Chapter 612: Chapter 394: Breakthrough

Although the Spirit Tower was built at the foot of the mountain, it still boasted a spacious open square. Unlike the Battle Tower, however, it wasn’t crowded. People wouldn’t come here unless they were going into closed-door cultivation, and there were no spectacles to watch.

On the square carved with runes, a group of people stood in line waiting to enter the Spirit Tower.

Xu Yang strode over and took his place behind the last person in line. Wafts of a fragrant scent reached his nose, and he realized the person standing in front of him was actually a graceful woman.

Leng Qiuyue!

Just from her back, he recognized this woman as the second-ranked Spirit Bone Celestial Pride of their cohort, Leng Qiuyue. Her unique temperament was absolutely unmatched in the entire Celestial Strategy Academy.

Amidst the howling winds around them, she drew attention like a blooming celestial flower. The people lined up in front of her would occasionally steal glances back at her.

"Junior Sister Leng, why didn’t you invite me when you came to the Spirit Tower?"

A gentle voice rang out, carrying a hint of feigned reproach. The next moment, a figure ignored Xu Yang and brazenly cut into the line, standing right behind Leng Qiuyue.

"Mind if I cut in?" Li Xun glanced back at Xu Yang.

"Not at all." Xu Yang shook his head.

The other party was the third-ranked Spirit Bone Celestial Pride, so it was perfectly normal for him to flout the rules. Besides, Xu Yang wasn’t the type to show his emotions on his face, nor would he act impulsively. He certainly wasn’t going to provoke a Spirit Bone Celestial Pride over such a trivial matter. Li Xun was just someone acting recklessly on the back of his talent; Xu Yang had seen far too many of his kind.

Leng Qiuyue clearly disliked Li Xun. He tried speaking to her several times, but she completely ignored him. Yet, this guy was thick-skinned enough not to feel embarrassed, chatting away to himself while putting on the facade of a caring, gentle man.

The line slowly moved forward, and soon it was Xu Yang’s turn.

"I want to cultivate for three days, offset by my ranking reward from the Celestial Strategy Wind and Cloud List." Xu Yang stepped forward and handed over his waist token.

The teacher in charge of the Spirit Tower took the waist token, quickly found his name in a register, and ticked it off.

"You only have three days. You cannot exceed the time limit; every extra hour will cost you one academic credit." The teacher handed the token back, while pulling out another tag made of a more unique material and passing it over. "You’re in room 502. This tag will open the door. Remember to close the door when you finish, or you’ll be fined academic credits."

After taking the tag and thanking the teacher, Xu Yang strode into the Spirit Tower and took the stairs all the way up to the fifth floor. He quickly found the secret room marked 502.

He inserted the tag into the lock on the door. With a faint flash of light, the secret room’s door opened a crack. In an instant, an abundant surge of spiritual qi escaped through the gap. Xu Yang hurriedly slipped inside and closed the door behind him.

Inside the room, glowing runes were similarly carved all over. The wisps of spiritual qi were almost misting; though not completely visible to the naked eye, they were dense enough to distort the air.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Yang immediately unsealed his hidden spirit bone. Instantly, every inch of his flesh rejoiced, madly devouring the spiritual qi in the air.

The secret room contained nothing but a single futon. There wasn’t even a window, only a fist-sized luminous pearl hanging from the ceiling. He wasted no time, quickly sitting on the futon and immediately circulating the Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture.

BOOM!

In an instant, Xu Yang felt as though he were submerged in spiritual qi, his whole body seemingly soaking in a hot spring. Free from all distractions, he poured his entire focus into the refinement of the spiritual qi.

He thought, "It really does maintain a tenfold concentration forever."

Several hours later, he discovered that the spiritual qi inside the secret room showed no signs of weakening. No matter how much spiritual qi he refined, the concentration inside the room remained completely unchanged.

Xu Yang absorbed it to his heart’s content. Ever since he obtained his spirit bone, he had never cultivated so freely. Most of the time, he had to suppress his spirit bone, terrified that creating too much of a commotion would tip off those around him.

