The night of celebration slowly faded into dawn. The fragrance of last night's meal still lingered in the air as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the forest canopy, gilding the cave's entrance in golden light. The quiet rippling of the pool can be heard faintly, its aura raising even after Kong Mei's breakthrough yesterday.
Kong Di woke up from his meditation to the soft rustling of movement within the cave. His mother sat cross-legged upon a smooth stone, her aura restrained, yet it radiated majesty. The Qi in the air bent faintly around her, proof of her breakthrough to the 7th Order of cultivation. Her eyes, calm yet piercing, shimmered with faint streaks of starlight.
"Mother?" Kong Di asked, rising slowly from his position.
She opened her eyes and smiled gently. "Kong'er… my Martial Spirit has awakened a new inheritance skill. Let me show you."
The Nine Winged Serpent materialized behind her, grander and more majestic than ever before. Nine feathered wings shimmered faintly, and upon its forehead, a vertical mark pulsed like an eye waiting to open.
"This skill," she began, her voice solemn, "is the awakening of the Nine Winged Serpent's most powerful ability, and due to the Ancient Fruits I used to adavance yesterday, and the special ability of the "Ghost Tear Fruit", my Martial Spirit's Inheritance Skill —The Sky Serpent's Descent" evolved to "The Heavenly Serpent's Divine Ascent".
With that said, she demonstrated the ability to Kong Di, for him to witness its power.
The mark on the serpent's forehead split open, revealing an ethereal eye. A wave of pressure rippled outward, shaking the cavern walls. The air itself seemed to fall under her control, and the pool's waters rippled as if bowing to her will.
"With this ability," she explained, "I can command the power of the sky and wind. My spiritual sense expands a hundredfold, and all who fall within its gaze will be marked. Their movements slow, their qi restrained, their spirits weighed down as though bound by the heavens themselves, even moving under such conditions burns an incredible amount of their spirit and Battle Qi. Against weaker opponents, they may even collapse outright under the skill's suppression. It can even increase my speed so much that no one in the Houtian Realm can even see a shadow of me when I use this skill. This is both an incredibly powerful offensive skill, as well as a life-saving skill against opponents that I couldn't defeat."
Kong Di's eyes widened in awe. "Mother… this is too powerful!"
Kong Mei chuckled softly, her expression calm yet firm. "Powerful, yes… but also taxing. It consumes both soul power and vitality. Still, in battle, this inheritance skill will become my greatest weapon."
She understood that while the Ancient fruit did help her awaken an advanced version of the typical 7th Order Inheritance skill of her Martial Spirit, it also had an overbearing cost to use it. While she did brush off, mentioning that using the skill is taxing and consumes vitality, she did not say that each activation costs her 1 year of her life span, so as not to worry her son. Normal activation only consumes her spirit, battle qi, and vitality temporarily, but the effect of the skill decreases; to perfectly utilize the true capabilities of her skill, she needs to consume/burn her spirit and vitality for it to happen.
She paused, reaching out to brush her son's cheek. "Now, it is your turn, Kong'er. The pool still holds vast power. You have guarded me without rest these past weeks… now it's time for your breakthrough. I will guard you during this time. You have already delayed; you could have broken through the 4th order a few weeks ago, but you delayed it so that you could bring me here. You have long suppressed your realm to the peak of the late 3rd Order. Now it's your time to shine."
Kong Di, putting his head down, listened to his mother, saying.
"Do not worry, Mom. I already consolidated my foundation, and even without any of the Ancient Fruit, I can break through naturally. The only reason I suppressed my realm is because of the "Ghost Tear Fruit", as it can help in increasing my chances of getting a more powerful inheritance skill than usual."
The following day, after one final night of rest, Kong Di sat at the pool's edge. His mother remained nearby, watching with quiet assurance. She had full confidence in Kong Di to make a successful breakthrough. As she knew how hard he trains and never rushes into things blindly. Even when taking risks, he pushed forward with absolute confidence and will. She often wondered if she pushed him too much, but whenever she showed such worry, she remembered Kong Di's words.
