The Qi was pulled into his meridians one strand at a time, the movement smooth and effortless as though taking gold from a full mine. Every single converted strand of Qi would then be purified nine times with his True Samadhi Fire, forcefully removing any impurities within to leave only the purest type behind. This method of cultivation was quite wasteful, and most ordinary people would prefer to have as much Qi inside their bodies as possible. The more Qi a person had, the further they could push their cultivation tier; never would anyone be so "picky" regarding something like this.

Most other cultivators chased after "quant.i.ty". For Fang Xing, his priority was "quality".

Despite this, after a few strands of Qi had made their way into his meridians, Fang Xing began to quiver. He could no longer fully control the flow of Qi as it began to rinse through the entirety of his body and expand his meridians.

It was a breakthrough.

He had been at the peak of tier four for some time now, but this could no longer be suppressed. It was only natural that he’d break into the next tier.

To Fang Xing, breakthroughs were no longer as difficult now as they had been before. His eyes were closed shut, and the collection of Qi within his body was like a large wave lapping at the sandy sh.o.r.es, cleansing his body over and over. Pale blue flames lightly danced just outside his physical form, and under the two-p.r.o.nged attack from both inside and out, breaking through into the fifth tier was easy. There was no unimaginable pain like there had been before, nor were there large amounts of stenchy impurities being forced out from his body. By now, his foundation had been stabilized to the extreme, and his physical body was nearly perfect. That there would no longer be any impurities coming out of his body during breakthroughs was only natural.

There were no longer any bottlenecks for smaller breakthroughs like for the fifth or sixth tiers. Unlike before, where breaking through into each tier was like a life and death experience, these "bottlenecks" would now be easily broken once his cultivation had reached that point.

Rumble rumble rumble….

As though a mountain was breaking alongside a quaking earth and erupting volcanoes, loud noises pushed up against Fang Xing’s eardrums. This was not a real sound that could be heard from the outside, but was coming from the Purple Mist Orchid’s violent Jing that was currently rus.h.i.+ng in all directions within his meridians. Yet, only one tenth of the orchid had currently been converted so far, and it could be said that the real conversion had only just begun.

This Purple Mist Orchid was an herb Xiao Jianming’s grandfather had secretly planted while the great grand-elder and Bai Qianzhang sealed the beast king. Using the Demonic Qi of the Golden Core Stage beast king as fertilizer, he nurtured the herb in secret for his own personal reasons, and the Purple Mist Orchid had absorbed nearly all of the Demonic Qi released by the beast king these few hundred years. The amount of medicinal power contained within was terrifying.

The Golden Core Stage beast king was not something to be messed with. Even at the lowest level of Golden Core Stage, someone as insignificant as Fang Xing could be killed with a single blink of an eye. If Fang Xing’s existence were to be compared to an immortal’s, he would be no more than an ordinary person who might be just a little bit more fit than most. In front of Fang Xing, the beast king’s cultivation level would be an unclimbable mountain, yet Fang Xing was trying to swallow such a mountain whole.

Rumble rumble rumble….

The volcanoes were still erupting within, and the violent waves of Jing made Fang Xing feel as though even his physical body had turned into a volcano or a giant burning stove. There were even tinges of yellow as the rocks beneath him began to vitrify[1].

The giant mountain had been broken down and turned into medicinal power, and now it was transforming into Jing being distributed through Fang Xing’s meridians and veins. It was to be converted into Qi, then refined and filtered nine times over so that only its purest form was left behind to add to his stores of Qi. This was an extremely wasteful method of cultivation, but the Purple Mist Orchid’s medicinal power was just too great, and it alone actually caused Fang Xing’s level of cultivation to rise at a startling speed.

Spirit Stage tier five low-tier… mid-tier… high-tier… peak….

"What skill is the boy practicing? How can it be so astonis.h.i.+ng?" At this moment, Xu Linyun—seated outside of the cave—opened her eyes in surprise and took a few glances towards the cave’s interior. She could sense waves of heat blasting out from within, and its strength left even her amazed. "Aii, three years under the wings of Elder Bai Qianzhang was indeed not for nothing. Looks like I really cannot take him lightly anymore in the future," Xu Linyun muttered to herself after some time.

With a wave of her delicate hand, Xu Linyun covered the entrance of the cave with a barrier. Fang Xing’s actions right now were too loud, and she blocked the entrance to keep him from being disturbed by anyone who might hear the noise.

At the same time, under an old pine tree and between a few moss-covered rocks half a mile from the cave, Xiao Jianming sat atop the highest rock with a gloomy expression. Just slightly below him on the left- hand side sat Feng Qingwei, whose expression was also not a happy one. Below her, seven or eight Shanhe Valley disciples sat around, all surrounding Xiao Jianming as they discussed Fang Xing amongst themselves.

"That little turtle egg of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, how dare he act so rudely towards s.h.i.+xiong Xiao! We must teach him a lesson!"

"That’s right, he’s taking advantage of s.h.i.+jie Linyun’s support to dare to contradict s.h.i.+xiong Xiao. If we don’t show him a taste of misfortune, he might think he can even fight against the heavens!" Shen Lo spoke in an aggravated tone, and he sounded as though he held more anger than even Xiao Jianming.

