C94 Predicament
C94 Predicament
Chu Zhongtian sat cross-legged on the ground, doing his utmost to increase his cultivation base.
Already having an understanding of the realm far exceeding his own, Chu Zhongtian did not have any problems increasing his cultivation. In just thirty minutes, he had successfully broken through to the Peak Seventh Level of the Qi Refining Realm and was on the verge of breaking through to the Eighth Level.
After resting for a while, Chu Zhongtian took out the Meridian Enhancing Pill and Dantian Cultivating Pill and used them to increase his potential.
Having consumed more of those pills, his potential gradually approached closer to its limit.
But what worried him most were the fact that those two types of pills were only advanced level-10 pills. The more his cultivation base increased, the more of such pills he would have to consume in order to receive the same effect, and the slower it would be for these pills to help elevate his potential.
For example, he originally only needed ten advanced level-10 Meridian Enhancing Pills to increase the meridian in his body to the limit, but now he needed a hundred of the same type of pill to achieve the same effects.
There were only two ways to solve this problem. One was to consume a higher-level pill, and the other was to rely on a large amount of the same pills.
However, there weren't many level-9 Meridian Enhancing Pills or Dantian Cultivating Pills in the storage room of the Chu Family. It was not easy for the Grand Elder to refine pills of such quality either.
For the time being, it was impossible for Chu Zhongtian to obtain a higher-level pill, so he could only rely on his current method of the accumulating energy. Even so, with the amount of energy he consumed to increase his potential, he would quickly drain the corpse of the strange beasts dry, which he felt quite distressed about.
After consuming nearly half of his supply of pills, Chu Zhongtian finally maxed out the potential of his meridians and Dantian. Now, he could attempt breaking through to the Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm without worry.
The main benefit of breaking through to the Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm was gaining the ability to manifest a Qi Barrier around one's body using their spiritual Qi.
If he wanted to break through to this realm, not only would he need to reach a new level of enlightenment in his understanding of spiritual Qi, but he would also need to gather up more spiritual Qi.
With his meridians and Dantian reaching the limits of their potential, Chu Zhongtian could feel the sudden changes in his strength, as well as the spiritual Qi he needed for his next breakthrough. But unfortunately, he realized that the five-hundred-year-old Red Sage would not be enough for him to break through to the next realm.
If he wanted to break through to the Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm smoothly, he would need three Red Sages at the very least. At the same time, now that he was the heir of the Chu Family, he would now have to actively get involved with his family's matters.
However, with his main goal of reaching the peak of martial arts and cultivation, he could not spare any time deal with such trivial matters. Thus, he could only nurture some capable individuals to assist him in such matters.
At this moment, Chu Zhongba and Chu Yuping were both at the Seventh Level of the Qi Refining Realm. In fact, Chu Zhongba was already at the Peak of the Seventh Level. If he wanted them to break through to the Eighth Level in a short period of time, he would naturally need to get more Red Sages.
In other words, Chu Zhongtian needed to replicate at least five more Red Sages in order to ensure his current needs.
A five-hundred-year-old Red Sage was considered a Mid-rank Ninth-level spiritual herb. Naturally, he needed an abundance of energy to replicate such a precious item. Unfortunately, the number of Spirit Stones in his possession was nowhere near enough to replicate so many Red Sages. Thus, he needed to hunt down even more advanced Strange Beasts to do so.
Although the advanced level-10 Strange Beasts in this part of the Endless Forest were extremely powerful, in addition to the experts sent by the Wang Family to hunt him down, Chu Zhongtian remained completely fearless. Standing back up, he left his hiding spot and began searching for more strange beasts to kill.
One had to know that the stronger the strange beast, the more conscious they would be of anything that stepped into their territory. Moreover, the stronger beasts would also take control of a larger territory.
Having just hunted in the territory of the Scarlet Wind Horses, Chu Zhongtian could not help but hesitate when recalling their terrifying speed and strength. As such, he gave up on the idea of using their corpses to replicate the Red Sage. Instead, he changed directions and traveled east.
As he advanced further forward, he gradually felt that something was amiss. Even through the advanced level-10 Strange Beasts were very powerful, they were only equivalent in strength to a cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm. In other words, their territories should not be too big.
Normally, one would be able to find one advanced level-10 Strange Beast after looking around for twenty to thirty minutes.
However, Chu Zhongtian had already looked around for more than two hours but still had not come across a single one, which naturally puzzled him.
There were only three reasons for this abnormality.
The first reason was that a level-9 Strange Beast had suddenly appeared within the territory of the level-10 Beasts. With their strong sense of alertness, the advanced level-10 Strange Beasts would consciously avoid it.
But a situation like this would rarely ever happen because the territory chosen by the strange beasts could basically guarantee their survival while allowing them to cultivate at the same time. As such, it was a rare occurrence for them to venture into the territory of other strange beasts.
The second possibility was that there were powerful cultivators going around and slaughtering these advanced level-10 Strange Beasts. However, that was even less likely as such cultivators would not waste time doing such things that would not please them or bring them any benefits.
The third reason was that some kind of rare treasure that could increase one's strength or perhaps strengthen one's meridians had appeared within the territory of the advanced level-10 Strange Beasts, attracting all the beasts within the vicinity.
Suddenly recalling the time when he participated in the Hunting Contest, Chu Zhongtian realized that this current situation was very similar to the one where he obtained the Vermillion Fruit back then.
Upon thinking of that, he immediately increased his speed and started searching for the gathering place of the level-10 Strange Beasts without any hesitation.
Just as Chu Zhongtian started searching for the gathering of the strange beasts, Dongfang Yun'er and the others who had entered the Endless Forest to train also discovered the unusual changes in the area.
With a peerless expert like the middle-aged woman in the group, they were able to easily guess the reason behind this strange phenomenon and quickly find the place of the gathering of the strange beasts.
The place where the strange beasts gathered was a natural lake at the border between the territory of the level-10 and level-9 Strange Beasts. Though the lake wasn't too big, only a hundred meters in diameter, there were nevertheless hundreds of strange beasts gathering around the lake.
As time passed, the number of strange beasts gathering around the lake increased.
The strange beasts in the area consisted of advanced level-10 Strange Beasts all the way up to the Low-rank level-9 Strange Beasts, all of which were staring fixedly at the green lotus at the center of the lake.
The Low-rank level-7 Cyan Heart Lotus!
The middle-aged woman led Dongfang Yun'er, Qi Yiloong, and the others to a relatively hidden spot to hide and observe the situation quietly. However, when she noticed the green lotus in the middle of the lake, she could barely maintain her usual calm composure.
After analyzing his surroundings, Chu Zhongtian realized that the strange beasts were all gathering near the territory of the level-9 Strange Beasts. If there was indeed some kind of rare treasure there, it would definitely be of high quality.
With his current combat strength at the Peak Ninth Level of the Qi Refining Realm, he would be taking a great risk by entering the territory of the level-9 Strange Beasts. Even so, Chu Zhongtian did not hesitate in advancing into their territory.
After all, one could only make gains by taking risks!
Furthermore, Chu Zhongtian wasn't exactly a reckless person either. The reason why he chose to advance in spite of his disadvantage was not solely to seize the treasure for himself but mainly to take a look at the situation.
What if the treasure was fated to be his?