The Refined Qi Accumulation pills had carried Han Yu through countless failures.
He had burned through them without hesitation, knowing that their number was limited, but confident he could succeed before they ran out. Yet the mountain proved higher than he imagined.
By the eighth day, his bottles were empty.
Not a single Refined Qi Accumulation pill remained, and the only thing left in his possession was a single Spirit Essence pill. Han Yu turned the small bottle in his hand, staring at the lone pill inside with a mix of frustration and unease.
"Is this as far as I can go without a Core Forming Pill?" he whispered to himself.
He had resisted the idea stubbornly for days.
A Core Forming Pill was considered the standard tool for breaking through, but Han Yu wanted more than the standard. He wanted to prove that his foundation was enough. To lean on such a pill felt like diminishing his effort, as though his achievement would be less valuable.
Yet now, after hundreds of failed attempts, even his determination was beginning to waver.
He stared at the Spirit Essence pill, his mind turning. The pill was not meant to serve the same function as a Core Forming Pill, but in a way, it was not so different. Both worked on the principle of condensing spirit Qi, but they did so in different manners.
The Spirit Essence pill purified and compressed by forcing impurities out, while the Core Forming Pill created pressure, driving Qi into a dense solid form.
Han Yu knew his Qi had no impurities. His refinement was immaculate, his foundation flawless. For most cultivators, the Spirit Essence pill would sharpen and clean their Qi before the final step, but for him it was redundant.
Or so it should have been.
"But what if," Han Yu thought, his gaze sharpening, "I focus not on what it removes, but on how it compresses?"
The idea came suddenly, and once it appeared, he could not let it go.
He had spent a week following the exact methods of the Twin Peak Qi Refinement Manual, yet he had not advanced even a step further. Perhaps the answer was not in what the manual said, but in what he could perceive with his own senses.
He popped the Spirit Essence pill into his mouth and swallowed it, then immediately directed his spirit sense deep into his dantian. He ignored the soothing comfort of the pill's energy and instead focused sharply on its mechanics.
The pill's influence spread through his liquid Qi sea like ripples in water. Then the ripples grew into currents, and finally into a whirlpool. The liquid Qi swirled and spun, a centrifugal force pressing impurities to the outer edges while leaving a purer, denser Qi at the center.
Han Yu's eyes opened, gleaming with insight. "So this is how it works."
Normally, cultivators would allow the pill to do its work naturally, letting the purified Qi settle. But Han Yu pressed further, manipulating the whirlpool with his own will, forcing it to spin faster. His meridians strained as he commanded the Qi to flow in a tighter spiral.
The whirlpool grew stronger, and the liquid Qi began to shift violently, straining against the unnatural pressure. Han Yu grimaced as sweat rolled down his face, but he refused to stop.
His mind latched onto a single thought: 'If centrifugal force can strip impurities, then perhaps greater force can compress.'
HUALA
The whirlpool accelerated.
Hours passed. His body ached and his head pounded, but his Qi sea spun with growing violence. What began as a gentle spiral had transformed into a roaring vortex. If it were a real whirlpool in an ocean, it could have swallowed fishing boats whole, reducing them to splinters in seconds.
Yet even with this terrifying power, no core appeared. His Qi churned endlessly, threatening to destabilize at any moment. Han Yu clenched his teeth, forcing his will to dominate the storm.
'I'll endure!'
Another day passed.
The whirlpool's speed became blinding. The center pulled tighter, darker, and then—suddenly—Han Yu's spirit sense caught it.
"Huh?"
A flicker of something different. A shimmer of white at the very heart of the vortex, faint but unmistakable.
His heart leapt. It was not a core, not yet, but it was something. The liquid Qi at the center was no longer the same translucent white hue it had been. Instead, it glowed with a pure white brilliance, as though the very act of compression had changed its nature.
He panted heavily, but a smile broke across his exhausted face. "Closer… I'm getting closer."
Encouraged, he poured every ounce of focus into the task. He ignored his shaking body, ignored the burning pain in his meridians, and drove the whirlpool faster still. The white glow grew, spreading outward, forming a small sphere at the center of his dantian.
Another day passed.
The sphere had grown larger, the pure white Qi gathering tighter, brighter, almost solid. Han Yu stared at it with fiery determination, his mind wrapped around that single spot. This was the threshold. This was the point he had struggled toward for over a week.
"It's now or never!"
He exerted his will directly onto the sphere, pressing down on it, demanding that it solidify. The sphere trembled, its edges blurring as though resisting him. His teeth clenched as he pushed harder, sweat dripping down his face.
Then, without warning, the sphere bulged. The pressure grew unstable, and with a deafening ripple inside his spirit sea, it exploded.
Han Yu's body jolted violently.
"Cough! Cough Cough!"
He coughed a mouthful of blood, his vision blurring from the backlash. The whirlpool of Qi collapsed, scattering, and the brilliant white sphere vanished entirely.
For a moment despair clawed at him. 'Had it all been for nothing?'
But then he froze. His spirit sense brushed against something faint, something that had not been there before. At the very center of his dantian, amidst the scattered liquid Qi, there was a speck. A fragment. Tiny, almost imperceptible, but undeniably solid.
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