Returning to the secluded hut in the auxiliary courtyard of the Body-Tempering Hall, Yun Che immediately shut the door tight. He did not consume the four precious Qi-Gathering Pills. Instead, he carefully stored them away in his pouch. At this moment, he had something far more important to do—to test the conjecture forming in his mind about the mysterious stone bead.

  He took out the stone bead and the three gourds one by one, laying them out before him. His expression was solemn as he weighed his options again and again.

  The spirit dew was his greatest reliance for future cultivation. If he consumed it all now, his progress would inevitably slow. Yet the almost-complete tenth cloud pattern on the stone bead was an irresistible temptation, scratching relentlessly at his curiosity. He had an unshakable feeling that once the cloud patterns reached ten and fully covered the bead, some unknown transformation would occur.

  “The spirit dew can be gathered again with time,” he finally decided, his gaze steady.

  “But this chance for the stone bead to change… may only come once.”

  “If the tenth cloud appears and the bead undergoes a true transformation, the spiritual energy of the water it produces may skyrocket—far beyond anything I have now.”

  With that thought, hesitation vanished.

  He first picked up the gourd containing the morning bead-dew, condensed like emerald jelly. Fetching a clean, coarse ceramic bowl, he carefully poured the thick, lustrous gelatinous liquid into it bit by bit.

  It took considerable effort to empty the gourd. In the bowl lay nearly half a bowl of translucent, jade-green liquid. An indescribably pure and refreshing fragrance spread instantly. Just one breath of it cleared the mind and sent a pleasant tremor through his limbs and bones.

  Yun Che’s heart jolted. Fearing the scent might attract unwanted attention, he immediately dropped the gray-white stone bead into the bowl.

  Glug…

  The bead sank into the green liquid, tiny bubbles surfacing around it. The fragrance rapidly faded, as if completely absorbed by the bead. Yun Che held his breath and watched closely. Yet aside from the liquid level slowly decreasing at a barely perceptible rate, nothing else happened.

  A long time passed. The tenth cloud pattern did not appear.

  Slight disappointment flickered in his heart—but this was within expectation.

  He placed the bowl carefully under the bed, then sat cross-legged atop it, gripping a fragment of low-grade spirit stone as he continued his daily breathing practice.

  The rhythm of one long breath and three short ones had already sunk into his bones. Even outside formal meditation, his breathing naturally followed this unusual pattern. Over the past two months, though he had failed to draw Qi into his body, his control over this breathing method had become flawless.

  The night passed quietly.

  At dawn, Yun Che opened his eyes and immediately retrieved the bowl from beneath the bed. The jade-green liquid had been reduced by nearly half. The stone bead lay silently at the bottom, its nine cloud patterns clear—yet still no sign of the tenth.

  Unperturbed, he returned the bowl to its place. After a moment of thought, he took out one of the Qi-Gathering Pills Yun Feng had given him and swallowed it.

  The pill melted instantly upon entering his mouth. A familiar warm current spread rapidly through his body, flowing into his limbs and organs. The sensation was similar to the “Spirit-Gathering Decoctions” he had taken daily at Sun Dazhu’s place.

  Well-practiced, Yun Che immediately circulated his breathing technique, attempting to guide and condense the medicinal energy.

  He continued until night fell once more. Slowly exhaling a long breath of white vapor, he frowned slightly.

  “This Qi-Gathering Pill is essentially the same as Sun Dazhu’s decoction—both refined from herbs containing spiritual energy,” he muttered with faint frustration.

  “After taking it, my body feels warm, my spirit refreshed, even hunger fades. But no matter what… I still can’t stabilize this energy in my dantian and form even a single strand of true Qi.”

  He sighed.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Yun Han had broken through the first level of Qi Condensation in just three months, while he himself had lingered at the threshold for so long without stepping inside. Though he appeared calm, ripples stirred in his heart. Talent truly was an insurmountable chasm at the starting point of the immortal path.

  But the stubbornness in Yun Che’s bones refused to yield.

  “I have the mysterious stone bead. I’m not lacking in sources of spiritual energy. Even if I can’t condense it now, persistence will wear through stone. One day, I will succeed.”

  He inhaled deeply, steadying himself.

  “Time… patience and endurance may be the only things I truly possess.”

  His gaze hardened.

  Once more, he pulled out the bowl. Only a thin layer of green liquid remained at the bottom. The stone bead was unchanged.

  Without hesitation, he picked up the second gourd—the one containing ordinary night-collected dew. Though less viscous than the morning bead-dew, it still brimmed with spiritual energy. He poured it into the bowl until it barely submerged the stone bead. The small remainder, he tilted his head back and drank in one gulp.

  The moment the liquid entered his stomach—

  Boom!

