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Upon arriving inside the Seclusion Cave, he sat beside the fasting pillbox as usual and immediately resumed his cultivation.
By now, he has converted, more or less, about 60% of his neutral qi into spiritual qi within a month.
At the pace he was going, he would most likely be able to convert it completely into fire spiritual qi after a month has passed.
And just as planned, he did it, he spent a month in seclusion.
When he opened his eyes, despite his success in converting his neutral spiritual qi into fire spiritual qi, there was only calmness.
Yes, inside his heart, he was happy with his success in cultivation but he had no time to waste celebrating especially when his cultivation technique has changed into a more difficult one causing him to most likely take more time before breaking through to the next major realm.
Judging by the ages and the appearances of the elders, the Qi Refinement Realm, even near the peak of it, was not too much different compared to mortals in terms of lifespan.
Only when one breaks through to the next realm, the Qi Condensation Realm, will there be a massive increase in lifespan, as one could see from the sect leader, Yang Feng's youthful appearance in his early twenties at the age of more than a hundred years old.
Although he expected to break through to the 9th Layer of Qi Refinement Realm before the age of 20 or even break through to the Qi Condensation Realm in the previous easier cultivation technique, it's hard to tell if that would be the result considering the elders' progress in cultivation.
Were they lazy just like lower layers in Qi Refinement Realm? Did they lack resources? With them having elders as masters, it's hard to tell why they were stuck at that level of cultivation, Tian Ye could only hasten his cultivation and find out why when he reaches that level and get the answers himself.
It's even harder to tell whether his cultivation will proceed smoothly with his new cultivation technique that cultivated elements. It was an uncharted territory after all, so he had to go through a lot of trial and error.
Fortunately, if he breaks through to the 9th Layer before the age of 30, he would still have a lot of time figuring out how to break through to the next realm.
He raised one of his palms, and summoned one of the hundred year old spiritual herbs within his spatial ring.
Upon summoning, he closed his eyes, 'Finally… Now, let's proceed with increasing my 2nd Layer of Qi Refinement Realm to 3rd Layer.'
2 months later, his eyes suddenly snapped open and he felt a burst of spiritual qi expanding from within his dantian, passing through the invisible force shackling his spiritual qi into an orb at a certain mark.
Successfully leaking the spiritual through the invisible force marked him officially entering the 3rd Layer.
Because of Tian Ye's knowledge about cultivation worlds from cultivation novels in his previous life, Tian Ye named these invisible forces known as bottlenecks as "Heaven's Shackles" or "Heaven's Warning."
He felt that it was some kind of warning by the heavens to not proceed further but he wants to proceed anyway so he will break through each shackle and warning no matter how difficult it was to do.
He also felt that the Heaven's Shackles had gotten tighter and more suppressive than before, at least a few times harder than before.
As there's a natural progression of cultivation levels, these warnings will get even more difficult in the future and possibly life-threatening when the realms where they'd break through will be directly going against the natural flow of mortal life gaining lifespans that lasts for millenniums and gaining power that directly affect the life and death of a thousands, millions, or even billions of mortals.
After his master went to him during one of his weekly visits, he talked to him about focusing on increasing his cultivation and doing so, Han Yi directly agreed.
With Tian Ye's talent in combat, he had basically learned his martial arts technique, Flowing River Sword Technique that even if he didn't teach him, learning the 3rd form that he hasn't performed yet was just a matter of time. He similarly wanted to focus on his cultivation.
At the rate that Tian Ye was going, he'd sooner or later surpass his cultivation but as his master, he wanted to be at that level where he could be a figure that Tian Ye could rely on even if it's just a month or two longer.
6 months later, he broke through from the 3rd Layer to the 4th Layer but…
His closed mouth expanded like a balloon and as he opened it, "Bleurghh!"
A mouthful of blood came out.
As it did, he couldn't help but laugh happily, 'The Heaven's Shackles from 3rd Layer to 4th Layer are several times stronger than from 2nd to 3rd. No wonder the elders have not passed the 7th-9th layer of Qi Refinement Realm despite their abundance in resources.'
After thinking of it, he directly circulated his spiritual qi throughout his body and healed his injured spiritual pathway.
As he healed from his injuries, he nodded in his mind after coming up with a plan, the side of his lips curling up slightly, 'I see… then I'll ask for master's help in channeling spiritual qi to me and helping to protect my spiritual pathway as I break through and that should work until the 6th Layer. Any further, I should get the help of the other elders then maybe the sect leader if I'm to break through to the Qi Condensation Realm when I reach the 9th Layer. This is the way… stable. There's no need to go out and look for opportunities like most protagonists.'
"What happened here?!" The angry voice of Han Yi echoed within the Seclusion Cave as he saw the mouthful of blood on the ground, in front of Tian Ye, causing him, who was sitting in a lotus position to jolt awake.
Tian Ye then, seeing his master, scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and said apologetically, "I was overconfident and suffered internal injuries while breaking through from 3rd Layer to 4th Layer… I apologize, Master."
Tian Ye, throughout their interaction of months together even if it's only once every week, he could feel the genuine care of Han Yi for him, so of course, he tried to think of his feelings.
Although he thought of his feelings, he didn't really know how to respond to them with eloquent words and such so he could only apologize straightforwardly.
Han Yi, hearing Tian Ye's words, shook his head then as he approached Tian Ye who was sitting on the ground, he ruffled his hair and with a gentle smile, he replied, "It's fine, as long as you're safe, you can try again. Don't try to force it so much, you can take a bit longer."
"Thank you for your concern, master." Tian Ye smiled feeling warm in his heart but then said, "But… I thought of a way to be able to force one's way into the next realm when it reaches the peak."
"Hm…?" Han Yi looked at Tian Ye in confusion, was there really a shortcut?
One had to take note that they all took the path of stably gathering spiritual qi over time and only when it leaks a little would they try to force their way through the "Heaven's Shackles."
Although he hadn't heard it yet, he was full of expectations. With Tian Ye's history of being a theoretical genius, he wanted to hear his ideas.
He sat down in front of Tian Ye and said in curiosity, "Let's hear it."
Tian Ye then began to explain, "The invisible force… I call it 'Heaven's Shackles' for an easier term. The 'Heaven's Shackles' is a form of energy that comes from somewhere unknown but it's inside the dantian suppressing the growth of spiritual qi. It also weakens one's connection to one's own spiritual qi within the dantian so protecting the spiritual pathway is a little difficult making it so that a cultivator can only take it slowly."
"That's right." Han Yi nodded as he also knew about this because when one breaks through, one would naturally know such things. Even if one was slow, after breaking through many times, they'd notice these things.
He also agreed with Tian Ye's naming of the invisible force as 'Heaven's Shackles', it was a fitting name because it hinders their progress in cultivation.
Tian Ye proceeded with a smile, "There's no resources to help protect the spiritual pathway so one can just ask for another cultivator for help and provide spiritual qi to protect it so master, I'll be relying on you! Thanks in advance!"
Han Yi's mouth opened wide in shock, taken aback, he thought, 'That's right, why didn't we think of that?'
As a cultivator, it's normal to only rely on one's self but Tian Ye wasn't trapped by such conventional thinking so he was able to come up with such an idea. He could only wryly smile but then nodded, "Okay, I'll go first, you really have provided a lot to the sect, Tian Ye. I'm proud to have you as my disciple."
Tian Ye chuckled as Han Yi stood up and said, "Likewise, I'm also proud to have such a supportive master, master."
Han Yi also lightly laughed and waved his hands casually as he walked out of the Seclusion Cave.
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