At this moment, what was happening inside Li Yan's body was just as described in the texts about spirit absorption, which horrified him. Could it be that the True Scripture of Gui Water was also an extreme form of evil cultivation art?
By now, his water-attribute spirit power vessel was gradually filling up, yet the suction force did not stop. As Li Yan worried, the moment the water-attribute vessel was full, the chaotic spirit power suddenly split into four streams, pouring continuously into the adjacent wood, fire, earth, and metal vessels. It was like four rainbows forming. Li Yan quickly sank his divine sense into his body, and after a moment, he let out a long breath, his heart temporarily at ease. Under the scan of his divine sense, the four streams of spirit power separating from the water vessel had respectively transformed into wood, fire, earth, and metal attributes, pouring into their corresponding vessels. As this impure spirit power entered the four vessels, a roiling surge rose within them. Then, to Li Yan's astonishment, the originally impure spirit power became incomparably pure, no different from his own original spirit power.
'Could the True Scripture of Gui Water really absorb other people's spirit power?' This thought flashed through Li Yan's mind. 'Or perhaps, is there something special about the spirit power within this strange blue rhomboid crystal, making it different from the spirit power in a cultivator's body?'
The blue rhomboid crystal seemed to contain an endless supply of spirit power. After Li Yan rapidly recovered his own, the vortex in his water spirit power vessel did not stop. Instead, it spun to a degree that alarmed him, and even more spirit power poured relentlessly from the crystal into his Dantian's Purple Mansion. Li Yan already felt like he was about to burst.
Seeing his lower abdomen swell up like an inflating balloon, Li Yan was greatly alarmed and hurriedly tried to mobilize his own spirit power to sever the connection with the blue rhomboid crystal. But as soon as his spirit power touched the vortex, it was immediately absorbed into it, having no effect whatsoever. Cold sweat broke out on his back. If this continued, he would end up just like before—dead. The only difference was that before, he would have "starved" to death; now, he would "burst" to death.
He forced himself to calm down. Two breaths later, his abdomen had swelled even further. Beads of sweat covered his forehead, and sharp pains from his dantian had already spread throughout his body. In his anxiety, a flash of insight struck his mind. 'Right now, I can't cut off the external source, but I was still able to mobilize my spirit power just now.' Thinking this, he tried to mobilize his spirit power again. To his delight, it worked. The spirit power in his body was still under his control, as long as it didn't touch the vortex pillar.
Li Yan forced himself to focus and calm his turbulent emotions before hurriedly beginning to circulate his energy according to the Qi Condensation method of the True Scripture of Gui Water.
Li Yan's solution was quite simple, but he had never encountered a situation like this before and had panicked. Since the True Scripture of Gui Water could still be controlled, what he needed to do now was to use this excess spirit power to break through to the next realm. This might solve the feeling of being overfilled. This feeling of being "full" was because the spirit power vessels in his body could no longer hold any more. If he wanted the vessels to grow larger, he had to advance in rank. Even if he failed to advance, the excess spirit power would be consumed in the process of attacking the bottleneck.
It was unknown what the blue rhomboid crystal was made of. As Li Yan began to charge toward the mid-stage of the eighth level of Qi Condensation, his spirit power began to be consumed in large quantities. But the spirit power within the crystal remained as boundless as ever, though its blue glow began to dim, while the black light of its core grew brighter. Coupled with the several-times-denser ambient spirit energy within the Wheel of Life and Death, the spirit power in Li Yan's body was like a surging tide raising thousand-layer waves. Wave after wave, surge after surge, layer upon layer, they charged forward relentlessly, crashing against the barrier of his realm. Under this continuous assault, Li Yan heard a soft "pop" in his ears. The tide of spirit power had broken through the dam, flooding over it. More tides of spirit power followed, submerging the dam again and raising the water level even higher.
In just over a dozen breaths, Li Yan had reached the mid-stage of the eighth level of Qi Condensation. He had just reached the peak of the early-stage a few days ago. At a normal cultivation speed, it would have taken him at least two months to attempt to break through to the mid-stage. Yet, in just a few short days, he had advanced again. But this was far from over.
As the True Scripture of Gui Water spun madly, more and more spirit power continuously assaulted the higher dams of his cultivation, and the blue rhomboid crystal seemed to be an inexhaustible power source, providing Li Yan with a ceaseless tide of spirit power.
"Pop... pop... pop..."
Mid-stage eighth level of Qi Condensation, peak mid-stage eighth level... early-stage ninth level, peak early-stage ninth level...
Half an hour later, Li Yan's cultivation stopped at the peak of the early-stage tenth level of Qi Condensation. He opened his eyes. During the final push to the peak of the tenth level, the vortex had abruptly stopped, and the tide of spirit power in his body began to slowly recede. Fortunately, this happened at the final moment of his breakthrough. Li Yan quickly mobilized his own spirit power and instantly crossed the final barrier. Feeling the unprecedentedly surging power within his body, Li Yan was thrilled. This trip to the Wheel of Life and Death was the right choice. Even if he didn't make it to the top three in the end, just reaching the center of the sphere and surviving would make the gamble worthwhile. In just half an hour, he had achieved what would have taken him one or two years of hard cultivation outside.
