Yang Kai’s case was unique.
It was likely to happen only once in thousands of years, or perhaps an even longer situation; at only the Separation and Reunion Ninth Stage being able to cultivate out one’s Divine Sense, this was not something an average elite could do. That ability to fully utilize one’s Divine Sense was the defining characteristic of the Immortal Ascension Boundary, and in general, wanting to do so while still at the Separation and Reunion Boundary was simply impossible.
Moreover, while Yang Kai had indeed been able to cultivate out his Divine Sense, he had not yet managed to open his Knowledge Sea, which caused his situation to be even more peculiar.
One’s Knowledge Sea was where one’s Soul resided! It was also the intuitive representation of the power of a cultivator’s Soul. When a cultivator broke through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, they gained the ability to cultivate their Soul, and the gathering of the myriad strands of their Soul eventually formed their Knowledge Sea.
The size and depth of one’s Knowledge Sea was proportional to the strength and intensity of their Soul and Divine Sense.
However, with regards to Yang Kai’s case, Old Demon did not know how to explain it.
“That drop of amber liquid, it should be the Soul Cleansing Dew that Zhou Wen mentioned before!” Yang Kai eyes shined as he declared with great certainty.
When they had first met by the Nether Mountain lakeside, Chen Xue Shu and Su Xiao Yu’s master, Zhou Wen, had once said that about thirty years ago some disciples had found two incredible treasures within this isolate world.
One was the Brilliant Flame Liquid, while the other was the Soul Cleansing Dew!
Attracted by these two Precious Treasures, more and more young cultivators began coming to this isolate world for life experiences.
After he had killed Qi Jian Xing, Yang Kai had accidentally obtained a few drops of Brilliant Flame Liquid, which allowed him to quench his Yuan Qi. Now, after chasing Chi Xue into this strange mist bank, he had found a drop of Soul Cleansing Dew. This was truly a great Heavenly fortune!
Even better though, was that he could get more than one drop of Soul Cleansing Dew!
Yang Kai turned around and examined the small well at the bottom of the mist absorbing stone. Seeing a few crystal clear amber droplets, thinner than his own hair, Yang Kai believed that as long as he waited for some time, another drop of Soul Cleansing Dew would eventually be formed.
Thanks to him possessing the Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, a supreme treasure for cultivating one’s Soul, the persistent damage and repair of his Soul over the past half a month combined with a drop of Soul Cleansing Dew together created a miraculous opportunity, which allowed Yang Kai with his Separation and Reunion Boundary Ninth Stage cultivation to cultivate out his Divine Sense.
“Young Master, what is your range of Divine Sense, how far does it allow you to perceive from yourself?” Old Demon asked curiously.
“About two or three kilometers!”
Old Demon sucked down a cold breath before laughing again and again, “Young Master, your luck is too great! Your Divine Sense is far more powerful than an average cultivator who has just entered the Immortal Ascension Boundary. Rather, it is almost equivalent to someone at the Immortal Ascension Second or Third Stage!”
“I know!” Yang Kai said as he grinned from ear to ear.
“Good, for an average cultivator who has just cultivated out their Divine Sense, it is normally quite fragile, and even if they can spread it out freely, the farthest they can check around themselves is about a thousand meters, and only after slowly and painstakingly cultivating their Soul will they be able to expand the scope of their Divine Sense beyond that.”
Old Demon had a wealth of experience and knowledge, and although sometimes his memories were not completely reliable, the many things he knew and understood were still of great value.
Over the next little while he, carefully broke down and extolled the benefits and conveniences of one’s Divine Sense while Yang Kai listened attentively. The big silly grin on his face never once receded.
After cultivating out his Divine Sense, Yang Kai could more easily hide his presence and mask his abilities. As long as he did not take the initiative to engage them himself, it was no longer a problem for him to conceal either himself or his cultivation realm from anyone below the Immortal Ascension Boundary Fifth or Sixth Stage.
Talking to Old Demon for a long time, Yang Kai’s mood swung from high to low several times.
Checking on the small well at the bottom of the stone again, the number of amber threads seemed to have increased a bit. However, the rate at which the Soul Cleansing Dew condensed was obviously quite slow.
Yang Kai estimated that it would take at least ten days to form a drop.
