Thud~

After wrapping himself in true qi, Yun Hanshuang leaped directly from Heavenly Wolf Peak and plunged into the river.

Though the impact left him a little dizzy, he dared not pause for a moment. Gritting his teeth against the discomfort, he swam with the current downstream.

Just as Yun Hanshuang jumped into the river, Yang Yun rode the giant boar to the cave entrance. By now, no more cold qi blew out from within.

“Is this the cave?”

Yang Yun looked at the giant boar, and it nodded, indicating this was indeed the cave.

After receiving the giant boar’s confirmation, Yang Yun walked inside, but she had only just entered when she came back out with an unpleasant expression.

“You’ve already collapsed the cave; how could any cold qi possibly still blow out!”

“Oink oink oink.”

The giant boar oinked very aggrievedly, indicating that it had been extremely furious at the time and so couldn’t control itself.

Yang Yun told the giant boar to wait for her where it was, then lightly tapped her toes and flew up. In no time, she reached the peak and also discovered that hole.

The moment she neared the deep hole, Yang Yun sensed Yun Hanshuang’s aura. After scanning the area and finding no sign of him, she jumped down from the opening.

Not long after jumping down, Yang Yun rushed back up in a hurry. She probed the surroundings with her divine sense, and finally stood at the edge of the mountain peak, looking down at the flowing river below.

“Yun Hanshuang, is it? I hope you know what’s good for you and don’t do anything foolish.”

Having said this, Yang Yun sent a divine sense message to the giant boar telling it to wait where it was, then flew toward the river’s surface.

* * *

‘At most half an hour, and that cultivator will discover the secret chamber’s existence. If I swim with the current, I can cover at most a few dozen li. That kind of distance isn’t hard for a cultivator to catch up to. Although my aura has been dispersed by the river water, cultivators all possess divine sense. Even if I could stay in the water the whole time, the moment her radiating divine sense sweeps over me, I definitely won’t be able to escape.’

After swimming with the current for a while, Yun Hanshuang thought for a moment, then turned around and swam against the current upstream.

* * *

It was precisely this move that allowed him to evade Yang Yun’s search.

After reaching the river’s surface, Yang Yun followed conventional thinking and released her divine sense, searching all the way downstream. She searched over two hundred li without finding any trace of Yun Hanshuang. Although she also searched over a hundred li upstream, by then Yun Hanshuang had already left via a small tributary of the river.

‘Could it be that he didn’t leave through the river at all, but returned to Heavenly Wolf Village?’

Finding nothing in the river, Yang Yun suspected Yun Hanshuang might have gone back to Heavenly Wolf Village. So she flew back to the giant boar, stored it into a bag, and with a flash of blue light, transformed back into the thin, small soldier and flew toward Heavenly Wolf Village.

* * *

On a mountain peak that towered into the clouds, a handsome young man in a white robe was climbing toward the summit. This youth was none other than Yun Hanshuang. Nine days had already passed since he left Heavenly Wolf Peak.

Because today was his first gender transformation, he wanted to avoid being seen by others. So he chose this mountain, which the locals called “Qi Moon Peak,” as the place for his first transformation. There was actually another reason for choosing this spot: cultivating the Profound Yin Formula was more effective in yin-cold places.

On Qi Moon Peak, because it was high and cold, no mortals would ever go up there. These two factors perfectly suited Yun Hanshuang’s requirements.

Since snow began to cover Qi Moon Peak from two-thirds of the way up, Yun Hanshuang spent the greater half of a day painstakingly climbing to the summit.

By the time Yun Hanshuang reached the peak, the sun had completely vanished from view, and a full moon slowly began to rise.

Yun Hanshuang waited for an hour without any changes occurring in his body. Just as he thought Old Monster Profound Yin had deceived him, a thick plume of smoke rose from his body. When the smoke dispersed, Yun Hanshuang touched his chest and then his lower body.

‘It really changed!’

Yun Hanshuang didn’t spend much time studying his current body. After confirming that he had truly switched genders, he immediately sat down cross-legged and began attempting to draw qi into his body.

Those with spiritual roots all possess a vessel connected to their spiritual root, which cultivators call the “Qi Sea.” The size of the Qi Sea depends on innate talent. Those with poor talent have small Qi Seas, and the walls of their Qi Sea are not only thick but also rigid, with little room for development. Those with good talent have not only a large Qi Sea, but its walls are soft and elastic, making expansion easier as their cultivation level rises in the future.