He looked down at the blue rhomboid crystal on his lap and was stunned. The crystal had now turned gray, and its original black core had shrunk to a tiny black dot, almost unnoticeable without close inspection. In Li Yan's senses, this blue rhomboid crystal was now like a frail, ancient man, as if a gust of wind could scatter it into a wisp of smoke.
Li Yan carefully extended his divine sense and slowly scanned the blue rhomboid crystal. Instantly, a gray sky appeared in his mind. The space was vast, empty, and lifeless. His divine sense felt no danger here. After scanning the area once, his divine sense slowly flew forward. In this gray space, this wisp of divine sense was like a lonely little bird flying by itself. After his divine sense had flown for some distance, a small black dot suddenly appeared under the gray sky ahead. Li Yan knew that must be the core he had seen from the outside. He approached it rapidly, and the black dot grew larger in his divine sense. By the time he was in front of it, the black dot was a black sphere about ten feet in diameter. Li Yan's divine sense paused before the black sphere. After carefully sensing it, his mind shook. A feeling of intimacy came from the black sphere, an attraction that made him want to get closer, as if a voice was constantly calling him forward. At this moment, the True Scripture of Gui Water within his body stirred slightly, as if it were greeting a long-lost friend.
Li Yan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately extended that wisp of divine sense toward it. However, he was prepared to sever the connection at any moment. If anything went wrong, he would immediately abandon that wisp of divine sense. Although his divine sense would be damaged, he could slowly cultivate it back over time, which was far better than losing his life.
But the moment Li Yan's divine sense touched the black sphere, he felt as if he had inadvertently pushed over an old man. The space here, along with the black sphere, suddenly collapsed. At the same time, the gray blue rhomboid crystal on his lap dissolved into a wisp of smoke and vanished into thin air.
Li Yan stared blankly at the dissipating wisp of smoke and sighed. He hadn't even figured out the specific use of this blue rhomboid crystal, and it had already disintegrated. However, in the next moment, Li Yan's eyes burned with a fiery passion. If he could get his hands on a few more of these blue rhomboid crystals, wouldn't that mean even Foundation Establishment was possible for him?
At this thought, his breathing became ragged, and his gaze involuntarily turned toward Gong Chenying. But gradually, his expression calmed. Putting aside how important this blue rhomboid crystal was—with only one per team—if they lost it, they might even fail the trial.
Furthermore, the core colors of the blue rhomboid crystals from different sects were different. He remembered that the one Senior Sister Gong held had a purple core. Did this make a difference? If these crystals had such a function, why hadn't the sect explained it? Why hadn't Li Wuyi mentioned it? Just its ability to provide a massive amount of spirit power was comparable to countless mid-grade or even a single high-grade Spirit Stone. This would drive countless cultivators into a frenzy. But it seemed no one paid much attention to these crystals, as if their only three uses were to enter the Wheel of Life and Death, avoid killing fellow sect members, and delay the black shadow in the sky. This suggested that the use he had discovered was unknown to others. But his method of discovery was simple—just infusing it with spirit power. Hadn't Senior Sister Gong also infused it with spirit power? Did nothing similar happen when she severed the connection?
A series of questions flashed through Li Yan's mind, only making him more confused. As he pondered, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed through his mind. He remembered that in the first trial, that Chan monk had crushed his crystal. Looking back now, was that just a casual act? Or had he also discovered the secret within and didn't want others to know? Or was it related to their prior conspiracy? The question of how the three sects had conspired against them, both before and after entering, had been weighing on the mind of every Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator. Li Yan had even discussed this topic with Mei Bucai and the others earlier. But apart from seeing the meaningful glances from the other sects when they first entered the passage from the spherical mountain, they had only encountered the Pure Land Sect here. Everything seemed so normal. So when they talked about it, they were completely clueless as to how the three sects would move against their Malevolent Spirit Sect group.
Now, thinking about the Chan monk crushing the blue rhomboid crystal, besides suspecting that he, like himself, had discovered its secret, Li Yan considered another possibility: the crystal had another secret purpose. Li Yan's brow furrowed tightly. He remembered the Chan monk had whispered something before he died. At that time, his divine sense had not fully withdrawn from detonating the "Flowing Water Never Stagnates" part of his Fragmented Twelve technique, so he had heard it very clearly. The Chan monk had said, "It's a pity we met a little early." At the time, Li Yan, like everyone else, had paid it no mind, assuming it meant, 'It's a pity we met Gong Chenying's team too early. If we had met later, after we were prepared or had recovered our stamina, the outcome might have been different.' But thinking about it now, the sentence sounded exactly as if he knew his opponent was the Malevolent Spirit Sect, and they had just met too soon. But so what if they met later? If they could be prepared, couldn't the Malevolent Spirit Sect also be prepared? Here in the sphere, you would definitely not meet your own sect, so the first thing to do in every trial was to be prepared before entering, unless you were pressed by the black shadow with no time to spare.
Li Yan's brow furrowed even tighter. He felt as if there was a paper screen, and if he could just poke it, he would see what was behind it, but he just couldn't lift his finger.
'Preparation? The blue rhomboid crystal?... The blue rhomboid crystal? To be prepared?' After a long period of thought, Li Yan's eyes flickered. He thought to himself, 'This means the blue rhomboid crystal can help them prepare more confidently, so that as long as they meet us, victory is basically assured. That must be what he meant. But what is this preparation? What other use could the blue rhomboid crystal have?'