The white mist continued flowing into the hole at the top of the stone endlessly, and eventually gathered together and condensed into a drop of Soul Cleansing Dew in the bottom well.
The white mist attacked one’s Soul, but after it was refined somehow it became Soul Cleansing Dew which had great benefit to one’s Soul. Whatever kind of profound and mysterious changes that occurred inside the strange stone, Yang Kai simply had no way of figuring out.
However, in the end there was no real need to understand, as all he had to do was wait for the drop of Soul Cleansing Dew to form and then collect it.
“Old Demon, monitor this things for me, when the drop of Soul Cleansing Dew is finished forming notify me, I want to enter a meditative state and attempt to break through to the True Element Boundary!”
“Good. Young Master, please rest assured.”
Sitting cross-legged and closing his eyes, Yang Kai immersed his entire consciousness into himself, and then proceeded to burst a dozen drops of Yang Liquid stored within his dantian.
All of a sudden, the True Yang Yuan Qi flooded into his meridians, causing them to bulge and swell, while sending a feeling of soreness throughout his entire body.
Enduring this discomfort, Yang Kai remained silent and rapidly circulated his True Yang Secret Art as he absorbed World Energy from his surroundings, all the while doing his best to compress his True Yang Yuan Qi as his meridians throbbed slightly because they contracted and expanded over and over again..
After a long period of time, the True Yang Yuan Qi within his meridians finally began to show some subtle changes. His meridians themselves, after having been filled with so much Yuan Qi for such a long period of time, also gradually became larger and tougher than before.
As his meridians strengthened and enlarged, the speed at which he could circulate his True Yang Secret Art also increased, and further smelting and refinement of his True Yang Yuan Qi increased its purity bit by bit.
When the feeling of soreness in his meridians began to weaken, Yang Kai burst another five drops of Yang Liquid and then repeated his previous actions.
While Yang Kai was refining his Yuan Qi, the white mist surrounding him continued attacking his Soul, which lead to the Soul Warming Lotus continuous repair of the damage, thus creating another endless cycle of enhancement.
His Soul grew stronger slowly, which kept pace with the increase in purity of his True Yang Yuan Qi.
Almost ten days later, Old Demon woke Yang Kai from his closed retreat.
A new drop of Soul Cleansing Dew had finished condensing!
Once again Yang Kai carefully extracted it, but instead of swallowing it, this time he placed it into a bottle.
With this kind of Precious Treasure, generally one could only consume a single drop. The second time a cultivator tried to refine it, the effects and benefits would be significantly reduced.
This Soul Cleansing Dew was extremely precious, so Yang Kai did not want to frivolously waste it.
If he brought it back and then had it refined into a special cultivation pill, perhaps it could play some role once again.
Cultivation knew no time, this saying was not without truth. When Yang Kai began his retreat of bursting the Yang Liquid in his dantian, then expanding and compressing the True Yang Yuan Qi to rush into his meridians. He was trying his best to refine and purify his Yuan Qi in order to increase its potency, so he very quickly forgot the passage of time.
From time to time, Old Demon would wake him, then he would collect a drop of Soul Cleansing Dew and quickly store it in a bottle.
Once the bottle in which he stored the Soul Cleansing Dew had been half filled, a total of ten drops, Yang Kai began to feel himself approach the threshold of the True Element Boundary!
After nearly four months of retreat, without taking a single pill or absorbing any Yang Qi, using nothing but his willpower to continuously circulate his True Yang Secret Art and refine his Yuan Qi, Yang Kai finally took his first step beyond the Separation and Reunion Boundary Ninth Stage!
Although the main purpose of staying here was to collect drops of Soul Cleansing Dew, seeing how long it had taken him to reach this step, it was clear just how much of a watershed entering the True Element Boundary was.
Many cultivators spent their entire lives unable to transcend this limit and were left with only bitter regrets and silent tears.
However, layers of invisible shackles remained on his body, which seemed to block his Yuan Qi from achieving a final breakthrough in density and purity.
Yang Kai took a deep breath, and a light flashing across his eyes as they shot open.
His consciousness once again submerged itself into the Unyielding Golden Skeleton where he had stored the remaining Nine Yin Yuan Condensing Dew.
