"Boom!"
While Xun Er, Yun Yun, the Little Fairy Doctor, and Queen Medusa were secretly scheming, Xiao Ting had just swallowed the medicinal pill and was breaking through. Battle Qi surged wildly around him.
Waves of rich energy ripples surged from his dantian throughout his body, then poured out from his meridians and acupoints, turning into visible Battle Qi.
The Battle Qi gauze robe he condensed now looked like real clothing. Under the enhancement of this Battle Qi, it became thicker and more sharply defined.
As the energy circulated according to the cultivation method's paths, his meridians inside his body became increasingly tough and spacious.
The amount of Battle Qi he could output in an instant increased, and his capacity to withstand Battle Qi intensity also rose.
Inside the Qi cyclone, nine extremely condensed liquid droplets spun continuously. Under the promotion of the medicinal pill's energy and Xiao Ting's guidance, they gathered toward a single point.
Gaseous energy compressed into liquid—this was the secret of the Battle Qi gauze robe and the fundamental reason a Dou Master was stronger than a Dou Practitioner.
Liquid energy could likewise be compressed into an even higher solid form. This was the secret behind a Dou Grandmaster summoning a Battle Qi armor that felt almost substantial, and the fundamental reason for a Dou Grandmaster's power.
As the nine droplets nearly merged together and began undergoing some profound change, the Battle Qi flowing out with the cyclone also changed. It entered the meridians, passed through bones and acupoints, and gathered into the silver-purple Battle Qi gauze robe constantly twisting on the surface of his body.
Silver represented the lightning attribute of his Battle Qi, while purple was the fire attribute Battle Qi Xiao Ting had grasped under the influence of the Amethyst Winged Lion's purple flames.
After an unknown amount of time, silver-purple energy condensed around Xiao Ting, forming a silver-purple armor etched with interwoven lightning and flame patterns on his chest.
Inside his dantian Qi cyclone, the liquid had completely vanished, replaced by a fingernail-sized crystal—this was the Dou Crystal that only Dou Grandmaster possessed.
Advancing in cultivation as a Dou Grandmaster involved making the Dou Crystal irregularly larger. When breaking through to Dou Spirit, it would be polished into a regular Dou Crystal with nine spikes.
Advancing in the Spirit State Soul involved retracting the spikes on the sea-urchin-like Dou Crystal one by one until it shattered and merged into every inch of the body.
Therefore, in the eyes of the truly top forces on the continent, cultivation was divided into only five major stages.
First stage: From Dou Practitioner to Dou Spirit—expanding the Qi cyclone, turning Battle Qi into liquid, turning liquid into crystal, and polishing the crystal.
Second stage: Dou King and Dou Emperor—involving the use of heaven-and-earth energy and partial manipulation of it.
Third stage: Dou Ancestor and Dou Venerate—involving progressive use of spatial abilities and qualitative transformation of the body itself.
Fourth stage: Peak Dou Venerate, nine revolutions to sainthood. Each revolution was equivalent to cultivating from Dou Practitioner to nine-star Dou Venerate once, with a metamorphosis of essence, energy, and spirit.
The specific metamorphosis process was Half-Saint, which could be considered either the fourth or fifth stage.
Breaking through to Dou Saint definitely required a Spirit State soul. Possessing a Spirit State soul would make breaking through to Dou Saint twice as effective and could even skip the Half-Saint process.
Fifth stage: Dou Saint.
In reality, however, each star of Dou Saint represented a world of difference. The gap from four-star to five-star Dou Saint was even greater, and it only widened further upward.
Every major stage was a qualitative leap. Crossing it required talent, resources, techniques, opportunities—everything.
In other words, Dou Grandmaster was merely the third step of the first stage.
The road of cultivation was still very long!
"Hm?"
After completing the breakthrough, Xiao Ting didn't rest. He continued stabilizing his cultivation until the Journal showed movement.
[Plane Blessing]: One opportunity to comprehend the Thunder-Flame Body Tempering Art.
