On the shores of the Misted Lake, occasional splashes marked where fish leaped from the water's surface.

Qian Jin stared intently at the entirety of the written text for a long moment, then closed his eyes, silently committing the practice methods of the Wind Cloud Battle Qi to memory.

He spent a full half-day poring over the text until every single word was perfectly imprinted upon his mind; only then did he begin to grasp the fundamental process of condensing Battle Strength into Battle Qi.

The old man walked behind Qian Jin, raised his leg, and kicked him squarely in the backside, the force of the blow sending him plunging into the lake like a massive stone, startling the surrounding fish into a frantic scatter.

Floating in the water and rubbing his stinging rear, Qian Jin enveloped his body in Tenth-Grade Battle Strength and swam toward the deeper reaches of the Blazing Fire Lake. After advancing barely ten meters, he felt as if his very flesh was about to be boiled into a meatball.

"Ugh... Master..." Qian Jin, submerged in the lake, turned back to look at the old man. "Where is the Spirit-Warding Array?"

The old man stroked his beard and pointed to the spot where Qian Jin wasn't currently treading. "There, beneath the water. Start the process when you reach it. I will help you activate the formation."

Qian Jin stared at the five-meter depth, his eyes burning with a desire to spit fire. Two to three meters beneath the misty surface, there lay a circular wooden slab about three meters in diameter, except it wasn't floating on top; it hovered two to three meters under the water line.

Scattered across this dark, circular plank were over thirty Battle Stones; at first glance, every single one appeared to be a Tenth-Grade Battle Stone! In the very center of the plank rested one stone, pulsating with a vibrant, blood-red hue, slowly emitting wisps of Battle Energy.

"A Battle Crystal!" Qian Jin exclaimed the name of the red stone involuntarily—a gem that stood above the Tenth-Grade Battle Stones, something no warrior family would ever sell, only acquire! In terms of both Battle Energy reserves and purity, the Battle Crystal utterly surpassed the Tenth-Grade Battle Stones!

In an instant, the heat in Qian Jin's eyes surged upward once more. However, this escalation of heat was no longer due to the water temperature; rather, the man himself was consumed by an unprecedented state of excitement.

"He's spared no expense! Even a Battle Crystal is out..." Qian Jin took two sharp, deep breaths, gritting his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums. His body moved like a swordfish, desperately propelling him toward a point that should have long since exceeded his physical limits.

The five-meter distance felt like the very edge of Qian Jin's endurance; submerged, it was akin to jumping into a pit of fire, the internal heat threatening to scorch flames from his throat.

Hovering above the Spirit-Warding Array, Qian Jin expelled a heavy breath. The failure of the Bloodline Awakening Ritual meant only darkness for the scions of the Qian family, yet here, within that darkness, he had rediscovered the light on the path of a great warrior!

Qian Jin drew a sharp breath, his eyes sweeping over the Spirit-Warding Array beneath his feet, a confident smile curving his lips.

Challenging for the Demon-Slaying Warrior status was almost never a guaranteed success for any warrior. While the Spirit-Warding Array could significantly increase the success rate, it was by no means one hundred percent. Qian Jin pursed his lips, his self-assurance growing stronger. His recent days of arduous training already placed him beyond the level of an ordinary Tenth-Grade Warrior, compounded by Blake’s training last night, and this expensive Spirit-Warding Array beneath him... "If I still fail to advance to Demon-Slaying Warrior even with all this, I might as well just use my Zhanmadao to slit my own throat!"

The old man stood on the shore, listening to Qian Jin mutter to himself. A bit more approval surfaced at the corners of his lips and eyes. While the advancement to Demon-Slaying Warrior carried a risk of failure and demanded caution, without sufficiently strong confidence, even reaching that rank would limit future development.

The intense heat could not be endured for long. Qian Jin abruptly squeezed his eyes shut, his muscles tensing like solid rock. Beneath his flushed skin, the Tenth-Grade Battle Strength began to circulate according to the method of the Wind Cloud Battle Qi.

The old man stood with his arms crossed, a slight smile on his face. As Qian Jin’s Battle Strength climbed to its peak, the Battle Stones of the Spirit-Warding Array beneath him all began to emanate a faint glow, while the Crystal at the array's core shone with an almost eerie brilliance.

Qian Jin suddenly felt an immense surge of Battle Energy rising from beneath him, seemingly intending to completely engulf his entire being. The Battle Strength, channeled into a single line within his body, began to operate at high speed, fiercely absorbing the overwhelming Battle Energy that felt capable of tearing his physical form apart.

