Crossing the Cultivation Realm: Two Souls Coexist

Seeing Hu Qing and Gu Yang looking dejected, like wilted eggplants, Old Turtle's beady eyes darted around, and he tentatively spoke, his tone slightly enticing:

"What, were you so busy getting angry and falling down that you didn't notice... anything different about your body?"

"A different feeling?" Upon hearing this, Gu Yang subconsciously looked down at his body and moved his limbs.

Aside from the soreness from the fall and the fatigue from the climb, there seemed to be nothing particularly special.

He shook his head blankly.

Hu Qing, standing to the side, seemed lost in thought, a serious expression on his face.

He reached out and touched the part of his right calf where he had just collided head-on with the pale blue gale.

The skin there now had a strange feel to it—it was tighter than the skin on the surrounding area, and its texture seemed a little tougher.

There was still a faint metallic coolness and stinging sensation, but it wasn't the pain of injury; rather, it felt like... a mark of being tempered.

He recalled that Gu Yang had slipped and fallen, and had not been directly exposed to the strong wind.

He fell because he was struck squarely by the gale containing metallic energy.

The difference between the two was obvious. He looked up at the old tortoise and asked uncertainly, "Is it that gale? Is there something strange about the gale?"

"That's right!" The old tortoise clapped its paws, its beady green eyes revealing a "teachable" look.

"At least he's not completely stupid. That's my unique 'Golden Fiend Tempering Wind,' which is a mixture of refined gold energy and earth vein fiend energy, blended using special techniques."

While being knocked off a cliff might seem shameful, it actually has great benefits for strengthening muscles and bones and building up physical strength.

This will greatly shorten the time it takes for your bodies to adapt to the power and thus break through the final shackles!

As it spoke, it shook its head with feigned helplessness, as if lamenting that the two people didn't know its value:

"You guys don't actually think that just by making you stupidly carry the pressure up a mountain, you can naturally achieve a breakthrough, do you?"

If it were that easy, the human continent would have long been teeming with immortals and filled with golden immortals!

The key lies in the need for extreme external tempering to first refine your 'container'—

That is, this physical body has been honed to the point where it can withstand even greater power.

Only then can we more safely and quickly break through the last two most stubborn 'leg locks' on the Nascent Soul!

After hearing this explanation, Gu Yang immediately beat his chest and stamped his feet, his face full of regret and pity:

"So that's how it is! If I had known that the gale had such benefits, I would have definitely taken a few hits and blocked as many as possible!"

"What a waste of an opportunity!" He was filled with remorse when he realized that he had slipped and fallen because of his panic.

Hu Qing remained relatively calm. He pointed to the towering, tiered mountain peak beside him and asked a more practical question:

"Senior, if that's the case, then every time we're knocked down by the gale or... accidentally slip and fall, wouldn't we have to start climbing all over again from the foot of the mountain?"

"Wouldn't this back-and-forth be too time-consuming?"

The old tortoise's usual sly, calculating grin reappeared on its face as it slowly said:

"How could that be? Am I such an inhuman and inefficient tortoise?"

Don't worry, get up from where you fall. These mountain steps have a spirit; they will remember the highest point you reach.

Next time, just fly directly to the vicinity of where you crashed last time.

"I'm really looking forward to you guys reaching the summit as soon as possible..."

Its last sentence was full of meaning, as if reaching the summit itself held other challenges.

Upon hearing this, Hu Qing and Gu Yang felt somewhat relieved. They exchanged a glance and saw a renewed fighting spirit and a hint of understanding in each other's eyes.

Now that we know the "wonderful uses" of the gale and have clarified the training objectives, even the greatest hardships are worth enduring.

The two took a deep breath and patted each other on the shoulder as a gesture of encouragement.

Immediately, he activated his spiritual power, his body rising from the ground and transforming into two streaks of light, flying swiftly towards the mountainside where he had just fallen.

Soon, they landed back on that familiar area of ​​stone steps that seemed to float above the sea of ​​clouds.

The moment my feet touched the cold stone slabs, that familiar yet terrifying heavy pressure returned instantly, like a leech clinging to my bones.

With a "bang," it was as if invisible shackles were once again firmly fastened to their bodies, making it hard for them to breathe and causing their knees to bend slightly.

The two quickly adjusted their breathing, circulated their spiritual energy to resist the pressure, and stabilized their bodies.

They cautiously observed their surroundings and found that no new strong winds were forming for the time being.

"Let's go!" Hu Qing shouted in a low voice, and Gu Yang nodded.

The two of them lifted their leaden legs again, tentatively and tremblingly, and stepped toward the next step of the stone slab.

Just as their feet touched the next stone slab, before they had fully regained their footing—

"Woo-!"

