Gazing at Elsa before him, Zhou Bai thought for a moment and pointed at the somewhat deformed steel column, saying, "Elsa, bite it."
Elsa looked at the steel column, then back at Zhou Bai, her eyes seeming to say, are you treating me like a dumb dog?
Zhou Bai helplessly stroked Elsa’s head, "Go up and try biting that column. I want to see how your body is doing now."
Then he saw Elsa happily dash up to it and started tearing and biting at the steel column.
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Zhou Bai suddenly widened his eyes and saw that under Elsa’s tearing and biting, tooth marks and scratches kept appearing on the steel column and, in the end, a large chunk of it was even bitten off.
Continuing with test after test, Zhou Bai immediately discovered, to his surprise, that Elsa’s physical fitness had grown even more than he had estimated.
Though her strength was not comparable to his, she had probably surpassed some of those cultivators at the 0th realm who didn’t focus much on physical cultivation.
And if it was a short sprint, those four legs of hers could run even slightly faster than him.
"Elsa, good girl," he said, stroking her head, Zhou Bai mused inwardly, "With this, Elsa can also be considered a force to be reckoned with, though not usually needed. Only, it’s uncertain how much her combat strength will increase after she becomes bigger."
But Zhou Bai thought about it and decided to let it go; unless necessary, it’s better not to let Elsa grow larger.
"It’s just unknown what the principle behind this strength increase is, and whether there will be any hidden dangers or side effects."
Unfortunately, Doctor Zhuang had died, and the secrets he left behind were temporarily out of Zhou Bai’s reach, so he could only wait and see in the future.
In the next two days, Zhou Bai’s Primordial Spirit value had reached the peak of 999, and he didn’t enhance the Primordial Spirit value. Instead, he just slept, read books, and sometimes went to the training room to throw a couple of punches, but the aura around him was increasingly settling.
During this period, he hadn’t enhanced his Dao Conversion Degree and had been maintaining it at the level of 5.1%, even being surpassed by Christina who had caught up from behind.
Finally, one night, he went to the library and borrowed Dao Collection 05.
"It’s time to start enhancing my Dao Conversion Degree."
Zhou Bai narrowed his eyes, suddenly lay down on the ground, then opened Dao Collection 05, and began to read its content.
The room’s lighting dimmed slightly, the Heavenly Dao distortion encountered this time while reading Dao Collection 05 was clearly far less than the last time.
Zhou Bai felt very relaxed, his thoughts swift, without any blockage.
’Is it because in these more than one and a half months, I’ve fully adapted to a 5.1% Dao Conversion Degree?’
A night passed, and Zhou Bai repeatedly recited the content of Dao Collection 05. When he left the meditation room in the morning, his Dao Conversion Degree had been pushed up to 5.5% in one breath.
He rubbed the space between his eyebrows, feeling his somewhat excited Primordial Spirit power gradually calming down, thinking to himself, "Now, both my Primordial Spirit and physique are almost maximally strong at the 0th layer, and having adapted to the 5.1% Dao Conversion Degree for so long, reading the Dao Collection again indeed felt incredibly easy."
Zhou Bai coolly assessed his current state, "Now, I have the capital to proceed with vigorous and meticulous progress. Perhaps before the assessment two weeks from now, I might even try for a breakthrough to the 1st realm."
So in the following days, Zhou Bai slept during the day, idling away, then at night studied and relaxed with Jing Xiu. He did not read any profound Daoist scriptures, just casually reading historical records related to the past hundred years, treating it as a way to relax his mind.
Only after midnight did he begin to read the Dao Collection, silently enhancing his Dao Conversion Degree.
A week of time passed in mundane cultivation.
Zhou Bai lay in the meditation room, sensing the lively Primordial Spirit power in his mind, seemingly constantly moving and pulsing on its own, as if it was about to leap out from the sea of consciousness at any moment.
Over the course of a week, Zhou Bai managed to increase his Dao Integration from 5.5% to 8.9%. With an incredibly robust physique and the power of his Primordial Spirit, the entire process was smooth and unimpeded.
He felt that the power of his Primordial Spirit seemed to become more agile and lively, extending its control to more than 30 meters away.
Even the Divine Diagram had enhanced, incrementally strengthening his physical resilience, recovery, and the defensive power when standing, sitting, or laying down.
"According to the description in the Dao Scriptures, once Dao Integration breaks through 10% and reaches the first realm, the Primordial Spirit becomes more agile and one can cultivate the Protective Gang Qi around the body, greatly increasing one’s survival capabilities."
At this moment, Zhou Bai’s Dao Integration hadn’t reached 10%, but he could already feel the Primordial Spirit’s power becoming more and more active, as if always trying to leap out of the Sea of Consciousness.
Zhou Bai soothed the lively power of his Primordial Spirit bit by bit. Feeling that it was about ready, he opened Dao Treasury 09, intending to break through to Dao Integration of 9.0% in one go today.
"Heaven’s laws are rigid and dynamic, while Earth’s nature is compliant and still. Qi flows naturally; when Heaven and Earth are aligned, Yin and Yang energies meet and thus all worms with shells, scales, hair, feathers, and armor come into being..."
This time, while reading Dao Treasury 09, Zhou Bai did not experience the smooth sensation of before.
Almost as soon as he finished the first sentence, Zhou Bai felt the entire room fall silent, all other sounds seeming to drift away, even the sound of his own breath, which he couldn’t hear anymore.
The room was eerily quiet and unsettlingly still.
As he read deeper, Zhou Bai felt an intense sensation of suffocation wash over him, as if he was unable to breathe.
Breathing is a human instinct.
The feeling of suffocation triggers the fear of death, touching upon the fragile side of the human heart.
Nearly every human who falls into suffocation will lose control and struggle desperately.
And now, the strong sense of suffocation caused Zhou Bai to feel panic. The sensation of not being able to breathe in any air, no matter how much he gasped with his mouth or nose, caused him a great discomfort.
Zhou Bai had the impulse to immediately set down the Dao Treasury and start breathing.
However, Zhou Bai was no longer the ignorant man he used to be. His strong physique and Primordial Spirit endowed him with a robust spiritual will and, coupled with a mountain-like resistance, even though the feeling of suffocation grew stronger, he did not stop.
’Don’t pay attention. Don’t mind any abnormalities.’
’Continue reading.’
As he continued to read Dao Treasury with difficulty, Zhou Bai noticed the lights in the room dimming, until, with a flicker, the room plunged into complete darkness once again.
It seemed like the entire world had vanished, and only Zhou Bai’s own reading voice echoed in the room.
But due to the sense of suffocation, Zhou Bai found his own reading voice to sound hoarse, carrying an undertone of resentment and toxicity.
’Is this really my own voice reading?’
Just then, the distant sound of waves started to arise.
’Seawater?’
As soon as this thought emerged in his head, Zhou Bai immediately braked, refocusing his attention back on Dao Treasury 09 in his hands.
But the next moment, as the sound of the waves became clearer, Zhou Bai suddenly felt a chill at his feet, as if seawater had spread over them, caressing them like a woman’s hands.
The suffocation became even more intense, and Zhou Bai felt something heavy pressing against his chest. The sound of him reading the Dao Treasury echoed in his ears – resentful, hoarse, and deep, sounding like some creature forcibly learning to mimic human speech, not at all like Zhou Bai’s own voice.