Breakthrough! Establishing Elemental Seed!

"Inhale... Inhale..."

Su Xiaobai's breath came in ragged gasps as he pushed through the dense forest, his body battered and bruised from the intense battle with Li Gong and his goons.

Blood seeped from the deep wound in his back, and his True Qi reserves were nearly depleted.

Yet, despite the pain and exhaustion, there was a glint of determination in his eyes.

'I can't stop now,' he thought, 'I'm so close to a breakthrough… but I need to find a place to stabilize myself.'

Su Xiaobai knew that the forest ahead, filled with ancient trees towering, filled with ominous energy, dangerous and powerful.

The territory belonged to the fearsome Silver Wolf, a Nascent Soul Refinement Realm beast that even the strongest experts feared.

But danger didn't matter to Su Xiaobai right now.

What he needed was a secluded place to absorb the Yin Qi he had taken in and prepare for his breakthrough to the Qi Condensation Realm.

The sun was dipping below the horizon, casting long shadows across the landscape.

The forest ahead opened it's dark mouth, the trees casting eerie silhouettes against the fading light.

The air was filled with the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves, and the distant cries of wild beasts echoed through the trees, signaling the approach of night.

'Yin Qi', also known as the energy of 'darkness' and 'death', is the counterpart to 'Yang Qi', which embodies 'light' and 'life'.

'Yin Qi' is cold, invasive, and often associated with negative energies such as decay, the moon, and death itself.

For most cultivators, absorbing too much Yin Qi can be extremely dangerous, disrupting the balance of their internal energies and leading to cultivation deviation or even death.

However, Su Xiaobai was different.

Due to his demonic eternal blood monarch bloodline, he possessed 'Profound Yin Veins', a rare and powerful attribute that allowed him to harness Yin Qi rather than be harmed by it.

This unique ability was known as [Profound Yin Qi Absorption]

These veins enabled Su Xiaobai to absorb Yin Qi from the environment or, in this case, from the corpses of his enemies.

Instead of wreaking havoc on his body, the Yin Qi he absorbed was refined into a potent form of True Qi that strengthened his cultivation.

After the battle with Li Gong and his goons, Su Xiaobai had absorbed a significant amount of Yin Qi from their corpses.

The Qi of the dead is often rich in Yin energy, particularly in places where violent deaths have occurred.

As Su Xiaobai had stood over the fallen bodies, his Profound Yin Veins had instinctively drawn in this energy, storing it within his dantian to be used in his cultivation.

'The Yin Qi is overwhelmingly… potent,' he thought as he recalled the moment when the dark energy had flooded into him. 'But it's volatile. I need to refine it quickly, or it could become too much to handle.'

"Sigh..."

As Su Xiaobai found a small clearing within the depths of the forest, he collapsed onto the mossy ground, his body trembling from the strain.

The remaining Yin Qi was swirling violently within his dantian, and his True Qi reserves had surged to their peak, nearly overflowing.

He knew that he was at a critical juncture—any more energy, and he risked losing control.

In the Qi Refinement Realm, a cultivator refines the Qi they've gathered into a purer, more potent form known as 'True Qi'.

This refined energy is then stored within the dantian and circulated throughout the body's meridians, enhancing physical abilities and allowing the cultivator to perform powerful techniques.

As a cultivator progresses through the Qi Refinement Realm, their True Qi becomes denser and more concentrated, eventually reaching a liquid state when they approach the peak of the realm.

Su Xiaobai had already reached this peak, where his True Qi had condensed into a thick, liquid-like form within his dantian.

This liquid True Qi was potent, ready to be used in a breakthrough.

But to reach the Qi Condensation Realm, he needed to transform this internal energy into something greater.

'This is it,' Su Xiaobai thought, closing his eyes as he began to regulate his breathing. 'I've reached the limit of Qi Refinement. It's time to break through to Qi Condensation.'

The Qi Condensation Realm was different from Qi Refinement.

Instead of simply refining Qi within the body, the Qi Condensation Realm involved the ability to condense True Qi outside the body to form powerful attacks and defenses.

This process required immense focus and control, as the cultivator had to manipulate the Qi in their dantian to form an [Elemental Seed]—the core of their elemental power.

Swoosh!

As he sat cross-legged in the darkening forest, the shadows around him seemed to stretch and deepen, as if responding to the intense energy building within his body.

Su Xiaobai began to circulate his True Qi, guiding it along the meridians and back into his dantian.

The Yin Qi he had absorbed began to merge with his liquid True Qi, intensifying the energy within him.

'First, I need to absorb the abundant Yin Qi…' he thought, his mind laser-focused on the task at hand.

The Yin Qi was cold, almost painful as it surged through his meridians, but Su Xiaobai's Profound Yin Veins allowed him to control it, refining it into True Qi.

Slowly, the True Qi within his dantian began to gather, coalescing into a single point.

This point was the beginning of his Elemental Seed.

Most cultivators, when forming this seed, could only harmonize with one element, be it fire, wind, lightning, or earth.

But Su Xiaobai was different.

As the energy condensed, the 'seed' within his dantian began to glow—not with the light of a single element, but with the radiance of all the elements.

Lightning crackled, fire blazed, wind howled, and water shimmered within his dantian as the elemental energies surged together, creating a seed that was unlike any other.

'This…' Su Xiaobai's eyes widened in surprise and delight. 'It's absorbing all the elements at once!'

The Elemental Seed within him pulsed with power, and as it did, the environment around him began to react.

The air overflowing with elemental energy, and the effects were immediate and terrifying.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning shot from the sky, striking the ground near Su Xiaobai and leaving a smoldering crater.

The sudden flash of light illuminated the dark forest, revealing startled creatures that scurried away in fear.

WHOOSH!

The wind picked up, swirling around Su Xiaobai like a vortex, whipping through the trees with a force that tore leaves from their branches.

The ground beneath him began to freeze, a layer of ice spreading outward in a perfect circle, only to be rapidly melted by the flames that roared to life around him.

BOOM!

The earth itself seemed to tremble as Su Xiaobai's Elemental Seed absorbed more and more energy.

The elements around him fought for dominance, each one manifesting in rapid succession—first lightning, then fire, then ice, then wind and so on—creating a chaotic symphony of nature's fury.

The lower-level beasts of the forest, sensing the immense power, fled in terror, their instincts driving them away from the source of the disturbance.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The trees shook violently, their branches creaking under the strain, and the ground seemed to pulse with the energy radiating from Su Xiaobai.

But Su Xiaobai remained calm, his focus unyielding.

Slowly, the Elemental Seed began to take shape, solidifying into a core of pure energy within his dantian.

The glow from the elements began to recede, becoming a soft, steady light that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.

The breakthrough was complete.

Su Xiaobai's body trembled as the energy settled within him.

He had done it—he had formed the [Elemental Seed] harmonizing with all the elements at once.

The seed glowed brightly within his dantian, an evidence to his unique abilities.

As the last remnants of the elemental chaos subsided, the forest slowly returned to its eerie silence.

The wind died down, the flames extinguished, and the ground returned to its natural state.

But the effects of the breakthrough were undeniable—the clearing around Su Xiaobai bore the marks of his power, the earth scorched, frozen, and cracked.

The creatures of the forest, still wary, kept their distance, their primal instincts warning them not to approach the source of such overwhelming power.

Su Xiaobai could feel the residual energy following the strength of his breakthrough.

But as the energy settled, so too did the exhaustion.

[The Elemental Seed] would eventually grow, sprouting 'branches' that would allow him to control multiple elements simultaneously.

It would form a 'constellation', and eventually, an 'elemental nexus' that would grant him mastery over all aspects of elemental control.