Chapter 221: Another Breakthrough! The First Soul Core?
Inside the side hall, Du Busi and Elder Chen's gazes pierced through the carved wooden window, locking onto the swaying bamboo forest halfway up the mountain. The turbulent spirit power fluctuations had gradually subsided, but neither of them would mistake that distinct, surging aura. It was the unmistakable signature of a breakthrough.
Elder Chen leaned back in his heavy wooden chair, a lingering smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. He glanced down at the thick medicinal ointment smeared across his left hand, then looked back out the window and shook his head with a quiet chuckle.
"It seems he's fine. He's simply poured all that pent-up inner drive into his cultivation."
Du Busi didn't speak, but the tight lines around his mouth had noticeably relaxed. He picked up the porcelain teacup on the table and took a slow sip. The tea had already gone cold, but he didn't mind the bitter taste.
"It's good that he's fine," Du Busi finally muttered, setting the cup down with a soft clink. His voice was low, carrying a rare trace of relief. "I was afraid he wouldn't be able to come to terms with things and would stifle himself into a mental bottleneck. Being able to level up now shows his spirit hasn't dissipated."
Elder Chen nodded in agreement. "The boy is stubborn to a fault, but thankfully, he isn't foolish."
The two seasoned experts fell into a comfortable silence. After a while, Elder Chen stood up, wincing slightly as he stretched his stiff shoulders. His left arm still couldn't bear any real weight, but simple, everyday movements were no longer an issue.
"Sect Master, since things are fine on Liu Yuan's end, we should head back and properly tend to our own injuries. We can't let these wounds drag on forever."
Du Busi grunted in agreement, pushing off the armrests to stand. His movements were a fraction slower than his usual imposing self, and a faint, sharp sting radiated from beneath the thick bandages wrapped around his left shoulder. His expression, however, remained entirely unchanged.
"Let's go. If that kid makes any more noise, just have someone come and report it."
The two men walked out of the side hall one after the other, their shadows stretching across the courtyard as they returned to their respective residences.
Liu Yuan had no idea that Du Busi and Elder Chen were watching him from afar.
The light inside the stone-walled secret room was dim and heavy. Only a few scattered Soul Tool Lamps mounted on the walls emitted a faint, cold glow, casting long shadows across the floor. Liu Yuan sat perfectly still, cross-legged on a woven prayer mat. The once-raging spirit power within his body had already stabilized into a steady, powerful current.
Level sixty-one.
He felt the newly condensed spirit power coursing through his meridians, thicker and more potent than before. Yet, there wasn't a single trace of joy in his heart. His jaw remained locked in a tight line. This breakthrough wasn't the result of natural, long-term accumulation; it was the direct consequence of him pushing his physical and mental limits to the absolute brink.
For the past half-month, he had barely allowed himself a single day of proper rest. From the moment the sun rose until the dead of night, his routine consisted of nothing but brutal, unyielding cultivation. He wanted to use this grueling method to forcefully scrub those lingering, bloody images out of his head.
But the effect was minimal.
Whenever he closed his eyes, the image of Du Busi collapsed in a pooling puddle of his own blood would flash behind his eyelids, vivid and haunting.
Liu Yuan took a deep, ragged breath. He forced his eyes shut and began to circulate the Body Secret Method once more. He didn't want to stop. He didn't dare to stop. The very second his focus wavered, those dark thoughts would burrow their way back into his mind like parasitic worms. He needed a task, a relentless physical demand, to keep his brain from having the luxury to reminisce.
Spirit power slowly flowed through his meridians—one cycle, two cycles, three cycles. The energy moved like a heavy river, washing away the fatigue.
Gradually, Liu Yuan's breathing steadied into a rhythmic cadence. His spirit power, which had been somewhat impetuous and jagged due to his emotional fluctuations, began to smooth out, becoming docile under his iron will.
He didn't know how long he had been cultivating. In this enclosed, windowless space, the concept of time blurred into irrelevance. There was no day or night, only the endless, hypnotic rhythm of spirit power circulating through his flesh and bone.
Slowly, he felt himself slip into a deeply strange state of deep tranquility.
Everything around him became dead quiet—so quiet that he could hear the heavy, rhythmic thud of his own heart and the rushing sound of his blood flowing through his veins. He could perceive the exact, complex path of every single wisp of spirit power handling his internal pathways. His senses expanded outward, piercing through the thick stone walls. He could hear the crisp, rustling sound of the wind blowing through the bamboo leaves outside with absolute, crystal clarity.
