My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 88

Liyu’s gaze unceasingly twitched as he looked at the system screen over and over again. He had already stopped cultivating, his brain and mind completely focused on the screen before him; he couldn’t believe it. No, he wouldn’t believe it.

How was he supposed to accept the fact that 500 qi beads were still not enough to let him step into the Qi Gathering Realm? It had far surpassed anything he had imagined. Five hundred... that was already over a hundred times greater than what other cultivators needed to enter the Qi Gathering Realm... and yet it still wasn’t enough.

To top it all off, this was already the third day... no, it was already approaching the fourth day... of intense cultivation, and yet he still hadn’t entered the Qi Gathering Realm.

Here he was, thinking that he would at least step into the second or even the third stage before the day of the upcoming tournament, but with how things were going, he might not even reach the first stage before that day arrived.

"Hey, Sys... give me an explanation now. Is this some sort of punishment? If not, then why the hell aren’t 500 qi beads enough to form a qi cluster?" The system’s voice replied in Liyu’s mind after a few seconds; it almost sounded as if it had expected this reaction from the very beginning:

"Host, I already told you from the very start, back when you were still in the Body Refinement Realm, that the amount of energy you would need to break through would be vastly greater than anyone else in your cultivation realm. It is not that you’re missing anything or lacking somewhere. Rather, it is simply because your Divine Grade Spirit Root is... well... divine. And naturally, the amount of energy required to fill something divine is also divine."

Liyu groaned as he rubbed his face. Of course, he had already known this was going to be the system’s answer before he even asked. He had already come to terms with it back when he was refining his body, but this felt like a completely different level compared to the amount of energy he had needed during Body Refinement.

After frowning for a while and wondering whether he had somehow offended someone for the Divine Grade Spirit Root to come with such an absurd disadvantage, Liyu decided to ask another question:

"Hey, Sys... tell me. With how things are going, how many qi beads do you think I’ll need before I can finally form a qi cluster and reach the First Stage of the Qi Gathering Realm?"

The system remained silent for a while before finally answering: "Judging by the fact that you’ve already gathered 500 qi beads and they still don’t seem anywhere close to forming a qi cluster, I would estimate that somewhere around 1,000 to 1,500 qi beads should be enough for you to enter the Qi Gathering Realm."

Liyu couldn’t help but groan once more. "What...? Over a thousand?" That would take him around six to seven days to accomplish. He was supposed to cultivate for that long? By then, the tournament would only be two days away. He couldn’t allow that.

"Host, you’re being unreasonable once again," the system sounded almost helpless.

"Breaking through into the Qi Gathering Realm within a single week is something completely unheard of, and yet you’re saying that it’s too slow. You truly need to compare yourself with other cultivators once in a while."

"Many spend months, and some even spend years, before they finally step into the Qi Gathering Realm. Yet you’ll probably manage it within a week, and somehow you’re still taking it for granted."

Liyu could only sigh after hearing the system’s words. Of course, he knew his cultivation speed was already truly terrifying, but still, why should he compare himself with others? After all, compared to them, he was simply different... he was a true genius. With that thought, Liyu returned to cultivating.

No matter what, he would break through into the Qi Gathering Realm; no matter how many absurd and unreasonable qi beads he needed to form, and no matter how much he hated it, he would do it. In fact, Liyu even considered using his clone’s help to hasten his cultivation.

With King Rayden cultivating alongside him, he would receive another twofold boost, but no, he couldn’t risk it. He wasn’t ready to let anyone discover his greatest trump card, and that was exactly how he intended to keep it.

Without any other choice, he once again entered a meditative posture and began circulating the Foundation Breathing Sutra. No matter what, he would soon become a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator... no matter if it took 700, 800, or even 1,000 qi beads.

Although, Liyu truly wished... and sincerely prayed... that he wouldn’t end up needing that many.

------

Meanwhile, Liyu was not the only one struggling to become stronger and make the perfect use of these last few days before the tournament. Rather, all five members who would be participating were putting in their utmost effort in the best way they could.

Even Jie and Xie, the two anomaly brothers, were cultivating as if there were no tomorrow.

They trained under immense pressure, yet they endured it and continued cultivating because they knew that the greater the pressure they endured, the greater their cultivation speed would become; and the greater their cultivation speed, the higher their chances of breaking through.

The further they could advance in their cultivation before the tournament, the greater and easier it would be for them to believe that they could actually win the tournament where the geniuses of the Three Great Clans would battle it all out for the token that granted entry into the Gold Valley Sect.

Somewhere within a rather vast open field stood several towering monuments. Each monument had the carved head of a ferocious beast, and from the mouths of those beasts protruded arrows made entirely from stone... not just ordinary stone, but stone that had been tempered and nurtured by spiritual energy.

Standing in the very middle of the monuments was a figure dressed in the black-and-red training attire of the Li Clan. His medium-length dark hair, his dark blade, and his calm yet vigilant posture were all anyone needed to know that he was none other than Li Feng, one of the true geniuses of the Li Clan.

His body was slightly tensed as he patiently awaited the stone arrows to be unleashed; his face carried the expression of someone about to head into a battlefield, and anyone who made that assumption wouldn’t even realize just how close they were to the truth.

For the past few days, Li Feng’s greatest concern had been surviving his father’s training, and that was exactly what he had been doing. His father had decided to teach him the Awakening Instinct Combat Art, something he claimed to have learned from a talented master many years ago.

According to him, it was a Gold Rank Sky Grade technique. Li Feng had initially refused to believe it; after all, Sky Grade techniques were incomparably rarer than Earth Grade ones. Even so, he was more than certain there was no reason for his father to fabricate such a lie, which meant the technique was real.

