My Artifacts Can Upgrade Infinitely

’Time to enter seclusion... and break through to the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer,’ Zhao Zuo thought.

He took a few Fire Element Seeds from his wrist, placed them where the Fire Spirit Snake ate, and walked over to Xiaohei, his Fire Spirit Snake, and said,

"I need to enter seclusion for a while to advance my Cultivation."

"???" The Fire Spirit Snake’s eyes were filled with immense confusion.

"...Forget it."

Zhao Zuo stepped into the meditation chamber. He used his Mana to activate the door’s mechanism, and a heavy stone door slowly descended from above. With a loud RUMBLE... the massive stone slab sealed the chamber from the outside. It could only be opened by activating the mechanism from within or by destroying it with brute force.

He first took out three sticks of Concentration Incense and lit them in the censer. Wisps of sandalwood fragrance filled the entire meditation chamber, transforming into a faint smoke that coiled around him. With each breath, Zhao Zuo inhaled the white wisps, and his mind grew more serene.

’Constant Sober, Constant Calm.’

Zhao Zuo laid out the Pill Medicines he had prepared in front of him. There was the Yellow Bud Pill for the breakthrough, the Vein Protection Pill to protect his Meridians in case of failure, and the Replenishing Essence and Reviving Pills for healing injuries.

The aid of these Pill Medicines would ensure Zhao Zuo the greatest possible safety during his breakthrough attempt.

Once everything was ready, Zhao Zuo swiftly entered a state of deep meditation and began to rapidly refine the Spiritual Food in his stomach. This food was suffused with Spiritual Power. Under the dual Refinement of his Dantian and Meridians, wisps of Spiritual Power were quickly converted into Mana. After being further purified by his Meridians, the Mana returned to his Dantian.

The Mana continuously filled his Dantian until it soon reached its capacity. The excess Mana was then forced out, accumulating in the Meridians that ran throughout his body. This step tested the strength of his Meridians and their capacity for Mana.

If his Meridians couldn’t handle the excess Mana, they would rupture, signaling a failed breakthrough. In that instant, the excess Mana would spiral out of control. It would rampage through Zhao Zuo’s body, damaging his internal organs and, in a severe case, causing death.

This was the most dangerous hurdle in breaking through to the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer.

Once the Spiritual Food in his stomach was fully refined, Zhao Zuo began absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power to continue filling his Meridians. He discovered that his Meridians were very strong. The breakthrough wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined.

HAAAAH...

Zhao Zuo exhaled a breath of turbid air and stopped absorbing the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power. He picked up the Yellow Bud Pill, quickly put it in his mouth, and crushed it before swallowing. A dense wave of Spiritual Power began to spread through him. The Golden Fire Refining World Scripture started to operate at full speed, converting even more of it into Mana.

Immediately after, he felt the pressure on his Meridians surge. With most of his Mana now accumulated within them, Zhao Zuo’s rate of refining Spiritual Power slowed slightly. It became difficult to keep up with the continuous flood of Spiritual Power gushing from the pill in his stomach.

With his body as the battlefield, a smokeless war had quietly begun.

Six hours later, stabbing pains shot through all of Zhao Zuo’s Meridians. The Clear Heart Jade Pendant on his person continuously released waves of cooling energy to repair the damage, doing its best to maintain the balance between his body and the Mana. Even so, Zhao Zuo could feel that his Meridians had reached the absolute limit of what they could endure.

Yet the barrier in his Dantian, the very symbol of his bottleneck, remained unshakable.

’I still haven’t accumulated enough Mana!’ Zhao Zuo picked up a Vein Protection Pill and swallowed it.

A different medicinal power spread through him, transforming into a cooling Energy that joined with the Energy from his Clear Heart Jade Pendant. The two forces worked in concert to repair his Meridians, yet the barrier within his Dantian remained immovable.

Another four hours passed. Veins bulged on Zhao Zuo’s face, giving him a ferocious expression. Beneath his skin, his Mana slithered about like writhing worms. The amount of Mana his Meridians could bear had reached its absolute limit.

Surprise flickered in Zhao Zuo’s mind. Thirty percent of his compressed Mana had begun to run rampant. Like heavy, powerful battle-axes, it carved open one sealed-off Meridian after another, incorporating them into his network of Mana circulation.

Legend told of how newborn infants, their Innate Qi yet to dissipate, possessed a naturally perfect physique for Cultivation with all their Meridians open. As they grew, however, this wisp of Innate Qi would scatter and transform into the Energy for growth. Lacking nourishment, the once-unobstructed Meridians would gradually wither and become blocked.

