He cultivated the Undying Phoenix Codex, a fire-attribute method, so drawing fire energy from heaven and earth to condense his domain was relatively easy for Ian Song.
Why not?
Ian Song stood just outside the encirclement, watching with an amused expression.
Elemental energies in the area surged madly toward the space Ian Song controlled. Luckily, the academy’s massive spirit-gathering array pulled in endless energy from the sea, so the ambient energy was extremely rich.
The commotion Ian Song caused while condensing his domain was enormous.
Since Ian Song's spiritual power covered a full 150 meters, the moment he drew in elemental energy, miniature whirlwinds the size of fists began swirling through the air.
Anyone nearby immediately sensed that something was off.
"Kid, go die!"
At that moment, a surge of black flames erupted from the black-clothed elder's body, and he shot forward like a bolt of black lightning, slamming straight into Ian Song.
"Who is it? Who's breaking through to Grandmaster?" another low-level student exclaimed.
"Just follow the flow of energy—we'll find out who's making the breakthrough!"
In no time, a crowd of students followed the whirlpools of energy and soon gathered around Leon Huang's courtyard.
"It's Leon Huang!"
"No way, he's only been at the academy for less than half a year! How can he be breaking through to Grandmaster already? I've been here five years!"
"Heh, he's a genius. You can't compare yourself to him!"
"Wait, something's off—the temperature just shot up!" one student suddenly shouted.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In a flash, two academy instructors arrived together, shouting sternly: "Everyone, move back! You’re standing inside the range of his forming domain!"
At the instructors' shout, the surrounding students froze in surprise, protesting that it was impossible—they were more than ten meters from Leon Huang's room, how could they be affected?
His current strength still wasn't enough to deal with Serena Fox. He decided to wait until he reached Great Grandmaster before 'cleaning up' that sly little fox.
Several days flew by in a flash.
After a few days, the training squad had raked in a massive haul. Together, they killed six third-tier sea demonic beasts, and the materials they harvested were worth over 1.5 million taels. Add in the earlier tens of thousands, and the total value topped two million taels.
Each member could pocket over a hundred thousand taels on average.
Still, because they’d stayed far from the safe zone, even at night everyone had to rest on edge. After several days of this, the whole team was mentally exhausted.
Plus, Eric Zhou, Howard Changsun, and Yvette Xue all got injured fighting sea beasts, so the squad decided to head back today.
They pushed hard on the return trip and made it back to the academy by sunset the next day.
Kurt Kou took charge of selling the beast materials—he was the expert when it came to trade.
Two days later, Kurt reported that he’d sold off all the materials, bringing in a total of 2,135,420 taels.
After discussion, everyone agreed to split the silver into fifteen shares.
Everyone else got one share each, but Ian Song received three—he’d contributed the most and had discovered all the third-tier sea beasts, so he deserved the extra cut.
Ian didn’t refuse. After pocketing his silver, he treated the whole squad to a feast at Tianwu House.
He spent nearly 20,000 taels on the banquet, but even so, he had 400,000 left. Counting the five third-tier and over two hundred second-tier sea beast corpses stored in his Masterwork Storage Ring, this single expedition had netted him over two million taels.
Slaying monsters really was a great way to rake in silver.
As the saying goes, money moves the heart. If killing monsters is this profitable, it’s no wonder so many Human Race martial artists do it.
But the more beasts the humans slay, the deeper the hatred between the Human Race and the Demon Race grows.
Five days after returning from the hunt, Ian jumped back into the ranking challenges. This time, he went all out—at least three matches a day.
After a month of nonstop dueling, his rank shot up another ninety places, reaching 260 on the Qi-Refining Ranking.
Low-level student dorm area.
In a pavilion inside one of the courtyards, Ian brewed a pot of fresh tea. On the table sat an ancient zither.
As his fingers plucked the strings, clear notes flowed out like a mountain spring.
The sound seemed to wash the soul clean.
After a month of nonstop battles, Ian’s understanding of Drifting Dragon Steps, Phantom Bird Shadow, and Imperial Nine Slaughters had deepened even further.
He was confident he could take down an early-stage Grandmaster in a hundred moves—and even against a mid-stage Grandmaster, he might stand a chance.
Meanwhile, training in the Undying Phoenix Codex had pushed his cultivation to the absolute peak of Qi-Refining’s ninth layer. After a few days of rest, he planned to break through to Grandmaster.
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
The music continued to drift through the air, but Ian’s restless heart gradually settled into perfect calm.
For the next few days, Ian spent his time drinking tea and playing the zither—a truly relaxed life.
On the fifth day, he officially announced he was going into seclusion.
What was a domain, really? Simply put, it was a martial artist’s spiritual power, combined with true qi, used to solidify a portion of heaven and earth.
There were all kinds of elemental energies in the world.
But in a condensed domain, usually only one or two types of energy existed—so a domain was also called an incomplete little world.
Ian had read countless cultivation notes and fought Grandmasters before, so he wasn’t worried about this breakthrough.
Sitting cross-legged in his room, Ian spread his spiritual power out from his sea of consciousness, while true qi flowed through his body and quietly merged with the expanding spiritual force.
Why did domains vary in size? It all depended on the strength of the martial artist’s spiritual power.
Stronger spirit meant a wider domain; weaker spirit meant a smaller domain.
Ian’s spiritual power had reached over two thousand points—far beyond ordinary Grandmasters, and even stronger than many Great Grandmasters.
When he let it out, he found his spiritual sense could cover a radius of 220 meters.
But his true qi could only fully cover about 150 meters.
Helpless, Ian had to pull back some of his spiritual power.
Once his spiritual power and true qi were properly laid out, Ian began condensing his domain.
He cultivated the Undying Phoenix Codex, a fire-attribute method, so drawing fire energy from heaven and earth to condense his domain was relatively easy.
But Ian didn’t want his domain to have just a single attribute, so when he drew in elemental energy, he chose to absorb both fire and metal.
"Rumble! Rumble!"
Elemental energies in the area surged madly toward the space Ian controlled. Luckily, the academy’s massive spirit-gathering array pulled in endless energy from the sea, so the ambient energy was extremely rich.
The commotion Ian caused while condensing his domain was enormous.
Since his spiritual power covered a full 150 meters, the moment he drew in elemental energy, miniature whirlwinds the size of fists began swirling through the air.
Anyone nearby immediately sensed that something was off.
"Someone’s condensing a domain!"
A veteran student spotted the anomaly and commented enviously.