Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

"Is that why no spiritual beasts have tried to attack me when I was unconscious?" Claude looked at the surrounding area and realized that although he was near the dangerous locations of the Gryfino forest, he wasn't even approached by any spiritual beasts.

The spiritual energy release was simply too much that it masked his scent! Claude came to the conclusion that it might be what happened, and let out a heavy sigh, relieved that he was saved by his luck.

"But still… to think that I already advanced to the second rank so easily. And I did it in my sleep nonetheless!" Claude muttered to himself as a smile bloomed on his face. As he continued inspecting his body, he discovered that not only wasn't he at second rank, he was already halfway to the next rank as well.

"Well, I guess I have to thank Senior Beldon now!" Claude said with a smile.

As he tidied himself up and stepped forward.

ZAP!

All of a sudden, he felt as though a bolt of lightning had passed through his body, and he immediately knelt down, clenching his chest as he gasped for air.

"Hah, hah...!" He took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling as he inspected his body once again to find out what was causing him such distress. "What the hell was happening? I was sure that there is no problem with my body. Then what the hell..."

As he continued inspecting his body, the confused Claude became a bit more clear headed, and soon, he was able to figure out what the problem was.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Claude exclaimed as he inspected his body, his eyes widened with surprise as he understood what was going on. "The spiritual energy is still being entered into my body?"

What Claude realized was that although nothing was actually wrong with his body, the massive amount of spiritual energy that was released by killing the Callarus worm, which enabled him to break through to the second rank of the sky realm, still persisted in the air and on his body, and his body was continuously extracting the excess spiritual energy from the atmosphere.

Which meant that although he was not in a position of cultivating, his body was being penetrated by these massive amounts of spiritual energy and as an overload of spiritual energy within his body would result in the destruction of his meridians, his body, although at an extremely slow pace, was cultivating automatically to prevent this from happening.

"This is just insane!" Claude, who decided not to do any huge movements, sat down on the ground, sitting cross-legged as he looked at his body and his surroundings in wonder. 

The massive amount of spiritual energy released during the explosion of the Callarus worm was already worthy of amazement, but to think that the released energy wasn't completely expelled yet.. This was too much spiritual energy no matter how you look at it!

"Well, well, well, I thought I was lucky today, but it seems that I'm luckier than I had originally thought," Claude, although caught off guard by the news of the excess spiritual energy still persisting in the atmosphere, was nonetheless overjoyed at the end of the day.

"Now that I'm awake, I should probably take over from my body and speed up this whole process of cultivation," Claude let out a chuckle, still amazed by his luck as he closed his eyes and concentrated on his cultivation.

Whoosh!

As if an answer to his concentration to cultivate, the surrounding spiritual energy that was still persisting in the atmosphere began trembling in a chaotic manner, and began rapidly shooting towards Claude's body, as he continued cultivating.

Beads of sweat began to form on Claude's forehead as both the spiritual energy inside his body and the energy present in the surroundings had congregated into one flow, mixing together and forming a current within his vessels.

As the spiritual energy began to suddenly surge in his body, Claude could feel that his consciousness was beginning to expand and his meridians opening up even more, which he had previously thought was going to be impossible, and in that moment, he gained flashes of insight and understanding, which albeit short, was about cultivation as a whole and its connection to the human body.

The duration of his cultivation process was unknown to Claude, as even he didn't have a complete understanding as to how much spiritual energy was left persisting jn the atmosphere, but it wasn't like knowing that was going to help him from ending this process anytime soon, so he didn't think more about that.

As time passed, Claude's eyelids slowly began to flutter and his hands and legs began to tremble. He clenched his hands tightly and bit his lips, as the process was using up way too much energy from his body than he had imagined.

Although the spiritual energy from the inside and the outside were similar, they weren't technically the same thing. The spiritual energy in the surroundings were converted into fitting the body of a cultivator the moment it enters their cells. But this process of conversion required an extra set of spiritual energy. 

Only a finite amount of spiritual energy is allowed to be present inside one's body unless they break through to the next rank of cultivation, which meant during the process of cultivation, when the spiritual energy from the surroundings enters the body, it either replaces the spiritual energy that is already inside by utilising it completely or fills up the gap left because of a depletion of spiritual energy within one's body.

But the problem was, the process of cultivation have always required a heavy dose of spiritual energy; you essentially lose more energy while cultivating than gaining it. Which is one of the reason why it is so hard for people to jump from more than one rank. 

Although Claude had an excess amount of spiritual energy in his surroundings, it still only helped him to some extent. He had already jumped one rank without even being conscious, and was now close to jumping another rank, and the process was slowly draining out his energy.

If he stops cultivating, his meridians will be destroyed. If he continues cultivating, he'll eventually run out of energy and his meridians will still be destroyed; unless the spiritual energy surrounding him depletes first.

"I can't give up. I'm not going to lose. Not like this," Claude gritted his teeth as he muttered like a crazy person, and continued cultivating without stopping. If he kept the process going with his current speed, then he'd perhaps break through to the third rank of the sky realm, which would help him gain a few more spiritual energy, but he definitely wasn't going to give up.

He continued cultivating, and Claude could feel that he was getting closer and closer to the third rank, as a faint glow could be seen emitting from his body. Some more time had passed, and blood began to drip from his nostrils and flowed down. Claude could feel that he was slowly losing his consciousness once again, but this time he couldn't simply let it happen. If he becomes unconscious this time, it meant death..

"I need be even more faster!" Claude gritted his teeth as he cried out in anger, and his dantian suddenly started to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings at an even faster rate. 

Bzzzzz!

As he continued cultivating, Claude realized that he could no longer feel his legs, which meant that soon, his consciousness would fade as well. He knew that he had to be even quicker if he wanted to live.

Don't give up on me! Just a bit more!

Claude told himself as he held on, continuing to cultivate as fast as he could. He could feel that he was now extremely close to breaking those to the third rank, and all he needed was a single push!

In the end, Claude's dantian had continued to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings for eight whole hours before the energy completely finally ran out, and as soon as it did, a bright light burst out of Claude's body as he yelled out in pain.

BOOM!

The bright light was so powerful that it shot through the clouds and into space, like a sky beam, and the air surrounding it began to swirl around the giant beam violently. 

As Claude continued to be enveloped by the bright light, a thin layer of mist shed out from his skin, instantly evaporating as soon as it lost contact with his body. 

After a short period of time, the bright light gradually faded away, leaving a tired and sweaty Claude gasping for air as he fell down on to the ground.

"Hhh… hhhh… hh.." As he laid on the ground, gasping uncontrollably, a brilliant smile hung on his face. "Finally… I've done it! I've reached third rank of the sky realm!"