Martial Zealot

Yang Wu began to grow quickly as he circulated his Martial Art. He lost reason of time, all he could feel was the ecstasy of increasing his strength.

After an unknown amount of time, his Qi Blood reached its limit, it couldn't grow anymore, even with his body still full of energy to be used. Yang Wu opened his eyes and he was glad his cheap master wasn't there to importunate him that time.

What is a zealot? Yang Wu showed it with his actions, he crazily bombarded his Qi Center with his Qi Blood and seemed to want to to destroy it.

Every time he slashed at his Qi Center with his Qi Blood, both it and his heart would be damaged, he could feel his other internal organs trembling as well.

But it was what a Martial Zeaolot was about, it was someone who disregarded everything for Martial Arts. Yang Wu repeated the process again and again, every time a crack appeared in the Qi Center, his heart was also damaged to an extent.

But at the same time, his Qi Blood began to "corrode" the Qi Center through those cracks, the Five Elements Energy began to merge with the Qi Center. His Qi Center began to change bit by bit, slash by slash.

When it was so full of cracks that seemed to be on the brink of collapse, Yang Wu again used his blood essence, as if disregarding the importance of it. He wildly bathed his Qi Center with his blood essence, this action made his face turn whiter than snow.

The blood essence seemed to contain magical healing properties, healing all cracks it came across, but it was in truth the effect of the Five Elements Energy, the blood essence was just a catalyst.

When all cracks disappeared, Yang Wu felt his Qi Center was something he could control at will. It finally could be manipulated by him completely. Of course, he still had to worry about the consequences of his actions.

He carefully examined and felt his Qi Center could expand safely about five times without collapsing after all his tempering, he proceeded to do it.

His Qi Center trembled and began to expand under his control. When it was five times bigger than before, it stopped and calmed down. But it was still not over, Yang Wu began to use his Qi Blood as fuel for his Qi Center to expand the Qi Veins.

Although he had full control of his Qi Center, it wasn't the same with the Qi Veins. As the Qi Center was the center and main component of the Qi Circulation system, it was from where the Qi Veins obtained the nutrients to grow.

His Qi Center acted as it had never acted before, under his control it absorbed his Qi Blood crazily and used it as nutrients for his Qi Veins to grow.

It was a dangerous process, for if his Qi Blood were insufficient, the breakthrough would fail and he would receive a severe backslash, almost certainly dying. But it was also the proof of a zealot, fearless will to challenge death for martial arts!

But thanks to his deep background, his Qi Blood was far more than sufficient, his Qi Veins only used half of it to expand about five times and grow and reach places unreachable before. Just as before, his body didn't budge because of the growth of the Qi Veins, but it would also be the last time they expand, from now on the path of martial arts wouldn't have as a focus to expand them.

Yang Wu circulated his Qi Blood through his Qi Veins, and it quickly began to grow, taking the nutrients from the places the Qi Veins could now reach. He was happy to see that his Qi Circulation System was now fully mature, since he wouldn't need to expand it anymore, he could use more advanced techniques too.

When his Qi Blood stopped growing, it was about five times more abundant and five times denser. In contrast, his body's reserves were finally exhausted, all the energy and nutrients he gained from the previous accumulation were gone.

With his stronger Qi Blood, he began to wash the rest of his body, on the final process of the breakthrough. The body gave birth to the Qi Blood, and the Qi Blood strengthened and changed the body in return.

He washed his body with his Qi Blood from head to shoe, from the nails to the blood, everything began to transform into something more akin to a world of its own rather than an ordinary life. It followed the trend of the breakthrough and was about five times stronger, sturdier, and more resistant than before.

His wounds and depleted blood essence, everything returned to normality, it was the healing factor of a breakthrough acting.

When Yang Wu felt his breakthrough was finally done, and that he was an official Martial Zealot, he didn't immediately open his eyes but rather began to cultivate.

The calm Yuan Qi around him began to be absorbed by him and he circulated his cultivation technique with utmost concentration, he began to temper and refine his cultivation base again, and when he completed a round of tempering, he would refine the Yuan Qi to replenish the True Qi until it had the same quantity as before.

But he was also using the impurities purged through the tempering to increase his Qi Blood. His Five Elements Qi Blood could turn the impurities into useful energy and thus increase his Martial prowess.

Twenty-two, twenty-three... Thirty, thirty-one times! He only stopped when he completed thirty-one tempering rounds, not because his body was burdened, for it was as strong as ever, but because his mind and fake mystical root began to grow tired.

He took a look at his dantian, his fake mystical root seemed even weaker than before, but he knew it was just an external appearance. When it recovers from its exhaustion, it would show it was in truth much stronger than before.

At that time, he felt he could already advance to the Second Layer of the Qi Refining Realm since he already surpassed the twenty-five temperings his cultivation technique requested, but he obviously wanted to build a better foundation.

He finally opened his eyes and was happy to not see his master's face. He used the ground as his bed and instantly fell asleep, with an honest smile of satisfaction on his face, that smile brightened his usually slightly gloomy face.

When he awakened from his sleep, he felt his body urging him to eat, he laughed and ignored it for the time being. After getting up from the ground, he exited the room and then the cave.

Looking at the moon in the clear stellar sky, he had a strong desire to let go and use his Intent, but he knew that wasn't a good place for it.

He went to an artificial lake built on the border of the peak's cliff, the lake had a waterfall at its side, throwing excess water towards the abyss.

