Breakthrough

Chao simply gave one last nod to his sister before quickly heading inside his house. There was no reason to take a look back, so he once again completely ignored a noble of a far higher status than him.

Such dismissiveness slightly worried Chen Li. She hurriedly spoke up with a defusing smile for any tension. "Ah, Sir Lie. Sorry about my brother's a bit blunt attitude. He's always like this. But really, my brother truly is the nicest guy around! I'm sure he will be open to friendly talk with Sir Lie."

Qiao Lie gently smiled and waved off Chen Li's concern. "I've met your brother yesterday, you know. He really is a confident character. I'm quite impressed with him. Especially about that fact that he managed to become a Ming Family patrol guard in such a short amount of time."

"Yea, that's really cool!" Nia suddenly chimed in. She had legit admiration in her tone as she continue to say, "I've heard that most other youths need to wait weeks before getting admitted in. Plus, Mr. Chao even managed to gain crystals from just joining in! I have never seen him fight, but he really is so powerful."

Qiao Lie's eyes briefly sparkled at this tidbit of information. Taking a glance at the house and back at the girls, he said, "Then I truly must meet with him one of these days. Even I can tell he doesn't seem ordinary at all."

...

Chao made a straight beeline towards his room. Eagerness for cultivation caused him to quite literally feel his blood pump with vigor.

Once inside his room, Chao didn't promptly go into cultivation. He instead activated his system and went into the store tab.

Today's event was a great reminder that he really needs to vastly increase his strength.

Though Pao Dai's route seemingly has the least amount of highly powerful Vicious beasts. But just like how they encountered the Tilted Origin beast, there was a highly great chance that some other powerful beast can get in their way.

Reaching the 2nd layer would tremendously increase Chao's prowess. However, at the same time, it will draw on too much suspicion.

Nobody knows Chao's true age, but it wasn't hard to tell he was only around 18 from his looks. He wasn't some young adult or middle-aged man in cultivation. Moreover, his background is beyond trash. His only resources were basically the scraps on the street from when he was a mortal.

So it would be reasonable for other cultivators to assume that Chao only recently reached 1st layer Origin because of his pitiful background.

Unless Chao could create a scenario where it is reasonable that he broke through, many would question just how could possibly advance so quickly without proper resources.

Thus, Chao searched the store for anything to disguise his cultivation. He searched for only a few seconds and promptly discovered just what he needed.

'Aura Bracelet. A tool used to disguise one's true aura. Can hide up to Sage Origin detection. 200 SP.'

A pleased smile crossed Chao's lips. It's a bit expensive but definably worth it. It can be used for now and later on!

After purchasing the Aura Bracelet, a small gray bracelet appeared in his hand. Anybody would be prone to simply ignore it, given how plain it looks.

Once equipping the Aura Bracelet, Chao took out three Spirit energy crystals and then assimilated into a meditative state.

His soul and Spiritual Sea connected together, causing the system 'Perfect Conversion' to activate.

The Spirit crystals gained a shiny glow as streams of Spirit energy flowed into Chao's body. Specifically, the energy flowed through Chao's bloodstream and was quickly converted into the purest form of energy without any negative effects.

The mysterious principles of the Asura Conqueror system caused the conversion process to go off without a single hitch.

Pure energy coursed through every inch of Chao's being.

At the same time, the space of his dantian strengthen, and his Spiritual Sea perception gradually increased.

Chao could feel his mind becoming sharper with the seconds.

The mysterious fog that is Origin Qi slowly cleared away. Chao could understand another small portion of its Qi principle.

Under this new state, Chao quickly brought out his Asura Ice Arts, unfolded the scroll, and then poured his soul sense into the 1st level essence symbol.

The same mysterious wonder occurred again. His Spiritual Sea started to slowly grasp another small portion of the ordinary Asura Ice Law essence.

Both new understandings caused a comprehension thought to streak through Chao's mind.

Origin Qi is immensely similar to the air flowing throughout the atmosphere, the trees that produced oxygen, and even the soil permeating the earth. It should have similar properties to nature itself. And the power of nature is ever all-encompassing.

To the Heavens that rested above the skies or the earth of the world, it was all nature.

