So determined, Hui buried himself deeper into his meditation. This time, he focused on the two auras. Although one aura emanated from each dantian, the two dantians had their own sets of pathways that independently curved through his body, meaning his whole body emanated both a death aura and an aura of qi. With his life qi split into the red gem, and so little of it in comparison to the qi and death qi, it couldn’t be relied upon to suppress the death aura.

Separate… like with the amber. Hui sent his qi inward. He drew it outward, drawing his aura to his right side. A second later, he drew his death qi to the left. The two auras separated, drawing his qi toward that side of his body.

His body wavered. He felt icy cold, and the world shuddered before him. He felt his soul begin to slip.

No, no! Hui let go of his qi. His soul fell back into his body, and the two auras wobbled once more, fighting one another.

He frowned, frustrated. If I separate them, I run the risk of falling out of my body. No, rather… I should say, if I separate them, I’ll immediately fall out! It’s just like the amber. I’m pulling my auras apart, separating myself into two. I don’t want to do that. No, the opposite!

The opposite. If I want to accomplish the opposite, then shouldn’t I… instead, merge the auras?

Merge death qi and qi? That’s impossible. I can’t…

Hui shook his head and slapped his cheek. No! Impossible is exactly what cultivators accomplish! Just because no one else has done it before, doesn’t mean I can’t.

Rather than the amber… what about the corpse? Jin Xian. I merged each of the materials separately, but there… what I did was merge the auras. I was focusing on the wrong part of the process! If I can merge my life and death auras into a single combined aura, I can break through the bottleneck and into the next realm.

Hui drew in a breath and let it out, circulating it along with his qi. He focused on his qi aura first. Intentionally emanating a faint aura of his own making, he slowly merged it into his ordinary qi. The two resonated, wavering in time. He changed the tone of his aura slightly, and the qi aura he naturally emitted changed in time.

With the same idea, he drew out death qi. Wavering it, he honed it in on the death aura. As the two merged, he took control of his death aura. The two auras battled one another, resonating against them.

Here we go! Hui began to resonate his qi, drawing them closer to each other. The auras fought his will, struggling to continue to resonate at their usual speed. He scowled and focused, refusing to release the auras. I won’t let you escape me. This is a bottleneck I must surpass!

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As he focused on the auras, his dantians began to spin even faster. Their speed smoothed them without any intervention on Hui’s part, and their borders hardened. Qi poured into him, and the blood sea sunk even more. By now, it had sunk fifty meters. Startlingly, the bones on the bone pile disintegrated, crumbling as they lost their death aura.

Around him, other piles of bones began to poke through the blood qi sea, becoming islands as the sea lowered. Death auras emanated from the islands and merged into Hui’s body as well.

As the death aura rushed into Hui, the red gem drew even more strongly at the blood qi sea. It dropped heavily, biting out a hollow around Hui, the sea rapidly rushing into the hollow only to vanish into the gem. The dantians rushed more rapidly, the void cores inside them almost perfectly smooth. Hui’s entire cultivation base shuddered, on the verge of breaking through.

His auras keened, warbling out. The clashing auras ate at his body, trying to vibrate it apart. Hui clenched his teeth. Blood leaked out of his mouth. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and spat it, but pushed on. I’m so close. Merge! Merge already!

All at once, the two auras became one. A beautiful note of color and sound welled up from Hui’s body, a dark navy that sang out to the heavens. Qi rushed into him even more wildly, sending his hair and robes flying. The sea sank a hundred meters at once, and the islands around him crumbled, vanishing into death aura.

A thrum blasted through the realm. Hui’s void cores solidified. At that moment, Hui passed through his bottleneck and reached the fourth realm!

As he broke through, the authority in the reversal spell grew stronger in accordance with his new cultivation base. The remaining sea lifted up into the air and streamed into the red gem, pouring itself inside willingly. Rather than draw it into himself, Hui stored it in the gem. He stood and let out a breath, smiling gently.

I did it. I’ve reached the fourth realm! I’m now at the same level as Bai Xue!

Or… at least… low on that realm. But in the same realm!

Dry bone stretched below what remained of the bone pile. No other bone piles remained in the realm, all devoured by Hui. With a sheepish smile, Hui leaped down the bone pile. He turned and lifted his hand. Under his will, the bones collapsed and became death qi, swirling in his void core.

Humming to himself, Hui strode toward the exit to the realm. Without the blood qi sea in the way, he could see the exit. Though only a small bit would have peeked above the sea earlier, now, a massive, dark gash opened in the far wall of the realm. Over a hundred meters tall and a hundred wide at its base, it hinted at the massive size of the blood qi sea.

Hui hummed to himself as he walked along, in no particular hurry. He glanced at the red gem, then sent it back into his storage ring. Now that it was full of blood qi, it no longer drew at his qi and longevity every time he pulled it out without suppressing himself.

Still, better if I treat it with caution. I did use it to trap an elder, after all.

If the other disciples in the trial could see him, their faces would be red with fury. Many remained deep in the realm, trapped on their bone islands. A few were forced to use up nearly all the qi in their snakes to reach the exit. Some gave up entirely and left the realm even after escaping, as their snakes dissipated, leaving them unable to use qi in the realm at all. In comparison, Hui emerged from the second realm with his snake more powerful than it had ever been, an entire realm full of reserve qi, and with a full-stage advance in his cultivation base.

He passed through the dark gash in the wall, and fell into darkness once again.