Chapter 23: The Peculiar Bottleneck

After returning from the Blood River Bridge, Qin Feng once again devoted himself to cultivation.

With Soul Awakening Day fast approaching, Qin Feng had to set aside all distractions and focus all his energy on training, striving to raise his cultivation to the tenth tier of the Mortal Gang Realm before that day arrived. This way, even if he failed to awaken a higher-quality Dragon Soul, he would have no regrets.

He had already done everything within his power; the rest would depend on fate.

Time slipped by quickly in the midst of cultivation, and more than half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

During this period, a piece of explosive news spread: Ye Wuyin of the Ye family was ambushed by a mysterious cultivator during a chance outing, and both his legs were shattered into ten pieces.

One had to admit that Ye Wuyin’s luck was truly abysmal; the injuries he’d sustained in the arena had just about healed, only for his legs to be broken again. Fortunately for cultivators, such injuries were hardly insurmountable—with the right bone-mending salve and medicinal pills, recovery was entirely possible. However, the torment of flesh and bone being broken and healed was not something an ordinary person’s will could endure.

News of this event spread rapidly. Upon hearing it, Qin Feng merely curled his lips in a faint smile and returned to his cultivation.

Now, he wanted nothing to do with the world around him. He even ceased correspondence with Huo Siyen via messenger pigeons, for Qin Feng knew that only cultivation was the true path; without strength, all else was empty talk.

As for Ye Wuyin, he was little more than a clown. Should the opportunity arise, Qin Feng would surely deal with him personally.

With the aid of mid-grade Mystic Stones, Qin Feng’s progress was meteoric. In just over half a month, he reached the ninth tier!

Such cultivation speed would leave even Qin Ba and the others dumbfounded, calling Qin Feng a monster.

The advantages of the Azure Dragon Gang Tempering Technique were fully revealed; there were no significant bottlenecks, no instability in his foundation—so long as he had enough mystic energy, everything proceeded smoothly. Qin Feng was overjoyed, wishing he could embrace and kiss the ancestor who had reached the Divine Gang Realm and passed down this technique.

After reaching the ninth tier, Qin Feng sensed changes within himself.

First, thanks to his strange illness, his body awakened the Light Body Divine Ability—in essence, his speed and agility were greatly enhanced. Now, even if he faced Ye Wuyin of the same rank, he would no longer be outpaced. Qin Feng had experienced all this in his previous life. These divine abilities were the first stage of bodily transformation, strengthening his fundamental physical attributes. Of the four first-stage divine abilities, only Cellular Activation remained unopened—Qin Feng estimated that this would only be unlocked upon reaching the tenth tier.

The Human Gang Realm was a crucial threshold; beyond it would begin the second phase of transformation.

Moreover, after reaching the ninth tier, Qin Feng’s body’s demand for mystic energy surged unexpectedly. Upon consulting Qin Yuyan, he learned she’d experienced the same after reaching the ninth tier, which set his mind at ease—this, he reasoned, must be the body stockpiling reserves for the breakthrough into the Human Gang Realm.

Fortunately, both he and Qin Yuyan possessed mid-grade Mystic Stones. Even if more energy was required, they needn’t worry.

But everything ground to a halt at the threshold of the tenth tier.

After several attempts, all unsuccessful, Qin Feng was finally forced to stop cultivating.

It truly was impossible. His cultivation was stuck at the gateway to the tenth tier—just one final push and he would break through, but Qin Feng always felt that something was missing.

This elusive “something” left him stranded, unable to advance further.

The problem wasn’t with absorbing mystic energy—no matter how much more he collected, without resolving this issue, he would only increase his raw strength, not his cultivation level.

It seemed he had truly encountered a bottleneck.

The Azure Dragon Gang Tempering Technique greatly reduced the risk of bottlenecks, but did not eliminate them entirely; moreover, each cultivator’s experience was unique. Encountering a bottleneck wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—facing it earlier often meant it would be easier to overcome, while the difficulty increased with one’s cultivation.

There were still three days left until Soul Awakening Day—he still had a chance.

Rising to his feet, Qin Feng left his small courtyard. He’d been holed up indoors for days, absorbed in cultivation, and had not enjoyed the crisp morning air in a long time.

After taking a moment to savor the freshness, he walked toward the Qin family’s Dragon Martial Pavilion.

The Dragon Martial Pavilion was the Qin family’s library, housing over ten thousand volumes. For such a small clan, this was an impressive collection—most of the books had been transcribed from the Divine Dragon Pavilion of the Qin family’s main branch in the Kingdom of Yunqi.

The Qin family of Yunqi was the ancestral seat of all its branches—the purest bloodline. The Qin family of Luoyang Town was merely a branch.

After handing his token to the two stewards at the door, Qin Feng entered.

The pavilion had two floors: the first for books, the second for relics—mystic tools used by ancestors. Qin Feng went directly to the area containing the cultivation insights of the Qin family’s forebears.

As a great ancient clan, the Qin family maintained a complete lineage of inheritance. The more accomplished elders would record their experiences and insights, leaving them for future generations to study and learn from. Though each cultivator’s journey was different, listing all possible problems and their solutions was an invaluable aid for those who came after—helping them avoid many pitfalls.

The cultivation insights section was vast. Ten towering shelves brimming with books overwhelmed the eye, but everything was well categorized. Qin Feng soon found the “bottleneck” section and began his search.

Despite the abundance of books, the process was not cumbersome.

Each volume addressed a central bottleneck issue. A cursory glance was usually enough to discern if the experiences matched his own.

Qin Feng spent the entire morning flipping through books.

It was a bit frustrating—most of the records focused on bottlenecks encountered after the Human Gang Realm. Since the introduction of the Azure Dragon Gang Tempering Technique, problems in the Mortal Gang Realm had been almost entirely eliminated. Rarely did anyone in the clan experience serious bottlenecks at that stage; if they did, it was usually a minor hurdle, easily overcome by consuming more mystic energy and forcing a breakthrough.

But Qin Feng possessed mid-grade Mystic Stones.

He realized his own bottleneck was anything but ordinary.

Just as disappointment set in, Qin Feng plucked a thin, yellowed volume from the far corner of the shelf. At first glance, his eyes narrowed sharply.

On the first page, it read:

“The Soul of the Bloodline—Premature Soul Manifestation!”

Qin Feng’s heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly read on.

The book was only a few pages long, so he finished it quickly.

After carefully returning the battered volume to its place, Qin Feng’s emotions surged.

It seemed he had finally found the cause within himself.

The book described an unusual phenomenon sometimes seen in members of the Qin clan—a rare, one-in-a-million occurrence among Heaven’s chosen, favored by the gods. Such individuals possessed an intense concentration of the original bloodline, so dense that even without the stimulation of the Ancestor Dragon’s blood, the soul could manifest prematurely.

However, it was only “manifestation,” not “condensation.”

The text, highlighted in crimson ink, stressed this distinction—manifestation was not awakening; only condensation was true bloodline soul awakening.

Thus, even prodigies still required the Soul Awakening ceremony.

Yet genius was never so easily attained. If the bloodline soul was concentrated but not fully manifested, serious problems could arise.

The hallmark of this issue: an insurmountable bottleneck at the ninth tier of the Mortal Gang Realm.

But as for the solution—the book did not say…