Chapter 34

In the dimly lit cave, under the faint glow of a fire, Li Chen sat cross-legged on a rock.

A slow-moving vortex of energy swirled above his head, gradually forming a small whirlwind, with streams of energy flashing around it. However, what was strange was that the scar on his cheek, which had glowed a dark red when absorbing the demon core, had now gone completely still. Li Chen, deeply engrossed in his cultivation, had not noticed this anomaly.

The outside world alternated between light and darkness. Li Chen's veins bulged, and his breathing grew steady. The sounds of his body cracking and popping continued for half a day before the vortex above his head suddenly dissipated.

"Why is this happening? I clearly felt that I was ready to break through to the True Refinement Realm, so why can't I release my energy externally? Heaven, how much longer must I be trapped here?"

Slowly opening his eyes, Li Chen's expression changed slightly, and he looked at his hands with some difficulty in accepting the situation.

It had been almost five months since he was trapped in the eagle's nest. Watching the alternating light and darkness outside, Li Chen felt increasingly restless.

It wasn't that he didn't want to leave; he understood that with his cultivation at only the Ninth Layer of Inner Breath, leaving now would mean certain death. Any random demon beast could take his life.

So, over the past half year, he practiced martial techniques daily and used the resources he had to refine his inner breath. Even though he deliberately slowed his progress, his cultivation steadily increased, and he broke through to the Ninth Layer of Inner Breath three months ago.

After becoming proficient in using the inner breath in his meridians and making thorough preparations, he used the iron-backed bear demon core to attempt a breakthrough to the True Refinement Realm.

However, to his disappointment, although the inner breath in his meridians was several times more concentrated than before, it showed no signs of transforming into mist, clearly indicating that he had not reached the level of externalizing true energy in the True Refinement Realm.

Still, he could feel that his inner breath was much purer than before, only slightly weaker than the true energy he knew.

Bang!

Frustrated, Li Chen channeled his inner breath into his fist and slammed it into the rock beneath him.

"What is this?"

Seeing a fleeting grayish-blue energy stream as his fist sank into the rock, Li Chen's eyes flickered with confusion. The sharp and intense aura was clearly not caused by true energy.

Still puzzled, he raised his fist again and struck the rock forcefully. With a loud thud, the blue energy stream did not appear.

"Perhaps I need to use all my strength?"

Deciding to act on this thought, Li Chen stood up, walked to the rock wall, took a deep breath, and channeled all his inner breath into a punch. A faint tiger roar echoed, and the grayish-blue energy stream reappeared, this time with his entire fist sinking into the rock wall.

"The attack power of this blue energy stream is definitely above that of true energy!"

Exhaling a deep breath, Li Chen clearly felt that nearly a third of his inner breath had been depleted, and a faint sense of fatigue appeared. However, he had no idea about the origin of this highly destructive grayish-blue energy stream.

Squawk!

A sharp cry interrupted his thoughts. Turning his head, he saw the fledgling eagle dart into a stone cave, carrying something in its beak.

"Lei Peng, you're stealing food again! Spit it out!"

Li Chen's face turned dark, and he rushed over, trying to catch the fledgling eagle. However, the fledgling flapped its wings and flew away.

Although its size had not changed much, the fledgling had learned to fly over the past half year.

Watching the fledgling eagle circle the cave ceiling, proudly holding a spirit stone in its beak, Li Chen regretted training it to fly so early.

As the spirit stone entered its body, a faint golden glow enveloped Lei Peng, and it fell to the ground. Fortunately, Li Chen was quick to catch it in his arms.

"Let that teach you to be greedy!"

Li Chen flicked Lei Peng's forehead, but Lei Peng was unconscious, digesting the spirit stone and felt nothing.

This demon beast was quite peculiar, swallowing spirit stones whole. Even though Li Chen could consume demon cores, he had never thought of swallowing a 'stone' raw.

He should have considered how cruel it was to make a raptor eat nothing but vegetables for half a year. Even a lump of iron would probably be swallowed.

"Fine, even if I haven't broken through, with my current strength, few Inner Breath Realm martial artists can match me. I'll wait another month to refine my martial techniques. If I still can't break through to the True Refinement Realm, I'll leave!"

Putting Lei Peng down, Li Chen walked to a cave entrance that seemed to be specially carved into the rock wall and leaped into it.

Looking at the pile of spirit stones of various colors, Li Chen's pupils still contracted despite seeing them many times. It was thanks to the dense energy gathered by these spirit stones that he had broken through to the Ninth Layer so quickly. Now, he had strangely broken through another layer but had not reached the True Refinement Realm like a normal martial artist.

Lei Peng had also relied on consuming these spirit stones and cloud pear fruits to reach its current stage, the late-stage First Rank demon beast.

However, all the low-grade spirit stones had been consumed, and while Lei Peng's demon body could handle the medium-grade spirit stones, it would fall into a coma each time it ate one.

Sometimes Li Chen envied Lei Peng, whose strength increased even while sleeping.

The adult eagles were Fourth Rank demon beasts with high intelligence, capable of collecting treasures. It was not strange that they had gathered these items, especially for their fledgling.

Picking up a storage bag from the ground, which he had obtained from the iron-backed bear's den, Li Chen's clothes had long since disintegrated over the past half year, leaving no place to store the bag.

"Can I open it now?"

Li Chen narrowed his eyes, holding the storage bag and channeling his inner breath into his hand.

Swoosh!

To his surprise, as the inner breath reached the meridians in his hand, the storage bag suddenly glowed, and the tightly tied string at the opening loosened.

Seeing this, Li Chen's heart leaped with joy, but his inner breath paused, and the string tightened again.

"Is it because my inner breath is insufficient?"

Feeling a slight decrease in his inner breath, Li Chen calmed his mind and channeled his cultivation technique again. The inner breath flowed into the storage bag as before.

This time, the string at the opening finally came loose.

Rustle!

Inverting the storage bag, a few items fell out.

Ignoring the nearly 10% depletion of his inner breath, Li Chen looked at the opened storage bag. It contained a space of only about half a meter, not holding much.

On the ground were a few sets of clothes, some jade bottles, and several books, which were clearly cultivation techniques and martial arts.

Seeing the clothes, Li Chen's eyes lit up, and he hastily put them on. He had lived like a wild man for so long.

"All mine!"

Dressed neatly, Li Chen looked at the pile of spirit stones in the cave, his eyes gleaming, and a drool involuntarily trickled down his mouth.

Over the past half year, every time he saw these treasures, he couldn't help but daydream.

Unfortunately, his cultivation was insufficient, and he had been unable to open the storage bag.

He had thought that breaking through to the True Refinement Realm would allow him to use the storage bag to store the demon cores, but he had not broken through.

Fortunately, the purity and quantity of his inner breath had reached a new level, allowing him to finally open the storage bag and fulfill his wish. Although he couldn't store all the spirit stones in the cave, it would still provide him with enough resources for cultivation in the short term.

"Um... you two are seniors, and I have a connection with you. I'll take care of your child, so you can rest assured. These treasures are just a token of my gratitude... I need to become stronger to protect the little one, right? Besides, I will take good care of Lei Peng. I named him Lei Peng because I heard that the demon race has a powerful demon beast called Kun Peng, the ancestor of the eagle clan. Since you two are thunder eagles, I chose this name!"

Turning to look at the two eagle corpses in the cave, Li Chen wiped the drool from his mouth, bowed formally, and pointed at the treasures on the ground, giving what he thought was a sincere reason, though it was clearly self-serving.

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