Chapter 48: Empress and the Ancestral Cave

A quick question for you. Do I need to increase the length of the chapters to, say, 2000 words or more? I hope for your activity====

To successfully break through to the Core Formation stage, two important conditions must be met: being physically strong and having a suitable level of Qi.

These conditions may seem easy, but in reality, they are very strict and eliminate those who cannot use a good cultivation technique or are physically very weak, which is common for most low-quality cultivation techniques that focus on developing Qi. Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

These are the two basic and important conditions, while others such as having a good cultivation technique, a good set of combat techniques, etc. are not official but rather recommended to survive the qualitative changes after the breakthrough.

Fortunately for Xie Qing, he did not need any of this. He was confident that he would break through. Over the months, he did not worry about it at all. He just spent his days flirting with his Master, visiting Fang Lan, and annoying Bai Bai.

After that attack, there were no more similar incidents. Although Xie Qing deliberately chose the quietest route to provoke them, he only felt gazes on him, and that was all. He was being watched, but not attacked.

Therefore, these six months passed very quickly.

***

"Everything is ready. I bought the necessary pills for you and set up devices to increase the concentration of Qi for five hours. This should be enough," Xu Mei stood in front of Xie Qing. She was dressed in a white dress that was very casual and revealed her slender figure.

They were in the backyard of her pavilion, where no one dared to enter, and over time, Xu Mei had quickly transitioned from an ancient person (in terms of fashion) to a modern one.

However, Xie Qing still could not persuade her to wear her qipao, to his great disappointment.

"Okay. Then I'll start now," Xie Qing said with a smile.

Such treatment was only received by the offspring of wealthy families. Around him were Qi stabilization devices, which were considered so expensive that they could not be bought on the market. Moreover, he was given very valuable pills that could permanently strengthen the cultivator.

Although he was a little embarrassed by the amount of gifts, Xu Mei insisted.

"Then that's just great. I hope you can break through to the Core Formation level and surprise the world," Xu Mei said with a smile, and her heart beat wildly with excitement.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not calm down. The thought that her disciple and lover would be the first in the history of cultivation to reach the Core Formation level at the age of 18 made her smile from ear to ear!

Moreover, it seemed that the young man planned to go out into the world after this. Although it was a little dangerous, Xu Mei did not want to prevent him from becoming an adult.

"Only by seeing the danger of the outside world will he be able to understand the right path. And the right path will always be my strong embrace," she thought, and her cheeks blushed, and memories of their passionate nights appeared in her head.

Every night... they accompanied each other. First, they "hugged," and then fell asleep together.

Moreover, at night they cooed like lovers, calling each other sweet names. This made Xu Mei jump for joy like a silly girl in love!

"Cough... Xu Mei, focus! This is an important moment!" she thought, and her face returned to normal.

She looked at Xie Qing, who had already swallowed the pills and sat in the lotus position. Around him was a vortex of Qi, which showed how abnormally fast and efficiently he absorbed spiritual energy.

His dantian was working overtime, and gradually cracks began to appear on it. With each influx of Qi into the dantian, Xie Qing felt terrible pain, and finally, the dantian was completely covered with cracks and...

Crack!

A quiet sound was heard, but for Xie Qing, it was a direct ticket to hell! After the dantian cracked, he felt a terrible pain! As if someone hit him in the balls several times and then punched him in the stomach with all their might, only ten times stronger and with the sensation of swallowing lava.

Dealing with the pain was not easy. Xie Qing could only clench his teeth and focus on his cultivation technique.

An hour passed... two hours passed. The spiritual energy rushing out of his dantian formed a semi-transparent sphere that now moved to the area of Xie Qing's forehead.

This was the core of the Core Formation cultivator – the Qi Core!

This core would completely replace the dantian in the future and would also grow the soul to break through to the Soul Nascent cultivation stage!

And so... another three hours passed. The terrible pain subsided, and a small golden sphere formed in the area of the forehead, which was even smaller than a ping-pong ball.

However, the Qi in this small sphere was off the charts! It exceeded the Qi of almost ten peak Qi Condensation cultivators, which was abnormal.

Xu Mei also noticed these changes and supported her jaw with her hand, as if it would fall to the ground if she did not. She was shocked!

Although she was already prepared for something abnormal to happen, she did not foresee it to be this abnormal!

"Why is his Qi so rich and powerful? For the first stage, this is too abnormal..." Xu Mei thought and then smiled: "Well, whatever. The more I think about it, the more my head hurts."

