Chapter 1174 – Practice

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “No matter what, we know that the Cultivation Realm is much stronger than the Machine Field. It’s quite clear seeing how the fleet reacted to the small boat. They couldn’t do anything else other than turn around and flee. We need to increase our strength if we want to win.”

Laura nodded and then she said, “There’s still a few days before the start of the next round of the qualifiers. What does Brother Hai want to do?”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I’ll be closing up. Margaret, when you leave, please tell the General Manager that I’ll be closing up. Tell him that I’ll need some food and drinks delivered to my room and that I’ll have you take care of me. This way, nobody should disturb us. Then you can head to back here as I try to condense astral qi in the yellowsand background.”

Laura and the others weren’t surprised to hear Zhao Hai trying to absorb astral qi. They also weren’t worried about him. Now that the Space has its own yellowsand background, Zhao Hai wouldn’t be in any danger at all. Therefore, none of them stopped Zhao Hai from doing so.

When Margaret heard Zhao Hai, she immediately nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll take care of it.” Then her body flashed as she left the Space. Then she promptly reported that Zhao Hai was going to do closed door cultivation.

Zhao Hai didn’t leave. Instead he turned to Laura and said, “I’ll be heading to the yellowsand background to practice. If I hadn’t come out when the round is about to start, have Cai’er call me.”

Laura and the others nodded. Then Zhao Hai’s body flashed as he reappeared inside the yellowsand background. Upon appearing, Zhao Hai once again felt the winds of Yellowsand Planet. Since the background took after the planet, it wasn’t strange that the two places were quite similar.

Zhao Hai didn’t pay attention to the surroundings. To be honest, there wasn’t much to see in the yellowsand background. Zhao Hai sat down on the ground and controlled his breathing. Once he reached a comfortable state, Zhao Hai stood up and began performing the body tempering fist.

But this time, as Zhao Hai was using the fist techniques, he also tried using the astral qi concentrating art. This wasn’t an easy task. One must know that the Stellar Transformation Body Tempering Technique was a special technique for body tempering. The main function of this method was attracting the power of the stars into the user’s body.

However, the power of the stars was quite powerful. It can be said that it was much more powerful than astral qi. The energy between the two was just different. In such a case, using the technique in order to attract astral qi instead would be very difficult.

But just like the Stellar Transformation Body Tempering Technique, the most important and most difficult step for condensing astral qi was introducing it into the body. It was essential for the user to be sober during this process since they need to quite the astral qi using their spiritual force. Otherwise, the astral qi would rampage. Astral qi wasn’t a docile type of energy. If one loses control over it, then their body would certainly be damaged.

Zhao Hai was much more uncomfortable when concentrating astral qi. This was because the body tempering technique was already a painful process. Adding astral qi to the mix made the process much more painful than before.

However, since Zhao Hai had already underwent body tempering before, his capacity for pain has been increased. But even if this was the case, Zhao Hai was still sweating buckets. His entire body hurt so much.

Fortunately, the body tempering technique didn’t let Zhao Hai suffer for long. In less than an hour, he was able to do one circulation of the technique. When this was completed, a bit of astral qi had been completely integrated into Zhao Hai’s body.

Once Zhao Hai discovered that the astral qi had been integrated into the body tempering technique, he began to do his second cycle. But this time, Zhao Hai didn’t plan to absorb any astral qi. This was because he saw that even if the astral qi had entered his body, it had yet to be fully absorbed. Therefore, Zhao Hai needed to refine it more to make the astral qi his own.

So in his second go, Zhao Hai didn’t use the astral qi concentrating art. He still used the separation between body and mind, which he used when practicing the stellar body tempering technique. This way, he could feel less pain. Zhao Hai knew that he just absorbed astral qi into his body and he needed to digest it. This way he would truly refine the astral qi.

If people from the Cultivation Realm knew about Zhao Hai’s plan, they would definitely be surprised. This was because Zhao Hai’s method wasn’t the same as theirs. Their method was combining astral qi to their spiritual qi. This way, whenever they attack, its offensive strength would be more powerful.

However, what Zhao Hai was doing wasn’t like the ordinary method. Not only did Zhao Hai absorb astral qi to combine with his spiritual qi, he was also using astral qi to temper his body.

If the Cultivation Realm heard about this, they would certainly think that Zhao Hai was crazy. Astral qi combining with spiritual qi was already very painful. The pain from using astral qi to temper one’s body should hurt a lot more.

