Chapter 519: Chapter 519

Holding the small creature in his arms gave Han Yu a strange sense of grounding. It reminded him that not everything had been taken from him yet.

Once he was sure Chitterfang was safe, Han Yu turned his attention to the other set of robes: the black and red ones. He knew they had belonged to the man he had fought. With the bodies gone, this was the only thing left that might tell him more about his enemy.

The robes were heavier and sturdier than his own, made from some kind of spiritual beast hide woven together with some kind of spirit silk. As he shifted them aside, he found two items.

The first was a sword, the same one his opponent had wielded during their fight. The second was a small silver ring, plain but carved with delicate runes around its surface.

Han Yu picked up the sword first. It was surprisingly light in his hands, perfectly balanced. The edge gleamed faintly in the moonlight, unmarred despite the intense battle. Not a single dent or scratch marred its surface. Only the blood and dirt covering it reduced its charm by a bit.

He swung it once experimentally, feeling the clean cut of air it made. "High grade…" he murmured. "Better than anything I've used before."

Setting the sword aside, he examined the ring next. It was simple, unadorned, but the craftsmanship was unmistakably fine. He could feel faint spiritual fluctuations coming from within, confirming that it was indeed a storage ring.

The runes etched across its band shimmered faintly, lines of spiritual light pulsing softly as if alive.

He knew that storage rings could be designed in two ways, some would automatically unlock upon the death of the owner, while others would seal themselves permanently. There was no way to tell which kind this was without trying to probe it with his Qi.

He hesitated for a brief moment, then sighed. "Only one way to find out."

He steadied his breathing and prepared to channel a thread of Qi into the ring. But just as he did, a strange sensation washed over him.

His entire body vibrated faintly. He could feel energy coursing through his meridians with an intensity that was foreign, stronger than before. His Dantian pulsed, deeper and heavier.

Han Yu froze. His eyes widened.

"What…" he whispered. He placed a hand on his chest, focusing inward. The flow of Qi inside him was faster, more refined. He could feel the density of spiritual energy swirling within him far greater than what he remembered.

Then the realization struck him like thunder.

"My cultivation base… it increased!?"

He stared blankly at his hands, almost unable to believe it. He could clearly sense it, his Qi core was no longer at the early stage of Core Condensation. It had advanced. It had reached the Mid Stage of the Core Condensation realm!

The Undying Life Charm had not only revived him... it had strengthened him.

Han Yu sat back in stunned silence, staring at the faintly glowing silver ring in his hand, the weight of everything that had just happened pressing down on him.

Somewhere deep inside, despite his fear and exhaustion, a faint spark of determination began to burn again.

Han Yu stood in the faint moonlight, the silver glow of the night washing over his bare skin. The stillness of the marsh clearing pressed upon him like a weight, broken only by the soft rustle of wind against the marsh reeds and the faint chirping of distant crickets.

His chest rose and fell in slow, deliberate breaths as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

That alone should have been enough to make him fall to his knees in relief, but the realization of his cultivation breakthrough still lingered in his mind like a stubborn echo.

Mid stage Core Condensation Realm. He could feel it distinctly, the flow of energy within his body stronger and more refined than before. Every breath he took drew in a trace of spiritual energy from the air, and it hummed through his veins like a second pulse.

He closed his eyes, sitting back down on the soft soil and began to examine himself further.

He channeled his Qi through his meridians slowly, letting it trace the path through his limbs and core. What he felt astonished him even more. His meridians were wider. Not just slightly, but significantly.

The pathways that had once strained under heavy Qi flow were now open and resilient, as if reforged through divine tempering. Not just that but his core was also a lot more dense, showing that he had firmly reached the Mid Stage of the Core Condensation realm.

This wasn't like someone having just broken through, but someone who had been in the stage for a while and had stabilized it entirely. It was at the point where charging into the Late Stage would not be out of the question with some more time.

He also checked his Soul Cultivation and entered his Soul Space. There was no change to it, other than the amount of Soul qi having reduced by half, probably due to his use of the Soul petrifying Glare earlier.

His Soul Core, the Eight Emotions Lotus was also the same, albeit a silent. Perhaps still recovering from the revival.

"What… what kind of rebirth is this?" he whispered, his own voice low and uncertain.

Opening his eyes again, he began to inspect his body more carefully.

Under the pale moonlight, his skin appeared almost luminous, smooth and completely unblemished. Not a single scar remained, not even the faint burn marks he had earned from some exploding alchemy cauldrons in the sect. Official source ıs novel[f]ire.net

His skin looked so flawless that it almost felt wrong.

He turned his hands over, watching how the light glinted off them. The skin was soft, unnaturally so, like that of a newborn. His fingers seemed longer than before, his palms broader. Han Yu frowned, flexing his hand into a fist. There was more power there, he could feel it in the way his tendons shifted under the skin, the way his muscles responded.