“AHHHH!”

As soon as Zhao Chen stepped foot into the tub of water, a scorching heat comparable to that of the sun immediately swept through his entire body.

Within seconds the pain had become far too unbearable resulting in Zhao Chen releasing a bloodcurdling scream.

Zhao Chen quickly moved to try and suppress the pain by circulating his essence qi, as to not alert anyone but unfortunately his parents had already rushed to his side.

“Chen-er!”Yuxuan and Haoran both yelled at the same time. They feared that they had really messed up this time, and by allowing Zhao Chen to mix up his own herbs they had indirectly brought him harm.

Immediately the full power of the second realm Foundational Harmony stage, that was Yuxuan, was unleashed as he attempted to pry the door open.

But at that moment Zhao Chen finally picked up on his parents presence and quickly attempted to get them to cease their actions.

He wasn’t sure if the effects and the pain could reach his parents, but he wasn’t willing to take that chance.

“Wait! Father, Mother, I am fine. The water was just a little hot, that's all. Chen-er promises that nothing harmful has happened to me.” By that last sentence Zhao Chen had even convinced himself.

If anyone were to see his expression while he said those blatant lies they might have been convinced he was an actor in his past life.

The effects of raising one's aptitude, of the medicinal bath wasn’t exactly correct. A cultivators aptitude towards cultivation, lied solely on their bodies ability to gather the essence qi that filled their surroundings and bring it into their own bodies, before revolving it around their meridians and finally assimilating it into the cultivators body.

Those whose bodies were able to draw in essence qi faster, and the revolve it around their body much smoother were naturally those of higher aptitude, and those with the greatest hopes of going much farther in life.

But how exactly did this medicinal bath help one with both these aspects?

Zhao Chen already knew the answer, it didn't. A cultivator's ability to draw in essence qi, could never be changed.

No matter how hard one tried, and no matter how many herbs one swallowed, their aptitude to gather it into their bodies relied solely on their comprehension of their Dao. Zhao Chen had already affirmed his Dao in one lifetime, so he was not worried about doing it again.

But the ability to revolve that essence qi throughout the meridians, that was different. As one progressed to higher realms, naturally their body would dispel more and more impurities, until one had reached the pinnacle of the mortal plain, the immortal ascension plain.

But it was exactly this reason as to why so many mortals were stopped from ever exceeding the qi gathering realm.

If their meridians were full of impurities, without a master to help them dispel it or a cultivation method that ignored these impurities completely, one would be stuck with a trash aptitude. This trash aptitude was exactly what Zhao Chen was stuck with.

He noticed how clogged the meridians of his body were as soon as we awoke on the first day, and that was also when he remembered this medicinal bath.

This bath, which stemmed from the two spirit medicines being mixed together and then infused with one's own essence qi, could help qi gathering realm cultivators to unclog their meridians, up to 15%! Which may not seem like much, but for qi gathering realm cultivators it was enough to reach the foundational harmony realm, without much difficulty.

The only backlash from this method was the pain that accompanied it. Zhao Chen had received this method in his previous life as a reward for helping his master, the hellfire divine lord, to come up with a new pill.

The hellfire divine lord imparted the method to Zhao Chen, in hopes that he may one day return to the mortal plain one day and raise his own disciples.

Zhao Chen naturally had no ambitions in doing any of those things, but he would not throw away something imparted to him by his master, so he kept it in his sea of consciousness. Though he did not pay any mind to his master's words about the method, he did pay heed to his master's warnings about how excruciating the pain was.

A qi gathering realm cultivator forcefully expelling the impurities within their body in such a way, was basically asking the heavenly Dao to come strike them down like an ant.

After the body started to absorb the waters and its medicinal properties, a burning fire would ravage the cultivators meridians, burning so hot that without enough willpower the cultivator would be directly burnt to a crisp.

But that was not all, once the pain from the heat had subsided, the herbs would start forcefully pushing out the impurities from every corner of your body, in an attempt to get as much as possible out. This forceful pushing was akin to having an elephant trying to free itself from one's stomach.

