Gang Xin cultivated for 2 whole days and nights before he broke through to the 4th star. The reason for his fast speed was because he had already reached that stage before, and now, he just had to supplement his tendons with enough energy.
However, for the 5th star, he reckoned it will be much more difficult. This was because not only was there a 1 star difference, and that he hadn't reached this level before, it was also because the 5th star was considered as medium stage in the Form Fighter cultivation realm.
A minor cultivation realm would stump many people. Some people might even get stuck on it for several years. Those who are lazy wouldn't even be able to cross the hurdle.
Thus, he didn't have the expectation that he would be able to cross it quickly.
'However, this place is not stimulating enough anymore' although the cultivation speed was still very fast, he felt that he could endure a harsher environment, thus meaning more speed.
Gang Xin then ascended a floor.
When he ascended several flights of stairs, he finally started feeling the difference in fire qi.
In here, he once again saw the same look as the first floor. Except that this time, people seemed more likely to have a pink skin, and blotches of red burn on their skin.
Here, Gang Xin cultivated once again. Sure enough, the consistency here seemed much rougher. A normal person would struggle even breathing here.
He cultivated for a day and night, before he once again felt that it was insufficient.
His Undying Phoenix needed more fire qi. More and more powerful fire qi. His body thirsted for more. Thus, he once again ascended.
And this time, more people noticed his actions.
"Look, didn't that kid just arrive recently? He's already entering the third floor?" the people that were there talked among themselves.
"Tsk, that kid is stupid thinking he's tough. He thinks the third floor is easy seeing how the second floor is."
"The lazy monkey trying to climb a cliff than walk the mountain, he will fall to his death"
They all shook his head as they cast disdainful gazes to Gang Xin. From what they thought, the kid might just be unable to descend down the flight of stairs, and die there.
Well, who cared? Although they belonged to the same clan, they had to undergo this torture for extended periods of time.
When people went through predicament, they didn't have time to care for other people. And especially their heart of sympathy disappeared first.
However, Gang Xin neither knew of this nor would he care if he did. He just ascended the stairs on his own, as he entered the third floor.
This time, there were indeed far less people here. And the people that were here either seemed like they were new or affected by the violent fire qi hugely.
However, he also saw something that puzzled him. There was an elder of the Gang Clan inside here. He recognized it through the belt he had.
He was sitting in a meditative position. From his attitude, he even seemed to be relaxing here.
The elder had a goatee, and looked old. He also looked dignified, thus Gang Xin guessed that he was some grand elder or something.
However, almost around the same time as Gang Xin ascended to the third floor, the elder also seemed to get up from his meditative position. At that moment, their eyes met.
The elder seemed very surprised at his appearance as he took a deep look at Gang Xin before walking toward the next flight of stairs. He didn't say anything.
As for Gang Xin, he only bowed his head a little bit, before continuing on.
As for the other people, they also took a glance at Gang Xin before returning back to what they were doing. It took almost all of their concentration just to efficiently guard against the energy here; they didn't have time to care about a young kid looking to injure himself.
Gang Xin was the same. He didn't bother others as he went to an empty area, and started practicing the Undying Phoenix.
He was instantly satisfied with the results that he got. The fire qi even seemed to be gathering towards him on their own.
Seeing this sight, the others were instantly intrigued.
"Is that kid insane? Is he trying to burn himself alive?" one middled aged man muttered to himself.
The other crimedoers also noticed this sight. They started to distance themselves. After all, staying next to such a person would make it harder for them to resist the fire qi.
However, compared to the people that distanced themselves, there was one anomaly.
Defying the trend, a person with pinkish red hair instead opted to get closer to Gang Xin. He was also not much older than Gang Xin, probably around the same age too.
At this moment, there were patches of red burns on his skin and his skin's color even seemed to get closer to the color of his hair.
He didn't get too close though. Instead, after closing with his eyes for some time, he settled in a very specific place as he began to also practice his cultivation technique.
Gang Xin had also noticed this peculiar sight. He slightly narrowed his eyes as he looked at this person, before turning his attention back to cultivating.
Because Gang Xin could sense the fire qi more clearly than others, he could understand why he chose to get closer to him instead. This person was smart.
The others thought because he was attracting the corrupt fire qi, they would be more at risk being closer to him. However, this wasn't entirely true. Instead, in specific places, *because* he was attracting the fire qi, there would be a thinner density of fire qi.
The reason was that because he wasn't just attracting fire qi like a magnet, and instead utilizing cultivation technique, the attraction wouldn't be consistent and would instead have a specific flow to it.
Almost like how functions worked. You give specific x values, and you get the corresponding y values back.
And this guy just managed to find the spot where the derivative, or the rate of change of where the fire qi was being attracted at was the lowest.