Three days passed in a tense routine. Jiang Yi had become a spectral presence: sweeping with the posture of exhaustion, enduring Luo Feng's taunts with the spiritual signature of a sickly mortal, and spending his nights deep in the abandoned servant pathways, utilizing the Minor Flow Convergence Array on every spent matchstick, rusted tool, or crumbling foundation stone that held even a trace of Qi residue.
His diligence paid off. He was now solidly at the peak of the Second Stage, poised for breakthrough, but still lacking the explosive, high-purity fuel required for the leap to Third Stage Body Tempering.
The opportunity arrived disguised as a disaster: the Annual Servant Assessment.
This was a cruel sect ritual. Servants from the lower barracks were forced to clean the Spirit Depository, a vast subterranean vault where the sect kept high-grade medicinal ingredients, rare ores, and priceless formation artifacts. The Depository was protected by powerful, highly unstable seals, and the job involved risking radiation exposure from ancient, volatile Qi—a hazard deemed acceptable only for "disposable" labor.
For Jiang Yi, it was a heaven-sent scavenging mission.
The air in the Depository was heavy, thick with volatile energy. Even through his thick gloves, Jiang Yi could feel the prickling heat of residual Qi from millennium-old seals and storage containers.
Steward Ma barked orders, his face pale with fear, and scattered the nervous servants. Jiang Yi was assigned to the Pill Refuse Chamber, the most dangerous section where failed concoctions and spent pill casings were stored.
As he entered the cavernous chamber, he immediately understood the danger—and the reward. The air here wasn't just thick; it was a churning, chaotic fog of highly volatile, concentrated medicinal Qi. It would burn the meridians of a normal Body Tempering cultivator.
But to Jiang Yi's Azure Sphere, this was an all-you-can-eat buffet.
He spotted the treasure: a large, cracked porcelain jar, clearly a failed storage container for high-grade recovery pills. Though empty, the ceramic was utterly saturated with the residue of Spirit Ascension Pills—a treasure that could push a disciple to Foundation Establishment.
Jiang Yi calculated his risks. The influx of Qi would be violent and would certainly create a detectable ripple.
He set his jaw and knelt by the jar, initiating the Dust Cloak Method to its maximum, pulling the aura of spiritual fatigue so tight around him that he felt weak and dizzy.
"What are you doing, trash?"
A cold, polished voice cut through the humming silence.
Jiang Yi looked up. Standing over him was a young man in immaculate black servant robes, embroidered with silver thread—the personal attendant of Inner Disciple Lord Xue. This was Meng Li, known as the Serpent of the Outer Court, a Fourth Stage Body Tempering cultivator who achieved his power through ruthless, often illicit means.
"I am merely sorting the waste, Senior Brother Li," Jiang Yi said, bowing low, his voice thin and subservient.
Meng Li sneered, kicking the cracked porcelain jar, sending a shower of crystallized residue across the dusty floor. "That jar is mine, dirt-worm. The residue here is enough for me to attempt a breakthrough to the Fifth Stage. Don't touch it, or I'll break every bone the Azure Cloud Sect owns."
Jiang Yi straightened slowly, revealing his trembling, weak facade. "I understand. I will continue sorting the lesser waste."
Meng Li laughed, a harsh, dry sound. He moved away, selecting a pristine corner to begin his own silent cultivation, smugly confident that the terrified servant would remain in line.
Jiang Yi's mind raced. I have seconds. I must move before he anchors his own cultivation, or he will sense the energy pull.
He immediately initiated the Minor Flow Convergence Array, not on the jar, but on the entire perimeter of the dust-covered floor beneath him.
WHOOSH.
The spiritual wind was silent, localized, and terrifyingly efficient. The Azure Sphere didn't just target the pill residue; it created a perfect vacuum that sucked up all the chaotic medicinal Qi that Meng Li had just scattered across the floor, along with the deep residue still clinging to the cracked jar.
Meng Li, just closing his eyes to begin his own refinement, suddenly gasped.
"The Qi... it's gone!?" he roared, spinning around, his Fourth Stage power flaring outward.
He looked at the area where the pill residue had been—now spiritually vacant. He scanned Jiang Yi, who was kneeling, head bowed, apparently sifting ash.
Meng Li's powerful Qi swept over Jiang Yi, meeting the Dust Cloak. The cloak returned the signal of a man about to collapse from fever and fatigue, a non-entity.
"Where did the energy go, trash!?" Meng Li roared, grabbing Jiang Yi by the neck and hauling him into the air.
At that exact moment, the chaotic, volatile, high-grade medicinal Qi—now purified into crystalline azure liquid—slammed into Jiang Yi's dantian.
BOOM!
The internal explosion was blinding. Jiang Yi's muscles, bone, and skin instantly transformed, surging with a terrifying new strength. His Fifth Stage core began to form.
Jiang Yi's eyes snapped open, a flash of azure lightning in their depths.
Meng Li instantly felt his hands gripping not a frail boy, but a pillar of granite wrapped in a furnace. The pressure of Jiang Yi's breakthrough pushed Meng Li away, shattering his grip.
Meng Li stumbled back, clutching his wrist, his Fourth Stage power useless against this sudden, unseen force. "What... what was that energy signature?"
Jiang Yi landed silently, instantly masking the roaring azure core with the Dust Cloak Method. He slumped, playing the victim. "I... I don't know, Senior Brother. I think the chamber wall exploded with power!"
He was a trembling, weak servant again. But inside, his core was churning with the full, exhilarating power of the Third Stage.
Meng Li glared at the walls, then back at Jiang Yi, fear and confusion warring in his eyes. He couldn't risk the main alarm. "Stay here," he hissed, backing away. "I'm going to report this energy burst. Don't you dare move a single piece of that ash."
As the formidable Fourth Stage disciple retreated in confusion, Jiang Yi leaned against the wall, a triumphant, cold grin spreading across his face in the gloom.
Third Stage achieved.
The chaotic volatility of the Spirit Depository was now his hunting ground, and his ruthless efficiency had created a formidable new enemy: a powerful disciple who suspected the impossible truth but couldn't prove it.