Lian removed his robes, and the moment they slipped from his shoulders, a sudden calmness washed over him.
His body felt light, unbelievably so.
During the Black Box trial, the robes had absorbed enormous amounts of Qi.
And as the trials continued, they absorbed even more of his Qi, gaining even more weight.
"They must have weighed… over five tons, to think my body has been so tempered," Lian muttered in disbelief.
"Hu…" He exhaled deeply, inspecting his body with Qi.
"Woh… I feel so free. No wonder those things were unbearable."
He slipped into his new robes. They fit him perfectly, tailored as if measured down to the finest detail. Thin crimson lines traced the hem and sleeves, faintly glowing as Qi passed through them.
"Yeah… this will do."
Lian sat cross-legged and drew in a long, steady breath.
"Now that those robes are off, I can finally feel it clearly."
His brow furrowed.
"My Qi flow is a complete mess. No wonder I failed to break through earlier."
He closed his eyes, guiding his awareness inward.
"Mmm… they're clashing instead of harmonising."
After fusing Ice and Flame, he had assumed the other natures would follow naturally. Instead, chaos reigned within his meridians.
"That Lightning Qi…" he muttered.
"It keeps disrupting the balance."
Lian opened his eyes.
"I need Earth Qi to suppress and stabilise it… But where am I supposed to get that?"
His thoughts stalled.
Up until now, he had relied entirely on the Lotus to refine the Qi of his enemies. This was the first time he truly had to do it himself.
"…Just as expected," he said slowly.
"The Pill Saint really did leave everything behind."
Reaching into the Spirit Book, Lian retrieved a small patch of earth essence.
It was no bigger than his palm—yet the moment it touched the floor, the stone beneath cracked.
Weight: nearly two tons.
"So this is it, huh?"
He began refining the earth essence, carefully following the principles left behind within the Spirit Book. At first, only thin threads of Earth Qi seeped out—unruly and heavy.
Minutes passed.
Then hours.
Slowly, Lian adjusted his breathing, his intent, and his circulation. The Earth Qi began to move—no longer resisting him but flowing steadily.
His eyes snapped open.
"I've got it."
A calm, grounding sensation spread through his body as Earth Qi joined the cycle, suppressing the violent Lightning nature and forcing the others into alignment.
For the first time since entering the Upper Realm…
His Qi began to flow as one.
"Ha! Finally—I've got it. Now all that's left is to calm my Qi."
The refinement began once more.
"Ice Qi will balance Flame.
Earth will suppress Lightning.
Wind will regulate everything—cooling molten water back into ice, feeding flame without letting it rage."
Lian's lips curved into a faint smile.
"I'll call this… the Four Seasons."
Using the mental space he had unlocked, Lian began constructing his own cultivation technique.
Among the cultivators of Jiangsu, there was a saying:
True masters possess small universes within their dantian—realms where they are the law, where all rules bow to their will.
Lian was not yet a master.
But he was using the same principle, though.
Only… on a far smaller scale.
He guided the energies into circulation. As they merged, the chaotic hues of Ice, Flame, Earth, Lightning, and Wind slowly dissolved—until all that remained was a single stream of condensed golden Qi.
"Summer."
Heat exploded through his body. His meridians blazed, flesh burning as though bathed in sunlight.
"Autumn."
Lightning surged. His body vibrated violently as electric scars danced across his skin, buzzing with contained power.
"Winter."
His complexion turned deathly pale. Frost spread outward, freezing the air itself.
"Spring."
His body grew heavy and unyielding, dense as the earth beneath mountains.
The cycle repeated.
Again.
And again.
Each rotation refined the Qi further—until every trace of elemental energy was stripped away, leaving behind only Gang Essence, pure and terrifyingly dense.
Lian opened his eyes.
"I see it now…"
Before him stood the threshold to the next realm.
"At first, it felt like I was pushing open countless tiny gates—forcing my way forward bit by bit."
His breathing steadied.
"But now…"
A vast, singular gate loomed within his dantian.
"One door."
"One push."
"And I'll break through."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Within his mindscape, Lian struck the barrier again and again.
Cracks spread across its surface like shattered glass.
Once more.
Again.
Then,
BOOM!
The wall collapsed entirely.
His Qi surged forward in a violent flood, rushing through his meridians as new energy poured in. Lian felt his dantian expand, stretching far beyond its former limits, transforming into an endless ocean—dark, deep, and boundless. No land. No shore.
Only water.
He levitated above it, watching currents of Qi surge back and forth like tides of an ocean.
Then—
A lotus sprouted from the depths.
Golden light washed across the entire space, illuminating the ocean beneath him. Lian felt his Qi rapidly condense, stabilising at an astonishing speed.
"I can finally see it…"
His voice echoed softly within the mindscape.
"But it's so mysterious. I can't touch it. It's there—and yet not there at the same time."
He exhaled.
"Oh well. It doesn't matter. I'll understand it soon enough."
Beside the lotus, his Spirit Book floated silently. It began drawing Qi directly from the lotus, absorbing it as the inner space continued to expand further. More walls began to form, Qi thickening, the world within becoming more complete.
"Hu…"
Back in the real world, Lian exhaled deeply.
An overwhelming sense of self washed over him.
Before breaking through, the pressure of his Qi had been suffocating, crushing him from the inside. Now, it felt as though shackles had been removed.
He wasn't just stronger.
His soul itself felt larger.
"So, this is what it means to get into the Core formation Stage…"
He clenched his hand slowly.
"I wonder if I can do it now—like when I fought Yang."
His thoughts sharpened.
"When I resonated with the blade, everything felt natural. My body moved without hesitation. I saw through his techniques, deduced every motion before it happened."
His eyes opened slightly.
"If I enter that state again… consciously this time…"
After stabilising his realm, Lian immediately entered another cultivation session.
It was said that time within the mind moved thousands of times faster than the outside world. A single moment of comprehension there could equal years of practice.
And Lian had no intention of wasting it.
The ocean within his dantian surged once more.
For the next five days, but in Lian's mind's scape it was more like five thousand days—he did nothing but practice.
Within his mind, sword movements repeated endlessly.
He fought phantoms born from memory: enemies he had seen, enemies he had faced, enemies he had feared. Again and again, they rose before him, and again and again, he cut them down. Each battle stripped away hesitation, and each failure refined his understanding.
Over time, every martial art he had ever touched—few as they were—was broken apart, reassembled, and perfected.
Through the Spirit Book, he learned even more.
"Shadow Movement."
"Quick Draw."
"Heavy Blade."
"Yin–Yang Buddha."
"Golden Body."
One by one, he mastered them all.
With every flawless execution, his temperament changed.
The hesitation faded.
The doubt disappeared.
The frail boy of the Xing family—who had once struggled just to survive—died within that endless ocean of practice.
In his place, a battle-hungry Lian was born.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Younger brother! Younger brother!"
Bo Yung's voice echoed from outside the door.
"Master Bo is calling for you."
Lian finally opened his eyes.
He stood, stepping away from where he had been seated cross-legged for days. On the stone floor behind him, a deep impression remained, the unmistakable outline of his body carved into the ground.
Lian opened the door and stepped outside.
Bo Yung's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Mmm… you've broken through, haven't you?" he said with a faint nod. "Your aura is finally worthy of being a fellow disciple beneath the Delightful Swordman."
He turned and began walking away.
Lian followed silently behind him.