Ten days after the Three Yang Fruit tree seeds were planted, three fruits silently ripened! They hung on the branches, vibrant red and utterly charming.
Yang Kai could feel the dense Yang Qi emanating from all three fruits.
In just ten short days, this earth-grade lower-rank spirit fruit had gone from nonexistent to fully ripe and ready to pick. The effect of that single drop of Yang Liquid had been tremendous.
Carefully, he reached out and plucked the three fruits, cradling them in his palm and turning them over for a closer look. The more Yang Kai examined them, the more he liked them.
But no matter how appealing they looked, they'd only be useful once he ate them.
He didn't hesitate. Settling cross-legged on the ground, he popped one Three Yang Fruit straight into his mouth. Warm, sweet juice spread across his tongue, leaving a lingering fragrance on his lips and teeth.
As the spirit fruit settled in his stomach, he activated the True Yang Technique. His abdomen felt like it was on fire, but for someone cultivating the True Yang Technique, this kind of warmth was perfectly comfortable—even blissfully pleasant.
The Yang Yuan Qi contained within the earth-grade mid-rank spirit fruit flowed rapidly into his meridians. His already full meridians immediately reached saturation, and with a soft drip, a drop of Yang Liquid silently took shape.
A moment later, another soft drip sounded.
Three drops of Yang Liquid condensed in total before the earth-grade lower-rank spirit fruit's medicinal properties were fully spent.
His dantian now held four drops of Yang Liquid—three newly formed and the last one the product of ten days of cultivation.
Because the incense burner's strange fragrance had been interfering, the results of those ten days of training had been rather meager. But Yang Kai didn't mind. His gaze was fixed on the future—why would he quibble over such trivial short-term gains?
Moreover, Yang Kai had a vague premonition: if he ate the remaining two fruits, he might just break through to Body Tempering Stage Nine and touch the threshold of the Kaiyuan Realm in one fell swoop.
With that thought in mind, he tossed the remaining two Three Yang Fruits into his mouth without a moment's hesitation.
Yang Yuan Qi dissolved in his abdomen, and a fierce, searing heat blazed through his meridians. His skin flushed a deep crimson.
The True Yang Technique spun wildly, and accompanied by the steady drip-drip-drip of forming drops, the Yang Liquid in his dantian increased one drop at a time. Yang Qi seeping out from Kunlong Gorge filtered through the open pores in his skin, working in tandem from the outside.
The churning of Yuan Qi inside his body grew more intense and violent by the moment. If anyone with sufficiently keen insight had seen Yang Kai in this state, their jaw would have dropped to the floor. No warrior at the Body Tempering Realm had ever harbored Yuan Qi this dense.
Warriors at the Body Tempering Realm had narrow meridians and low dantian capacity—they simply couldn't endure such massive, overwhelming volumes of Yuan Qi.
The sheer magnitude of this Yuan Qi fluctuation alone was enough to rival that of a Kaiyuan Realm warrior, yet Yang Kai was merely at Body Tempering Stage Eight.
He felt a crushing pressure now, one he couldn't quite articulate. It was as if it existed between heaven and earth itself, a shackle laid upon him. Unless he shattered it, there was no way to break through.
The scorching True Yang Energy circulated, burning away at this invisible barrier. With the passage of time, Yang Kai could feel the obstruction gradually fading, growing thinner. The breakthrough was imminent. His mind clear, he pushed the True Yang Technique to spin even faster.
BOOM—like a shackle snapping free, his entire body lightened. The pressure and discomfort vanished without a trace, replaced by a wave of refreshing clarity.
Body Tempering Stage Nine! He stood at the very threshold of the Kaiyuan Realm.