Chapter 77 – Seven-Star
Inside the blood cocoon, the iron talisman was flying around Ye Wei’s body whilst giving off a red glow. This time, Ye Wei was very much conscious despite the rage of the souls sacrificed to make the crystals that were rushing through his body, as the Mystic Mountain was suppressing the aggressive energy of the crystals inside Ye Wei’s Sentient. The rage intent and aggressive energy were once again purified, nourishing and strengthening Ye Wei’s Sentient instead of harming it.
Ye Wei opened his eyes thinking, ‘There is good and evil within everyone. It’s so hard to judge if a person really cares about you unless you see how they deal with a situation like this…’ The people outside could not see Ye Wei, but Ye Wei could hear their conversations clearly.
The fact that some of the Warriors left while the others willingly stayed showed Ye Wei what being honorable truly meant.
‘My Sentient is almost as strong as a Warrior’s now, and now that I have enough pills I think I can try to breakthrough to seven-star level!’
‘However this is not the time. My dantian has not fully expanded yet! I should make it as large as I can before I attempt to breakthrough.’ Ye Wei clenched his fist as he thought this. Although the Ye family is not considered big, they did teach their kids common sense. Ye Wei was taught a great deal about training since a young age.
‘The seven-star Student breakthrough is the most important for a Student; I have to do it properly. Rushing it will do me more harm than good.’ Ye Wei’s radiant eyes shone brightly.
‘The body will evolve when one becomes a five-star Student, and the green screen of Qi will help improve one’s speed, strength, and defense multiple times compared to a four-star Student! And when I become a seven-star Student, my dantian will evolve!’
‘Base on the dantian size during the breakthrough, seven-star Student’s dantian can potentially hold many times the Qi as a six-star Student can, that’s why six-star Students should establish a good foundation and strengthen their dantian as hard as possible!’
‘While breaking through to the six-star level, my dantian was widened, when I become a seven-star Student its space will multiply. I need to take advantage of my time now as the more I expand it, the greater the effects will be when I breakthrough.’
‘A frightening amount of Qi is needed to expand it, and the better the pills are the larger my dantian will get. It seems that the Qi inside each superior-grade Blood Devourer crystal is purer and stronger than the Qi within a Silver Moon pill, and it’s only a tiny bit weaker than cosmic energy. Although the talisman absorbed the majority of the Qi from the Blood Devourer crystals, the remaining energy should be sufficient for my needs!’
‘I’ve never heard of these strange red crystals. I don’t think they are something I can buy anywhere. If they were for sale, I imagine they would cost far more than a Silver Moon pill. The feeling I get after refining these crystals is as if I had taken quite a few high-quality pills.’
Ye Wei thought all this as he controlled the energy from the Blood Devourer crystals. He diverted all of it from around his body into his dantian to expand it as much as possible.
The iron talisman had now returned to its original position, three inches above Ye Wei’s head, after flying around his body absorbing most of the energy. While Ye Wei was focused on cultivating, the talisman had been replenishing its energy. Now eighty out of the eighty-one grooves on the talisman were shining silver, and the last groove was half filled.
The people who sat around the blood cocoon did not know that Ye Wei was currently cultivating, and five more hours passed without anyone noticing anything odd about the cocoon. After hours of channeling the energy into his dantian, Ye Wei vigorously opened his eyes.
‘It’s at its limit!’ Ye Wei’s face showed joy and his eyes were shining. After cultivating for so long, he finally fully expanded his dantian as much as was physically possible.
Ye Wei also knew that once he became a seven-star Student, his will-force would evolve as well. His Sentient should then be as large as a Warrior’s, and his dantain would be able to store as much as a nine-star Student could!
When he successfully breaks through and reaches the seven-star level, his body strength wouldn’t be necessary for combat. He would be as strong as a nine-star Student due to his Sentient and dantian! His body strength would be the only thing lacking.
Strength is strength but against mystic stances it can only do so much!
‘Now is the time to breakthrough!’ Ye Wei thought excitedly in his heart. He was looking forward to this for a long time now. Once he becomes a seven-star Student, he can verify if he is able to use mystic stances; even if he can’t use them he could still attempt to create and refine stances!
For now, Ye Wei’s Sentient was still red, but so what? If he could use mystic stances, he can easily refine stances with his phenomenal Soul Sensibility. With all the cosmic energy he would acquire he could then easily upgrade his Sentient quickly.
After Ye Wei slowly exhaled and calmed down from his excitement, struggled to move his arm inside the tight cocoon but he managed to take a Silver Moon pill out of his bag and swallowed it, thus started attempting a breakthrough.
The Silver Moon pill melted as it entered Ye Wei’s mouth and the dense Qi within the pill was released immediately. It rushed into his system, and he was overwhelmed by a refreshing feeling as if he had dived into a cool river on a midsummer’s day. His muscles were shaking, and his bones emitted a cracking sound. His organs were vibrating and it felt like every cell of his body was cheering and celebrating. Ye Wei narrowed his eyes and let himself dwell in this comfortable feeling.
‘These Silver Moon pills are definitely better and more valuable than Fiery Sun Quenchers, and their effects are astounding. The Qi within them is so clean, and there are no impurity in the energy at all!” Feeling the intense, refreshing primal energy in his body, Ye Wei’s lips curled upward forming an excited smile.
