The momentum I was building was rapidly declining, and when I thought all was done and I was going to fail this Breakthrough, the eyes of my Nascent Soul opened up, and it howled like a beast enraged.
Immediately, the dispersing Qi has forcefully gathered again, it spiraled and roiled within me, coiling back into the Nascent Soul.
It then began gaining more details to it, the Nascent Soul that was at first closely resembling me in my younger days, became an exact copy of myself with the addition of a few Serpentinian scales that appeared and disappeared every now and then from on top of its skin.
The Nascent Soul then shuddered, shook and like a snake shedding, the nascent soul literally pealed itself from itself.
Leaving a husk of a body, a full skin on the ground while the creature that emerged from inside was a young man that looked no older than twenty.
It stood up from the throne, and walked away from the shed skin, then howled once.
In that howl, my mind reeled as my body felt like it broke apart for a moment.
Vibrations assaulted my body as I began shaking and shuddering uncontrollably.
I was forced awake from my sea of consciousness into the real world and could see several cracks on my own skin, it looked like it was ground that has suffered a drought for a thousand years.
My pale glistening skin from before was nothing but cracks of crusted skin that began shedding the same as the Nascent Soul's.
Suddenly, a loud implosion echoed from around me, as a burst of powerful vile and foul Qi surged away from my body dying everything in the vicinity in black toxic impurities.
Then came the thing I hated the most about climbing another cultivation stage.
The unhinged and unstoppable vomiting of black sludge seemed to stink worse than open sewers.
My skin fell off of me like it was ash revealing a new layer that looked far younger, purer, and gentler, yet at the same time was still sickly pale looking.
It was healthy skin, but it was still pale-looking.
My hair fell and noticing it, it seemed to have grown once again to exaggerated lengths.
"I'll need to cut it off again," I mumbled as I entered another fit of uncontrollable vomiting.
I kept shuddering and shaking for a while before it all stopped.
And the moment I closed my eyes and opened them again, I felt as if I was looking at the world from a completely different perspective.
The nature around me felt more vivid, and the skies looked bluer. The whole world had a serenity to it that was far too pleasant to believe.
It was as if I had momentarily become one with the world.
Yet this feeling soon came to disappear as the skies above me turned red.
I succeeded in breaking through, but now the real trial is upon me, I need to survive the incoming trial.
A familiar scene happened again. Instead of being racked and rattled, rained down upon with numerous lightning bolts, the clouds in the sky began gathering together and shaped themselves into something solid.
A gate so high it looked like it expanded all the way to the heavens manifested itself.
And the world seemed to rejoice at the arrival of the Heaven's Gate.
The gate looked as imposing as ever, a massive structure where beings of extreme might were carved on it. Armored Soldiers of yore, dragons, and phoenixes entertained, and might beyond what any single person could ever hope to fight against.
Yet, fight one must, not in the hope to win against the Gate of Heavens, but to prove one's courage and bravery against the odds. Only those that can challenge such might are allowed the benefits of the higher cultivation stages.
The gate then opened a crack, like before and Saint Qi poured on the ground like never before, washing over it, bathing it in a new breath of life.
And from the Saint Qi gathered, a soldier wearing golden armor, like the last time manifested.
This time I didn't have Y with me.
The last time the Gate Mistook Y's power for mine and sent a powerful Golden Soldier to kill me.
However, when I showed that Y wasn't part of me, and was merely a puppet the Gate lowered the difficulty and sent in a far weaker Soldier.
Now, however, it didn't seem that will be the case.
Thunder boomed in the skies and a single lightning bolt shot down right into the hand of the Golden Soldier, manifesting a single spear of death, a spear made completely from Heavenly Tribulation Lightning.
I stood up to the challenge, grim full, filthy and disgusting to look at, but my eye was bright as it looked at the thing in front of me without fear or worry.
"Creeping Demise," I muttered as I manifested the sword in my hand, "Don't go on absorbing my Qi like crazy, let's work together this time around," I added and was ready for battle.
The Golden Soldier didn't move and seemed to be patiently waiting for me to be fully prepared.
I wasn't going to spit on its face, I called X up and asked him to be ready to intervene.
I needed to study my match carefully, so I looked at him closely this time.
He seemed to be made of energy, nothing like flesh or bones was a part of this thing. It was a perfect conflagration of illegible Heavenly Law that made its body.
In a sense, this too was a puppet, only made by heavenly hands, instead of man. Something that is as close to perfection to perfection itself.
However, something that is close to perfection wasn't perfect, it was still flawed.
Looking up behind the puppet, I saw the insides of the gate again, the massive endless staircase that seemed to be leading to heaven itself. There were many other Golden Armored Soldiers standing on the staircase, waiting for their turn maybe.
The moment my gaze went up to the gate though, the Golden Soldier, as if insulted for having a mortal like me try and gaze at the secrets of heaven shot forward like a loose arrow.
The Lightning spear seemed to be aiming to take down my head in a single blow, nothing more than the application of simple spatial law wasn't enough to deter.