Naturally, he chose to learn it; after all, if he could truly master a Gold Rank Sky Grade combat technique, then his combat strength would undoubtedly soar to another level, and his chances of winning the tournament would rise tremendously. Yet, the moment the training began, he immediately realized that he had made a mistake. This wasn’t something that could be learned so easily.

He had already been stuck trying to master just the five basic foundations of the art, and despite all his effort, he still hadn’t managed to master even those completely.

Still, he had learned through countless injuries and pain, and he was more than certain that this time around he would be able to survive for more than five minutes. His grip on his sword tightened as he focused all of his senses.

The Clan Lord looked at him calmly before activating the mechanism. The beast heads slowly rose high before unleashing the weapons hidden within their mouths. Stone arrows shot through the air at an insane speed toward Li Feng.

The Instinct Awakening Art had five forms, or rather, five basic forms that served as the very foundation of the technique... something one had to master before moving on to the more advanced portions.

Over the past few days of endless training, Li Feng had managed to gain a little mastery over them. First Form: Silent Ear. The moment he activated it, qi surged through his body and enhanced his hearing to a staggering level. He could hear the sharp whistles of every stone arrow as they tore through the air toward him.

His grip on his sword tightened before he moved, using Silent Ear alongside the other forms. Second Form: Breathing Heart. It allowed him to regulate his breathing while also using the breathing rhythm of his opponents to detect and, if mastered to a high enough level, even predict their next movements.

Unfortunately, his opponents this time weren’t humans but nothing more than stone arrows; because of that, he could only use Breathing Heart to regulate his own breathing while sharpening his concentration and increasing his mobility instead.

He performed well, evading numerous arrows while knocking many others away. His sword flashed brilliantly as it swept through the air at incredible speed, slicing apart one stone arrow after another while gracefully dodging those he couldn’t intercept in time.

The form that enhanced his mobility the most was the Third Form: Wind Walker. He didn’t wait for danger to arrive before moving; instead, the wind carried by the incoming danger warned him beforehand. His body simply flowed with the wind before the attack could even reach him.

The Fourth Form was something he had also begun to grasp: Killing Intent Sense. Just like Breathing Heart, it had its shortcomings, especially since his opponents were merely stone arrows; still, it allowed him to use his own killing intent in ways he had never imagined before. Perhaps among all five basic forms, it possessed the greatest potential.

Then there was the Fifth Form. Something Li Feng believed might one day surpass even Killing Intent Sense. Unfortunately, it was simply too difficult; he hadn’t even managed to truly grasp its fundamentals yet.

Li Feng dodged several more arrows. His movements were elegant and graceful as he struck down more and more stone arrows. Every slash was swift and precise enough to make even seasoned samurai question their own heritage, and all of this he was doing without seeing a single thing.

That was the true focus of both the training and the combat technique; it trained a cultivator to fight without relying on the eyes... the sense that almost every cultivator and ordinary human depended on the most.

According to his father, "The eyes deceive. They can be blinded, and they can be fooled." The more one relied on the eyes, the duller the other senses became. "Don’t rely only on your eyes. Sharpen your other senses instead... because those never lie."

Li Feng had thought his father was simply saying something silly back then, but now, now that he was able to do this much without seeing anything at all, he couldn’t help but admit that his father had been right.

He could also clearly feel just how much he had improved, although before he managed to reach this level, he had suffered unimaginable pain from the countless stone arrows that had mercilessly struck his body whenever he made even the slightest mistake.

Li Feng continued to dodge the endless barrage of arrows with calm and elegant grace. There was only one of the five forms that he wasn’t certain he could use, and that was the Fifth Form: Natural Response. It was something he had tried countless times, yet whenever he attempted to use it, he would always slip up, and what followed every single slip was something rather painful for him to endure.

Because of that, he had stopped trying to use the Fifth Form altogether.

After a while.... around thirty minutes later.... the barrage of stone arrows finally came to a stop. Li Feng stood in the middle of the training ground, surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of broken stone arrows. He had sliced apart many of them, evaded countless others, and knocked away even more.

Slowly, he removed the black cloth covering his eyes before looking toward his father. His father looked slightly impressed, well, the word "slightly" was very important here, because he also looked rather displeased. Li Feng bowed respectfully before speaking:

"I think I’ve mastered the five basic forms that you mentioned. Can we move on to the next seven forms?" Li San couldn’t help but feel rather annoyed by his son’s antics; did this brat think he was blind or something? "You used all five basic forms..." He paused.

"Except the Fifth Form." Li Feng stiffened; he already knew what was about to follow. And sure enough, "Now put the blindfold back on. This time, you will use only Natural Response." Li Feng’s face immediately fell.

Wasn’t that basically the same as telling him he was about to get beaten black and blue? Natural Response was something he found nearly impossible to grasp; if he relied solely on it, he would be completely overwhelmed by the stone arrows.

Still, he obediently did as his father instructed and tied the black cloth over his eyes once more. Li San calmly reactivated the monument. Several stone arrows immediately burst out from the beast heads and shot toward Li Feng at terrifying speed.

Li Feng managed to dodge the first few through nothing but pure instinct, even so, he already knew: sooner or later, he would make a mistake. And that moment came far sooner than he had hoped. During one of his movements, he lost his footing ever so slightly after standing in one place for just a little too long.

Without anyone needing to tell him, he already knew he had messed up. The very next second, a merciless barrage of stone arrows slammed directly into him. Li Feng was instantly sent flying, straight into a world of unimaginable pain.