Chapter 28 : Preparing for the Breakthrough
Chapter 28: Preparing for the Breakthrough
After seeing off Dong Jiayuan, Long Tao sat cross-legged on that hard plank bed and began pondering his breakthrough to the Qi-Refining Sixth Layer.
The most important thing was to find an absolutely quiet place where he would not be disturbed.
If, at a critical moment, that damn System suddenly jumped out and ordered him to immediately carry out some godforsaken System Task, no matter how difficult it was, his chance to break through would be completely ruined.
The Qi-Refining Sixth Layer, also called “Opening the Palace,” meant that the dantian qi sea would initially take shape, and the spiritual energy within the body would undergo a surge.
This was the most crucial hurdle of the Qi Refining stage—and also the most dangerous.
If one’s qi went astray during the breakthrough, the newly condensed qi sea could collapse just as quickly as it formed.
With good luck, one’s cultivation would regress and require starting over; with truly terrible luck, the dantian would be crippled outright, and that would be the end of one’s path in this lifetime.
Of course… a major sect like Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect had seniors standing guard and Solidifying Spirit Pills to stabilize the process, so the safety margin was extremely high.
One almost never heard of anyone being unlucky enough to meet that worst outcome.
That was precisely why everyone squeezed their heads bloody trying to enter a major sect—cultivating here brought far greater peace of mind.
But with that restless System lodged in his head, it really was possible for it to stab him in the back at a critical moment.
Long Tao decided to try communicating with that thing again.
“Hey! System! You can hear me, right?” he shouted in his mind.
As expected, there was silence.
Long Tao did not give up and continued,
“At least give me a hint about the timing of the next System Task, right? Fine if you won’t open the System Shop, but you should at least provide some basic information, shouldn’t you?”
“The specific timing cannot be determined and must be judged according to the behavior trajectory of the Child of Destiny. However, no new tasks will be issued within the next month.”
At last, it spat out something useful! But that line about “judged according to the Child of Destiny’s behavior” sounded like complete nonsense to Long Tao.
Nan Yuchen had been staying peacefully on Moon-Washing Peak—yet hadn’t this broken System still forced him to carry out some voyeuristic task?
Still, having a full month of stability was like rain from heaven.
The land by the river could wait.
The top priority now was to throw everything he had into crossing the hurdle of the Qi-Refining Sixth Layer first!
……
Long Tao hung up a “Do Not Disturb” plaque on his door.
Within the sect, this essentially meant closed-door cultivation; unless something earth-shattering happened, no one would knock without knowing better.
Of course, more cautious people would inform neighbors or friends in advance and give a rough timeframe.
Otherwise, if something truly went wrong inside and they fainted, there might not even be anyone to collect the body—that would be truly tragic.
Long Tao did not have such concerns.
What he planned to do today carried relatively controllable risk.
He took a bottle of Solidifying Spirit Powder from a small box, poured out five pellets, tilted his head back, and swallowed them.
Then he lay back on the bed, gathered his mind, and began to drive his five viscera and six bowels into “Thunderous Resonance Tremors.”
This was the exclusive method of the “Resonating Viscera” stage at the Qi-Refining Fifth Layer of the Nine-Xia Qi-Guiding Art.
By using the thunderous resonance produced by the organs, it forced out the last traces of stubborn impurities within the spiritual energy.
The entire Qi-Refining Fifth Layer, bluntly speaking, was all about doing this.
Long Tao had basically finished this work already, but the final step was the hardest.
If the force or timing was misjudged, it could injure the internal organs—and that was no joke.
He had never been fully confident, so he had delayed and dared not make the final push.
The Solidifying Spirit Powder he had just taken was meant to provide a safety net and increase fault tolerance.
Its price was mediocre and its cost-performance ratio poor, so he had always been reluctant to buy it before.
Now it was perfect—Nan Yuchen’s gift of an entire bottle finally allowed him to go all out.
As rhythmic, muffled thunderous vibrations arose deep within his organs, a gentle yet resilient force wrapped around his inner viscera.
The effects of top-grade Solidifying Spirit Powder were immediate! Long Tao felt a weight lift from his heart, all worries gone, as he fully maintained the subtle yet powerful tremors within his body.
Five shi passed.
Sweat had long since soaked through the straw mat beneath him.
At last, Long Tao felt the final trace of sluggish, filthy residue deep within his five viscera and six bowels completely shattered and stripped away, expelled from his body along with heavy breaths and streaming sweat.
His body suddenly felt light, as if a thousand-pound burden had been removed, leaving an indescribable sense of clarity and comfort.
Of course, this was still far from the true “Opening the Palace” of the Qi-Refining Sixth Layer.
This merely completed all the prerequisite preparations.
Pushing open the door, he saw that the sky outside was already filled with stars.
He took off the clothes soaked through with sweat and emitting an odor, casually tossed them by the doorway, and planned to wash them tomorrow.
Walking to the small stream outside the courtyard, he scooped up icy water and splashed it over his face and body, rinsing away the sticky discomfort.
In a daze, he seemed to rediscover that reckless drive from when he had first entered the sect—ignoring everything else, with only a single-minded desire to charge upward.
