He nodded, acknowledging the seriousness in her voice. “I trust your instinct on this, Lan’er. If you say it’s a path no one can walk, I’ll leave it be ‘for now.’ I’m already shouldering enough risk trying to unify so many laws.”
The swirl of Qi around them lessened, easing back into the ordinary calm of the Dual Cultivation Chambers.
Shen Yuan took a calm breath, feeling the gentle glow of his newly perfected dantians at ninth-level, each brimming with potential.
The conversation had turned unexpectedly weighty, but at least it cleared some of his doubts.
“Thanks for the warning. I can’t say for certain whether I will go hunting for this so-called ‘dead path’ or not. But I already have enough mountains to climb as it is.”
[Good enough.]
Her voice softened, the protective note returning.
[You’re forging something special already. No need to gamble on a route that even I can’t foresee. Focus on your multi-dantian synergy. Who knows—maybe your name will join that lone cultivator’s in the annals as the second to master every element. Or better.]
Shen Yuan chuckled softly at Yue Lan’s final remark, the tension that had built up during their serious exchange gradually dissipating.
He gave the chamber one last sweep of his gaze, feeling that unmistakable hum of power radiating from each dantian. Despite the weighty words about “dead paths,” his determination to push forward only intensified.
“Enough talk about unreachable summits and dead routes for now. My immediate goal is a bit simpler: I’m going to reach Extreme Origin Cores for all my dantians.”
He stepped away from his meditation cushion and rummaged in his spatial ring. A moment later, he withdrew a glossy jade bottle—intricately etched with runic patterns.
The faint glow around the container hinted at the King-grade pill inside, refined from exotic herbs and energies strong enough to boost one’s cultivation at critical moments.
[And here I thought you’d decided to pause. But no, you’re about to push all the dantians forward at once.]
Shen Yuan gave a cheeky grin. “I call it cautious acceleration. If I do them one by one, there’s a risk of imbalance. Doing them simultaneously might cause some strain on my body, but my monstrous physiques can handle it.”
He uncorked the bottle, releasing a rich, herbal fragrance that filled the Dual Cultivation Chambers. The thick spiritual aura practically shimmered in the air.
Shen Yuan plucked the large pill from inside—it was dense, swirling with multi-hued Qi as if several elements had merged in its forging.
“I took it out from the treasury together with the wind technique. The spirit told me it will be useful.”
He briefly rolled it between his fingers, then swallowed it without hesitation. A surge of Qi coursed down his throat, radiating outward through his meridians.
The effect was immediate: his entire body hummed with a harmonious resonance, as though unifying the chaotic energies inside him.
Shen Yuan straightened, focusing on the final resource he had at his disposal—the Primordial Yin essence from Shen Yuxin, Huo Rong, and Bing Rong.
Their potent cultivations, each refined to a high realm, had infused him with a significant stockpile of Yin energy over time—energy that he hadn’t fully utilized yet.
He guided that Yin essence forth, letting it meld with the swirling Qi.
“This is it, the perfect time to harness their Yin once again. Their combined essence will keep my breakthroughs stable and provide a deeper reservoir than usual.”
[Mmm, synergy at its finest. Just be careful. Once you push yourself into the Extreme Origin Cores Realm, each dantian must be locked in tandem to avoid fracturing your entire foundation.]
He closed his eyes and sank back into his lotus posture. Now, inside him, all five chosen dantians pulsed at ninth level. He’d unify them into a single moment of ascension.
The Ever-Fused Core Pill’s power coursed through his meridians, linking each dantian’s swirling Qi. A rainbow sheen of medicinal potency clung to every stream of energy, reinforcing them against sudden collapses.
Soft, cool waves of Yin Qi—traces of Shen Yuxin’s, Huo Rong’s, and Bing Rong’s combined cultivation—drifted into each swirling vortex, tempering the otherwise explosive transitions.
This Yin essence prevented any wild repulsion among so many different elemental energies, acting like a gentle glue binding them in harmony.
Shen Yuan inhaled, letting his mind sink deep into the crucible of energies roiling inside him.
Normally, a cultivator would painstakingly form an extra Extreme Origin Core in their main dantian; but Shen Yuan’s plan diverged.
He had already nurtured the second core—the true signifier of his main dantian’s Extreme Origin Core Realm. For these other dantians, he simply wished to elevate them to the same rank of potency—without forging extra cores there.
Though his second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh dantians all floated at the ninth-level apex of Origin Core Creation, each housed a distinct elemental or conceptual Qi.
As the Ever-Fused Core Pill merged with the swirling Qi in his meridians, Shen Yuan felt the energies intensify, pressing them toward a new threshold—yet not into the rigid shape of a core.
The second dantian, already exuding the gentle glow of a lotus-like brilliance, radiated an increasingly potent aura.
Instead of crystallizing into a secondary core, the radiant Qi compressed further into a denser field of light, akin to a compressed star.
Its radiant essence climbed closer to the threshold of the Extreme Origin Cores Realm, yet deliberately stopped short of forming an actual core.
Inside the fourth dantian, the infernal embers surged fiercely under the pill’s influence, flaring orange-white with newfound intensity.
Rather than condensing into a second blazing core, these flames resolved into a denser, more stable ember cluster—a swirling mass of pure infernal Qi. It all but roared with potential, now firmly locked at the “pseudo–Extreme” tier.
In the fifth dantian, lightning arcs hissed and crackled, the Codex’s mantras echoing in his spiritual sea.
Rather than forming a distinct lightning core, Shen Yuan carefully guided the arcs to weave tighter and tighter—becoming a dense ocean of thunder Qi that matched the rank of an Extreme Origin Core in potency, minus the final crystallization.
The subtle hum of subspace deepened as spatial Qi folded in on itself, forming a denser well of void energy.
Shifting it into a cohesive second core might have risked destroying his physique due to imbalance. So instead, the swirling vortex became heavier, richer, and more stable—a reservoir of near-limitless subspace that harmonized with his main body’s sense of space.
The jade-green gusts howled as they soared higher, thickening into an almost tangible hurricane.
Resisting the natural impulse to condense a second wind core, Shen Yuan let the Qi remain a concentrated storm swirling at a potency on par with the Extreme Origin Cores Realm, but lacking that final “core” crystallization.
His original main dantian—the one he had cultivated—held the newly formed second core that truly symbolized his current realm.
These other dantians served as auxiliary powerhouses, each raised to a level comparable to Extreme Origin Cores in sheer Qi density and rank, but without forging additional cores.
[Finally, you are done with this. Really, the Primordial Vessel Cultivation Technique is something else to let you cultivate 365 extra dantians.]