Plundering the Heavens

For the rest of the night, Fang Xing did nothing but continuously eat chunk after chunk of toad meat in order to feel the changes within his body. After swallowing and digesting the meat, he would then meditate to convert all of its Jing into Qi. If it had been before, it would take only a single night before his body had completely exhausted itself. It was the same principle behind a man going through ten different women one after another; no matter how strong the man’s physique was, would he not still feel drained afterwards, let alone if he was at Fang Xing’s age?

Yet for this entire night, Fang Xing did not feel any discomfort, even after doing the conversion no fewer than ten times.

The emptiness he would have felt before had become nonexistent, once again proving his theory correct: the ‘Jing’ from the toad meat was like an additional supplement to his own supply, unlike the Hwa’jin. The Hwa’jin increased the concentration of Jing by drawing it from his body’s own reserves, but since he was converting an external source of Jing via the toad meat, no harm would be done to his own source.

Using this process, Fang Xing gradually began to understand the reasons behind such changes.

Fang Xing noticed that every time he consumed a large quantity of the meat, all of his blood would start circulating in a strange yet profound pattern, and it was this pattern that had caused his powerful digestive abilities. After he finally understood the method, the [Book of Revelation] automatically activated itself.

‘Scripture of the Revered Spirit. Consume to absorb all for one’s own use…’

Fang Xing was pleasantly surprised; the strange circulation of his blood was actually a cultivation technique. Its purpose was precisely to be able to digest and absorb spiritual things. Fang Xing excitedly believed that having this new technique was like having someone pave a new shortcut for the future of his cultivation advancement. To be able to potentially cultivate through endless conversions of Jing into Qi would not only make his advancements easier, but also faster than even those A-Ranked disciples!

Much faster!

‘Absorbing this toad meat is too easy, and the amount of Jing is also too small to allow large increments in my cultivation level; it’s much less than what the Demon Pellet gave. I wonder…’ Fang Xing’s eyes glistened as he looked towards the toad in fascination, ‘… since the Demon Pellet’s main ingredient was a beast core, what would happen if I swallowed the core of this Python Toad?’

Despite knowing how risky the idea was, in the spur of the moment, Fang Xing had daringly become eager to give it a try.

Fang Xing immediately grabbed hold of his dagger before making his way inside the toad. After a short search, he extracted a pearl the size of a longan fruit emitting a translucent ray of red. Once it was in his hands, there was a gentle and comforting warmth that seemed to have excited all of the Qi within Fang Xing’s meridians, as though they were attracted by the condensed Qi within its core.

For Fang Xing, however, there was an indistinct yet noticeable sensation of fear towards the core of this Python Toad. This came from the beast core’s Qi suppression. After all, the Python Toad was a tier-four beast; as someone who had not even broken through into tier three, the amount of Qi between the two was incomparable. It was like a dwarf facing off against a giant.

“F*ck it, I’m gonna eat it!” Though faced with such a fear, Fang Xing did not hesitate too long before making his decision. Ever since he was young, he had been imprinted deeply with a saying: “From great danger comes great wealth.”

With Fang Xing’s mouth wide open, the beast core was thrown inside and—through a great amount of effort—he finally forced it down his throat before gagging and rolling his eyes. He then moved to sit with his legs crossed in the lotus position, intentionally circulating his blood in the pattern of the [Scripture of the Revered Spirit].

Before long, Fang Xing could feel a hot rush within his body. At first, it was like a trickle of water, but it soon became a violent stream pounding against his meridians. His tiny body immediately felt as though it was an overfilled balloon about to be popped, and each of his tens and thousands of pores were greeted with the pain of being ripped apart from the inside.

The bloating sensation was far stronger than what he had felt when he swallowed all three Hwa’jin at the same time. If it had to be compared, it was perhaps the same as if he had swallowed a hundred at once.

Such a tender age, yet the hyperemia in Fang Xing’s lower body had made it the size of a wooden club. Simultaneously, uncontrollable fantasies of youth fully filled his mind.