Thus, the power of nature is beyond Chao's current comprehension. However, by comprehending Origin Qi, Chao slowly grasps it was the equivalent of comprehending nature itself, given that Origin Qi shares so many similar principles and sensations.

With each proceeding base cultivation realm, Chao would be able to draw out more power from nature and perhaps even greatly surpass the Heaven and Earth!

As for Ordinary Law essence, Chao slowly grasp that its principles were fueled with vitality. In fact, Law essence in general, existed everywhere, just like with Qi energy.

But instead of having principles similar to nature, Laws existed as their own separate source.

Asura Ice Law essence is evidently a higher form of Ice Law. However, from Chao's continuous comprehension of Asura Ice Arts, his soul sense could just barely detect the faintest sensations of Ice Laws permeating the world.

Dao Laws and Nature's essence are completely different, yet they can coexist in such a peaceful manner. It was as if they were in a deep system that involves the inner working of the universe.

Chao couldn't possibly grasp such secrets at his current Spiritual Sea's perception abilities. But grasping this much brought about a great change!

His Spiritual Sea suddenly tumbles. The boundaries of his perception abilities were cracking apart to go far beyond his limit.

At the same time, the system suddenly spoke to Chao. 'Host has started the road to increasing his attainment levels on the Nature Path and Dao Laws Path all on his own effort. The host is just a couple of steps away from surpassing the Ordinary level and reaching the quasi-master level on both paths. This alone puts the Host at a greater advantage than numerous other geniuses. Greater Attainment achievements allow the Host to easily breakthrough perception breakthrough barriers, increase the thickness and density of all his dantian's energies, and comprehend more than just one Law. Higher Attainment is also required for higher cultivation realm breakthroughs. If the Host can find extremely high-grade Spiritual Sea resources, Host's Attainment achievements can rise at a far quicker rate.'

When the system finished explaining, Chao experienced a considerable change in his thoughts. He felt more in tune with everything related to cultivation. As if his intuition of cultivation suddenly developed and increased at the same time.

If Chao were to face previous cultivation problems, he would have a much quicker time solving them.

Unknowingly, this whole process had already gone on for a half-hour!

Only mere seconds passed within Chao's eyes. But he couldn't even gain his bearings when two sensations of greater power coursed through his Spiritual Sea.

These sensations were both related to Origin Qi and his Asura Ice Law essence. If he could grasp these sensations, Chao's base cultivation and Asura Ice Art understanding would increase!

However, before he could take the final step, an invisible force gripped his entire Spiritual Sea. The force completely halted the breakthrough sensations.

Chao's lips subconsciously smiled from this.

This was the infamous perception barrier that bottlenecks even special geniuses for months or years!

This was another major step if one wanted to continue their cultivation journey.

One's dantian space structure must be strong enough to withstand the next level of energy. And one's Spiritual Sea perception must be high enough to understand the perception barrier.

These two things are typically achieved with months of accumulation and drawing out natural inspirations from experiencing various situations.

The 2nd layer Origin barrier or any Law essence barrier could stump cultivators for years, causing them to be trapped within a stage for the rest of their lives.

Chao, however, didn't even need hours to break past these perception barriers. His soul energy poured into his Spiritual Sea and grasps the invisible force.

Nothing felt confusing or mysterious to Chao. He completely understands everything as if he was studying a topic he learned ago.

Because he was able to grasp the invisible force with his soul energy, Chao poured even more into his Spiritual Sea.

Soon enough, the invisible force violently pulsated, unable to withstand the abundance of soul energy.

Even though it was invisible, Chao soon saw a crack appear from seemingly thin air within his Spiritual Sea.

His soul energy directly flowed to this singular crack, overloaded it, and then caused it to completely shattered open!

'Ka-Cha!'

The sounds of thousands of glass shards reverberated within Chao's mind. His soul energy shattered right through the perception barrier, causing his prowess to take a tremendous leap!

Chao's Spiritual Sea borders expanded by several times. His soul sense could now detect a far more powerful form of Origin Qi and Asura Ice Law essence.

This was both 2nd layer Origin Qi and 3% of Ordinary Asura Ice Law essence!