Chapter 557: Chapter 348: Saving All the Energy_3
She finally thought of her parents and softly apologized before disappearing. She turned her gaze to Wan Qiao. Their eyes locked, and she spoke earnestly, "I want to follow you to the Capital and see how your beasts live."
Seeing the determination in Li Meilin’s eyes, Wan Qiao couldn’t help but laugh. She understood what emotion currently ran through another woman’s heart because she herself had made the decision many times to live among humans as a human. However, hiding as a human was far easier than Li Meilin pretending to be a beast. Every beast in the Capital knew she was human, making things far more complicated.
Although Wan Qiao understood this, she said nothing and instead refocused her attention on Yan Xiaobao. He had now been sitting in the same dazed state for over three hours, and it seemed he wouldn’t be waking anytime soon.
As she observed his ongoing trance, Wan Qiao remained silent, but she noticed the golden speck of light disappearing from the young man’s forehead. In all her past lives, this was her first encounter with such an occurrence.
This golden energy was undoubtedly Wu Wei; however, she knew the only way to obtain martial power was to refine the essence of heaven and earth into Qi, then refine that Qi into spiritual energy, and finally distill the spiritual energy further into martial power. As for how Yan Xiaobao directly absorbed it from the air, Wan Qiao was at a complete loss.
Beyond the grasslands, the terrain was soaked in blood, scattered limbs, and mutilated corpses. Some of these belonged to humans, while others were from magical beasts.
Not long afterward, magical beasts began appearing in the forest. These beasts seemed indifferent to which side the corpses had belonged to; all they saw was meat pleading to be devoured before it decayed.
As the beasts moved around the battlefield, none dared to step into the grasslands occupied by the three cultivators—one entirely dazed and the other two patiently waiting for the man’s awakening.
Yan Xiaobao finally woke after eight hours. As he did, his usually blue eyes transformed into gold, radiating a glow so bright they resembled two miniature suns.
He felt dizzy, light-headed, and a bit nauseous; yet aside from that, his body brimmed with energy. His rank had risen to the ninth position of Duke Level—an astonishing leap in cultivation, unlike anything he’d ever heard of.
Not only him but Wan Qiao, Li Meilin, the wolf Yan Xiaobao, and Lan Feng had all witnessed his power surge, leaving them deeply shocked. His power was now at least double what it had been before, a feat most could only dream of.
Though his rank had soared considerably, this was not the greatest benefit Yan Xiaobao had gained from his trance. His mind was now brimming with insights into various facets of existence—insights into combat techniques he’d spent time refining, insights into his elemental affinity, and most importantly, insights into the world he inhabited.
He now understood what it meant to be a part of the world; he now saw why merging entirely with an element posed dangers. He grasped the concept of becoming one with the world—abandoning one’s self and transforming into something else entirely. He also realized what he needed to advance to the King Team. However, he lacked sufficient spiritual energy to break through to higher levels—a fact that simultaneously irritated and excited him.
Spiritual energy was something one could always improve upon. If he focused completely on refining it without any distractions, he could possibly break through to King-level within one or two months. A broad smile spread across his face at the thought.
As he smiled and laughed, Wan Qiao’s hand suddenly transformed into a claw, creating a clean cut on his cheek and extracting three drops of blood to store in Xiao Yu’s small box.
The sharp cut on his cheek yanked Yan Xiaobao back to reality, which was precisely what he needed. After politely nodding at the two women, Yan Xiaobao slowly stood and stretched his body, feeling as though he’d been sleeping for days.
"I didn’t expect you to wait for me," he remarked casually as he glanced at Wan Qiao and Li Meilin. Rising to his feet, he scanned the surroundings and took in the sight of the blood-soaked battlefield. Yan Xiaobao couldn’t help but frown at the scene—a chaotic mess of corpses piled everywhere, with blood and scattered limbs littering the ground.
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