A Spiritual Root allowed one to instinctively absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power with every breath, maintaining the patency of the body’s primary Meridians. Only a Celestial Spirit Root could keep every Meridian in the body completely clear, creating the world’s most perfect physique for Cultivation.

For other cultivators, their Mana network only utilized a portion of their body’s Meridians, which resulted in slower Cultivation speeds. Without a stroke of great fortune, there was little chance of opening those sealed-off channels. Only during a major breakthrough in one’s Cultivation could a small number of them be cleared.

Now, Zhao Zuo had encountered just such an opportunity to clear his Meridians.

As his Meridians were cleared one by one, his body’s capacity for Mana steadily increased. More and more Mana piled up within his Meridians until it reached a new limit, at which point it would force open yet more of the withered, sealed-off channels.

As more and more Meridians joined the Mana network, the circulation speed of Zhao Zuo’s Mana increased many times over. He knew this was an incredibly rare opportunity, so he stopped focusing on his Cultivation breakthrough and instead concentrated on clearing his Meridians.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, an unknown amount of time passed.

The Mana in Zhao Zuo’s body once again reached its limit. This time, however, it didn’t continue to forge new paths through his Meridians but instead rushed directly toward his Dantian. It was clear that the expansion of his Meridians was nearing its end. Though he could sense that a small number of channels remained blocked, he was powerless to change the situation.

All the Mana scattered throughout his Meridians surged toward his Dantian, as mighty as ten thousand rivers returning to the sea. From within his body, one could faintly hear the sound of rushing water.

Now, the barrier in his Dantian was no longer so difficult to move. Outside his body, Zhao Zuo was continuously absorbing the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power, and his own Spiritual Pressure grew steadily.

The moment his Meridians withstood that first surge of Mana, the most dangerous part of the breakthrough was safely over. From this point on... for Zhao Zuo, there would be no more bottlenecks in the Late Period of Qi Cultivation.

The impacts that followed were simply a matter of course.

On the first impact, a crack appeared in the bottleneck.

On the second, the Mana’s assault completely shattered it.

The instant the bottleneck shattered, Zhao Zuo’s body became like a black hole, devouring the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power. A torrent of Spiritual Power washed over his body, initiating a complete and utter transformation.

His skin, muscles, blood, bones, and Meridians were changing with every passing moment.

At the core of this transformation was Zhao Zuo’s Dantian. Its size had suddenly more than doubled, which meant that the amount of Mana one possessed at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer was more than twice that of the Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer.

It was precisely because of this massive increase that the bottleneck to reach the Late Period of Qi Cultivation was so perilous.

As time went on, the Mana in Zhao Zuo’s Dantian grew ever more plentiful. His body appeared to be draped in a pure white, gauzy cloak—a phenomenon caused by the extreme density of the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power.

Under normal circumstances, a Cultivator could only mobilize a very limited amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power, influencing it only within a small area. During a breakthrough, however, this rule was broken. It was as if the Cultivator had received the favor of the heavens, allowing them to draw upon much more of the surrounding Spiritual Power to replenish their body.

About an hour later, the transformation of Zhao Zuo’s body was complete. All that remained was his Dantian, which was now emitting a terrifying suction force, endlessly devouring the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power.

The breakthrough had been flawless. Furthermore, because Zhao Zuo also practiced Body Refining, he could hold more Mana than an ordinary cultivator in the Late Period of Qi Cultivation. That was why the absorption process was taking so long.

Half an hour later, the black hole at his Dantian dissipated.

Zhao Zuo opened his eyes. A beam of white light seemed to shoot from them, illuminating the chamber before slowly fading a few seconds later. The Spiritual Pressure radiating from his body dissipated along with it.

He stood up, stretched his limbs, and summoned the Sky-Breaking Saber to test it out. Compared to before his breakthrough, Zhao Zuo could now control the Magical Artifact with much greater ease. The Sky-Breaking Saber’s flight speed had also increased significantly, leaving cyan afterimages hanging in the air of the meditation chamber.

The main advantage of the Late Period of Qi Cultivation was that the same volume of Mana was far more potent than in the Early-period.

’I’ve finally accomplished one of my goals.’

’Next, I need to grind out the experience for the Sky-Breaking Saber as fast as possible and upgrade it to a Magical Treasure!’

.....