For three days, he didn’t waste a single moment, cultivating day and night.

[Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture · Second Layer (7661/10000)]

It was just as he had guessed. Even though it was only three days, under such a dense spiritual qi environment, it was roughly equivalent to a month of bitter cultivation. In just three days, the progress of the Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture had increased by well over a thousand points.

He thought, "It’s a pity my time is up. If I could cultivate for a few more days, I could break through straight to the Celestial Essence Third Layer."

Closing the panel and hiding his spirit bone once more, Xu Yang stepped out of the room with extreme reluctance.

The Spirit Tower cost twelve academic credits a day. Given his spirit bone talent, cultivating here was actually a great bargain. However, his academic credits were too scarce—he didn’t even have enough to exchange for cultivation techniques, let alone spare credits to come here.

He pondered, "The resources on hand are enough for a month of cultivation. When next month comes, I can cultivate here for another three days, and I should be able to break through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer in one fell swoop."

Having tested the Spirit Tower’s effectiveness, he was confident he could break through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer next month. He had to admit that fighting his way onto the Celestial Strategy Wind and Cloud List had been the right decision. Without the three days of cultivation time in the Spirit Tower every month, breaking through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer would have cost him an extra month of time, not to mention wasting his own resources.

He noted inwardly, "The progress of the Azure Dragon Dominating Body has fallen behind the Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture again."

There was nothing he could do about it. Getting the Azure Dragon Dominating Body to catch up to the Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture was simply too difficult. Body refining was a water grinding technique; unless he could obtain a body refining treasure like the Profound Water Spirit Loach, his Azure Dragon Dominating Body couldn’t possibly advance by leaps and bounds.

"With my current strength, fighting my way to the eleventh level of the Battle Tower shouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t know if I can make it to the twelfth."

Stepping out of the Spirit Tower, he returned the tag to the teacher in charge. Just as he was about to leave, a majestic aura suddenly surged from behind him, leaving him slightly apprehensive.

Looking back, he saw Leng Qiuyue slowly walking out of the Spirit Tower, her entire body wreathed in the dense power of heaven and earth as the fluctuations of her spirit bone constantly rippled outward.

"Celestial Essence Third Layer!"

Leng Qiuyue had impressively broken through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer. A formidable aura continuously radiated from her body, pushing back even martial artists at the Celestial Essence Third Layer with her sheer presence.

Xu Yang was somewhat astonished. "As expected of the second-ranked Spirit Bone Celestial Pride on the Lingyun List. She reached the Celestial Essence Third Layer so quickly."

Back then, Jin Yu had demanded that Leng Qiuyue and the other five break through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer within two months. He hadn’t expected her to succeed in just over a month.

He mused, "Qi Ning has probably broken through as well, and the other few shouldn’t be far behind."

The gap between him and these Spirit Bone Celestial Prides was still massive, but it shouldn’t take him long to catch up. Even Spirit Bone Celestial Prides faced bottlenecks—it was just a matter of how long they took to overcome them. But he didn’t have any. Even though his resources were inferior to theirs, he was confident he could catch up.

Giving Leng Qiuyue a slight nod in greeting, Xu Yang turned and strode away.

Over the next few days, he began cultivating the Blood Prison Heart Blade Scripture, continuing to refine the residual essence qi of the Profound Water Spirit Loach.

Within days, various pieces of news arrived in succession. Two days after Leng Qiuyue’s breakthrough, the Spirit Bone Celestial Pride Li Xun also broke through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer. Two days later, Zhang Bo broke through, and the day after that, Xiao Yun and Duan Ming broke through on the same day.

In an instant, all those who had been highly ambitious, delusionally hoping to compete with the Spirit Bone Celestial Prides, were thoroughly cowed. Their Celestial Essence Second Layer cultivation wasn’t even at perfection yet, while the Spirit Bone Celestial Prides were already at the Celestial Essence Third Layer. Catching up was impossible.

