The year that followed Feng Jiuge's breakthrough to the Dou Practitioner realm was a crucible of pain, patience, and relentless self-experimentation. It was a silent war waged within the confines of his own body, a conflict completely hidden from the outside world, and most importantly, from Qing Lin.
His days began with a calm facade. He would teach Qing Lin, go over her cultivation of the "Silent Gale Scripture," and share simple meals with her. But when night fell and Qing Lin was deep in her own meditative trance, Feng Jiuge's true work would begin.
In the solitude of the moonlit courtyard, he would once again sit before a Third Order Beast Core. Armed with his new theories, he would attempt the impossible. Each time, he would try a different variation of the complex internal 'crucible' he had designed in his mind. He would draw in a sliver of that savage energy, guiding it not into his main channels, but into an isolated network of smaller, secondary meridians.
And each time, he would fail.
The energy was simply too wild. One attempt would see the buffer zone rupture, sending searing pain through his torso. Another would see the beast's remnant will lash out, a psychic assault that left his head spinning and his vision blurred. His internal organs suffered repeated, minor injuries. He would spend the next three days, sometimes a full week, sometimes even half a month, in a state of forced healing.
He became terrifyingly proficient at hiding his condition. He learned to control his breathing to mask the internal pain, to force a healthy color into his cheeks when Qing Lin was near, and to attribute his occasional winces to simple muscle strain from training.
"Jiuge-gege, you look tired today," she would sometimes comment, her large eyes filled with concern.
"Just stayed up a little too late reading," he would reply with a convincing smile, his insides feeling like a bundle of frayed, scorched nerves. "Don't worry, Xiao Lin. Your brother is still very energetic."
She wouldn't find out. He would not allow his struggle to become her burden. Her nascent happiness was too precious to be tainted by his self-inflicted agony.
Because of this brutal cycle of injury and recovery, his own cultivation progress crawled at a snail's pace. While he was a 1-star Dou Practitioner, he spent more time mending his body than accumulating Dou Qi.
Over the course of an entire year, as he reached his twelfth birthday, he had only managed to inch his way forward to the 3-star Dou Practitioner level. It was a respectable pace for an ordinary person, but for someone with his resources and potential, it was agonizingly slow.
But he was not just accumulating Dou Qi.
He was accumulating failures. After every failure, during every painful recovery, he would lie on his cot, his Heavenly Perception Pupils activated, meticulously mapping the new damage.
He would analyze the flow of the rampaging energy, noting where the pathways of energy in his meridians had been broken, where the beast's will was strongest, and how his own Tri-Unity Genesis Art had responded. His scrolls were now covered in dozens of complex diagrams, each a testament to a night of torment and a lesson learned.
By the end of that punishing year, something changed. He had refined his internal pathways countless times. It was no longer a simple buffer zone but an intricate, multi-layered filtration system. He had learned not to fight the beast's will head-on, but to use the balanced harmony of his three elements to gently abrade it, like water smoothing a stone.
One night, he tried again. He drew in the sliver of energy from the Third Order Beast Core. It entered his body. It struggled, it raged, but this time, the walls of his meridians held. His tri-elemental Dou Qi worked in perfect concert—the wood energy pacified, the fire energy dealt with the feral will, and the lightning energy shattered the raw power into manageable packets.
For the first time, a stream of purified, potent, yet docile energy flowed from his internal body into the main cycle of his Tri-Unity Genesis Art.
The sensation was euphoric. It was like a starving man finally tasting food. His Dantian, his meridians, his very cells greedily absorbed the refined energy. It was far richer and purer than anything he could absorb from the atmosphere. He felt a surge of power so immense it made him dizzy.
He had done it. After a year of blood, sweat, and excruciating pain, he had forged a method to devour the power of beasts.
With this breakthrough, the floodgates of his cultivation opened. The bottleneck was not just broken; it was annihilated. He could now continuously and safely refine the energy from the Third Order Beast Core.
His cultivation rate, once a crawl, skyrocketed.
In the week that followed, he jumped from 3-star to 5-star Dou Practitioner. The week after, he hit 7-star. By the end of the month, a wave of powerful Dou Qi washed through his body, solidifying his foundation at the peak of the realm: 9-star Dou Practitioner.
His Tri-Unity Genesis Art had created such a ridiculously stable foundation that this rapid advancement, which would have caused qi deviation or an unstable base in any other cultivator, felt completely natural.
His body assimilated the power seamlessly.
