In the next instant, Xu Ziqing immediately sank his mind into stillness, not daring to let it waver even slightly.
Fortunately, the two people outside were also overcome by emotion, and neither was at the height of their former strength. They failed to notice that momentary change. Once their minds settled, they could detect nothing unusual.
Mu Wuxin and Lang Tianqi spoke together a little longer, their voices full of warmth.
Upon learning that Mu Ronghua was truly his daughter, Lang Tianqi was both astonished and overjoyed. He repeatedly asked about the child’s upbringing. Mu Wuxin, showing a rare softness, answered all his questions without the slightest impatience. They were completely unlike the two powerful figures Xu Ziqing thought he knew.
After approximately one ke, about fifteen minutes, Mu Wuxin’s avatar could no longer remain. Although Lang Tianqi was reluctant to part, he understood they could not linger and prepared to say farewell.
Just before Mu Wuxin left, he added, “Yu Nongqing has gathered so much influence. Her schemes cannot be simple. Please be extremely careful. Don’t let her hurt you.”
Mu Wuxin agreed and warned him in return. “Yu Nongqing is deeply calculating. You must also be careful while dealing with her.”
Only then did they finally part.
After both had gone, Xu Ziqing relaxed a little and very slowly began restoring his six senses.
Still, he did not dare emerge from the giant tree. What if they returned? If they discovered he had heard such a secret, there would probably be no escape from being silenced.
His immortal path stretched far into the future, and he had only just understood his love for his senior brother. His heart was full of ambition and tender feelings. He would certainly not allow himself to die halfway along the road!
Yet Xu Ziqing had never imagined that his dantian would choose precisely this moment to act up!
He had already cultivated to the very peak of late Foundation Establishment. Ninety-nine percent of the true essence in his dantian had transformed into essence liquid. One more step, the conversion of that last fraction, would be enough for a breakthrough.
Now that mass of essence liquid began boiling and surging, as though it intended to rush through his limbs and every meridian.
His meridians swelled with pain. They seemed to be widening constantly to accommodate the essence liquid galloping through them like an untamed horse!
With each surge, a little true essence splashed off at the crest and became essence liquid as it fell back into his dantian. The new drops joined the rest in boiling. Over and over this happened, and the last remaining true essence gradually transformed.
Xu Ziqing knew he still possessed enough true essence to sustain the process, so it had not caused any violent disturbance yet. But once his reserves became insufficient, he would need to draw in enormous quantities of spiritual energy from outside to complete the change!
He was still hidden inside the giant tree. He had no idea where those two overwhelmingly powerful people had gone. How could he possibly enter meditation and break through here?
Drawing a deep breath, Xu Ziqing clenched his fists and forcibly suppressed the surging true essence.
The violent collision within his dantian sent his meridians into spasms. Overwhelming pain instantly spread through his body. He clenched his teeth involuntarily, his temples throbbing.
Even if the pain was unbearable, he had to endure it!
Waves of agony swept through him. Xu Ziqing stubbornly endured the injuries caused by forcing down a breakthrough. He did not dare release the slightest trace of his aura or allow any external spiritual energy to enter his body.
He had no idea how long this lasted. He counted each moment as he suffered.
Finally, after waiting a little more than one shichen, over two hours, and detecting no movement outside, he endured the pain, gathered his true essence and used every scrap of his strength to race back toward the Guest Residence.
He traveled through countless trees with only one thought in mind.
Return to the courtyard… Senior Brother is there…
Once I reach him… I’ll be safe.
Pain had numbed his limbs. Xu Ziqing rushed into the Guest Residence as quickly as he could and went straight for their courtyard.
Inside, the white-robed figure was still sitting in meditation, his face stern.
Xu Ziqing barely managed to make his way in before calling weakly, “Senior Brother!”
Yun Lie opened his eyes. Seeing Xu Ziqing’s condition, he rose immediately.
At last, Xu Ziqing had reached his senior brother. The relief allowed him to stop forcing down the breakthrough.
Instantly the pain within him grew even more intense. His true essence churned, and the essence liquid boiled fiercely once more!
Spiritual energy surged toward him from heaven and earth, pouring continuously through the top of his head. It formed an inverted conical vortex and set the air throughout the courtyard in motion. The vortex expanded until it resembled a tornado of spiritual energy.
Xu Ziqing stood at the center of the storm, his face contorted with pain.
It was not that he lacked endurance. He had already endured too much, and his body had finally reached its limit.
The earlier agony had numbed his limbs. He tried to control his body and sit cross-legged, but the instant he moved, his knees weakened and he pitched forward.
Just as in the Heavenly Demon Cavern, someone caught him.
His forehead struck another person’s chest, and a firm arm wrapped securely around his waist.
Xu Ziqing remained fully conscious. He knew his senior brother had caught him and prevented him from falling.
There was no time to think about appearances. He hurriedly gasped, “Senior Brother, I… I’m going to break through… I can’t move…”
Under normal circumstances he would not have needed to be seated cross-legged to enter meditation. His present condition, however, was different.
