Breaking Through May Hurt a Little

[The situation took a sudden turn for the worse!]

[Despite exhausting all the martial arts you had learned in your life, you still couldn't gain the upper hand against the tiger demon.]

[You couldn't kill it, and it couldn't kill you either, but it kept pestering you, refusing to let you leave.]

[If it came down to a test of stamina, you would likely be no match for it.]

["Myriad Soul Banner, are you completely out of tricks?!"]

["Don't panic! I've already prepared a premium suite for you. You can move right in after you die!"]

["Damn it!!"]

[In this critical moment, a massive golden cudgel descended from the sky!]

[Rumble!!]

[A single strike settled the heavens and earth, causing the mountains to shake and the ground to tremble, changing the color of the clear sky for ten thousand miles!]

[The measly tiger demon, even after activating its golden body state, was smashed into a puddle of mush on the spot!]

[The golden cudgel, standing tall upon the earth, gave off an inexplicable sense of security.]

[An agile figure leaped onto it.]

["Hey! Good friend, we meet again! We really are destined!"]

[It was the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey.]

[You awkwardly scratched your cheek.]

["Are you sure you aren't stalking me?"]

["Hahaha! Then please forgive me. My brother and I have to protect our master and the people of the Divine Weapon Prefecture. We really had no other choice."]

[You knew that the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey had seen through the existence of the Myriad Soul Banner.]

[However, only he and that Four-Eyed Monkey had been following you these past few days; you hadn't seen anyone else.]

[This meant they hadn't revealed this matter to anyone else.]

["Be that as it may, my brother and I have indeed offended you. As an apology, I can do you a small favor."]

[The Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey knew you had been studying a mental cultivation method but couldn't find the right path. He offered to give you some pointers and help you get started.]

[With someone willing to guide you, you were more than happy to humbly ask for advice.]

[A few hours later, the problem of initiating the mental cultivation method that had troubled you for days was easily solved!]

[It was just that you hadn't reached the Soul Tempering Realm yet. Even though you grasped how to circulate the mental cultivation method, you still couldn't condense your vital energy.]

[After observing you, the two great spiritual monkeys saw that you were not the type to slaughter the innocent with the Myriad Soul Banner, but were instead subduing demons and slaying monsters. Thus, they stopped keeping an eye on you.]

Time in the simulation passed by in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, another five years went by.

During these five years, Chen Yi continued to travel around slaying demons, collecting demon souls, and earning spirit crystals with demon materials.

Although his cultivation base was stuck at the twelfth layer of the Spirit Gathering Realm, the proficiency of his various cultivation techniques was constantly improving.

Once he had accumulated enough resources, he could finally break through to the Soul Tempering Realm!

[Year Twenty-Eight, forty-five years old.]

[Drawing a trait...]

[Draw successful!]

[[Stroke of Genius] (Purple): Your mind will occasionally have flashes of inspiration. It might bring you a brilliant idea, or it might cause a sudden burst of comprehension. Let's just hope it's not a terrible idea.]

[Would you like to adjust your traits?]

[Yes / No]

"Oh? A budget version of an enlightenment-enhancing trait. Useful, but not by much. My slots are tight right now, so I'll leave it for later."

[You chose No.]

[You collected multiple sets of materials to craft a budget version of the Myriad Soul Banner, and you also had enough spirit crystals.]

[You returned to Divine Weapon City once again and asked the master artifact refiner of the Hidden Weapon Pavilion to forge the spiritual artifact body for the Myriad Soul Banner.]

[Your luck was quite good. After failing once, the highly skilled old master forged a high-tier spiritual artifact version of the Myriad Soul Banner for you.]

[The old master stared at the large black banner billowing with thick black smoke fresh out of the furnace, falling into deep thought.]

[You, however, told him that this was all perfectly normal.]

