405: Chapter 405 Ten Days

Randan Spirit floated over, swept his gaze back and forth over him, then nodded after withdrawing it.

"You retreated in time; your Meridians sustained no damage."

Su Mingyuan nodded. He could feel it himself; there was nothing wrong with his body.

"What if I had been one step later just now?"

Tao Zhe's voice came from the pool. His eyes were closed, and a white light still clung to his skin, but his mouth was not idle.

Randan Spirit leaned on his staff and thought for a moment.

"Once a Divine Body absorbs Qi past a certain critical point, it triggers an activation reaction. Once the activation reaction starts, it cannot be stopped; the body will frantically draw Qi from the outside world to complete the activation. If the supply of Qi cannot keep up at this moment—"

He paused.

"It is like a furnace burning at its hottest suddenly running out of firewood. The furnace will not slowly cool down; instead, it will squeeze out every last bit of residual heat from the furnace walls. Applying that to him, the Divine Body would turn around and devour the Qi in his own Meridians and Dantian to fill the gap. At best, his cultivation would be completely destroyed, and at worst, his Meridians would be shattered."

Su Mingyuan chewed on a compressed biscuit while listening to this, swallowed the last bite, and brushed the crumbs off his hands.

It was fortunate that he retreated in time.

In the pool, the six people were still continuing.

Su Mingyuan closed his eyes and began to meditate.

Although he had exited the Spirit Spring, the Qi he had absorbed over the previous half hour had not disappeared.

He could not say for sure where that Qi went after his body swallowed it, but the Qi in his Dantian was indeed much denser than before he entered the pool.

Since he could not activate his spirit body, he would first digest the Qi he had absorbed.

Time passed bit by bit.

The Blood Moon rose on schedule and set on schedule.

The backup pool was buried deep beneath the rock layer, and the passage entrance was sealed tightly by the pill king cauldron. Whether the skeletons outside were resurrecting or killing each other, it had nothing to do with this place.

The twenty or so people by the pool took turns resting, eating compressed biscuits and drinking water, occasionally chatting in low voices, but spending most of the time sitting quietly.

The first day passed.

The second day passed.

On the third day, Tao Zhe opened his eyes.

Over the past three days, the white light on his body had changed from faint and indistinct to a visible film of light, clinging to the surface of his skin and flowing slightly.

At this moment, the white light suddenly contracted, gathered from his entire body to the location of his Dantian, flashed once, then sank completely into his body and disappeared.

Tao Zhe looked down at his hands, flipped them over and back, and flexed his fingers twice.

Then he stood up and walked out of the Spirit Spring.

Su Mingyuan opened his eyes and looked at him.

Tao Zhe sat down next to him, was silent for a few seconds, and the first thing he asked was not about his own spirit body.

"Team Leader, is there still any hope for your Divine Body to be activated?"

Su Mingyuan did not answer; both of them looked at Randan Spirit at the same time.

The old man floated above, his wooden staff resting in the Void Realm. Hearing this question, he pondered for a while.

"There is hope."

Su Mingyuan's brows twitched.

"But it is very difficult," Randan Spirit continued. "The amount of Qi required to activate a Divine Body far exceeds that of a spirit body. Although the Qi concentration of this backup pool is high, the total amount is too small; it cannot feed his Divine Body at all. To activate his Divine Body, at least one needs a Qi source of the same scale as the main pool in its prime, or to find other alternatives."

He shook his head.

"With the resources you currently possess, this old man cannot think of a way for the time being."

After hearing this, Tao Zhe did not ask further. He gritted his teeth, as if he had made up his mind about something.

He sat down against the stone wall, closed his eyes, and checked his physical condition for a while. After a moment, he opened his eyes, his tone carrying a hint of surprise:

"I didn't expect that not only did I activate my spirit body, but my cultivation also reached the Foundation Establishment Early Stage."

Su Mingyuan glanced at him.

Three days ago, Tao Zhe was still at the Peak of a Fourth-Order Martial Artist, equivalent to the Qi Refining Late Stage.

