Xi Shen blurted out at seeing the sudden turn of events. Not hesitating for a moment, he entrapped the Fire Qi that transformed into this strange energy and was trying to infuse itself into Yang Su’s dantian, possibly even his Dao Foundation.
Xi Shen immediately removed the stream of energy from Yang Su entirely.
As soon as he did, the stream of energy began to turn black leading back all the way to the arm inside the seal. The veins on the arm then began to turn a ghastly dark black color and the entire arm began aging until it looked like some shriveled up mummified arm.
Xi Shen's eyes were completely wide open when he saw the sudden change of the arm. But his expression turn solemn when he recognize the repulsive feeling this black energy was giving him.
‘Demonic Qi, this is Demonic Qi. It’s different from the one that Demonic Disciple used before, it’s purer. Like this was its original form, but the one the disciple used was a downgraded version.’
Xi Shen didn’t understand what was going on at the moment and was just staring blankly at this arm that became completely corrupted all of a sudden. His mind was on one fact, how did this energy enter the hand of the Fire God, and where did it come from?
‘Was the seal of the Water God sealing this power and not the Fire God’s own? Were they not battling?’
Xi Shen suddenly felt a cold chill go down his spine.
What if he had completely released this arm, what would have happened then? And he was even planning on Yang Su absorbing it, he can’t even imagine the consequence of the massive blunder he just nearly committed. But he hadn’t sensed this energy before it appeared, it had completely hidden away its presence within the arm.
Xi Shen looked at the stream of energy, eyes gleaming with thoughts of what this strange energy could be. He now confirmed that this was something not of the God Domain. It was foreign in nature and even as it was now in the open air, Xi Shen could tell that the Spiritual Qi and the Laws in the surroundings were repulsed by it. They were moving away.
Xi Shen controlled the stream of energy to enter back the seal and then closed the small gap he had created.
The arm in the seal was now completely dissolved and only a lump of dark energy remained.
Xi Shen frowned as he didn’t know what to do with this corrupt energy. Maybe it was best to just leave it within this seal until he was strong enough to come back and get rid of it. As he was now, that was impossible for him.
Yang Su had opened his eyes once again and was staring at the energy that was just within him. He then turned to look up at Xi Shen to see him frowning, so chose to remain silent and wait.
Xi Shen waved his hand towards the seal and used his knowledge of runes to strengthen the seal further. The trembling of the volcano calmed down after he did that.
Xi Shen then looked a the blue chain that was coming out of the void.
“This can still be used.”
Xi Shen’s Divine Will then extracted some of the Water Laws from the chain, and this time he examined it carefully to see if the Demonic Qi had influenced it in any way.
After that, he went through the same procedure, before he made Yang Su absorb it.
For normal people, it wouldn’t be possible to change the type of Qi one used to open their meridians, but Yang Su was different, he had no such limitations thanks to the Dao Foundation Xi Shen created for him.
With Xi Shen watching over him, Yang Su opened more of his meridians one by one. If one looked at his meridians at the moment, one would see that it was a mix between red and blue. A strange phenomenon that could be said to have never existed before in Spiritual Qi cultivation.
Yang Su’s aura was increasing the more meridians he opened, and now as he reached the 90th meridian his face showed struggle but deep concentration.
“If you feel that you're at your limit, you can decide to breakthrough into the Sea Expansion Realm.”
Xi Shen’s voice entered Yang Su’s ears, but he saw Yang Su continue onto this next meridian after he opened his 90th meridian.
Yang Su’s aura exploded with more intensity as he reached the legendary Fifth Phase of the Meridian Opening Realm. A realm only three people have ever managed to reach! If news of this were to reach the ears of the top Academies and Clans they would become stupefied!
However, Yang Su seemed to want to go further, and he started on his 92nd meridian.
93rd meridian.
94th meridian.
95th meridian.
96th meridian.
97th meridian.
98th meridian.
99th meridian.
Yang Su’s body was soaked in sweat when he reached his 99th meridian. His concentration was waning, and even though the stream of energy Xi Shen provided was enough for him to open his 100th meridian, there seemed to be some kind of barrier that no matter how much he try, was preventing him from opening his 100th meridian.
The power coming from Yang Su would double in strength every time he opened a meridian from his 90th onwards.
