In the Liberation Temple's Tower of Exaltation — the abbot's personal chambers — Xinzi sat crossed-legged, eyes shut tight in meditation. Up in the Celestial Paradise, another version of Xinzi sat on the Grand Tribulation Platform, digesting the crackling lightning that oozed from his skin.
In the sky, thunder roared continuously, warning Xinzi of the tribulation lightning salvo that would slam into him on the following day. He ignored it, focused on digestion and breathing. With each session of inhalation and exhalation, one could see misty white waves flow in and out of Xinzi's mouth and nostrils.
Shenzuo's Dao Breath did a fantastic job. Thanks to that breathing technique, with each passing day, each salvo of tribulation lightning, Xinzi's fleshly body progressed by leaps and bounds — gradually approaching the demoralizing might of his Zhen-body. Xinzi didn't have to go out and find precious materials to refine. So long as he kept breathing, his cultivation and fleshly body would continue to improve.
After three months of assiduous cultivation, abbot Xinzi had reached the limits of the Pulse Condensation realm, ready to break through to Golden Core at any time. His Dao Breath went from shallow completion to imperfect completion and now stood on the verge of the grand completion.
Still nowhere near shallow completion, Xinzi's progress with the Primordial Breath couldn't compare to the Dao Breath. But regardless, he now knew how to fuse the Heavenly Dao with the Five Elements Transmutative Technique and Swallowing Skill. So, with a grand-completion Dao Breath as the blueprint, it wouldn't be long before he brought his Primordial Breath to shallow completion.
"My Immortal Dragon Physique has improved massively and is already approaching the Zhen-body's Eternal God Physique. Divine-Power wise, the Heaven-Trampling Dao Bones are also not far behind my Heavenly Dao Bones. Potential-wise, they're even better. The main issue now...is the heart," Xinzi said and pulled in a long, deep breath. In that instant, all the lightning that grumbled in the sky, charging in preparation of the following day, dropped in advance, becoming coiling arcs of dazzling electricity as they poured into Xinzi's mouth.
Tides of white mist poured in as well, feeding Xinzi's fleshly body and soul. His eyes opened, vibrant rays flashing within as the Grand Dao's mystical chants pealed from every inch of his being. Here, Xinzi reached the grand completion of the Dao Breath, not only bringing his raw destructive powers to terrifying levels but also enabling him to see certain variations of the future despite the divination lockdown imposed by the Infernal Paradise's ancestors.
As a result, his ability to predict his opponents' moves also improved massively, and by fusing with the Dao, Xinzi could dispel his consciousness throughout the entire world and, if he so wished, could incarnate himself in unsuspecting targets. The only drawback here was that, whenever he used that ability, Xinzi couldn't do anything else.
But despite this wave of flabbergasting boons, Xinzi wasn't satisfied. As powerful as they seemed, when compared to the Zhen-body's Heart of the Stainless Sovereign, Xinzi's Demon Hearts...were weak.
At the moment, by relying on the Dao Breath, Xinzi could crush those up to six realms above him. But without, the Zhen-body could still dominate all experts by seven realms stronger. Add the Heavenly Dao to the Dao Breath, and the Zhen-body's current destructive power was simply unfathomable.
The crux behind this gap was neither the Eternal God Physique nor the Heavenly Dao Bones, but the Heart of the Stainless Sovereign, which carried so much Blood Energy and Divine Power that it single-handedly dwarfed Xinzi's three Demon Hearts combined.
"Patience. Yongye spent 10,000 years crafting the Zhen-body. You have only been Xinzi for close to 19 years. It's already impressive that you've gotten this far so fast. With the tools at your disposal, it won't be long before you catch up to your original body. Patience, Xinzi, at the end of it all, you will come out on top," Xinzi told himself and joined his hands in a mudra.
Colossal quantities of energy gathered in his Dao Foundation, merging to form a fist-sized, multicolored bead that hovered between the Inner Spirit Cave above, and the Boundless Qi Ocean below.
That bead, Xinzi's Embryonic Core, swelled with a multitude of tyrannical energies — enough to make Immortal Emperors destroy their cultivation for a 10% chance to produce such an Embryonic Core. And anyone that paid attention could hear the harmonious Grand Dao singing from within.
With a single move, Xinzi could channel all these energies to kick-start the Core Revolution process, expanding his Embryonic Core while increasing its Revolutions Per Second, the traditional measurement unit for a Golden Core's quality. By the time the core took a golden hue and reached the size of a cuju ball, the Golden Core would be complete — with its quality determined by the revolutions per second achieved upon core completion.
So far, nine revolutions per second represented the highest achievement for a golden core. Even in the Taiyang and Hengye clans, few ever managed to exceed nine revolutions per second — and all except for one, those that did ended up murdered by tribulation lightning — as if Heaven itself set the limit, forbidding those it didn't approve of from crossing it.
Xinzi didn't doubt that with his current accumulation, he could crush the nine-revolutions limit and go all the way to 100.
But yet again, he wasn't satisfied. He had all the wealth in the world, a net worth built on the lavish gifts of the Celestial Assembly's various officials. He could drain the energies of an astronomical quantity of stones, crystals, jades, treasures, and even his Diabolic Shards to feed his Core Formation...but could only reach 100 Revolutions?
No, Xinzi wanted more — much more. And for that...he already knew what he needed:
"The Myriad Essence Stone. Qiu Meng, Qiu Meng, it's not that I want to destroy you. But destiny demands that I stand in your way. What a pity. We could have been such great friends," Xinzi said and stood up, vanishing from the Grand Tribulation Platform.
