Sensing the abundance of Yin Qi lingering in the room, Jian wasn't about to let it go to waste. Sitting once more in lotus position, he steadied his breath and began to cultivate.
At his command, the faint traces of energy in the air stirred, circling around his body before sinking into his meridians. What had once taken sheer force now flowed naturally—his meridians were open, and his experience was vast. He guided the essence of both Maria and Fei Ling, absorbing it at a pace far faster than before.
His foundation pulsed with each cycle.
—Fifth stage of the Meridian Connection Realm.
—Sixth stage.
—Seventh.
—Eighth.
—Ninth.
His body trembled as his Qi surged to its limits, straining against the barrier that held him back. For two hours straight, the storm of energy raged within him, compressing, refining, transforming. Then—
Boom!
A deep rumble echoed through his body. His dantian expanded, condensing the swirling sea of energy into a glowing, crystalline core. His entire cultivation shifted, ascending to a new height.
Jian had broken through—he had stepped into the Core Formation Realm.
Sensing the sudden shift in the air, Fei Ling snapped her eyes open, her expression hardening like that of a warlord abruptly roused to the sound of a siege.
Impossible…
Her mind reeled as she took in the sight before her. This wasn't something that should happen—not so quickly, not with someone at Jian's level. Yet the truth was plain.
The vast gulf in cultivation between them, coupled with the fact that she had climaxed countless times under Jian's relentless care, had given him an advantage few could dream of.
Maria's Yin Qi was another matter entirely. It wasn't ordinary—it pulsed with a special quality, dense and refined, the kind of essence that could propel someone forward by leaps.
Alone, it might have been enough to push Jian further than most could expect. Combined with Fei Ling's own essence, it had launched him straight through the bottlenecks.
But there was a problem.
Jian had climbed too fast. He had shattered barrier after barrier, breaking through not just multiple minor realms but leaping two major realms in mere hours.
The cost was clear. His meridians twisted and churned in chaos, energy running rampant through his body like floodwaters crashing against a dam too weak to hold it. His foundation was trembling, his body straining to contain power it wasn't yet ready for.
But all this was well between Jians calculations as in the cultivation world they was Many ways to go handle situation like this and Jian was going to execute one of them.
Fei Ling once again woke to yet another phenomenon surrounding Jian. Her chest tightened, and she cursed inwardly.
You really want to die that badly, huh?
Twice in a single day he had engaged in suicidal cultivation, and twice she had been there to witness it. The sheer recklessness made her grit her teeth in frustration.
Yet she understood the situation clearly. The trick to surviving this was simple in theory but brutal in execution—it required absolute mastery of spiritual energy control. His condition was like a balloon stretched to its very limit, a thin skin trembling on the edge of bursting as more air was forced inside. Ordinarily, that would mean disaster.
But if the balloon had two openings—one for air in, one for air out—it could hold indefinitely, no matter how much was pushed inside. The same principle applied here. As long as Jian could channel the excess energy outward, expelling the volatile tide threatening to rupture his meridians, he would be safe.
Of course, that was easier said than done. With his meridians in such chaos, any ordinary cultivator would already be crippled, or worse, dead. But Jian was no ordinary cultivator.
At that very moment, Jian's body began to swell faintly, unable to contain the raging energy. His eyes snapped open, sharp and steady despite the turmoil within. Without hesitation, he slid into his robes.
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine—I'll be back soon," he said firmly, adjusting the collar as his gaze brushed across Fei Ling's worried face.
For reasons she couldn't explain, his words dissolved every trace of her concern. Perhaps it was because she had already seen him accomplish feats that even inner court disciples could not dream of—things that bent reason yet somehow remained within his grasp.
With her heart eased, she crossed her legs and sank into a lotus position.
Her body still hummed with the potent Yang Qi he had left behind. Though she knew it would not benefit her cultivation as much as his own, wasting resources in the cultivation world was nothing short of a taboo. Even the faintest improvement was worth pursuing.
But the moment she began to absorb his Yang Qi, her eyes widened. My cultivation… it's rising? The flow was faint, but undeniable. A trace of disbelief turned into determination, and without hesitation she focused deeply, cultivating with all seriousness.
Meanwhile, Jian had already left his quarters. His strides carried him swiftly through the night air until he arrived at the sect's training grounds, his robes billowing as the storm of energy inside him threatened to spill over.
The training grounds lay deserted under the dim glow of lanterns, the silence broken only by the faint hum of spiritual arrays etched into the stone floor. Jian stepped onto the platform, his chest rising and falling as the storm within threatened to rip his body apart.
His meridians throbbed like molten rivers forced through fragile channels. Each breath made his veins bulge as if they were about to burst. But his gaze remained sharp, and his mind clear.
I can't contain it… then I'll force it out.
He dropped into a lotus stance, hands forming rapid seals. Spiritual Qi flared outward, spiraling around him in crimson arcs that hissed against the protective barrier of the training ground. The air grew heavy, vibrating with his chaotic essence.
"Roar for me," he muttered, and his Qi answered.
The ground cracked beneath him as torrents of excess energy shot upward like geysers, painting the night sky in streaks of blue and gold. The barrier trembled slightly though easily contained his spiritual energy
Every release was like fire tearing through his body, but it was better than implosion. His robe clung to his skin, drenched in sweat, steam curling from his frame as his energy poured out in waves.
Minutes stretched like hours. Finally, the violent surge steadied into a steady current. His meridians still burned, but they no longer clawed against their limits.
Exhaling sharply, Jian rose to his feet. His body was trembling, "now that is out of the way" he said while yawning as if he hadn't done anything what mentioning but as he said that the sun stretched out of the horizon, it was a new day.