‘More importantly, it seems I can breakthrough at any time and attain the mid-stage of Divine Sea.’ She clenched her fist, reabsorbing the Zhenqi. ‘Even my Physical Cultivation seems to be at the edge of a breakthrough.’

Spreading out her Divine Sense, Xiao Hong suddenly realised that the tremendous amount of information being poured into her mind did not stress it nearly as much as it did before. The gentle wind, the swaying leaves and grass, the small pond and the lazy ornamental fish, the meticulously trimmed bonsai - all sorts of information bombarded her Divine Sense, yet was all parsed in the blink of an eye.

Moreover, the consumption of Soul Power had also decreased greatly - she could keep her Divine Sense active for nearly three hours.

‘Huh? Heavenly Convergence was also upgraded?’ Xiao Hong raised an eyebrow. She did not expect that a Technique would be affected by the contact with the World’s Will.

‘Why, though? Is it because my Body, Essence and Spirit were strengthened by the contact with the World’s Will and World Origin? Was it because of that this foundational ‘Principle’ was affected? Or did the contact directly affect the ‘Principle’? Or was it a combination of all these things?’ Xiao Hong stared at the blue screen. unsure of her guess.

She jumped to her feet and took a deep breath.

‘Heavenly Convergence!’

Woom! A small burst of wind was generated, rattling the decorations and swinging open the window.

Instantly, her Zhenqi surged, circulating through her body rapidly, fusing with her flesh and bone, elevating her Spirit which allowed her to draw even more Zhenqi, elevating her strength even further. The power surging through her veins rose rapidly.

Barely suppressing the intoxicating feeling of immense power coursing through her, she breathed out lightly.

“Phew… It’s a pain to have to suppress this feeling all the time.” Xiao Hong muttered under her breath. “Moreover, it seems to be even stronger now?”

Closing her eyes, she clenched her fists. “Hmm. It is indeed stronger now - this version of Heavenly Convergence is much stronger.3 This should be attributed to the all-around boost I received from contact with the World’s Will.

“The activation time has reduced as well - it is several times faster than before. Probably because it is now a mid-level Yuan Rank Divine Ability.”

After deactivating the Divine Ability and coping with the withdrawal symptoms she smiled.

‘My battle prowess has increased tremendously with this. With the state of Heavenly Convergence, I can probably match the ordinary 7th Disaster Stage. 

‘Even if it is a genius disciple of the Sect, I’ll be able to protect myself easily.’ She analysed.  ‘Not bad, it is quite the boost!’

‘All Resistances increased?’ She eyed the final notification, raising her eyebrow at it.

‘In other words, I can take more beatings now?’ That was the first conclusion Xiao Hong came to. After being beaten up everywhere, she had already accepted her fate! Until she reached the peak of this world, she would always be the one being beaten up - she could not escape it. 

Xiao Hong waved her hand, dismissing the blue screens.

‘It would’ve been perfect if I hadn’t lost my Storage bag!’ She sighed. ‘All those Supreme Quality and Top Quality pills went down the drain. What a loss!’

There were probably thousands of Spirits Stones’ worth of stuff in there! Heavens! So much wealth! So much wealth down the drain! Oh, how her heart ached!

‘Thankfully, I stored the Yuan Essence strands directly in the system storage.’ Xiao Hong heaved a massive sigh of relief. She already had the intention to store large amounts of Yuan Essence in her System Storage and see if she could bring it outside the Demon Beast Secret Haven Realm. And it turned out to be quite successful.

Otherwise, if it didn’t succeed and she lost the Yuan Essence as well, she would really cry!

Xiao Hong took a deep breath and clenched her fist, staring outside the window. 

It was still morning.

Pursing her lips, a determined look came over her face. ‘Since I can breakthrough now, I might as well!’

She spread out her Divine Sense once again, closely inspecting her courtyard and the ones beyond. Then, she directed it to penetrate the ground below, scanning through it thoroughly.

‘Mmm… Barely any energy nodes to make use of. It’s a rather rudimentary set-up. Though, as a Martial Arts Clan, their requirement of Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth is very little, so that makes sense.’ Xiao Hong analysed, as she walked out of the bedroom and into the courtyard. 

It wasn’t that Martial Artists did not require Spiritual Energy, it was just that they required very little - which could be simply gained from the food. 

‘Ah, dammit. I gotta use my own Spirit Stones.’ she pouted. Even if she seemed rich, with 49999 Spirit Stones in her system storage, she knew they would deplete incredibly quickly - those little Taoties she called Cultivation Methods weren’t for show!