A sudden change occurred!

The calm air suddenly turned violent, and several gales, darker than before, pale yellow in color, with faint metallic luster at the edges, swept out without warning from the cracks in the void or the crevices in the mountain!

Instead of launching sneak attacks one by one as before, they formed a small storm-like circle, hurtling towards the two who had just lost their footing from several directions! Their power was greater, and their sharpness was overwhelming!

Hu Qing and Gu Yang's expressions instantly turned extremely serious, and their hair stood on end.

This time, however, the panic and mere attempt to evade that had preceded them were gone. Having learned that the gale possessed a body-tempering effect, their mindset had shifted.

"We can't waste it!" Gu Yang gritted his teeth and growled, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

"Let's work together to block one attack first and see how it goes!" Hu Qing remained relatively calm and quickly made a decision.

The two stood back to back, struggling to adjust their center of gravity under immense pressure, no longer trying to completely avoid all the gales.

Instead, he focused most of his attention on a pale yellow gale coming from the front, preparing to take it head-on and personally experience the effects of the "body tempering" before making any further plans.

At the foot of the mountain, the old tortoise withdrew its gaze from the two tiny figures in the clouds, grinned, and revealed a wicked smile that no one could see, full of mischievousness and anticipation.

It hummed a tuneless but cheerful little tune, slowly turned around, and strolled towards the wooden house.

Only a light, almost soliloquy sentence remained, vanishing with the wind:

"Keep climbing, you two silly boys... When you're almost at the top, you'll know what real 'pain' and 'surprise' are, hehe..."

Meanwhile, a completely different scene unfolded in the open space in front of the wooden house.

Xiao Zi has now reverted to her true form as the Dark Ancient Sword Dragon.

But instead of soaring or displaying its power, it coiled its long, purplish-black body, like an oversized mosquito coil, tightly around the old tortoise's large bamboo chair.

The dragon's originally smooth and graceful lines now have a very obvious, even somewhat comical, spherical bulge on its abdomen, which looks particularly abrupt and strange in contrast to its relatively slender body.

His eyes were closed, and a soft, rhythmic "snoring" sound came from his nostrils. He was fast asleep, sitting cross-legged in the chair, his stomach rising and falling with each breath.

The old tortoise strolled back and saw this scene at a glance, and was immediately furious.

It stretched out its claws and unceremoniously grabbed the relatively soft scales behind Little Purple's neck, lifting him off the chair.

"You brat! I was only gone for a short while! How come you're asleep again?!"

The old tortoise's voice carried a hint of disappointment, "Have you even finished digesting that smallest fragment of extraterrestrial meteorite? And you dare to sleep like that!"

Suddenly awakened, Little Purple groggily opened its golden dragon eyes, rubbed its still somewhat swollen and bulging belly with its front paws, and showed obvious discomfort on its little face.

He could clearly feel the fist-sized, silvery-white meteorite fragment that he had forcibly swallowed.

At this moment, it was sinking deep into the stomach, emanating a stubborn, cold metallic aura, being enveloped and tempered by his own dragon flames and spiritual power, but the refining speed was extremely slow.

"Grandpa Turtle... this stone is so hard... so hard to digest..." Little Purple grumbled pitifully, feeling her stomach heavy and uncomfortable.

"So what if it's hard to digest? Can't you see that whole box of meteorite fragments over there?"

The old tortoise pointed with its paw at a large, inconspicuous box in the corner of the wooden house, which was clearly enchanted with a spatial expansion spell. Inside, one could vaguely see a pile of silvery-white luster.

"Since you can already break the smallest piece with brute force, it means your physical strength has reached the standard. Now is the best time to refine and absorb it, nourish yourself, and further strengthen your muscles, bones, and scales!"

Refine it properly! This will only benefit you, not harm you! Do you want to remain a pretty face with dragon blood but unable to digest even a rock?

Xiao Zi shrank back, no longer daring to complain. He tried to straighten his coiled body, hovering in mid-air, and closed his eyes.

He began to fully mobilize the dragon spiritual power within his body, which, while not extremely abundant, was of exceptionally high quality, in conjunction with the dragon flames naturally generated in his stomach.

Like the most skilled craftsman, he painstakingly ground, decomposed, and absorbed that incredibly hard piece of extraterrestrial meteorite iron, refining each strand.

The silvery-white metallic essence seeped into his blood and bones, bringing a subtle yet real tingling and numb sensation, like being pricked by needles or being forged, as well as a barely perceptible strengthening.

The path of cultivation is never smooth.

Whether it's Hu Qing and Gu Yang braving the fierce winds on the mountain peaks, or Xiao Zi painstakingly refining meteorite iron in front of the wooden house.

They are all enduring pain and pursuing strength in their own ways.