Under normal circumstances, a cultivator’s initial Qi Sea is about the size of a water bucket, with a diameter of around thirty centimeters. The first step onto the path of cultivating immortality is to fill the Qi Sea with spiritual energy, then compress that spiritual energy into a Spiritual Power Seed.

Once you have a Spiritual Power Seed, all spiritual energy absorbed thereafter will be transformed into spiritual power by this seed. The larger the Spiritual Power Seed, the faster the spiritual energy is converted and the faster the cultivator’s cultivation speed.

The Spiritual Power Seed condensed by a cultivator will always have twelve grooves, with every three grooves corresponding to one minor realm. Only after filling the first groove can one be considered a cultivator at the Early Qi Refining stage.

After sitting down cross-legged, Yun Hanshuang began guiding the spiritual energy drifting through the world into his body. This time, he didn’t experience the feeling of spiritual energy stubbornly refusing to enter his body like before, when attempting to draw qi into his body. This time, with only a slight guidance, the spiritual energy surged fiercely into his body.

Yun Hanshuang attached his consciousness to the spiritual energy and entered the Qi Sea together with it. This was the first time he saw his own Qi Sea.

Though he knew his talent wasn’t poor, when he saw that his Qi Sea had a diameter of three meters, Yun Hanshuang was still shocked by this pleasant surprise.

Then he used his consciousness to test the softness of the Qi Sea’s walls. Finally, based on the books he had read, Yun Hanshuang determined that the softness and elasticity of his Qi Sea fell into the relatively good category.

Once he understood the size and developmental potential of his Qi Sea, Yun Hanshuang began wholeheartedly absorbing spiritual energy into his body.

Because Yun Hanshuang’s Qi Sea was relatively large, and this place was in the mortal world where spiritual energy was thin, even with the tenfold cultivation speed boost from the jade pendant, the spiritual energy Yun Hanshuang absorbed in one night only filled one-tenth of his Qi Sea.

At this rate and following the pattern of full-moon nights, it would take Yun Hanshuang at least three months to fill his Qi Sea.

Even though it would take three months to break through to the Qi Refining stage, Yun Hanshuang was willing to wait, because he wanted to first break through to the Qi Refining stage and cultivate the secret art before returning to the cultivation world.

Though Yun Hanshuang had true qi to protect his body, he still couldn’t remain on Qi Moon Peak for long periods. So he only went up on full-moon nights. In normal times, he stayed in a small town at the foot of Qi Moon Peak learning some minor crafts.

* * *

Three months passed very quickly. Tonight was Yun Hanshuang’s tenth gender transformation. He had climbed Qi Moon Peak early to wait for nightfall.

In truth, by the eighth transformation, Yun Hanshuang had already filled his Qi Sea and compressed a Spiritual Power Seed with a diameter of half a meter.

On the ninth transformation, the first groove had already been filled more than halfway with spiritual power. Tonight, Yun Hanshuang was confident he could break through to the Qi Refining stage.

After waiting two hours on the peak, Yun Hanshuang welcomed the tenth transformation and immediately entered a cultivation state.

As Yun Hanshuang continuously absorbed spiritual energy, the first groove on that silvery-white Spiritual Power Seed within his Qi Sea was completely filled right at midnight.

Yun Hanshuang’s aura also suddenly intensified at the same moment.

The moment his cultivation stepped into the Qi Refining stage, Yun Hanshuang’s brow resounded with a bang, and his Sea of Consciousness was born.

For an ordinary cultivator, when the Sea of Consciousness is first born, their divine sense can only cover around three meters around their body, and it will later grow stronger as their cultivation level rises.

Yun Hanshuang tested his divine sense and found that his could actually cover about six meters around him, double that of an average cultivator.

‘Does my talent count as genius-level? It’s a pity I can only cultivate three nights each month. Thank goodness Old Monster Profound Yin left that jade pendant to make up for it.’

After experiencing the various manifestations of stepping into the Qi Refining stage, Yun Hanshuang formed a judgment about his innate talent. As for his strength, because he had yet to practice any spells, he couldn’t define it.

Taking out the beast-skin sheet that recorded the Sealing Spirit Heaven-Seizing Art, Yun Hanshuang began reading it carefully.