Chapter 63: Seventh-Order Apex

  On the outskirts of Longjia Mountain, there are countless small hills. If the entire mountain range is a woman's European-style corset, these small hills are like the tiny buttons in the middle, densely scattered all around.

  Hu Gao followed the map given by Qi Hong to a remote location and found a hill, where thorns grew all around, with few signs of ferocious beasts, although it was desolate, but it was indeed extremely suitable for cultivation.

  It has been several days since the battle with Qi Hong.

  Hu Gao stood at the summit, his entire body radiating a brilliant bloody glow, his yuan force surging and swirling, his sleeves fluttering without wind.

  "Perfect control over power is not just about simple control, but also requires sufficient momentum, only then can ten percent of the power be exerted to twelve percent."

  The battle between him and Qi Hong was brief, but he didn't gain nothing from it. Momentum is like the ingredients needed when cooking a dish. No matter how skilled the chef is, if there are no ingredients, the dish will be tasteless no matter how well it's cooked.

  Facing the mountain wind's blow, Hu Gao's fists were thrown out one by one, striking in mid-air. Two kinds of power were fully mobilized by him, merged in succession, and his whole person was sometimes like a fierce tiger and sometimes like an angry dragon, with an aura of tens of thousands. The degree of fusion of the two powers rose rapidly.

  As his mastery of the two powers grew, the sonic boom that accompanied Huo Yuhao's punch began to gradually decrease in intensity until it was almost imperceptible.

  At this time, if there is an expert watching from the side, they will be shocked to discover that every tiny movement of Hu Gao when exerting force, even his breathing, is completely in control of the rhythm and won't waste a single bit of strength.

  "No matter whether it's cultivation or battle, one must have complete control over their power. However..."

  Hu Gao stood quietly at the mountain top, and although these few days had allowed him to master his powers perfectly, he had gained a new understanding. In his view, behind perfect control of power seemed to be another realm, one that was often spoken of in previous lives, called Heaven and Man as One.

  If one can reach the state of unity between heaven and man, every breath will perfectly harmonize with the energy of heaven and earth. At that time, there is no need to mention making a move, even just a thought can trigger the most terrifying and ferocious attack, leaving the enemy defenseless.

  It's just a pity that his current cultivation time is really too short, and his cultivation is too weak. He is still far from triggering natural energy and reaching the state of unity with heaven and man.

  "Although I have not yet reached the realm of unity with heaven and man, with my current perfect control over power, even if I were to encounter a Seventh-Order Wudang warrior who has cultivated the Congying Realm's Upper Grade Primordial Secret Art, I would still be able to defeat him."

  Hú Gāo's eyes had a strong sense of self-confidence. He was still very clear about his own combat strength, and the reason he could easily defeat Guō Déyún and Qí Hóng, such high-ranking Condensed Shadow Realm warriors, was mainly because their combat strength was far inferior. Although Guō Déyún had cultivated the Human Rank Upper Grade Primordial Scripture, his realm was not high, at most only a small achievement, still far from Great Achievement.

  Most of the Yuan Jue that Hu Gao has studied are low-level, so if someone were to use a high-level Yuan Jue against him, he would have a hard time seeing the flaws in their moves. What he thinks is a flaw might actually be a trap, and all he can do is rely on his own strength to clash with his opponent head-on, without being able to outsmart them.

  "But for now, I can still increase my strength by a huge margin!"

  "Big brother, shall we start cultivating now?"

  Not far away, the little five who was lazily basking in the sun on a tree suddenly opened its sleepy eyes, sensing Hu Gao's mental fluctuations, and excitedly asked with gestures.

  "Hmm, it's been delayed for so many days, it's time to break through." Hu Gao chuckled and nodded, walking to Xiao Wu's side, taking down the cloth bag hanging from the treetop, opening it to find dozens of mid-stage first-class demon pellets inside, which gave him a fright. "Xiao Wu, you're thinking of turning the entire Dragon Slaying Mountain Range into a slaughterhouse?"

  Xiao Wu tilted his head and pouted, "I'm a divine beast, and there's even a cloth bag on top of that, with some late-stage demon pellets inside."

  Hu Gao's mouth twitched, he had always hoped that Xiao Wu's strength would increase quickly, now that Xiao Wu's strength had really increased, he felt a little anxious, even if he was being held back, he couldn't be held back by so much.

  "It can be surpassed but cannot be crossed over... Hmph, will surpass it right back."

  Hu Gao no longer paid attention to Xiao Wu, and directly sat down cross-legged on the ground, grabbed a handful of demon pellets from his cloth bag, and began to cultivate.

  To enhance their cultivation with elixirs, warriors must have strict control over their power. Typically, after a warrior uses an elixir or other energy-containing treasure to advance one level in their cultivation, they will pause for a period of time before continuing to cultivate. During this time, the warrior must grasp the newly added yuan force; otherwise, when fighting with others, uncontrolled yuan force can harm themselves, making it not worth the gain.

  "Hmm...".

  Under Hu Gao's mental control, the pure yuan energy in the demon pill entered his body and slowly flowed into his dantian, where it was easily absorbed. The entire process was a familiar routine, without any difficulty whatsoever, taking less than a minute to complete. Hu Gao had fully absorbed the yuan energy from the mid-stage first-grade demon pill at a speed that was many times faster than when he first started absorbing the demon pill's energy.

  Xiao Wu crouched beside him, watching Hu Gao cultivate and feeling the rapid rise of aura on his body. His eyes kept shining brighter, but he didn't know that this master was still a bit unhappy about being surpassed by himself.

