Brimming with Energy

He took a few deep breaths before calming his excited emotions down to a lull. He was extremely sure that with his current strength, even if he did not cultivate the auxiliary technique to the third level, he would be able to put up a fight against Shi Shisi's final attack that was strengthened by around 50% or so.

As he thought about his chances, he could not help but shrug his shoulders. "Bah, he's going to break through to the Martial Adept stage sooner or later, which will make the gap of strength between us even farther."

"And I want to at least stand at an equal level to him." Shi Li opened his eyes and rummaged through the robe he threw many hours ago, grabbing a Spirit Gathering Pill from the satchel hidden within.

Raising the pill he grabbed to face the luminosity of the sun, Shi Li could not help but think over the sudden idea that flashed through his mind. "Although the auxiliary technique tells me to connect the soul and the body together as one, what if the connection between the two was reinforced by my own energy?"

It sounded extremely absurd, even the manual he received from Tian Zhenfei did not state that it was possible.

But it did not say that it was impossible to do.

Popping the pill into his mouth and manipulating the energy that bursted out not long after like the caress of a woman's touch, he redirected all of the pill energy towards his navel, where it was slowly converted into his own energy that resonated with his body and soul.

Of course, Shi Li was not actually converting the energy from the pill into his own type, but instead, allowing the aura of his body to seep into the pill energy. This ensured that the compatibility of the energy and his body would be improved by a great degree, allowing the cultivation techniques he cultivated to give out twice the results but half the effort in a way.

As to where he learned this, it was something he read in a novel in his previous life, and thought that there was some sense to that kind of logic.

Since the conversion of pill energy into a resonating energy was extremely slow due to the fact that his aura had a hard time seeping into each and every strand, it took Shi Li half of the current day to convert every strand into a resonating energy, the sun basically shining rays upon him.

Nonetheless, since Shi Li was engrossed in converting the pill energy, he did not feel the heat from the sun's rays at all, proceeding to cultivate the third level of the auxiliary technique whose name is incomparably long.

"Okay, the final level of this technique needs me to fuse the strength of the soul to the every cell on my skin, muscle, and tendon. This allows me to gain greater amounts of strength," Shi Li said to himself inwardly as he condensed his soul's strength into tendrils, just like before.

But there was something different to the tendrils this time. Thanks to the fact that Shi Li infused his soul with resonating energy, even the tendrils inherited the faint silver glow covering his soul. He could feel that the strength hidden within these tendrils could make his breakthrough to the third level harder, but the result higher.

Chi! Chi! Chi!

Just like multiple spears piercing into a wall made out of cardboard, the tendrils of soul strength easily pierced through each and every cell in his skin, muscles, and tendons, allowing the previous connection to be reinforced by a great amount.

"Gnhngh....!" But since it was the third and final level of the auxiliary technique, adding in the fact that both his body and soul were infused with resonating energy, the pain he felt was increased by manifold. It was akin to comparing a bite from a small ant to a bite from a Rank 9 Beast!

It was not just pain that he felt, but also an itch, an itch that could not be scratched as he knew that that would halt the breakthrough to the third level. He wanted to roll around the ground and use the roughness to scratch the itch, but he could not do so as it could halt the breakthrough.

So he endured.

And endured.

And endured.

The fusion of the body and soul was a slow and delicate process, focusing on making small connections at first before expanding to a greater degree.

It took Shi Li a little bit over two days to create each and every connection to the cells that were the targets of the auxiliary technique. At this point in time, he was covered in cold sweat, with the ground he was sitting on slightly damp from the amount of sweat he produced during the past two days.

"Alright, the small connections are done. It's time to fuse them all," Shi Li said to himself inwardly as he ignored the fact about the ground.

At this moment in time, he moved the resonating energy in his navel towards each and every connection as the body and soul gradually fused into one.

This was the final element needed to successfully break through to the third level, the full fusion between his outer body and soul.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As the connections were infused with the resonating energy, a gush of strength started to spread throughout Shi Li's body as another wave of intense pain spread all over, making him grimace as he clenched his teeth.

Bit by bit, the connections were being strengthened as they were simultaneously infused with resonating energy originating from Shi Li's navel. It took another day for the connection to be fully complete.

Bang!

At the instant the connection was done, a loud yet muffled explosion resonated from Shi Li's body as the aura he exuded intensified by a great degree.

He opened his eyes and stood up, feeling that the connection between his body and soul was faster, as if he could move as fast as his soul could will it.

After a few minutes of experimenting with his new strength, Shi Li decided to head towards the strength measuring pillar and see his current strength before breaking through to the Martial Adept stage.

Boom!

A small explosion could be heard as he clenched his left fist before contracting it backwards. He channeled all of his energy towards the tips of his left fist before punching out towards the pillar in one swift motion.

Kwoosh!

A soft sonic boom could be heard as his fist headed towards the pillar, with the boom intensifying in loudness as the fist and the pillar connected.

Thankfully, at the instant the fist landed, the pillar was covered in a faint white glow as usual, muffling the explosion to a great extent. Shi Li could not help but let out a sigh as he looked over at his living room, noticing Moddy who was still cultivating.

It took the pillar a few seconds to compute Shi Li's strength before showing a three digit number as the white veil disappeared.

Shi Li could not help but smile and jump in joy at the number in front of the pillar.

"Time for me to consolidate my cultivation and break through!"

Now what was this number?

It exceeded the expected 100 ren he would get after cultivating all three cultivation techniques to the zenith.

The number was...

110 ren.