‘The transformation has begun!’ Ye Wei thought as he took a deep breath and could feel the changes in his body. He closed his eyes and held his breath as he started to focus on breaking through.
Ye Wei’s cultivation was at the limit of a six-star Student’s. His Sentient and his body strength were strong enough now, and with the help of the Silver Moon pills breaking through was not a difficult task at all.
Bang! Boom! Boom!
As the Silver Moon pill’s effect spread throughout Ye Wei’s body, his strength slowly started to improve. The green energy layer under his skin thickened, and his Sentient too was gradually expanding however his dantian transformed at an even faster speed.
The quiet dantian was filled with dense primal energy, and it was vibrating at a mysterious frequency. With this vibration, Ye Wei’s dantian was expanding at a pace.
In a matter of moment, Ye Wei’s dantian was twice as big as it was before he had been trapped in the cocoon.
To expand one’s dantian takes an alarming amount of primal energy, and in a matter of seconds, Ye Wei had swallowed three whole Silver Moon pills.
Ye Wei’s Sentient was red, so it absorbs Qi at a very slow rate. If it wasn’t supported by pills or external energy, just from normal training Ye Wei would not be able to gather enough Qi without two to three years’ time.
Luckily Ye Wei had enough pills on him. A total of one hundred and eighty-nine Silver Moon pills, and that was way more than enough for his seven-star breakthrough.
Feeling the pills’ effect fading, Ye Wei took one Silver Moon pill after another as if they were candy.
Time passed slowly while Ye Wei took pill after pill. Under this enormous influx of Qi, Ye Wei’s dantian kept expanding.
Two times, three times, four times, five times!
When Ye Wei’s dantian has enlarged five times its original size, his expansion speed started to slow down. Four more hours passed until his dantian was finally seven times as big as its original size, and when his growth stopped he was a seven-star Student!
Seven times!
Ye Wei’s dantian expanded seven times its original size. Now his dantian was multiple times larger than an ordinary seven-star Student’s it is even comparable to a nine-star Student’s dantian.
Before attempting his breakthrough, Ye Wei used the energy from the crystals to expand his dantian to its maximum size. After using them, he had a good foundation to build on which is what let his dantian grow so much more than an ordinary six-star Student’s usually would.
Suffice it to say it’s impossible to widen one’s dantian to its limit without an unimaginable amount of energy.
“Pff!” Ye Wei who sat in a lotus position in the cocoon, opened his eyes and slowly exhaled. Immediately after he clenched his fist and felt the vast energy in his body. His face showed a happy smile.
‘My cultivation is just a seven-star Student, but when it comes to my Sentient size and my dantian, I am as good as an ordinary nine-star student!’
‘Stances! I can finally try to use mystic stances!’ Ye Wei’s eyes were glittering. He had been waiting for this day for too long, far too long.
‘I still don’t believe that I can’t use mystic stances!’ Ye Wei thought about how he failed Master Yi rune consonant test. About how he scored zero which meant that he could never use stances, and he bit his lips. The happiness in his heart and the excitement from his breakthrough was replaced by nervousness.
‘No matter the result, I will overcome my fate!’ Ye Wei kept biting his lip as his eyes shone with determination. He was ready to try and use a mystic stance.
‘The White Tiger’s Assault is a low-level Myst stance, Triple Plunder Sword is a high-level Spirit stance, and Windrift Steps is also a high-level Spirit stance with my current cultivation I would not have enough will-force or Qi to use any of these high-level stances. The stance I refined with Zi Yan though, Triple Tidal Palm is a mid-level Spirit stance; I can try that instead.’ Ye Wei thought, and started to picture the way Triple Tidal Palm was formed and the rune sequence that was used.
At the seven-star Student level, the will-force in Ye Wei’s Sentient and the Qi in his dantian could only support a low-level Spirit stance. There was hope, but Ye Wei was not sure if he could successfully perform the mid-level Spirit stance, Triple Tidal Palm.
‘Mid-level Spirit stance, Triple Tidal Palm!’ Inside the three meters tall cocoon, Ye Wei stood up and held his breath so he could focus better. He slowly raised his finger as strands of will-force were forming on it. At the same time Qi rushed out of his dantian.
With will-force as a quill and Qi as ink, Ye Wei started drawing mystic runes!
In the air, rune after rune was drawn by Ye Wei stroke after stroke.
“Eh?” While drawing the runes, Ye Wei was startled. He widened his eyes and stared at the runes. They were disappearing before he could even finish drawing them.
‘I’m too careless!’ Ye Wei slapped his forehead and shook his head while smiling embarrassingly.
Ye Wei had underestimated how difficult it was to perform a mystic stance; understanding how the runes are drawn and where they should be in the sequence is not enough.
To successfully complete a mystic stance one has to draw the runes quickly and perfectly coordinate their Qi flow. Only when both criteria were met will one see success.
It takes a lot of time to train if one wants to master a stance because determination and will are limited; therefore, no cultivator would be obsessed with how many mystic stances they learned but instead they would spend their time on perfecting the few they knew.