Chapter 106: Chapter 104: Qi Refining Sixth Layer

Inside the tree hollow, all was silent. Only the ROAR of his blood surging like a great river and the steady, powerful beat of his heart echoed in Qi Yun’s ears.

His expression was impassive. He severed all distracting thoughts, focusing his entire will on a single point.

He guided the Innate Divine Rhyme he had accumulated, launching a decisive assault on the Ancestral Acupoint between his brows.

Qi Refining Sixth Layer: break open the Ancestral Acupoint!

Connect to the Sea of Consciousness, condense the Divine Sense!

BOOM!

The first torrent of Divine Rhyme, like a raging tidal wave, slammed violently against the formless, intangible, yet Divine Iron-hard barrier of the Ancestral Acupoint.

A violent tremor instantly swept through Qi Yun’s entire Sea of Consciousness, as if his skull was about to explode from the force of the backlash.

His vision swam with stars, and a ceaseless buzzing filled his ears.

The barrier didn’t budge. Instead, it sent back a wave of excruciating pain so intense it nearly made him pass out.

Qi Yun’s brows knitted tightly, his jaw clenched, and veins bulged on his forehead. Yet, the light in his eyes only grew more focused and resilient.

"Again!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Qi Yun’s Heart Thought grew even more resolute.

An even greater, more majestic surge of Innate Divine Rhyme madly compressed and condensed, forming an even more solid and sharp, invisible great hammer. Driven by his will, he launched a second assault on the stubborn barrier.

BOOM—

An even more intense backlash struck. His Sea of Consciousness felt as if a red-hot brand had been plunged into it, the agony nearly tearing his sanity apart.

A warmth filled his nasal cavity, and two warm streams of liquid slowly trickled out—blood, seeping out from the unbearable impact.

Even after suffering such a heavy blow, Qi Yun still didn’t stop.

Again and again!

The torrent of Divine Rhyme was like a tireless, colossal siege hammer, continuously and crazily smashing against the chasm that blocked his path forward.

Each impact brought a level of excruciating pain unimaginable to ordinary people, as if his very soul was being repeatedly torn apart and crushed.

Qi Yun’s body began to tremble slightly, his face ashen.

Tiny Blood Beads seeped from all seven of his orifices, giving him a terrifying, grotesque appearance.

Yet, under this extreme torment, not only was Qi Yun’s will not extinguished, it was tempered, becoming ever purer, ever more resilient.

His eyes shone with a frightening light!

It was the flame kindled by a desperate yearning for the Ultimate Dao, a paranoid and frantic obsession to not stop until his goal was reached.

"Break... OPEN!!!"

Just as he felt his consciousness about to be submerged by pain, he let out a furious roar, unreservedly and utterly burning and detonating all his remaining Innate Divine Rhyme, along with his unyielding will that was harder than diamond. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

It transformed into one final strike, decisively slamming into the barrier of the Ancestral Acupoint, which was already covered in fine cracks!

KRA-CHA—!

A crisp cracking sound, as if the world itself was being created, echoed clearly in the depths of his Divine Soul.

The incomparably solid barrier of the Ancestral Acupoint, which had blocked countless Cultivators, was finally smashed to pieces by his brute force.

RUMBLE!

The obstruction vanished. Like a bursting dam, a majestic and vast power instantly flooded into a brand new, infinitely vast Heaven and Earth.

At the spot between his brows, a point of light suddenly flared.

It then expanded infinitely, transforming into a mysterious space where chaos had just parted and purity and turbidity were distinct—the Sea of Consciousness.

At the same time, an unprecedented perceptive ability centered on him spread out rapidly in all directions like quicksilver flowing across the ground.

Ten meters, a hundred meters...

Everything around him no longer needed to be seen with his eyes or heard with his ears.

The squirming of insects in the soil, the flow of Spiritual Qi in the air, the faint sounds of fighting and explosions in the distance, and even the pervasive scent of blood and fluctuations of energy from further away...

Everything was reflected in his "mind" with perfect, three-dimensional clarity.

This was [Divine Sense].

Qi Refining Sixth Layer, achieved!

Slowly opening his eyes, looking slightly exhausted, Qi Yun’s gaze held a gentle, restrained divine light. He gently wiped the bloodstains from his face.

’One step closer... to the Immortal Departure Dao.’

Having successfully reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, Qi Yun felt a great weight lift from his shoulders.

After all, with this Realm, he could enter the Inner Mansion and become a true True Cultivator of the Holy Sect.

Plus, with the Blood Demon Master as his backer.

Now, even if the Flower Moon Hall Master came out of seclusion early, he wouldn’t dare to act against him rashly.

