Chapter 156: Oceans to Part

Chapter 156: Oceans to Part

As soon as the idea to absorb the entire ocean passed into his head, Huis eyes widened. He smiled. I have to. I must! To do any less would be to turn down this heavenly opportunity. If I turn it down, when will I come across an opportunity like this again?

Im not even in danger! I can sit here and quietly absorb this entire ocean, gain an ocean of qi into the red gem! No one can attack me. No one can stop me. Im locked away in a realm of my own! I couldnt be safer!

Almost at the same time that the thought occurred to him, the absorption power of the red gem fell. The hollow space around the gem grew smaller, and the seal even showed signs of closing itself in again.

Hui furrowed his brows and sent his qi into the red gem.

The red gem burned with power, full to the brim with blood qi. The red soul stared at the blood qi, openly panting, but could do nothing but watch as the golden life-qi songbird continued to back it into a corner. Hui frowned and retracted his qi from the gem. Theres too much blood qi. The gem is almost full.

He bit his lip, thinking. I can use the blood qi to strengthen the pink duck, but thats about it. I cant use the qi myself. I can probably use it to power the snake to escape from here, but then Im turning my back on a heavenly opportunity. When will I have the power to store this much blood qi again? Even if I store it in the gem and never use it, having a gem full of this much blood qi is equivalent to having at least a thousand spirit stones!

Or I could use it to escape this trial. This almost certainly represents enough power to pass through at least this realm of the trial with ease. After all, I can only absorb the death aura from this pile of bones, not any qi. Im cut off from using my own qi directly, or absorbing qi directly due to the trial. If I want to use qi, I have to process it through the snake nove(l)bi(n.)com

At the same time, his second dantian rotated, as if caught in lock-step with the first. Instinctively, Hui drew harder at the death aura emanating from the pile of bones. As if it had been waiting for him, it surged in response. Black energy poured into his second dantian. A void began to open up in its heart as well. As Hui shaped the first, so too did the second take form.

Hui didnt notice it, with his eyes closed, but as he mediated, he slid slowly down the pile of bones toward the blood qi sea, drawn by the incredible attraction power of the red gem. The sea, meanwhile, dropped. Not a few centimeters, or a mere handspan, but by meters. One meter, two meters, three, ten, it continued to drop!

Ordinarily, breaking through to fourth realm would not require such an incredible amount of qi. However, this was qi that had to be filtered not once, but twice, and in the filtering, a massive amount of qi was removed. Fifty percent was lost between the gem and the snake, and an additive twenty-five percent vanished into the blood-qi duck, leaving Hui with only twenty-five percent of the qi that entered the gem. Some of that qi vanished as it slammed into the death aura simultaneously entering his body, the two negating one another. In the end, only ten percent of what Hui absorbed from the sea reached his dantian. And yet, it remained a staggering amount of qi!

Sweat broke out on Huis forehead. His body trembled. The hand that held the red gem and the snake grew hot, burning from the force of the qi passing through it. Black and blue light scintillated off of him in alternating waves, one second the blue of qi, the next the black of death qi. As he sat there, he emitted two auras simultaneously, not unlike the amber hed refined to create Jin Xian. One aura was a putrid, stagnant aura, a horrid, frozen aura of death. The other was a brilliant, pure aura, full of boundless life and possibility. The two fought one another, one struggling to outshine the other.

Huis brows furrowed. He sensed the war in his auras, and understood instantly. This is a bottleneck. Ive reached a block in the road. If I cant separate my auras entirely, I wont be able to progress to the fourth stage, not now, nor ever!

He hesitated a moment, but only a moment. Determined, he drew even more strongly on the gem, sucking up more of the ocean. I wont stop here. I wont see such heavenly luck again in a long time. If I dont reach fourth stage here and now, I deserve to be thrown out of the cultivation world for throwing away good fortune.

Ill act the way Master does! If I cant comprehend this bottleneck now, then I dont deserve to be his disciple!