Void Cultivation-Chapter 167- A Hidden Level
When Grey’s eyelids finally parted, the darkness that greeted him was dense enough to feel physical. It draped over him like a damp shroud. The air inside the cavern was thick with humidity, each breath slightly warm and laden with the scent of wet stone and moss. The ground beneath him felt slick and uneven, cool moisture seeping into his skin. His clothes, already tattered from battle, clung coldly to his body, soaked through as though he had been lying in the cave far longer than he realized.
His mind was foggy, drifting between consciousness and dream for several breaths before awareness slowly settled. The darkness around him shifted, sharpening into vague outlines of curved walls, faint droplets sliding down rock, a soft glimmer of light from somewhere deep within the cavern.
Grey stiffened, breath catching. The figure was wrapped in brilliant red robes that seemed to glow faintly even in the gloom. Long, silky strands of crimson hair flowed across his torso and down to the cave floor, vibrant like newly spilled blood. Her lashes were long, her eyebrows curved upward in a manner that gave her an impish charm.
And when you put it all together with her cute and petite looking face, you would take her for a mischievous little girl.
The moment Grey saw this girl curled up on his chest, his first thought was to wave his arm and blast her away from his body. But he found that he could barely raise his hand. His body was extremely weak. He had reverted back to his real appearance but his face was very pale.
In surprise, Grey tried to circulate the Qi in his body, but found that pain actually erupted from deep within his body. That pain came from his solar plexus.
"What happened... Why can’t I circulate my Qi?" Grey said to himself. His voice was rough and hoarse and sounding like the grating of iron against iron.
In confusion, Grey entered his Spirit sea and was met with a baffling sight!
His Spirit sea had disappeared! The large amount of Spirit energy that transformed into a large expanse of water had disappeared.
Where once an endless, shimmering ocean of Spirit Energy stretched beneath the purple moon, there was now only... desolation. Cracked and lifeless earth spread out infinitely, resembling an ancient desert long abandoned by the heavens. The air felt dry, thin, suffocating. The wind that usually carried faint waves of energy now stirred nothing but dust.
Now all that remained was a dry land with a purple moon hanging over the dry desert. Small patches of water could be seen on the desert which represented his Spirit sea, but those patches were very small and very easy to overlook.
But because this was his Spirit sea, and the Spirit energy inside had suddenly disappeared, he would naturally not overlook the small patches of spirit energy in the dry desert.
Grey’s concern for what happened to his Spirit sea was so strong that he did not notice that the Purple moon hanging over the now dry spirit sea shone with even more light than usual.
In a secluded space in his Spirit sea, Grey could see a huge ball of white flames that was restricted by several seals of purple seals. Those seals would occasionally be broken by the sheer heat of the white flames, but in the next moment, another seal will appear to take the place of the old one that was broken.
This cycle continued for a long time without end. Grey watched this and knew that it was the Divine flames from a Divine Creature that he had gazed upon with his perception several months ago.
Till now, those flames were still burning brightly as ever. Their might was so strong that they could set his entire Spirit sea ablaze the moment the purple seals let up.
But there was nothing in his Spirit sea for the flames to burn anyway...
Grey’s expression grew grim as he surveyed the entirety of his dark and desolate Spirit sea, but found nothing other than the purple moon, and the Divine flames in his Spirit sea.
In the end he sighed and his consciousness returned to his body. "So I reached the Tenth level of Qi Accumulation... Normally, I should be preparing to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm any time soon." Grey hissed in pain.
"But pushing myself past my limits and breaking through when my body was already breaking down has made me very weak and my spirit sea scanty. If I try to break through, I might as well be killing myself. Not to talk of the pain that I feel in my solar plexus... My internal injuries are very grave and require a long time to heal." Grey’s voice was hoarse and low in the humid cave, but a bright glint could be seen shining in his eyes.
"Before I fell unconscious, I remember saying ’Do you see what I see?’ Why would I say that?" Grey pondered. "The Foundation Establishment expert should be dead after that final sword slash... But I did not see his body. I should have been covered by the desert by now after I fell unconscious..." Grey muttered in a low voice as he tried to circulate his Spirit energy, but with every cycle, sharp pain would erupt in Grey’s solar plexus and he would break out into cold sweat. But enduring the pain, Grey continued to cultivate until he finished ten cycles. At this moment, his body was completely wet and soaked in his own sweat.
A pained expression could be seen on his face as he gritted his teeth to sit down. The red haired girl was still clinging to his chest. Grey had not thrown her away yet because he was still extremely weak, and because she gave him a strong sense of familiarity.
As he struggled to sit down in a cross-legged position, black blood trickled down from the side of his lips, but a sharp glint could be seen in his eyes.
"After circulating my Qi ten times, I can feel my power slowly returning. Now, I have the strength equivalent to the Fourth level of Qi Accumulation." Grey said lowly. His voice was no longer as rough and hoarse as it was before.
"As I was circulating my Qi, I felt a level beyond the Tenth level of Qi Accumulation. But that level... is not Perfection in the Qi Accumulation realm. Perfection is given only to those who are in the Peak of the Tenth level, so which level is beyond the Tenth level..." Grey sank into deep thought. His eyes were opened as he stared at the side of the humid cave, but his gaze was not really focused on the wall of the cave, instead, he trying to understand what he felt after the Tenth level of Qi Accumulation.
Slowly, time passed in the humid cave and a morning and a night slowly passed. During that time, Grey’s eyes had not closed once as he continued to stare at the wall distantly. This continued for another day and night when the young girl in red robes woke up.
The moment she saw Grey’s eyes focused abnormally on the wall, she also turned to stare at it, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. She then gave him a strange glare and continued to watch him.
Slowly, another day and night passed until focus suddenly appeared in Grey’s eyes. "So there is a hidden level after the Tenth level... But that level is very hard to find by normal cultivators. If I was not gravely injured and had not carefully examined my body, I don’t believe even I would have been able to sense it. But I believe that if I can enter the Eleventh level, then I should be ready to form my ball of Spirit fire after I break through to Foundation Establishment. This... should be how the Captain was able to get her first Ball of Spirit Fire even though she just recently broke through. " Grey said.
He then sighed. "I think that if I master the Eleventh level before breaking through, the number of Spirit Fires I should be able to form should increase from Four Spirit Fires to Five."
Immediately after saying that, Grey sucked in a deep breath. Five balls of spirit fire was really rare in the Second Continent. Grey doubted that he had seen anyone with Five balls of Spirit fire. He even doubted that anyone in Sky Mist City could form Five balls of Spirit Fire, aside from him and the Captain.
"If I could manifest one more ball of Spirit fire, then I should have the fabled Six balls of Spirit Fire, and be able to completely Suppress all those in the Foundation Establishment realm. Even those in the Early Stages of the Spirit Core Formation realm should feel somewhat pressurized by me." But Grey knew that was a merely a dream. Getting five balls of Spirit Fire was shocking as it is, if many people found out that he had the potential to manifest Six balls of Spirit fire, all the sects in the Second Continent would rush and try to make him their disciple. After all, anyone who could manifest Five balls of Spirit Fire was sure to be a powerhouse in the future. Much less six balls of Spirit Fire that was merely legend now in this time.
Immediately after Grey said that, he turned his attention to the petite face that was staring at him with a curious expression. Grey could feel a headache coming in.
**☺️😉**
