Chapter 164 – Increase in Strength
“Woof!Woof!Woof!…”
Big Head madly growled, doing his utmost to put on a fearsome expression. He seemed like he was about to rush out and pit his life.
The pressure of the Snow Dragon King spread out, it’s massive head slowly encroached towards Big Head.
The comparison of their figures was extremely peculiar, making some people not know whether to laugh or to cry. Big Head was not even as large as one of the eyes of the Snow Dragon King.
“An… an even smaller ant?” The descriptive words of the Snow Dragon King was somewhat lacking.
Something that was weaker than itself, it would always refer to as an ant or a worm. In its eyes, Big Head was comparable to Ye Qingyu; that is, an even weaker ant.
“Woof!Woof!… Big worm, release my master.”
A weak voice came from the mouth of Big Head.
The Snow Dragon King blinked its eyes. There was confusion in its eyes as it stared at Big Head.
Big Head seeing the massive eyelids of the Snow Dragon King moving realized danger. These eyelids were like the two doors of the city gate opening and closing. Therefore, he retreated a step to prevent the eyelids of the Snow Dragon King clamping onto him when they moved. He still emitted growls of rage from his throat, the sharp little fangs in his mouth used to threaten the opponent.
“It’s the aura of the divine dragon again?”
The Snow Dragon King was even more confused.
Why was it that in the body of the two little bugs, there was the aura of the almighty divine dragon?
He released the dragon tassels coiled around Ye Qingyu and slowly lifted its head.
The divine dragon was the deity of the almighty dragon race, the omnipotent ruler. The creator of the dragon race and its protector, the highest level of existence.
As the descendant of the dragon race, there was thin dragon blood flowing in the body of the Snow Dragon King. It absolutely could not show any disrespect to the divine dragon. Even if the two little worms in front of him… eh, no, two little lives, they had the divine dragon aura in them so they were not little bugs anymore. The Snow Dragon King would absolutely not hurt them.
The almighty divine dragon had disappeared for far too long a time.
The glory of the dragon race gradually faded along with the disappearance of the almighty divine dragon. Like the sun setting in the East, the previous days of radiance could not be recovered.
If they were able to find the almighty divine dragon, then…
As the Snow Dragon King thought about this, its heart could not help but be emotionally moved.
In its long and icy life before, it had never been so moved like now.
But very quickly, it felt somewhat tired.
Damn, this was the repercussions of awakening prematurely.
The Snow Dragon King felt that his eyelids could not be opened anymore and a dense tiredness was about to drown him in like a tide. The behavioural pattern that had been created from the long years could hardly be suppressed even if his heart was excited. His body automatically began to coil up again, coiled like a mountain, then his head once again slowly settled onto his body, entering into a deep slumber…
“After I awaken, I must go find the almighty divine dragon. I have already remembered the aura of these two lifeforms. By following them, I can definitely find his highness.”
The Snow Dragon King thought of this in the last moment before his slumber.
Then he entered into a long and deep sleep.
Even the Snow Dragon King himself did not know just when he would next awaken next.
Opposite.
The Big Head who had maintained an angry growl and a battle state was somewhat dumbfounded upon seeing this scene.
A short while later.
“Woof, woof… Big worm, are you scared? Pretending to be dead?” Big Head, seeing the big worm retreat, was somewhat pleased with himself. Then he saw the Snow Dragon King entering into his slumber again and was even more pleased with himself. “Haha, you’re so scared you fainted? You should know how powerful I am…”
Then he loyally returned next to Ye Qingyu to protect him.
“Sigh, to protect such a scatterbrain master is really filled with troubles. If not for me protecting him, he should have been eaten by that big worm.”
Big Head lay where he was, a worried expression as he spoke to himself.
Without knowing why, just when danger arrived, he could suddenly freely speak fluently when facing the Snow Dragon King.
Previously, he could only spit out several simple sounds and words. Perhaps it was because he was nervous before?
After his nervousness had gone, Big Head discovered that he could already fluently and smoothly speak the language of humans. This type of feeling of speaking, was really not too bad.
As he thought of this, he had a type of impulse to shake Ye Qingyu awake who was currently training and speak with him.
Thankfully, he still vaguely understood some common sense of humans cultivating. He knew that at this time, he could not disturb Ye Qingyu, finally managing to suppress this urge.
Time passed minute by minute, second by second.
Half a day later.
“Ah, why has he not awakened yet? Master training is really boring, I should go around and have a look at other places… woof, woof, that’s right, I remember a place that I just passed by that seemed to have delicious things…” He suddenly thought of something. Glancing at Ye Qingyu, he left with his tail wagging.
Another half a day passed.
The encircling yuan qi Snow Dragon illusions around Ye Qingyu’s body finally became twenty.
Twenty Spirit springs.
This was a threshold in the Spirit spring stage.
Normally, one could begin to [Spirit Raise] after twenty Spirit springs. They could even begin to attempt to breakthrough to the Bitter Sea stage. This stage could be counted as breaking past the early stages of the Spirit spring stage and heading towards the middle stage of the Spirit springs.
The number of yuan qi Spirit springs that could be excavated in the dantian of the Human Race had never had an absolute number of limit.
Normally, once a martial artist was able to cultivate to twenty Spirit springs, they could attempt to breakthrough to the Bitter Sea stage.
But the large majority of martial artist would not do such a thing.
Because the Spirit spring stage was the most important stage of the martial path.
