Shen Yuan’s steadiness, grounded by his extensive experiences taming chaotic powers, kept each phase meticulously under control.
[Be careful, Yuan’er. Spatial Qi has the potential to slip out of your dantian if you overcompress it.]
He chuckled under his breath. “Don’t worry, Lan’er. I can handle this much easily. Besides, I can’t let a little distortion keep me from leveling this dantian up to match the others.”
Hours passed—or was it minutes in the secluded dimension of his concentration?
Step by step, Shen Yuan guided the Void Transversing Art upward, layer by layer, until the swirling energy at his sixth dantian rivaled the roiling power in his other apex-level dantians.
The final compression cycles transformed each slip of Qi into an interwoven pattern of miniature subspace filaments.
A faint silver swirl emerged on the spiritual plane, resembling a cosmic vortex hidden in a starry night.
As the dantian neared the apex of Origin Core Creation, it automatically sought synergy with his lightning, wind, radiant, and flame energies.
Shen Yuan suppressed any forceful merging—he needed them all balanced yet distinct. Instead, he let them acknowledge each other’s presence, forging a sort of truce between the diverse elemental powers.
At last, the hush of compression ended. Shen Yuan exhaled a long breath, feeling a subtle ripple of satisfaction in the air.
“Fucking finally.”
Space rippled around him with each of his moves, a clear sign of his growing mastery over the spatial element.
He smiled—another piece in his multi-dantian puzzle reached its desired level.
He opened his eyes, scanning inward with his spiritual sense. Now all six chosen dantians—second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh—glowed with a matching brilliance at the ninth level of Origin Core Creation.
None overshadowed the others; all were in a state of perfect equilibrium.
A moment of reflective stillness settled over him.
For an ordinary cultivator, raising even a single core to the cusp of the Extreme Origin Cores Realm demanded decades of focus.
Shen Yuan, however, had effortlessly elevated multiple dantians, each housing a different elemental or conceptual technique.
[You’re insane—and yet, it’s working. Space, wind, lightning, flame, radiance… If a normal cultivator was in your place, his body would have exploded due to the sheer amount of Qi in your body.]
He chuckled faintly. “Credits to my monstrous physiques—and my unstoppable will, right?” A slight grin tugged at the corner of his lips. “But yes, I can’t deny it’s a bit insane. Still, I prefer to think of it as unstoppable.”
[Cheeky as usual, I see. So… do you move on to the next dantian now, or do you want to rest?]
Shen Yuan stretched, his joints cracking. The swirl of space Qi around him faded into near-invisibility. “I’ll take a moment. Maintaining top-notch synergy among so many apex-level dantians isn’t trivial, even for me.”
[But cultivating so many elements… hmm, that dead path might be opened for you then.]
Yue Lan’s voice, for once, turned serious as she seemingly muttered to herself.
“Hmm?” Shen Yuan raised his head curiously. “What do you mean by dead path?”
Yue Lan paused, as if considering her words.
[…A dead path is a path that can’t lead someone to the peak of cultivation. But never mind this. It is of no concern to you as a lot of people have used different paths to reach very far on the grand path of Dao. As for the illusory peak? Only a handful reached that level out of the uncountable beings living in the myriad worlds of all the higher and lower realms.]
Shen Yuan’s brow furrowed slightly at Yue Lan’s abrupt seriousness. He focused inward, letting the swirl of space Qi calm while he waited for her explanation. Finally, her voice returned, quieter but no less assured.
[There are countless cultivation methods and philosophies scattered across the myriad worlds—some are widely trodden, some partially, and a few lead nowhere. We call those “dead paths” because historical records never show anyone who reached the ultimate apex by following them.]
Shen Yuan’s eyes narrowed, a contemplative edge to his gaze. He remained silent, letting Yue Lan collect her thoughts.
A faint tension hung in the Dual Cultivation Chambers, as though the swirling energies themselves waited for her next words.
[People often assume “all elements at once” is the hardest path, or that it might be the ‘dead path.’ But let me clarify: it’s not that simple. Cultivating every element or law simultaneously is certainly rare and dangerous, but it isn’t necessarily the sealed route I speak of.]
Her tone, despite the calmness, carried an undertone of finality—almost a warning not to ask more.
Shen Yuan raised a brow in curiosity but said nothing. He waited, letting her continue at her own pace.
[There is—somewhere in the myriad worlds—a route that no one should ever walk. A path so perilous and so fundamentally contradictory that all historical accounts call it ‘dead.’ It’s not about the quantity of elements. It’s something else.]
She paused, as though measuring how much to say.
[I won’t reveal the specifics, Yuan’er. I won’t even name it. You’d only be tempted by the idea, and I’d rather you not chase a method that’s wholly unsustainable. Not even Pre-Natal Chaotic Lifeforms dared approach that path fully, from what I know.]
Shen Yuan’s lips twitched into a faint smirk. “You’re being deliberately vague, huh. So there’s some secret in the cosmos even you’d caution me never to pursue?”
[I’m sure you can guess why.]
A sigh escaped her, laced with exasperation and protectiveness.
[You have a habit of chasing what others call impossible. This time, I’d prefer not to fan those flames.]
He considered pushing further—part of him itched for more knowledge, more challenges to conquer. Yet he saw something in her caution that gave him pause. “All right,” he relented, rubbing the back of his neck. “I won’t pry. Not now, anyway.”
A slender thread of relief threaded through her next words.
[Thank you. Sometimes restraint is the wisest approach, especially when you’re already forging a novel path of your own.]
A soft ripple of Qi danced between Shen Yuan’s fingertips. “So, if cultivating all elements at once isn’t that ‘dead path’—someone actually accomplished it, you say? Reached the so-called peak with every element in their arsenal?”
Her response was immediate.
[Yes. One individual from ancient, near-mythical records. A true anomaly who defied normal logic—but their success remained an outlier, not the typical blueprint. And it did not involve that hush-hush route I warned you about.]
Shen Yuan inhaled, letting the idea spark his imagination: an unknown predecessor wielding every element, surpassing known bounds of mortal and immortal alike. “So the possibility of my method being viable still stands—no matter how slim or unrecorded.”
[In principle, yes. In reality… well, you’re already living proof that the improbable can thrive.]
Shen Yuan’s smirk returned, more confident than before. “Sounds good to me. There’s at least a precedent for success, so I’m not the first fool to try uniting multiple elements. That’s enough hope.”
[A fool, but possibly a successful one, yes.]
She chuckled faintly.
[But you understand now why I said some things are better left unknown? This truly ‘dead path’—the undisclosed one—wouldn’t help you. It’d only lead you astray. And no, it has nothing to do with how many or which elements you cultivate.]
