40: Chapter 40 Realm Bottleneck

There were two days left until the assessment; inside the Divine Kingdom, it had been four years.

Wang Pingan stood in the sky, watching the legion training in the Northern Plains, but his gaze did not fall on the formation.

He was watching Wang Mu.

Wang Mu stood at the forefront of the Artillery Battalion highland, his crimson flame saber held horizontally across his chest, performing his daily Qi breathing.

Spirit energy surged from the direction of the Small Spirit Vein, pouring into his meridians. After circulating along the path he had practiced for over fifty years, it was blocked by an invisible barrier.

The spirit energy slammed against that barrier, vibrating violently, only to be bounced back to his Dantian.

A layer of fine sweat broke out on Wang Mu's forehead, and his wrists trembled slightly.

Qi Refining Stage 9 peak, stuck before the threshold of Foundation Establishment.

He had been slamming against this barrier for nearly two years, and every attempt yielded the same result: enough spirit energy, enough comprehension, and even the Foundation Establishment technique had been refined to the seventh version, yet he simply couldn't break through.

It wasn't that his talent was insufficient.

It was that the Divine Kingdom didn't allow it.

In the Divine Kingdom at the stage of a Divine Being, the highest cultivation limit for citizens was Qi Refining Stage 9 and Body Forging Stage 9.

To give birth to citizens in the Foundation Establishment and Blood Condensation stages, Wang Pingan had to first ascend to a Demigod, and the Divine Kingdom's area had to expand to between 200 and 1,000 kilometers.

But Wang Pingan was still a Divine Being.

The Divine Kingdom's area of 250 square kilometers and other data points had already far exceeded the standard line for a Divine Being, but the Divine Core strength and Divine Origin had not yet reached the Demigod threshold.

This meant that no matter how hard Wang Mu and Wang Shan tried, they couldn't break through that ceiling.

They were already the strongest existences this Divine Kingdom could accommodate; the path upward was locked by the rules of the Divine Kingdom.

Below the Artillery Battalion highland, Wang Shan also stopped training.

He had just completed his thirteenth extreme tempering attempt to reach the perfection of Body Forging Stage 9. After his blood energy surged through his body, it slowly receded, showing no signs of a breakthrough.

Wang Shan stuck his cavalry lance into the ground and looked up at the sky.

He didn't say a word, but Wang Pingan understood that look.

Unwillingness.

Fifty-plus years of cultivation, fighting, and charging—Qi Refining Stage 9 perfection, Body Forging Stage 9 perfection—they were already standing at the ceiling of this Divine Kingdom, with no more steps to climb beneath their feet.

It wasn't just Wang Mu and Wang Shan.

Among the two thousand heavy-armored elites, over a thousand had already touched the barriers of Qi Refining and Body Forging stages 8 and 9. Spirit energy and blood energy were overflowing in their meridians, bumping around without finding an outlet.

If this power wasn't dealt with, it would either be wasted or accumulate in the body, becoming increasingly chaotic.

Wang Pingan withdrew his gaze.

He was not anxious.

He had foreseen this problem three days ago and had repeatedly thought about it during the fifty years of the c-class time acceleration card.

If they couldn't break through, then they wouldn't break through.

Wang Pingan's divine sense probed deep into the Divine Core, mobilizing the full computational power of his A-Grade Comprehension talent to begin deducing a brand-new technique.

If spirit energy couldn't break through upwards, it would be compressed inwards.

If blood energy couldn't break through higher-level barriers, it would be repeatedly tempered and condensed to the extreme.

This idea wasn't complicated.

What was truly difficult was how to compress it, to what extent, and whether the spirit energy and blood energy would spiral out of control during the compression process, damaging the meridians.

The 20% bonus from A-Grade Comprehension began to function.

In Wang Pingan's divine sense, countless technique paths were dismantled, reorganized, verified, overturned, and rebuilt.

He shattered the operational paths of the Green Wood Breathing Technique and the Savage Bull Body-Forging Fist, changing the nodes of spirit energy breathing and blood energy tempering from breaking outwards to constricting inwards.

The spirit energy that was supposed to slam against the Foundation Establishment barrier was guided back to the inner walls of the meridians, compressed and condensed layer by layer, tempering the meridians themselves to be tougher.

The blood energy that was supposed to slam against the Blood Condensation barrier was pressed back into the bones and muscle fibers, repeatedly ground down, raising the density of the physical body over and over again.

Not seeking to break the realm.

Only seeking to compress every inch of the foundation at the peak of the ninth stage to the extreme.

Half an hour later, the deduction was complete.

Wang Pingan gave this technique a name: Foundation Suppression Method.

He sent down a divine oracle.

The majestic voice covered the entire Northern Plains camp, reaching the ears of every elite citizen who was training.

"From this day forward, the entire army will cease all attempts to break through."

Wang Mu looked up abruptly.

Wang Shan also stood up from the ground, his face full of confusion.