It felt as though, if he just kept burying himself in hard work like this, layer after layer of realms could truly be forced open by sheer effort.
……
Early the next morning, whether because expelling the impurities yesterday had left his body feeling light or simply because he was in a good mood, Long Tao actually did not sleep in—a rare occurrence.
Riding this momentum, he planned to press on today and ideally sort out all preparations before the breakthrough to the Sixth Layer in one go.
While thinking this over, he pushed open the door, intending to wash the dirty clothes he had thrown outside yesterday and then get something to eat.
But the doorway was empty.
The clothes were gone.
“Ah… Daoist Long…” The voice of the spider sister, Luo Yusi, came from the courtyard gate.
She walked in holding a stack of dripping wet clothes, her non-human face still tinged with red.
“I… I saw your change of clothes left by the door… so I washed them for you…”
Long Tao’s heart went “whoa.” This treatment… was practically like picking up a demon-race maid for free! Though she was acting purely out of kindness, what single man could avoid letting his imagination wander just a little in this situation?
“Thank you so much,” Long Tao hurriedly expressed his gratitude.
“I just moved in and I’m already making you worry over me—my life is really a mess.”
The spider girl grew a little embarrassed at his thanks, turned her head away, and scurried on her six legs to the clothesline, efficiently hanging up the washed clothes.
“It… it wasn’t any trouble,” she said softly.
“It’s just… it’s rare to have a new neighbor… my brother and I… both hope you’ll stay for a long time…”
Long Tao understood what she meant.
Who wanted to be avoided like a monster? Especially with the appearance of this brother and sister—anyone would feel a jolt upon seeing them.
But he truly had no intention of moving right now.
The riverside plot had been free, but building a house required real spirit stones! A cultivator’s house was not something an ordinary mason could handle; there were many intricacies involved.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be staying for quite a while,” Long Tao said with a smile.
“Especially with such a beautiful spider sister living next door—how could I bear to leave?”
In the past, Long Tao had not been the type to joke flirtatiously with girls.
But after brushing past the gates of death twice in a row, that bit of restraint had long been ground away by fear of mortality.
Damn it—who knew when he might die? Why care about this or that anymore!
“You… I’m an insect demon…” Luo Yusi’s voice grew even lower, tinged with embarrassment.
“Where… where is there anything beautiful about me… don’t tease me…”
“The eyes!” Long Tao pointed at her.
“Your six eyes are genuinely beautiful! In the past, I’d never have imagined I’d find a spider demon’s eyes attractive—don’t belittle yourself.” His tone was quite sincere.
“Ann… annoying!” Luo Yusi’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.
Her entire face flushed like an overripe fruit as she quickly turned and darted back into her own room.
Long Tao looked at the closed door, not yet having time to savor the moment, when the door on the other side opened.
The spider brother, Luo Yunluo, poked out half his body and asked apologetically, “Daoist Long? There was quite a bit of noise just now… my sister didn’t cause you any trouble again, did she?”
“Not at all!” Long Tao hurriedly waved his hands.
“She kindly helped me wash my clothes. When I thanked her, I casually praised her eyes as beautiful, and then she… well, ran back inside.” He spread his hands helplessly.
A wry smile immediately appeared on Luo Yunluo’s face.
“Daoist Long… ever since my sister and I came to Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, you’re the first to praise her like that. Not just her—even I find it refreshing to hear.”
He did not fly into a rage like a typical human elder brother over the suspected “harassment” of his sister.
The difference in race was simply too great; whether the other party was sincere or malicious was something he, as her brother, could clearly discern.
To be able to say such words meant there was no ill intent.
“I know you might not believe me,” Long Tao scratched his head, his face full of sincerity, “but I truly think her six eyes are quite pleasing to look at! To be honest, even I find it strange—I was just wondering whether your sister secretly used some exclusive Myriad Demon Mountains charm technique on me.”
“Hahaha!” Luo Yunluo was amused by this, his lower shell trembling slightly with laughter.
“That little girl? If she were actually willing to learn any arts of seducing others, I, as her brother, would probably burn incense in gratitude! But Daoist Long, your tastes… among humans, they really are one of a kind.”
“Who says that? This is called having good taste!” Long Tao retorted seriously.
“Your sister must have some special charm for even a human like me to appreciate her across species. Alright, alright, enough of this—we’ll be neighbors from now on, and there’ll be plenty of times we’ll need to look out for each other.”
“Indeed.” Luo Yunluo nodded, then casually added, “By the way, most of us from the Myriad Demon Mountains follow the path of the ‘Nine Refinements of Demon Bones.’ Luo Yusi and I are both at the Third Refinement now. By your human standards… hmm, around mid-to-late Foundation Establishment, I suppose? So if you run into any trouble, don’t be shy—just say the word.”
“Whoa!” This time Long Tao was truly shocked, his eyes widening.
“So I’ve been living next to two seniors this whole time, calling you both ‘Daoist’ every day… my apologies, my apologies! I won’t dare address you so casually anymore!”
After exchanging a few more polite words, Long Tao took his leave and headed out.