  Time passed bit by bit, and Hu Gao's aura continued to rise steadily.

  Condensed Shadow Realm, Mid 6th Stage!

  Condensed Shadow Realm, Sixth Stage, Late Period!

  Condensed Shadow Realm, Sixth Stage Peak!

  ……

  "Boom!"

  As the night fell, Hu Gao opened his eyes, and the aura emanating from his body suddenly surged, like a burst dam, impacting all directions, causing the surrounding leaves and trees to tremble.

  Condensed Shadow Realm Seventh Stage Mid-term!

  After absorbing the energy of the demon pill for a day, Hu Gao's yuan force cultivation finally broke through to a higher level, advancing from the mid-stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm sixth stage to the mid-stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm seventh stage.

  "Wow, congratulations to the boss, successfully breaking through to the seventh stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm! Now you can be considered a late-stage warrior of the Condensed Shadow Realm!" Xiao Wu saw Hu Gao break through and excitedly clapped his two front paws, even more thrilled than when he broke through himself.

  Hu Gao took out a jade bottle from his bosom, which was filled with Green Body Dan. He planned to take advantage of the moment when he had just broken through to the next realm and use the Green Body Dan to boost his physical strength as well. In this way, when he merged the two powers, he would be able to exert their might to the greatest extent.

  "Boss, you'd better give me this dan medicine instead. The energy contained within is just what I need to replenish my dragon energy. I'll provide the dragon energy for you to temper your body." Little Five said, jumping in front of Hu Gao.

  "Can this thing provide you with dragon energy?" Hu Gao asked in surprise, as he had not thought of that.

  If there is dragon energy to temper the flesh, he really doesn't want to use these inferior elixirs. This is not even worth comparing, as it can be seen from his own physical strength that he can collide head-on with a Seventh-Order Condensed Shadow Realm cultivator.

  "Don't worry, these things may be inferior, but they can still provide me with some dragon energy." Xiaowu suddenly jumped up, and with its two front paws, it snatched the jade bottle from Hu Gao's hands. The latter didn't stop him, allowing him to open the bottle cap, take out the dark green pellets of medicine inside, stuff them into his mouth, and swallow them in one gulp.

  "Big brother, use Dragon Qi to temper your body."

  After swallowing all the green elixirs, Xiao Wu did not disappoint Hu Gao. A golden yellow gas spewed out of his mouth and then, under Hu Gao's control, merged into his body.

  As soon as the golden gas entered his body, Hu Gao was able to clearly sense that his physical body was undergoing a transformation, constantly strengthening. In less than an hour, he could feel that his physical strength had actually surpassed his Yuan force cultivation.

  "Wo Zifa, I didn't expect your dragon energy to be even more vigorous than Kan Bi's Yangshui! If we can get some more spiritual medicine, won't you be able to continue cultivating like this?" Hu Gao exclaimed excitedly.

  Xiao Wu knew what Hu Gao was thinking, and after a moment's hesitation, he said: "Boss, this thing is not urgent. We are currently in the Dragon Bone Mountains, and as long as we go deeper, we will definitely be able to find spiritual medicine similar to Black Leaf Grass. Now there are so many demon pills, and your physical strength has already surpassed your yuan force cultivation by a wide margin. You can completely raise your yuan force cultivation to the peak of the Seventh Stage of Condensing Shadows in one breath."

  "Alright, then I'll continue cultivating..."

  Hu Gao nodded and without delay opened another package, continuing his cultivation.

  The night fell gradually, shrouding the earth, especially on the mountain top hundreds of meters high, the evening temperature was somewhat chilly, but Hu Gao sat cross-legged at the summit to cultivate, yet he didn't notice the icy temperature in the air at all, and continued to cultivate.

  And he had already broken through to the seventh stage of Yuanqi's condensed shadow realm, and with this cultivation, it was growing again.

  The next day, the east broke dawn, and the first hint of whitish fish belly appeared. Hu Gao, who had been cultivating for a whole night, finally stopped his cultivation.

  "A whole night's worth of time, and all the elixirs were absorbed, but unexpectedly, it only allowed my yuan force cultivation to reach the peak of the Seventh Stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm."

  Hu Gao opened his eyes, and there was a hint of helplessness in them. "After reaching the late stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm, low-grade elixirs can hardly increase one's yuan power anymore. If I didn't have twenty first-stage late-stage elixirs, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to reach the seventh stage of the Condensed Shadow Realm."

  At a price of 50,000 gold coins per elixir, this is tens of millions of gold coins. Now they have all turned into a pile of ashes, not even leaving a single copper coin behind.

  "My cultivation of yuanli and physical strength have both reached the peak of the Seventh Stage of Condensing Shadows, I don't know what level my combat power has reached now..."

  A fierce glint flashed in Hu Gao's eyes, although his cultivation had increased significantly, the extent of his increase was not too great, only rising from sixth grade to seventh grade peak. With his control over power, he didn't have any problems at all.

  "Boss, your current combat power can directly one-shot a mid-to-late stage first-tier demonic beast. As for human martial artists, even an average ninth-stage Condensed Shadow Realm martial artist would be no match for you."

  Hú Gāo's combat strength increased, and Xiǎo Wǔ looked the most excited. "Boss, now that your cultivation has reached a certain level, shouldn't we head into the Dragon Armor Mountain Range to hunt for demonic beasts and search for treasures?"

  "Alright, let's see who kills faster in a bit!" As soon as Hu Gao finished speaking, he directly charged down the mountain peak!