Chapter 16 Breakthrough Two Levels

Time flies like an arrow. For a Cultivator, five months is just one seclusion session.

"A 3rd level," Shangguan Yi said in an emotional voice, unable to hide his joy. After making advance preparations, he finally had time to devote to cultivation, and the result satisfied him.

There's a reason why he could progress so quickly in the previous five months. It was thanks to the pills he had prepared in advance and the important role of the cultivation technique. During his seclusion, he didn't forget to distribute the pills and collect the essence stones every month. After five months of effort, his comprehension of the cultivation technique finally reached 70%.

After reaching the 3rd level, his essence increased by 30%, and its density became 30% purer. Shangguan Yi had been aware of this since he first studied the cultivation method in the system.

Every single Foundation Establishment Cultivator builds a pillar in their Sixth Sense Realm. Each pillar contains their essence and represents their current cultivation level.

When Shangguan Yi was at level 1, he had the essence of one pillar. 

After he broke through to level 2, he had the essence of two pillars, so it was not strange that his essence would increase twofold.

And now, having reached level 3, his essence increased by one more pillar. Compared to the previous two pillars, it was not strange to calculate this as a 30% increase.

Nonetheless, it was another pillar, which would benefit him greatly in refining pills.

At level 2, he could refine 2 batches of high-grade pills at a time, but now he would be able to refine 3 batches each time.

As for mid-grade pills, he could refine 30-40 batches each time, and for low-grade pills, more than 100 batches. This was due to the density of his essence. For his current cultivation, the density was enough to affect low and mid-grade pills, but for high-grade pills, he would need at least level 5 cultivation.

However, benefits always come with a price, as the resources he needed would be much greater. For instance, previously he could replenish his essence with a single high-grade pill, but now it would require two high-grade pills. Otherwise, the time needed to replenish his essence would be longer due to the increased amount of his essence.

Still, Shangguan Yi didn't worry much about the pills; he had enough to support him.

After just five months of seclusion, he had broken through. Shangguan Yi checked his pills and found that there were still over 100 left. This made him want to continue cultivating.

But Shangguan Yi didn't immediately cultivate. First, he checked the cultivation function to see if there was any new advice he had missed.

The result surprised him significantly. There was indeed new advice, specifically about how to use the True Sun Flame technique to cultivate efficiently to the fullest.

The True Sun Flame technique was to condense the sun from the essence, used the sun represent the essence, the essence was the sun and the sun was the essence, the more the sun, the more the essence.

Shangguan Yi began to ponder each sentence carefully. The system never disappointed him, and he had a feeling that this advice would greatly impact his cultivation.

"First, condensing the sun from the essence. This was mentioned at the first content of the technique, from my experience, it was to used the world essence to condense the sun shape, not only that, the sun must possess the heat like the true sun. Although not exaggerated hot to the point of true sun." 

"Second, using the sun represents the essence. This second step of the technique, refining the condense sun to the essence."

"Third, the essence was the sun and the sun was the essence." Shangguan Yi pondered it over again and again.

"I see, there's no different between the sun and the essence when the sun was condense. It was created with essence, so inside, it's full of essences and these essence was the small version of the sun. No wonder when I created the sun, the refining process was faster, it was the essence itself, I just modified and guided them to be my essence." Shangguan Yi nodded repeatedly.

"The more the sun, the more the essence. What does this mean?" Shangguan Yi furrowed his eyebrows. This emphasis on numbers suggests that there's something significant about them.

"Don't tell me…"Shangguan Yi suddenly felt inspired, and he didn't hesitate to take action immediately.

Consuming a high-grade pill, Shangguan Yi entered the cultivation state.

Inside the Sixth Sense Realm, one sun was slowly condensed, followed by two, three, before they crumbled and disappeared. However, Shangguan Yi didn't give up; he continued to try again.

The more he failed, the more confirmed his deduction became.

