177: Chapter 177 The Fifth Life. The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (125)

Chu Shi tapped his fingertips unconsciously against the rough tree trunk, his gaze sweeping over the valley in the distance that faintly shimmered with golden light, a flicker of hesitation flashing in his eyes.

But after contemplating for only three breaths, he gently shook his head, suppressing that tempting thought.

"Tsk, forget it, forget it."

He pulled at the corners of his mouth in self-mockery and muttered to himself.

"The path I chose, I must finish walking even if I have to crawl. First, find a place to rest, test the Cultivate environment outside, and then continue exploring in the afternoon. At worst, I'll just cross Golden Ear Valley directly and head over to the Cold Iron Mountains to look around. It's a good opportunity to weigh just how much talent those Copper Bone Realm Late Stage Geniuses really have."

Having said that, Chu Shi rose from the tree he had been leaning against, turned around, and walked toward the depths of the dense forest to find a place suitable for hidden Cultivate.

This time, his luck was surprisingly good.

In less than half a stick of incense's time, his gaze fell on the mountainside of the cliff ahead.

A patch of dark green vines grew exceptionally dense there, twice as thick as the surrounding vegetation. When a breeze blew by, a faint current of Qi actually flowed out from between the gaps in the vines.

Chu Shi's eyes lit up. He gathered his Qi and leaped, reaching the cliff in a few bounds.

He carefully used the tip of his Xuan Iron Blade to pry open the intertwined vines, and a cave entrance that allowed only one person to pass through while bending over appeared before his eyes.

He focused his gaze and peered inside, his nose twitching slightly. He only smelled a faint scent of dust and a trace of long-dried Yao Beast excrement; clearly, no Yao Beast had inhabited this place for a long time.

The cave was dry and ventilated, and the space was just right—enough for one person to sit and Cultivate. It was practically a hideout tailor-made for him.

Chu Shi nodded in satisfaction, slipped into the cave, and restored the moved vines to their original state one by one.

He then brought over three millstone-sized boulders and firmly blocked the cave entrance, leaving only a finger-wide gap at the very top for ventilation.

After doing all this, he still felt uneasy. He took out three copper nails engraved with simple runes from his Storage Pouch, injected a wisp of Blazing Sun True Qi into his fingertips, and nailed them into the rock on both sides of the entrance and the ceiling of the cave, respectively.

Three simple warning Formations instantly took shape. As long as any living creature approached within three zhang, it would immediately issue a warning.

Everything was arranged properly. Only then did Chu Shi sit cross-legged on the dry rock inside the cave and take out several metal ingots that shimmered with a cold light from his Storage Pouch, placing them beside him.

He took a deep breath, his chest swelling slightly, and then slowly closed his eyes as the Mind-Cultivation Technique of the Blazing Sun Body Casting Method began to circulate within his body.

In an instant, the gold Qi from all directions seemed to be drawn in, rushing madly toward his body.

Chu Shi's brows furrowed imperceptibly.

It was just as he had expected.

The concentration of gold Qi here was not even half of that in the Temporal Platform, and it was exceptionally violent and impure, mixed with a large amount of Earth Qi and water vapor.

These Impurities drilled into his Meridians along with the gold Qi, like countless tiny steel needles repeatedly piercing him, making his scalp tingle with pain and even his fingertips tremble slightly.

If it were an ordinary Copper Bone Realm Martial Artist, Cultivate here would not only be useless but would instead damage their Meridians, a loss that far outweighed the gain.

But Chu Shi was different.

With a thought, the Blazing Sun True Qi in his Dantian erupted, surging toward his limbs and bones like rushing magma.

A faint golden-red halo emerged from his skin, enveloping his entire body.

As soon as those violent gold Qi touched the Blazing Sun True Qi, they instantly reacted like ice meeting a blazing fire, emitting a faint "sizzling" sound.

In the blink of an eye, they were tamed and purified, turning into the purest attribute-less gold Qi, which slowly merged into his bones along his Meridians.

A familiar tingling sensation came from deep within his bones. Each bone, shimmering with a dark golden luster, greedily sucked up this gold Qi, emitting a faint "creaking" sound as its texture became increasingly hard and dense, and its weight slowly increased.

Chu Shi silently calculated his Cultivate efficiency in his heart.

After his Breakthrough to the Middle Stage of the Copper Bone Realm, without relying on any external force, the Temporal Mist he could retain in his body had increased from forty-nine strands to fifty-five strands.

His base temporal acceleration efficiency had also steadily risen from 4.9 times to 5.5 times.

Even though the gold Qi here was thin and impure, which held him back quite a bit, taking everything into account, he still had a Cultivate speed of about 5.2 times.

This result had far exceeded his expectations.

Chu Shi slowly opened his eyes, a glimmer of satisfaction flashing in them.

"Not bad."

He had originally planned that if the Cultivate rate outside was too poor, he would just scavenge some resources and immediately return to the Temporal Platform.

Now it seemed he could definitely stay here for a few more days.

After all, those Heaven And Earth Treasure used to assist Cultivate were limited consumables; one was used, one less remained.

Without the support of these external items, the Cultivate speed within the Temporal Platform was actually not much faster than it was here.

Cultivating slowly here at 5.2 times speed, while a bit slower, had the advantage of longevity, and he could scavenge resources from the surrounding area while he was at it.

Once he had thoroughly scoured this area and returned with a bag full of Heaven And Earth Treasure, opening up six or even seven times the acceleration for a Breakthrough at once would only yield better results.

Having figured this out, Chu Shi no longer hesitated. He closed his eyes again and immersed himself in Cultivate.

The golden-red halo flickered on and off around him. The cave was silent, with only the faint whistling sound of gold Qi being drawn into his body echoing gently in the empty cavern.

Two and a half hours later, Chu Shi finished his session on time.

He felt the changes in his body. The lower leg tibia that had just begun to be infused was now about five percent refined, a gratifying progress.

He slowly stood up and stretched, his bones immediately emitting a series of crisp cracking sounds, like popping beans.

He moved the boulders blocking the cave entrance, and the scorching afternoon sun instantly flooded in, making him squint slightly.

He raised his hand to shield his forehead and adapted for a moment.

After identifying the direction, Chu Shi leaped, jumping down from the cliff that was tens of zhang high.

His robes flapped loudly in the mountain wind. He tapped his toes lightly against the cliff face, using the force to dissipate the downward momentum, and landed on the ground without a sound.

He brushed the dust off his body, picked up his Xuan Iron Blade, and walked unhurriedly toward the originally planned south.

He prepared to continue exploring deeper.

The mountain forest there was denser, and the concentration of gold Qi was higher.

Perhaps there would be a bigger surprise ahead.

However, perhaps that hidden cave he found in the morning had exhausted his remaining luck.

After walking for more than half an hour, let alone rare Heaven And Earth Treasure, he hadn't even seen a few of the most common Spiritual Plant for replenishing Qi and blood.

Clearly, the predecessors in this area had gone even further than he had anticipated.

Chu Shi shook his head helplessly, a piece of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth. His footsteps slowed down, and he gradually relaxed his vigilance.

Just at this moment!