[Great Dao Blessing]: Purple Beast Flame Visualization Method (The Purple Beast Flame is a heavenly fire born within Purple Firmament Divine Lightning. Continuous visualization can temper and elevate the soul, purify the energy within the body until it reaches the level of Purple Beast Flame, and at a certain level, it can be turned into soul attacks.)
The Primordial World was the highest world. When Pangu was born, he comprehended the supreme divine ability—Divine Lightning—from the Chaos Divine Lightning. He inscribed lightning light with his eyes, displaying the power to shatter the chaotic void and smash chaotic stars during the creation of the world, heavily injuring the three thousand Great Dao Heavenly Demons and the Flame Fire Demon God.
Dao Ancestor Hongjun comprehended part of the Divine Lightning and passed it down separately to the Three Pure Ones. Yuanshi Tianzun directly inherited the technique, while Taishang Laojun and Tongtian Jiaozhu received the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning and Immortal Execution Divine Lightning respectively.
The Purple Firmament Divine Lightning devoured the flames of the Sun Star and gave birth to the weaker but more potential-filled Purple Beast Flame. Complete mastery could injure a Da Luo Golden Immortal.
Xiao Ting: !!!
On his fifteenth birthday, the Journal had truly given him a huge surprise.
If the Purple Beast Flame could injure a Da Luo Golden Immortal, then the Purple Beast Flame Visualization Method was at the very least a cultivation method pointing straight to Taiyi.
Not to mention Dou God of the Battle Qi Continent—even in the Great Thousand World, where no Sovereign realm had ever been born, it was uncertain whether true immortals existed, let alone Golden Immortals, Taiyi, or Da Luo above them.
At this moment, the Journal finally lived up to the words "Great Dao" in its name.
"With the Purple Beast Flame Visualization Method, even without the Dou God origin and without needing to write my true name on the Heavenly Vault List, my future is limitless."
"And such a powerful method is actually a universal auxiliary cultivation technique."
Almost instinctively, Xiao Ting began visualizing the Purple Beast Flame according to the guidance of the Great Dao Journal.
No—at his current level, even in the Primordial World he wouldn't count as an ant in the eyes of ants. He had no qualification to visualize the true Purple Beast Flame.
What he was visualizing now was merely an infinitely weakened phantom of the Purple Beast Flame within the range his soul could endure.
Even so, he still felt his soul being tempered by lightning and flames, steadily improving.
At the same time, he fell into a state of enlightenment, and his mastery of the Thunder-Flame Body Tempering Art rose rapidly.
"Boom!"
As his proficiency with the technique increased and his soul force improved, Xiao Ting's cultivation speed deepened unconsciously.
Heaven-and-earth energy gathered swiftly under the influence of his enlightenment state, the momentum surging violently.
…
"Hm!?"
Medusa and Yun Yun were Dou Emperor experts, and Xun Er possessed the Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame. They sensed the anomaly almost immediately.
"This commotion is almost catching up to my own cultivation," Yun Yun exclaimed softly in surprise.
She was a Dou Emperor who could mobilize large amounts of external heaven-and-earth energy of the same attribute, making her cultivation twice as effective with half the effort to produce such momentum.
Xiao Ting was only at peak Dou Master—perhaps Dou Grandmaster now—and he could achieve this level!?
"Big Brother Xiao Ting has obtained some kind of fortune again," a smile appeared on Xun Er's face. "He once said he would become a Saint within ten years. You don't think he was joking, do you?"
Queen Medusa and Yun Yun: !!!
Although they knew this cheat-equipped transmigrator wasn't just talking big.
Seeing his cultivation speed with their own eyes still left them shocked.
This phenomenon lasted a full two hours before stopping.
…
"Boom!"
All the heaven-and-earth energy around Xiao Ting poured into his dantian, and his aura retracted.
Glancing at the noticeably changed Dou Crystal, he was secretly astonished. "This is already peak six-star Dou Grandmaster."
His foundation was extremely solid, and his soul realm had improved significantly.
His mastery of the Thunder-Flame Body Tempering Art had reached perfection.
Most importantly, there was the change in his Battle Qi.
"Come out."
Xiao Ting raised his hand.
In the next moment, a purple flame appeared, nurturing silver lightning within it.
"Hiss."
….