Looking at the small, low-key inn in front of him, Qian Feng felt the urge to advance to the fifth level as quickly as possible in order to rid himself of this... less than satisfactory residence.

Despite its outwards appearances, it turned out that the inn was not too bad, with its own breakfast, lunch, and dinner; coupled with the quality of the rooms(rather good for their time and place, Qian Feng had to say) and he was not necessarily completely against staying in the inn for long periods of time. Regardless, there was no doubt that the rooms in Reun Arena would be far more luxurious, and even if not that, more convenient.

The only problem with getting to the fifth floor, though, was that according to the Iron Fox, most of the combatants were at least mid-level Martial Kings, who, despite his incredible strength for his cultivation, Qian Feng could not hope to match. He could only have a halfway decent chance of winning if he was at the peak Martial Warrior stage, and even then, victory was not guaranteed - between an 80 and 90 percent chance of winning if the opponent was average.

All the other aspects of combat prowess were up to speed, even for Martial Kings: body strength, combat skill, and martial techniques. That was to say, his foundation was perfect, so good that if he were to break through right at that time, his future achievements would be in no way adversely affected.

So he just had to focus on cultivating, which, thankfully, was largely facilitated by the cultivation area in the Ancient Cosmos Pearl. Even if each session exhausted his Qi, that in itself was a form of training, since it would make his Spirit Realm more resilient and even expand it a bit even further, the constant draining acting as a form of conditioning.

The only problem was that with things the way they were, it just took far too long for Qian Feng to recover from total Qi exhaustion, about half an hour. While he could spend some of his time cultivating the other spirit realms, that still left around 15 minutes he did nothing but loiter around. In the night he spent cultivating at the inn after his first day at the arena, he only managed 12 full sessions, in which all of his spirit realms were cultivated. At that rate, it would be three days before he broke into the sixth level, a week before the seventh, two before the eighth, and the ninth level would take up to four weeks to reach. All in all, that was too much time.

   So, after his fighting was done for the day and he had reached a fourth of his quota(at the third level, fights were rarer, and the quota of victories to move on to the fourth level was very high), he asked the Iron Fox if there were any abilities that could speed up his Qi recovery.

   "Hah, kid, you wanna learn the Void Ring Method, then? Well, this'll be fun. Sit down and follow my instructions. This might hurt a bit, though, so first I'll explain a bit.

  The Void Ring Method has nine levels to cultivate. It's a relatively well-known technique, with incredible effects, but despite that, very few people choose to cultivate it. Why? It's incredibly painful, such that even seasoned war heroes might not be able to bear it and take the final step. Even after the initial process is complete, there will be symptoms of soreness and debilitation of the spirit realm for 2 to 3 days after the completion of the first level. However, if you can handle the pain, it's all worth it.

  It works by... ripping a hole in your spirit realm, essentially. This may seem pointless, and just self-torture, but it was discovered, quite a while ago, that a wound in one's spirit realm causes one's body to more effectively and efficiently draw in Qi in order to heal it. I'm sure you can guess how it works now, right? The hole in your spirit realm convinces your body and soul to absorb Qi faster and more efficiently, which the subconscious mind hadn't previously deemed necessary. At the peak of mastery, the effect of the Void Ring Method has been compared to one's regeneration capacity in the middle of a true life-and-death battle, in which the mind also works harder to draw in Qi.

  There are also no side effects such as overexertion, and the boost is essentially always active with no long-term detriments: once you get past the pain, it really is a flawless technique.

  So, how about it, kid? Wanna try?"

   Qian Feng knew that he had no way to fathom just how painful ripping a hole in his spirit realm was, but given that he had endured the Nine Pits of Hell and the Iron Fox's training, surely it couldn't be that bad. Besides, if the effects really were as good as the Iron Fox described(knowing him, they were probably better than that) he'd be a fool and a coward to pass such an opportunity by.

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  "Can we begin now?"

  "I like that, boy! Barely a thought about it! Alright, let's start. Also, just wanted to tell you, I've reached the peak level of the Void Ring Method. This might not seem like much to you know, but in a few minutes, you'll be very impressed with your old master.

  Anyways, let's start with your Force spirit realm. The process is relatively simple, so after you grasp the technique, you'll no longer need my guidance.

