Black Dragon Stronghold.
Xu Zhi and Li Si had already returned and reported the details in full.
“Mm, well done. You two take fifty taels of silver each, and another fifty to split among the rest of the brothers.” Li Daoqiang nodded with satisfaction.
“Thank you, Chief!” Li Si and Xu Zhi beamed with joy and immediately bowed.
That was a full fifty taels of silver, and all they’d done was make a trip to Jingzhou City without even lifting a hand.
Lin Sanlong had never been this generous before.
Dismissing Li Si and the others, Li Daoqiang glanced at the system—the bandit points had increased by 1,300. A gleeful smile spread across his face.
Five thousand points. Enough.
He could break through to the Innate Realm now.
Sure enough, living well meant pinching every penny and seizing every opportunity.
Otherwise, where would that thousand-plus taels of silver have come from?
That was no small sum. From now on, he should keep this up—as long as the risk wasn’t too great, he couldn’t let any chance slip by.
Especially with martial artists in the jianghu; they were bound to have money. He had to take it all.
Every bit counted, no matter how small. Take a little, get a little.
Without hesitation, he returned to his room, gave a brief order, and began his breakthrough.
Calming his mind, he focused his intent. The bandit points shifted from 5,008 to 8—five thousand vanished.
The next moment, within his tranquil body, chaos erupted.
The Dragon-Elephant inner force surging through his meridians and the vast blood energy stored in his physique burst forth like a dragon emerging from the sea, unstoppable, smashing against that heavenly gate.
*Boom!*
Like a thunderclap, everything changed under the roar.
The gate shattered. Li Daoqiang felt his mind and spirit ascend to another realm.
Tiny, grain-like specks of light filled the heavens and earth. He could sense the formidable power and indescribable mystery within them.
And those specks, as if drawn by something, streamed into his body like rivers returning to the sea.
At the same time, countless scriptures and profound truths surfaced, carving themselves into his soul and bones, fully revealing their secrets.
Instinctively, following those truths, he guided the specks into his body, letting them merge with his inner force and blood energy.
Upon contact, a deeper transformation began, like oil meeting fire.
His inner force and blood energy, like starving children, frenziedly absorbed those specks. A trace of an incredibly mysterious aura was born within them, rapidly growing stronger.
His inner force and blood energy began a fundamental metamorphosis.
Outside.
Now, a golden halo radiated from Li Daoqiang’s body, growing brighter with time.
An intangible pressure also intensified.
Cracks spread across the ground where he sat cross-legged, as if it could no longer bear the weight.
As he breathed, when the halo expanded to several feet in radius, the entire floor of the room began to tremble.
Faint sounds rose from the center of the halo—like a dragon’s roar, like an elephant’s trumpeting—intertwining, exuding a vast, ancient, supremely yang, and overwhelmingly powerful aura, deeply unsettling.
Outside the courtyard, the dozen or so guards heard it too. Their faces showed surprise as they turned toward the room, feeling an inexplicable oppression and fear.
It was as if a primordial beast was awakening from slumber within.
They dared not speak or act rashly, only stepping back a few paces before nervously resuming their watch.
Inside the room.
After more than half an hour, the transformation of Li Daoqiang’s inner force and blood energy finally reached its climax.
*Boom!*
Suddenly, the halo vanished. A golden wave, ring-shaped, burst from his body.
In an instant, the ground, tables, chairs, and bed all shattered, leaving the room in chaos.
Fortunately, the wave’s range was limited—it dissipated mysteriously after spreading about a zhang, as if forcibly halted by some force.
Li Daoqiang opened his eyes, a genuine, joyful smile spreading across his face. Feeling the new, vastly more powerful energy within him, a profound sense of security arose.
The Innate Realm. He had reached it.
In this chaotic world, he finally had the means to protect himself.
He extended his hands, clenching them with formidable strength.
*Boom!*
The air in his palms was crushed, sending currents scattering.
His smile deepened. That was just his pure physical strength.
It was more than enough to shatter gold and crush iron like mud.
After a few breaths, he barely calmed his surging emotions and carefully examined his new power.
First, there was the connection between himself and the external world—a conduit linking inside and out.
With this conduit, an Innate Realm cultivator’s recovery and endurance were vastly enhanced.
For ordinary combat, it was practically inexhaustible, lasting days or nights without issue.
This showed that at the Innate Realm, conventional human-wave tactics were useless.
This was also the root cause of this chaotic world, where martial might reigned supreme.
Individual power was too overwhelming.
After thoroughly sensing the connection with spiritual energy, he turned his focus inward.
His vast inner force had fully converted to true qi—several times superior in quality, with an even greater gap in power, and countless other mysteries.
The two were fundamentally different.
His blood energy had undergone a similar ascension. Testing it, he found that pure blood energy could now burst out of his body, its power rivaling true qi.
Beyond that, his entire body had changed—a life-level elevation.
This was the unique trait of the Innate Realm, setting it apart from the Houtian Realm.
In essence, cultivation in the Innate Realm was about gradually refining the entire body.
Different techniques brought different bodily changes.
In simple terms, this bodily transformation was called the “cultivation body,” the foundation of a practitioner.
For internal cultivators—those who cultivated qi—the focus was on meridians, acupoints, and energy flow, with the body as secondary.
For external cultivators—those who trained the body—the emphasis was on flesh, blood, bones, organs, and blood itself.
The Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art cultivated both internally and externally, advancing both equally and complementing each other, aiming to forge a perfect cultivation body.
Now, Li Daoqiang had successfully cultivated the fifth layer of the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art.
Physically, his flesh and blood had been fully refined, earning the title of “transcendent.”
His meridians, acupoints, and energy flow had also ascended to a new level.
It was this dual ascension that allowed him to withstand Innate true qi and Innate blood energy.
And it enabled these two forces to continue advancing and strengthening.
From here, cultivation meant constantly forging ahead, enhancing true qi and blood energy, thereby improving the cultivation body in a cyclical progression.
After fully grasping his Innate true qi and blood energy, Li Daoqiang shifted his awareness to the mysterious spiritual power.
Generally, upon reaching the Innate Realm, spiritual power would first manifest—after all, without sufficient mental strength to control such immense power, the result would be imbalance and qi deviation.
But Li Daoqiang’s spiritual power was far stronger than that of an average Innate Realm cultivator.
The reason was simple: strictly speaking, the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art was a divine technique that cultivated essence, energy, and spirit equally.
The “Vajra” in its name referred to wisdom and spirit.
At the Innate Realm, the spiritual aspect of cultivation became evident.
The benefits of strong spiritual power went without saying, and Li Daoqiang found it an unexpected bonus.
No wonder the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art was so hard to train—cultivating essence, energy, and spirit simultaneously; if it were easy, that would be strange.
But after a moment of reflection, combining insights from two lifetimes, he felt that the spiritual aspect of the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art seemed slightly weaker, not matching the levels of essence and energy.
Otherwise, so many practitioners of this art wouldn’t have died so easily from qi deviation.
So, strictly speaking, the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Art wasn’t a perfect cultivation of all three.
After pondering briefly, he set aside this minor regret. For now, it had little impact on him; he could address it later.
Having fully mastered his new power, he immediately turned his attention to the system, fixing his gaze on one point.
…