Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Yan Zaizen didn't know what had just happened or the eternal hatred he had just formed with an entire clan, but he also wouldn't care if he did. His priority, at the moment, was cultivating with his full undivided attention.

With the mid-grade essence crystal, he focused refining it thoroughly. The pure essence entered from the pores into the myriad of meridians, surging through his pathways, and entering his dantian where it was converted into Qi. However, its purity was so great that when he converted it, it was already at the qi-essence form. The purer, stronger, and overall greater form of Qi.

This discovery caused him to explode with jubilation. With this, it would essentially cut down his conversion time by several dozen times. This put the 'twice the results for half the effort' saying to shame. Originally, he needed only 5% of his Qi to be converted into qi-essence before making a proper breakthrough to the Essence Formation Realm. By expelling his basic qi and converting the essence directly into qi-essence, he ascended to the Essence Formation after a single day!

If he keeps going at this rate, he should be able to reach 40% in two weeks and 100% in six weeks! 5% was the initial stage, 40% for the mid, 80% for late and 100% for the peak!

When he's completed his conversion, he would be able to unify his qi with his dantian, allowing him to naturally produce qi-essence and use it in combat. If one used their qi-essence in the Essence Formation Realm, the power of their attacks would definitely be great, but it'll cause their cultivation to drop as a result. This is why many were unwilling to do so, letting dozens of years go to waste unless it was a life or death situation.

Qi Unification Cultivators didn't need to worry about that. All the qi they produced was qi-essence.

Despite this, the Qi Realms were divided into six core and three foundational realms. The first two foundational realms were significant dividers in determining the strong and weak amongst the Qi Unification Realm. This excludes one's art mastery or conceptual laws comprehended.

The two foundational realms — Dantian Refinement & Pathway Expansion — which determined how durable and the amount of energy your dantian and pathways can contain. This would play largely into one's endurance and qi output in their arts.

Some arts required massive quantities of qi to execute, with a stronger dantian and larger pathway, one would have the reserves and be able to execute it quickly without worry about damage to one's foundation. However, the resources required to cultivate these two things were exceptionally expensive. At least, not a single person in the Yan Clan had been able to reach the peak stages in both before ascending to the Qi Unification Realm.

Yan Zaizen intended doing just that.

Weeks passed by.

Initial-Essence Formation!

Mid-Essence Formation!

Late-Essence Formation!!

Peak-Essence Formation!!!

His breakthroughs were exceptionally easy with the stone at hand and only took time. Now, each foundation realm was divided into the four stages, initial, mid, late, and peak with their own identifying markers. When he ascended to the peak-Essence Formation, he didn't even use 5% of the mid-grade crystal essence. The worth of this one crystal could cover a century of Yan Clan's expenses and then some. Not to mention, he had more in his ring.

"Let's do this!" He gritted his teeth. He could see it now, when he returned back to the clan, when he saw Ya Qinqan or sees those mocking faces, they would be thoroughly surprised at his transformation. As for his parents, he couldn't wait to tell them about his adventures. When he recalled his parents grave, he couldn't help but be overwhelmed with emotions. It took him quite a while before he could refocus himself and continue with the refinements.

He refined his dantian first.

Initial-Dantian Refinement!

Mid-Dantian Refinement!

Late-Dantian Refinement!!

Peak-Dantian Refinement!!!

He could feel that his dantian was improving with each step and the energy he could contain was growing. When he reached the initial-stage, his dantian could already contain two times the amount of qi than before. The mid-stage was five times the amount of qi! The late-stage rose to ten times! The peak-stage rose to thirteen times!! In combat, the reason many cultivators lose against their equals was due to their differing endurance and qi pacing. Now, he reached the absolute peak in endurance!

He could store thirteen times more qi than before. Of course, the amount of qi-essence he possessed was a fraction of that amount, but it won't be that way when he can unify his cultivation and start producing essence-qi naturally. The empty space would quickly fill up with powerful essence-qi.

