Chapter 137 Duncan's Dilemma



Within the past three days, there have been numerous battles in the Grotto Heaven. Geniuses fought each other to prove their superiority over their peers. Righteous faction clashed against evil cultivators in a bid to gain dominance.

As battles were waged, blood flowed like a river within the central area of the Grotto Heaven. Earth-shaking clashes were staged causing the atmosphere in the central region to become more and more volatile with each passing hour.

Especially, the region around the main hall was filled with crouching dragons and hidden snakes. The body count has risen through the roof in the past three days. Only a select few absolutely strong individuals were able to remain without injury at this time.

But, none of this mattered to Duncan.

He was currently cultivating in the forest region arduously. In the past month, his cultivation had once again risen sharply. Currently, he was at the peak of the Spirit Sea realm.

Violet qi raged around his body as he calmly circulated the qi in his body and guided it to break through. But, after a long time, he let out a frustrated huff and opened his eyes.

Maybe it was because he had been lacking Slaughter qi, or maybe it was because his cultivation had been rising rapidly, or maybe it was something else entirely. Regardless of the reason, Duncan was currently at a bottleneck.

And this frustrated Duncan who was looking forward to exiting this region and looking for some more opportunities. In this one month, he had continuously broken through six minor levels. This rate of advancement can only be considered phenomenal in the Spirit Sea realm.

As per general logic, the Spirit Sea realm didn't have any bottlenecks. It can be considered that breaking through levels at the Spirit Sea realm was even easier than in the Qi Condensation realm.

Unlike the Qi Condensation realm, where a cultivator needs to prepare his body to lay a firm foundation, the Spirit Sea realm only focuses on refining the internal qi present in one's body.

When a cultivator enters the Spirit Sea realm, the qi present in his body is already in a liquid state. In the Qi Condensation realm, a cultivator usually strengthens his body along with accumulating the qi inside his body. But, in the Spirit Sea realm, there is no body-strengthening process.

This is the reason that advancement in the Spirit Sea realm is considered to be easier than it was in the Qi Condensation realm. But, there was a large caveat present. For a cultivator to advance through the minor realms in the Spirit Sea realm, there is a need of abundant qi.

Usually, this is the reason normal cultivators spend a lot of time in the Spirit Sea realm. The qi needed to refine the liquid qi present in the body in each stage is not small. The cultivators need to spend a lot of time accumulating enough qi to break through each level.

But, Duncan's luck was such that he was stuck in a place where there is abundant qi. The amount of qi present in the Grotto Heaven can be described as limitless in a manner. After all, this was an accumulation of several centuries in a sealed area.

So, it was only natural that Duncan didn't face any obstacles when breaking through the minor levels of the Spirit Sea realm inside the Grotto Heaven. His speed of breakthrough this time was really phenomenal.

If other cultivators took several months to refine their qi from the Red Sea to the Violet Sea, Duncan only took several days at most to break through each level. Hence, within one month, he had already refined all the qi in his body to violet color. 

As for the slaughter qi required for him to advance through each level, the forest region he was currently in was populated with a lot of mid-tier and high-tier Level 2 beasts. Even Level 3 beasts are not a rarity in this region. So, how could Duncan face any bottleneck while advancing through minor realms?

But, heavens always have a way to block a cultivator's path. And Duncan wasn't an exception either. 

"Sigh," Duncan let out a frustrated breath, "it looks like I can never break through the Spirit Sea realm and enter the Violet Palace realm inside this Grotto Heaven. No matter what I try, there is no way for me to do that."

"Now that I know this, I better forget about fighting for opportunities against other cultivators," Duncan sighed. "Even if I go over, I can only get beaten up by others. With such a low cultivation level, it is tantamount to suicide to fight for opportunities."

There was a pertinent reason for Duncan's negative attitude. It is not that Duncan had encountered an insurmountable roadblock in his cultivation. In fact, his conditions were perfectly suited for his cultivation technique. It was as if this cultivation technique was tailor-made for him.

There is abundant qi in the Grotto Heaven. Countless demonic beasts and other cultivators were available if Duncan needed slaughter qi. His body is in its prime state. And Duncan's understanding of his cultivation technique was above the required expertise as well. 

