“Continue cultivating, don’t stop!” Zhang Xuan urged as he activated his Eye of Insight to take a closer look at the young lady.
As the mercury-like spiritual energy flowed through her body, it refined her zhenqi, inducing her cultivation to grow at a visible rate. Within a short ten minutes, she was making advancements equivalent to an entire day of cultivation!
“This is… It’s the altered meridians!” Zhang Xuan came to a realization.
Previously, Zhao Ya’s meridians had been completely destroyed while trying to save him, so Zhang Xuan had used the vines of the Dongxu Gourd to construct a new meridian network for her.
This mercury-like spiritual energy should have been enough to crush the meridians of any cultivator with ease, but somehow, this problem did not exist for Zhao Ya.
It was a wonder what the vines truly were. They were actually able to absorb such heavy spiritual energy without causing a strain on Zhao Ya’s body at all by nullifying the damage it would have usually caused on normal cultivators through their sheer resilience!
A few moments later, Zhao Ya halted her cultivation before turning to look at her teacher with agitation in her eyes.
“Teacher, I think that I should be able to easily achieve a breakthrough to Dimension Shatterer realm as long as I continue absorbing the heavy spiritual energy!”
Her cultivation had already reached Blood Reincarnation realm consummation due to her hard work over the past half a year, but all of a sudden, she had found that she could not scale any higher than that. It was as if she had already reached the highest peak of the Master Teacher Continent, and there was no path leading to higher grounds for her to take anymore.
It was the world’s bottleneck.
Yet, when she absorbed this spiritual energy, she actually felt an impetus to make a breakthrough, and it filled her with disbelief.
“I see,” Zhang Xuan remarked with a nod.
He did not say too much in response to Zhao Ya’s situation, but he had already roughly figured out what was going on.
The spiritual energy of the Master Teacher Continent differed far too much from the Azure in terms of density and quality. The bottleneck preventing cultivators from reaching the Dimension Shatterer realm was like a pair of resilient steel gates that an ordinary stream could never push open. It required powerful currents and devastating waves striking on the steel gates in order to break them apart.
“It’s as I thought. The key to achieving a breakthrough to the Dimension Shatterer realm is to absorb this mercury-like energy!” Zhang Xuan nodded affirmatively, more certain than ever of his conjecture.
This might also have been the reason for the vast difference in the strength between those on the Master Teacher Continent and the deities descending from the Azure. They had been constantly nourished by the mercury-like spiritual energy, so achieving a breakthrough to the Dimension Shatterer realm was not too difficult a feat for them anymore.
It was for this reason that the Hundred Schools of Philosophers had devoted their efforts to developing the Greensprout Wheat to improve the constitution of ordinary civilians. Once their constitution reached a level suited for them to absorb the mercury-like spiritual energy, mankind would take a qualitative step forward in its level of existence.
“Continue absorbing the spiritual energy. Try to achieve a breakthrough to the Dimension Shatterer realm if possible!” Zhang Xuan instructed.
Zhao Ya nodded. She quickly drove her zhenqi to its limits as she devoured the mercury-like spiritual energy greedily.
On the other hand, the other eight direct disciples tried to absorb the mercury-like spiritual energy once more, but they were unable to absorb it like their First Senior. Thus, they could only sigh deeply and look at their First Senior in envy.
Knowing that cultivation was not something that could be rushed, Zhang Xuan did not rush Zhao Ya. Instead, using both the Eye of Insight and the Library of Heaven’s Path, he made sure to take note of Zhao Ya’s current condition carefully, fearing that something would happen to her.
Fortunately, due to Zhao Ya’s diligence and patience, the foundations of her cultivation were extremely firm. Her cultivation grew without any problems, and within half a day, she was already knocking on the bottleneck keeping her from the Dimension Shatterer realm.
“Break!”
Once the young lady had built up sufficient momentum, her eyebrows shot up as she released a furious cry. In an instant, her zhenqi gushed through her meridians and tore down the bottleneck limiting her, causing her cultivation to rise to the much-desired level of the Dimension Shatterer realm!
The Ordeal of Lightning Armament swiftly descended upon Zhao Ya as the heavens desperately tried to claw her apart. However, with her current strength and Zhang Xuan’s pointers, she managed to overcome the crisis safely. Nevertheless, the cultivation ordeal still left many wounds on her that would take some time to recover from.
“Is this the level that you reached back then?” Zhang Xuan asked.
Vicious had reached the Dimension Shatterer realm before, which had resulted in his widespread fame in the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe as an Immortal’s Envoy. It was with such strength that he had been able to force Kong shi into a corner multiple times.
“Un!” Vicious nodded. “Through absorbing the heavy energy coming from the Azure, I was able to push my cultivation past the Dimension Shatterer realm, but I was only able to push to primary stage. Anything beyond that is practically impossible. Based on my research back then, one has to enter the Azure and tap into the natural energies in that world to alter one’s fundamental constitution in order to advance one’s cultivation any further than that. Otherwise, one will be doomed to be trapped at that realm till one’s death!”
“You were unable to advance any further than that?” Zhang Xuan was stunned.
He quickly turned to Zhao Ya and asked her the same question.
Zhao Ya closed her eyes to sense her current physical condition before shaking her head and replying, “Teacher, it seems like reaching Dimension Shatterer realm primary stage is really my limit. If I wish to cultivate any further than this, while the rejection of the heavens does play a part as well, more importantly, it seems like my body has reached the limits of its capacity. I am unable to accept any more heavy spiritual energy!”
It was similar to the idea of how a pond could only store a limited amount of water depending on its size. If someone attempted to pour more water into an already full pond, the excess would just flow into the surroundings.
If one wanted the pond to reserve a greater amount of water, the only way was to expand the pond. As the size of the pond increased, the amount of water that it could store would naturally increase as well.
The dimension one lives in does affect one’s constitution too, Zhang Xuan thought.
He had thought that as long as he had an ample supply of the mercury-like spiritual energy, he would be able to continuously absorb it and advance his cultivation swiftly. However, it seemed like his thoughts were too naive.
If it was that easy, Kong shi would not have had to leave the Master Teacher Continent.
Zhang Xuan clenched his fists and thought, Let me give it a try again and see if I’m able to absorb it!
Previously, when he tried to absorb the mercury-like spiritual energy, he had not achieved a breakthrough to Ancient Sage, and the resilience of his body had still been sorely lacking. However, after his breakthrough, he wielded strength that far surpassed that of even Zhao Ya. Could his body possibly be able to adapt to this mercury-like spiritual energy and allow him to absorb it too?
After all, he had altered his meridian network, and it was even more profound than Zhao Ya’s!
With such a thought in mind, Zhang Xuan quickly sat on the ground and closed his eyes.