Chapter 161: Chapter 159: Cultivation in the Mountains

Although he had suffered a small setback due to his own ignorance, the excitement in Qin Li’s heart hadn’t diminished in the slightest. He knew that with his current aptitude, as long as he continued to work hard, breakthroughs were only a matter of time.

But advancing one’s realm on a spiritual level was incredibly difficult!

Without a great stroke of luck, one could only wait for their physical strength to break through to a higher realm before their spiritual side could gradually grow along with it.

After all, even an expert like the Paradise Sect Master, Le Wuya, who had reached the peak of the Celestial Integration Realm, could only extend his Divine Sense to a radius of three or four li?

And within the Paradise Celestial Palace, the strongest was probably that Elder Wen. His strength had already reached the Celestial Embracing Realm! Although he had only just broken through to this realm, his aura alone could suppress a great mountain! But even his Divine Sense didn’t extend beyond a seven or eight li radius!

Furthermore, their Divine Senses could only detect disturbances and use their experience to judge what might have caused them!

They couldn’t be like Qin Li who, if he so wished, could form a concrete image in his mind of a bug ten li underground within a ten-li radius!

The two abilities seemed similar, but in reality, the gap between them was enormous!

At the very least, if Qin Li were to bury himself one or two meters underground right now and conceal his aura completely, neither Le Wuya nor Elder Wen would be able to find any trace of him!

But for Qin Li, under the sweep of his vast Divine Sense, nothing could hide!

This was a true realm!

’I believe that unless it’s a supreme expert of the Venerable Realm, not even a Martial Artist at the Celestial Embracing Realm could hope to suppress me with their aura now!’

He thought about the Spirit Grass in his ring. There seemed to be six or seven red Vermilion Fruits on it. ’Should I eat another one now?’ Qin Li hesitated for a long time but ultimately resisted the temptation. It wasn’t that his willpower was particularly strong; it was just that the pain had been so bone-deep it made his very soul tremble. For the time being, Qin Li had no desire to go through that again. He would have to wait until the psychological trauma from this experience had completely faded before even considering it.

Qin Li’s eyes stared at the stone trough. In his moment of desperation, he had eaten the extraordinary lotus. The changes in his Dantian and the immense strengthening of his Divine Sense meant that he didn’t regret it.

It was just that even the leaves of this lotus looked to be of the highest quality, to say nothing of the numerous lotus seeds scattered in the trough, their color as pure as white jade. ’Those things must be treasures, too!’

Qin Li thought to himself, ’I already took the other Spirit Grass, so there’s no way I’m leaving this lotus behind!’

However, his Storage Ring was only ten cubic meters, not nearly large enough to fit the stone trough... Qin Li scratched his head in frustration. Giving up was absolutely out of the question. He would rather yank the water lily out of the water condensed from Spiritual Qi and toss it into his ring than leave it to grow here. ’This isn’t my territory! Why should I leave it for someone else?’

Suddenly, a thought struck Qin Li. ’Doesn’t the capacity of a Storage Ring expand as one’s Spiritual Power grows? So why is mine still the same size?’

With this in mind, Qin Li infused a thread of his Spiritual Power into the ring. Sure enough, it was still ten cubic meters. The bookshelves had long since been moved out by Qin Li and placed in the basement of the Marquis Mansion in Cyan Dragon City. Leng Yao was the only one who had the key.

Qin Li wasn’t worried that someone might target those books. With his strength, no one in the Mortal Realm could mess with him! Even if someone managed to steal them, he was confident enough to storm their home and take them right back.

Besides, the most precious books had already been memorized by Leng Yao, after which they were returned to Qin Li’s ring.

They were all stored in the wooden box Qin Li had gotten from Prince Wu, placed together with the Spirit Stones.

"How do I make this space bigger?" Qin Li muttered to himself. After a moment’s thought, he began to pour all of his Spiritual Power into the space, bit by bit.

"Expand!"

No reaction!

"Expand!"

Still no reaction!

Qin Li cursed inwardly. ’The Ancient Great Powers of this world really aren’t as impressive as the gods and immortals from Huaxia myths.’ He could only resort to the most brutish method: using his Spiritual Power to manually stretch the space within the ring.

And it worked. The space inside the ring began to expand in a strange way, its volume growing rapidly under the force of Qin Li’s immense Spiritual Power!

Fifteen cubic meters... twenty cubic meters... thirty cubic meters... All the way to fifty cubic meters, the space finally stopped growing!

Still, this far exceeded Qin Li’s expectations. When he withdrew his Spiritual Power from the ring, his mind went completely blank for a moment. He had no choice but to sit cross-legged and recuperate for several hours. The drain this time was far greater than before, and after a few hours, he had barely recovered a little more than half of his Spiritual Power.

As a result, Qin Li looked somewhat listless and drained.

