Great Dao Vortex Art

Wu Zhen was ready. It was time to leave this place. He visited Chu Feng's grave one last time before leaving to continue up the mountain. The climb was not only brutal, but it also tested his survival skills. Whereas before there was an abundance of animals to hunt and water to drink, there was now a complete scarcity of both.

He might've been smart, but he did not know how to survive on a mountain.

Not only that, the path was getting steeper. As he climbed higher, it was only getting harder to climb even more. It was more strenuous than battling demons.

He felt like he couldn't breathe, the air was incredibly thin.

By his estimates, he felt like he would reach the peak in 4 months or so, which wasn't too long.

As he continued to ascend, he suddenly spotted a cave on the side of the mountain. He slowly and carefully moved to it. After all, a slip here would send him quite a way down. Eventually, he reached the foot of the cave. As he looked into it, he found something rather disturbing.

Inside the cave, there was a skeleton, and beside it, a book.

He headed inside and picked up the book. On its cover, words were saying, "Ji Tian's Survival Diary."

He opened the book to read it, but it seemed to be stained by blood, except for a few somewhat readable pages.

"Day 134. Today, I continued to climb. While on the way, I saw a bird's nest on a sideways tree. Resting within it laid 3 eggs. The mother bird had flown away when a sudden gust of wind blew the nest off the tree. I stood there and watched. Afterward, I felt a little sad."

"Day 176. A little snake that liked to call itself 'lord' approached me. It was annoying, so I threw it as far as I could like a stick. Then, I continued climbing."

Wu Zhen stood there and speculated. Was the little snake that liked to call itself 'lord' the Snake Lord he so despised? This guy had to be strong if he could throw the snake lord away as if it was like a stick. Even he couldn't win against it without the power of the Soul. Wu Zhen continued reading. Perhaps he would glean some more information about the path to the peak.

"Day 189. Today, I broke through to Qi Ocean 1. I wonder if my parents would be proud. Now, the only thing left to do before my return is to arrive at the peak."

Wu Zhen flipped through to the last page. Did he actually summit the mountain? He was curious to see.

"Day 196. Don't go to the peak. If you're reading this, I beg you, don't throw your life away like I did mine. That being... I couldn't sense it, nor see it, but its strength was far higher than mine. This might be the last entry I will ever write. If you're reading this, contact the Ji clan and inform them of my death."

He had died? Ji Tian, a Qi Ocean 1 cultivator had died? What was that about a terrifying being? Was there a demon stronger than Foundation Establishment 1 at the top? This was huge news to Wu Zhen. He was still only Qi Condensation 7, how could he even hope to defeat anyone a whole major realm higher than him?

Even with the power of Soul amplifying his strength, the gap between Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation was still too large to cross. He looked around the cave, thinking about what to do when a sparkling gem caught his eye. He was too far to notice earlier, but now that he came closer, there was a ring on the skeleton. He quickly took the ring and put it on, circulating qi through it hoping that it was one of those storage rings that experts usually owned.

To his surprise, it actually was! He was just too lucky! Too damn lucky! He quickly browsed through what was inside, to find books on martial arts, cultivation manuals, and even body refining techniques! Unfortunately, none of the body refining techniques could match up to Nine Lightning Body.

However, he still needed better cultivation manuals and martial arts. All this time, he had been practicing the Qi Vortex Art, which was known practically everywhere and was a public cultivation manual that anyone could learn and use. His family couldn't afford any better ones, so he was stuck with it. Still, after mastering it, he found it pretty useful. Now, he could finally get some better ones!

He quickly read through every cultivation manual he found. All of them had impressive names such as Blazing Inferno Art and Hurricane Gale Method, but none of them seemed to click. He was quite attached to Qi Vortex Art as he had been practicing it ever since he started cultivating, so he didn't want to give up on it completely.

He read through every last one but found none that were anything like Qi Vortex Art. Maybe he was just being stubborn, maybe he was going to regret this, but he felt like he had to continue with it.

"Kid, or should I say reincarnation, that was a pretty smart choice.", a loud voice spoke from within Wu Zhen's mind.