'Finally,' Feng Jiuge thought, feeling the dense, powerful Dou Qi flowing within him. 'This is the speed I wanted.'
He knew he was still lacking. 'All this power, and not a single real battle to my name. I have the strength, but no experience in wielding it.'
He pushed the thought aside. 'I should remain patient. Going out to fight blood-thirsty beasts in the Monster Mountain Range without a protector is just courting death. I need to be stronger still. Strong enough that I am the danger, not the other way around.'
While he had been struggling, Qing Lin had flourished. She had also just turned twelve, and her talent, nurtured by the custom-built "Silent Gale Scripture," was nothing short of monstrous. But Feng Jiuge had given her an additional, secret boost.
He used a portion of his time to refine energy not from a wood core, but from a Third Order Wind Attribute beast core he possessed.
He would painstakingly purify it, stripping it of all harmful will, and infuse the pure, refined wind Dou Qi into the air around her while she cultivated.
For Qing Lin, it was like breathing the richest, most nourishing air imaginable. The pure energy was easily assimilated by her technique, dramatically accelerating her progress without any risk.
As Feng Jiuge reached the peak of the Dou Practitioner realm, Qing Lin had successfully broken through her own bottleneck, becoming a 1-star Dou Practitioner herself. A twelve-year-old Dou Practitioner was a true prodigy, a talent that would make any major clan sit up and take notice.
During this year of intense, secluded training, the outside world of Wu Tan City had not stood still. Feng Jiuge, on his infrequent trips to the market for supplies, began to hear things. Rumors.
"Did you hear about the Xiao Family's genius?" one merchant said to another. "The young master, Xiao Yan."
"Heard he's a genius no longer," the other replied with a snort. "A waste. They say for the past few months, his cultivation has been regressing. He's already fallen back to a Dou Disciple. What a joke."
Feng Jiuge stood nearby, feigning interest in a stall of cheap pottery, his ears sharp. 'So, it's begun,' he thought, his expression unchanging. 'Yao Chen has awoken and is absorbing his Dou Qi. The prelude to the rise of the Flame Emperor.'
A younger, more impulsive version of himself might have felt a surge of delight at hearing of his rival's downfall. But Feng Jiuge felt only a cold, pressing urgency.
'In roughly two and a half years, Nalan Yanran will arrive. The engagement will be broken. Yao Chen will reveal himself. And Xiao Yan will begin his true ascent, armed with the Flame Mantra, a wonderous technique capable of devouring Heavenly Flames.'
His own hard-won ability to absorb beast cores suddenly felt a little less impressive. 'I'm ahead now, but the clock is ticking. I need to solidify my advantage before he starts his meteoric rise.'
Now, at the peak of the Dou Practitioner realm, Feng Jiuge faced his next great wall: the Dou Master realm. This wasn't a barrier he could cross with raw energy alone. The breakthrough required the condensation of one's gaseous Dou Qi into a liquid state within the Dantian, a process almost always facilitated by specific medicinal pills.
"I need pills," he murmured to himself one evening. "And no one is just going to hand them over." He needed recipes, and for that, he needed an alchemist.
His mind turned to an old man he had dealings with in the past. Alchemist Fei. A crotchety but decent Third Rank Alchemist who was the most skilled alchemist in Wu Tan City. Years ago, before his parents' death, Feng Jiuge's sharp mind and photographic memory had allowed him to provide the alchemist with useful information about rare herbs and their rumored locations, earning him a sliver of goodwill.
'I can't ask for a pill as a favor,' Feng Jiuge reasoned. 'A pill for breaking through to Dou Master is too valuable. But perhaps I can trade for knowledge. For an apprenticeship.'
The next day, he made his move. He used his Tri-Unity Genesis Art, a technique he now had exquisite control over, to forcibly suppress his Dou Qi fluctuations, making him appear as he had a year ago: a simple 3-star Dou Practitioner. A talented child, but not a monstrous one.
He found Alchemist Fei in his dusty, aromatic shop, meticulously grinding some herbs with a pestle and mortar.
"Old man Fei," Feng Jiuge greeted him with a polite bow.
The alchemist looked up, his brow furrowed. He squinted. "You… I remember you. The Feng boy. The one with the sharp memory and interesting ideas. What do you want? I'm busy."
"I wish to learn the art of alchemy," Feng Jiuge said directly. "I will be your apprentice. I'll gather any herbs you need from the mountains, sort your inventory, clean your cauldrons—anything you require. In exchange, I only ask that you teach me the basics of the craft."
