Chapter 40 of 100

Chapter 40: A Road, To Take or Not?

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"Surround this place! Prevent the wanted criminal from escaping!"

The rain poured heavily, and Lone Wolf and Zhou Genwei led a large group of people, surrounding the Toba Inn so tightly that not even a drop of water could get through.

"What do you mean by this?" Toba Boss stepped out, his face dark.

Mid Qi Cultivation! Lone Wolf didn't dare to be disrespectful to Toba Boss. He dismounted and clasped his hands, saying, "Toba Immortal, I am here under the orders of our Chief Merchant to capture a wanted criminal of the Tang Family! Once we have him, we will leave immediately and will not interfere with your business."

Toba Boss angrily said, "But you have already interfered! This inn is full of my guests. If you want to enter, don't blame me for being unfriendly!"

Lone Wolf didn't expect Toba Boss to be so uncooperative. However, he himself was only at the late innate stage and didn't dare to be disrespectful. He had to rely on the family's reputation and said, "Toba Boss, this wanted criminal is being sought by the Chief Merchant and the Great Elder of the Tang Family! If he escapes..."

Toba Boss walked into the inn and coldly snorted, "Let them come and talk to me themselves!"

Lone Wolf's face was gloomy; he didn't have the courage to rush into the small inn.

Zhou Genwei whispered, "What should we do?"

"Old Flower Demon." Lone Wolf cursed under his breath.

At that moment, an informant whispered, "Someone just saw Toba Boss give a flower seed to the little waste of space, and the little waste of space escaped through the north gate!"

"What!" Lone Wolf's face was twisted with anger, and he gritted his teeth, "Old Flower Demon deliberately delayed us here, and Ding Hao, that little waste of space, has already escaped through the north gate!"

"North gate!" Zhou Genwei also felt very bitter.

Outside the north gate was a dense forest, where Immortals of the Demon and Devil paths often came and went. These Immortals were hostile to the righteous path, and ordinary people dared not go that way. However, Toba Boss had close ties with these demons and devils, so with his flower seed, one could pass through unimpeded.

"What should we do?" Zhou Genwei, at the seventh stage of innate cultivation, didn't dare to go to the north gate.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, "Damn it, the little waste of space came in so boldly, bought things, and then left boldly. It's too embarrassing!"

Lone Wolf also felt extremely frustrated and thought, "Even if the little waste of space escapes through the north gate, he will still head towards the border village! He is only at the third stage of innate cultivation and doesn't dare to stay in the dense forest for long. We will chase him all the way!"

"Fine!" Zhou Genwei coldly snorted, "With this heavy rain, he won't get far. We will go out from the east and west gates and surround him! Capture him, but don't kill him immediately. Flay him and pull out his tendons to torture him!"

"Good!"

...

In the ruins of the native city.

The heavy rain enveloped the ruins, and most of the houses had collapsed. A short wall still stood, with half a roof not completely collapsed, forming a triangular space.

In this narrow space, a black figure sat cross-legged, silent and motionless.

Lone Wolf and his group never expected that Ding Hao would be so bold and not leave the native city at all!

This place was originally a small nest for wild cats, but they had been driven away by Big Yellow. Ding Hao sat cross-legged in the darkness.

Outside, the wind and rain were fierce, but here it was a small haven of peace.

Ding Hao unbuttoned his outer clothes and took out a medium-grade storage bag, which was filled with spirit rice.

"Zhou Genwei, you never expected this!" In the darkness, Ding Hao's eyes lit up, and he reached into the storage bag to grab a handful of spirit rice, "Star Absorption Technique, absorb!"

The wind howled, and the rain poured.

Who would have known that in these ruins, a young man was continuously cultivating and breaking through. By his side, a yellow dog sat cross-legged, guarding him!

"From the third stage to the fourth stage is a difficult bottleneck! Many people stop here for their entire lives!"

"But for me, it's much easier!"

"This is the power of the Star Absorption Technique!"

With this thought, Ding Hao focused his mind on his dantian.

To say that the third stage to the fourth stage is a hurdle is true because this layer of the original dan is not only thick but also has a membrane that remains unbroken at the end of the refinement!

"More powerful spirit energy is needed! The consumption of spirit rice is huge!" Ding Hao felt a bit pained.

Originally, he thought that this layer could be broken through with twelve bowls of spirit rice, but he had already used twenty bowls, and the last membrane was still not broken!

"Never mind, if you want to live, don't be stingy with money!" Thinking this, Ding Hao grabbed another large handful of spirit rice, "Absorb!"

At this moment, Ding Hao's dantian was already filled with thick spirit energy.

This layer had also been worn down to a thickness like a cicada's wing.

"Almost there!" With a look of surprise, the membrane suddenly broke, as if ignited by fire, and the entire layer fell off, landing in the spirit energy lake below and turning into spirit liquid.

Advancing to the fourth stage!

If others knew, they would be shocked to the point of spitting blood. Normally, even with the use of the forbidden drug Sky-Breaking Pill, it would take half a month to advance from the third stage to the fourth stage, but Ding Hao only spent one hour!

Looking at his dantian, the qi sea had already taken shape.

"The amount of spirit energy here is twice that of the third stage of innate cultivation!" Ding Hao was pleasantly surprised. No wonder people said that the third to fourth stage is a hurdle; if you pass it, your strength can increase significantly!

Ding Hao's advancement by one stage made him even more excited.