In the quiet Blazing Fire Lake, Qian Jin’s pores snapped open and shut. Blood squeezed between his teeth trickled onto his tongue, carrying a faint, metallic tang. The rapid intake of Battle Energy caused him pain that made him want to scream—it felt as if millions of individual strands of Battle Energy were being generated by the Spirit-Warding Array, twisting and intertwining like hundreds of brightly colored water snakes performing a magnificent dance around Qian Jin.

Drawn by the allure of the eighty-eight spiritual acupoints within him, they desperately drilled inward. Those acupoints, seemingly dormant, awoke instantly! They greedily swallowed this Battle Energy, utterly disregarding whether Qian Jin could withstand the impact, and his Battle Strength soared uncontrollably in that instant.

Pure, dense Battle Energy continuously poured into the one hundred and eight acupoints. Each originally shriveled point was like a parched reservoir breached by a flood, rapidly filling up. The Battle Strength accumulated in each acupoint until it reached its apex, causing the previously unconnected Battle Meridians to slowly begin flowing outward, establishing a circuit connecting all one hundred and eight acupoints.

Battle Strength! A massive quantity of it! All one hundred and eight acupoints were filled, yet this was still merely Battle Strength, not Battle Qi!

"Rotate! Rotate! Rotate! Rotate..."

Qian Jin remained in the hot lake, sweat instantly merging with the surrounding water. His entire focus was fixed on the one hundred and eight acupoints within him, constantly urging them, trying to make them spin.

This was not a grand, circular circulation of the Battle Strength within the one hundred and eight acupoints along the Battle Meridians; rather, the Battle Strength within each acupoint had to rotate independently!

Only when they truly began to turn, forming whirlpools, could Battle Qi be condensed!

The one hundred and eight acupoints felt as if they were being drilled by one hundred and eight drills. Qian Jin felt his Wind Cloud Golden Body on the verge of shattering. His body began to twitch uncontrollably, and he could no longer resist the invasion of the scorching lake water’s temperature. In the next second, the heat would flood his internal organs, roasting him alive...

"Wind—rotates into hurricane. Cloud—transforms into myriad rain." The words of the Wind Cloud Battle Qi flashed through Qian Jin's mind, as if he had grasped something profound in that instant. The high temperature surging into his body had not yet reached his organs, and the acupoints within him ceased their independent rotation. Qian Jin’s body transformed into a single, colossal "Hurricane"—the Battle Strength in all one hundred and eight acupoints rotated in unison, and the Battle Strength transformed into Battle Qi!

Once the hurricane-like Battle Qi began to circulate, it violently sucked the invading high heat into the acupoints, tearing it to shreds, and these fiery energies were then woven, strand by strand, into the nascent Battle Qi.

Almost simultaneously! The dormant acupoints within Qian Jin—those twelve nodes circulating the Iron Forging Breath technique—suddenly became spontaneously active. They seemed to possess an intense affinity for the lake’s heat, ravenously devouring the thermal energy from the surrounding water.

In a split second! Qian Jin could clearly sense the water temperature around his body dropping! Those twelve dormant acupoints under the control of the Iron Forging Breath felt as hot as red-glowing brand irons, branding themselves onto his very being!

Devouring! The twelve dormant acupoints controlled by the Iron Forging Breath consumed the surrounding heat like madmen, creating a unique, instant cycle!

What is this...? What is happening...?

BOOM!

Qian Jin felt his body violently shake. Without needing to forcibly exert anything, he could now easily repel the intense heat, keeping it outside his physical shell.

Qian Jin felt every ounce of strength drain from him, weakly spreading his limbs to lie on the water's surface, soaking in the surging, authentic Battle Qi within. Elation flooded every nerve in his body, and he opened his mouth to let out a cathartic, joyous roar.

The sound soared straight toward the clouds.

Qian Jin floated in the scalding lake water, feeling the strength slowly return to his body. After the ecstasy, a deeper sense of confusion settled in his mind.

"Strange, this isn't right. Advancing to Demon-Slaying Warrior has always been difficult. The more solid the foundation, the easier the advancement, or so the books say. I read once that someone, aided by the Spirit-Warding Array, completed the entire transition from Tenth-Grade Warrior to Demon-Slaying Warrior in mere breaths."

The more Qian Jin thought about it, the less he understood. Even if his foundation was inferior to that Tenth-Grade Warrior recorded in the books, the difficulty of his own advancement shouldn't have been so extreme, should it? Both the time taken and the suffering endured were nearly a record low for achieving Demon-Slaying Warrior status.