Quickly fishing out several Spirit Stones, she threw them to different spots in the spacious courtyard, all exactly 9 metres from her. The Leiying Sword and five other Artefacts she had gotten as spoils of war appeared, revolving around her like satellites. With a casual wave of her hand, they stabbed into the ground. She quickly made several hand seals before slamming her foot down.

Woom! 

A ripple of Spiritual Energy originated with her as the centre, sweeping over the ground of the courtyard before reaching the Spirit Stones and the Artefacts. With a whisper of the wind, a transparent force field appeared around her in the shape of an upside-down bowl.

Walking to the edge of the barrier, she gave it a light tap. ‘Should be enough to block my aura.’ She did not want the momentum of her breakthrough to spread out across the estate, startling everyone. Plus, unlike her lodging back in the Sect, this guest house wasn’t sturdy enough. It might just collapse when she attains Star Forging.

“I should have that maid inform Yun Meng to not disturb me…” She muttered to herself.

***

A few minutes later, Xiao Hong was sitting cross-legged at the centre of the Formation.

“It feels like such a long time since I’ve last had a breakthrough in my Cultivation Base…” She lamented. Even though it hadn’t even been an entire year since she had broken through to the Divine Sea Stage, it honestly felt like it had been much longer! 

Closing her eyes, she concentrated her Divine Sense inside her Dantian. A colossal sea of pure red appeared in her awareness. The tiny pool right after her breakthrough to Divine Sea Stage had transformed into a massive sea. Huge waves rose with every breath Xiao Hong took, rushing across the Sea of Red and crashing into the walls of her Dantian, causing minor quakes to reverberate through its walls. The vibrations travelled through her Meridian System, causing a weak tingling sensation to erupt all over her body.

This was the state of absolute fullness, where her Essence could no longer grow, or it would exceed the lower half of the Dantian called the ‘Earth’ of the Dantian.

At this point, she suddenly recalled the dusty memory of a Dao Lecture from old Xiao Hong’s collection.

“... the Dantian does not really exist naturally,” An ordinary-looking middle-aged man stood on an elevated platform, a kind smile gracing his face as he spoke to the newest cohort of initiates who had just reached the completion of Body Refining. “It is only through a special ritual that we Immortal Cultivators borrow the power of Heaven and Earth to construct the Dantian within our bodies.”

With a flourish, he conjured a huge translucent sphere out of thin air.

“W-wah!”

“Ohhh~!”

“So awesome!”

A gaggle of awestruck kids exclaimed at the marvel. The middle-aged man chuckled at their reactions.

“The Dantian, in essence, mimics the world around us.” his voice resonated across the Dao Imparting Platform. He pointed down to the Earth with his left hand.

“We mimic the Earth, taking on its strength and firmness to forge the Immortal Foundation.” As he spoke, the lower hemisphere of the translucent sphere gained a deep, earthy shade, giving it a sense of firmness. It seemed to have somehow taken root in the world itself.

He pointed straight up to the sky with his right hand.

“We mimic the Heavens, emulating its ethereality, its power and its authority to govern and smelt it into our own world, our own Fate!” A golden hue forced itself into existence, distorting the entire sphere, causing it to flicker unstably, seemingly on the verge of collapse. 

“No!” The initiates of the Sect along with a young Xiao Hong cried out involuntarily, as though something bad would happen if the sphere really collapsed.

The man on the elevated platform smiled. His outstretched arms that pointed to the sky and the earth revolved in a graceful dance. The huge sphere suddenly stopped flickering. It suddenly started shrinking, becoming clearer and clearer until it was about half the size of a head, encapsulated between the man’s palms. At this point, the sphere looked like a completely real object. 

Then, the man casually dispersed it with a casual flick of his wrist, causing the bunch of kids to jump up again, clamouring. 

Ignoring the aggrieved initiates, the man continued cheerfully, “Of course, you kids don’t need to do all that complicated stuff.”

“All you need to do is go sit in the middle of that circle,” he gestured toward a large array that the new Xiao Hong recognised as a type of Spiritual Energy Gathering Formation, “and follow the instructions on the booklet given to you…”

***

“That fella had quite the flair for theatrics, didn’t he?” Xiao Hong smirked lightly as she withdrew from the memory before returning her attention to herself while pondering on the man’s words.

“The Dantian isn’t actually complete even at Divine Sea Stage.” Xiao Hong slowly stroked her jaw, concluding her insights from that Dao Lecture.

“Through the Divine Sea, the cultivator forges the Earth, bolsters the Soul in the ‘Purple Palace’, establishes a ‘Celestial Bridge’ between Heaven and Earth, ‘fuses’ the Soul with the ‘Heaven’ of Dantian, and finally reforges the Dantian, ‘transforming’ towards perfection.”