I swung creeping demise not to block but to parry, and with the addition of directional Spatial law I managed to fling away the Heavenly Soldier's spear away from my head with the most minimalistic movements.
The soldier went immediately for the offensive after having his attack parried he didn't even allow me to repost as he immediately followed with a wide swing, trying to rip my head off.
However, since he was already overextended from the first exchange I took a step forward, using the Momentum Step getting even close and personal with him, and used the Single Step One Palm move, immediately loading the momentum of a single step into my palm and sent it directly into the Golden Soldier's chest before his wide swing could even touch my head.
The blast was caused by Single Step One Palm. Shot the golden soldier rolling through the ground.
The Golden Soldier took advantage of the force sending him spiraling on the ground and kicking down making a full backflip then landing perfectly on his feet.
He then took a piercing stance, and I knew that shit was about to get ugly soon.
The Soldier thrust forward, even if he was dozens of meters away, I felt the looming threat of Death.
So, I took a step using the old man's movement technique I recently learned and was thankful I did as a massive shooting star seemed to have been released from the tip of his spear and eradicated the entirety of the area I was on a moment ago.
Seeing me dodging the spear blow, the golden soldier stood back up from his Pierce Stance and unceremoniously held his spear up then sliced at his left arm, causing me to frown in wonder.
The arm on the ground dispersed into massive Qi waves and shot back to the gate, causing the gate that was opened a crack to open further, and with that cold sweat drenched my back.
"That's cheating!" I cursed as three more Golden Soldiers came down.
They didn't hesitate to gang up on me as three of them shot forward with spears in hand.
I took a single breath and enabled my Mind's Eye, for a moment everything seemed to slow down and I was going to make damn use of this brief moment.
Instead of avoiding the incoming three, I walked forward, taking a step then a second, using Momentum Step, and the third came down as a shockwave that ruptured the ground forward sending a destabilizing wave of earth shooting forward. The first Golden Soldier was caught off guard slamming into the earth wall the other two were far better as they pierced right through it, only for one of them to find themselves right in front of my open palm, which I shot right through his skull.
The force behind that palm was so great that his head was pulverized into explosive bright particles.
The second soldier turned towards me sending several jabs my way where I used the movement technique I learned to the best of my ability dodging every pierce with incredible accuracy.
I was honestly surprised at how amazing this movement technique was, it was simple fluid, and would allow the immediate reaction to every enemy action with a wide range of possible motions.
I was honestly, completely surprised and held a lot of respect for the old man's technique.
I continued dodging and whenever I found an opportunity, I used Single Step One Palm, bursting through the Golden Soldier's body, ripping a piece of it apart.
The fight continued on in my favor, never have I been pushed to on the back foot, however, I wasn't too dumb to forget something.
The first soldier that cut off his arm never joined the battle and remained on standby, the second that had crashed into the rock wall was still capable of the fight so I needed to be ready for anything.
The last one that was fighting me was barely holding on as It had several palm prints all over his body.
Single Step One Palm is enough to damage him but not to take him out, however, this Soldier was too aggressive to allow m to do more than one step worth of momentum so I had to slowly grind him down.
Suddenly the second puppet that was damaged by the rocks decided it was time to join the fray and it shot toward me like a bullet.
I took the chance to distance myself from both the soldiers taking several steps back using the movement technique.
And then I decided to try something, instead of moving forward when using the Momentum Movement technique, what about if I use it as I was walking backward?
It is still momentum, and it shouldn't matter if the step I took was in any direction.
So as I was stepping back away from the puppets, I enabled the spatial law line under my foot, and sure as hell momentum was piling up.
First, second, third, and fourth, I couldn't go to the fifth because I'll become more sluggish as I gathered more momentum, so I stopped, and as if I was a bucket full of water that was suddenly jerked to one side, the momentum I had gathered earlier seemed to want to burst out of my back, but I forced it forward on the expense of blood seeping down my mouth, and shot it from my palm into open air.
As if the air in front of my hand was sucked in by an instantaneous void. I was able to see a visible sphere of air manifesting in front of my palm, and instantly, it popped, loud enough that even my own eardrums burst from the loud explosion.
The force of four steps against empty air was like a massive air balloon exploding, and this balloon seemed to be holding the force of an erupting volcano, as a shockwave of pure destructiveness shot forward against the two puppets.
What happened next was not something I expected. The two puppets, caught in the cone-like air blast didn't even shake or move from their spot, they rapidly disintegrated. The power behind the palm burst was so great that their bodies dispersed before they even felt the impact.
Suddenly I felt a bad premonition as I snapped my head towards the first puppet and saw him raising his spear again readying up to offer another part of itself as a sacrifice to call in more reinforcement.
I tried to move towards the soldier but was racked and rattled with indescribable pain.
The momentum I used earlier, was not…natural, and it caused a lot of damage to my body, nothing too severe to be healed with a few pills, but more than enough to stall me for the soldier to do another offering.
However, my worries were unfounded, as the moment the Golden Soldier's spear was descending on itself, a loud explosion echoed, and a bullet the size of a human fist shot right through its head.
X is to the rescue apparently.