Having obtained the Qi Gathering Powder, Xiao Yan did not choose to consume it immediately. Instead, he took a deep breath, forcefully suppressed the desire in his heart, and compelled himself to go to bed and rest at once.
Xiao Yan was very clear in his heart that with his current state, if he wanted to break through to a Dou Practitioner, the failure rate would likely exceed seventy percent. Although the Qi Gathering Powder was not difficult for Yao Lao to refine, Xiao Yan had no desire for such a pointless risk.
Seeing that Xiao Yan could endure the urge to immediately break through to a Dou Practitioner, Yao Lao nodded with satisfaction, a trace of joy appearing on his aged face. His figure lightly swayed, transforming into a ray of light and entering the ring.
...
After the Qi Gathering Powder was successfully refined, Xiao Yan did not rush his cultivation. Every day, he cultivated Dou Qi for an hour, then diligently practiced Dou Skills in the back mountains. Whenever he had free time, he would stroll around Wu Tan City with Xun Er. His leisurely life was exceedingly comfortable.
Five days later, Xiao Yan's state finally reached its peak. This was the best time to break through to a Dou Practitioner.
...
In the back mountains of the Xiao family, in a secret location beneath a cliff, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged in a mountain cave about a meter wide. This cliff was a cultivation spot he had carefully chosen. Opposite the cliff, mist and clouds swirled, concealing the extremely dangerous Magical Beast Mountain Range below. Standing below, one could not see the cliff, and the only small path leading in had been covered by him with branches and rubble. Therefore, Xiao Yan was confident that this breakthrough would not be disturbed by others.
Slowly taking a breath, Xiao Yan took out a jade bottle from his chest. Tilting the mouth of the bottle, a pill, blue and green interwoven, rolled out.
Looking at the smooth and shiny surface of the Qi Gathering Powder, Xiao Yan smiled. He inhaled the exotic fragrance that soothed his mind once more, licked his lips, and without hesitation, put it into his mouth.
As soon as the Qi Gathering Powder entered his mouth, a faint, cool taste slowly spread. After a while, a surge of pure, warm energy directly rushed from his mouth into his body. Immediately, Xiao Yan's body trembled.
With a calm face, Xiao Yan quickly formed the hand seals for absorbing Dou Qi with both hands. His breathing gradually became steady. Inside his body, the faint Dou Qi moved in response to his will, quickly enveloping that powerful pure energy, and then began to frantically refine it.
Inside the small mountain cave, the air suddenly fluctuated violently. A faint white trace of Dou Qi seeped out from the air, then continuously surged into Xiao Yan's body.
Biting his lip tightly, the two opposing energies within his body caused waves of pain to continuously emanate from Xiao Yan's meridians. Fortunately, his tendons and meridians were much tougher than those of ordinary people, so although he felt pain, it had not yet caused significant damage.
Inside his body, the Dou Qi enveloped the clusters of pure green energy, frantically refining them. The green energy was continuously assimilated into faint white Dou Qi. With the help of this power, the Dou Qi in Xiao Yan's body continuously expanded, even at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Although the pure medicinal power was continuously refined, it surged endlessly. Each time the Dou Qi refined a cluster of medicinal power, an even larger cluster of green energy would continue to arrive.
With the internal refinement and the continuous influx of external Dou Qi, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi gradually filled his meridians.
While the refining continued as before, the pure medicinal power began to weaken. Xiao Yan, who was immersed in the rapid growth of his power, suddenly discovered that the Dou Qi in his body had almost expanded to an unincreasable limit.
The expanding Dou Qi directly pressed against his meridians, causing a fierce pain to erupt throughout his body, making the corners of Xiao Yan's mouth twitch.
"Quick, condense the Dou Qi core! Otherwise, it will lead to an explosion of your body!" Yao Lao's thunderous shout clearly echoed in Xiao Yan's mind.
Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan changed his hand seals. His thumbs met, his middle fingers touched, and his ten fingers formed a peculiar hand seal.
Xiao Yan had gone through this step before, so he performed it with ease now, without the slightest sense of error.
As Xiao Yan changed his hand seals, the vast Dou Qi in his body seemed to be pulled by a powerful suction force, rapidly contracting towards his lower abdomen.
Inside his body, the pale white Dou Qi in all the meridians began to retreat in unison, and in the lower abdomen, where the compression was taking place, the pale white Dou Qi had begun to transform into milky white.
"Quick, compress the Dou Qi! Use your soul perception to compress it! If you fail to condense the Dou Qi core, you will return to the eighth stage of Dou Qi!" Yao Lao's shout resonated in Xiao Yan's mind at the perfect moment.
Nodding slightly, Xiao Yan focused his mind, using his excellent soul perception to instantly control the Dou Qi in his body, and then began to frantically compress it...
Controlled by the soul perception, the milky white Dou Qi also began to resist, surging violently.
Although the resisting force was not weak, Xiao Yan's soul perception had previously even made Yao Lao exclaim in awe. Therefore, the Dou Qi's resistance was undoubtedly like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. After a period of struggle, it reluctantly contracted.
When the Dou Qi contracted to about the size of a palm, it stopped moving.
"Compress again!" Yao Lao shouted.
Gritting his teeth, Xiao Yan's eyes were tightly shut. His soul perception, which was circling outside the milky white Dou Qi, instantly expanded to its maximum, and then fiercely compressed!
"Boom"
A dull thud quietly sounded from within his body...
As the sound echoed, the resisting force that had made Xiao Yan struggle with all his might gently dissipated.
Taking a long sigh of relief, Xiao Yan collapsed, exhausted, his chest heaving violently.
Lying in the cold mountain cave, Xiao Yan felt the abundant energy that had once left his body for four or five years. A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. After a while, the smile gradually widened, eventually turning into a chuckle, then a loud laugh, and finally a wild laugh...