"I never thought it like that, Mom. If I could lessen your worries even by a small nudge, I would do it happily. My only worry is that I hope I can take away all your troubles and worries as soon as possible. So, you could rest, and let me take care of you."
She would always tear up whenever he spoke in such a grown-up manner; she always felt that she took away a happy childhood from him due to her situation. But Kong Di never complained. For that, she would forever be indebted to this wonderful blessing the heavens and her husband gave her, who brought him into her life. The day Kong Di was born was the day he became the only source of light and hope in her bleak and dark life.
Now seeing him succeed is the only source of pride for her.
Kong Di closed his eyes and let the pool's energies flow into him. The cool waters wrapped around his body like a cocoon, cleansing his meridians, sharpening his foundation. His Hollow Hydra Martial Spirit appeared faintly, its form glowing brighter than ever before. All nine heads of the Hydra opened wide and started swallowing all the latent energy from the pool and atmosphere greedily.
Within his dantian, his qi surged like a storm. Weeks of patient cultivation, careful tempering, and the lingering resonance of his cultivation method created the perfect condition for his own advancement.
His veins throbbed with energy, his Battle Qi spun violently, and then, he slowly took out the 1st fruit, "Ruby Blood Fruit" and ate it.
Boom!. A sound resonated in his body that exploded and flooded his whole body with pulsing vitality. He slowly refined half of the energy. It took him a whole day for that.
Then he took out the "Ghost Tear fruit", using the remaining vitality to counterbalance the heavy ghost wailing and qi from the fruit; he refined it as well.
This time, his whole body felt like it was being pricked by small invisible needles. But he did not even utter a small sound under this sensation. This scene is very familiar to his mother, even though she did not know why her son had such an incredible pain tolerance and will, this was the case even before he awakened his martial spirit.
But this incredible willpower and endurance are a few of the things that made him such a genius.
When the energy of the fruits converged and united, Kong Di finally broke through the 4th Order of cultivation. His Martial Spirit Hollow Hydra manifested behind him, and a huge primal visualization of an Ancient Hydra diagram was being drawn in the air.
When the Primal Hydra Visualization Diagram was fully manifested, it slowly crept to his backside and got imprinted on him. As this was happening, his whole upper body cloths were torn apart by the power of the imprintation. Kong Mei was stunned by the scene. She never saw something like this happening when someone broke through just the 4th order of cultivation.
And she saw dozens, if not a hundred, people who broke through the 4th Order.
Just as this was done, Kong Di took the Final Fruit "Soul Bearing Fruit". Refining this fruit took him 1 and a half weeks. But this time the refining was soft and soothing, not like the initial refining of the first two fruits.
After fully refining all three fruits and with the help of the mysterious pool's power, a resounding pulse of qi burst from him, shaking the air surrounding him. His cultivation base surged upward, breaking through the next stage he had been cultivating, and broke through again to Early Intermediate Stage 4th order.
Huang Kong Di slowly opened his eyes, his gaze became sharper than before, faint traces of dark and hollow qi flickering in them as his upper body glimmered with the pool water and the tattoo-like Primal Hydra Diagram shimmering with unknown power.
"Intermediate 4th Order Realm…" he whispered, surprise filling his tone. "I broke through!"
Kong Mei clapped her hands softly, joy shimmering in her eyes. "You've done well, Kong Di. The heavens truly favor us, mother and son."
The cave was filled with happiness once again, but the happiness was shown much more by his mother than by him. It was filled with pride, hope, and motherly affection. Both mother and son sat side by side; the two of them grew stronger with the help of this underground cave and the blessing that came with it.
They decided to explore the whole cave before returning to the capital city to see if they could find any treasures. As they knew this cave had been there for hundreds of years, maybe they could find something unexpected.