But just as Qi Yun was sighing with emotion, his newly-formed Divine Sense unexpectedly detected something unusual on his body.

’Hm? What is this feeling...?’

Driving his still-unpracticed Divine Sense to scan his body several times, Qi Yun finally found the source of the strangeness.

Opening his Storage Bracelet, Qi Yun willed an item out of it.

It was the one item from Tang Shun’s Storage Pouch whose purpose he had never understood: a Silver Bracelet with a mottled, ancient, and unadorned surface.

A hint of curiosity in his eyes, Qi Yun sent a wisp of his Divine Sense into the Silver Bracelet.

In an instant, the Silver Bracelet, which had been dim, dull, and as mottled as a common old relic, suddenly bloomed with a brilliant, clear light.

The rust and grime on its surface receded and vanished as if alive, melting into droplets of silver liquid that slid away, finally revealing the object wrapped within.

A segment of a vigorous, ancient peach branch, brimming with vitality.

"This is...?" Qi Yun stared at the peach branch in his hand, which was only the length of a palm yet faintly flowed with an extraordinary Dao Rhyme. He frowned, his expression puzzled.

’All that effort, and all I get is a piece of a branch?’

But before he could think about it further, the solid ground beneath his feet split open with a RUMBLE and without any warning.

An immensely powerful suction force surged out from within, yanking him into the hole before he had even a moment to react.

His body plummeted down a strange, pitch-black tunnel, the fierce whistling of wind roaring in his ears. Qi Yun immediately activated his Abyssal Iron Sand. The dark, cold grains instantly surged out, wrapping him in layer upon layer of protection.

After moving for an unknown amount of time in the pitch-black tree hollow, Qi Yun finally felt a jolt run through his body, indicating he had landed safely.

Slowly opening a crack in his defense, he extended a wisp of Divine Sense to scan his surroundings. The environment was instantly reflected in his mind.

"A peach... a peach grove?"

The Iron Sand dispersed, retracting into his sleeves like a reversed current of water. Qi Yun stared in surprise at the endless peach grove before him, which resembled a pink ocean, and a thought suddenly arose in his mind.

’Could it be... that this is the real [Peach Garden]?’

...

「Taixu Mirror Heaven, Inner Mansion, Flower Moon Hall.」

In a quiet room, its great door firmly sealed by a Yellow Paper Forbidden Technique several meters in size, sat the Flower Moon Hall Master, Song Kun, clad in a black robe with a cold, indifferent expression.

Because of the [Piaohai Mountain] incident, he had been thoroughly screwed over by Yang Cuan.

He received a punishment from the Punishment Hall: confinement for a full sixty-year cycle.

Although sixty years wasn’t considered a long time for a Foundation Establishment Master, who would often enter seclusion for decades at a time, for Song Kun, who was desperate to retrieve something, it was an unacceptable punishment.

But facing the Punishment Hall, which controlled all the laws of the Holy Sect, if he dared to resist or show disrespect, the Holy Sect wouldn’t care one bit about the existence of a mere Master.

’Yang Cuan... Qi Yun... Just wait until I get out of seclusion. I will settle every last score with you...’

It had been almost three years of confinement, but the fire of anger in Song Kun’s heart hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

However, just as he was Cursing the two of them in his heart once again, an extremely abrupt and mysterious sensation surfaced in his mind without warning—as if something that had a faint connection to him was gone.

A lingering sense of loss and melancholy washed over him.

"Hm?"

Song Kun’s tightly shut eyes snapped open, a sharp light flashing within them as his expression turned to one of shock and suspicion.

As a Foundation Establishment Master, he could glimpse heavenly secrets and grasp the threads of karma, so he naturally possessed a subtle, mystical sense of premonition.

The sudden impulse just now couldn’t have been a momentary illusion.

’Could it be...’ Although he felt his guess was somewhat ridiculous, Song Kun quickly began performing finger calculations.

WENG!

Within the void, in a boundless ocean of karma, an invisible sword seemed to coalesce. Carrying a decisive Sword Intent that could sever all things, it fiercely slashed toward the swirling fog of karma that represented the unknown and obscured!

SHHHLAAAA!

The fog was forcefully torn open by the sharp Sword Intent, briefly revealing a clear line of karma behind it.

"It’s that little bastard! How is that possible... That bracelet can only be opened at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. He..."

’He reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer?’

’And it’s been less than three years!’ A flash of astonishment crossed the grim-faced Song Kun’s eyes.

It was unclear whether he found it hard to accept that the Silver Bracelet had been opened...

...or if he couldn’t believe that in less than three short years, that ant-like mud-dweller had actually stepped into the Qi Refining Sixth Realm.

...