The moonlight cascaded the dark room, manifesting a myriad of shadows in the dark room. In the dark room, large swirls of White Qi could be seen flowing into the pores of an elderly figure as the faint moonlight blanketed him, causing a slight glow coming from his body. In front of him was an astronomical amount of spirit stones.

Suddenly, the glow from the spirit stones diminished at a visible rate which caused the amount of White Qi in the surroundings to surge.

With a low roar, the elderly figure activated the Qi Condensing Formation, forcing the surrounding White Qi to flow into his body. As the immense amount of White Qi gushed into his body, the purple core in his body started to separate into 6 purple pillars.

Soon enough, an enormous pressure enveloped the entire Bai Clan and eventually, it covered the entire Phoenix City.

In that instant, all of the Core Formation cultivators in Phoenix City frowned as they warily glanced towards the source of the terrifying pressure, and at the same time, a thought appeared in their minds 'Bai Clan!'

However, the elderly figure was unaware of all this. All of his attention was focused on breaking through to the Spirit Ascension stage as beads of sweat dribbled down his forehead.

Eventually, the pressure subsided and after a short while, the old man let out a breath of relief as he opened his eyes. His eyes were incredibly sharp as if it contained the will of the heaven. He had finally reached Spirit Ascension lower stage.

During the Spirit Ascension stage, one is able to form a connection with the Immortal realm and after the connection stabilizes at Spirit Ascension upper stage, one is able to ascend to the Immortal realm. Of course, the Spirit Ascension stage also allows one to comprehend a certain path of the will.

Wills include Sword wills, Spirit wills and many others; Depending on what one prefers.

***

Lands of Despair.

"Your poison is slowly eroding your Qi. Based on the rate at which it is eroding, you don't have many years left," Shadow concluded after retracting his hand from the head of Huo Long. During the first time when he was transferring Spirit Qi to the dragon, he could vaguely sense the anomaly in Huo Long's body. Soon after, information about the poison and the cure appeared in his mind and at the same time, the mysterious dark mist in his body began to undergo a mutation, as if developing a resistance to the poison.

Upon his discovery of the change, Shadow was shocked beyond words. He knew that this kind of adaptation was unprecedented and he might very well be the first and the last to be able to do so. Since then, Shadow had decided to properly investigate his origin after his revenge.

"A few years?! Please, big bro. You have to save me... To think that I will die at such a young and tender age..." The wail of the demonic dragon woke Shadow from his thought.

Helplessly, Shadow waved his hand and began to narrate the origin of the poison and its cure.

"The poison in your body is the unparalleled Qi Corroding Nine Heavens, capable of eroding the Qi of any cultivators. There is only one way to cure it... And that is to force the tainted Spirit Qi out."

"Force the tainted Spirit Qi out? Do you know how to do that big bro?" Huo Long asked with a curious gaze.

"Yes... By beating you up." After Shadow's sentence ended, his figure vanished before appearing right in front of Huo Long, bringing with him a gush of wind.

Huo Long immediately panicked as he hurriedly retreated backwards while spouting out a bunch of words, "Big bro, we can always talk things out nicely. There's no need for violence. My mother said..."

Before Huo Long could finish his sentence, Shadow flatly spoke, "You have to concentrate on defending my blows by forcing the tainted Spirit Qi to mix with your blood. After the sparring, I will transfer my Spirit Qi to you while you force the blood with the tainted Spirit Qi to seep out of your wounds."

After instructing Huo Long, Shadow began his relentless assault on Huo Long's dragon body. Staring at the incoming fist, Huo Long could not help but shiver. However, he still gritted his teeth and with a glint of determination in his eyes, Huo Long circulated the Spirit Qi in his body to create a bubble of denfensive Qi.

BOOM!

Large cracks were formed on the sparking Spirit Qi barrier as Shadow's fist came into contact with it. Instantly, Huo Long puked out a mouthful of blood and to his astonishment, he realized that the blood was black in color and was emitting out a faint strand of Spirit Qi.

Fueled by the hope of recovery, Huo Long embraced Shadow's merciless punches head on and this continued for the entire day.

As night fell, Huo Long laid on the grass patch with various open wounds on its body, which was covered in a layer of black blood. He felt like his whole body was tearing apart.

"This will be painful," Shadow silently warned before placing his hand on Huo Long's body. As the dense Spirit Qi coursed through Huo Long's body, streams of black blood began to flow out, inflicting an immense amount of pain on Huo Long.

With an ear-splitting roar, Huo Long let out all of the pain that he was currently enduring. It was too painful! He felt like bottles of acid were dripped onto his open wounds, causing his flesh to burn and sizzle.

After what seemed like an eternity for Huo Long, the torture finally ended. After regaining the tranquility in his eyes, Huo Long stared at his completely recovered body before saying, "Big bro, am I completely healed now?"

Slowly, Shadow turned around and looked at Huo Long with a face of disbelief. Eventually, he spoke, "That poison has run too deep in your body. We will have to continue your treatment for about another nine days. See you tomorrow." With that, Shadow closed his eyes and began to stabilize the Spirit Qi in his body.

"..." Huo Long was filled with an indescribable feeling of grief and despair. The despair that he was feeling right now could not be described in mere words.