However, he had to admit that the Great Powers of the Celestial Essence Continent’s Ancient Era were truly formidable. Figures of stunning and brilliant talent like Prince Wu had genuinely existed! As for the mythical figures from his former world, no one could say for sure if they had ever been real.

「In the cave, Qin Li cultivated for another half a month.」

For the past half a month, he had focused mainly on comprehending the second level of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable Combat Skill: the application of Spiritual Power!

The first level of the Only I am Venerable Combat Skill focused on the finesse of its moves and the coordination of strength. This level of the Only I am Venerable Combat Skill was still on a mortal plane. In other words, mastering the first level was enough to become a supreme expert in the Mortal Realm, no problem!

Even if you only had the strength of the Earth Level, you wouldn’t necessarily be at a disadvantage in a direct clash with a Celestial Level master!

This was the sheer dominance and power of the ’Only I am Venerable’!

What does it mean to be a Divine-level Combat Skill? *This* was it!

The difference between High-Level and Intermediate Combat Skills was usually only apparent between peers of the same level. For example, a Tier Three Earth Level Martial Artist practicing a High-Level Combat Skill might be able to defeat a Tier Five Earth Level Martial Artist by leveraging their skill’s advantage. But against a Tier Eight Earth Level Martial Artist, there would be almost no suspense.

Of course, accidents could happen; otherwise, power in this world would be neatly stratified by rank. All sorts of factors could influence a Martial Artist’s performance. But overcoming a difference in entire levels—the weak defeating the strong—was incredibly difficult!

But the power of a Divine-level Combat Skill was enough to support a Martial Artist in challenging those above their level! And it often led to astonishing results.

Qin Li had already completely mastered the first level of the Only I am Venerable Combat Skill. The second level was about cultivating the various ways to apply Spiritual Power!

This was yet another heaven-defying ability found within a Divine-level Combat Skill!

For Martial Artists, a Profound Level Martial Artist would have a Profound Level aura; an Earth Level Martial Artist, an Earth Level aura; and a Celestial Level Martial Artist, likewise, would have a Celestial Level aura!

This so-called aura was, in fact, a manifestation of Spiritual Power. As the saying goes, one’s station shapes their bearing, and their keep shapes their body. A person who holds a high position for a long time will naturally develop an aura. This aura is intangible, much like why a minister would feel trepidation at a mere glare from the emperor—because that aura represents immense power!

So, an aura is intangible, and Spiritual Power cannot be seen or touched. But once you reach a certain realm, you can actually use this Spiritual Power to attack your opponent!

However, this required reaching the Celestial Level at a minimum, and even a Celestial Level Martial Artist’s application of Spiritual Power was merely at the novice stage.

As for pressure, that was using the vast Primordial Power within one’s body to oppress others. This was a direct manifestation of a person’s true strength!

Why was it so hard to challenge those of a higher level? Because the pressure from a Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artist could be enough to make a Celestial Level Martial Artist unable to even breathe!

How could you even fight then? Fighting while under such pressure was the most difficult thing to do!

Aura and pressure were, in fact, two different things. But because high-level Martial Artists liked to release both simultaneously when intimidating an opponent, many people came to conflate the two over time.

This was simply because their own realms were not high enough for them to recognize the difference.

Even Celestial Level Martial Artists might not fully grasp the difference between their own aura and pressure. They just had to stand there, release their Celestial Level aura, let their Primordial Power surge, and exert pressure, and their opponent would hardly dare to make a move.

After all, in the Mortal Realm, not many people dared to challenge the authority of a Celestial Level Martial Artist.

Only Martial Artists who truly broke through the Celestial Level and reached the Celestial Shattering Realm would realize that Spiritual Power was also something that could be utilized. However, very few understood how to actually use it.

Only those who managed to get their hands on Secret Manuals passed down from Ancient Times could truly understand that Spiritual Power could be used as a method of attack—and one that inflicted far more shocking damage than Primordial Power!

Therefore, anyone who mastered this type of skill would, without exception, first fortify their own Spirit Barrier. They were terrified that someone else might use the same method to attack them!

The second level of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable Combat Skill was all about comprehending these various methods of Spiritual Attack!

Not only could you attack, but you could even search an opponent’s memories, hypnotize them, and extract secrets from their lips! Of course, the damage to the person subjected to the skill was also immense. If it went wrong, they could go insane. And if the target had a strong will, they could even cause a backlash against the user. Thus, the application of Spiritual Power was also extremely dangerous!

Unless one was a peerless expert with Spiritual Power as vast as the ocean, an ordinary person wouldn’t dare to use it lightly, even if they knew how.

Qin Li originally had only a hazy understanding of the second level. But after this fortuitous encounter and the massive surge in his Spiritual Power, all the parts he hadn’t understood before finally clicked into place with a sense of sudden clarity.

「Time flew by, and in a flash, a month had passed.」