After lunch, he focused on refining his meridians until dinner time, as raising his cultivation level was his second priority.
Time passed, and it wasn’t until late at night that he finished refining a total of three meridians.
Afterwards, he once again went back to comprehending the Crimson Fire Arts for a couple of hours before finally calling it a night at three in the morning.
The same routine repeated itself for several days, and it was on the night of the fifteenth day that he suddenly opened his eyes.
His eyes that should have been exhausted after focusing for several hours were instead beaming with light.
"My comprehension percentage finally reached 50%!" Yi Chen exclaimed in excitement while clenching his fists.
The next second, not wanting to waste a single second, he attempted to form the fire ring.
Suddenly, the area around him turned warmer and warmer, and an acrid smell pervaded the air.
The anticipation in his heart rose by a huge degree as this familiar smell entered his nostrils and he further focused his attention on the tiny particles of elemental Qi present all around him and separated the one of fire from it.
Soon, a spark ignited in the air right in front of his eyes, which soon turned to a burning flame.
Taking a deep breath, he controlled it with his mind and formed four more such flames in a circular fashion before attempting to connect them with great concentration.
His whole face was covered in sweat because of the heat, but he kept at it as his narrowed eyes tried hard to look directly at the flames and to connect them in the fashion as required.
"I’ve done it! It’s done!"
He exclaimed in hysteria when he saw the completed ring of fire and threw his arms in the air in excitement.
The fire ring was the same size as his head and was currently hovering in front of his eyes.
He played with the fire ring when he calmed down, attempting to move it from one place to another and found his Comprehension percentage rising at a visible rate, which brought a wide smile on his face.
With this ring finally made, he was no longer racing against time. He had completed the test ahead of the deadline of three months. What was even better was the fact that two months were still left until the deadline!
While he was thinking about how to bring this matter to Elder Lei’s notice tomorrow morning, a sudden string of thought entered his mind.
’Although Elder Lei had only told me to make a single ring, what if I show him more than one before the deadline? Won’t his expression be worth seeing?’
Yi Chen thought with a mischievous expression. A desire to see a lively expression on that stern face of Elder Lei started taking root in his heart the next moment, which finally prompted him to make a decision.
"It’s decided then," He muttered with a smile and went back to comprehending the absorption art.
He had already refined two meridians today, which had become his new limit after successfully advancing to the Third Level of Meridian Refinement Stage around a week ago.
He was a bit saddened to see his cultivation speed decrease. However, in the end, he had no choice but to accept it.
Time passed quietly, and focusing on comprehending the art for one and a half hours, he finally called it a night and went to sleep.
From the next day onwards, his schedule became a lot more balanced as there was no deadline hanging over his neck.
This also allowed him to discover something interesting. The comprehension buff was not just limited to helping him understand his absorption art faster. It was also helpful in increasing his proficiency in swordsmanship.
+1
Swish!
+0.5
Klanck!
+1
Thrust!
.
.
.
After every twenty or so deliberate slashes, he was seeing a single or half a point increase in his proficiency level, which was faster than he had ever seen, thus giving him a huge rise in dopamine.
As a result, he kept swinging the sword like a maniac until he was fully drenched in sweat. It was only when Qin Yao called him out several times to remind him that it was time to eat that he finally stopped swinging.
Yi Chen nodded with a bitter expression and soon went to freshen up first. In this one-and-a-half-hour training, his proficiency had risen by more than 100 points!
So, it was obvious that he would feel bitter when he needed to stop.
’If only I had more than twenty-four hours per day...’
He wished while taking a dip in the pool of warm water, and soon made his way to the kitchen to help Qin Yao out.
After lunch, he cultivated until seven in the evening.
Now that he had reached the third level, he noticed that the rate of his refining had decreased compared to before.
It was as if the impurities had become denser and were therefore taking additional time to be refined by his innate qi.
As a result, the previous time of two hours, which he used to take to refine one meridian, had jumped to four hours now.
After dinner, he buried himself in refining the next meridian until one in the morning and then spent another one and a half hours in increasing his understanding of the Crimson Fire Arts before going to sleep.
Fully invested in raising his cultivation, comprehension and swordsmanship proficiency, he stuck to the same routine in the weeks that followed.
One particular night, just a few days away from reaching Elder Lei’s deadline of three months, Yi Chen slowly opened his eyes.
A confident smile soon appeared on his face, and the next moment, four rings of flames, each the size of his head, began revolving around his head.
With this, he had exceeded Elder Lei’s expectation by a degree which he won’t be able to fathom.
’I just can’t wait to see the change in his expression tomorrow,’ Yi Chen thought with a smirk as he collapsed the rings with his thoughts the next moment.