Ironically, no matter how celebrated the story was outside, how high the praise soared, within the Xuanqing Guard, there wasn’t a single whisper about any "reward."

Anyone familiar with the inside details of the case admitted the Black Banner Battalion had nailed another big one, but so what? In the end, it was just some old unresolved cases—so what if there was a faint connection to Evil Cultivators, after all, nobody was actually caught. Want a reward? Dream on, you’re free to imagine anything there. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Because of this, Tang Qingyuan and Chen Yiyun had some complaints toward Shen Hao; not capturing the Evil Cultivator meant their "gains" were cut off by half, and compared to the pressure they’d endured earlier, it hardly seemed worth it. What they didn’t know was that, in fact, Shen Hao hadn’t written the most crucial part of the case into the official record.

The internal folks in Black Banner Battalion were more reasonable—basically, no one complained. With so many cases each year, how could every one of them end in a reward? As long as they could swap for a decent resume entry, they were more than happy.

But what was unexpected was Jiang Cheng bypassing Tang Qingyuan and Chen Yiyun, reporting the "serial disappearance backlog case" directly as the Xuanqing Guard’s top achievement of the season in Fengri City, and pegging the whole series with a tone so baffling Shen Hao himself couldn’t help but feel weird: Filling in the gaps for the life safety of the people, the Xuanqing Guard has always been duty-bound!

When Shen Hao took a few days’ rest from Tang Qingyuan, citing newfound cultivation insight, the internal official report titled "Filling in the gaps for the life safety of the people, the Xuanqing Guard has always been duty-bound!" began to circulate through every department in the Jingxi bureaucracy.

For the first time, this Xuanqing Guard power lurking in the darkness was recognized and even linked to everyday life by the public.

Even the Copper Cabinets, such a novel thing, began slowly spreading beyond Jingxi—naturally, it was the local Xuanqing Guard Black Banner Battalions leading the charge.

...

As for Shen Hao, he remained oblivious to all of this, because by the time the official report was released, he’d already gotten leave from Tang Qingyuan, gone home, and settled down for closed-door cultivation.

Before shutting himself in, Shen Hao specifically had the cook make him over a dozen big flatbreads, prepped water and dried meat, and expanded his defense array to cover even the washroom. He had a feeling this closed-door session would last quite a while.

After stuffing himself, packing up his supplies, and giving a few orders to his steward Hu Tian, Shen Hao sealed off the array.

To maximize this retreat, Shen Hao had brought back a newly allotted Little Peiyuan Pill, his quarterly quota, a General Flag-exclusive supply.

He even slept soundly, took a bath, completely relaxed body and mind to prime himself for the breakthrough.

Shen Hao’s caution was hardly excessive—what lay ahead was smashing through the first major barrier: Gathering Spirit and Breaking Qi!

There was only one shot—if he failed due to some objective factor, Shen Hao reckoned his mental state would simply collapse.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t nervous, but facing the gate, that drive to charge forward recklessly was stronger still.

According to Shen Hao’s copy of the Great Five Elements True Qi Talisman: Gathering Spirit is an act against heaven, and must suffer heaven’s hardship! Upon Gathering Spirit, one must break Qi; only in breaking Qi can the foundation of fate be altered, the spirit basin be formed, and the God be carried...

To put it simply: to step into the Gathering Spirit Realm, one needs to trigger an internal explosion of the true qi that’s reached its limit, using this extreme self-dismantling to alter the body’s fundamental life base and forge a vessel capable of carrying the "God."

The so-called "God", in fact, is one’s own soul—making it come forth and participate in cultivation, rather than relying solely on the flesh. This is the hallmark of the Gathering Spirit Realm.

He double-checked his psychological state, waited until he was perfectly calibrated, then inhaled deeply, sat cross-legged, and let himself slip into cultivation.

Normally, breaking through the final gate of the Qi Refining Realm requires tons of Little Peiyuan Pills or higher-grade elixirs for support. Cultivators always save up pills for ages for this moment. But to Shen Hao, this wasn’t a problem; the energy stored in the tattoo on his chest was begging for a place to be used, so he didn’t preemptively swallow any pills.

"Let’s begin!"

With a thought, the true qi in his body began circulating according to the proper cycle. At the chest acupoints, as Shen Hao expected, a surge of energy erupted, flooding into the circulating true qi stream, accompanied by sharp pain and swelling in his meridians, pushing the total amount of true qi in his body ever closer to the limit.

The sunlight drifted west; outside the defense array, Xia Nu kept guard, dozing fitfully and nodding off in between, all oblivious that inside the array, her master was undergoing the first major transformation since beginning cultivation.

Midnight crept in, moon hanging from the branches, the night breeze cool and soft. Within the array, Shen Hao remained unmoved in his cross-legged posture, forehead drenched in sweat, his upper clothes soaked through.

By now, Shen Hao’s meridians weren’t just hurting—they were wracked with agony, stretched to his current limit. Yet his chest acupoints kept pouring in crazed energy, so naturally, the pain climbed.

But even in maddening pain, Shen Hao didn’t halt the cycle; he knew he was nearing the final moment: Qi Breaking!

Truth be told, Shen Hao’s current state had departed from normal Qi Breaking. Who else would, in so short a time, reconstruct their meridian width again and again, pushing their true qi capacity ever higher? Anyone else would either have their meridians shattered and be half-dead from such insane energy infusion, or reach their capacity limit and break qi early.

The process was irregular, but the outcome still edged toward breaking qi.

Just as Shen Hao felt his meridians stretching to their ultimate limit and cracking yet again, suddenly—it was as if time stood still...

His consciousness drifted in an incredibly vague way, burrowing inward; he "saw" his organs, bones, blood vessels, even the meridians that had no real form appeared vividly before his "eyes."

This is... Introspection?!

Startled, his "vision" delved deeper, seemingly beyond his control. In the unseen, he "watched" as the true qi clogged in his meridians burst apart like firecrackers, spreading through his whole body bit by bit. The shockwave shattered one of the layers of "shackles" that had locked him down.

It felt like less than a second, or perhaps several hours; when Shen Hao’s sense of normal time returned, a swelling sensation detonated in his mind and then vanished instantly.

Dazed, Shen Hao realized he had succeeded. Because never before had he felt his soul so vividly, and even true qi now coursed through a mandatory new route: the "Sea of Consciousness" in his head.

His soul now participated in Shen Hao’s cultivation.

"This feeling... it’s wonderful!"

At this moment, Shen Hao’s cultivation erupted again, soaring past the Qi Refining Realm to achieve First Layer of Gathering Spirit Realm!