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This process could directly explode a cultivator's body, leaving nothing but piles of flesh and blood splatter. Originally Zhao Chen thought his master was pulling his leg, and that the effects couldn’t be so harmful if the method was meant for such low level cultivators.

But the current him wishes to slap the past him in the face several times. Had he listened to his master and attempted to find a way to lessen the pain, he would’ve been in a less of such a serious predicament.

Back inside the bath room

“Are you sure Chen-er? It did not sound like it was only the heat of the water. Just let father come in and make sure you’re okay.” At this point, both Yuxuan and Haoran had also broken into a nervous sweat.

They had already almost lost their son just two days prior, they would live another 1000 lifetimes as slaves before having to experience that again. Despite Zhao Chen's pleading, Yuxuan once again started prying the door.

‘Why is this damn door so f*cking sturdy!’ The worry for his son mixed with his anger for the stubborn door was starting to make Yuxuan well up with emotions he did not often have.

“STOP!” Zhao Chen yelled loudly. He was trying his hardest to maintain the pain at a tolerable level, which in his current condition was already very life threatening, and the interruptions that were his father and mother, were not helping in the slightest.

Catching his breath once more, Zhao Chen attempted to speak with a more convincing and reassuring tone.

“Father, like Chen-er said, there is nothing to worry about. I assure you it was really just the water. You and Mother can return, I would like to enjoy my bath now.” His voice had begun to crack near the end, but Zhao Chen felt his overall tone was one that was convincing enough.

The other side of the wall went silent. Finally a few minutes had passed before Haoran spoke up.

“Alright Chen-er, Father and I will let you relax. But you have to yell for us if anything, and that means anything happens, ok?”.

Haoran gave no room for any questions and grabbed Yuxuan and walked off with him promptly. Although it was said as a question, Zhao Chen could tell by her tone that his mother was asking but telling him.

If he were not being mercilessly tormented by bath water and his own body at that moment, Zhao Chen would’ve likely let out a few tears. He could see just how deeply his parents cared for him, even if he wasn’t the original Zhao Chen, he felt touched by their love nonetheless.

Once Zhao Chen had confirmed that his parents were no longer lurking around the room he finally placed his full focus onto the absorption of the herbs.

As he pulled in more and more essence qi from around him, the pain started to lessen, but was still not at a level that the current Zhao Chen could just simply brush off.

That interruption at the start had really thrown him off. But nonetheless he would not allow a little bit of pain to stop him.

Who was he? He was the great golden sun divine lord for crying out loud. If he could not overcome some pain he should just dig a hole to live out the rest of his life in.

As the heat started to slowly turn into a powerful force pushing on Zhao Chen’s skin, he knew the time had come to start cultivating a new cultivation technique. As without one he wouldn’t be able to reap the true benefits from the medicinal bath.

And more importantly, time waited for no one. His enemies continued to grow stronger everyday, and he would never achieve his revenge by being a sitting duck wasting away and cultivating passively. But what cultivation technique should he cultivate?

Out of the dozens that had been imparted to him, many were rather good, and some that could even help the trashiest of trash qi gathering realms to cultivate all the way to the peak of the immortal ascension realm in a matter of a short few years.

However Zhao Chen did not set his eyes on a lowly Immortal Ascension realm, if he had any hope at one day getting his revenge he must cultivate to a realm much stronger than that of his past life.

Meaning he needed not only a strong cultivation technique, but one that suited him perfectly.

Zhao Chen could not cultivate his previous life's technique, the nine suns descent, as that technique was better suited for this with an affinity to fire, but his current body seemed to have an affinity to wind.

Zhao Chen racked his brain while simultaneously actively suppressing the transition of pain from heat to force. It wasn't until he could no longer suppress the overwhelming force that the right cultivation technique finally popped into his head.

The Whispering Tempest Breeze technique!

Before Zhao Chen could even pat himself on the back, the weight of what felt like 20 grown elephants crushed down onto Zhao Chen.

