Chapter 91

Seeing the snowflakes drift down, Hu Donghan couldn't help but feel a bit dazed—unconsciously, winter had already arrived. Calculating the time, it was already nearly October, and in just over two months, it would be the end of the year again.

Within the Yin Soul Sect, due to the influence of the Broken Soul Mountain Range, the winter within the sect was particularly long. Moreover, because of the large amount of yin energy gathering, the color of the snow within the entire Broken Soul Mountain Range was not the usual snow white, but rather a grayish-brown.

This was still because the yin energy within the Broken Soul Mountain Range was not as strong as it used to be. It was said that a million years ago, the entire Broken Soul Mountain Range was covered in black rain and black snow.

"In just over two months, it will be the end of the year. Although the Southern Sky Domain does not have the concept of New Year's Eve, the end and beginning of the year are referred to as the Year's End and Year's Beginning. The girl chose to return at this time, probably wanting to spend the New Year with her adoptive parents... Speaking of which, since I came to this world, I've only had a few good years at the Hu Manor..."

A gust of wind blew, and Hu Donghan couldn't help but feel a chill. However, he also shook off these chaotic thoughts in his mind.

"What's the point of thinking about these things now? The most important thing right now is to improve my strength..." Hu Donghan calmed down, scanned the surrounding zombie ghost pythons with his eyes, and said, "There's nothing to worry about here for the time being, but staying in this place filled with corpse qi is not a good thing. I'll go outside and rest for a while to recover my energy."

Walking out of the corpse qi from the bone pit, Hu Donghan conveniently brought out an ordinary zombie ghost python and placed it in front of him. Then, he took out a tent from his storage ring and set it up—he planned to stay near the bone pit for a while, not just for a short time, so setting up a temporary shelter was necessary.

After setting up the tent, Hu Donghan entered it, thought for a moment, and then placed a pill furnace on top of the zombie ghost python's head, putting his alchemy disciple identity token on it—showing the identity token of an alchemy disciple would generally prevent any idiots from causing trouble.

After doing all this, Hu Donghan closed his eyes and practiced for a while to recover his spirit. Then, he released Yao Er through the Soul Board to handle basic vigilance. After that, he set up some simple traps nearby, found a wooden sign, and wrote "No Trespassing" on it before settling down to sleep deeply in the tent.

Having not rested for two days and having done many energy-draining tasks, Hu Donghan was already quite fatigued. Although his strength had reached the middle stage of the Qi Condensation realm, he still did not have the ability to stay awake for long periods. Basic sleep and food were still necessary.

Hu Donghan slept very soundly. When he woke up, it was already noon.

The snow had fallen all night and had not yet stopped. The ground was already covered with a thick layer of snow.

Stepping out of the tent and looking around, he saw no footprints, and the simple traps he had set up were not damaged, which made him feel a bit more at ease.

Leaving the zombie ghost python and the tent behind, Hu Donghan first put Yao Er away and then quickly entered the bone pit area to check.

After a night, all the zombies showed no significant changes. The ten zombie ghost pythons with soul marks, due to the expiration of the Corpse Nourishing Technique, had all their corpse orifices closed and were instinctively absorbing the surrounding corpse qi.

Seeing this, Hu Donghan quickly performed the Corpse Nourishing Technique again. After about a quarter of an hour, he reopened the corpse orifices of the ten zombie ghost pythons and then exited the bone pit.

"From now on, I only need to perform the Corpse Nourishing Technique once a day here. As for the rest of the time, I need to arrange for cultivation and nurturing the Thousand Ghost Banner. As for sleep, with my cultivation at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation, two hours of sleep a day should be enough to restore my spirit."

"In two months, I must have a certain self-protection ability!"

Having made up his mind, Hu Donghan first took out the Thousand Ghost Banner and began searching for yin souls around him.

...

Two months passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the tent, Hu Donghan was practicing the Netherland Earth Fire Technique, with spiritual energy fluctuations surrounding him. The spiritual energy in his body surged like waves, each one stronger than the last.

Unconsciously, half an hour had already passed. Suddenly, Hu Donghan stopped his practice, and the spiritual energy gathered around him dissipated like a tide. Opening his eyes, Hu Donghan sensed the condition of the spiritual energy in his dantian and sighed, muttering, "Still no success? This is the third time I've tried to break through to the peak of the fifth layer!"

"It seems that cultivation talent is indeed very important. If someone with better talent than me had a mid-grade Qi Condensation Pill to assist, breaking through this barrier should be quite easy."

"However, these three attempts were not in vain. The restrictions at the peak of the fifth layer have clearly weakened a lot. Perhaps next time, I can break through the barrier and enter the sixth layer of Qi Condensation with the help of a pill."

"Even the two medicinal spirit ghosts, who were originally behind me in reaching the fifth layer, have now caught up and reached the peak of the fifth layer. The cultivation talent of ghosts is indeed astonishing!"

Hu Donghan sighed again in his heart, then slowly stood up, stretched, and walked out of the tent.

Over the two months, except for the time spent sleeping and nurturing the Thousand Ghost Banner, Hu Donghan spent all his time cultivating. With ninety mid-grade Qi Condensation Pills in his possession, he didn't have to worry about a lack of pills, and he would take one every three days to refine the pill and enhance his cultivation.

With the assistance of the Netherland Earth Fire Technique and mid-grade Qi Condensation Pills, his strength improved rapidly. With the help of the pills, he reached the peak of the fourth layer of Qi Condensation in just fifteen days, then broke through to the fifth layer with a single mid-grade Qi Condensation Pill. After entering the fifth layer, Hu Donghan spent about five to six days stabilizing his cultivation, then continued to take pills and cultivate, accelerating his progress. After another month, he reached the peak of the fifth layer and began to attempt to break through.

However, when Hu Donghan tried to break through, it was not as simple as breaking through from the fourth to the fifth layer. After three consecutive attempts, the only result was that the barrier had loosened a bit. According to Hu Donghan's estimation, to break through the fifth layer with the current progress, he would need at least five more such pill sessions—

Of course, if he had a high-grade Qi Condensation Pill, it might also achieve the effect he wanted.

In fact, reaching the peak of the fifth layer of Qi Condensation in two months was already an astonishing speed in the eyes of the disciples of the same batch as Hu Donghan! If Hu Donghan did not have a deeper understanding of the Netherland Earth Fire Technique from the "True Explanation of Ghost Dao," and if he did not have mid-grade Qi Condensation Pills, it would be impossible to achieve such speed!