"Come, continue!"

The original dan layers get thicker, and the fourth layer is even harder to refine. In front of Ding Hao, the spirit rice that had been absorbed was piled up like a small mountain!

This spirit rice, after being absorbed, turned into ordinary rice, with no trace of spirit energy left!

"Another eighty bowls gone! I never expected such a high consumption of spirit rice."

Ding Hao was somewhat taken aback. Originally, he thought that 384 bowls of spirit rice could help him cultivate to the eighth or even ninth stage of innate cultivation. But now it seemed impossible!

There are two reasons for this. One is that each layer of the original dan is thicker than the previous one. The other, more important issue is that as his realm improves, the effectiveness of the spirit rice begins to weaken!

Therefore, the consumption becomes greater and greater.

"Fifth stage of innate cultivation!"

Ding Hao's eyes lit up again, and it took him one hour. This layer had no bottleneck, so the time wasn't too long, and it cost eighty-eight bowls of spirit rice.

"This cultivation speed is too fast! Too exhilarating!"

Ding Hao stood up and found that the rain and wind outside had lessened. He walked out of his shelter and threw a punch, shouting, "Five Stacks of Fire Palm!"

Boom! The air in front of him exploded, and a large area of raindrops changed direction.

"Such strong power!" Ding Hao's eyes lit up with surprise again, "Ding Juncai, Little Prince, how can you compare to me? I hope you don't seek death!"

Ding Hao casually threw a few punches and found that the air vibrations were too strong. The half-hanging roof behind him might collapse at any moment, so he dared not continue.

"It's still early, continue breaking through!" He went back inside.

The heavy rain washed the entire native city, and the ground was covered with mud and water.

The native city was originally a huge ruin, with only the four major merchant houses and a few usable buildings. The rest were scorched earth and rubble.

The sun rose in the east, and the glaring sunlight shone on the wet ruins.

"What a beautiful sunrise." Ding Hao opened his eyes, and the sunlight illuminated his face.

At this moment, his heart was a mix of joy and worry.

He was delighted by the advancement in his realm. In one night, he had advanced from the third stage to the sixth stage of innate cultivation. How many people in the world could achieve this?

But he was worried that the effect of the spirit rice had weakened to an unbelievable degree. In other words, the spirit rice was now useless to him!

"I roughly understand. The items I absorb should also have levels!"

"I can only effectively absorb items of the same level as my cultivation. When I was at the pre-innate stage, ordinary pills were of the same level as me; after entering the innate stage, spirit rice was of the same level as me; now that I have reached the peak of the mid-innate stage, I need to find items of a higher level!"

"But what are items of a higher level?"

Ding Hao couldn't think of it for the moment. He opened his storage bag, and there were about fifty bowls of spirit rice left. Now it seemed useless.

He couldn't just throw it away, so he put the remaining fifty bowls into his main storage bag and discarded the other storage bag.

However, the process of transferring the spirit rice made Ding Hao notice the white beast stones.

"Right, take this opportunity to upgrade the Star Absorption Stone!"

These days, Ding Hao had been wearing the Star Absorption Stone in the form of a ring. The first white vortex on the Star Absorption Stone had already been fully lit. Ding Hao had bought a large amount of cheap beast stones, intending to use them to enhance the Star Absorption Stone.

The spirit energy in these beast stones would have side effects if used by Ding Hao. However, the Star Absorption Stone was not picky and had no fear.

"Absorb!" Ding Hao used the Star Absorption Technique again.

As the wild beast spirit energy from a large number of beast stones was absorbed, black hair quickly grew on Ding Hao's arms. However, Ding Hao knew it would disappear soon, so he wasn't afraid.

The Star Absorption Stone greedily absorbed the spirit energy from the beast stones. Ding Hao clearly saw that the white vortex slowly began to spin, becoming brighter and faster!

Suddenly, Ding Hao felt a daze in his consciousness, as if something had entered his will. He opened his eyes wide...

"A second vortex appeared!"

The second vortex was now faintly green!

"Why is it a green vortex?" Ding Hao took out the remaining beast stones and absorbed them all, making the second vortex much brighter, indeed a light green.

"The first vortex is white, the second vortex is green. What does this mean? What is the Star Absorption Stone?"

Ding Hao couldn't find the answer; it was still a mystery to him. However, he believed he would eventually know.

"What entered my will just now?" Ding Hao thought about this, and a line of text suddenly appeared in his mind, "Star Absorption Demon Technique, Second Layer."

"What, Star Absorption Demon Technique! Isn't this the Star Absorption Technique?" Ding Hao felt a shock, and his eyes were full of surprise.

He had always thought that the Star Absorption Technique was personally created by his ancestor, Ding Chunqiu. However, it now seemed that Ding Chunqiu had spent his entire life to obtain only the first layer from the Star Absorption Stone!

It turned out that the Star Absorption Technique was just the first layer of the Star Absorption Demon Technique!

"But this is a demon technique, a demonic cultivation method!!"

Ding Hao instantly remembered what Toba Boss had said not long ago, "Sometimes, you only have one road in front of you. Not going is death, and going is also death."

"Now there is only this one road, to take or not?"

Ding Hao didn't think for more than three seconds and then laughed, "Isn't this a waste of words? Of course, I will take it! Without the Star Absorption Technique, I would have been dead long ago! Even ants know to climb up. If I don't take it, am I not even worse than an ant?"

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