Storms Within the Sect Chapter 40: Mastery of Origin Force

Chu Xing's body shuddered violently, and cold sweat instantly drenched his hair. This pain was far more intense than any he had experienced before!

Yet, instead of stopping, he intensified his absorption of the gray mist.

Amidst the excruciating agony, he could clearly feel his bones, flesh, and blood being battered and then reassembled at an astonishing speed under the baptism of this gray mist! They were becoming tougher and denser!

As his physical body continued to grow stronger, that seemingly unshakeable cultivation bottleneck unexpectedly began to loosen thread by thread.

A wave of great joy surged in Chu Xing's heart.

He immediately partitioned a fraction of his focus, guiding that warm, primordial energy to cooperate with the physical enhancement, pounding relentlessly against the loosening barrier.

This was a process filled with agonizing pain yet brimming with hope.

Not knowing how much time had passed, just as Chu Xing felt he was on the verge of fainting from the intense torture, a soft sound akin to a cracking eggshell echoed from deep within his body.

Crack!

It happened naturally as the conditions matured.

The bottleneck that had plagued him for days shattered at the sound!

An even more formidable aura burst forth explosively from within Chu Xing!

Body Tempering Realm, Ninth Stage!

As the first ray of morning light pierced through the crack of the window and illuminated the small room, Chu Xing opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them before vanishing.

He stood up, casually stretching his limbs, and a series of crisp, popping sounds immediately resonated from his joints, resembling roasted beans.

A single night of cultivation had not only completely healed the injuries sustained from the desperate battle, but had also thoroughly consolidated his cultivation at the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

Chu Xing clenched his fists.

An unprecedented sense of abundant and solid power surged from every corner of his body. This felt radically different from his previous eighth-stage state; it was no longer just a simple increase in strength, but carried an added touch of fluid, effortless mastery.

And this was merely the beginning. The Body Tempering Realm was nothing more than the very first step on the martial path. If he wanted to trample underfoot fellows like Zhou Yuan and Elder Feng, he still had a long way to go.

Gathering his thoughts, he headed straight in the direction of the Hundred Herb Ravine.

Although he was now an inner disciple and no longer needed to perform such menial labor, to him, the place that others avoided like the plague remained a treasured ground for cultivation.

Hundred Herb Ravine.

The managing senior brother was dozing off leaning against a tree. Hearing footsteps, he lazily opened his eyes, and when he recognized that the visitor was Chu Xing, he was visibly stunned.

"Why are you here again?" The managing senior brother sat up straight, a hint of bewilderment in his tone. "Aren't you already an inner disciple?"

"Since I've got nothing on, I figured I'd come do some work and earn a few contribution points," Chu Xing chuckled.

Having heard about the events at the martial arts arena, the managing senior brother looked at Chu Xing now with a completely different gaze. He sized Chu Xing up from head to toe, trying to see if he possessed three heads and six arms, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

He curled his lip and pointed toward the long trench: "Suit yourself. Same old rules—whatever you clean out gets thrown into the fire pit to be burned."

"Got it," Chu Xing replied, shouldering the iron shovel with practiced ease and walking toward the foul-smelling dirt trench.

Watching Chu Xing's retreating figure, the managing senior brother shook his head, unable to fathom why someone would abandon the comfortable life of an inner disciple to run over and do such dirty, tiring labor. Was there something wrong with his brain?

Chu Xing slid down into the dirt trench. On the surface, he was still shoveling away rotting medicinal residue, but his movements were more than twice as fast as they had been over the past few days.

The strength of the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm allowed him to handle these crude chores with effortless ease.

Yet under the cover of every bend and every swing of the shovel, his fingertips would silently pinch off a stalk or two of withered spiritual herbs that were still of decent quality.

With a slight shift of his mind, the stone bead in his Dantian trembled faintly.

An invisible suction force emanated from his fingertips, instantly draining all the essence from the withered spiritual herb and reducing it to fine dust. Streams of pure energy continuously poured into his body, nourishing his newly breakthrough realm.

His movements were smooth as flowing water, without a single redundant motion.

The area that originally required two hours to clear was thoroughly cleaned by Chu Xing in less than one.

When he hoisted the iron shovel and prepared to leave, the managing senior brother's eyes widened into saucers.

"You... you're already done?"

"Done," Chu Xing nodded.

The managing senior brother hurried over to the edge of the trench to take a look. Upon seeing the medicine plot cleaned to an exceptional degree and recalling that unbelievable speed just moments ago, he opened his mouth, speechless for a long time, before finally just waving a hand to signal that he could leave.

Returning to his dilapidated courtyard, Chu Xing closed the gate.

He felt around in his bosom and pulled out the completely verdant green jade.

The jade felt warm to the touch, and aside from its supreme texture, it seemed to have no other distinguishing features. However, since Elder Bai had specifically instructed him to ponder over it deeply, it surely could not be that simple.

Sitting cross-legged, he placed the green jade in his palm. After examining it for a moment, he still could not discern anything special about it.

"Just what kind of mystery lies within?"

Chu Xing muttered to himself, attempting to channel a sliver of Yuan Qi into it.

The very instant his Yuan Qi came into contact with the jade pendant, Chu Xing's body gave a slight jolt. The sliver of Yuan Qi he had injected was clearly reflected back with an extremely complex internal structure within the jade.

It was a three-dimensional labyrinth interwoven from countless minute pathways, forming crystal lattice structures that were minuscule and immensely complex to the absolute limit.

The sliver of Yuan Qi he injected uncontrollably crashed about at random inside it. Most of the Yuan Qi dissipated the moment it hit a wall, and only a miserably weak wisps managed to barely advance along a pathway for a brief moment.

"This is..." Chu Xing was stunned.

He had never experienced such a bizarre sensation before.

He tried injecting another sliver of Yuan Qi once more, this time intentionally increasing its intensity.

As a result, that wave of Yuan Qi collided even more violently within the crystal lattice labyrinth, exhausting itself almost instantly, while the intricate crystal lattice structure remained completely motionless and exceptionally sturdy.

"Interesting."

Chu Xing rubbed his chin, faintly guessing at something.

With a slight thought, a wisp of Yuan Qi, refined to the absolute extreme like an embroidery needle, was cautiously probed into that crystal lattice labyrinth.

This time, instead of letting the Yuan Qi crash about wantonly, he tried his utmost to control it, attempting to slowly advance along one of the tiniest crystal lattice pathways.

It was immensely difficult!

A hundred times harder than controlling a flame to burn weeds!

Under his control, that wisp of Yuan Qi crooked and wavered, frequently deviating from its trajectory, crashing into the sides, and instantly dispersing.

Failure.

Try again!

Failure once more.

Instead of being disheartened, Chu Xing was delighted, becoming completely immersed in the process.

The scene of his battle with Wang Meng suddenly surfaced in his mind. Even at the Qi Gathering Realm, Wang Meng's fist wind was loose, whereas he himself had undergone the medicinal mist body-tempering, making his power much more condensed; the effect of a single punch was radically different.

Could it be... that the gap between martial artists was not merely a matter of realm and the volume of Yuan Qi, but something else?

Or perhaps, it was the degree of mastery over one's own power?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be brushed aside.

Looking at the green jade in his hand, Chu Xing's eyes grew increasingly bright.