Inside the mountain cliff cave dwelling.
Qi Yuan took out a Dragon Vein Fruit.
The entire fruit was about the size of a dragon's eye, with a vibrant green color, crystal-clear and translucent like a gem.
Looking closer, faint mysterious veins resembling the shape of a dragon could be seen beneath its glossy surface.
Qi Yuan tossed the Dragon Vein Fruit directly into his mouth.
"Crunch!"
The moment the fruit's skin was bitten through—
An overwhelming surge of life energy, far denser and more potent than that contained in a Muya Crystal, suddenly exploded!
The whole Dragon Vein Fruit rapidly dissolved like liquid, flooding his body with a vast influx of life force.
Each cell, having just undergone a fundamental transformation and now in an extremely weakened state, immediately began ravenously consuming this energy.
Bloodline evolution involves cellular reorganization and potential release.
During this process, the life matter stored inside cells is heavily consumed.
Though the overall quality of the cells improves, their internal energy decreases, leaving each cell in an exhausted, starved state.
At this critical moment, nourished by the abundant vitality of the Dragon Vein Fruit, these cells frantically absorbed energy and quickly recovered!
In less than half a day, the entire energy contained in the Dragon Vein Fruit was completely absorbed.
Qi Yuan's previous sluggishness vanished entirely!
Every one of his cells had received sufficient energy, and now his vibrant life aura surged like a tsunami, causing the very air inside the cave to tremble continuously!
But Qi Yuan didn't stop there.
After bloodline evolution, not only had his energy absorption and cultivation speed increased, but the upper limit of each absorption had also greatly improved.
He immediately took out a second Dragon Vein Fruit and swallowed it.
"Boom!"
An immense surge of vitality burst forth again, pushing his physical energy toward a new peak.
Finally—
As the enormous vitality contained in the second fruit was nearly exhausted, his body's strength seemed to quietly reach a certain limit.
"Crack~"
It was as if an invisible shackles had been broken!
Within his Dantian space, the majestic primal gene energy surged wildly from all parts of his body like a tidal wave.
Pure genetic primal energy rolled like ocean waves, converging rapidly to form a massive "water sphere."
The "water sphere" constantly expanded and contracted until it seemed the entire world had shrunk to just this single orb!
With the final contraction, the entire Dantian space roared—
A brand-new "star" radiating endless dazzling light was finally formed.
To prepare for the "Apprentice Mercenary Assessment" a year from now—
The entire Thunderstorm Star, from Lord Hugo at the top down to Qi Yuan and his guards, and even the planetary-level slaves mining thunder crystal ore in the mines, had entered an unprecedented state of busyness.
Hugo was busy trying every possible method to quickly strengthen himself and his subordinates.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate planetary slaves were working hard mining more thunder crystals to provide greater "economic" support to their masters.
Amid this flurry of activity, Qi Yuan's life continued steadily as usual.
After strengthening his bloodline with the Dragon Yuan Essence, his efficiency in absorbing and converting energy for cultivation soared dramatically.
Combined with the ample energy from the Dragon Vein Fruits, his cultivation progress barely consumed much time.
Instead, he devoted most of his focus to studying and comprehending secret techniques.
Among them, the one he invested the most effort in was the newly acquired lightning secret technique, "Lightning Radiance."
Lightning is inherently an energy of extreme violent fury.
The domain of lightning is composed of countless wildly turbulent lightning energies.
The core essence of "Lightning Radiance" was to compress this wild, furious energy nearly infinitely, finally condensing it into a sharp, blade-like "lightning blade."
Just imagining the difficulty is enough.
Not only must the overwhelming power of the entire domain be compressed into something as sharp as a blade, but even if successful, maintaining that state for any length of time would be a massive challenge.
A single misstep could cause the wildly compressed lightning energy to explode — causing even Qi Yuan to suffer greatly.
Besides absorbing a Dragon Vein Fruit every half month to boost cultivation, Qi Yuan spent the vast majority of his time delving into "Lightning Radiance."
Still, progress was slow, and he struggled to find the balanced state needed to maintain the "lightning blade."
In frustration, he decided to change his approach.
Don't forget—he had a cheat!
Though the content of "Lightning Radiance" couldn't be shared, he could focus on mastering the lightning domain itself!
The better his mastery and control of the domain, the more effective his cultivation of "Lightning Radiance" would be.
Over the next year, besides once using the refund function to convert all his accumulated Muya Crystals salary into Dragon Vein Fruits, he used the other eleven refunds entirely on "imparting cultivation experience."
Each time he taught, he focused mainly on sharing his insights into the Lightning Domain.
Qi Yuan put his heart and soul into teaching, striving to share all the knowledge he'd gained about the domain as thoroughly as possible with Cang Fan.
Moved by Qi Yuan's dedication, Cang Fan frequently triggered critical successes!
[Successfully imparted Lightning Domain cultivation experience to disciple!]
[60x critical reward triggered.]
[Refund reward: Vast insights into the Lightning Domain!]
[Successfully imparted Lightning Domain cultivation experience to disciple!]
[50x critical reward triggered.]
[Refund reward: Vast insights into the Lightning Domain!]
With the system's extremely high multiplier refunds, Qi Yuan's domain comprehension skyrocketed like a rocket!
After just the first refund, he had already reached the second tier of the Lightning Domain.
His control over the domain greatly improved, and his efficiency in cultivating "Lightning Radiance" increased significantly.
Confirming his hypothesis, Qi Yuan became even more diligent in his teaching during subsequent sessions.
Time and again, he taught with utmost care, repeatedly triggering massive refunds.
Qi Yuan's insight and mastery of the Lightning Domain soared at an exaggerated pace, and his understanding of "Lightning Radiance" advanced by leaps and bounds.
In this fulfilling, almost daily strengthening routine, a year slipped by quietly.
One day, after finishing another teaching session with Cang Fan,
Qi Yuan's expression suddenly changed. He quickly accepted a call request on his armband light device—
"Gather at the castle immediately!"
(End of chapter)
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