After an hour of meticulous efforts, the seals on his core and primordial veins came undone. At once, waves of energy swept out like a tsunami, startling him. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to have rivers of Qi flow through his veins. He quickly began to circulate them around, trying his best to compress his energy and solidify his energy.

Another hour passed and he opened his eyes.

"There seems to be a very powerful source of pure spiritual energy and natural essence in this place. It doesn't take much effort to absorb and transform into soul power. It's also gentle to the body and non invasive. There must be a spiritual vein around here somewhere. If I don't take full advantage of it, it will be a very severe sin."

He shut his eyes and spread his consciousness around, sending it below the ground surface. His face lit up after a few minutes, and a broad smile spread on his face.

"Found it."

He quickly got up and ran to the slightly elevated point behind the orchard of immortal fruit trees. There was only a single sturdy tree on that small hill. The tree looked very old, almost as old as time itself. Its roots ran across the area forming very sturdy spots that could be used as benches. In the area, there were no other trees growing beside it. It seemed to have aggressively claimed the territory all by itself. Only a few herbs were scattered around it. However, those few herbs were doing very well for themselves, and had visible rings of spiritual energy around them.

"Big guy, you're quite territorial huh? Calling the dibs on the prime spot, you're more greedy than I am. Even these legendary immortal trees had to settle for the garden a distance away, making do with only a minor branch of the underground vein supplying heavenly essence to them while you hug the source all to yourself. What kind of tree are you anyway? I can't pull out anything from my memories about you. And there's no fruit on you. What exactly is your purpose for being here? What are you?"

Anthony waited for a while, as if he's waiting for the tree to answer his question, before he made way to a comfortable spot under the tree. He sat down and began to do what he knows best—looting spiritual energy.

He soon reached a state of absolute stillness and his mind became as calm as still waters, undisturbed. His breathing followed a regular pattern, and the concept of time became irrelevant to him. The energy was too abundant, but Anthony didn't want to rashly break through. He continued to filter and compress the qi in his body, till it turned to near solid. Qi is a form of energy rich in the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, that is in liquid form. However, Anthony kept compressing the one in his core till they formed into cubes. He would have extended his claws to his primordial veins, but the seal Lan Xuanyu put on him was still very much effective. He might have removed the ones he placed himself, but he had no way of tackling that of Lan Xuanyu.

Golden wisps of energy began to form around Anthony, and they were coiling around him, with some entangling with each other. Anthony couldn't see his current surroundings, but strands of energy from the surrounding herbs were oozing into his body alongside the golden strands of energy. He could vaguely feel energy from varying sources enter his body and entangle in his core. Soon, Anthony's compressed energy reached the optimum level, and couldn't condense any further, otherwise it could be fatal.

However, the energy strands from the spiritual vein didn't stop flowing into his body, nor the one from the surrounding plants. He felt a cracking in his core, as if something was about to burst open. A storm was raging within him, and it took everything in him to remain sane and keep a tight leash on his energy to prevent them from going haywire. With the level of bone crushing and muscle tearing pain he was feeling, like a thousand strikes of daggers to the heart, it was a miracle that he retained his sanity.

The pain was more terrible than that of one's tendons being pulled out, such that sweat covered every inch of his skin, despite the nourishing breeze and energy from the surrounding plants.

Kacha! Pu tong.

The sounds came too suddenly inside of him, and the pain multiplied intensely for a while, making him bite his lips till it bled. As if a dam broke in his body, energy gushed through his meridians, rushing to his core, while some found their way to his two primordial veins. The rate at which he absorbed energy from the environment multiplied by twenty, and visible wisps of energy were drawn into his body, forming a tsunami inside his body. A burst of white-golden light went up to the sky, same time he let out a dragon roar, his eyes turning a terrifying shade of gold and red.

At once, thunder gathered above him, clouding the previously clear sky. The first one landed, then the second… the tenth, and he punched at the sky, sending the thunder back. He kept absorbing wisps of thunder, not minding the injuries it left on him. The injuries healed fast anyway, within a minute, the older ones disappear and get replaced by new ones.

Like one possessed, Anthony opened his mouth in a roar to the skies, as if challenging the heavens. This act seemed to have annoyed the thunder for it multiplied in intensity. Anthony opened his mouth wide, and raised a hand to the sky, trapping all the descending thunder. He directed the raging thunder to his mouth and swallowed him in, acting crazy like his brother. His muscles and veins became taut and overstretched, as if they were going to burst anytime soon. Anthony quickly began to circulate energy faster.

Kacha! An ear splitting sound went off in his mind, startling him.

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