And Zhao Hai did it the first time. But to be honest, the process hurt so much. It almost reached the limit that Zhao Hai could bear. Because of this, Zhao Hai didn’t let more astral qi enter his body. Instead, he decided to digest it first.

After separating his consciousness from his body, Zhao Hai began using his body to perform the fist techniques. But as he continued to perform the techniques, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but feel puzzled. This was because he discovered that his body seems to be faster at performing the body tempering technique.

But even if this was the case, Zhao Hai knew that he couldn’t stop. If he suddenly stopped in the middle of the routine, all of the previous results would be wasted. Therefore, he continued. And while he was doing so, he discovered that as he refined his astral qi, his spiritual force was getting consumed more and more.

When the routine ended, Zhao Hai let out a long breath. Then he had his spiritual force inspect his body. This was his most strenuous body tempering routine yet. After the routine, Zhao Hai felt that his spiritual force had been exhausted. This caused Zhao Hai to feel strange. One must know that Zhao Hai’s spiritual force was fully capable of supporting three routines of the body tempering technique.

And as Zhao Hai continued inspecting his body, he couldn’t help but stare. This was because the current situation wasn’t something that he expected.

When he absorbed astral qi into his body before, he could feel that there were traces of astral qi that hadn’t been fully combined with his spiritual qi and body. But actually, these traces were very faint. If Zhao Hai didn’t use his spiritual force to feel them, he couldn’t feel their presence.

Zhao Hai knew that even if he was able to digest astral qi into his spiritual qi and body, then he still wouldn’t be able to feel a thing. But now, when he scanned his body, he discovered that this wasn’t the case at all. His spiritual qi was improved, his spiritual force had become tougher as well. Most importantly, Zhao Hai could feel that the amount of astral qi in his body was far more than he imagined. It was more than what he calculated before.

Zhao Hai paused for a moment before thinking about why this was the case. Then in the end he thought of an answer. It might be related to the Stellar Body Tempering Technique.

The body tempering technique was beyond formidable. And after separating his consciousness and body, the Stellar Body Tempering Technique would draw in stellar energy in order to temper the body. And in the process of drawing the power of the stars, it also reinforces the user’s spiritual force. So as Zhao Hai uses the tempering technique, both of his body and spiritual force were enhanced.

This was the reason why Zhao Hai felt that there was more astral qi inside his body than he expected. Moreover, it was completely unified with his body and spiritual qi. It can be said that concentrating astral qi had been more than a success.

But what made Zhao Hai even more surprised was the fact that some astral qi had integrated into his spiritual force. Zhao Hai discovered that his spiritual force now had some elements of astral qi, even if it was a very small amount. Zhao Hai just didn’t know what this development would entail.

However, Zhao Hai changed his mind in the end. This astral qi wasn’t astral qi that existed outside, it was astral qi produced by the Space. It was impossible for the Space to harm the host. Instead of being harmless, this union would instead be beneficial.

Zhao Hai inspected his spiritual force and discovered that it was tougher than before. If it was a silk thread before he underwent the body tempering technique, then it became like a steel wire after the tempering technique, it was now an alloy steel wire after being merged with astral qi.

When he discovered this, Zhao Hai was elated. But even if he was happy, he didn’t immediately go back to practice. This was because his spiritual force had dried up. Even if a depletion of spiritual force wasn’t harmful to his body, one shouldn’t forget that the Stellar Body Tempering Technique and the Concentrating Astral Qi Art needed to be carefully controlled. Otherwise, it would be easy for him to go crazy.

Although these things had been curated by the Space and were deemed non-harmful to Zhao Hai, this didn’t mean that the Space could protect him if he practiced wrong. After all, Zhao Hai’s spiritual qi was inside his body, only he could affect it.

Zhao Hai went out of the yellowsand background and then went to the hot spring to take a bath. Then after he was refreshed and relaxed, he returned to the villa. At this time, Margaret had already come back. Meanwhile, Laura and the others were looking into news regarding the Machine Field. This was because the elimination round had a lot of casualties. The machine field was currently in a depressive atmosphere.

These deaths were talents that were nurtured by small influences. Resources and time were poured into them. But then, they just died in Yellowsand Planet. This caused these small powers to get angry and start to question the fairness of the elimination round.