It's been a week since Bai Xinyue and her mother left, and for that entire week, Huang Shi had stayed in his own room in the log cabin, sitting cross-legged on the floor cultivating.
He didn't quite know why the log cabin didn't disappear the moment Bai Xinyue left if she had made it using her spiritual energy; although, at this point, if you said that in this world there were pigs that could easily fly through the air, he would probably believe you.
Right now, Huang Shi was using the massive amount of spiritual stones that he had inside of his spatial ring to cultivate.
He had placed them all around his body in a circle so he could increase the concentration of spiritual energy around him and easily absorb it. Right now, he had roughly consumed around 35,000 spiritual stones—5,000 spiritual stones for each day of cultivation.
Although he expected that his cultivation would cost a lot, having it broken down for you directly based on the amount of spirit stones you consumed per day was a lot to take in, especially since he was used to looking at the value of things based on Scum Points.
A few days ago, he even asked the system how many spirit stones it cost for him to break through into the Nascent Profound Realm—and directly get to the third level of the Nascent Profound Realm at that—and the answer shocked him silly.
[Responding to host: the amount of spirit stones you used, based on the value of the pills you consumed, was roughly 100,000.]
100,000 spirit stones?! What the fuck did you feed me, system? Were those god pills or something?
[For a cultivator at the nascent profound realm, host, they might as well be.]
Huang Shi remembered lamenting over that fact for a few hours before gritting his teeth and accepting that this was how his life would be from now on. Thankfully, however, he still had his mother-in-law's gift of spirit stones.
Quite frankly, he didn't want to properly calculate how many spirit stones were inside of the spatial ring; he didn't want to constantly think over the fact that he had only this many spirit stones left inside of his stockpile. The gradual decrease in the size of the mountains of spirit stones was enough for him.
No need to stress myself out any further. Resources are meant to be consumed, after all, and anything that I would ever want I can just buy with Scum Points anyway, so I can just go all in on using these spirit stones to improve my cultivation base.
After making this sort of decision, he then decided to just wing it and see how many spirit stones he would need to break through into the 4th level of the Nascent Profound Realm without using the Amber Foundation Pill that Bai Xinyue had given him.
I'll use that thing as a free pass for me to breakthrough into the 5th level of the Nascent Profound Realm—not right now, though. I want to get used to my new strength first.
Right as he was thinking these sorts of things, his constant circulation of the Nine Sun Immortal Codex for the past week had finally borne fruit. He felt his dantian start to rumble as both his golden sun and his crimson sun started to glow with a terrifying light of power.
WHOOSH
Instantly, his body was enveloped in both golden flames and crimson lightning as, slowly, inch by inch, he finally made his way toward a breakthrough.
After around two more hours of standing on the precipice, Huang Shi finally felt something break inside of his body—like a barrier made of paper had been punctured by a needle—as he felt instant relief.
BOOM!
A powerful spiritual energy pressure erupted from his body, making the surroundings tremble. The chairs, the bed, the curtains, and even his entire room started to shake as they had to bear the pressure of his increased cultivation base.
The 4th Level of the Nascent Profound Realm!
After an entire week of constant cultivation, taking breaks only when it came to eating and sleeping, he had finally done it; he had broken through from the third level of the Nascent Profound Realm and into the fourth level.
He opened his golden eyes, which now shone with a terrifying light, as he clenched his fist. Both golden flames and crimson lightning appeared therein, making him look very awe-inspiring.
Based on my calculations, my battle prowess right now should be at the 8th level of the Nascent Profound Realm. If I add the boost I gain from my Primordial Sunfyre Halo, I should be able to achieve a battle prowess comparable to the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm.
And if I use my Golden Sun of Purifying Flames… I think I can use that single attack to barely be able to fight even spiritual beasts and humans at the 1st Level of the True Profound Realm!
At this thought, he finally stood up from his cross-legged position as he looked outside the window. Seeing that it was about noon, he stretched his body as he prepared to hunt his meal for the day.
As he walked out of his room and closed the door behind him, he instinctively looked to his right, hoping to see a person walk out from it at the same time; unfortunately, like every other time, he didn't.
Ah fuck... I fucking miss her, don't I? Shit.
Huang Shi had a bitter smile on his face as he shook his head. He knew that, at this point, he couldn't do anything about the situation.
Truly, the reasons why he and Xinyue had been forced to separate were varied, but the primary one was the fact that both he and Xinyue were still considered weak in the eyes of the true powerhouses of this world—to the point that they couldn't even make decisions on their own without stepping on the toes of other people or risking their lives.
At the end of the day, it's all about power, isn't it?