...she decided to just ignore it! Which was relatively a good choice.

For the breakthrough to be successful, it took another two hours, as Xie Qing initially had a hard time controlling his Qi, which broke free from any of his movements.

Finally...

"Gulp..."

Xu Mei nervously swallowed, watching as Xie Qing got up from the lotus position. His face was expressionless, and his eyes piercingly scanned everything around him. An aura of "alpha" and "predator" emanated from him.

"I-I... got a little 'hot' down there..."

Meanwhile, Xie Qing turned his gaze to the notification that appeared before him.

[Superior Aura of the Ultimate Being (1/2)] | [Rank: Legendary] | [Description: In the world of spiritual beasts, the one who possesses superior strength is considered the leader. Dragons were the pinnacle of evolution, they represented the Heavens! And when a dragon is present, what creature dares to raise its head high? The skill effect is to instill fear in enemies.

Oh, and this skill works even better on females, so... be careful there, alpha... hehe. The skill is of passive type]

"...what a good technique!"

Xie Qing smiled satisfactorily. Although the part about females was intriguing, he liked the effect that the skill caused even more. This was an intimidation ability that could be turned off if necessary.

Ideal! Great! Wonderful! Especially the effect on females... as expected of dragons!

***

Xie Qing looked back and saw the sect gates that were tightly closed. On the observation tower stood Xu Mei, and with a smile, she waved to him. It was clear that she was a little sad.

"Sigh... although this trip is only for two weeks, it's still too bitter to jump out of the warm embrace of my Master! Moreover, I won't be able to squeeze her breasts at night... what a waste!"

And while he was dreaming about all sorts of things, Xu Mei took out a dusty communication token with a golden dragon engraving. She poured her Qi into it, and after five minutes, the token vibrated.

"You don't call me often, Xu Mei," a majestic indifferent female voice came from the token.

"Yeah, the last time was a thousand years ago," Xu Mei said indifferently, and then got to the point: "Empress, I need you to make sure that your dogs don't interfere with my disciple, as you like to do."

"Hm-m? Do you have a new disciple? Interesting..."

Xu Mei frowned when she heard that the other side deliberately avoided answering and did not give her consent, but instead asked her question to steer the conversation in the right direction.

"Yes. But his identity should not concern you," Xu Mei said coldly and released her pressure, from which clouds appeared in the sky, and many cultivators who were meditating at that moment almost destroyed their dantian from fear: "I warn you. If a single hair falls from his head, I will find you and destroy everything you have achieved."

"..."

The person on the other side of the token fell silent, saying nothing. Only after several minutes, when Xu Mei was already ready to explode, an answer came:

"It will depend on the actions of your disciple, Xu Mei. I am not one of those who intimidate juniors, so your reaction is incomprehensible to me," the person on the other side of the token said coldly.

"Hmph, I am confident in him, but not in your rationality, Empress."

"Heh..."

A quiet laugh was heard. Xu Mei twisted her lips in annoyance and helplessness. This woman was too unpredictable in such moments. After a short pause, the Empress's voice was heard again.

"I will not kill him. Why would I do that at all? I was engaged in killing geniuses when my throne was unstable, but now I don't care," the Empress said indifferently, and then said: "One way or another, I'm too busy. Goodbye."

Another vibration appeared, and the token calmed down. This meant that the Empress had "hung up." Xu Mei, who stood with an indifferent face, could only shake her head.

"If this were an ordinary case, do you think I would warn you like this? With her methods, this bitch will want to either recruit him to the Dynasty or declare a hunt for Qing-er."

How could Xu Mei not know about the character of this lady? Although she seemed indifferent on the surface, her power was always on her mind in line. Although they had stopped at neutral relations, there was still animosity between them.

"There are two options... either I will have to kill her, or this guy will seduce her... which is a rather difficult task," Xu Mei twisted her lips.

***

On a shining golden throne adorned with dragons, sat a woman. Her face and appearance could not be seen, as she sat behind a curtain, and only her figure gave a hint of her gender.

She suddenly giggled.

"Who would have thought that I would hear her voice after all this time? Little Mei-Mei hasn't changed at all, still so annoying and arrogant," the woman said, and her giggle echoed through the empty throne room: "How cute... she worries about her disciples. Much has changed since then, so I'm no longer interested.

The only thing that can make me move is a genius at the level of Xu Mei or even surpassing her... which is impossible, probably."