Chapter 16

Yefeng's dantian was already full of spiritual energy. In the past, due to the problem with his meridians, he had never circulated it, only storing it. This could be said to be the first time he was formally circulating spiritual energy.

"Humming..."

As the basic breathing technique circulated, a faint sound of flowing water came from his body.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!" After a moment, a low growl came from Yefeng's mouth. Yefeng had only ordinary meridians, and the spiritual energy circulating through them instantly filled his meridians, expanding them. Fortunately, his meridians had returned to normal; otherwise, they would have ruptured.

"Boom... Boom..."

Instantly, the sound of flowing water turned into thunder. The spiritual energy slowly circulated through his meridians. Every time the thick spiritual energy advanced a bit, Yefeng's mouth would twitch.

The spiritual energy gradually expanded his meridians to their limit, a pain that was hard for outsiders to imagine.

If an ordinary person did this, a slight mistake could lead to ruptured meridians and death. Yefeng dared to do this because of the Life Force, and he had been through this for a month.

As Yefeng circulated the technique, the external spiritual energy was instantly absorbed into his body. The more he circulated, the thicker the spiritual energy in his meridians became. Although it only increased by a thread, Yefeng was very satisfied. This was the first time he had circulated the technique and felt the increase in spiritual energy during cultivation.

After two hours, Yefeng completed his first full cycle. The moment the cycle was completed, the pain disappeared, replaced by a sense of comfort. At this point, not only were his meridians, but his entire body was crazily absorbing spiritual energy.

Especially his body, like a dry sponge, was absorbing spiritual energy, making his muscles and bones more dense.

At this moment, Yefeng felt a bone-deep comfort. Even sitting cross-legged, he couldn't help but let out a moan.

Pain and pleasure, this was probably the state he was in now.

The Iron Body Technique, even when perfected, only strengthened the skin and flesh. However, Yefeng had already surpassed the scope of the Iron Body Technique, beginning to strengthen his muscles and bones. This was almost unimaginable. Without a cultivation technique, Yefeng had instinctively broken through the limits of the Iron Body Technique. If this news spread, the entire Qing Shuang City would be in an uproar. Even the high-ranking sects had never encountered such a situation.

When Yefeng reached the peak of the Iron Body Technique, he had considered this issue, but at that time, he only had a vague idea. He didn't expect that it had already started circulating on its own.

In fact, he didn't know that this was mainly due to the Life Force. When the Life Force healed his injuries, it had already refined his body. His muscles and bones contained a bit of Life Force, which attracted spiritual energy, thus strengthening his muscles and bones.

After completing the first full cycle, he paused for a moment and began the second cycle.

The second cycle was twice as fast as the first, completing in just one hour, and it wasn't as painful as the first.

After completing the second cycle, Yefeng began the third cycle...

The thick spiritual energy in Yefeng's dantian was circulated, gradually increasing his strength. As the cycles progressed, his body was further strengthened. Even without any cultivation technique, he was strengthening his body through instinct.

"Pop!"

After completing three cycles, a light sound suddenly came from his body, as if something had been punctured, causing his spiritual energy to circulate much faster.

At this moment, even the meditating Yefeng showed a hint of surprise. He knew that the light sound was the sound of breaking through the meridian barrier from a Quasi-Warrior to a First-Rank Warrior.

Some Quasi-Warriors might be stuck at the First-Rank Warrior boundary for their entire lives. This was the so-called cultivation bottleneck. Each stage of cultivation had a bottleneck, and each bottleneck could stop many people from advancing for their entire lives.

This was why cultivation talent was important. Those with high talent and wide meridians found it easier to break through bottlenecks, while those with low talent found the bottleneck like an iron fortress, impossible to break through.

Condensing a spiritual energy seed was also a bottleneck. Half the people in this world were stuck at this bottleneck, and the Spirit Condensation Pill helped break this barrier. It was like a person unable to break through an iron fortress, but with wings or a rocket launcher, breaking through would be easier, though not guaranteed, but the success rate would be higher.

But now? The bottleneck seemed non-existent to Yefeng. He just circulated the technique and naturally broke through without feeling the bottleneck.

Of course, he could easily break through the bottleneck because the Life Force had made his meridians resilient, preventing them from reaching their limit.

As he entered the First-Rank Warrior realm, the speed of spiritual energy circulation in his meridians suddenly increased. This not only sped up his absorption of spiritual energy but also allowed more spiritual energy to nourish his muscles and bones.

The spiritual energy needed to nourish his muscles and bones even exceeded his absorption rate. Therefore, not only did the newly absorbed spiritual energy nourish his body, but even the spiritual energy stored in his dantian was absorbed by his body.

At this moment, Yefeng understood why people in this world rarely cultivated both body and martial arts simultaneously. At this absorption rate, it was a losing battle.

Moreover, the amount of spiritual energy needed to nourish the body was enormous. Yefeng silently estimated that at this rate, he might never break through to the Second-Rank Warrior, and his cultivation might even regress.

After all, part of the original spiritual energy in his meridians and dantian was also absorbed to nourish his body, meaning his internal spiritual energy was decreasing. Therefore, dual cultivation would likely never succeed for Yefeng.

This was even more so if he had internal injuries, which would make both body and martial cultivation difficult, possibly leading to a lifetime of no advancement.

The better the talent, the wider the meridians, and the faster the absorption of spiritual energy. At that point, while nourishing the body, cultivation could also slightly increase, but breaking through would still take several times or even ten times longer for geniuses. This was why no one practiced dual cultivation. Yefeng only truly understood this when he started cultivating.

Moreover, Yefeng also understood why alchemists had such high status.

Taking too many pills would leave impurities and pill toxins in the body, affecting cultivation.

Alchemists, however, could tailor medicines to a person's constitution, making them easier to absorb without leaving impurities. Alchemists could also create medicines to resolve internal pill toxins.

Therefore, alchemists were even rarer, with only one out of a hundred alchemists achieving this.

Of course, Yefeng wouldn't give up on dual cultivation. After all, who was he? A master of traditional Chinese medicine. Tailoring medicines to his constitution was easy for him.

If not for the difference in medicines between this world and Earth, he would have started making medicines long ago. However, he believed that once he understood the properties of the medicines in this world, there wouldn't be much difference from Earth. He just needed to grasp the basics, and the once omnipotent master of traditional Chinese medicine would return.

Yefeng circulated the basic technique for nine full cycles, stopping only when he felt his body had reached its limit.

"Damn, I actually completed nine full cycles?"

Yefeng opened his eyes, surprised to find he had completed nine full cycles in one night.

He naturally understood that for most people, completing one full cycle on their first try was impressive, and geniuses could complete three. Now, Yefeng had completed nine, a feat that would be hard to believe if told to others.

The first time circulating a technique was about expanding the meridians. Most people could only endure the pain of one full cycle, which already pushed their meridians to the limit. After all, the spiritual energy absorbed in one full cycle was more than a hundred times that of sitting meditation. Circulating more could risk rupturing the meridians.

Geniuses, with naturally wider meridians, could circulate more, but three full cycles was the limit.

When the meridians could circulate spiritual energy, it indicated that the person had broken through the Quasi-Warrior stage and reached the First-Rank Warrior. At this point, each person's strength would see a significant leap. If a Quasi-Warrior could exert a maximum of 500 pounds of force, a First-Rank Warrior could exert at least 500 pounds of force.