Though even qi gathering realm cultivators were much stronger than regular mortals, everyone had their limits. The struggle to even try and regain his meditative position had Zhao Chen wondering if revenge was worth the pain.

Zhao Chen slapped himself in the face mentally, as moving his arms that high was out of the question.

What dogfart pain? He had felt the pain of death and brushed it off. So what if some crushing force? Until he had breathed his last breath, he would not lose alter from his path.

Having solidified his resolve, Zhao Chen pushed himself back into a lotus position and started to cultivate the Whispering Tempest Breeze technique.

The now renowned cultivation technique, known by all in the upper realms due to it being the cultivation technique of the Merciless Tempest divine lord, a man who had risen to fame overnight after slaughtering an entire evil sect who’s weakest members were at the Heavenly Emperor Realm!

Though this realm was only the first for those in upper realms, it was not considered overly weak. And when thousands of those cultivators fought in unison, they could cause harm to even the most powerful of cultivators.

And the Merciless Tempest divine lord had slaughtered an entire sect full of them! That was also how he received the title of Merciless Tempest, as whenever he fought he kicked up a storm that would not subside till it killed those who had opposed it.

The technique was a shabby technique from the mortal plain, but when it reached the hands of the Merciless Tempest divine lord, he cultivated it to the acme of perfection, resulting in the technique developing even further to match his ability, a phenomenon that was rarely seen.

The usually cold and killing frenzied divine lord had only imparted the technique to Zhao Chen in return for his life saving grace, not to him but to his daughter who had been badly poisoned by another jealous divine lord.

The one thing the Merciless Tempest divine lord cared about in the entire universe was his daughter.

Naturally when Zhao Chen had received the technique he knew of its prowess but he had no need for it, as his own cultivation technique was the best for him.

But just like he did with the technique his master imparted to him, Zhao Chen was not a man to repay kindness with ingratitude.

He accepted the technique but tossed it into his sea of consciousness, thinking he would never need it.

Thinking up to now, Zhao Chen retreated from his previous statement of wanting to give his past life several slaps. Now he wanted to give him a grand pat on the back.

The once forsake cultivation technique was now his greatest tool in reaching true power in this lifetime.

As the technique was being cultivated, Zhao Chen could feel not only the essence qi in the air flowing more smoothly and uniformly into his body, which was the case when qi gathering realm cultivators started to cultivate a cultivation technique, but he felt a light breeze begin to kick up in the room.

But not only that, something unimaginable happened. The breeze was actually lightening the pressure on his body!

It was not so much to the point that he had gained an unfair advantage, no, he still felt as though his meridians were about to pop right open alongside the rest of his body, but even that miniscule amount of pain that was being alleviated, Zhao Chen felt that cultivating the whispering tempest breeze technique might have more secrets then he had once thought.

In a matter of minutes all of the medicinal effects had been absorbed by Zhao Chen, and the pain began to dissipate. The veins on his body were no longer popping out, seeming as though they were trying to escape.

He had regained control over his movements, and he could now take a breath of air without feeling like he was running to the peak of a mountain while carrying ten grown men. Just as the pressure in the room began to stabilize, the qi in the surrounding area started to become frantic.

Zhao Chen's body had turned into a black hole, pulling in all the essence it could greedily. At first Zhao Chen accepted the influx of qi but very quickly his expression changed. His rate of absorption had only two outcomes at this point.

Either he would directly pass his cultivation bottleneck and break through to the next realm, or the qi would be too much for his body to bear and he would once again be at risk of exploding.

All Zhao Chen could do was laugh. After nearly escaping death and reincarnating, in a matter of two days this was his third time of facing off with death. It seemed as though Zhao Chen had truly enraged the heavenly Dao.

But why should he care? A man who already once cheated death, can live life with no regrets. Zhao Chen accepted the torrent of qi into his body with open arms.

His fate would be his own to decide, not some dogfart heavenly Dao's.