Chapter 5: Breaking Through to Dou Zhe

Chapter 5: Breaking Through to Dou Zhe

Uncorking the vial, a rich, intoxicating fragrance of pills wafted out, refreshing the spirit.

Tilting the vial, a jade-green pill the size of a dragon’s eye rolled out into his palm. Xiao Se brought the pill to his nose, greedily inhaling the scent that invigorated his mind.

Then, he popped it into his mouth.

The Qi Gathering Powder melted instantly, transforming into a warm stream of pure energy that surged into Xiao Se’s body. In an instant, it spread throughout his limbs and meridians.

Xiao Se’s body shuddered abruptly, but his expression soon returned to calm. He formed a series of strange hand seals, beginning to rapidly absorb the Dou Qi from the surrounding environment.

As soon as the external Dou Qi entered his body, it merged with the pure medicinal energy of the Qi Gathering Powder. It was then refined and converted into tiny, grain-sized specks of green energy.

Suddenly, the Dou Qi within the stone chamber began to churn violently. Wisps of energy converged; a single wisp might have been weak—perhaps even invisible to the naked eye—but a single spark can start a prairie fire.

Within moments, wisps of pale white Dou Qi materialized in the chamber, rushing into Xiao Se’s body through his mouth and nostrils.

For a time, Xiao Se felt an unprecedented relaxation, a warm and immensely comfortable sensation...

However, as the continuous flow of Dou Qi combined with the pure medicinal energy and was refined into green energy, Xiao Se’s face began to contort in agony.

An aching pain radiated throughout his meridians. At first, it was mild, but with every additional wisp of Dou Qi he absorbed, the pain intensified.

By the end, Xiao Se was gritting his teeth in torment.

Fortunately, he had prioritized physical conditioning since childhood, making his meridians stronger than those of an average person. Though painful, it was not enough to cause permanent damage.

Finally, the last bit of medicinal energy was refined.

At this point, Xiao Se felt as though his meridians were on the verge of bursting, his body swollen and tight.

"This is bad," Xiao Se muttered to himself. "I must condense the Dou Qi vortex immediately, or all my previous efforts will be in vain."

Exhaling heavily, he formed more hand seals. The surging green energy within his body began to spin violently around his Dantian, forming a vortex.

The pale white Dou Qi accumulated in his meridians followed suit, pouring incessantly into the green vortex.

As the Dou Qi fully converged into his Dantian, Xiao Se’s soul perception keenly sensed that the originally green vortex had been dyed a milky white.

Having reached this stage, Xiao Se knew it was time for the final step: compressing the Dou Qi.

Calm his mind, focus on his inner core!

Xiao Se activated his soul perception. Although he was not yet fully adept at using it, his powerful soul—a remnant of his life as a transmigrator—gave him a sensory capability not inferior to that of Xiao Yan three years later.

Guided by his soul perception, Xiao Se’s hands moved rapidly, and the Dou Qi vortex in his Dantian began to shrink.

When the vortex had been compressed to the size of a palm, it finally stopped changing.

But Xiao Se did not stop. Gritting his teeth, he let out a shout, "Compress again!"

*Boom.*

A muffled rumble echoed within his body. The Dou Qi vortex had successfully solidified.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for raising your cultivation level to Dou Zhe. Rewarding: One system patch.]

Hearing the system notification in his mind, a faint smile curled Xiao Se’s lips. Exhausted, he collapsed to the floor, his eyelids slowly closing as he drifted into sleep.

What Xiao Se did not know was that the moment he fell asleep, the stone pedestal beside him began to crack. The sprout beside him grew at a rate visible to the naked eye, instantly maturing into a bonsai tree half a meter tall.

Looking closely through the cracks in the stone pedestal, one could faintly discern an ink-green ancient jade treasure chest inside, gleaming with a ghostly light under the moonlight filtering through the chamber’s ventilation shaft.

Early the next morning.

Warm sunlight streamed through the ventilation shaft, falling upon Xiao Se’s fair, youthful face.

Xiao Se slowly opened his eyes and immediately checked the storage belt for the scrolls and the Heaven-Governing Bottle; these were the foundations of his survival.

Thankfully, the Fen Jue and the bottle were both there.

Exhaling in relief, a look of satisfaction appeared on Xiao Se’s face. He stretched comfortably. "Ah, that was a truly refreshing sleep. It’s been over eleven years since I arrived on the Dou Qi Continent, and this is the best sleep I’ve ever had. Not only did I break through to a Dou Zhe, but I also obtained the most bizarre cultivation technique on the continent, the Fen Jue. Right, it seems I was rewarded with a patch. The system can be upgraded, too."

At this thought, Xiao Se shouted in his mind, "System, install the patch."

[Ding! System patch installing. Estimated time: one hour. Please wait patiently, host.]

Xiao Se smiled helplessly. This really was a half-finished system.

Since the system was upgrading, Xiao Se would not just sit there foolishly.

He rose and stretched his slightly sore limbs, then turned his gaze toward the stone pedestal.

At the sight, his eyes lit up with joy. That sprout had truly grown into a bonsai. Xiao Se roughly estimated that the tree was at least thirty years old.

Looking past the bonsai, the cracks around its roots on the stone pedestal caught his attention. He discovered that the interior was hollow and seemed to contain something.

"This is..."

On the Dou Qi Continent, there were no recreational facilities. When not cultivating, Xiao Se would often run to the Xiao family’s library to read books about herbs and the geography of the continent.

If a transmigrator in the *Battle Through the Heavens* world didn't have the heart of an alchemist (or at least the desire to show off), could they even call themselves a transmigrator?

With the soul talent brought by his transmigration, Xiao Se couldn't claim a photographic memory, but after reading things two or three times, he could basically remember them. Over the years, he had practically turned the accessible areas of the Xiao family library upside down.

By now, he could recognize most common herbs and their approximate ages.

The bonsai before him was something Xiao Se could easily identify as nothing more than a common Japanese yew.

However, the object beneath the bonsai piqued his great interest.

"Stone-Crushing Palm."

Stepping back, Xiao Se lunged forward. Dou Qi gathered on his right palm, and he struck toward the crack in the stone pedestal.

This was the only Dou technique he currently possessed, a mid-tier Yellow rank skill. It had been taught to him by the butler, and he had long since mastered it to the point where it could easily crush stone.

*Rumble...*

Under the force of Xiao Se’s palm, the roots and trunk of the Japanese yew were instantly shattered. With a *crack*, the fissures in the stone pedestal spread rapidly, growing wider until pieces of stone fell away. In an instant, the hollow space within the pedestal was revealed to Xiao Se.

"This is... a box."