Next was Pathway Expansion. This also helped increase the resilience of the meridians, but focuses a majority of its attention on the Qi pathways. It was a general rule of thumb that when one reaches a certain level of dantian refinement, it was suggested to do the same for Pathway Expansion. That meant the peak!

Initial-Pathway Expansion!

His pathway expanded in size while being coated with a thicker layer of fleshy walls. His meridians were enlarged allowing more energy to be generated and expelled from it. This would also make it more durable when absorbing essence, which would directly relate to his future cultivation speed as well as recovery speed after a battle.

Mid-Pathway Expansion!

Late-Pathway Expansion!!

Peak-Pathway Expansion!!!

He could feel his entire body elevate to another level. When he looked at the mid-grade crystal, just over half of it was used. When he saw this, he realized why no one had ever reached the peak-foundation realms in the Yan Clan. The number of resources that would be required was far too great unless one had the incredibly rare essence crystals.

If this mid-grade crystal was revealed to the world, he imagined the entire country would fight for it. It may even be beneficial for Origin Core Cultivators to breakthrough into the True Essence Realm, developing actual true-essence in their dantian.

He couldn't help but sigh and look at the Meteor Ring. This thing has been his most fortunate finding in his entire life, and the resources within it haven't even been remotely used. He wondered where it all came from, and which type of god did it belong to. Would it bring him misfortune down the line?

He took a deep breath and rid himself of those ill-thoughts and a wad of turbid air. Regrettably, he wouldn't be able to break-through the Qi Unification Realm at this moment. The four-month limit was over, and his cultivation session now done. It was time for him to go home, but first, to Xuanwu City!

His future plans:

Go to Xuanwu City, use the Spatial Platform to Zhu Que City, and travel via skyship to the Meteorite City. After arriving, show in great grandeur and shock the world with the new him!

His current appearance was no longer skinny, but he was now just slightly thin with a well-defined muscular frame. His eyes shone with a vibrant lifeforce that had a trace of life law. Over the course of the four months, Yan Zaizen's conceptual law of life ascended to the Force-Level, containing a trace of the true law of life.

It wasn't simply that. His conceptual law of death also ascended to the perfect Nascent level almost flawlessly. It feeds off life force, and thus got stronger and stronger as time went on by siphoning from the Unyielding Flame of Life. The Nascent-level was about developing one's main concept, such as the concept emitted by the Inky Black Wood, and Yan Zaizen has reached the zenith in terms of that.

After one's concept had fully formed, they retrace back to their ancestors, the true law they originate from. They contain a trace of true law, allowing them to grow stronger and bringing out more power of that individual concept. When one reaches the required amount of comprehension towards the trace of true law, they can touch the Manifestation-level.

With this, they could manifest their conceptual law and affect certain laws in the world. After the manifestation-level reaches perfection, they could produce a domain that only allows their laws to exist.

There was a rule amongst the supreme cultivators of the world: While in another's domain, your life and death no longer belonged to you. Essentially, they are the absolute king of their domain. The last level of laws represented the absolute control of your law, the Sovereign-level.

Yan Zaizen had only taken the first step into the world of laws, by comprehending a trace of the life law and integrating it into his conceptual law. Now, he'll require more and more enlightenment. He could tell that the distance his conceptual law of death had to the Force-level was massive. Despite this, he still intended to comprehend these two conceptual laws wholeheartedly.

He felt like he had his path, and he wanted to follow it to the end. Taking a deep breath, he looked towards Xuanwu City. For some reason, he felt like the sky was filled with blood and screams of agony. However, this sky filled with blood and agony was exceptionally far away. He could see silhouettes of figures on their knees, begging for mercy, and a dazzling female figure filled with desolation and regret.

However, when he blinked, the sky was normal as if none of it ever occurred. After witnessing that scene, even for a moment, he felt incredibly odd. As if destiny was calling him.

"Did I...naw, it was just my imagination." He muttered to himself in comfort.