After swallowing the qi gathering pills that he had grabbed after the challenge with Fang Shi, Xuan Hao felt like he managed to breakthrough some kind of barrier inside his dantian as for the first time since he reached the Domain Lord Realm, he once again felt his soul begin to undergo a transformation.
Following his soul beginning to change, the inside of his soul that resembled the void between worlds that he had seen during his visit to the secret realm, where chaos and nothingness reigned supreme. Began to change!
BOOM!
In just a moment, a sudden violent change occurred inside this place as something slowly began to take shape inside his soul.
Not only was his soul going through such dramatic changes, but his body was experiencing similar dramatic changes, as the qi inside his dantian from the Qi Gathering Pills began draining up rapidly.
"I need more qi…"
Knowing that he would soon run out of qi inside his dantian to fuel the transformation he was going through, Xuan Hao's mind went into overdrive thinking about what to do as he began searching through his interspatial ring for any spirit stones he had.
Only to realize just how poor he was, as he had close to no spirit stones on him and the spirit stones, he had were way too few to match up with the amount required for the transformation. Even the thirty plus Soul Grade Qi Gathering would at most last him for a few minutes before all the qi inside of them had been consumed!
"Maybe… No, she doesn't have enough in the first place…"
Thinking about his disciples recently won spirit stones for a short moment, Xuan Hao soon shook his head, as the spirit stones Qing Yi had won would still be far from enough to help him successfully make it through the transformation that his soul and body had decided to go through.
"At least I can still move… Guess I should check out the surroundings and see if there are any spirit stone mine around here…"
Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao ignored the pain wrecking through his entire body with every single step he took, as he left the small cave.
Whoosh!
"There really is one, three or so hundred miles to the west of here…"
Using his full strength to extend his divine sense hundred of miles in all directions in search of a spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao quickly found what he was looking for.
There was only one problem… And that was the fact that the spirit stone mine had already been discovered by the kingdom they were currently inside of and was in the process of being mined out!
Normally, this would not be a problem given that the strongest person in the kingdom was someone at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, but his current situation was less than ideal. Even using his domains was difficult in his current state, let alone fighting…
"Hah… Looks like I will have to try and sneak inside…"
Not left with any other choice as the qi inside his dantian was quickly being consumed by both his soul and body, Xuan Hao used what strength he could muster to fly towards the spirit stone mine he had located.
…
"Of course, there is someone at the Nascent Soul Realm guarding the mine!"
Arriving a few miles from the spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao could not help cursing upon discovering that someone in the Nascent Soul Realm was personally guarding the spirit stone mine.
At first, he had thought that he would at most have to hide from someone in the Core Formation Realm while he absorbed the massive amount of qi present in the spirt stone mine, but now that would become close to impossible with a Nascent Soul Realm Expert present.
The main reason for this, was the fact that the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had divine sense, while a Core Formation Realm cultivator did not. Unless he had reached the absolute pinnacle of the realm and was about to breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm…
Now that someone with divine sense was present in the spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao would not be able to easily absorb the qi contained in the spirit stones without being noticed and given his current situation. Even someone in the Core Formation Realm might be able to win against him in his current state if he didn't run away…
Boom!
"Hm? Fighting?"
Hearing a large explosion from the direction of the spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao's eyes began shining brightly.
Normally, he might not be able to succeed in absorbing the qi from the spirit stones yet to be mined inside the spirit stone mine… But thing would be different if the Nascent Soul Realm Expert guarding the mine was distracted!
Knowing that he could not let such an opportunity pass, Xuan Hao used what little strength he could in his current situation and hid himself with his domain while flying over towards the spirit stone mine where the earlier explosion had just occurred.
At this point, he was already dangerously close to running out of qi inside his dantian and due to that, Xuan Hao had managed to discover that the transformation process that he was currently going through, was not something that could be stopped by him simply running out of qi…
If there was no qi left, it would simply begin absorbing his life force!
Life force was essentially what made up his lifespan. Meaning, if he lost all his life force, he would lose all his remaining lifespan and… Die…
Even if the transformation process had yet to truly begin absorbing his life force yet, Xuan Hao had already felt himself losing what would essentially be equivalent to 10 years of his lifespan!
If it truly began absorbing his life force in full force… Xuan Hao didn't dare to think about this…
BOOM!
"Die demon!"
Making his way over to the entrance of the spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao could not help showing a slightly surprised expression on his face upon discovering a demonic cultivator currently locked in combat with the person who he guessed to be the Nascent Soul Realm Expert in charge of defending the spirit stone mine.
"Another demonic cultivator? How come there are so many of them showing up now all of a sudden…?"
Not thinking too deeply about it, Xuan Hao had more important things to do, as the last bit of qi inside his dantian dried up. Following which, a terrifying feeling spread throughout his body, as he felt his life force being absorbed by his body and soul!
Why his body decided to also join in and absorb his life force when it just ended up weakening in the process was a mystery…
Whoosh~
Barely glancing at the two, Xuan Hao rushed into the spirit stone mine.
…
Entering the spirit stone mine, Xuan Hao rushed towards the deeper parts of the mine where the higher grade spirt stones would be located before finding a good place to sit down and absorb the qi from the spirt stones inside the mine.
Whoosh!
Like a dam had broken, as the qi from the spirit stones suddenly rushed out from the walls around Xuan Hao before directly entering his body under the guidance of his domain.
At the very least, there was not any miners around to see what was happening, as all of them had long since fled far away with the battle taking place outside the spirit stone mine.
"Hah… I hope this will be enough…"
Feeling the massive amount of qi entering his body being devoured the moment it entered his dantian without even needing him to refine it, Xuan Hao could not help shivering as he realized that there might not even be enough qi for the transformation. Even after he had absorbed an entire spirit stone mine worth…
It had to be known that even if the number of high-grade spirts stones only numbered in a few dozen or a few hundred depending on the size of the mine. The sheer number of low-grade spirit stones inside a spirit stone mine would easily number in the tens of millions!
The amount of qi inside that many spirit stones was simply incomprehensible for Xuan Hao. However, the absorption speed did not slow down in the slightest, as Xuan Hao could only extend the range of his domain to absorb more qi.
…
"It stopped…?"
After unknown period of time had passed, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes before carefully observing both his dantian and body for any abnormalities. Making sure that everything had really come to an end.
In the end, he had ended up directly absorbing close to seventy percent of the spirit stone mine before the transformation finally ended.
"What in the world?!"
Finishing his inspection of the current situation of his body, dantian and soul, Xuan Hao could not help exclaiming loudly as he finally discovered just what had changed.