The Peak of Qi Gathering

In a side chamber of the Hall of Mental Cultivation...

Gu Qingfeng sat alone on a meditation cushion, facing a massive, radiant alchemical cauldron. The room was cluttered with bottles and jars—this side chamber had been repurposed into an alchemy workshop.

As he stared at the cauldron, his mind raced for a way to turn the tables.

Though the Hall of Mental Cultivation was heavily guarded and reinforced with formidable arrays, none of it fazed Gu Qingfeng. His Eyes of Truth could dismantle the arrays effortlessly, and with the Heaven-tier spiritual artifact, the Fox God’s Eye, he could tear through space itself to escape.

Even two peak Dragon Transformation experts were no threat—with the Fox God’s Eye and his Shadow Step technique, a single night was all he needed to slip past them.

In short, leaving was never the issue.

But he hadn’t come here to flee like a coward—he’d come to become a prince!

"Damn it, guess it’s time to drop my master’s name and scare them straight," Gu Qingfeng muttered.

Back when he’d posed as a deity, he’d planted countless seeds for this very moment—so he could one day wield the authority of a god to act... righteously!

He’d planned to keep a low profile, but these people had pushed him too far, treating him like some helpless weakling.

If they wanted to play dirty, he’d call in reinforcements.

His mind was made up—but he wouldn’t reveal his hand just yet. If he did now, they’d spin his imprisonment as "protective measures for alchemy."

No, he’d wait until the Ageless Pill was complete. If they still dared to detain him then, he’d unveil his identity and rightfully demand... compensation for his troubles.

Heh heh heh...

The thought made his grin widen.

He had zero doubts about the weight of a god’s name. In this godless era, divinity was synonymous with invincibility.

Even the emperor, for all his arrogance, wouldn’t dare provoke a true deity. After all, who could stop a god’s wrath?

But then, a flicker of worry crossed his mind—what if the emperor, overjoyed by the Ageless Pill, simply let him go?

...Surely not. No emperor could be that foolish.

Shaking his head, Gu Qingfeng dismissed the thought.

His gaze returned to the cauldron. Alchemy was tedious, and he didn’t even need to actually refine anything—but appearances had to be maintained.

So what to do now?

His little corpse spirit companion wasn’t around...

After a moment’s thought, he decided: cultivation.

The disrespect from Situ Kong and that young eunuch still rankled—all because his strength hadn’t been enough.

He hated people who looked down on others just because they were powerful.

(Unless, of course, he was the one doing the looking down.)

So, strength was the answer.

With no demons nearby to fuel his growth, he’d have to rely on his own efforts.

His biggest weakness right now was his cultivation realm. He was already at the eighth layer of the Qi Gathering Realm—just one step away from the Internal Qi Realm, where his system could finally boost his progress.

If he reached the Dragon Transformation Realm... just how powerful would he become?

The path to ascension was right before him. Eagerly, Gu Qingfeng retrieved a Rising Origin Pill from his dimensional storage and swallowed it.

He avoided consuming the newly acquired spiritual herbs directly—ingesting them raw wasted most of their potency. Alchemy was the way.

As the pill dissolved, his eighth-layer Qi Gathering cultivation erupted. Vast medicinal energy surged through his meridians, flooding his limbs and bones with pure heaven-and-earth essence.

Most of it was absorbed by his physique—his cultivation was still too low to fully utilize it—but even the fraction that remained in his dantian and meridians was enough.

Focusing his mind, Gu Qingfeng sank his qi into his dantian and activated the Dragon God Art. His inky-black qi twisted into a dark-scaled draconic form, rampaging through his meridians, devouring the medicinal energy to grow stronger.

Through inner vision, he watched the transformation with surprise.

This had to be an evolution caused by his Black Dragon Immortal Body advancing—his qi’s purity and density had reached new heights.

Time blurred as he cultivated. An hour passed in the blink of an eye.

His qi hit a critical threshold. The Dragon God Art roared—and a faint draconic cry echoed within him.

His aura skyrocketed.

Ninth layer of the Qi Gathering Realm!

Breaking through in just an hour would’ve elated even someone as composed as Gu Qingfeng.

But he didn’t stop.

No complacency. No pride. Like a diligent farmer, he kept working, step by step.

If cultivation had a progress bar, his was skyrocketing.

Soon—100%. Peak Qi Gathering Realm! Half a step from the next major realm: the Internal Qi Realm!

The Internal Qi Realm was fundamentally different. Qi Gathering focused on absorbing external qi to strengthen the body, while Internal Qi involved refining the internal organs—unlocking the body’s latent potential, drawing out its innate life essence, and fusing it with heaven-and-earth qi to form a new, personalized energy: internal qi.

Internal qi was far more potent and controllable than raw gathered qi, as it harmonized with the cultivator’s own vitality.

Now, Gu Qingfeng needed to channel his peak Qi Gathering qi into his organs, ignite his life essence, and forge his internal qi.

One smooth process, and the realm would be his.

Gritting his teeth, he flooded his organs with qi.

But the moment it entered—

Nothing.

His qi vanished into the abyss of his organs, swallowed without a trace. Not a wisp of life essence stirred.

"What the hell?!" Gu Qingfeng stared in disbelief. "After eating all that qi, the least you could do is spit something back!"