Free Web NovelChapter 72: Chapter 66: Breakthrough
Zeke said, "Of course. But I need some things to make it. Ingredients, utensils, and most importantly, time."
The old man stroked his beard and said, "Just give the list to Little Ki-Hyun. Now let us leave."
While they were leaving, the old man thought, ’I wonder where he gets his confidence from?’
As he was thinking this, the image of another child came to his mind and he shook his head. He mumbled, "They are really similar."
Zeke looked at the old man and said, "Did Senior say something?"
The old man shook his head and said, "Just the ramblings of an old drunkard."
Zeke was also wondering, ’Who is this old man? And now that I think about it, didn’t he also call the third Heavenly Demon an idiot’
Zeke had many questions but no answers. The last time he was in Murim, he was a scholar. He literally had a restriction on him that he couldn’t cultivate. That is why he knew so much about the Divine Beasts. Well, he would figure it out later. Right now, his mind was on the tasks in front of him. The old man accompanied him outside the mountain. It was already nighttime. The old man said, "A servant will take you back to your chambers."
Zeke bowed towards the old man and was just about to leave when the old man said, "Next time, be careful of what you say. And remember, someone’s always listening." freewebnovel.cσ๓
Zeke became vigilant. What did the old man mean by that? Was somebody spying on him? Somebody probably was. He would have to ask the trio to ease up on the worship. It would be bad if someone saw that. Now was not the time for more people to know about him.
As he was lost in his thoughts, a servant arrived and said, "Please follow me."
Zeke nodded and followed the servant back to his room. He washed up and went to bed. There was too much on his mind to cultivate. The next morning, he freshened up and started cultivating. He had a feeling that he would be able to breakthrough the day before but wasn’t in the condition to cultivate, both physically and mentally. But after a good rest, his injuries had healed. Although he still had many questions, he had accepted that it would take some time before he found some answers.
He sat cross legged and calmed his mind. He controlled his breathing and started circulating natural energy. It soon transformed into Hell Qi. The vengeful spirits in his mind went absolutely crazy after sensing the Hell Qi, and started pounding at the mental wards that acted as their prison.
The Asuran Neo-Nephilim Primogenitor Visualization opened its closed eyes. It stared at the manic vengeful spirits. That calmed them down. Even after losing their minds, these distorted existences still had a modicum of survival instinct. But chaos ensued once again as more vengeful spirits tried entering Zeke’s mental realm. They were attracted by the extremely pure Hell Qi in his body.
Zeke was fully focused on cultivating now and the constant activity was disturbing him. He simply took down the mental wards. Same as before, once the vengeful spirits entered, they froze. They couldn’t move under the pressure that the Visualization was exuding.
In the outside world, Zeke’s body had reached a state of saturation. Both his body and Lower Energy Core were completely full. Even the three lotuses looked extremely supple. As he continued the circulation, the Hell Qi had nowhere to go so it did the only thing that it could. Break the barrier around his Middle Energy Core. He heard a cracking noise and the Hell Qi rushed into his Middle Energy Core.
It filled about a third of his Middle Energy Core, forming a pool of Hell Qi. Then, a vortex appeared in the center of the pool and a black lotus with twelve petals started condensing in it. As the lotus was condensing, the Hell Qi in the Middle Energy Core started decreasing. When the lotus fully condensed, almost no Hell Qi was left in both of his energy cores. Different from the lotuses in the Lower Energy Core, which were black and golden, this lotus was black and red.
Outside, Zeke’s lotus tattoo started glowing and a phantom of an unbloomed black lotus appeared behind him. First, 36 petals with golden patterns bloomed at the same time. Then, twelve petals with red patterns bloomed. After the petals had bloomed fully, the phantom disappeared. Zeke then began circulating the natural energy again.
But something was different this time. Instead of just gathering inside his energy cores like it usually did, the Hell Qi didn’t gather just passed the energy cores as if they were meridians. It only gathered after two circulations instead of one. But as Zeke sensed carefully, he was able to tell that the Hell Qi had become even purer. He observed the whole process and concluded that the lotuses in the Lower Energy Core were acting as filters.
He cultivated until he had thoroughly consolidated his foundation after the breakthrough and filled his energy cores as much as he could. His Lower Energy Core was completely full while the Middle Energy Core was 30% full. He entered his mental realm, only to find it completely filled with vengeful spirits.
He put up his mental wards again and said, "I need to deal with them quickly. Although they can’t harm me, I can’t take any risks here. I’ll have to awaken Sasin soon. But to do that, I need to get out of the Cult. There is no way that I can perform the ceremony here. And the only way I can do that is leave on a mission. Sigh...Looks like I need to quickly create the squad. Well, it’s a good thing. I need to test my strength after the breakthrough and blow off some steam."
(Go see a therapist. You have some real anger issues.)
[Ha ha ha. So funny. Ha ha ha.]
Zeke opened his eyes and stretched his body. He picked Sasin up and left the room. He went to the trio’s rooms to call them. He took them to his room and said, "We can finally talk."
The trio stared at him strangely. Ryeong...wanted to talk? Ryeong? The same Ryeong that threatened to kill them at every point? He wanted to talk? Seeing that he had not brought up the spar until now, they had tactically agreed to not remind him.
(Like when your teacher forgets about the homework.)
Woo, who was the closest to Zeke and had known him personally the longest, said, "What’s up?"
Zeke said, "You guys have rested enough. It’s time to put yourselves to use. I hope that you’re ready because..."
The trio had a foreboding feeling that he was gonna ask them for a spar. But when they heard Zeke’s next words, they heaved a sigh of relief.
He continued, "...we will challenge a Lower Squad today and take their place."
Bum said, "I asked around for some info on the squads and from what I heard, there are two squads that we can challenge. Or rather, there are two squads that we should challenge."
The rest stared at him in surprise. especially Woo and Woong. Too many shocking things were happening that day. First, Ryeon wanted to ’talk’. And then, Bum, the most impulsive person that they knew, actually planned ahead. Bum stared at them back doubtfully and said, "What? A tiger always stalks its prey."
Zeke patted his shoulder and said, "Good job, Bum. Now tell me why you think that we should challenge one of those two squads specifically?"
Bum looked triumphantly at Woo and Woong. This was the first time Zeke had genuinely praised any one of them. And he was the first. Then he said, "Well, before I saw you today, the list had five options. But seeing that you had broken through, I removed the squads."
Before Zeke could ask how he knew, he said, "The energy fluctuations. All three of us couldn sense the intense energy fluctuations coming from your room."
Zeke thought, ’Those senses, as expected of Divine Beasts’ bloodlines.’
Bum continued, "Anyways, these two squads are slightly above average. If we take their place, we will gain enough fame. Actually, from what I heard, the four of us could take on the five strongest Lower Squads, but we would have to use our every move. Because all of them have at least six Demons. Also, they have at least 25 members each. And you were the one who told us to never show all of our cards, so..."
All of them, Zeke, Woo, and Woong, were genuinely impressed. Bum had actually put a lot of thought into choosing suitable opponents for them. And he was right. Although Zeke wanted fame within the Cult, he didn’t want too much attention right from the beginning.
He was sure that the old man was definitely spying on him. He didn’t like it, but there was nothing he could do about it. But what he could do was prevent others from doing the same.
He said, "Then what are we waiting for? Get your weapons. Then we’ll go and see the Vice Head."
