No matter how fierce the punch, not only did it have no effect when slammed, but it also caused the Great Strength Divine Ape itself to be shaken until its whole body ached.
The Great Strength Divine Ape was almost infuriated to death. It swore that once the human came out, it would definitely capture the fellow alive and then force him to reveal how to enter this building.
Ling Xiao had made a breakthrough.
He had broken through from the peak of the Martial Vein Quadruple Layer to the Martial Pulse Fifth Level, and because his Gang Qi was already saturated before, this breakthrough directly reached the late stages of the Martial Pulse Fifth Level, approaching the pinnacle.
His Gang Qi hadn’t increased much, still around the peak of the Sixth Layer of Martial Meridians.
However, the quality of the Gang Qi had obviously improved, which meant his attack power had also reached the level of a martial artist at the early Sixth Level Martial Veins.
His defense had likewise improved to the level of a martial artist at the early Sixth Level Martial Veins.
All of this, naturally, was informed by the analytic ability of the Mountain and River Martial Soul. After all, he himself was mortally eyesighted and unlikely to see so clearly.
Frankly, even he himself was startled by the scene of his recent breakthrough, which emitted a thunderous noise.
Fortunately, there were no accidents.
But since he had just broken through and aspects were still not stable enough, he didn’t stop but began to consolidate his cultivation level.
This breakthrough to the late Fifth Level Martial Pulse had not come easily. He had to stabilize his strength; if it were unstable, he might face a significant decline in his cultivation level if he were injured.
A long time passed, and night gave way to daylight.
Ling Xiao opened his eyes, which were bright and spirited.
If one looked closely, they would find that within his pupils, it seemed as though a world existed.
By now, his cultivation level had completely stabilized at the late stage of Martial Pulse Fifth Level.
In terms of combat power, he was not at all inferior to a martial artist at the early Sixth Level Martial Veins, with even greater endurance.
If he encountered those three who had attempted to kill him before, he could effortlessly eliminate them all.
In just over two days, his strength had seen a terrifying enhancement.
Upon advancing to the Martial Pulse Fifth Level, the Mountain and River Martial Soul bestowed upon him a new ability—
This ability could utilize Gang Qi to condense an avatar without a consciousness of its own, an avatar possessing one-third the strength of the original body.
Of course, all this was not important.
What was important was that after integrating the analysis and practicing ability of the Mountain and River Martial Soul, the avatar could perfectly imitate any martial arts used by anyone Ling Xiao had seen.
From now on, finding a sparring partner would be much easier.
That was the crucial function of this avatar. As for combat, being just half the strength, it basically couldn’t play much of a role.
In the current situation, it probably could only display the level of a martial artist at the early Third Layer Martial Veins.
The avatar wasn’t much use in battle but could act as a scapegoat when needed.
Because the aura of this avatar was exactly the same as his, it could be recondensed after being destroyed, so there was no worry about it being ruined.
This also counted as another method of saving one’s life.
"Having stayed here for nearly three days, the final contest is about to begin; I must figure out how to get out."
Although he was eager to continue cultivating here, the final contest was similarly meaningful to him.
Besides, with the Mountain and River World at his disposal, he could completely transfer all the Cold-Pond Golden Fluid and the Xue Lian into the Mountain and River World, enabling him to continue cultivating after returning.
Thus, he could no longer delay.
However, when Ling Xiao got to the exit, his brows furrowed tightly.
"Damn it, Great Strength Divine Ape, having waited for so long, you still refuse to relent. Do you really intend to wait until death?"
Even though he was very uncomfortable, Ling Xiao had no solution.
Even now, with his greatly increased strength, the possibility of escaping from underneath the Great Strength Divine Ape’s grasp was practically nonexistent.
Having no choice, he simply went back to continue cultivating.
Perhaps he could use this opportunity to raise his cultivation level to the Peak of Fifth Level Martial Pulse, advancing the Nine Rotations Golden Body Technique to the sixth rotation.
Thinking this, he gritted his teeth and decisively returned to resume his cultivation.
He plunged once more into the Cold Pond’s Golden Fluid.
Ling Xiao adhered to the previous methods, simultaneously cultivating the Snow Lotus Qi Technique and the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique.
The former became quite difficult to advance after reaching the fifth layer.
The latter likewise saw challenging progress after the fifth rotation.
Thankfully, the presence of the Cold Pond Golden Fluid was a boon, otherwise, who knows how long it would have taken to improve.
The golden fluid and the cold air entered his body simultaneously, then were both processed and absorbed by the two top-tier martial arts, repeatedly transforming Ling Xiao’s physique.
Additionally, a faint breath entered his soul, continuously fortifying it.
He could feel that the strength of his soul was perhaps more than double that of an ordinary person.
The direct benefits of a powerful soul were the enhancement of comprehension, courage, and willpower.
Of course, it would have been even better if there were soul-related secret techniques to practice.
Because in that case, soul power could be utilized as a means of attack.
With the accelerated operation of the Mountain and River Martial Soul, Ling Xiao’s cultivation speed continued to rise, and every cell in his body was thriving.
Legends from ancient times suggested that a great being once researched the human body and concluded that it contained one hundred trillion cells.
Every second, more than a hundred million cells would die and be reborn.
The ultimate end of cultivation was to transform all cells into energy cells, at which realm, as long as one cell survived, martial artists could achieve immortality.
However, this research had remained merely a legend; no one had truly confirmed it.
At that moment, however, Ling Xiao could distinctly feel that the cells within his own body were undergoing some special changes.
One cell gradually turned golden-yellow and achieved immortality.
What was most terrifying was that the transformation of this single cell directly increased Ling Xiao’s physical strength by a hundred catties.
What an astounding concept this was.
The second cell turned golden-yellow, and his strength increased by another hundred catties.
By the time the fifth cell transformed into a golden-yellow color, the process slowed down, seemingly indicating that an even greater amount of energy was needed to progress further—an amount that Ling Xiao had yet to attain.
Yet, with merely five cells turning golden-yellow, Ling Xiao’s strength had increased by five hundred catties, reaching a terrifying two thousand catties in total.
Unbeknownst to him, time flew swiftly by, and two days hurriedly passed.
During this period, Ling Xiao’s Snow Lotus Qi Technique advanced to the sixth layer. Although his cultivation level did not progress further, it was thoroughly stabilized at the late stage of the Fifth-level Martial Pulse.
To his delight, the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique had unexpectedly broken through from the fifth to the sixth rotation.
The fifth rotation signified a small success, while the sixth rotation marked a new beginning, bestowing an enhancement more formidable than the sum of the previous five levels.
After all, the first five rotations were merely foundational, representing the Elementary Realm and constituting a passive defensive improvement.
Once the cultivation reached the sixth rotation, one’s robust physique was not only resistant to swords and spears, but it could also be utilized to execute various martial skills while maintaining that state.
Transforming defense into offense, that was when things got interesting.
To put it plainly, his current Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique was both defensive and offensive martial arts, somewhat similar to techniques like Vajra Palm, only much more potent.
The only drawback was the lack of variability; it still significantly differed from Falling Star Fist in that respect.
But regardless, the Ling Xiao who had cultivated to the sixth rotation, when facing martial artists of the same realm, most would plainly be unable to breach his defenses.
Only someone with exceptional talent or in possession of special weapons or special martial arts might possibly injure him.
Yet even so, the damage inflicted would be greatly reduced.