Like this, half a month passed, and Shangguan Yi finally condensed seven suns at the same time. The consumption was much more than before, as he needed to consume 4 high-grade essence pills each time.

But the benefits truly excited Shangguan Yi. He could progress 7% in a week. This meant that he would need only 3 months to break through to level 4. What great news!

This was because the seven suns represented seven cycles of cultivation. According to the system, he needed to complete 100 cycles to break through, and each time, he needed three days to complete one cycle.

However, from now on, his cultivation method would change due to the appearance of the seven suns. He needed to spend seven days to refine them, and the result was better than before, as he could progress 7% each time. Still, the situation would change when he had used up his essence, because he needed to use three suns to replenish his essence. With four suns left, he would progress 4% in this cycle.

After learning about it, Shangguan Yi immediately started another cycle of cultivation. He consumed four high-grade pills and entered a cultivation state.

The world outside showed signs of chaos due to the situation in the Xuan World, and many powerful forces became anxious. However, they were still helpless to do anything, and numerous rumors began to spread.

Meanwhile, some forces began preparations by strengthening their protection arrays, and some even built more arrays. Of course, these actions happened secretly.

In Xi'An City, the City Lord was naturally the first person to learn of it. That's why Chu Lanlan was sent to the Misty Cloud Sect beforehand. Originally, she would have been sent there when she reached the 10th level of the Foundation Establishment Realm, but she had to go when she was at the 9th level.

When chaos erupted, the Misty Cloud Sect naturally became safer than Xi'An.

Shangguan Yi was left in the dark about this matter, but even if he could learn of it, there was nothing he could do. The Azure Cloud Pavilion was still a safer place than the outside.

Like this, another three months passed by.

"The feeling of level 4 is really different," Shangguan Yi said with a smile.

After advancing to level 4, his essence increased by 25%, as did his essence density.

His comprehension of the cultivation technique also increased to 90%, allowing him to condense nine suns simultaneously. Consequently, the cycle of his cultivation changed to nine days.

He needed to consume five high-grade essence pills each time, putting his pill supply in an urgent state. He had to slow down his cultivation to refine more pills.

Additionally, the matter of exchanging flame techniques and flame crystals was also urgent, as the pills required for exchange were in short supply.

He also needed to consider the supply of Cleansing Water Pills, as he only had enough for four months.

Therefore, Shangguan Yi decided to spend two months on refining pills. One month would be dedicated to refining high-grade essence pills, and the other month for mid and low-grade pills. Given his cultivation level, refining 50 batches of mid-grade pills each time was not a problem, so he could spend less time on mid-grade and low-grade pills.

Shangguan Yi didn't waste any time and immediately began refining the high-grade essence pills. An hour later, he had successfully refined 4 batches of high-grade pills. However, this process left his essence at only 20%.

Shangguan Yi consumed five high-grade essence pills and commenced his cultivation session. Four days later, his essence was replenished. He spent an hour refining 4 batches of high-grade essence pills, then immediately began refining the remaining five suns.

So, after a month, Shangguan Yi had obtained 30 batches of high-grade essence pills, totaling 300 high-grade essence pills. This amount was sufficient for him to sustain his cultivation for half a year.

After spending 12 days refining Cleansing Water Pills, Shangguan Yi accumulated a total of 150 batches of them. Following that, he dedicated another 12 days to refining mid-grade essence pills, resulting in a total of 200 batches. Finally, with the remaining time, he focused on refining low-grade essence pills, yielding around 600 batches.

After completing all these tasks, Shangguan Yi called Shuang'er to assign her the next set of tasks.

——

Cultivation Realm: 

-Body Refining Realm (mortals / practitioners)

-Foundation Establishment Realm ( genuine Cultivators)

-Core Formation Realm 

Technique/Pill/Artifact/Array/Beast/Herb/Talisman Level

-Warrior (level 1)

-Elite (level 2)

-Master (level 3)

Each level divided to 4 grades: low, mid, high and supreme.