[The Myriad Soul Banner was relatively satisfied with its new body, expressing with a tsundere attitude:]

["Oh, not-so-young warrior, you have used your diligence and bravery to replace my body. Please do not worry about the wealth that was lost in the process. I will use my new body to snatch back everything you've lost!"]

["Stop being so dramatic..."]

[Now, you had left the Divine Weapon Prefecture and arrived in the neighboring Nanyang Prefecture.]

[A rogue martial artist who was well-versed in formations had settled down here.]

[You had met him while wandering around searching for demons.]

["Brother Mo Ye, I need you to set up a formation for me. It concerns whether I can break through to the Soul Tempering Realm. Please! Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, I have prepared a sum of spirit crystals as your reward."]

[Mo Ye was about your age. Although he understood formations, his martial arts realm was not high; he was also stuck at the twelfth layer of the Spirit Gathering Realm.]

[In fact, Mo Ye did not have low-tier bone aptitude; he possessed mid-tier bone aptitude.]

[However, that didn't stop him from getting stuck at a bottleneck.]

[Everyone has their own bottlenecks. Some can break through, while others never grasp the key and remain stuck there forever.]

[It was like how some people attend top-tier universities while others attend regular ones; the former might fail their postgraduate exams, while the latter might succeed.]

["Hahaha! Brother Chen, there is no need to talk about rewards. It's just setting up a formation, a mere lifting of a finger. Do you have the formation blueprint? Let me take a look, and I'll set it up immediately!"]

[You handed him the blueprint for the Myriad Soul Empowerment Formation provided by the Myriad Soul Banner. It included detailed setup instructions as well as all the required resources.]

[Of course, you had already prepared all these resources.]

[This formation looked extremely complex. Anyway, to a layman like you, the blueprint was no different from a book of heavenly gibberish.]

[After taking a glance at it, Mo Ye looked up and said,]

["Brother Chen, let's talk about the reward after all..."]

[It seemed it wasn't just a mere lifting of a finger.]

[You carefully selected an empty clearing with no demonic aura and rarely visited by people to set up the formation and break through.]

[A few days later.]

[After multiple attempts and failures, Mo Ye, looking as disheveled and covered in dirt as an auto mechanic, jumped out of the formation rune trenches you had helped him dig.]

["It's done, it's done! It's running! Startup successful! All pathways lit up, spirit crystals are being consumed normally, no explosions, no fizzling out, functional tests are all normal!"]

[You felt he resembled your old profession from your past life: a programmer.]

[You had no idea if this formation he set up had any bugs.]

[After all, Mo Ye was a rogue cultivator, entirely self-taught.]

[But he was quite talented. Without the guidance of a professional formation master, relying solely on a formation manual he had stumbled upon by chance and using various clients for practice, he had actually managed to gain some skill in the Dao of Formations.]

[The key point was that he was cheap.]

[After the formation was successfully set up, you gave him his reward.]

[Mo Ye tactfully took the initiative to leave, having no interest in prying into your secrets.]

[Those who often wandered the martial world knew that lacking a sense of boundaries was a quick way to die.]

["Commence the breakthrough! Myriad Soul Banner! It's your time to shine!"]

[The Myriad Soul Banner, now possessing the body of a high-tier spiritual artifact, looked incredibly majestic.]

[As the banner unfurled, it blotted out the sun and clouds. A thick fog, seemingly straight from hell, directly engulfed half the mountaintop.]

["Awoo—"]

[The demon souls you had collected over the years were no longer "purified." They had all been preserved until now, accumulating to over three hundred in number.]

[The Myriad Soul Banner released them all in one breath.]

[When they tried to flee, they were blocked and forced back by the Myriad Soul Empowerment Formation.]

Massive amounts of crystals burned within the formation. Every single second of the formation's operation was fueled by the energy of these crystals.

"Chen Yi! Are you ready? It's going to hurt a bit!"

Your gaze was resolute, your Dao Heart as unyielding as iron!

"Bring it on! I don't even fear death, why would I be afraid of this?!"