Business in the Myriad Fragrance Pavilion went on as usual, people buying more than selling, from selling alchemy pills, to weapons, manuals and related items.
At the moment though, Yin Mei was less occupied as no customer had arrived. She just sat there, wondering when a more profitable transaction would occur for the day. Then the door opened as another customer had arrived.
Xuanyuan Zhen walked to the counter where she sat. Without much exchange of words he simply removed all the beast cores from his storage ring. The piles of cores on the table shocked her.
'Just how long had he been hunting beasts?' she thought for a moment, then regained her composure.
"You've been busy,"she said with a smile on her face.
"I've been lucky," he replied with an expressionless one.
She began counting the beast cores on her table. It took a while, but not so long.
"109 Rank 2 beasts and 67 Rank 3 beasts in total," she said not hiding the shock on her face.
Beasts aren't classified using the terminologies common to cultivators. Those comparable to Body Tempering Realm Cultivators are classified as unranked. Rank 1 beasts are comparable to Qi Condensation Realm, Rank 2 for Foundation Establishment Realm, Rank 3 for Core Formation Realm and so on.
For one to gather many beast cores of such beasts wasn't an easy feat.
"Each Rank 2 beast cores is 100 spirit stones each, and Rank 3 cores are 1000," she began, the price astonishing Xuanyuan Zhen. "So in total you have 77,900 spirit stones."
Xuanyuan Zhen's shock couldn't be hidden. He was relatively rich.
"What's the highest level of cultivation chambers?," he inquired.
"Rank 4 chambers which cost 4000 spirit stones per hour."
"I'll take one," he replied immediately. He was eager to breakthrough to Qi Condensation Realm.
Afterwards, he was led to the cultivation chambers. The higher the rank, the stronger and more advanced the Qi gathering formations were. He selected an empty one and went inside. The Qi fluctuations in the air were like mist, enough to enable a Core Formation Realm and to breakthrough to Nascent Soul Realm. He sat cross-legged and activated the Trinity of Primordial Breath.
The Qi gathered by the formation was devoured by his physique, and fed the three tiny wisps of Primordial Chaos Qi, Grandmist Purple Qi and Mysterious Yellow Qi within his purple-golden blood circulating throughout his entire body, tempering every inch beyond his previous level of strength.
'It's still too slow," he thought as he took out one of the spiritual fruits and began consuming it. The immense Qi was absorbed by the Primordial Breath as he cultivated. A few moments later, his Body Tempering Realm cultivation increased by another level. The 12th stage Body Tempering Realm was a whole new world compared to the 11th stage.
This was an unexpected outcome for some who wanted to breakthrough to Qi Condensation Realm. He continued practicing the Trinity of Primordial Breath which tempered his physique. He consumed two more spiritual fruits and continued. A few more moments, he broke through to 13th stage Body Tempering Realm. If anyone were to see his condition, they would be astonished. His purple–golden blood Qi surged with immense aura, as if he were a humanoid furnace.
He still wasn't satisfied, released the remaining 7 spiritual fruits as he kept on cultivating to Qi Condensation. His dantian and meridians once crippled due to his opposing physiques had been repaired by the Primordial Breath long ago. Now it began to flow towards his dantian through his meridians and converged into a three coloured mist, which then separated into three layers.
The top layer was dark–yellow coloured, Mysterious Yellow Qi. The middle layer was grey coloured, Primordial Chaos Qi. And the Grandmist Purple Qi was the lowest layer. Each swirled like a vortex of immeasurable might. The Qi fluctuations emitted by Xuanyuan Zhen were beyond the scope of the Body Tempering Realm. He'd attained the Qi Condensation Realm finally.
He saw that the Qi present in his dantian with astonishment. The Primordial Breath was far beyond Heaven and Earth Qi. He observed his new strength which was realms above his previous realm. Each breakthrough to 12th and 13th stage of Body Tempering Realm were already massive leaps in power, talk more of Qi Condensation.
He also observed that the Heaven and Earth Qi gathered by the formation had decreased massively. Who would have thought that such breakthrough would be this demanding? He felt a chill as he imagined his future breakthroughs and let out a sigh of helplessness. All the spiritual fruits were gone.
As he was thinking, he remembered the War God Academy assessment. He hurriedly left the chamber and met Yin Mei at the counter. She noticed the Qi fluctuations and was astonished.
"Congratulations on your breakthrough," she began, "37,900 spirit stones remaining."
Spending ten hours to achieve his breakthrough was shocking to realize, even for him.
"Thanks to the Myriad Fragrance Pavilion ,"he replied collecting his spirit stones. "Else it would be impossible to achieve this."
'Another day, another achievement,' he thought to himself as he left the pavilion to his rented room as he intended to prepare for the assessment.