By the time Su Yang returned home, night had already descended over the town.
He entered the courtyard without saying much to anyone and immediately headed toward the bathroom.
After everything that had happened in the Seven Rings Forest, his body was covered in sweat, dust, and the lingering scent of blood.
He quickly washed himself before returning to his room.
Once the door closed behind him, Su Yang released a long sigh.
The events at the inn replayed in his mind.
Fu Yancheng's mocking expression.
The laughter of the crowd.
The moment Fu Yancheng tried to grab him.
And finally—
The punch.
Su Yang looked at his fist.
"I still lost my temper."
He sighed.
Bao Xin had specifically warned him to remain low-key and avoid unnecessary trouble.
Yet not even a full day had passed before he had broken Fu Yancheng's face in front of an entire inn.
"Senior Bao would probably lecture me if he knew."
However, Su Yang did not regret defending himself.
For years, Fu Yancheng had treated him as though he could be bullied whenever he pleased.
That needed to end.
Still, Su Yang understood that Fu Yancheng was not someone he could completely disregard.
The young man himself was troublesome, but his father was a Vice Sect Master of the Heavenly Lightning Saber Sect.
"I need strength."
That remained the solution to everything.
Su Yang prepared a basin of warm water and allowed himself to soak for some time, letting the warmth loosen his exhausted muscles.
Afterward, he changed into clean robes and sat cross-legged on his bed.
He retrieved a Qi Restoration Pill.
Without hesitation—
Gulp.
The pill entered his stomach.
Warm medicinal energy immediately spread throughout his meridians, replenishing the spiritual Qi he had consumed during the day's battles.
Several minutes later, Su Yang opened his eyes.
"Now…"
He waved his hand.
One beast core after another appeared before him.
Red.
Brown.
Dark green.
Some were only the size of pebbles, while others were slightly larger.
They were the beast cores he had harvested throughout the Seven Rings Forest.
Su Yang counted them.
A satisfied smile appeared.
"This should be enough to test Senior Bao's words."
Beast cores contained large amounts of spiritual energy.
However, unlike the relatively gentle energy within ordinary spirit stones, the energy contained inside beast cores was wild, violent, and filled with traces of the beast's nature.
Ordinary low-level cultivators would rarely attempt to absorb such energy directly.
They would normally refine the cores into pills or use special cultivation methods to purify the violent energy first.
But Su Yang was different.
Bao Xin had specifically told him to seek resources containing dense and berserk spiritual energy.
And beast cores perfectly matched that description.
Su Yang picked up the first one.
He hesitated.
Then he smiled bitterly.
"After surviving the Millennial Earth Core Lotus, this shouldn't be worse."
He began circulating his cultivation technique.
The beast core trembled.
Threads of violent spiritual energy emerged from it and entered his body.
Immediately—
ROAR!
The Dragon Martial Spirit awakened.
ROARRR!
The Tiger followed.
Su Yang's expression twitched.
"You two really are gluttons."
The moment the violent energy entered his dantian, the Dragon and Tiger Martial Spirits devoured it greedily.
However, unlike before, they did not consume everything.
After the berserk impurities were stripped away, streams of purified spiritual Qi flowed back into Su Yang's meridians.
His eyes widened.
"So that's how it works!"
The martial spirits were not simply stealing his cultivation resources.
They were refining them.
Su Yang immediately grabbed another beast core.
Then another.
And another.
Hours passed.
The beast cores gradually lost their radiance before crumbling into dull powder.
Meanwhile, Su Yang's spiritual Qi continued accumulating.
His foundation, tempered through years of seemingly wasted cultivation, absorbed the energy without showing the instability normally associated with rapid advancement.
Then—
BOOM!
A muffled explosion erupted inside him.
Su Yang's eyes snapped open.
A spiritual fluctuation swept through the room.
"Third Level!"
He had finally broken through.
After years trapped at the Second Level of the Spirit Realm, the barrier had fallen almost effortlessly.
Su Yang wanted to celebrate.
Then his expression changed.
The spiritual energy had not stopped.
There were still several beast cores remaining.
More importantly, his cultivation showed no signs of instability.
Su Yang's eyes sharpened.
"Continue."
He closed his eyes again.
One beast core after another was refined.
The Dragon devoured.
The Tiger purified.
His dantian expanded.
His meridians filled.
The spiritual pressure within him climbed steadily.
Third Level Spirit Realm.
Early stage.
Middle stage.
Late stage.
Peak.
Su Yang's breathing became increasingly heavy.
The final beast core cracked.
A massive wave of spiritual energy surged into his dantian.
For one brief moment, Su Yang encountered resistance.
Then—
BOOM!
The invisible barrier shattered.
His spiritual Qi erupted.
The formation surrounding his room flickered violently before stabilizing.
Su Yang's robes fluttered despite the absence of wind.
Warm spiritual energy flowed through his entire body.
His eyes slowly opened.
Molten-golden light briefly flashed within his black irises.
"Fourth Level…"
Su Yang stared at his hands.
Disbelief gradually transformed into excitement.
"Fourth Level of the Spirit Realm!"
Two levels.
He had broken through two cultivation levels in a single night.
