In the meditation chamber of his private dormitory, Qin Feng sat cross-legged, his mind sinking into a boundless void.
Before him lay ten [Special-Grade Spiritual Energy Potions], two [Special-Grade Deep Recovery Medicinal Bath Packets], and one [Special Mental Power Recovery Potion], all arranged in neat rows.
"Time to begin."
With that murmur, he twisted open the first Special-Grade Spiritual Energy Potion and downed it in one gulp.
He gritted his teeth against the searing, tearing pain. He used the "Great Sun Visualization Method" and the "Emperor Meditation Method" to steady his mind, pouring all of his Mental Power into guiding the violent Spiritual Energy.
His Mental Power transformed into countless invisible threads, forcefully wrapping around the wild, untamable energy. Following the path of the "Great Sun Acupoint Opening Method," it launched a death-defying charge toward the unknown, dark region deep within his Dantian.
The barrier to the fifth Great Sun Acupoint was far tougher than he had imagined.
It was a chaotic void, seemingly capable of devouring all energy.
The torrent of Spiritual Energy crashed against it time and again, but each impact vanished without a trace, creating nothing more than insignificant ripples.
Time slipped by in an agonizing crawl.
After an unknown amount of time, just as Qin Feng felt his Mental Power was about to be depleted and his consciousness began to blur, he finally exhausted the last of the first Potion’s energy.
The barrier of the fifth Great Sun Acupoint had only loosened by an imperceptible degree.
...
Qin Feng didn’t rest. Instead, he immediately prepared the medicinal bath he had mixed beforehand.
The moment he submerged his exhausted body into the dark green Medicinal Liquid, which exuded a rich, herbal fragrance, an indescribably gentle warmth instantly enveloped him.
Visibly, his skin, which had been stretched taut and was covered in ruptured blood vessels from the violent Spiritual Energy, began to recover its original color and elasticity at an astonishing rate.
The subtle, hidden injuries deep within his body, caused by over-cultivation, were also swiftly soothed and healed by this powerful restorative force.
In just half a day, the physical exhaustion had mostly dissipated.
But this wasn’t enough.
His mind was on the verge of collapse.
Previously, he would have needed at least a full day of deep Meditation or sleep to replenish his depleted Mental Power.
But this time, he had a new option.
Qin Feng rose from the medicinal bath, dried himself off, and picked up the crystal-clear [Special Mental Power Recovery Potion], which looked as if it held a pool of starlight. He downed it in one go.
A cool, refreshing stream of energy didn’t flow to his limbs, but instead rushed directly into his mind, nourishing his parched Sea of Consciousness.
He could clearly feel his exhausted, nearly depleted Mental Power recovering, thread by thread, at a slow but remarkably steady pace.
Although this recovery speed was much slower than deep sleep, its advantage was that—it could proceed simultaneously with his physical recovery!
"It really works!"
A flash of joy appeared in Qin Feng’s eyes.
This meant he could skip the large blocks of time dedicated to mental recovery and compress his cultivation cycles with unprecedented efficiency!
And so, a brand-new, supremely efficient cultivation cycle was established.
Breaking through, exhaustion, physical recovery in the medicinal bath, mental recovery with the Potion...
Time lost all meaning in the meditation chamber.
The second Potion... The fifth Great Sun Acupoint, opened!
The third Potion...
The fourth Potion... The sixth Great Sun Acupoint, opened!
...
When he finished opening his sixth Great Sun Acupoint and was preparing to break through to the seventh, the precious Special Mental Power Recovery Potion finally ran out of energy.
Qin Feng didn’t stop. He returned to his old rhythm of relying on Meditation and sleep to recover his Mental Power.
Although his efficiency dropped, thanks to the massive amount of time he had saved earlier, his overall progress was still far ahead of schedule.
The seventh Great Sun Acupoint...
The eighth Great Sun Acupoint...
Fifteen entire Imperial Moons passed by like a dream.
When Qin Feng poured the last wisp of energy from the tenth Special-Grade Spiritual Energy Potion into the newly opened eighth Great Sun Acupoint, an unprecedentedly vast power surged through his entire body!
HUMMM—
The very air in the meditation chamber began to hum softly, disturbed by the waves of Spiritual Energy naturally emanating from his body.
He slowly opened his eyes, a terrifying glint of light flashing deep within his pupils before vanishing.
"Such incredible power..."
Qin Feng muttered to himself. He could feel every cell in his body brimming with explosive vitality.
He immediately pulled up his personal data panel.
[Vitality Index: 110.58]
Four Acupoints had brought him a full 40-point increase in his Vitality Index!
The increase in his physical strength was within his expectations.
But when his gaze fell on Hammer’s time log, he froze.
’It only took... fifteen months?’
A storm raged in Qin Feng’s mind.
This was a huge discrepancy from his calculations!
Based on his previous cultivation speed, the fourth Acupoint had taken four and a half months. Therefore, breaking through to the fifth should have taken even longer—at a conservative estimate, at least five months.
Following that logic, the difficulty of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth Acupoints would each increase progressively, and the time required would naturally rise with them.
His original expectation was that it would take at least twenty, or even twenty-two months to complete this period of seclusion.
But now, he had finished nearly a quarter of that time ahead of schedule!
’It’s thanks to the recovery potions.’