The crystal stones obtained from the underground world had indeed given Jiang Chen's cultivation a tremendous boost.
At this very moment, Jiang Chen had already reached the absolute peak of the second stage of the Sky Rank. The third stage was now separated from him by nothing more than a thin membrane.
"Just one step away, one step away… I refuse to believe I can't break through."
Though time was running short — barely a month remained — Jiang Chen's resolve was as steadfast as ever.
He firmly believed that he could overcome this barrier.
Cultivating at the Sky Rank was fundamentally different from what had come before. Prior to reaching the Sky Rank, cultivation involved harnessing the power within one's own body, drawing out the latent potential hidden inside.
After reaching the Sky Rank, however, it became a fusion of one's own power with the natural forces of heaven and earth — a true embodiment of cosmic law, a merging with the Heavenly Dao.
Jiang Chen had absolutely no issues when it came to comprehending the laws of heaven and earth.
He did not lack insight, and his physical conditions were more than adequate. What he lacked most now was time. Time was the most precious thing to him.
His current cultivation goal was like trying to eat three years' worth of food in three months.
Though he certainly had the ability and the potential to accomplish it, this was still somewhat different from ordinary cultivation.
One crystal stone after another dissolved into nothingness in Jiang Chen's hands.
The meridians within his body, his internal organs, down to every last pore — they all seemed to come alive with spiritual awareness, forming a perfect harmony between himself and the natural world.
Cultivation became like a bridge, constructed between his physical body and heaven and earth. Man and heaven, man and nature, forged into perfect communion.
"I'm getting closer, closer and closer…" At this moment, Jiang Chen was like a mountaineer scaling a great peak, pressing ever upward, striving to catch sight of the vistas above.
And the third stage of the Sky Rank was his next objective — a goal he could almost see by simply lifting his head.
Suddenly, a surge of warmth washed through his entire body. In the next instant, every pore on his skin seemed to burst open at once, and countless streams of heat threatened to detonate within him.
In that moment, Jiang Chen felt a profound sense of comfort wash over him, and a feeling of sudden clarity blossomed in his chest.
It was as though a beam of light had pierced through the darkness.
The third stage of the Sky Rank — breakthrough achieved at last!
Jiang Chen was beside himself with joy. After all that effort, after paying such a steep price, he had finally reached his predetermined goal — and he had done it even faster than anticipated.
After breaking through to the third stage of the Sky Rank, Jiang Chen's spirits soared, but there was no time for celebration. He immediately threw himself back into cultivation.
Having just broken through, his realm still needed to be consolidated.
But the third stage of the Sky Rank was not Jiang Chen's ultimate goal. His true objective was to use the Heaven Summit Pill to press onward in a single push, attempting to reach the fourth stage of the Sky Rank before the Genius Sword Meet.
After breaking through to the Sky Rank, Jiang Chen could clearly feel his advantages on the path of cultivation becoming ever more pronounced.
The Sky Rank was also one of the major realms Jiang Chen had been most familiar with in his previous life. He possessed considerable knowledge and insight when it came to this particular stage.
It could be said that only upon entering the Sky Rank did Jiang Chen truly feel he had stepped through the door and into the hall of genuine cultivation.
Everything before the Sky Rank had been nothing more than laying the foundation.
Over the course of several days, Jiang Chen consolidated the third stage of the Sky Rank. Without a moment's hesitation, he then produced a Heaven Summit Pill.
Since it was his own handiwork, he had naturally selected the finest one among them.
"The Heaven Summit Pill — throughout the myriad heavens, countless Sky Rank powerhouses have used this very pill to achieve unconditional breakthroughs. Given my affinity with this pill, it should not fail me!"
The higher the cultivation level, the more precious these unconditional advancement pills became, and correspondingly, the lower their success rate.
For pills that worked at the Saint Realm or the Emperor Realm, possessing one essentially guaranteed an unconditional advancement of one sublevel, with virtually no possibility of failure.
At lower realms, the pills were relatively easy to refine, with far fewer variables that could go wrong.
At the Sky Rank, though the Heaven Summit Pill still nominally offered an unconditional advancement, the probability of success was inevitably affected to some degree.
That said, Jiang Chen did not believe for a moment that he would fail with this pill.
He had refined it himself. He understood the pill's properties better than anyone and knew exactly how to make the most of it.
Jiang Chen placed the Heaven Summit Pill in his palm, his eyes filled with a complex mixture of emotions.
"Heaven Summit Pill — who would have thought that one day, I, Jiang Chen, would be consuming a pill of my own making!" A hundred feelings surged through his heart.
He recalled his previous life, when he had refined countless pills that stood peerless across the myriad heavens. Yet of all those cultivation pills, he had not consumed a single one.
For a pill master who had reigned supreme across all the heavens, what a cruel irony that had been.
"Father, watch over me from the heavens above." Jiang Chen hesitated no longer and tossed the Heaven Summit Pill directly into his mouth.
A pill of the Sky Rank was no trivial thing. The moment he swallowed it, a tremendous force surged outward, instantly spreading to every corner of Jiang Chen's body.