The decision made at this stage would decide the limits of their future cultivation.
At the Spirit spring stage, the more Spirit springs one was able to excavate, the greater their future potential.
Ye Qingyu had once seen stories relating to this in some biographies. Legend had it that there was once someone in the ancient times, a human ancestor who had accumulated and prepared well in such a stage. He excavated nearly a hundred Spirit springs in his dantian world. Only then did he enter the Bitter Sea stage. The predecessor, when he was at the Spirit spring stage could already fight against someone at the Bitter Sea stage. Once he entered the beginning stages of Bitter Sea, there was a great apparition caused by his breakthrough. Controlling and grasping two types of true Wills of the Martial Path, even famous Bitter Sea stage experts were not his opponent. This was the power of accumulation and preparing well at this stage.
There were some who could not resist, however. Only after cultivating to twenty Spirit strings, they chose to enter the Bitter Sea stage early. Their future will always remain in such a stage, and they will never be able to touch the Heaven Ascension stage.
Sometimes, their strength was not even as profound and deep as Spirit spring experts.
Such a Bitter Sea stage expert’s strength was just average. They had no particular attributes apart from their longevity being extended to five hundred years of age. Such people were called fake Bitter Sea stage experts.
Ye Qingyu had already cultivated to the twenty Spirit springs stage. In theory, he could already attempt to breakthrough to the Bitter Sea stage.
But he would definitely not do this.
The twenty yuan qi Snow Dragon illusions encircling him became more and more fearsome and lifelike, as if there really was twenty Snow Dragons protection him. Amidst the their faint roars, the Snow Dragons coiled around Ye Qingyu’s arms, shoulder, head, and neck, like a snow crystal Snow Dragon armour. It caused Ye Qingyu to seem incomparably fearsome, faintly divine. It was as if he was magical, as if he had broken out from a painting.
After his strength had reached the twenty Spirit springs, his cultivation could be counted as encountering a small bottleneck.
Ye Qingyu’s body did not absorb the aura of the Snow Dragon anymore.
He gradually awakened from the state where he forgot himself.
The moment he awakened, he was taken aback. Then a fiercely delighted expression appeared on his face.
“I really leapt to the twenty Spirit springs stage in one go?”
He really could not believe this.
Several days before entering this state, the expectations Ye Qingyu had at the beginning was just to borrow the aura of the Snow Dragon to purify his ice yuan qi.
But he had never imagined that his harvest would be so great. This made him overjoyed at the turn of events.
To have excavated five Spirit springs in one breath!
Using inner vision to look at his dantian.
In the boundless desert world, the twenty Spirit springs were surging and flowing. There was a trace of coldness, but it was filled with a translucent vitality, nourishing the surrounding desert.
Around the surrounding of the twenty Spirit springs, the yuan qi springs had already encroached several thousand meters. Forming little lakes roughly a thousand meters wide, they seemed like twenty pearls adorning Ye Qingyu’s desert world. This was the difference between a martial artist and a normal person. The normal person’s dantian world was just desert, void of all life. And the martial artist through cultivation, gave the possibility of life to the dantian world.
Ye Qingyu activated his inner yuan.
Within the twenty Spirit springs, there were dragon roars and water soaring to the sky, transforming into twenty Snow Dragons illusion that flowed towards his limbs and bones.
This was the source of Ye Qingyu’s energy.
Every Snow Dragon illusion swirled within his body, moving as his heart willed, extremely nimble. When his inner yuan had completely filled his body, he could sense a unprecedented strength and power.
“I’ve finally left the early stages of the Spirit spring stage, and entered into the middle stages!”
Ye Qingyu could not but help sigh with emotion.
This could be counted as a great threshold in the martial cultivation path.
Twenty Spirit springs did not just represent a growth in strength. It also represented an increase in the age you could live to.
If Ye Qingyu’s previous longevity was a hundred, then after entering into the twenty Spirit springs stage, his longevity could be increased to above two hundred.
This is because as the strength of the expert increased, their blood, bones and bone marrow would change fundamentally. Their dantian world would become more abundant, their life force strengthening countless times over. Therefore, they could live even longer, where normal illness would not afflict them and normal fire or water could not affect them.
“One Spirit spring has around ten thousand pounds of force. For martial artists, every Spirit spring that is excavated is an upgrade in the nature of their life force. Twenty Spirit springs at least had two hundred thousand pounds of force.”
Ye Qingyu sensed the power inside his body.
Previously, with the information he had seen in many books, he had only understood it through words and had not experienced it using his body.
And at this moment, Ye Qingyu’s understanding towards the martial power and martial realm became even more clear.
As his heart willed and his inner yuan activated, twenty Snow Dragon mirages coalesced around his body, cold air surging.
It was as if he just willed, then the Snow Dragon mirage could jet out and devour all his opponents.
Ye Qingyu looked at the far off slumbering Snow Dragon king. He did not know what had happened when he was cultivating was akin to taking a stroll in the gates of hell. But at this time, he could already sense that he was brimming with the aura of the Snow Dragon King. There was no way he could absorb anymore.
He knew, that his time to leave had come.
Step by step, he walked to the top of the ice space.
Every step he took, an ice lotus would bloom at his foot that supported him, slowly raising him up. Cold ice like white jade unendingly formed below his feet, supporting his entire person. Very quickly, Ye Qingyu was transported to the icy boulder at the start.