35: Chapter 35, Sixth Floor

Boom!

Inside the A-17 Stone Cave, Spiritual Qi churned like boiling water.

Gu Shen kept his eyes tightly shut, his teeth clenched hard. Beads of sweat as large as peas had barely seeped out of his forehead before being evaporated into white smoke by the high temperature rising from his body.

That drop of High Grade White Dew contained the entire Origin essence of the Tier 3 Cursed Corpse. The moment it entered his abdomen, it transformed into a rampaging wild Dragon, attempting to tear through his Meridians.

However, the medicinal power of the Meridian-Protecting Pill was extremely resilient. A layer of faint cyan light clung tightly to the inner walls of his Meridians, and no matter how the torrent of Spiritual Qi washed over it, it held it securely, not leaking a single bit.

The Longevity Art was driven to its limit.

Like a blacksmith, Gu Shen used this wild fire of Spiritual Qi to frantically forge the mana vortex within his Dantian.

One hour. Two hours.

The intense pain gradually numbed. In its place was a feeling of swelling and bursting to the extreme.

Click.

A faint yet incredibly clear crisp sound came from the depths of his Dantian.

It was as if some invisible shackle had been broken. The vortex, which had expanded to its limit, suddenly contracted inward, and then, like a gushing spring, spewed out a cyan mana that was several times more pure and concentrated than before.

Qi Refinement Level 6!

The mana flowed through the twelve main Meridians, and wherever it passed, the Meridians were further widened. A layer of foul-smelling, grayish-black grime was expelled from his body through his pores.

Gu Shen suddenly opened his eyes.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, his Divine Sense expanded outward like a tide, easily covering a radius of thirty zhang. Within that radius, even the frequency of the wing beats of flying insects crawling in the cracks of the rocks was clearly reflected in his mind.

"Finally crossed this hurdle."

Gu Shen let out a long breath of turbid Qi.

The Early Stage, Middle Stage, and Late Stage of Qi Refining each had a watershed every three levels. Now that he had stepped into Qi Refinement Level 6, he was only one step away from the lofty Late-Stage Qi Refining.

He stood up, walked to the water vat in the corner of the stone cave, scooped up cold water with a ladle, and poured it over his head. After washing away the foul-smelling grime, he changed into a clean set of black Loose Cultivator clothes.

He reapplied Thousand Faces to his face, transforming back into that sallow-faced, scarred man.

He turned around and looked at the Thick Earth Array Formation Plate blocking the door.

The light of the Formation Plate was still heavy, but the color of the three Low-Grade Spirit Stones embedded in the grooves had dimmed by nearly half. The Formation was running, consuming Spiritual Qi at every moment.

"I won't put away the Formation Plate for now; I will verify my level 6 mana right here."

Gu Shen sat cross-legged back on the stone bed.

He did not cast any Spells inside the stone cave, but instead moved his mind slightly, connecting to his Sea of Consciousness.

The gray mist swept over.

...

The dead-silent Spiritless Ruins.

Gu Shen's figure appeared in the confidential area on the third floor that he had dismantled into ruins.

This place was spacious and cast from refined iron, making it an excellent place to test his moves.

He took a deep breath, no longer suppressing his cultivation, and released his Qi Refinement Level 6 mana without reservation.

Clang!

The gold-severing saber at his waist left its sheath.

Gu Shen held the saber with one hand, and a full thirty percent of his internal mana instantly poured into the blade.

Compared to Level 5 Qi Refining, his total mana had more than doubled. As the massive amount of mana surged in, the natural spiderweb-like thunder patterns on the surface of the gold-severing saber instantly lit up with a dazzling, deep blue light.

"Slash!"

Gu Shen slashed out with his saber.

Swish!

A deep blue lightning blade aura, a zhang long, flew off the blade, tore through the gray mist, and fiercely slammed into a load-bearing refined iron square pillar five zhang away.

Boom!

Amidst the loud noise, the refined iron square pillar, which required two people to wrap their arms around, was actually cut in half by this single strike. The cut was charred and melted, and the thunder magnetic force spread along the iron pillar, crackling.

"What terrifying destructive power."

A trace of shock flashed in Gu Shen's eyes. With the thick mana of Qi Refinement Level 6, plus the augmentation of the top-grade thunder magnetic fine sand, the power of this strike had completely exceeded the scope of a Medium Grade Magical Artifact, approaching a High Grade offensive Magical Artifact!

Even a Late-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator would have their protective spiritual light instantly shattered if they took this strike.

He sheathed his saber.

Gu Shen raised his right hand, his index finger joined with his middle finger.

Golden Light Finger.

Mana gathered, and the golden light spitting from his fingertips was no longer the size of a bean, but extended into a solid half-inch-long Sword Qi, the sharpness of which made the air hiss with shrill cries.

"The stronger the mana, the more terrifying the penetration power of this low-tier Spell."