After suppressing his breakthrough so ruthlessly, he needed to arrange his posture properly to ease the pain more quickly.
Yun Lie acted without hesitation. He lifted Xu Ziqing in his arms, flicked his sleeve to draw his legs into a cross-legged position, then carried him into the house and set him down on the floor of the main room.
With his keen senses, Yun Lie had already located the strongest concentration of spiritual energy in the room, three chi in front of the couch.
The vortex of spiritual energy followed Xu Ziqing as he moved.
Yun Lie’s cultivation was profound enough that the violent currents could not harm him. He quickly settled his junior brother in the correct place.
Once Xu Ziqing sat cross-legged, the cultivation method in his dantian began circulating without the least hesitation, spiraling at full strength. Countless techniques he had practiced flashed through his vision, and the Azure Cloud Needles were suddenly forced out, hovering and releasing flickering streams of power before him.
The influx of spiritual energy was ferocious, yet the spiritual aperture at the crown of his head remained ravenous and actually devoured the entire vortex in an instant.
Even with a spiritual vein beneath the courtyard replenishing the supply, and fresh spiritual energy pouring in continuously from heaven and earth, it still seemed insufficient for his needs.
This was because he had suppressed his breakthrough so fiercely that his internal organs had been injured. Under ordinary circumstances, advancing through spiritual-energy absorption would not have consumed nearly so much power.
The situation had become urgent.
The energy he absorbed had to heal his injuries first and could only then sustain the breakthrough.
If the supply fell short, his existing injuries would remain unhealed while the uncontrollable essence liquid inflicted still more damage.
Xu Ziqing understood the danger, but he was powerless to do anything.
Just then, Yun Lie moved.
Yun Lie did not know why Xu Ziqing had returned in such a wretched state, but he did not stop to ask. Seeing something wrong with his junior brother, he intended to put it right.
He raised his hand slightly and moved his five fingers through several swift seals.
Five points of black light flew from his sleeve and separated in midair before falling around Xu Ziqing.
Had Xu Ziqing opened his eyes, he would have seen five tiny black flags taking position around him. Together they formed a Spirit-Gathering Formation.
The instant the formation was complete, the surrounding spiritual energy surged even more violently!
As though seized by a pair of invisible giant hands, countless streams of energy were dragged together into long spiritual dragons and pulled toward the formation. They spiraled rapidly through the air before plunging into the spiritual aperture at the top of Xu Ziqing’s head, passing through his spiritual root and directly into his body.
Beneath the ground, the formation also drew out the energies of the neighboring spiritual veins, which erupted upward in a wild torrent.
The gathering energy swiftly healed Xu Ziqing’s hidden injuries in the meridians, flesh and blood. It also filled his dantian and enabled his true essence to condense rapidly as the essence liquid boiled.
Ten drops, twenty drops, thirty… More and more essence liquid formed, while the chaotic power within his dantian gradually settled into order, losing its frenzied violence.
Suddenly all the essence liquid in his dantian contracted!
The last strand of true essence was compressed with tremendous force. Crack!
It was as though thunder had erupted deep within his sea of consciousness.
Then the essence liquid boiled one final time, absorbed the last newly condensed drop and finally grew still.
Only now had the danger truly passed.
Xu Ziqing had broken through once again!
He had entered the Essence Transformation stage!
Opening his eyes, he exhaled a long breath of turbid qi, expelling the innate impurities that had been cleared from his body upon reaching Essence Transformation.
Yun Lie sat cross-legged a short distance ahead, still guarding him.
Xu Ziqing blushed, recalling how his senior brother had caught him before meditation, lifted him in his arms and arranged him in a cross-legged posture. Suddenly he remembered an incident in the Heavenly Demon Cavern as well.
On that occasion he had accidentally eaten demon-beast meat that stirred his physical desire. The long-dormant desires of his decades of life had awakened, and he had found no way to relieve them without risking bodily harm except by releasing them.
His legs had weakened then too, and his senior brother had caught him in his arms.
But on that occasion, his weakness had come from the loss of his primordial yang and the exhaustion that followed.
Remembering it now made his face burn. At the time, he had only felt embarrassed to lose face before his senior brother and ashamed that Yun Lie had had to teach him about the affairs of the body.
The embarrassment back then had been simple awkwardness. Now even that memory contained a hint of sweetness. And although he was blushing again, this time it was because of the closeness he had shared with his senior brother.
His thoughts wandered. A deeper blush spread across his fair face until it was crimson. He looked a little dazed, his eyes bright, and the faintest smile touched his lips.
He was both delighted and shy. With his state of mind changed, his thoughts and emotions now carried an entirely different meaning.
Yun Lie saw that the strange phenomena surrounding Xu Ziqing had subsided and knew his breakthrough was complete. He raised his hand and collected the Spirit-Gathering Formation.
But when he noticed the succession of expressions on Xu Ziqing’s face, all unfamiliar to him, even Yun Lie, who understood his junior brother so well, could not guess what he was thinking.
After a moment, he called, “Ziqing.”