My sea of consciousness churns with such force that the recently tranquil surface sprays mist as a colossal sword made of energy rises from beneath the tsunami waves.

And it churns yet again, and even more so, when the sword produced from my [Fractured Sword] method cuts across the roots of the tree, just before the ninth, stabilized bolt of heaven’s treasure and my new tax system can reach it.

— Fractured Sword, First Form: Star Burial!

The blade shatters like glass with such an overbearing sound that a shock wave forms in the air, sucks in the mist rising from the churning waves, and then explodes outward. The countless fragments of my obliterated martial technique rain down on my sea of consciousness, even transferring to my Inner World where colossal sword shards plink off an invisible barrier. But not all of the shards bounce off the barrier, and some of them make it to the sect, crushing buildings and upturning the paved streets.

I begin to develop a new definition for ultimate wrath as my attempt to prevent the roots from absorbing the lightning fails.

— Fractured Sword, Second Form: Empty Sky, Burning Heaven!

There is a momentary warping in the air above my sea of consciousness, and even more intense surging and churning, as even the water rises to meet the forming sword of dark and mysteriously glimmering light. Even at the edge of my comprehension, I cannot understand this sword, I can merely perform it mechanically and at great cost to my overall consciousness.

This sword — with its terrifying aura of destruction — glimmers like an arc of the night sky, with countless stars within its black surface. If I burned the rest of my lifespan, I could perhaps perform this technique outside my Inner World, at around 50% power. Even Grand Elder Zhou, were he to be caught unprepared, would possibly suffer extreme injuries.

And yet, when the sword blasts forward, causing the water to fall from it in strange, helical shapes, and strikes the trunk of the colossal tree, there is a loud crack and the blade splits in half without even so much as putting a scratch on the tree.

The top half of the sword twists in the air and smashes into my depleted sea of consciousness, causing gargantuan tidal waves that nearly extinguish my consciousness. Then it collides with the snake and cuts into its impressively thick skin — like that of extremely high-grade metal — as if it was made of jelly or tofu. This sword is so powerful that when it cuts the snake, even in this broken state, the immortal reptilian corpse dares not to even twitch in protest.

And yet, not only does the sword crack, but my external vessel suffers an extreme blow that causes an identical crack to run through my middle, and nearly snap my blade in half.

“Yaoyue!?” I hear Lan Xiaohui, but I am too astonished to pay any heed to her.

[Empty Sky, Burning Heaven] is likened to a sword that can eradicate all stars, extinguish the sun and plunge the world in darkness, and even incinerate the heavens. Yet, this tree, against such a fearsome existence — despite my shallow ability to wield it — does not even suffer a simple scratch.

No, on the contrary, I am the one that is damaged.

When the tenth lightning bolt is absorbed by the roots, I do not even protest — I do not have the qualifications to complain.

I am completely, and utterly, defeated.

As the tenth lightning bolt is finished absorbing, and I make ready to depart my inner vessel to help Wu Yulan and Lan Xiaohui complete their breakthrough, I notice a glimmering bead of red on one of the branches of the tree.

Though, to say that I notice it is wrong — I am aware of everything within my inner world. More precisely, it appears at the very same moment and comes to my attention.

From a distance, it glimmers with an incomparably bright light, but the intensity of the light does not change as I approach with my consciousness. By the time it is in the center of my attention, it appears as a dull red drop-shaped fruit hanging from the branch of the tree. Truly, like a blood drop that captures the light in a way that makes its glassy surface appear to glimmer like a gem.

This tree absorbed my valuable resources to make this? I don’t even know when the next time will be that I will have a chance to absorb tribulation lightning, and this is what comes out of it?

I direct my [Critical Analysis] at the tiny fruit and in a moment, almost the entirety of my sea of consciousness is extinguished.

[ Critical Analysis talent suffers catastrophic failure and is now unavailable. Recovery time: 2 months, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 54 seconds. ]

In the distance, I feel the formations that govern my existence warp and twist, coinciding with the complete failure of my [Critical Analysis] talent, but I don’t even regret the waste of blood points I put into upgrading the talent, because it still manages to sputter out some critical information before it rolls over and terminates.

[ Primordial God Blood Fruit - Divine grade ]

As I analyze the fruit, it suddenly falls from the branch and lands into my depleted sea of consciousness, bursting on impact and delivering its contents. Rivers of blood flow and refill my sea of consciousness. At the same time, not only does the crack on my vessel fuse together, but I also feel a new layer of profound metal form, sharpening my edge.

My consciousness deepens, and I feel deeper changes occurring within the core of my being, that are somewhat improving all aspects of my existence — my spiritual roots and veins thicken and change, my Physique expands, on the cusp of transforming, and even my lifespan nearly doubles!

[ Lifespan: 8 years. ]

Most shockingly, this tiny incomplete fruit causes the absorbed Qi in my matter to achieve that same state of harmony, as the environment around me, and as a result, the Qi becomes incomparably more powerful, due to the vast improvement of my life force.

In a moment, not only do I crash into the peak of Foundation Establishment, but the gold elixir that forms in my dantian immediately collapses into a small, perfect core that emits one surge of gold lightning before stabilizing.

Just like that, without any effort, I break into the Core Formation realm, and the moment this happens, my weight increases several-fold, and I sink into the basin, and even cause the water within to rise and spill over the edge. It feels as if I weigh several tons, which I know cannot be true.

But it does not stop there. My newly formed, perfect core pulses again and my dantian expands, then shrinks again, then expands once more as my life force churns through my spiritual veins, shedding more profound Qi.

My entire internal system feels as if it is spasming from the sudden force rampaging through my spiritual vessel, only barely able to resist a fate of destruction.

Before it ends, my cultivation base rises to the mid stage of Core Formation, leaving my physical vessel in a state that is glowing orange-hot and hissing as the water touching my vessel evaporates.

That tiny, incomplete blood-drop-shaped fruit did all of that?

I take another look into my inner vessel, where the blood-red sea of consciousness now once more looks tranquil and deep, and I notice more fruits forming on the branches, though these ones I am particularly careful not to disturb.

What would a complete fruit do? I dare not imagine it.

This tree is not so bad, after all.