Gu Shen nodded with satisfaction.

He looked up and looked toward the depths of the third floor.

There, there was a staircase leading to the fourth floor. But at the end of the staircase, it was tightly sealed by an incredibly heavy, silver-white metal giant door (Dragon-Severing Stone).

When he was still at Level 5 Qi Refining, he had tested it with the gold-severing saber; the material of that silver-white giant door was extremely special, and a single strike didn't even leave a white mark.

"Let's try again."

Gu Shen stepped on his shadow shoes and came to the giant door silently.

He stood still and drew his saber.

The mana in his body surged wildly, and the Longevity Art was driven to its limit.

Gu Shen held the saber handle with both hands and raised it high. The thunder patterns flashed, and the Geng Metal Qi was restrained within the blade's edge.

"Open for me!"

Amidst an angry shout, the gold-severing saber transformed into a deep blue lightning bolt that split the heavens and earth, slamming heavily into the center of the silver-white giant door.

Clang—!!!

The cloud-piercing and stone-splitting loud noise echoed in the narrow corridor, making Gu Shen's eardrums ache with a sharp pain.

The huge counter-shock force surged into his arms along the saber handle, and Gu Shen let out a muffled groan, his feet sliding back three feet on the floor, plowing two deep trenches into the refined iron ground.

He steadied his figure and looked closely.

On that indestructible silver-white giant door, a charred slash mark two inches deep and about three feet long had appeared.

But, the door did not break.

The thickness of this door was beyond imagination.

"Pure slashing cannot break through such an Ancient Sect defensive mechanism."

Gu Shen was not discouraged. His eyes turned cold, and his left hand flipped, revealing a bright yellow Talisman painted with complex silver thunder patterns at his fingertips.

Medium Grade Heavenly Thunder Talisman.

This item was originally reserved as a trump card to deal with strong enemies, but at this moment, in order to open the passage to the higher level, he did not hesitate to consume it.

"Go!"

Gu Shen slammed the Heavenly Thunder Talisman into the charred slash mark on the giant door, then retreated violently, instantly darting down the stairs and hiding behind a load-bearing pillar.

"Explode!"

With a thought, he detonated the Talisman.

Rumble—!!!

Thunder sounds, ten times more violent than before, exploded on the third floor. Dazzling silver lightning instantly engulfed the staircase. The entire ruin seemed to have experienced a shake of the earth and mountains, with dust falling down rustlingly.

After a full dozen breaths, the violent thunder power gradually subsided.

Gu Shen, holding his saber, walked out from behind the load-bearing pillar.

The originally flat staircase entrance had been blasted into pits and bumps. That silver-white giant door, under the pinpoint explosion of the Heavenly Thunder Talisman, was finally blasted open with a large hole that only allowed one person to crawl through.

The metal at the edges was twisted, showing a high-temperature melted crimson red.

Gu Shen did not immediately step forward.

His Divine Sense followed through the hole, cautiously probing into the fourth floor.

Dead silence. Extreme dead silence.

Unlike the feeling of emptiness and decay on the three floors below, as soon as his Divine Sense probed in, Gu Shen felt an extremely thick, cold, and gloomy Qi, as if even his Divine Sense was about to be frozen.

Vaguely, he "saw" the scene inside the fourth floor.

Rows of neat glass cylinders stood high. Each cylinder was filled with turbid green liquid. And in those liquids, various strange bodies were soaked.

There were humanoid monsters with two heads and four arms, scaleless giant pythons as large as small hills, and even evil things that were half-human, half-Yao, with refined iron mechanisms stitched onto their bodies.

"An Ancient Sect's creation workshop? Or... a Corpse-Refining restricted area?!"

Gu Shen's heart shook.

Such a scene completely matched the methods used by those Evil Path giants in the Great Yu Cultivation World to refine corpse puppets using the bodies of Yao Beasts and Cultivators.

What made him feel even more terrified was that although those monsters soaked in the green liquid had no life, as the giant door was blasted open and the outside air poured in, the surfaces of the nearest few glass cylinders actually began to show tiny cracks.

Click, click...

The teeth-aching cracking sound was exceptionally clear in the dead-silent fourth floor.

"Cannot fight this!"

Gu Shen did not hesitate and made a prompt decision.

His current strength was at its limit dealing with a Tier 3 Cursed Corpse. The monsters in this fourth floor, once they broke out of their seals, any one of them would likely have the combat power of a Late-Stage Qi Refining or even a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator.

Swish!

He didn't even turn around; his feet retreated with the shadow shoes, and his whole body directly dashed backward into the depths of the third floor.

At the same time, the Great Furnace in his Sea of Consciousness shook.

The gray mist swept over.

Just at the moment the glass cylinder closest to the hole on the fourth floor shattered, and a two-headed monster corpse suddenly opened its scarlet eyes.

Gu Shen's figure completely disappeared from the ruins.