But, even with all these advantages, Duncan was stuck in the peak of the Spirit Sea realm because of one simple reason.

He didn't have the third chapter of <Slaughter Demon Sutra> to cultivate further.

When Duncan's master instructed him on the cultivation technique, he never foresaw that Duncan would be locked up inside the Grotto Heaven like this at a crucial stage.

So, Liang Tianye never imparted him with the third chapter of <Slaughter Demon Sutra>. He only instructed Duncan on the first two chapters. Without the third chapter, Duncan was unable to convert the liquid qi in his body to a semi-solid state.

In order to break through to the next realm, Duncan must be able to transform his qi into a semi-solid state. Even if he had enough slaughter qi in his body, it is useless unless he knew the method to transform his qi.

The Violent Palace realm is considered to be a watershed that differentiated those with potential and those without. The reason for this is that, without proper technique and good enough talent, it is impossible to transform the liquid violet qi into semi-solid pillars that lay the foundation for the Violet Palace in a cultivator's body.

This transformation not only requires proper technique, but it also needs the cultivator to have above-average control of his qi. And talent and perception are also a must. To add to that, if one doesn't have an adequate body foundation, the established pillars will crumble before they are formed completely.

That's why this realm is the watershed that separates the ones with potential and the ones without. The reason Wang Clan Patriarch is still at the Spirit Sea realm is also due to this.

Thus, without the third chapter, Duncan was now stuck unable to progress any further. Regardless of how much time passes, Duncan can only wait until he exits and ask his master for the next chapter of the cultivation technique.

If Duncan didn't want to wait, then he must change to another cultivation technique. That might cause him some severe backlash due to conflicting properties of the cultivation techniques and also reduce his cultivation drastically.

Duncan could only helplessly scratch his head due to his situation. If there was one thing Duncan had never been worried about in his cultivation journey, it was the cultivation technique.

In a way, Duncan had been quite spoiled from the start. While other cultivators would shift through multiple cultivation techniques from the moment they began to find the right technique, his cultivation technique was directly granted to him by his master.

This also limited Duncan's vision. And his journey had been pretty smooth sailing so far. Regardless of the numerous dangers he faced, Duncan had never been worried about his cultivation technique so far in his journey. This made him a bit complacent.

Now that he encountered his first setback, Duncan was quite confused as to what he should do. Even though he knew that this situation was only temporary, Duncan was a bit miffed.

He knew that he would never receive such a good opportunity to cultivate in peace once he stepped out of the Grotto Heaven. Not to mention the environment that was quite rich in qi. In a way, this Grotto Heaven was Duncan's shortcut to catch up to his peers.

And he had used this opportunity to shorten the distance quite admirably. But, Duncan was greedy for more. He didn't just want to catch up, he wanted to overtake his peers and stand above them.

Unfortunately, such a situation arose casting a stumbling block in his path. Now, Duncan was stuck at the peak of the Spirit Sea realm for the next three months. 

"It is no use to bash my head regarding his," Duncan let out a sullen breath. "My increase in cultivation has come to an end. I have to accept that fact. There is nothing else to do. Now, I have to concentrate on other things."

It is not that Duncan didn't think of obtaining some other cultivation technique from a few inheritance sites present in the Grotto Heaven. But, unlike the other cultivators present in the Grotto Heaven, Duncan had experienced first-hand the convoluted background of this Grotto Heaven.

Furthermore, this Grotto Heaven was left behind by righteous cultivators. As a demonic cultivator, Duncan was quite leery of things left behind by those cultivators for the future generation.

Who knows what kind of effect it would cause if he cultivated another technique? Will the slaughter qi inside him clash with the new technique? Would it cause any adverse effects? Since he didn't know the answers to this question, Duncan decided to obediently wait. 

It was far better than running into some complications. He was still a cultivation layman after all. It hadn't even been six months since he started cultivating. Hadn't he already got himself stuck in a tricky situation already? Only an idiot would further meddle in things he didn't know of.

"Since I couldn't make any progress in my cultivation, I need to do something else to make my time here useful. Either I concentrate on my martial arts techniques or I choose to cultivate that new soul art I received. What should I do?" Duncan frowned thinking hard.

Just then, a large bang echoed across the region causing Duncan to stand up abruptly. 

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