Breakthrough

If one stood on Solitude Peak, they would notice that on the very top, ice was gradually melting, forming a circle around a young man.

Li Zhu had communicated with Buddy to bring him back his pills, and was now cultivating with such force that an aura of energy formed around him, melting the ice.

He was taking one spirit pill at a time, refining all the contained energy. His Dantian was now almost full, and with a few more pills he could probably aim for the fifth stage of Qi gathering realm.

Fortunately, for the past few days he had cultivated every night, consolidating his cultivation base. Thanks to this work, he did not have to worry about ruining his foundation, and could breakthrough easily, as long as he kept up the energy intake.

As he reached the peak of the fourth stage, Li Zhu had already eaten six pills, which would be risky for anyone else.

Because he had been trained in Heavenly Dragon Empire, where resources were abundant, one of the first things he had been taught was how to correctly absorb the energy of a spirit pill. One needed to fully refine the energy into their own, before spreading it evenly into their meridians and Dantian.

If one spread the energy incorrectly, with one meridian receiving a bit more than another, it was very easy to suffer injuries or flaws, which would affect the cultivator for the rest of their lives, if not tended to immediately.

These little flaws were extremely hard to notice, though, which resulted in many cultivators ruining their chances at becoming powerful, simply because they had incorrectly used spirit pills to hasten their progress.

Being aware of this, Li Zhu paid close attention to the energy flow, as his face assumed an expression of deep concentration. The less mistakes he made now, the more pills he could use in the future, which was essential if he wanted to improve quickly.

Although using such items to make cultivation faster was not ideal, because of the risk involved, Li Zhu had no other choice, since he was lagging far behind the talents he used to lead, and he only had three years to gain enough strength to have a chance at taking back the position of heir to the Heavenly Dragon Empire.

As his body began to glow, and ice melted at an increasing speed, Li Zhu finally reached the bottleneck of the fourth stage, only one step away from breaking through.

Fortunately, he was the only disciple on solitude peak, since it was not a common punishment. If he was distracted at this moment, failing the breakthrough would be a good result, and it was even possible that his cultivation would be crippled.

Many cultivators were stuck at bottlenecks for years, since a large amount of energy was required to breakthrough, and cultivating normally had little to no effect, being akin to adding drops to an ocean.

Spirit pills and plants were very rare and expensive, especially as one reached a higher cultivation, where increasingly higher ranked pills were needed to help.

With this limitation, many experts could not breakthrough due to their poor status, because of which they couldn't get hold of the necessary resources.

This was an issue which Li Zhu was not accustomed to, having been given everything he needed to cultivate. That said, with his current hidden identity, he would need to find a way to overcome this limitation, and keep up the pace of his improvements.

Fortunately, it was an issue for the future, and Li Zhu currently had all the spirit pills he needed. With this amount of energy, he effortlessly broke through to the fifth stage, causing a flash of light.

By now, the top of Solitude Peak was no longer covered in ice, and the spirit beasts that lived there had already fled into their frozen caves.

Li Zhu stood up, excited about his breakthrough. He was now one step closer to his goal, and though there was still a long way to go, each improvement restored his determination.

Since he needed to stay here for a month, Li Zhu decided to test his new abilities by entering one of the many caves in Solitude Peak. Each cave contained many spirit beasts, with some even at the core consolidating realm.

Buddy was here with him, which gave him the ability to escape if he encountered a spirit beast which was above his capabilities.

Entering the first cave he came to, Li Zhu began shivering. The deeper one got to the core of Solitude Peak, the stronger the Yin energy was, and the colder it was.

Li Zhu, to counter the freezing temperature, circulated his heavenly energy around his body, warming himself up and keeping the frost at bay.

Having managed to keep his body at the optimal temperature, he continued advancing in the cave, admiring its composition. Icy spikes were growing up from the ground, and small ponds of pure Yin energy had formed everywhere.

If he fell into those ponds, there was no way of knowing what would happen, yet freezing to death was highly possible, since he had no way to counter such pure Yin energy, and even if he managed to get out quickly escaped, his meridians would slowly freeze, causing unimaginable damage.

Despite being aware of the danger, Li Zhu forged ahead, pushed by his desire to fight a spirit beast, and see how much his strength had grown.

At that moment, some noises rang out from the depths of the cave, forming an echo, which only added to the eeriness of the situation.

Determined to find the source of the noises, Li Zhu quickened his pace, finally reaching a large room, where two spirit beasts were fighting each other.

'This was the source of my worries? One of these beasts is at second stage of Qi gathering realm and the other I don't even recognize as a Spirit beast, maybe it's even a mortal animal' Li Zhu relaxed after seeing the two sources of the sounds that had attracted him to this place.

There was a Yin Python, chasing a small blue bird, which was covered in ice.

Li Zhu did not recognize the bird, and since most spirit beasts were born into the qi gathering realm, the fact it had no cultivation signified it was a normal animal.

The Yin python was in the second stage of qi gathering, but it struggled to catch the bird, since the latter could fly, albeit slowly.

The bird was clearly a newborn, and it still had not learned how to fly with ease, resulting in the current stalemate, with the python coming close to reaching its prey multiple times.

Li Zhu, who did not want to see a small bird die, stepped up, standing in front of the python. The snake did not back down though, striking Li Zhu the moment he was in its range.

It was not its lucky day, though, since Li Zhu was many times more powerful than it, and with only a punch, the python flew back, slamming into a wall. Spirit beasts knew when to escape, and the snake instantly slithered away, having encountered an enemy it could not afford to offend.

Looking at the small bird, seemingly so frail, Li Zhu sighed. In this cave there were much stronger spirit beasts than the Yin python, and this newborn bird had no chance at survival, without its parent.

Although Li Zhu did not want to deal with the burden of needing to protect someone, he simply could not bring himself to leave this hopeless bird to die. He managed to have the scared little bird jump in the palm of is hand and then placed it in one of his pockets, before continuing on his journey.

His plan was to release the bird after he had gotten out of this cave, and with some luck, it could survive the harsh environment of Solitude Peak, or possibly travel elsewhere.

At the moment, Li Zhu was focused on not sliding on the icy floors of this cavern, since deadly Yin ponds were everywhere.

Again, he heard noises, which led him towards the center of Solitude Peak, where more powerful beasts resided.

Entering another open area, Li Zhu noticed a spirit beast eating its prey, that noticed his presence right away and turned his head to face him.

'A Frost-Steel wolf! I never thought I would meet another one so soon!' the spirit beast in front of him was the same as the one Yin Jing had ridden into the sect, and the ones held in Spirit Beasts Peak.

This wolf, though, was not in the core consolidating realm, not having reached adulthood yet. It was only one step away from that level, though, with a cultivation at the ninth stage qi gathering, and the size of a regular Frost-Steel wolf.

'Perfect! Now I can test my strength with a worthy opponent." Li Zhu was excited, knowing that the following fight would be challenging.

The wolf, showing rage in its eyes, began charging Li Zhu, who had just the time to place the little bird down in a safe crevice in the icy wall, before fusing with Buddy, and entering his fighting stance.

'Ninth stage offensive type spirit beast... if I can defeat it with my cultivation at the fifth stage qi gathering realm, then I will have surpassed the fighting prowess that I had back then!' Li Zhu thought, comparing his current self with the nine year old kid he was, when he had reached the fifth stage as the crown prince.

Li Zhu not only had to surpass the talents of the continent, but he also needed to overcome his past identity, reaching a whole new level of prowess.