Chương 96: The Universal Sea

The world outside Li Yu's cultivation chamber continued its peaceful, rhythmic cycle. The sun rose and set, disciples trained and the life of the Deepwater Menagerie thrived. But inside the sealed, silent room, a wonderful process began. Li Yu sat, his body as still as a stone statue, his eyes closed. He was in a state of enlightenment, his consciousness adrift in the boundless sea of his newfound, two-fold dao.

His body and spirit, now guided by this understanding, began to move on their own, undertaking the final, terrifying journey to the Core Formation Realm. The first change began with his foundation. The silent sphere in his dantian, a fusion of void and life, began to spin. As it spun, it began to draw upon the trace of void energy that now resided in his very blood and marrow, a gift from Khaos's evolution. Aided by this higher-level power, a terrifying compression began.

The foundation, which pulsed with the immense power of the Eighth Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, started to shrink. To any elder observing with their spiritual sense, a shocking, unbelievable phenomenon would have occurred. Li Yu's cultivation was not rising; it was plummeting. The powerful aura of the Eighth Stage receded, becoming that of the Seventh. Then the Sixth. The Fifth. It did not stop.

It continued to fall, dropping through the stages with an alarming speed as if his foundation were collapsing in on itself. But it was not a collapse. It was a refinement. Li Yu was, for the first time, beginning to truly understand Khaos's philosophy. Power was not about the size of the realm but the quality, the density, the purity of the energy. He was compressing his entire foundation, squeezing out every last impurity, every last wasted ounce of power.

In doing so he was forging his vast and powerful sea into a single perfect and absolute diamond. The process was agonizing, the pressure was immense. But his will, forged in the crucible of Khaos's lessons, held firm. Finally, the regression stopped. His aura settled at the absolute lowest point: the First Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. But the power contained within that tiny, super-compressed foundation was many times greater than it had been at the Eighth Stage.

He was now, in a bizarre, paradoxical state, both the weakest and the strongest Foundation Establishment expert in the sect. It was this profound, paradoxical state that triggered the second event. Away, in the deep, silent grotto of the Abyssal Water Pavilion, the ancient, sleeping behemoth stirred in its millennia-long slumber. It felt a resonance, a connection to the unique, vibrant life force it had once gifted to a young boy.

It now felt that same life force being compressed, purified and fused with an energy of the void that was both terrifying and strangely familiar. It was a process that resonated with the very core of its own ancient existence. In a subconscious act of instinct and approval a pure, and incredibly potent stream of its own life force, a river of emerald-green energy, detached from its slumbering form.

It passed through the earth and stone as if they were not there and in a single timeless instant, it appeared in Li Yu's cultivation chamber, a divine tether that connected the ancient beast to the young boy. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The blood-red Koi spirit in Li Yu's sanctuary, which had been in a state of quiet observation, went absolutely berserk.

The sudden arrival of such a vast, pure and high-grade source of life energy was a feast beyond its wildest dreams. It opened its mouth and began to devour the energy with a ravenous, insatiable hunger. Li Yu's cultivation, which had been compressed to the absolute limit, now had a new endless source of fuel. The pure life energy poured into his foundation and his realm, which had just been crushed down to the First Stage, began to skyrocket. Second Stage. Third Stage. Fourth Stage. It did not slow.

The sheer quality of the ancient being's life force was a power that defied the normal laws of cultivation. In the space of a single hour, his foundation was pushed to the Fifth Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. It was at this moment that a new, absolute authority intervened.

"You will have to owe me even more after this," Khaos's voice was a blade of cold, hard steel that cut through the chaotic process." This is an opportunity that cannot be wasted." The miniature spirit Khaos appeared in Li Yu's dantian, its tiny form a speck of absolute darkness next to the raging, expanding foundation. It had been watching, waiting. It saw the perfect fusion of its own void energy with the ancient being's life energy and it knew this was an incredibly rare chance. It raised its pincer.

"You wish to learn the true nature of the void, little one? Then watch." It did not use an Edict. It simply exerted its will. A wave of conceptual power washed over Li Yu's foundation. The rampant explosive growth of his cultivation was instantly halted. The river of life energy from the ancient being was not cut off but it was now funneled, controlled and guided by Khaos's law. The compression began again. But this time, it was different.

Khaos was not just squeezing his foundation; it was fundamentally rewriting its laws. The pure refined True Qi was compressed beyond the limits of a solid, this energy was then driven, not into his dantian but into his very body. His 'Leviathan's Unity' physique roared to life. The super-compressed Qi, a fusion of life and void was hammered into his bones, his blood, his organs, his very marrow.

His body, which had already been a monstrous fortress, was being reforged on a cellular level, infused with a power that was no longer just his own. The process was absolute. The brilliant, glowing foundation in his dantian, which had reached the Fifth Stage, was compressed further and further, its energy driven into his flesh until it could not be compressed any more. Then, with a silent, profound CRACK that echoed in the very depths of his soul, the black, star-cored sphere of his foundation shattered.

It did not dissipate. It exploded into a universe. Where the single, solid core had been, there was now a vast, seemingly infinite ocean of deep, abyss-black liquid. This was his new "core." It was a formless, boundless sea of absolute power, a perfect representation of his Dao of the Universal Sea. And floating in the center of that silent, black ocean was a single, tiny, luminous being. It was a miniature, ethereal leviathan, a creature of flowing shadow and light.

It possessed a long, serpentine body but instead of scales, its form was woven from a brilliant crimson-gold light and it had the graceful, powerful tail of a primordial fish. Two small, closed eyes and a draconic snout gave it a regal, sleeping visage. It was the seed of his soul, a Nascent Soul. It was the perfect representation of his Dao of the Silent Leviathan. Li Yu's eyes slowly fluttered open. He had been in seclusion for six months.

He looked down at his own hands, at the faint shimmering light that seemed to flow beneath his skin. He had done it. He was no longer a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He had forged his 'Core'. He was now, by all conventional measures, a First Stage Core Formation Expert.