In this ethereal state, his spirit power circulation speed skyrocketed. It wasn't that he was deliberately forcing it to accelerate; rather, the spirit power was flowing smoother and faster on its own accord, acting like a frictionless current. Those stubborn meridian nodes that originally required deliberate, forceful guidance to pass through now felt as if they had been completely blown open. The spirit power surged past them without a single ounce of obstruction.
Liu Yuan did not resist this sensation. He maintained his calm, rational mindset. He knew this was an incredibly rare state of enlightenment—an epiphany that many Spirit Masters might never encounter in an entire lifetime of bitter cultivation.
Since it had come, he would simply go with the flow and reap the maximum benefits.
Days slipped away, one by one.
Outside the secret room, the swaying bamboo forest transitioned from a lush, vibrant green to a deep, mature emerald, and eventually took on a faint, dying hint of golden yellow. That was the silent passage of time, but the young man seated like a statue inside the secret room remained entirely oblivious.
Liu Yuan immersed himself in that flawless state every single day. When the gnawing ache of hunger struck, he would mechanically chew a few bites of the dry rations he had brought along. When his throat burned with thirst, he drank a meager mouthful of water. Every other waking second was dedicated entirely to circulating his spirit power.
His improvement was terrifyingly rapid.
It was so fast that even his usually stoic heart felt a ripple of surprise.
One early morning, half a month later.
A single, sharp ray of sunlight filtered through the hairline cracks in the heavy stone door, casting a long, thin line of gold across the dusty floor.
Liu Yuan sat cross-legged on the prayer mat, but the aura surrounding him was undergoing a violent, devastating mutation. The spirit power within his meridians seemed to be yanked by an invisible, gravitational force, converging frantically toward his dantian. That surge of power came so suddenly and with such ferocity that Liu Yuan's physical body trembled uncontrollably.
His eyes snapped open. A brilliant, piercing purple-gold light flashed through his Double Pupils, illuminating the dim room.
Level sixty-two.
Another level gained in the blink of an eye.
Liu Yuan sat there, genuinely stunned. He looked down at his hands, clenching his fingers into fists. He could feel the spirit power within him—it was vastly more strong and explosive than it had been just half a month ago. An indescribable feeling swelled in his chest.
Too fast.
Even with his supreme talent, this speed felt fundamentally abnormal.
But he didn't have the luxury of time to overthink it. A sharp jolt in his lower abdomen warned him that the chaotic changes within his body had not stopped.
Focusing his inner sight on his dantian, he realized the originally liquid spirit power was undergoing a terrifying qualitative mutation. The energy no longer flowed freely like a serene lake; instead, it began to violently compress and collapse inward upon itself. It was as if an invisible, giant hand was ruthlessly kneading the liquid energy, forcing it to become viscous, dense, and impossibly heavy.
Liu Yuan's heart rate spiked. A vein pulsed at his temple.
He stared inward at his dantian and watched as, at the very dead center of that swirling ocean of spirit power, an extremely tiny but steadily forming solid core began to condense.
A Soul Core.
Liu Yuan instantly recognized what this was. His breathing hitched.
In the established cultivation system of the Douluo Continent, a Soul Core was the absolute, defining hallmark of a Titled Douluo. When a Spirit Master's cultivation finally broke through the impossible barrier of level ninety, the liquid spirit power in their body would undergo this exact compression, solidifying to form a Soul Core. Once a Soul Core was formed, the sheer quality, density, and recovery speed of a Spirit Master's power would achieve a heaven-defying qualitative leap.
But that was a realm reserved exclusively for Titled Douluo!
He was only at level sixty-two!
The cultivation trajectory of Huo Yuhao from the original timeline flashed through Liu Yuan's calculating mind like lightning. Huo Yuhao had managed to condense his first Soul Core at level seventy, an achievement that was already hailed as a supreme miracle and considered a completely illogical existence by the world's standards.
Yet here he was, sitting at level sixty-two. A full eight levels lower than the original child of destiny.
"This isn't right..." Liu Yuan whispered, his voice tight with a mixture of awe and extreme caution.
But the violent mutation inside his body cared nothing for his doubts. At the dead center of his dantian, that solid, crystalline core was slowly but firmly taking shape. With every single rotation, it acted like a vortex, violently tearing a portion of energy from the surrounding liquid spirit power and forcibly integrating it into its own mass.
As the core grew denser, the spirit power circulation speed within his body accelerated to a terrifying degree. It was spinning so fast that his reinforced meridians were actually starting to struggle under the sheer friction and pressure.