"Of course we will not let the kid go so easily. Does it really need to be said?" Feng Qingwei angrily scolded Shen Lo, her expression filled with annoyance. Although she hated Fang Xing, she did not take a liking to this Shen Lo. He was a Shuwen Valley disciple—not one of their Shanhe disciples—yet, for some reason, he was here for the sole purpose of cursing Fang Xing with them.

Shen Lo was dumbstruck, and he paused before growing silent. He could see that Feng Qingwei and Xiao Jianming had a much closer relations.h.i.+p than he had imagined.

"Big Brother Jianming, what exactly did that little brat steal from you? Could he have hidden it somewhere else?" Feng Qingwei turned her head and asked Xiao Jianming. After not finding anything despite body searching Fang Xing, she was feeling a degree of guilt.

Xiao Jianming let out a gentle sigh. "It was nothing. If it’s lost, then it’s lost!" In truth, even as he spoke, his heart was bleeding with regret. It was a Purple Mist Orchid, a treasure that his grandfather had left behind. If his uncle hadn’t accidentally come across a different opportunity that had allowed him to break into the Foundation Stage, this kind of fortune wouldn’t have fallen onto Xiao Jianming in the first place. With the orchid, Xiao Jianming could have easily broken through into the Foundation Stage and would have no longer needed to be fearful of the sect master, Chen Xuanhua.

For this single herb, he had spent the past five days rus.h.i.+ng to come back. Yet it was nowhere to be found….

Words could no longer describe the sense of annoyance and frustration he was currently feeling.

Not only that, but his grandfather had secretly planted the herb and created the formation in this location hundreds of years ago for personal reasons. This kind of action actually contradicted the main purpose of sealing the beast king in this location in the first place—to use the beast king’s Demonic Qi to nurture all of the beasts on the mountain in order to train Qing-Yun disciples. In other words, everything in this mountain belonged to the sect; nothing was there for one’s personal use. When his grandfather had secretly planted the Purple Mist Orchid here, not only had it pulled a large amount of the Demonic Qi to the plant instead, but he had also added a formation around it to hide it from anyone outside of his family—an act that could be considered abusing his position for personal gain. If this were to be found out, the rest of the chief elders from the other three valleys would likely express dissatisfaction and bring trouble to his uncle.

Despite Xiao Jianming’s suspicions towards Fang Xing, he could not be straightforward about what it was and make a commotion out of it.

Furthermore, after Fang Xing had been body searched, Xiao Jianming actually began to have a bit of doubt as to his own suspicions. Could it be that the slight purple light he saw in the air had actually been a hallucination? He had chased Fang Xing the entire way and hadn’t seen anything being tossed away, either. Somewhere small wouldn’t fit the entire Purple Mist Orchid, and it couldn’t be consumed raw or the consumer would explode and die….

The more he thought about it, the more his head began to ache. Xiao Jianming’s thoughts were now in complete disarray.

"Could it really be as the boy said? That s.h.i.+xiong Xiao’s item was taken by the Foundation Stage beast?" someone curiously asked while a few others looked up at the same time. They had seen the Foundation Stage beast with their very own eyes and were more interested in where it was; they felt panic and fear even now.

"Yeah. The sudden onset of the boy’s wounds was that of unstable Qi and blood. It does look like the result of being hit by someone with a high cultivation level. This might actually prove what he said is true!"

As the people discussed amongst themselves, Xiao Jianming was made to consider that perhaps there truly was a Foundation Stage beast after all. After a short moment of calming himself down, he decided that the first thing to do was to not worry about this. "Enough. Let’s not speak of this matter anymore!"

Since his uncle had wanted him to scout out whether Bai Qianzhang had potentially left any other powerful skills behind, Xiao Jianming decided to get to know Fang Xing a bit more first. He had originally wanted to be at peace with the boy, but this had unexpectedly been prevented by a single misunderstanding on their first meeting. Any chance of easing the grudge was already minimal by now, so he’d have to use other methods instead. Only by knowing oneself and one’s enemy would one have a good grasp of the outcome.

"By the way, Big Brother Jianming, dear s.h.i.+fu said that our valley must rank first on this mission. When you weren’t here, I had no chance against Xu Linyun, but now that you’re here, you’ll need to help me!" Feng Qingwei smiled as she spoke, and over her usual cold face was a hint of flirtation.

Xiao Jianming lightly laughed. "You can rest your mind at ease now that I’m here. I will make sure Shanhe Valley takes the first position in this mission for sure. s.h.i.+mei Linyun is slow-tempered and is a bit lacking in management ability; since I’m here now, it’s only natural that I’ll take over as the person in charge!" Xiao Jianming spoke as though all of this was simply a matter of course. Xu Linyun wasn’t his opponent, and now that he was here, it was only natural that Shanhe Valley would be placed first.

—

[1] Vitrify: Vitrification is the process of transforming a solid into a scientific "gla.s.s"—a non-crystalline, amorphous solid. It is caused when a solid is heated to the point of melting and is then rapidly cooled. Think ceramics, as vitrification is often used during the process.