Chapter 202 - 141 : Peak Qi Refining

Chapter 202: Chapter 141 : Peak Qi Refining

For a moment, Ethan remained still.

His eyes were open, but his mind had yet to catch up with what was happening. He stared at the dark space above him, unsure of where he was or why his body felt so strangely heavy.

Then, little by little, his memories began to return.

The spatial rift. The unfamiliar world he had fallen into. The cave, the blood pool, and the man named Lucian who had found him and brought him to safety. He remembered the events that had followed, the terrible condition of his body, and the pain that had eventually forced him to enter the blood pool and remain there to recover.

He had been asleep.

With that realization, Ethan slowly moved his arms and legs, testing his body before attempting to stand. Everything responded as it should. There was no longer that deep, agonizing pain that had once seemed to reach into every part of him.

He took a step forward, gradually walking out of the blood pool.

The moment he left the pool, a feeling of relief spread through his body. His muscles felt loose and relaxed, almost as though every knot and strain had been worked out by an expert masseur. Even the smallest movements came easily. The heavy discomfort that had accompanied his injuries was gone, replaced by a refreshing sense of ease that he had almost forgotten.

Ethan closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before slowly exhaling.

"Never felt better."

A faint smile appeared on his face. After everything his body had endured, simply standing there without pain was enough to put him in a good mood.

He opened his eyes and looked around.

Something was wrong.

Not with the chamber itself. He recognized the place. The blood pool was still there, the walls were familiar, and everything appeared to be where he remembered leaving it. But the room looked as though no one had entered it since the last time he had been there.

Cobwebs stretched across the corners of the chamber, clinging to the walls and ceiling. A thick layer of dust covered the floor and the surrounding surfaces. Even the places he remembered being relatively clean had disappeared beneath a coating of grey dust.

His gaze moved around the chamber before settling on the place where he had left his robe.

It was still there.

Unlike the rest of the room, the garment remained clean, its formation still doing its work despite the long period of neglect. Ethan picked it up and put it on, then turned his attention back to the floor.

Frowning slightly, he crouched and ran his fingers through the dust.

His hand sank into the thick layer, leaving a clear trail behind. In the corners, where it had gathered undisturbed, it was almost an inch deep. He rubbed some between his fingers before looking down at the exposed stone beneath it.

For dust to have accumulated this much, a considerable amount of time must have passed.

He glanced around once more.

It was not simply that the chamber had been left unattended. It was as though the place had been forgotten altogether. Even if he had been asleep for several years, surely someone would have come to check on the chamber, clean the surroundings, or at least make sure everything remained in order.

But there was no sign of that.

Had he really been asleep for so long?

Ethan considered the possibility for a moment. He had no way of knowing how much time had passed while he was in the pool. The injuries he had suffered and the struggle against the spatial energy had left him with little choice but to remain there until his body recovered.

He could not even make a reasonable guess.

Still, there was no point standing around trying to work it out.

He would find out soon enough.

Straightening his shirt, Ethan took one last look around the chamber before making his way toward the corridor. The passage was just as dark as he remembered, with cobwebs hanging from the corners and dust covering the stone floor. It was difficult to see how far it extended, but that presented no problem for him. His eyes had long since adapted to seeing in darkness.

His footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.

With every step, the sound travelled ahead of him before fading into the stillness. The place was so quiet that even the faint movement of his clothes seemed noticeable.

As he walked, Ethan began examining his body more closely.

The first thing he noticed was how freely his strength moved through him. Before entering the blood pool, even the slightest attempt to circulate his energy had been accompanied by pain and resistance. His body had been in such a terrible state that he could barely maintain control over his own cultivation.

Now, there was no such difficulty.

He released his Blood Perception, allowing it to spread through the passage and reach beyond the surrounding walls. At the same time, he allowed a little of his cultivation pressure to flow outward. It moved smoothly, without the slightest feeling of obstruction.

A reassuring sensation spread through him.

This was how his body was supposed to feel.

He examined his cultivation and soon discovered another surprise. His strength had increased considerably. Not only had his body recovered, but his cultivation had advanced all the way to the peak of Qi Refining.

Ethan paused for a moment, taking in the discovery.

He had actually broken through while in slumber.

The years his body had spent recovering, constantly struggling against and adapting to the spatial energy that had ravaged it, had seemingly pushed his cultivation forward as well. He had entered the blood pool to recover, yet he had come out stronger than before.

That was certainly a welcome development.

What made it even more surprising was the quality of the blood that had sustained him. It was ordinary beast blood, nothing comparable to the high-quality cultivator blood he had stored inside his storage Ring. Yet it had been enough to help him recover and advance to the peak of Qi Refining.

Not a bad bargain, he thought. He had gone in needing recovery and come out with a breakthrough as well.

Then another thought occurred to him.

The blood pool.

He had expected most of it to be gone by now, considering how much his body had needed during the recovery process. Yet when he glanced back toward it, he could see that quite a bit of blood remained. The level had certainly dropped, but not nearly as much as he would have expected.

Ethan looked at it for a moment.

He would have to examine it more closely later. For now, he wanted to find out what had happened outside.

He continued down the corridor until he reached the heavy door that separated the chamber from the rest of the castle’s underground passage.

Before reaching it, however, his Blood Perception picked up two presences on the other side.