For years, he had been unable to advance even once.
Now, after awakening his inheritance and obtaining suitable cultivation resources, he had jumped directly from the Second Level to the Fourth Level.
However, Su Yang quickly suppressed his excitement.
He examined his foundation carefully.
Stable.
There was no feeling of emptiness or weakness.
Years of accumulated Qi, the Millennial Earth Core Lotus, his tempered bones and meridians, and the violent battles inside the Seven Rings Forest had created an unusually solid foundation.
Su Yang clenched his fist.
His current combat strength was far greater than his cultivation suggested.
With the Mountain Foundation stage of his body-tempering physique, he was confident he could fight an ordinary Sixth-Level Spirit Realm cultivator head-on.
But that was not all.
His Dragon-Tiger inheritance naturally granted him extraordinary battle power.
When pushed into serious combat, he could unleash strength approximately one minor cultivation level beyond what his ordinary combat ability suggested.
In other words—
Against an ordinary Seventh-Level Spirit Realm cultivator…
Su Yang's eyes gleamed.
He would not necessarily be at a disadvantage.
Of course, cultivation level alone did not determine victory.
Techniques, weapons, bloodlines, experience, and individual talent all mattered.
But compared to the Su Yang of only a few days ago—
The difference was like heaven and earth.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"If Fu Yancheng knew…"
Su Yang shook his head.
Fu Yancheng was still far stronger than him.
There was no reason to become arrogant because of two breakthroughs.
Bao Xin's warning remained deeply engraved in his mind.
Become stronger first.
Su Yang calmed himself.
His gaze then moved toward the spatial ring containing his biological mother's inheritance.
"Physical strength isn't enough."
His battles in the Seven Rings Forest had revealed one of his greatest weaknesses.
His movement.
He possessed tremendous physical power, but he lacked a proper movement technique.
Against slower spirit beasts, that weakness was manageable.
Against skilled cultivators?
It could become fatal.
Su Yang sent his spiritual sense into the ring.
After searching through several manuals, one immediately caught his attention.
He withdrew it.
The manual appeared ancient.
A celestial Azure Dragon was depicted soaring across raging seas on its cover, while beneath it, a mighty white tiger seemed to leap across mountains.
Across the center were several powerful characters:
AZURE DRAGON AND TIGER CHASING THE HEAVENS
Su Yang's heartbeat accelerated.
He opened the manual.
The technique was divided into three parts.
First Form — Azure Dragon Chasing the Waters
The first form emphasized fluidity.
The cultivator moved like a dragon travelling through rivers and oceans—constantly changing direction without disrupting momentum.
When mastered, the practitioner could weave through attacks with flowing, unpredictable movements.
Su Yang's eyes brightened.
"This would have been useful against the Mountain Gorilla."
He continued reading.
Second Form — Tiger Chasing the Wind
Unlike the first form, which emphasized fluidity and evasion, the Tiger Chasing the Wind focused on explosive acceleration.
Stillness followed by violence.
One moment, the cultivator could remain completely motionless.
The next—
They would explode forward like a tiger pouncing upon its prey.
Su Yang immediately thought about combat.
If he combined such acceleration with the physical strength of his body-tempering technique…
His fist could become terrifying.
Then he reached the final section.
His expression became serious.
Third Form — Azure Dragon and Tiger Chasing the Heavens
The final form combined the principles of the first two.
The Dragon's fluidity.
The Tiger's explosive speed.
According to the manual, once cultivated to perfection, the practitioner would no longer merely move across the earth.
Mountains would become stepping stones.
Rivers would become pathways.
Even the skies themselves would no longer restrain them.
One sentence was written beneath the description.
When Dragon and Tiger move as one, even the Heavens cannot escape their pursuit.
Su Yang stared at those words.
"What an arrogant technique…"
Yet he loved it.
He immediately began studying.
One hour passed.
Then two.
The night deepened.
Su Yang remained seated beneath the faint light of the spiritual lamp, completely immersed in the movement manual.
He repeatedly studied the meridian circulation routes.
Foot placement.
Breathing patterns.
Weight distribution.
The relationship between Qi and physical movement.
Whenever he encountered something difficult, he closed his eyes and visualized it.
A Dragon swimming through endless waters.
A Tiger stalking silently through the mountains.
One flowed.
One exploded.
Two completely different principles.
Yet somehow—
They complemented each other perfectly.
Su Yang became so absorbed that he completely lost track of time.
Outside his window, the moon slowly crossed the night sky.
The first traces of dawn eventually appeared along the horizon.
Still, Su Yang remained motionless.
His eyes were closed.
His breathing had become strangely rhythmic.
Then—
His right foot moved.
Only an inch.
Yet for the briefest moment, Su Yang's seated figure seemed to blur.
His eyes suddenly opened.
A faint trace of excitement appeared within them.
He looked down at the ancient manual.
"So that's what it means…"
The Dragon was not simply fast.
The Tiger was not simply powerful.
One borrowed momentum.
The other created it.
And if he could truly understand how to combine both—
Su Yang smiled.
Perhaps one day, the name Chasing the Heavens would no longer sound arrogant at all.