314: Two months later

Two months later.

The Profound Ice Platform was located at the highest point of the Iron Wall Pass. Unshielded, it bore the full, furious brunt of all the malice coming from the Far North Ice Field.

Su Ming sat cross-legged at the windward corner of the Formation eye. A thick layer of white frost had already formed on his standard-issue leather armor, making him look like an ice figurine that had just been unearthed.

His breathing was extremely slow. With every breath he took, two arrow-like streams of white mist would puff out from his nostrils, shooting out three feet before dissipating.

"Hiss... I say, disciple, you call this cultivation? You're practically doing a pressure test for a Hydraulic press."

In the Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yu hunched his shoulders as he watched the nearly materialized cold air and astral malevolence outside, unable to stop himself from complaining. "This 'Star Guiding Pattern' was originally meant for drawing gravity in Formations, yet you've gone and branded it directly into your Meridians, using your Physical Body as a Formation Plate. It's only because the spiritual power from your 'Ruoshui Art' is like glue; if it were anyone else, their Meridians would have exploded like fireworks long ago."

Su Ming did not respond. His entire mind was immersed in the delicate balance within his body.

Over the past two months, he had come to take advantage of this free cultivation environment whenever he had a spare moment.

Within the Dantian Qi Sea, the originally deep blue liquid spiritual power had now become viscous to the extreme.

With a slight movement of Su Ming's will, the complex and obscure "Star Guiding Pattern" in his Sea of Consciousness brightened slightly.

Buzz.

An invisible gravitational field suddenly spread out with Su Ming as the center.

Above his head, the starlight that had been drifting aimlessly was suddenly twisted and gathered like iron filings drawn to a magnet, turning into a silver thread barely visible to the naked eye that poured straight into Su Ming's Crown.

Pain.

Swelling.

It felt as if someone were forcibly cramming Lead ingots into an iron bucket already filled with water.

Starlight entering the body was not a gentle nourishment; rather, it carried the dual attributes of extreme cold and immense weight.

"Rotate."

Su Ming shouted inwardly.

The Water Spiritual Energy inside him did not choose to resist, but instead began to rotate with the flow. The softness of water lies in its capacity to contain and to dissolve. That viscous spiritual power was like layers of silk, wrapping, penetrating, and grinding those violent rays of starlight.

With every rotation, the volume of the spiritual power would be compressed a bit more.

The spiritual power that had originally occupied the entire Dantian Qi Sea was now collapsing toward the center at a slow but steady pace. And at the core of that collapse, a few sparks of silver-blue crystalline light began to emerge.

This was a manifestation of spiritual power reaching the pinnacle of purity.

"Eighth Level Peak..." Su Ming slowly opened his eyes. A faint silver light flashed deep within his pupils before vanishing.

He looked down at his palm. He wasn't using spiritual power to protect it, yet it possessed a jade-like warmth despite the extreme cold. He gently clenched his fist, and a muffled boom echoed in the air, as if he had crushed an invisible pocket of air.

"Is this what they call a Bottleneck?"

Su Ming murmured softly to himself.

In two months, relying on the geographical advantage of the Profound Ice Platform and his life-risking hard cultivation, his cultivation had rocketed to the end of the eighth level of Qi Refining. Both the quantity and quality of the spiritual power in his body had touched that invisible ceiling.

One step further was the Ninth Level of Qi Refining.

But at this moment, no matter how he drew in the starlight, that thin layer of paper remained unbroken.

"Don't rush. At a time like this, the more you rush, the easier it is to suffer Qi Deviation."

Lin Yu's voice sounded at the right moment, carrying a hint of reassurance.

Su Ming nodded and dispersed the gravitational field around him.

As the Cultivation Technique stopped running, the suffocating sense of pressure around him vanished instantly.

From the shadows not far away came a raspy cough.

Old Man Liu shuffled out from behind a stone pillar, his single leg dragging on the ground with a harsh scraping sound. He still held that chipped wine flask in his hand, while his other hand fiddled with a somewhat blackened Formation Plate.

"Awake?"

Old Man Liu handed over the wine flask, his cloudy single eye sweeping over Su Ming. "That commotion just now was a bit louder than a few days ago. The snowflakes within ten feet were all suspended in mid-air and wouldn't fall. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were practicing some kind of evil art."

Su Ming took the wine flask and, without wiping it, tilted his head back and took a large swig.

The strong liquor went down his throat like a line of fire burning into his stomach, dispelling the residual chill in his body.

"I've hit a Bottleneck. I'm stuck," Su Ming said truthfully as he handed the flask back.

"Being stuck is good," Old Man Liu chuckled, revealing a mouthful of broken yellow teeth. "On the battlefield, running too fast makes it easy to run into the edge of a blade. Stopping to rest and treading the path beneath your feet firmly helps you live longer."

Over these two months, Su Ming had become well-acquainted with this old soldier.

Old Man Liu didn't say much, but every word was experience gathered from crawling out of piles of corpses.

Su Ming stood up and stretched his somewhat stiff joints, which let out a series of crisp popping sounds. He walked to the edge of the Profound Ice Platform and looked down.

From this height, the entire Bing Battalion of the Iron Wall Pass was laid out before his eyes.

The current Bing Battalion was already vastly different from what it had been two months ago.

In the originally pitch-black defense zones, faint glimmers of ghostly light could now be seen flowing beneath the surface. Those were not lamps, but the trajectories of spiritual power flowing through the Formation nodes.

Su Ming had not been idle during these two months.

Ever since the Spirit-Responding Spider Web of Section Six-C had displayed its Divine Might, Su Ming's business had exploded like a rolling snowball. bing ba defense zone eight, Bing Jiu defense zone nine, and even a few prickly captains from the neighboring Ding Battalion had shamelessly come to his door, begging Su Ming to "weave a web" for them.

By now, Su Ming's identity was far more than just a technical assistant.

He was more like a "security consultant" moving between the various defense zones.

That Spirit-Responding Spider Web, composed of countless nodes, had already connected seven or eight defense zones, centered around Bing Qi Defense Zone Seven, into a single network.

Old Man Liu reached out to grab the wine flask, pulled out the cork, and took a heavy swig.

As the pungent liquor rolled down his throat, a hint of color returned to the old soldier's pale face.

"In these two months, your name has spread through the Bing Battalion," Old Man Liu said, putting down the wine flask and looking out toward the pitch-black wilderness in the distance. "They call you 'Su Half-City,' saying that half of the Bing Battalion's defenses are held up by those few broken ropes of yours."

"It's called the 'Spirit-Responding Spider Web'," Su Ming corrected him, while casually applying a Sharpness Art to the old man's chipped blade.

"It's all the same."

Old Man Liu glanced at the cold light gleaming on the blade's edge, and his lips twitched in what passed for a smile. "But you're a strange kid. When others earn military merit, they can't wait to eat Medicinal Pills like they're meals, or trade for a better Flying Sword to kill demons. You, on the other hand, come to this godforsaken place every day to let the wind blow on you."

"It's quiet here," Su Ming replied with a smile, offering no further explanation.

Su Ming was silent for a moment before cupping his hands toward Old Man Liu.

"Uncle Liu, take your time with the wine. I have to go back and check the Formation Plates."

"Go on."

Su Ming turned and quickly made his way down the winding stone steps.

The wind and snow blew into his face.

"Ninth Level of Qi Refining..."

Su Ming clenched his fists, feeling the spiritual power within his body that was full to bursting yet stubbornly refused to take that final step.