There he rested his back on the grass, which was slightly moist, and looked at the sky. He observed the moon and stars, focusing only on them, forgetting his past and present, as a type of meditation, he enjoyed that.

He stayed there like that all night long, not sleeping but just enjoying the scenery and fresh wind.

When the sun threatened to appear, he smiled and calmly observed as it rose on the horizon, the moon and stars gracefully gave way to it.

He felt a throbbing in his heart, he remembered his initial intention to form a Sun and Moon Intent, not only a Moon Intent, but he didn't succeed, he lacked enough time and inspiration, and his enemies forced him to break through in advance.

This time, in a completely different world, without the burden he once had, he wanted to try and fulfill his dream. But to do that, he had to give up his Moon Intent. A person can't possess two different Intents, it was a well-known limitation in his first world.

He took a deep breath and didn't hesitate anymore, he concentrated on the Intent deep in his Soul, and without any more hesitation... dissipated it.

He could feel his Soul throbbing violently as if losing something very important. His mind shook, memories of the time he formed his Intent flashed, but he ignored them with a firm mind.

He felt he could form the Moon Intent again at any time, it was a temptation to his Soul, but he didn't falter and silently supported the temptation.

He observed the Sun slowly rising, turning the climate warmer. The hidden flowers showed up, the birds took flight, and the diurnal animals began to appear.

He silently imprinted everything into his mind and got up from the place he was. The grass there was deformed with his body's form.

He walked back to his master's cave and began to cultivate again.

From where he stopped, to the thirty-eight round of tempering, it was only then that he felt he couldn't temper his cultivation anymore. It wasn't his body's limitation, it was simply the natural limit of tempering.

Each time he tempered his cultivation base, the next round would be harder to go through, and after reaching that limit, he felt his ability to draw in Yuan Qi was simply not enough, and even if it was, his Qi Meridians wouldn't support the violence.

He began to use the abundant Yuan Qi around him, exponentially denser than outside the cave, to impact the bottleneck between the First and the Second Layer of the Qi Refining Real. He began to gather all his True Qi inside his Dantian into a 'sphere,' with his fake mystical root in the center.

When all of it gathered, he began to compress it forcefully, his Dantian trembled as a result and began to expand. It was the easiest breakthrough in Yang Wu's many lives. A lot of impurities began to be purged from his cultivation base, Yang Wu skillfully used them to fuel his martial practice, and his Qi Blood grew a little thanks to it.

'Second Layer of Qi Refining Realm,' Yang Wu was genuinely happy and pondered, 'My True Qi is quickly growing, two times, three times... five times! It got five times more abundant and denser than before, it's kinda similar to my Martial minor breakthrough, the magic of advancing one's Realm span worlds...'

The Qi Meridians also grew similarly, they reached deeper places than before as well, just like his Qi Veins.

'It is...' Yang Wu almost shouted in ecstasy, 'Pure bliss, I sure changed nothing, I still love a good old breakthrough.'

He calculated and reached the following conclusion: If he had broken through when he just reached the twenty-fifth round of tempering, he would have been at least five times weaker than he was at that time, it was following the same symmetry.

'In other words, my current cultivation is equal in strength to that of someone in the Third Layer of the Qi Refining Realm, at least in theory.'

'If I temper and refine my current cultivation base to its limit again, I might get an equivalent strength to someone in the Fourth Layer of the Qi Refining Realm, if the breakthrough to that Layer follows the same rule of a five-fold increase of power.'

'And after I advance to the Third Layer, I might get an equivalent strength to someone in the Fifth Layer... After tempering my cultivation to the limit, I will possess enough strength to compete with someone in the sixth layer. After advancing to the Fourth Layer, I will possess enough strength to compete with someone in the Seventh Layer...'

Yang Wu was really happy with his prospects, but he knew it depended on whatever some prerequisites were met. If the rate of increase of power was higher than five times, it would be impossible.

Yang Wu took the opportunity to test whether his Martial Practice speed was affected again, and it was, albeit only a little. He understood it, his cultivation was too low to increase the speed significantly. His Martial Practice was at that moment equivalent in strength to someone in the Late Qi Refining Realm, far ahead of his immortal cultivation. Because he just advanced, his Martial Practice was only equivalent to someone in the Seventh Layer, but he would be able to get it stronger without any bottlenecks until it was equivalent to the peak of the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement Realm.

He decided to focus on his immortal cultivation for the time being, unless his body showed itself unable to bear the burden of tempering his cultivation to the limit again.

He dispelled his thoughts and began the arduous process again. Of course, he didn't spare an ounce of impurities and used all of it to increase his Martial accumulation.

---End of the chapter

[A bit of info for those who like it, but it's not necessary to read:

Qi and Body Realm is comparable to the Early Qi Refining Realm. But when someone just enters it, his strength will be comparable to someone in the First Layer, only after enough practice and strengthening will his strength be comparable to the peak of the Third Layer of Qi Refining. The same happens with the other Martial Realms. It is an advantage of the Martial System in the early stages to have fewer bottlenecks compared to the Immortal System, but it has a great price.

Someone who is at the Peak of the Qi and Body Realm is at least twenty-five times more powerful than someone who just reached the same Realm, and this difference formed without the need to break any kind of bottleneck. However, from the Qi and Body Realm to the Martial Adept Realm, the multiplication is way lower, just five times under normal circumstances. However, the great thing about breaking through a bottleneck is that this five-fold increase is almost instantaneous.]