constant stream of black blood trickled from the corners of Chu Bai’s mouth—a sign that impurities were being forcibly expelled before they could be refined.

He could hear the thunderous surge of Magical Power in his meridians and feel the barrier between realms growing thinner and more transparent under the relentless assault.

’Now is the time!’

Seizing the moment of insight, Chu Bai furiously drove all the Spiritual Power in his body.

He had already drained the Spiritual Liquid from his jade gourd, and the Spiritual Power in his meridians had become so condensed it began to take on a unique luster.

A crisp crack, audible only to Chu Bai, echoed from deep within his Dantian.

The vortex of Magical Power surrounding him instantly doubled in size.

The Magical Power inside Chu Bai surged like a river bursting its dam, rampaging through a brand-new network of meridians. With each cycle, his aura grew stronger.

Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer!

This was not merely an increase in the quantity of his Spiritual Power, but a qualitative leap forward.

’This feeling...’

Chu Bai extended his right hand. In his palm, a five-colored lotus formed entirely from liquefied Magical Power slowly bloomed.

Now, even without activating any Magic Techniques, the Spiritual Pressure he naturally emitted just by standing there would have been enough to suffocate his former self.

But it was not over yet.

As his Cultivation stepped into the Late-stage of Qi Cultivation, the Iron Bone Casting Body Technique also seemed to be undergoing its final transformation.

The Dark Gold luster on the surface of his body began to recede inward.

His skin gradually returned to its normal fair complexion, but a closer look would reveal an underlying texture as fine yet as indestructible as porcelain.

Returning to the Essence.

Now, relying on his physical strength alone, he could slay an ordinary Middle Stage Qi Cultivation Demon Beast. Even a fellow Cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer probably couldn’t withstand a casual palm strike from him at close range.

Chu Bai slowly opened his eyes. A tangible, five-colored beam of light shot forth, searing two shallow scorch marks into the thick stone wall of the Cultivation Room.

He reined in his aura, and the turbulent Spiritual Qi in the Cultivation Room instantly grew calm.

[Name: Chu Bai]

[Realm: Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer (1/100)]

[Cultivation Technique: Guiyuan Technique (Microscopic 459/???)]

[Secret Technique: Guardian Scripture (Mastery 370/500)]

[Iron Bone Casting Body Technique (Mastery 190/500)]

With a flicker of his thoughts, his Divine Thought, which already had a radius of a hundred zhang, pushed outward once more.

One hundred ten zhang... one hundred fifty zhang... two hundred zhang...

Finally, his Divine Thought stopped at its new limit: two hundred and twenty zhang.

Half of the eastern district of Anping County was now as clear in his mind as the lines on his own palm.

He saw the Night Watchman on patrol yawning, the light still burning in County Captain Zhang Cheng’s duty office, and even Lord Locust in Dahuai Lane, bowing slightly in his direction as a sign of respect.

This feeling of having everything within his grasp brought Chu Bai an inexplicable sense of peace.

’The Late Stage of Qi Cultivation... I’ve finally made it.’

He stood up, and due to the increased density of his body, his first step sent a faint cracking sound through the floor tiles of the Cultivation Room.

Chu Bai shook his head with a wry smile. It seemed he would need some time to adjust to this sudden surge in power.

He walked to the window and pushed it open.

The first light of dawn was rising from the eastern horizon, bathing the snow-covered county in a faint golden radiance.

After a year and a half of dormancy, he had finally broken out of his chrysalis.

With his Late-stage Qi Cultivation, combined with his Micro-Level Magic Techniques and terrifying Divine Thought, he could now be considered a major figure in Anping County.

Chu Bai watched the slowly rising red sun, his expression serene. ’There’s still a year and seven months until the Celestial Examination.’

’I’ll be competing against Cultivators from all walks of life then. Fortunately, I’m keeping pace now.’

’In the time I have left, I’ll walk this final stretch of the path and show all the geniuses under heaven what I can do.’