For over fifty years, they had been constantly slamming against higher realms, and suddenly they were told not to charge anymore?

Wang Pingan didn't explain much, directly pouring the Foundation Suppression Method into the minds of all the elite citizens.

The technique paths, operational nodes, compression essentials, and precautions were all communicated at once.

Wang Mu was the first to react.

Following the path of the new technique, he guided a wisp of spirit energy to flow back into his meridians.

That wisp of spirit energy circulated along the brand-new nodes, no longer slamming into the Foundation Establishment barrier, but instead grinding fiercely against the inner walls of his meridians.

A sensation of soreness and swelling came from his meridians.

Subsequently, a strange sense of fulfillment spread from his arm throughout his entire body.

Wang Mu's pupils constricted slightly.

He felt his spirit energy changing; the quantity hadn't increased, but the density was rising, the circulation speed was accelerating, and the sharpness outputted to the crimson flame saber was several degrees brighter than before.

Wang Mu's hands trembled, not from pain, but from excitement: "This is..."

He had practiced for over fifty years, and for the first time, he felt that Qi Refining Stage 9 could still continue to grow stronger.

It wasn't a realm elevation; it was a qualitative leap.

The commotion on Wang Shan's side was even greater.

Following the guidance of the Foundation Suppression Method, he forcibly pulled the blood energy in his body back from the route of slamming against the barrier, pouring it into the bones of his limbs and his spine.

The blood energy surged, ground, and condensed within his bones.

A layer of pale red luster appeared on the surface of Wang Shan's skin, and his muscle fibers tightened visibly to the naked eye.

He clenched his fist, and his strength rose significantly.

Wang Shan grinned, his eyes full of fanaticism for power: "Good stuff."

Wang Pingan's voice came down again.

"From now on, all two thousand elites will be relieved of production duties."

"Swallow top-grade Healing Powder and Spirit Recovery Pills daily, and engage in endless extreme combat on the martial arts practice field."

"Do not seek to break through; only seek to compress."

"Compress every wisp of spirit energy and every drop of blood energy in your bodies into your bones for me."

Wang Mu and Wang Shan kowtowed simultaneously: "Obey the divine oracle!"

Two thousand heavy-armored elites knelt in unison, the sound making the Northern Plains hum.

On the day the divine oracle descended, the Northern Plains martial arts practice field turned into a field of endless drilling.

One thousand Cultivation Citizens at Qi Refining stages 8 and 9 split into two teams, crimson flame saber against crimson flame saber; blade auras crossed, and the collision of spirit energy stirred up clusters of white air waves.

One thousand Martial Dao Citizens at Body Forging stages 8 and 9 similarly split into two teams, Black Iron Shield against Black Iron Shield, flesh fist against flesh fist; blood energy gushed forth, smashing the ground until it constantly cracked.

They didn't hold back.

Healing Powder and Spirit Recovery Pills were piled at the edge of the practice field; when spirit energy was exhausted, they would swallow medicine to recover, and after recovering, they would continue fighting.

Every time they fought, the spirit energy and blood energy in their bodies would be consumed to the limit, then replenished by medicine, and then compressed again along the path of the Foundation Suppression Method.

One compression, the meridians became one part tougher.

Ten compressions, the bones became one layer denser.

A hundred compressions, the aura of the entire team was changing.

When the first day ended, the martial arts practice field was already permeated with thick blood-colored baleful aura and white spirit light.

The aura on the two thousand elites began to change.

Not stronger, but heavier.

Spirit energy no longer floated on the surface of the body, but was all pressed deep into the meridians.

Blood energy no longer overflowed into the sky, but was contained back within the bones and internal organs.

The reserve citizens standing on the periphery of the practice field, watching those elites shrouded in blood-colored baleful aura and spirit light, felt a strong sense of awe in their hearts.

Those were not ordinary cultivators.

They were weapons born for slaughter, extremely compressed and repeatedly tempered.

Wang Pingan hovered in the sky, watching the intense combat on the practice field, his gaze calm.

The Foundation Suppression Method was effective.

These citizens couldn't break through to Foundation Establishment and Blood Condensation, but their foundations at Qi Refining Stage 9 and Body Forging Stage 9 were being raised to a height far exceeding their peers.

When the day of extreme compression arrived, once these elites entered a Divine Kingdom in the Demigod stage and obtained permission to break through, Foundation Establishment and Blood Condensation would be unstoppable.

And before that, within the framework of Qi Refining Stage 9 and Body Forging Stage 9, they would be the most terrifying existences among their peers.

Wang Pingan withdrew his gaze and looked at the baleful tiger in the sky above the Northern Plains.

The tiger phantom was more solid than before, the blood light in its tiger eyes was thicker, and its claws and teeth were sharper.

With every extreme combat session of the two thousand elites, the Baleful Qi Condensation Method operated passively, and the legion's baleful aura was also compressing along with it.

The entire legion was slowly completing its transformation.