"AAH! WHO'S THAT?!", Wu Zhen shouted, before stumbling and falling flat on his butt with a loud thud.

"Calm down! It's just me, Freedom God-Emperor! Don't you remember me?"

Wu Zhen's spiking heart rate soon returned to normal after he took a few deep breaths.

"Oh, thank god. I thought it was that dude's ghost haunting me from the dead for stealing his ring."

"BAHAHAHA! That did happen to me once, actually. Anyway, you need a better cultivation technique, right? One like the Qi Vortex art? I have one, or to be more accurate, I remember one, BUT! You have to do one thing for me. All you have to do is to promise me that you will go to the peak of this mountain."

"How could I promise you if I'm not sure that I could do it? I could get killed by a demon or die in an accident on the way there.", Wu Zhen reasoned. Why was Freedom God-Emperor so confident in him now when he had insulted him previously?

"I'm not confident in you, I'm just confident in the technique I'm giving you. Just say it. Will you go to the peak, or will you stay here cowering in fear?"

"Alright, alright, I'll do it! I promise you that I'll go to the peak! Just give me the cultivation manual already, will you?", Wu Zhen replied, frustrated. Just speaking to Freedom God-Emperor made him annoyed.

"Don't forget your promise."

Wu Zhen cried out in pain as information suddenly flooded into his head. After a few seconds, the pain finally subsided, and he could finally look through what his new cultivation manual was.

"The Great Dao Vortex art, a pompous manual from a pompous man."

Still, he couldn't exactly complain. He got what he asked for. He sat down and began absorbing the qi around him.

Surprisingly, it was slower than the original Qi Vortex Art, but not for long. Its speed slowly ramped up as it went on, eventually forming a vortex around him as the name said.

Wu Zhen tried to stop, but he couldn't, it just kept going! And it was getting faster too!

He tried calling out for Freedom God-Emperor, but he was suddenly nowhere to be found.

"OI, FREEDOM GOD-EMPEROR! TELL ME HOW THE HELL I STOP THIS!"

No response. Did Mr. Pompous give him a defective technique and dip? Yes, yes he did.

He could move around his head, but everything from the neck down was frozen still. He was now stuck in a cave to cultivate for god knows how long. In the first hour of cultivating, the speed had now increased to more than ten times that of the Qi Vortex art. He had already tried to call for Freedom God-Emperor countless times by now, hoping that he would respond and tell him the method to canceling this technique.

By the second hour, it had grown to be more than a hundred times faster than the Qi Vortex Art, and it had still not stopped. Wu Zhen still tried to call out for Freedom God-Emperor, but he was starting to realize it was pointless.

By the third hour, he had already given up. Was he just going to be stuck in this posture until he died? Was this all a plot so that Freedom God-Emperor could possess him? He thought up many crazy conspiracy theories to explain why it was happening. Its speed increased to thousands of times the speed of the Qi Vortex Art. The amount of qi that was being absorbed into Wu Zhen's body was enormous.

A week had passed since he started cultivating, and he had broken through to Qi Condensation 8.

By this point, it was immeasurably faster than the Qi Vortex art. The only thing he knew about it at this point was that it was still getting faster.

He didn't even know how he survived. A normal human should be dead after 3 days without water, and even though he had refined his body, it didn't really help him in many terms other than strength. Everything below his neck was numb by now, he couldn't feel anything but the wind brushing against his cheeks. He felt like he was in a similar state as animals who hibernate in the winter, his body had cut off anything not essential and was trying to conserve its energy.

A month had passed since he began, and he still couldn't stop. He had broken through again not long ago to Qi Condensation 9. The most terrifying thing was that his rate of absorption was still growing. He just wanted out, that was all. He had been desperately trying to move ever since the first day was over, but his body didn't budge at all. He was on the verge of breaking down, he just wanted to move! A twitch, a slight movement, anything! He just wanted to move!

Three months had passed. On this day, he finally reached the peak of Qi Condensation 9. Everything stopped, he could move again!

"Damn you, Freedom God-Emperor!"