That is the way the Sects described cultivation from the Divine Sea Stage up to the Transformation Stage - which they call ‘Foundation Building’ or ‘Foundation Establishment’.

“And, if we’re to take this into consideration, it would mean that the Dantian isn’t complete until the Transformation Stage.

“Now, since the Dantian isn’t complete, we can take advantage of the fact and expand it to the limits of what a Cultivator can bear!”  She took a deep breath and directed with her mind, ‘System, use a slot for Celestial God’s Essence Cultivation Method. Set energy source to Spirit Stones in Storage.’ 

She could use the Yuan Essence she’d saved up but chose not to. It was the only way she could reach the limit of her Talent, after all.

With the pleasant ‘ding!’ from the system, Xiao Hong felt a massive rumble echo throughout her Dantian as a burst of extremely pure Zhenqi appeared! A titanic wave swept out, originating from the centre of the Sea of Red, slamming into the walls of her Dantian with the force of a tsunami!

“Agh!” she let out a painful grunt. A violent quiver surged through Xiao Hong’s body as a horrific pain rattled her entire body. It was as though she was forced inside an Iron Maiden torture device and locked inside. The agony of thousands of pins and needles stabbing into her body inundated her being.

However, she could only bear with it. Because the only way to expand the Dantian was to… shatter it!

The massive wave rebounded off of the walls of her Dantian, sweeping back to its source. 

Woom!

Just as the wave converged to the centre of her Dantian, another surge of pure Zhenqi appeared, causing the wave to become even more vigorous, slamming into the walls of her Dantian with greater force!

The wave gathered more and more momentum with each cycle, causing the impact on the walls of the Dantian to become greater and greater, shaking it more and more violently until…

Crack!

Cracks appeared all over the walls of the Dantian!

A terrible agony, like her blood had been replaced by lava, scorching her veins, swept through her being. For a moment, Xiao Hong’s mind blanked out before her Spirit suddenly jolted, bringing her back to full awareness.

The titanic wave receded towards the centre before crashing into the walls of the Dantian with unprecedented momentum!

With a shattering sound that resonated throughout Xiao Hong’s entire being, the Dantian finally shattered! Xiao Hong, clawing through the terrible pain, gritted her teeth and drove her Divine Sense with all her might, enveloping her Dantian in its entirety, not letting the slightest bit escape her attention. 

The shattered Dantian, unlike what one would expect, wasn’t like glass - where the shattered pieces flew off completely disjointed from the others. No, it was more like an egg, with a thin membranous film of Zhenqi holding the pieces together.

The sea of Zhenqi exerted pressure on the shattered Dantian, pushing it outwards, and expanding it.

Xiao Hong was completely focused, observing the condition of her Dantian like a hawk, her Divine Sense at the ready to halt the process of expansion at the moment the membranous film of Zhenqi showed signs of being unable to hold on, while also ensuring a homogenous distribution of Zhenqi.

Slowly, the Dantian expanded as the bursts of pure Zhenqi derived from Yuan Essence turned into a steady, gentle stream of power to aid in a controlled expansion.

‘A little more…’ Xiao Hong focused on the rapidly thinning membrane of Zhenqi, as the Dantian grew exponentially reaching nearly fifty times its initial volume, ‘Just a little more…

‘Now!’ The moment Xiao Hong saw that Zhenqi's membrane had stretched to its limit, she immediately halted the expansion! She carefully nudged some of the pieces that had been pushed too far, ensuring that the expanded Dantian maintained its shape.

After waiting for a while, she heaved a sigh of relief, shuddering slightly as her Divine Sense observed the new Dantian with trepidation. To her, the Dantian looked more like a globe with tiny pieces of land floating on it. “Thank Heavens, the most dangerous part is done with. Now, all I need to do is let my Zhenqi slowly nourish… huh?”

Xiao Hong’s muttering paused when she saw her Dantian healing rapidly. The walls of the original Dantian that had only covered less than eight percent of the total surface area of the new Dantian rapidly increased. In less than five minutes, it had directly crossed ten percent!

“That’s unexpected. My initial estimate was an entire day, but now it seems it won’t even be a whole hour.” She frowned, “That doesn’t make sense, how…?”

Oh, right. She was a Body Cultivator. As a muscle-brained Body Cultivator, her Lifeforce was incredibly strong and abundant. Especially, as the Cultivator of the Ancient God’s Scripture, her vitality could give a cockroach infestation a run for its money! 

The Dantian is, after all, a construct made from the Lifeforce of a Cultivator at the peak of the Body-refining Stage. It was also partly due to this reason that a Cultivator’s lifespan was greatly related to their Cultivation Base.

“So, that means I can start Star Forging by nighttime? Not bad!” Xiao Hong exclaimed.