Chapter 25

In the room surrounded by energy, the golden pagoda floated gently up and down, emitting a powerful aura that continued to grow stronger. This aura, which had been rising for nearly twenty days and was still climbing, belonged to Xiao Yan, who was still in cultivation.

Fully immersed in his automatic cultivation, Xiao Yan was completely unaware of the outside world. He did not know that almost all the Xiao Clan members were watching him from outside. From twenty days to nearly a month, Xiao Yan had given all the Xiao Clan members a great shock, but more importantly, they had great expectations. Thirty days, a time of significant importance to the Xiao Clan, had been revered and even mythologized for countless years. It was the initial cultivation time record set by the first ancestor of the Xiao family, a record that countless Xiao Clan members found difficult to approach, and it was the pride of the entire Xiao Clan. And Xiao Yan, this new Dou Di, was approaching this record. All the Xiao Clan members were looking forward to whether this new young man could last thirty days. However, most people did not hold out much hope that Xiao Yan could break this record, as it had not been broken for tens of thousands of years.

In the vortex, the dantian's qi vortex continued to release suction, and the qi in the meridians had all retreated into it. The Imperial Source Qi that continuously flowed into the body from the outside was not immediately absorbed by the qi vortex like the internal qi. Instead, Xiao Yan controlled it to pass through the thread of colorful flame within his body. After Xiao Yan carefully refined it and circulated it once more through the internal meridians, it was finally incorporated into the vortex under his mental satisfaction.

Although no one controlled the dantian's actions, the steps of absorption, operation, and refinement proceeded without the slightest error, and the control of the process was so perfect that even if Xiao Yan did it himself, he might not have been able to achieve such perfection.

Xiao Yan's hands-off approach seemed to have achieved the best results.

As time passed, the suction released by the vortex became increasingly powerful, and the energy flowing into the body from the outside also accelerated. If it were not for the terrain here, allowing the threads of Imperial Source Qi to continuously appear, even the异火 (Yi Huo, Strange Fire) used for refining energy might have stopped working due to depletion.

Once the Imperial Source Qi disappeared, the refinement step would also automatically disappear. At that time, Xiao Yan would have to take personal control; otherwise, allowing the mottled Imperial Source Qi to directly enter the vortex would not only make it impossible to advance to the middle stage of the one-star Dou Di but would also cause irreparable damage to Xiao Yan.

After the suction from the qi mass had been released for nearly three days, it finally began to gradually weaken. As the suction weakened, the energy vortex formed around Xiao Yan slowly faded and eventually completely dissipated.

The last thread of somewhat mottled Imperial Source Qi passed through the Strange Fire in Xiao Yan's body, refined and reduced to nearly ten times its original size, circulated once through the meridians, and then drilled into the vortex of the qi mass.

It was now the twenty-ninth day of Xiao Yan's first cultivation. Outside the house, all the Xiao Clan members had gathered, their heads densely packed and constantly pushing forward. Twenty-nine days, just one day away from the Xiao family's record. After today, it would be thirty days! Thirty days, the record set by the old ancestor of the Xiao family! Today, could Xiao Yan break this record? Countless Xiao Clan members were looking forward to it.

Feeling the gradually dissipating aura, Xiao Li's fiery eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment: "It seems he still can't break it..." Xiao Li shook his head, a mix of helplessness and regret. This record really couldn't be broken by anyone.

Just as everyone, like Xiao Li, sighed in regret, the aura that had been gradually dissipating suddenly and unexpectedly began to strengthen again. The energy points that had dispersed miraculously coalesced into energy beams, shooting into the room, and more energy beams rapidly converged from all directions, continuously pouring into Xiao Yan's room.

Xiao Li's old face instantly flushed with an unprecedented excitement. Looking up at the energy beams flying through the sky and continuously pouring into Xiao Yan's room, he immediately felt a glimmer of hope: "Xiao Yan, good boy, how many more surprises will you give me? Could you really break this record?"

Every Xiao Clan member could feel the intoxicating energy contained in each beam, and they all couldn't help but exclaim: "It's not over, it's not over, he's still continuing!"

Inside the golden pagoda in the room, the aura that had stopped began to transform into energy points flying through the sky, as if eager for Xiao Yan to absorb them quickly. The energy that Xiao Yan thought had stopped suddenly surged again. As the energy points in the sky transformed into energy beams, the threads of Imperial Source Qi continuously poured in, and the slightly trembling vortex suddenly solidified into a light ball. The red light it emitted suddenly intensified, and the brilliant light illuminated every part of Xiao Yan's body.

The fiery red qi light ball also had a hint of light yellow. Under the illumination of this strange, intense light, Xiao Yan could vaguely feel a comfortable moan from his meridians, bones, and even cells...

Xiao Yan forgot about time, only feeling comfort.

After several hours, the strange, intense light slowly faded, and after a moment, it became even dimmer until it finally completely dissipated.

As the intense light dissipated, the qi light ball hidden within it revealed itself.

As soon as the qi light ball appeared, it trembled slightly again. A thick stream of qi surged out, finally forming a fiery red torrent that coiled and surged through the meridians, giving Xiao Yan a sense of extreme energy fullness.

Seeing the qi light ball, which was nearly two to three times larger than before, and feeling the qi storage that was more than twice as powerful, Xiao Yan couldn't help but feel excited: "Middle stage of one-star Dou Di!"

Xiao Yan was also extremely excited. To so easily advance to the middle stage of one-star Dou Di was something he himself hardly dared to believe. At this moment, his blood was boiling, but what made him even more excited was that even though he had broken through to the middle stage of one-star Dou Di, the absorption had not stopped. His first cultivation had not yet ended, and the light ball that had condensed seemed unable to withstand the massive energy intake and transformed back into a qi vortex.