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Wujang Prefecture, within a mysterious stone chamber.
A young man, bare-chested, swallowed a crimson medicinal pill and sat cross-legged, regulating his breath.
Once his mana ebbed fiercely, reddish mist rose above his head, continuously morphing, seeming to want to condense into a red lotus. However, after several transformations, the red lotus above his head ultimately failed to take shape entirely, terminating inches from success, and he spat out a mouthful of reverse-flowing blood.
The grand door to the stone chamber was suddenly pushed open by a middle-aged scholar.
"Teng'er, are you alright, did the breakthrough fail?" the middle-aged scholar hurried to the young man's side to help him up, saying with heartache.
In the glow of the Luminous Pearl, a teardrop-shaped, blood-colored mark was especially striking above the young man's left chest.
"I'm sorry, Father. I still haven't managed to break through the Qi Refinement Realm and enter the True Person Realm."
