Over the past three years, Lin Xuan has suffered a lot of pain

as a result of the damage to his meridians as his spiritual energy

circulates, the damage also takes a very long time heal,

thankfully none of it is permanent, but because he does not

have a spiritual root like the average person, he has to diligently cultivate,

while all the while trying not to damage his meridians, which raises the

difficulty and time consumed to another level.

Lin Xuan Carefully controls the rate of flow of his spiritual power,

and thanks to his continuous attempts, he has developed a clear understanding

of the endurance of his meridians, and knows how far he can push himself.

Hours later, after he finishes a perfect cycle, the spiritual power flows

through the meridians, and returns to his dantian.

After gathering spiritual power in his eyes for a few moments, and Lin Xuan’s eyes flashed with a hazy light, and  he sees that none of the damage to his meridians is permanent, and will eventually heal, and so long as he can complete a perfect cycle his spiritual force should increase by a little.

Lin Xuan gritted his teeth,since it seemed that he has to cultivate in the inner area.

The inner area of  Whirlwind Cloud Valley was a cave that the founder stumbled upon three thousand years ago while searching for treasure, which the elders have long since kept protected.

It was a very strange cave, when entering inside, you become wrapped in illusions, and after a moment it feels though you are falling into h.e.l.l, but it is an illusion and does not truly harm you, but it makes people feel miserable, however the advantages to cultivating here are also obvious.

Lin Xuan’s Spiritual Power is horrible, but because of his strong will, cultivating there will have a multiplying effect.

Because all of the outer disciples were  trying to achieve foundation building stage, spirit gathering stage disciples of the lower levels would not risk the mental damage caused by the attacks from the illusions as they would not be able to repair the damage.

Lin Xuan however was left with limited options, either stay stuck at the bottleneck for the first level,or seek an alternative, by creating a breakthrough through cultivating in the inner area. He chose to create a breakthrough.

Opening the heavy school doors, Lin Xuan comes out of the side room. The sky is already black and the stars shined weakly, but he did not intend to rest like the other cultivators.

At the thundercloud valley mountain, Lin Xuan stood at the edge of a cliff that slanted down into a bottomless pit. This is the place to cultivate spirit power, Lin Xuan took a deep breath and walked inside.

The first 100 meters do not have any illusions and the inner power concentrations are the same as the outside world, but Lin Xuan does not dare to be negligent, as he has not heard anything gentle about this place, but rather many stories that made him fearful.

After walking a few steps, the environment suddenly changed around him and the concentration of inner power became thicker making it a very suitable place for cultivation.

Lin Xuan’s face became excited, and after carefully looking around, he discreetly sat down cross-legged to begin cultivating.

Boom!

The Surface area 10 feet around Xuan Lin suddenly erupted in flame, and the temperature suddenly increased….

As this terrifying scene appeared all around him, Lin Xuan raises an eyebrow, and does not panic, turning a blind eye to his surroundings, concentrating on absorbing the spirit power all around him and cultivating he reminded himself that it was all just an illusion, it does not matter.

However, even though he knows it is an illusion, it still feels like a real thing, and after a short time the flames all around him rose to an unbearable temperature, and large drops of sweat started to drip from Lin Xuan’s face.

Sure enough, hearing others describe it and experiencing it for yourself are completely different experiences, just listening to the experts who before Lin Xuan achieved foundation building talk about cultivating in the inner area, he did not expect it to be worse than the legends.

Soon the flames began to burn his body, and with the regenerative powers of his first layer of spirit gathering stage, it is not enough to heal the surface, so he can only bite down and endure.

Suppressing the pain he is feeling from the flames and concentrating on gathering spirit power, it is unimaginably difficult, but Lin Xuan’s willpower is extraordinary and he forces himself to stay down.

While the flames lick his skin, Lin Xuan’s teeth bite down with a snap, leaving the pain behind to become numb, but here the spirit power concentration is really amazing, it’s sufficient to allow cultivation to be several times faster than the outside.

Although it is an illusion, to Lin Xuan it truly feels like he is in h.e.l.l, allowing him to hone his willpower.

Absorbing the spirit power into his body, however is only the first step, and then he has to follow his meridians as he was taught, cultivating them one by one, during which a lot of the power will be lost, usually a finger thick strand of spirit power would ultimately become as thin as a hair after cultivation.

Then that remaining strand of spirit power after pa.s.sing through the meridians would finally gather in his dantian.

Even if the cultivator has a strong willpower, to complete the whole process inside that fire is impossible, and Lin Xuan after enduring for five minutes, reaches the limit of his endurance, stands up, and with his fastest speed runs out of the range of the illusion.

“Sure enough, its exactly like the legends.” Lin Xuan looked over his body, and found himself without the slightest injury, but he still remembered the pain of the burning fire.

Although it was uncomfortable, it was worth it because the spiritual power there was highly concentrated, and very pure, so that when you practice, the effects on your body is multiplied and you have a higher chance of breaking through the bottleneck.

After resting for a while, Lin Xuan once again re-entered the cave, and the flames erupted all around him again, enduring the pain of being burned, he continued to absorb spirit power.

When he reached the limit of his endurance again, he ran outside to rest for a while, and after his physical strength recovered, he re-entered the fire again.

In this way, Lin Xuan through his willpower again and again went into the inner area to cultivate.

………..

A few days later, he finally had some growth in his spiritual power, although compared to what he had to suffer, the results are still very small, but compared to cultivating outside, it is very much faster.

At his current rate, if he continues, he should be able to soon enter the second layer of Spirit Gathering.

After silently calculating his practice schedule, Lin Xuan stood up, he had spent four days cultivating in the inner area, and after cultivating in the fire, his body has stretched to the limits. In the coming two days it will be time to receive instruction from his seniors.

In accordance with the rules of Thundercloud Valley, every four days, it will be time for the Spirit Gathering disciples to receive advice from foundation building seniors, the advice usually helps them cultivate faster, and maybe a few detours in cultivation, Lin Xuan naturally will not miss this opportunity.

Following the road, Lin Xuan came out, and not paying attention, b.u.mped into a foundation building senior.

“Senior!”

“You……” The man glanced at Xuan Lin with a surprised face “ You were cultivating in the inner area?”

“Yes, Senior.”

After they went their separate ways, the foundation building senior was in somewhat of a daze, although the illusion will not cause any true damage, the pain you feel is exactly the same as the real thing, and a Spirit Gathering disciple can unexpectedly endure that level of pain, his willpower was truly astonishing.

Cultivation in addition to spiritual roots, also requires one to have a very strong willpower, it made the senior look at the disciple called Lin Xuan in a new light!