This was a Precious Treasure he had obtained alongside Xia Ning Chang in the Nine Yin Valley. Half of which he had previously given to Su Yan while the other half he had kept for himself to use in anticipation of this moment.
Extracting this remaining Nine Yin Yuan Condensing Dew from the Unyielding Golden Skeleton, Yang Kai gently guided it into his dantian.
Instantly pushing his True Yang Secret Art to its limit, he began refining the Nine Yin Yuan Condensing Dew, which caused a cool sensation to suddenly explode out from his dantian and spread at breakneck speed outwards along the entire lengths of his meridians.
*Kacha…ca…*
At a speed visible to the naked eye, all over Yang Kai’s body, from his clothes to his hair, a layer of frost appeared.
The Nine Yin Yuan Condensing Dew was a Precious Treasure specifically for purifying one’s Yuan Qi. It was even more effective than the Brilliant Flame Liquid. It was a crystallization of countless years of concentrated Yin Qi. Even Yang Kai, with his extremely hot True Yang Yuan Qi, had difficulty resisting the chill it contained.
However, in the end, heat was the nemesis of cold, so Yang Kai did not end up feeling too uncomfortable.
Stimulated by the Nine Yin Yuan Condensing Dew, Yang Kai’s True Yang Yuan Qi instantly clashed with it, and the violent reaction between the two opposing properties sent out shockwaves and ripples which spread throughout his entire body.
As the ripples propagated, Yang Kai’s True Yang Yuan Qi, which had previously reached a bottleneck in terms of purity, once again became purer!
As the chill gradually disappeared, deep from within the meridians of his body came the sound of his Yuan Qi freely flowing, like a crisp sweet sound of a mountain stream.
*Ka…*
The icy layer enveloping Yang Kai’s body instantly shattered into dust.
The Heavens and Earth discoloured as a violent World Energy swirled around him. It gathered together to a terrifying degree and then suddenly flooded directly into Yang Kai’s body.
The baptism which accompanied one breaking through a Great Realm had come!
Yang Kai trembled as all the pores throughout his body breathed in. His True Yang Secret Art hummed as it circulated madly in an attempt to accept all of this World Energy into his body.
The surrounding world and Yang Kai’s meridians formed a circle. Part of the World Energy flowed into his marrow, while some of it quenched his flesh. The rest of this energy, which Yang Kai should have been unable to absorb, was supposed to then return to the universe, but at that moment not a trace of it escaped as the Unyielding Golden Skeleton swallowed everything that remained, down to the last drop.
When a cultivator broke through to a new Great Realm, there would always be such a baptism, but how much benefit one could obtain was up to their own efforts and limits.
For an ordinary cultivator, no matter how amazing their aptitude was, the most they could absorb was thirty percent of this baptism. The most important role of absorbing this thirty percent was to temper the cultivator’s body so that their flesh and bones could withstand the corresponding upsurge in Yuan Qi, while the remaining seventy percent would soon dissipate into the atmosphere.
However, from his first breakthrough into a higher Great Realm until now, Yang Kai had always been able to absorb at least ninety percent of this baptism! And this time was even more astounding, as he managed to take in all one hundred percent of it.
Just how terrifying the Unyielding Golden Skeleton was could be seen at a glimpse.
As the World Energy disorder gradually subsided, Yang Kai’s aura also calmed slowly, eventually becoming the same as any ordinary person
Exhaling a long breath, Yang Kai opened his eyes as his entire being seemed to radiate.
[True Element Boundary!]
After cultivating for so long and enduring so many hardships, he had finally arrived at the True Element Boundary!
Once, the True Element Boundary was something he could only look up to, but at this moment, he too could finally stand tall as a True Element Boundary master!
In reality, the time it had taken him to reach this height was only two years.
Even if he counted the three years he had spent in languish before then, it was still only five years!
Anyone who could reach the True Element Boundary after only five years of cultivation would be considered a true Heavenly Favoured Genius no matter where they went.
Lightly clenching his fists and feeling the full extent of his newly obtained unfathomable and explosive strength, Yang Kai also perceived how the Yuan Qi flowing in his meridians had undergone a fundamental transformation. Compared to the previously ethereal and invisible fog-like Yuan Qi, his new True Qi was undoubtedly more solid and powerful.
Silavin: Bonus Chapter. Thanks for the donation Dare and Rin!!