Chapter 84 - Jumping to the Peak!
Peng Hai raised his eyebrows and, with a look of surprise, stared at Li Yao.
Li Yao clenched his teeth, mustered up his courage, and directly received Peng Hai's gaze.
After a moment, a smile appeared on Peng Hai's face. He relaxed his whole body before nodding. "Alright, little brother. You are very interesting. I will let you see what a High Level Building Foundation Stage cultivator is like!"
Peng Hai raised his hand as a translucent spirit glyph flew out from his palm towards Li Yao's head.
"Bang!"
With a thunderous bang, the spirit glyph exploded into pieces before streams of light flew around Li Yao's body, coiling around his body and congealing into a transparent shield.
Li Yao knew it was the spiritual energy force field that would prevent him from getting injured by the spiritual energy waves.
"I usually suppress my strength to 3%, which is equivalent to a common martial artist. That's why you don't feel any expert-like aura from me; however, so long as I have 0.001 seconds, I can become like this —"
Peng Hai's pair of eyes opened wide as he took a long, deep breath. His entire body suddenly doubled in size. His muscles expanded as if air was blown into them, and each and every one of his blood vessels were thick and sturdy like a python that had completely wrapped around his body, moving up and down as the blood coursed through the vein.
Just a moment ago, that ordinary looking man with a tall and thin physique had turned into a super muscular man with a physique of over two meters high in an instant. Even his skin that was as hard as iron and as bronze as copper faintly reflected an oppressive kind of gloss.
Peng Hai's voice too was now incomparably hoarse as well as deep and resonant.
"Now, I have only exerted approximately 7% of strength, which is the limit to which I can stimulate and fortify my flesh and blood. This is the pinnacle state which a human body can attain and is also known as the coup de maître of a martial artist! A step further and I will have no choice but to arouse the spiritual root to absorb the world spiritual energy and use it to further strengthen the body. This is the so-called 'Refinement of Energy'!"
While speaking, Peng Hai's stature suddenly shrank down and once again turned into a tall and thin figure. However, on the top of his head, a faint splendor was flowing, proliferating invisible ripples one by one. Each ripple was like a huge ripple which spread in all directions with Peng Hai as the center.
A faint black mist surged out from all 36,000 pores of his body and lingered around him to create a hideous-looking armor of spiritual energy. The entire armor appeared to be glistening in a faint blood-red glow.
"This is 12% of my strength, then 13%, 14%..."
Peng Hai, while smiling, very slowly and unperturbedly increased his strength as round after round of the black mist around his body continued to spread, completely enveloping an area with a radius of a few dozen meters. A black falcon rose from the black mist as it opened its wings, eclipsing over a hundred meters in the sky.
"This is the Peak Refinement Stage strength that you saw a while ago — Next is the Building Foundation Stage!"
Peng Hai's pair of eyes opened wide as he let out a deafening shout. Meanwhile, the black falcon once again metamorphosed into a group of black mist. Afterward, the black mist turned into strands of black silk which retreated back into his body in an instant!
Peng Hai's pair of eyes turned as dark as an abyss; they were like a deep ancient well, like the dark sky during an eclipse!
The facial expression on his face now was extremely cold and indifferent; it was without any trace of humanity. The land beneath his feet continued to crack and create a huge spider web-like fissures within a radius of a couple hundred meters!
In an instant, Peng Hai's hair became long as his feet left the ground and his body floated in the air. Even in the absence of wind, his long hair kept on swaying on its own. It seemed extremely wild. The black mist from his pores once again spread all over the place, turning even denser, darker, and terrifying as it ran amok in all direction.
Li Yao, even after hiding inside the spiritual energy force field, could still feel the overwhelming strength which continued to surge out from Peng Hai in a steady flow.
"Bang Bang!"
Deafening explosions rang as the black mist madly crashed into the spiritual energy force field!
This kind of power had the ability to shake the heavens and the earth, a power which Li Yao absolutely could not withstand. He had a feeling — if not for the shelter of the spiritual energy force field, under Peng Hai's aura, he might have been grinded into minced meat within a half second.
Peng Hai stood tall and erect in the sky. His pair of eyes were now completely black, one could not find a single trace of white in his eyes.
Around his body, a pure black force field of spiritual energy had already taken shape. Countless number of stones ripped out the ground, rose into the air, and started orbiting around his force field.
A hint of strange smile floated on Peng Hai's face. "This is high level of the Building Foundation Stage. However... this is still not my limit!"
Just as the last word spelled out from his mouth, Peng Hai let out a wild roar. His pair of eyes became like a black sun from which an incomparably dark aura continued to surge out.
Li Yao was completely unable to describe everything he saw. He never knew that "Darkness" could be so "Dazzling"!
"Crack, Crack!"
Countless black electric currents appeared around Peng Hai, madly swimming around his body to create a second layer of spiritual energy force field. In contrast, much to Li Yao’s surprised, Peng Hai’s long ebony colored hair had turned dark golden, as if his head was full of dancing golden snakes as they stood erect from the roots of his hair!
"Crack, Crack!"
One after another, cracks began to appear in the space before Li Yao as criss-cross cracks spread rapidly in every direction.
Finally, the spiritual energy force field was unable to resist the terrifying aura coming from Peng Hai — it was about to collapse!
"A step stronger than the high level of Building Foundation Stage!!! This… this is the peak of Building Foundation Stage!"
Seeing all this, Li Yao became muddle-headed as if he were a drunkard. Only god knew when he had started to tightly clench his fists to the point where his nails dug into the flesh of his palms. Despite this, Li Yao didn’t feel anything. He was completely immersed in the spiritual energy storm produced by Peng Hai!
"I want to become a cultivator like him. I'll definitely become a cultivator like him!"
Li Yao madly shouted deep within his heart.
Finally——
The spiritual energy storm raged for three seconds before Peng Hai withdrew the force field as all his aura returned back to his body. He reverted back to the ordinary human form — the 3% state.
"Brother Hai, you've actually cultivated to peak level of the Building Foundation Stage!?" Li Yao excitement held no bounds.
"No, I can occasionally burst out with the strength of a peak level of Building Foundation Stage cultivator but it can only last for a few seconds. It still can not be considered as having reached the peak of Building Foundation Stage." Peng Hai shook his head.
"This is still very terrifying. The complete strength exerted by a Building Foundation Stage cultivator is truly fearsome!"
As Li Yao recalled the scene from a moment ago, he was deeply shocked.
Peng Hai calmly smiled and said, "Although that was my highest state, I didn't have an ounce of 'killing intent' in my heart. Isn’t that frightening? If it was a real battlefield where I’m facing vicious demon beasts, my killing intent would burst out. And if I was facing someone of same level, my strength can further elevated by three to five times. Coupled with a peerless divine weapon... now that would be truly fearsome!"
"Can strengthen again by three to five times?"
Li Yao was so awed that he couldn't speak. He was completely flabbergasted; he was simply unable to imagine that kind of scene.
Peng Hai laughed in a jovial manner, patted Li Yao's shoulder, and, without turning his head, walked towards transmission formation. "You better cultivate well, little brother. The road of cultivation is still very long. One day, when you will arrive at my level, then you'll know!"
Li Yao stared for a long time.
Under the changing gravitational field, his breathing would sometimes become rapid, sometimes heavy, sometimes slow; it was ever-changing within the gravitational field.
However, in the end, his breathing would still remain even.
Towards the disappearing silhouette of Peng Hai in the transmission formation, Li Yao sent out a powerful punch as a smile brimming with confidence appeared on his face.
"Brother Hai, I will cultivate well and catch up to you soon!"