C3

In front of the huge rock stood a man wearing light blue clothes. He was tall and straight, and judging from his appearance, he seemed to be around twenty years old, with a head of black hair tied up casually, a high nose bridge, thin lips, fair skin, curved almond eyes, and eyebrows that didn't seem to be thick enough for him to draw, making the man look even more like a woman. Although the clothes on his body were very worn out, it couldn't cover up the temperament of the man.

Satisfied, the man looked at the broken stone and smiled. "It's not bad, but it's a pity that all the rocks around the palace have been broken by me. What do I need to test my strength for?"

"Quick, the voice is coming from over there. All of you, follow me." A deep sound rang out, followed by dozens of footsteps. The man who heard the voice had a hint of amusement on his face. He lightly tapped his feet and flew to a nearby tree. He leaned on it and looked at the people coming over.

If anyone had seen this man before, they would immediately recognize that this man was Han Xiao, at this time Han Xiao was already seventeen years old, and his cultivation was already at the early Soul Ning stage, so he could be considered an absolute genius amongst those of the same age, but in terms of fighting with other people, Han Xiao was just a piece of white paper, after all he was someone that Han Xiangtian loathed. Since he was young, no one would teach him their cultivation techniques.

"Now that I'm at the early Soul Formation stage, I can try to cultivate to the fifth layer and open up a new realm in my body. Since I won't go back and no one will look for me, I might as well try to see if I can cultivate to the fifth layer well. If I can open up a new realm and cultivate as one would, it would be beneficial for me to travel across the continent in the future." Han Xiao thought to himself as he walked towards the forest behind him. If he really managed to reach the fifth layer and create a new spiritual field, there would definitely be a big commotion. In order to avoid being discovered, it was better to hide far away.

After running for a while, Han Xiao used his spiritual sense to confirm that there was no one around him. He took a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the ground as he thought about the fifth layer of the cultivation technique.

Earth souls were the leaders of all earth-attributed spirits. Thus, when one absorbed source energy, as long as it was earth-attributed, they would be able to do so. This saved them a lot of trouble and also increased their cultivation speed.

Sensing the change in his Awakening Realm, Han Xiao carefully split a strand of his Spiritual Sense into two parts according to the method of the Soul Refining Art and placed it on the Awakened Soul Realm. He then used the Spirit Fire to turn it into a flaming dagger and fiercely chopped at Awakened Tian.

"Hiss." Han Xiao, who was hit by the flaming dagger, felt a sharp pain coming from his head. His Soul Tian also felt threatened, the pale yellow surface of his body slowly turned golden yellow, trembling violently, as if it would explode at any time.

The speed at which Han Xiao absorbed the Pure Source Energy slowed down due to the influence of the Bull Tian technique. Furthermore, the Beard Spirit Fire started to uncontrollably rush out of his body, quickly wrapping itself around the tree closest to Han Xiao and igniting a raging fire.

Seeing the tree on fire, Han Xiao's heart wanted to rush forward and extinguish the fire, but just as he raised his foot, the pain from the needle pierced through the depths of his mind again, causing him to bend down and hold his head, as if this would help him alleviate some of the pain.

In the instant that Han Xiao hesitated, the red flame seemed to have come to life as it spread everywhere, igniting all the trees around Han Xiao. The scorching heat burned through Han Xiao's body, and Han Xiao felt as if he had returned to the day before his life and death, the scene in front of him merged with the scene from back then, his originally clear eyes slowly turned blood-red, the Qi around his body dropped to the freezing point, and he slowly stood up without caring about the pain in his head. The redness in his eyes became heavier and heavier as he slowly walked to the center of the flame.

"Left Guard, go east to extinguish the fire. Right Guard, go west to extinguish the fire. We must extinguish the fire before the Emperor arrives."

Seeing that his hand was just right in front of the tree trunk, the flames were still less than a centimeter away from his hand. Han Xiao was startled, he immediately ran out of the forest.

Han Xiao had just left when he saw over a hundred figures running over from the outside. The water balls in their hands struck out one by one, and in just a short moment, the originally arrogant flames were slowly showing signs of falling, and the last wisp of flame was completely extinguished by the water balls.

Although the fire had been extinguished, Han Xiangtian's heart did not relax. First, there were the shattered boulders outside the Imperial Palace, then there was the forest outside the Imperial Palace on fire … All of these made him suspect that there was someone who was scheming against their Cloud Ming Empire, but he did not think that the conspiracy he thought of was actually caused by Han Xiao unintentionally.

Han Xiao, who was on the other side of the forest, took advantage of the fact that the others weren't paying attention and ran back into Fengxian Palace, and only after he was sure that there was no one around Han Xiao, did he relax. A stream of blood slowly flowed down the corner of his mouth, and the pain that he had been neglected caused Han Xiao to be unable to stand up any longer as he lay down on the ground, holding his head and slowly falling into a coma.

The next time Han Xiao woke up was three days later, and the moment he woke up, he felt that his entire body was powerless. Thinking of the state he was in, he hastily used his spiritual sense to check his spiritual will, but fortunately, his mental state had returned to normal, and other than his weak body, his cultivation had not dropped.

Thinking about what had happened to him in the forest, Han Xiao couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. This time, it was his luck that he was woken up by the guards who came to extinguish the fire, otherwise he really didn't dare to imagine what would happen to him, and after this matter, he clearly knew that the fifth layer of the Soul Refining Technique was indeed not something that could be cultivated easily, like how he had unprepared to cultivate the fifth layer. He would only fail, but if he didn't cultivate the fifth layer, his cultivation would always be stuck at the early stage of the Soul Condensation.

After lying on his bed for a while, Han Xiao felt a little strength slowly rise from his body. "Gulp!" A cry came from his stomach, and he helplessly rubbed his stomach, looking at the outside, it was still early, he originally wanted to return to his bed and wait for the night, but the hunger made him wish that he could hug the table and eat it, so he hardened his heart and forced himself to go back to his bed. Looking at the broken roof, Han Xiao decided to leave the palace as soon as his body was better.