Xi Shen was watching on fascinated at that fact. He didn’t know if anyone had ever cultivated to this level outside of the Maple Continent but Yang Su was the first on the Maple Continent to accomplish such a feat.
His power in the Sea Expansion Realm was going to be unbelievable. Forget becoming an Invincible Sea Expansion Realm cultivator, Yang Su could have the power to be called a Paragon among Sea Expansion Realm Cultivators.
This was good, Xi Shen wanted to use his and Yang Su cultivation through the Spiritual Qi cultivation system created from his research to understand it fully. It would give him the knowledge to improve the people by his side cultivations, as it wasn’t ideal to have people that would drag him down in the future.
Xi Shen knew the enormous amount of talent he has, and he believed no one in this Era would be a match for him in terms of future potential. Call it his selfishness but he didn’t want to reach a stage in his life where he look next to him and see no one there.
Power was great! Absolute power where he could dictate his own fate unlike in his past life was something he desired wholeheartedly in this life. But the loneliness that can come from going down that path could drive even the strongest of cultivators mad.
Xi Shen didn’t want to experience that desolate feeling of loneliness again. It was one of his biggest fears in this life, not having someone to talk to. Stupid, idiotic, boring, call it what you want but try spending decades without the ability to express your emotions and living just for the sake of doing what you're told.
No one could truly understand what he was going through unless they themselves had experienced that type of isolation.
“Yang Su, just start your breakthrough into the Sea Expansion Realm, do not force yourself to open another meridian if you can’t. You know better than to do something so foolish.”
Hearing his elder brother’s dissatisfied tone of voice, Yang Su immediately stopped trying to open his 100th meridian. Instead, he focused on gathering the surrounding Fire Qi and the stream of Water Qi to create two Qi Sea.
With his now opened meridians, a suction force emanated from his body ad the Fire Qi around him trembled before it rush towards him. After passing through his pores, Yang Su gathered it in his Dantian along with the Water Qi Xi Shen was supplying him.
Within his Dantian two small swirling vortex, red and blue, were rotating clockwise in sync. However, as soon as those swirling vortex appeared in Yang Su’s Dantian, dark clouds began to form in the sky above the volcano.
Bolts of lightning flashed in the night sky, causing a foreboding feeling to surround the entire volcano.
Sensing this, Xi Shen looked towards the sky with narrowed eyes.
‘I knew it. I had suspected that the Heavens didn’t see Spiritual Qi cultivators as abnormalities until they reached the Heavenly Palace Realm, thus the tribulation lightning that comes when they try to break through. But because of Yang Su’s Six Elemental Dao Foundation, he’s become a target so early on in his cultivation. Well, this is good, if he can overcome this tribulation his Qi Seas will become more refined. I’ll step in if it looks like he can’t handle it.’
Yang Su felt a horrifying power gathering over his head and opened his eyes. His eyes immediately went wide up seeing the terrifying thunder clouds gathering above the volcano.
“Are you ready?”
Xi Shen asked a frightened Yang Su.
But Yang Su only stared back before he stuttered out, “Re-ready? For what elder brother Shen?”
Xi Shen chuckled at Yang Su’s nervous expression before his body began to shrink. He used his Divine Will to hold up both himself and Yang Su, and then head for the opening of the volcano.
Because of the seal that appeared above the lake of lava, the smoke coming out of the volcano had halted. The volcano was still going to erupt then, but after Xi Shen reinforced the seal, it could be seen that it was because of it fighting against the seal that the volcano was going to erupted. Yang Su's appearance in the village must have caused it to sense his presence and cause the power of the arm to become agitated.
With the volcano’s eruption prevented, that was one problem less to worry about.
Before Xi Shen set off to the opening of the volcano, he had returned the seal beneath the lake of lava.
With a nervous Yang Su by his side, Xi Shen stared up at the increasing Heavenly Tribulation above.
Turning to Yang Su he said, “Get ready, this is something you have to get through. Since this is your first time facing a Heavenly Tribulation I’ll step in if you can’t handle it anymore, but you need to know you’ll face more in the future and I won't always be there to help you overcome them.”
Yang Su nodded his head, and even though he was extremely nervous at the moment, he still held a determined expression.
*******
Word Count: 1781
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