After soaking in the Spirit Spring for three days, his spirit body was activated, and he directly broke through to the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, saving even a Medicinal Pill.

"What attribute is your spirit body?" Su Mingyuan asked.

Tao Zhe extended his right hand, palm facing up. A layer of white light shone through from beneath his skin, condensing into a thumb-sized ball of light in his palm.

"Randan Senior said it is a Dongming Spirit Body," Tao Zhe said. "It doesn't enhance attack power or defense power; what it enhances is the perception range and precision of Divine Sense."

He closed his palm, and the ball of light disappeared.

"I've thought about it, and this is suitable for research," he added.

Su Mingyuan couldn't help it; the corner of his mouth twitched.

On the fourth day, Han Li came out.

When she walked out of the Spirit Spring, a layer of pale green mist permeated the area three feet above her head.

Faint phantoms of vegetation could be seen flowing within the mist, and everyone by the pool smelled a rich medicinal fragrance. It wasn't pungent; it was the kind of scent that made you feel as if your internal organs had been nourished after just one deep breath.

Zhao Ping took two deep breaths and couldn't help but say: "Sister Han, stand closer to me; I feel like my old injury is almost healed."

The green mist lasted for about a minute before slowly dissipating and sinking into Han Li's body.

Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body, completely activated.

Han Li's cultivation also broke through to the Foundation Establishment Early Stage; like Tao Zhe, the process of activating her spirit body directly drove a leap in her cultivation.

Randan Spirit circled her twice, swept his wooden staff over her several times, becoming more satisfied with each sweep, and finally nodded repeatedly.

"The quality is even better than this old man expected," the old man's tone was rarely filled with a hint of pride. "After this girl's Ten Thousand Wood Spirit Ruins Body is fully activated, the affinity of her Qi to vegetation will increase by at least tenfold. The Spirit Medicine she grows in the future will not be of low quality."

On the fifth day, Zhou Jian came out.

On the sixth day, Zhao Cheng came out.

The two people's spirit body types were different.

Zhou Jian had a Basalt Body, a physique enhancement type. When he came out, the surface of his skin had a dark gray luster. He clenched his fist, and his knuckles cracked twice, sounding like stones grinding against stones.

Zhao Cheng had the Bright Mirror Spirit Pupils, a perception amplification type. After coming out, there was an extra circle of pale yellow patterns in his pupils, and his gaze was much sharper than before when looking at things.

Both of their cultivations had broken through to the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.

Only Chen Rong and Lin Wan remained in the pool.

The activation of these two people's spirit bodies was much slower than the others, not because the quality was poor, but on the contrary, because the quality was too high.

Randan Spirit had said that the higher the quality of the spirit body, the slower the activation, and the more Qi it needed to absorb.

On the seventh day, Lin Wan came out.

When she stood up from the Spirit Spring, the temperature of the entire backup pool plummeted by more than ten degrees, and everyone's breath turned into white mist.

The Spirit Spring beneath her feet froze instantly. The ice surface expanded nearly twenty meters outward from her position, and the frost patterns on the surface of the ice layer were so fine that they looked as if they had been carved with a knife.

Lin Wan stood on the ice and exhaled a puff of white mist.

Profound Ice Spirit Body.

Foundation Establishment Late Stage.

She was a full major stage higher than the others.

On the tenth day, Chen Rong finally opened his eyes.

He was the last one, and also the one who had soaked the longest.

The moment he stood up, a blue-white lightning bolt struck down from the dome of the backup pool.

It was not struck from the outside; it was a discharge phenomenon spontaneously generated after the Qi inside the pool was drawn by his spirit body. The lightning struck from the dome to the bottom of the pool, splitting a charred crack into the spirit jade beneath his feet.

The hair of everyone by the pool stood on end, and the air was filled with the smell of ozone.

Chen Rong stood beside the charred mark, the lightning arcs on his body were more than ten times denser than before, the crackling sounds merged into one, like a blue-white coat draped over him.

Purple Sky Thunder Body.

Foundation Establishment Late Stage.

Same stage as Lin Wan.