  Let your consciousness enter your spirit realm, preceiving everything within it. Look at the concentrations of Qi inside it, seeking very carefully for the spots with the highest concentration of Qi. Found it? Good.

  This process doesn't take long - only a few minutes - and there's not much to remember, so I'll tell you know so I don't have to interrupt you.

  To rip a hole in your spirit realm, all you have to do is gather your Qi and pierce a hole through the exterior, picturing the spirit realm as an elastic, solid bubble that you need to stretch and rip apart. After that, try to ignore the pain and form a Qi construct in the shape of a ring, conforming it to fit around the wound and making it surround the interior of the hole, preventing it from healing again. That'll permanently keep the hole open, as long as you don't purposely draw upon the Qi maintaining the ring.

  This is where the pain arises. Obviously, the initial step is agonizing, but the hardest part for most is pushing through the pain to form a Qi structure and then further aggravating the wound by placing the construct within it. The wound stays very tight over a few days, resulting in the spirit realm remaining incredibly sore, but eventually heals and gets used to the gap. Of course, the effect remains. So, that's pretty much it! Why don't you start?"

  A grim look on his face, Qian Feng began meditating and slipped into the spirit realm, taking note of the Empyrean Might Titan, which seemed significantly stronger than the last time he had checked, and then turning to survey the area. The Qi everywhere was very concentrated, the quantity of it disorienting him for an instant, but several areas then revealed themselves to him.

  The first, and most obvious, was the area in which Qian Feng's martial spirit resided in, but he purposely avoided that location for fear of... unexpected consequences, and moved on to the second, which was at a corner of the cube-shaped spirit realm. Now that he was looking, he noticed that each of the corners had a high density, of which there were eight, and not counting the martial spirit's location, no other places were too special. If he counted those with the martial spirit's area, that formed nine; one for each level of the Void Ring Method. Coincidence? He thought not!

  But digressions aside, Qian Feng stilled his wandering mind and prepared himself for the agony that was soon to follow, taking a deep breath and getting ready to begin.

  Forming large claws of Force Qi with sharp fingertips like swords, Qian Feng thrust the appendages into the area, already grimacing at the pain of his spirit realm being penetrated before noticing the impressive toughness of its walls - it seemed that training was not for nothing then. Sadly, that only made his job harder, as the tougher state of the spirit realm just made the whole process more painful.

  Trying to get the task over with as quickly as possible, Qian Feng made the Qi hands move apart from each other, ripping the spirit realm's walls apart and blurring the boy's vision, his consciousness nearly falling unconscious for a second at the incredible pain before regaining clarity.

   Thankfully, the Force Qi hands were strong enough that within five minutes, the hole was completely finished, and the hardest part gotten over with. Qian Feng had to acknowledge, though, the sheer agony of the experience, so bad that should he not have had prior experience with pain, the cultivator undoubtedly would have fallen unconscious, wounded for naught.

  Thankfully, he had managed to avoid that unfortunate fate, and had finished only by focusing upon his goal of crushing all schemes with his power and proving to himself that trickery was only a secondary method, and that might was what was really effective.

   His inner eyesight still slightly hazy, Qian Feng focused his strained mind as much as he could and gathered nearby Force Qi to form a perfectly-sized Qi construct, the hands still holding his wound open as he worked.

  Finally, Qian Feng slumped to the ground, wincing at the movement as he reveled in the experience of such "slight" pain and soreness, in contrast to what he felt mere minutes ago.

  Observing his results, though, Qian Feng could not argue that the technique was not effective, Even while still wounded, his regeneration was up to three times as fast as before, which would speed up his cultivation process significantly.

   Gritting his teeth once again, Qian Feng repeated the process with his Life spirit realm, keeping the Earth-affinity one unharmed in case he encountered trouble. He did notice, though, that the second time was even worse now that he knew what was coming, and his subconscious mind seemed to ignore all logic as it panicked and resisted, stopping him from causing such pain again. Thankfully, Qian Feng managed to overcome this stigma and finish the first level of the Void Ring Method

  Five days later, Qian Feng was fully recovered and cultivating again, his cultivation speed increased by four times for each affinity. With this boon, it was only a matter of time, and very little of it at that, before Qian Feng was once again ready to clear the fifth floor!