As time went by, the incident at the Jade Cold Pool was forgotten. After the major factions of Yun Province mobilized their forces for a dozen days with nothing to show for it, no one coveted those Profound Water Spirit Loaches anymore. After such a long time, even if they could find the culprit, they probably couldn’t recover the Profound Water Spirit Loaches anyway.

Xu Yang cultivated in peace, his cultivation advancing steadily. In the blink of an eye, another month passed, and the progress for both his Azure Dragon Dominating Body and Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture had exceeded nine thousand.

He planned, "I’ll cultivate for a few more days, then head to the Spirit Tower to push for the Celestial Essence Third Layer. Once my cultivation breaks through, I’ll need to go out and search for resources."

He had completely used up the spirit medicine and elixirs he bought last time, causing his cultivation progress to slow down. Fortunately, with a month gone, he could claim his reward from the Celestial Strategy Wind and Cloud List again.

KNOCK KNOCK...

Suddenly, a knocking sound came from outside the courtyard.

When Xu Yang opened the door, he saw Sun Tao standing outside with a smile.

"Senior Brother Sun, you’re back?" Xu Yang broke into a smile and hurriedly invited Sun Tao inside.

For his experiential learning this time, Xu Yang had chosen to go to the Jade Cold Pool, a place he deemed safe, while Sun Tao had chosen to hunt exotic beasts in Jade Dragon Mountain. After two months, Sun Tao had finally returned.

"I’m back," Sun Tao chuckled.

"Judging by your appearance, Senior Brother, your harvest must be quite substantial," Xu Yang noted.

Sun Tao was beaming, his aura increasingly robust; it was obvious he had gained a lot.

Sun Tao laughed, "Not bad at all. There are too many good things in Jade Dragon Mountain. It’s far beyond what the Yunling Mountain Range can compare to. Once I digest the harvest from this trip, I’ll be able to reach Celestial Essence Second Layer Perfection in about a month and start pushing for the Celestial Essence Third Layer."

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Sun." Xu Yang smiled, though certain thoughts began to stir in his mind.

He previously thought entering Jade Dragon Mountain would be dangerous, but the incident at the Jade Cold Pool taught him that fixed garrison locations were either completely peaceful or truly perilous when things went wrong. The level of danger was actually higher than Jade Dragon Mountain; anyone who dared touch the properties of the Celestial Strategy Academy would not be easy to deal with. This time, it was just that Ma Daxing and his crew had underestimated him; he might not be so lucky next time.

As long as one wasn’t greedy when entering Jade Dragon Mountain, the danger was actually manageable. Most importantly, going to Jade Dragon Mountain would allow Xu Yang to cover up a few things. If his spirit bone was ever discovered, he would at least have an excuse. Although spirit bones were innate, there were countless natural heavenly treasures in the world, and some spirit medicines could forge postnatal spirit bones. If his spirit bone was truly exposed, he could claim he had obtained a peerless treasure medicine in Jade Dragon Mountain that forged his spirit bone.

Following this, Xu Yang consciously asked Sun Tao about the situation in Jade Dragon Mountain.

"Let’s go. We can drink while we talk."

Meeting again after two months, Sun Tao naturally hadn’t come just to chat, but to invite him out for a few drinks.

The two left the courtyard and fetched Jiang Fan, who had also returned. The three of them got dead drunk that day.

[Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture · Second Layer (9210/10000)]

"It’s time to break through to the Celestial Essence Third Layer."

After Sun Tao returned and cultivated in peace for a few days, Xu Yang felt he was just about ready to push for the Celestial Essence Third Layer. Although he was still far from bringing the Dragon Symbols Heart Scripture to perfection, he had no bottlenecks. Three days in the Spirit Tower would be enough for him to elevate his cultivation to the Celestial Essence Third Layer in one fell swoop.

Grabbing his waist token, Xu Yang headed straight for the Spirit Tower.

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