  A torrential, blazing surge erupted within him—far more violent than any pill or bead-soaked water he had ever consumed! It was as if he had swallowed molten magma. Intense heat and pressure exploded through his body, scorching and bloating his meridians. His mouth went dry, his veins throbbed.

  Alarmed, Yun Che immediately calmed his mind and entered a meditative state, trying to guide the raging spiritual energy.

  But after only a few breaths, he realized something was terribly wrong.

  The heat did not dissipate as before. Instead, driven by his breathing, it surged wildly from his limbs and organs, gathering faster and denser with every cycle. Sharp pain stabbed from his meridians, bones, even deep within his flesh.

  He felt like an overinflated bladder—skin stretched tight, organs compressed, already pushed beyond their limit.

  In horror, Yun Che forcibly stopped his breathing technique.

  It made no difference.

  The swelling and pain continued to intensify. Looking down, he saw thick blue-black veins bulging grotesquely beneath the skin of his arms, neck, and chest, writhing like awakened earthworms, as if they might burst forth at any moment. His skin flushed an abnormal red, his body temperature frighteningly high.

  What Yun Che didn’t know was this:

  Previously, the decoctions and pills he consumed contained limited spiritual energy. Combined with the tiny amount he absorbed from the surroundings, it never exceeded the rate at which energy naturally leaked from his body due to his flawed spiritual roots and clogged meridians. On top of that, the insidious Stagnant Qi Powder planted by Sun Dazhu sabotaged him at critical moments, ensuring he never truly accumulated enough Qi.

  But now—everything was different.

  The mouthful of concentrated spirit dew he drank contained an astonishingly pure and dense amount of spiritual energy, vastly exceeding ordinary medicines. It instantly overwhelmed his body’s natural dissipation rate. Had he not actively breathed it in, time might have allowed it to slowly disperse. But by circulating his breathing technique, he had effectively opened the floodgates of an already full reservoir—adding fuel to the fire.

  Realizing he had made a fatal mistake, Yun Che’s mind went blank. Cold sweat drenched him as death loomed unmistakably close.

  Then—

  A flash of inspiration struck like lightning.

  “Normal breathing draws Qi inward… then what if I reverse it?!”

  With no time to ponder, survival instinct took over.

  Gamble.

  He clenched his teeth and forcibly reversed the breathing rhythm he had maintained for months—turning one long, three short into one short, three long.

  A sharp inhale.

  A long, drawn-out exhale.

  As if expelling not only breath, but all impurities within.

  In his simple logic: if normal breathing absorbed, then reversed breathing might release.

  By sheer accident, Yun Che touched upon a fundamental principle of cultivation. This reversed breathing pattern was precisely the method used to vent excess Qi before dispersing one’s cultivation and starting anew.

  With each arduous, determined breath, strands of pure yet uncontrolled spiritual energy were slowly forced out through every pore and acupoint of his body. Instead of dispersing into the air, the expelled Qi seemed drawn by an invisible force, flowing straight into the ceramic bowl beneath the bed—silently absorbed by the stone bead.

  Time crawled by in pain and perseverance.

  Gradually, the swelling subsided. The grotesquely bulging veins receded. The red flush of his skin faded to pallor. Alongside the pure Qi, murky, bitter-smelling streams of turbid energy were expelled as well.

  The stone bead did not absorb this turbid Qi. It lingered briefly before dissipating into the air.

  Unknowingly, Yun Che had turned disaster into fortune—completely forcing out the Stagnant Qi Powder that had secretly crippled his cultivation.

  Ordinarily, there were only two ways to remove that poison. One was Sun Dazhu’s original plan: long-term saturation with gentle spiritual energy. The other was complete dispersal of cultivation—purging all Qi and starting over. Sun Dazhu never considered the latter, because Yun Che had never possessed enough Qi to meet the conditions.

  This accidental dispersal lasted an entire day and night.

  When the final discomfort faded, Yun Che collapsed onto the hard wooden bed, drenched in cold sweat, utterly exhausted—unable to move even a finger.

  “So close… I almost…” he muttered weakly.

  “From now on… I must never consume undiluted spirit dew again…”

  Overwhelming fatigue washed over him. Even checking the stone bead felt impossible. His consciousness sank, and he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  The hut fell silent once more.

  Beneath the bed, the ceramic bowl was completely dry. The gray-white stone bead lay quietly at the bottom, its surface restrained and dull.

  Yet if Yun Che had been awake, he would have seen it—

  Beside the ninth cloud pattern, in the space once empty, a faint, delicate outline of mist was quietly taking shape.

  The tenth cloud… had begun to form.

  A Perilous Path ??

  Yun Che does not grow stronger yet—but something far more important happens:

  The shackles on his cultivation are finally broken.

  And when the tenth cloud fully forms… what kind of change are you expecting?