Alchemist Fei stopped grinding and stared at him. "Learn alchemy? Boy, it's not a game. It requires immense spiritual strength and precise control. It's a path of burning money and endless failure."
"I am prepared to fail," Feng Jiuge replied, his gaze steady.
The old alchemist studied him for a long moment, then grunted. "Fine. I could use an extra pair of hands for gathering ingredients. The usual runners are lazy and expensive. You bring me the herbs on my list, and I'll let you watch. That's the deal."
And so began Feng Jiuge's foray into the world of alchemy. He would take Qing Lin with him on his trips to the nearby mountain range. The outer regions were relatively safe, home to mostly First-Class magical beasts.
An interesting dynamic quickly emerged. Feng Jiuge would use his knowledge and logic to find herbs. 'Sunstone Moss grows on the eastern faces of cliffs that get at least six hours of direct sunlight. Serpent's Tongue Fern prefers damp, shaded areas near running water.' He would deduce the locations and patiently search.
Qing Lin, on the other hand, was a force of nature. She would wander off for a few minutes and stumble upon a whole patch of the exact herb they were looking for. Her luck was uncanny, almost as if the wind itself guided her to the treasures of the forest.
"Jiuge-gege, look what I found!" she'd call out, holding up a perfect specimen of a herb he'd been searching for an hour.
Feng Jiuge could only shake his head and smile. 'Some people are just blessed by the world, I suppose.'
They came across a few territorial First-Class beasts, like a hot-tempered Crimson Fur Ape or a skittish Horned Rabbit. Following his non-confrontational policy, Feng Jiuge would use Qing Lin's wind attribute Dou Qi to create a sudden gust of wind as a distraction, while he quickly harvested the herbs. They never killed; they just took what they needed and left.
Back in the city, Feng Jiuge proved to be a frighteningly fast learner. His soul, forged by the will of two lifetimes and tempered by a year of internal torment, was exceptionally powerful for his age. Controlling the flame and refining medicinal essences, a task that stumped most apprentices for months, came to him with surprising ease.
It didn't take him long, only a week of observation and basic instruction, before Alchemist Fei grudgingly allowed him to try refining a First Tier Pill. Feng Jiuge had already bought a cheap, simple cauldron and set it up at home, practicing with the extra materials he gathered.
During this time, he also made a fascinating discovery. As he cultivated his Heavenly Perception Pupils and learned to manipulate his Spiritual Strength for alchemy, he found that the two could be combined.
By infusing his ocular skill with his Spiritual Strength, his perception deepened immensely. He could not only see the flow of energy but could also perceive its texture, its purity, and its subtle will from a distance. It was like having a spiritual microscope and x-ray vision rolled into one.
His proficiency grew daily. Refining First Tier Pills became child's play. Now, he needed to move on to Second Tier Pills. He knew Alchemist Fei would be reluctant to share such valuable recipes with a new apprentice.
One evening, while cleaning the alchemist's workshop, he used his newfound ability. Fei kept his most valuable recipes in jade slips, stored in a locked wooden box. Feng Jiuge stood across the room, pretending to sweep. He focused his combined Heavenly Perception Pupils and Spiritual Strength on the box.
The wood became translucent to his senses. He saw the jade slips inside. He focused on one. The intricate carvings on its surface, the stored information within, became clear in his mind's eye.
He 'read' it without ever touching it, his photographic memory committing every detail of a Second Tier recipe to memory. He noticed a faint cracking in the slip's spiritual matrix.
'This one can probably only be read four more times before it crumbles,' he noted. He didn't feel guilty. It was a necessary step.
He memorized three different Second Tier recipes this way before withdrawing his senses, leaving no trace. One of them was exactly what he needed: the recipe for the "Qi Liquefaction Pill," a crucial aid for breaking through to the Dou Master realm.
Over the next two weeks, he and Qing Lin made several more trips to the mountains, specifically gathering the herbs required for this pill. They needed a Spirit-Guiding Flower, the sap of an Iron-Heart Tree, and the pollen of a Moonpetal Bloom.
Back in his own home, under the cover of night, Feng Jiuge stood before his simple cauldron. He had all the ingredients. He had the recipe. And for the immense burst of energy required to finalize the pill and fuel his breakthrough, he had his trump card.
He placed the Third Order Wood Attribute Beast Core beside him. Its energy, once a savage, untamable tyrant, now felt like a familiar, powerful resource waiting to be commanded. The final pieces were in place. The gateway to the Dou Master realm was right in front of him, waiting to be pushed open.