Liu Yuan gritted his teeth. A cold sweat broke out across his forehead. The pressure didn't come from an external enemy; it was crushing him from the inside out. The spirit power was circulating at a breakneck pace, stretching his meridian walls taut until a dull, throbbing ache radiated through his entire nervous system.
He desperately tried to rein in the circulation speed, to hit the brakes on this runaway train of energy, but he couldn't. The mysterious force condensing the Soul Core was entirely spontaneous, acting like a primal physical instinct that completely bypassed his conscious control.
Realizing that fighting it would only result in his meridians bursting, Liu Yuan made a ruthless, split-second decision. He stopped trying to suppress it and instead threw his full weight into cooperating with the anomaly.
He actively guided the rampaging spirit power, accelerating its circulation according to the precise, complex routes of the Body Secret Method, desperately trying to smooth out the chaotic process and prevent his internal pathways from tearing apart.
Inside the enclosed secret room, the aura radiating from Liu Yuan became increasingly unstable and dangerous. At times, thick waves of spirit power would violently overflow from his pores, slamming into the stone walls and causing the entire chamber to hum and vibrate. At other times, the aura would suddenly violently contract inward, creating a vacuum that felt as if his entire physical body was about to be sucked into his own dantian.
These violent, terrifying fluctuations dragged on, showing absolutely no sign of subsiding.
Meanwhile, back in the side hall of the Main Palace.
Du Busi was sitting in his large wooden chair, casually flipping through a stack of the Sect's recent business reports. After half a month of quiet recuperation, his severe injuries had recovered quite a bit. Although his left shoulder still couldn't handle the strain of intense combat, daily movements were no longer a problem.
Elder Chen sat opposite him, an ancient, yellowed book detailing rare Spirit Beast species resting on his lap. He was currently perusing its contents with a quiet focus.
Neither of them spoke, each comfortably attending to their own business in the quiet afternoon.
Then, those fluctuations came again.
This time, the sensation was vastly more obvious and violent than the breakthrough half a month ago. It wasn't the steady, rhythmic pulse of a normal level-up; it carried a chaotic, wildly uncontrolled feeling that set their instincts on edge.
Du Busi slowly set down his report, his thick brow furrowing into a deep V.
"Another level up?" Elder Chen also looked up from his ancient text, his tone carrying a heavy hint of uncertainty and disbelief. "It's only been half a month, right?"
Du Busi didn't answer. He stood up abruptly, walked straight to the window, and locked his sharp gaze on the direction of the mountainside.
His perception was far sharper than Elder Chen's. He could clearly feel that the spirit power fluctuations radiating from Liu Yuan's residence weren't as simple as a mere level-up. The frequency of those energy waves was entirely messy and erratic, as if something inside the boy's body was mutating violently, causing his spirit power to completely lose its proper stability.
"Something's wrong." Du Busi's voice turned heavy, laced with genuine concern. "His aura isn't right; it's far too chaotic."
Elder Chen immediately stood up and walked to Du Busi's side. After closing his eyes and concentrating his perception for a brief moment, the color drained from his face.
"What's going on? Is it Qi Deviation?"
Du Busi didn't bother answering. He was already striding toward the door, his movements swift and urgent. The sudden motion pulled painfully at the healing wound on his left shoulder; he frowned deeply but didn't slow down for a second.
"Let's go see."
The two elders rushed out of the side hall one after the other, their steps hurried and heavy with anxiety. Elder Chen followed closely behind Du Busi, his left hand still heavily wrapped in bandages, yet his pace was not slow in the slightest.
Crossing the long stone corridor and passing the expansive martial arts arena, the two quickly bounded up the stone steps toward the mountainside. Along the way, several patrolling disciples saw their dark expressions and stopped to salute, but they were immediately waved off by an impatient flick of Du Busi's wrist.
The closer they got to Liu Yuan's secluded residence, the clearer and more violent the chaotic spirit power fluctuations became. The surrounding air was filled with a thick, oppressive feeling, as if an invisible boulder was pressing down on their chests, making it hard to draw a full breath.
Du Busi quickened his pace even further. His expression grew increasingly solemn with every step.
Liu Yuan was his most valued personal disciple, the obvious future of the Body Sect. If something went horribly wrong at this critical juncture, he wouldn't be able to accept it.
At the end of the steep stone steps, Liu Yuan's residence finally came into view.
Behind that tightly closed, heavy stone door, terrifying spirit power fluctuations were churning violently like a trapped hurricane.
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