Chapter 5: Tempering in the Lake (Part 2)

  The high wall in front of Zhenyuan remains unchanged, and the circulating Zhenyuan is blocked by an invisible barrier on its way back to the Dantian. At this moment, the intense pain throughout his body, the chaotic and repetitive voices and images in his mind are even clearer and more intense. Qin Yifan's entire being doesn't seem to be in the calm waters of the Fist Print Lake, but rather in the midst of a raging storm.

  His body seemed to be not his own, with the turbulent waves in his mind drifting like duckweed on the wind. His tightly closed eyes flashed with clear images as if projected in front of him, and he could no longer distinguish between illusion and reality. Bloody, violent, and mad auras wildly wrapped around his body, trying to lure out the scenes of slaughter and bloodshed from Qin Yifan's military career, where he was once a killing god.

  As soon as Qin Yifan's mind relaxes, the explosive true energy that has been suppressed for a long time will erupt in an instant. Qin Yifan firmly believes that at that moment, he will be able to burst out his unprecedented energy and slash out the most brilliant sword in his history. However, after that, it will be the fate of a useless person.

  I don't know what kind of evil spirit this is, but it seems to enjoy making those cultivators or martial artists fail at such moments. Is it possible that its own failure can also bring about an increase in its strength? This is just a guess, but it's very likely. Otherwise, with that person's terrifying punch, the demon actually became so powerful after just a few years, perhaps it was because it absorbed the essence of that person's final attack.

  Zhenyuan was still accumulating power to try and break through the barrier, while the red light around Qin Yifan continued to flash eerily. The blood-like lake water surrounded Qin Yifan tightly. Gradually, near Qin Yifan on the lake surface, a thin mist began to rise, white mist slowly rising from the parts of Qin Yifan's body closest to the air.

  The fog grew thicker, but instead of dispersing into the air, it began to gather around Qin Yifan's body, as if he had an enormous attractive force that drew the fog to his surroundings, refusing to disperse. The fog grew denser, wrapping the part of Qin Yifan exposed above the water in a tight, white cocoon, resembling a white silkworm chrysalis from afar.

  Although he was in the icy lake water, Qin Yifan couldn't feel any chill of the lake water at this moment. His body felt like it was in a boiling pot, and even his breath was somewhat short. However, Qin Yifan didn't mind these feelings. His past experiences and lessons told him that everything he saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, and felt in his mind were just illusions. Only by holding on to his persistence could he get through this and achieve victory.

  Not for a moment had he stopped controlling the True Yuan, despite the fact that the True Yuan in his meridians had already begun to churn and erupt violently. However, it was still firmly bound within the scope of his meridians, unable to take even half a step beyond the Thunder Pool. This was also thanks to Qin Yifan's tempering of his meridians over the past few years; if he didn't have such robust meridians, they would have been burst open by the True Yuan at the very beginning.

  The white mist surrounding Qin Yifan seemed to have been illuminated by the ubiquitous red light, wrapping him in a blood-like color. For such a long time, Qin Yifan didn't make any movement, maintaining his head-up and feet-down posture, floating motionlessly on the lake water.

  The moon has risen high, and the third watch has passed. It's just this last hurdle that firmly blocks Qin Yifan's true yuan from returning to his dantian, refusing to let go.

  The last checkpoint's persistence, unknowingly, had already lasted the entire afternoon and half a night, with no progress. In normal times, even a week would be just a matter of hundreds of breaths, but this situation seemed both strange and terrifying. For such a long time, if one's determination was not strong enough, they would quickly give up. And even for those with strong willpower, it was impossible to maintain such perseverance at a single point for an extended period.

  The most difficult thing is the endurance of the meridians, and the flow of true yuan cannot be completed within a week. It gets stuck at the last point, and if the meridian is not strong enough or its capacity is not large enough, it can easily cause damage to the meridian. Even if the meridian is not damaged, under such pressure, one cannot firmly control the true qi, and in the end, it will still lead to the true qi reversing its flow, resulting in a situation where the fire enters the devil.

  It seems that this demon is going to test many things, and even if it succeeds, there may not be much progress. In that case, choosing to cultivate in this place seems to be a bit of a loss.

  Only Qin Yifan would stubbornly choose this location to cultivate, which is related to his retirement from the military, but also inseparable from his persistent personality.

  The moon was also watching the west, and a little white fish belly appeared in the east. The last pass still showed no signs of breakthrough, but all the painful illusions could no longer affect Qin Yifan. It seemed that he had simply reached a dynamic balance with that demon, neither of whom could do anything to the other, just holding on like this, seeing who could take the first step.

  The sun slowly appeared, and the red light that enveloped Qin Yifan also began to fade away slowly, disappearing without a trace. The water surface and the mist around Qin Yifan's body returned to normal.

  As the red light faded, the invisible barrier that blocked the true yuan and dantian also slowly lost its power. The strong pressure of the true yuan even broke through the shackles before the obstruction completely disappeared, and quickly returned to the dantian. Such a huge pressure of true energy suddenly returning to the dantian was fortunate that Qin Yifan had prepared early, otherwise it would have caused damage to the dantian due to the impact of the true energy.

  With this, a week's thorough completion, and the struggle with that unknown monster also ended in Qin Yifan's victory.

  After soaking in the water for a day and night, his body was somewhat uncomfortable. After moving his stiff joints in the water, Qin Yifan knew he couldn't hold on much longer in the water and struggled to swim back to shore.

  This is just a distance of ten zhang from the shore, and I don't know what kind of obstacles there will be when I reach the center of the Fist Mark Lake. However, this time's strong interference still made Qin Yifan feel that he had gained a lot, and with such a degree of mental pressure, he could support it, and in the future, what kind of heart demon would be able to knock him down?

  Rush to the top of the chart! Thank you everyone for your recommendation and support!