Having obtained the Qi Gathering Powder, Xiao Yan did not immediately take it. Instead, he drew a deep breath and forced down the restlessness churning inside him, compelling himself to roll onto his bed and rest.
He understood his own condition with perfect clarity — in his current state, the odds of successfully breaking through to Dou Warrior were no better than three in ten. Though the Qi Gathering Powder posed little difficulty for Yao Lao to refine, Xiao Yan was not the sort to gamble on a pointless risk.
Seeing the boy exercise such restraint against the temptation of an immediate breakthrough, Yao Lao nodded with quiet satisfaction. A look of genuine approval surfaced on his aged face, and his figure flickered, dissolving into a streak of light that slipped back into the ring on Xiao Yan's finger.
...
After the Qi Gathering Powder was complete, Xiao Yan's training fell into a steady, unhurried rhythm. Each day he cultivated his Dou Qi for exactly one hour, then spent the remainder of his time drilling Dou Techniques on the mountain behind the Xiao estate. On rare occasions when he had a free afternoon, he would accompany Xun'er through the streets of Wutan City, and the leisurely days passed in comfortable ease.
Five such days went by, and at last Xiao Yan had brought his body and mind to their absolute peak. Now — now was the moment to challenge the threshold of Dou Warrior.
...
Behind the Xiao Clan's mountain estate, hidden beneath a secluded cliff face, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged in a narrow cave barely a meter wide. He had scouted this spot with painstaking care: across the cliff's edge, mist coiled and drifted above the treacherous Beast Mountain Range. Below the precipice yawned a cliff whose bottom no one had ever seen. And the only path leading to this place had been deliberately concealed with branches and loose stone.
*No one will find me here. No one will interrupt what comes next.*
He drew a slow, measured breath and produced the jade vial from within his robe. Tilting the opening, he tipped a single pill into his palm — its surface shimmering, alternating between green and blue.
Xiao Yan gazed at the lustrous Qi Gathering Powder and allowed himself a small, quiet smile. He brought it to his nose once more, breathing in the invigorating fragrance that seemed to clear his mind like mountain air, and without a moment's hesitation, he placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed.
A gentle coolness spread across his tongue the instant the pill dissolved. Moments later, a surge of warm, concentrated energy burst from his mouth and rushed into his body like a river breaking through a dam. Xiao Yan's entire frame shuddered.
His expression remained calm. His fingers moved with practiced speed, forming the hand seals for Dou Qi absorption. His breathing steadied, falling into a slow, even cadence. Within him, the faint Dou Qi of the eighth stage responded to his will and surged forward to entwine with the powerful medicinal energy, beginning the fierce process of refinement.
Inside the small cave, the still air suddenly rippled. Threads of pale white Dou Qi began to seep from the surrounding atmosphere, converging on Xiao Yan's body in a steady, ceaseless stream.
Xiao Yan bit down hard on his lower lip. The collision of two energies within his meridians sent waves of sharp, stinging pain radiating through his frame. Fortunately, his channels had always been far more resilient than those of an ordinary person — the pain was acute, but no lasting damage had yet been inflicted.
Inside, his Dou Qi wrapped around cluster after cluster of green, purified energy. As the refinement surged ahead, more and more of the green was transmuted into pale white Dou Qi. Bolstered by this new reserve, the volume of Dou Qi within his body began to swell at a pace visible even from the outside.
The medicinal energy, though being consumed relentlessly, seemed almost inexhaustible. Every time his Dou Qi absorbed one mass of green power, a still larger wave would surge forward to take its place.
Between the internal refinement and the Dou Qi pouring in from the world beyond, Xiao Yan's meridians were rapidly reaching their capacity. The pale white energy filled vessel after vessel, expanding until it had claimed nearly every channel in his body.
The refinement continued. And then — as the last reserves of medicinal energy began to wane — Xiao Yan, drunk on the exhilaration of surging power, suddenly realized with a jolt of alarm that the Dou Qi inside him had swollen to a critical threshold. It could expand no further.
The engorged energy caused his meridians to spasm with sharp, rhythmic contractions. Searing pain lanced through him, pulling a grimace across his face.
*"Quick — condense the Dou Qi vortex! Or it'll explode!"* Yao Lao's voice cracked through Xiao Yan's mind like a clap of thunder.
Xiao Yan sucked in a sharp breath. His hand seals shifted in a blur — index finger and thumb touching, middle fingers pressing together, all ten digits forming a complex, unfamiliar configuration.
He had walked this road before, years ago. The memory remained buried but intact, and now, as his fingers found the pattern, the motion came as naturally as breathing.
The surge of Dou Qi within him responded to the changed seals with violent force, as though caught in a tremendous vortex. Every trace of pale white energy in his meridians contracted simultaneously, rushing toward the space below his navel. When all of it had gathered in that single point, the pale white had already begun to deepen — shifting, almost imperceptibly, toward milky white.
*"Now — compress it! Use your spiritual perception to crush it down! If the vortex fails to form, you'll plummet back to the eighth stage!"* Yao Lao's voice came again, sharp and urgent, each word landing with the weight of a hammer.
Xiao Yan's brow furrowed in concentration. His exceptional spiritual perception seized instant control of the Dou Qi mass, and then the compression began in earnest.
Under the relentless pressure of his will, the milky white Dou Qi fought back — churning and roiling in violent protest.
But Xiao Yan's spiritual perception was extraordinary. Even Yao Lao had been astonished by its depth. The Dou Qi's resistance, fierce as it was, amounted to little more than an insect standing against the tide. After a brief, tense standoff, it began to yield — contracting, shrinking, pulled tighter and tighter.
When it had been compressed to the size of a palm, it froze.
*"More!"* Yao Lao commanded.
Gritting his teeth, Xiao Yan shut his eyes tight and drove his spiritual perception to its absolute limit, crushing downward with every ounce of willpower he possessed.
*Bang.*
A soft, muffled detonation resonated through his body.
The exhausting resistance that had plagued him moments before dissolved without a trace, vanishing like smoke in wind.
Xiao Yan collapsed backward, his body spent. His chest heaved with deep, ragged breaths as he lay on the cold stone floor of the cave.
Lying there, feeling the rich, abundant energy — an energy he had not tasted in four long years — flooding through his meridians, a smile slowly crept across his face.
The smile widened. It built. And then, at last, it broke free — a quiet laugh that grew into something louder, something wild and uncontainable, echoing off the walls of the little cave.
He was a Dou Warrior once again.