Chapter 21 - Two Breakthroughs?

Tian Longmeng began the breakthrough process into the Bone Forging Stage, albeit a bit different. Tian Longmeng was determined to do something different, something greater.

He allowed the energies to run rampant in short bursts of time before clamping down on the output of it so that it remains in place. This was done so that the energies will break away at Tian Longmeng's bones. By letting the essence remain while focusing on healing himself, the essence will eventually be merged with the growing bones.

Normally, no one would think of doing such an inane idea. The original method behind the breakthrough was to slowly seep some essence into the skeletal frame so that they would fuse, ultimately making the cultivator stronger. No one would think of breaking their own bones, especially at the age of 7!

However, this 7-year-old would.

While fully aware that any slip up would mean instant death, Tian Longmeng still proceeded with the breakthrough. This was because he knew that if he were successful, he would have a skeletal body made of concentrated essence.

The effects of that would be tremendous! He would be able to exert multiple times the strength of a normal Bone Forging cultivator, and he would also be able to absorb outside essence way much easier.

These were all mouth-drooling advantages that a person with weak talent such as himself cannot afford to pass on. Any step he can get above the others, he must take.

This painful process lasted 3 whole days. Sometimes, Tian Longmeng would be chalk pale. Sometimes he would even cough up blood and fall over. Nevertheless, he persisted until there was no more energy to convert.

Tian Longmeng rose to his feet and stretched his body.

"Crack! Pop! Snap!" There was a face of delectation on Tian Longmeng as his bones cracked and popped themselves back to their original flexibility. He looked like a man who just had a sensational massage, if Tian Longmeng knew what a massage was in the first place.

Tian Longmeng suddenly realized that he could feel the surrounding essences better than what he expected. "I thought that I would get to feel out essence better by doing this but I did not know it was this good?"

Tian Longmeng moved as if he was animatedly inhaling just to draw in and absorb some essence. He was trying out his newfound prowess.

Very quickly, Tian Longmeng noticed that some of the essence did not go into his bones as he thought, but into his abdominal core.

Tian Longmeng quickly remembered that Si Xuexi and the Ark Elder told him. "This area is the dantian!" he excitedly shouted.

Of course, he was excited. This was because he knew from the Ark Elder that the when essence is slowly drawn into the dantian, this was a sign that he reached into the Mortal Practitioner Realm.

The Mortal Practitioner Realm. This was the first stage of the Essence Gathering path and also the main cultivation of humans. Si Xuexi told him that if unless someone practiced or knew about the Body Strengthening path; no human would think that he was a cultivator. Only an abnormally strong baby.

Having stepped into the Essence Gathering path, he could finally integrate properly with others of his age range. This also meant that Tian Longmeng had the edge over all humans with the same cultivation level since he has power from more than one path.

Tian Longmeng quickly headed for Tang Fei City on that good note. He also completed that breakthrough in time to catch the Tang Fei Martial Academy's opening examinations.

Of course, Tian Longmeng brought back with him some precious herbs and beast bones. He had to make money in order to survive in a civilized society.

.....

The drylands continued for quite some time before Tian Longmeng began to see signs of natural growth and change in the environment. According to the map Si Xuexi and Tian Longmeng bought, he would be now 50 miles from Tang Fei City's territory.

Tian Longmeng began his leisurely stroll through the trees, grasslands, swamps, and rivers to reach Tang Fei.

On the way, Tian Longmeng met some familiar faces. It was the monkey bandits that he totally caved in back at Spring Well Villa.

The bigger one did not look at all bruised up. As a matter of fact, they got a lot of time to heal themselves up and get on with their business, so it would natural that he looked completely fine.

The shorter one, Stringface, looked totally destroyed. His body was still badly bruised and had purple spots all over his extremely light skin. His face was much worse since there was a cantaloupe-sized lump over his right eye.

This lump was caused by Tian Longmeng when he threw the stone at his face. There was a lot of force behind the throw so the lump soon developed, much to the frustration of Stringface.

Tian Longmeng at first was puzzled at why they would be heading to Tang Fei City until he remembered that they hail from that city.

Tian Longmeng grew a devious grin on his face as he just thought of how to make his journey a million times more interesting.