He even remembered the only woman living at the bandit nest in Guiyan Valley. She was a valiant one, and Fang Xing had always called her Water Buffalo since the two lumps of fat sitting on her chest were each as large as an adult’s head, and none of the bandits dared to pursue her, no matter how low their standards were. To Fang Xing, the Water Buffalo was the ugliest woman in all of the realms—she was ugliness itself—yet for some reason, as Fang Xing thought about her right at this moment, she actually seemed to be quite alright….

‘Jing to Qi….’ His face red, his teeth clenched tightly, Fang Xing forced himself away from all of these crazy thoughts in order to concentrate on the conversion. The large amounts of Jing rushed into his body, the force as though small atomic bombs had exploded one after another before seeping their way into every inch of his meridians.

His body had been heated to an impossible temperature, his skin reflecting off red light as his blood boiled, and from afar, it looked as though he were sitting inside raging flames. The grass and vines within the immediate vicinity had been baked and shriveled dry, as if a fire could form any moment now.

It was as though he was refining his physique and soul inside a boiling cauldron, and Fang Xing had to endure every inch of this pain. He wanted to jump up and run like a mad hound to relieve himself of the endless stream of this force, but he had to resist all the same. If he did not fight against his urge, there could be only one ending: death.

The only way to survive—and to improve his cultivation—was to convert large amounts of Jing into Qi right now and then wait for the remaining Jing to disperse itself.

As Fang Xing started his Qi fluctuations around his meridians, the violent Jing began to convert into Qi one thread at a time until it sped up into vast streams of Qi that charged back into his meridians. The amount of Qi within seemed to boundlessly increase and—much like when a stream is suddenly filled with a large influx of water—that stream was forced into the size of a river.

Fang Xing’s meridians soon reached the maximum capacity they could contain, and the Qi began to disperse without end. The storage capacity of a person’s meridians was limited based on their tier. Once the maximum capacity had been reached, any extra Qi would be wasted.

Unless….

‘Time for a breakthrough!’ Once his body had been filled completely, Fang Xing clenched his teeth and forcefully took control over the Qi, guiding it towards his limit.

BANG

First attempt: failed.

The Qi within Fang Xing was shattered and his meridians ached with sharp pain. Normally, Fang Xing would first calm his Qi and regain control of his meridians while waiting for the next moment while his Qi storage was refilled. This time, however, he did not need to care about all of these things; even when the breakthrough had failed, the amount of Jing waiting to be converted inside him was very plentiful.

With a great speed, Fang Xing quickly converted the Jing into just enough Qi for a second attempt.

BANG

Still failed!

Fang Xing gritted his teeth and endured the pain of another failed breakthrough.

Third attempt!

Each of these attempts saw his pores open and close, each time releasing small amounts of putrid-smelling impurities from within his body.

…

Seventh attempt!

The expressions on Fang Xing’s tiny face appeared twisted. He began his seventh attempt as though his life depended upon it.

BOOOM!

Right at this moment, something seemed to have been smashed broken, as the Qi used for this attempt rushed on without any obstacle just like that of a violent river streaming into a large lake. After it had arrived at the lake, regardless of how fast the rapids had been, it seemed to finally calm down.

Spirit Stage tier three!

It did not just stop there. The beast core was still being absorbed and its Jing was like a torrential rainfall pouring right into Fang Xing’s body. Even he couldn’t suppress his joy as he continued to repeat the same process of converting and refilling.

His level of cultivation was still increasing, like waves of an ocean during a thunderstorm.

Spirit Stage early third tier…

Spirit Stage middle third tier…

It continued until his level of cultivation closed in towards the late third tier of Spirit Stage before Fang Xing felt something suddenly relax. The ample rush of Jing had completely disappeared, showing he had finished absorbing the Python Toad’s beast core.

Fang Xing was now only a small step away from reaching Spirit Stage late tier three.