Chương 240: Breakthrough failed

Two days later, Long Feng's cultivation had completely recovered as he expected and he had truly reached the very limit of Yang realm. He couldn't raise his strength any more without breaking through to the spirit realm. And he was getting ready to do that. His father prepared a quiet room where he could make his breakthrough in peace without getting interrupted. Long Feng sat on the floor cross-legged in this large room, breathing slowly with his eyes closed.

After a few minutes of silence, he opened his eyes and smiled"I'm finally going to reach the spirit realm after so long" thinking to back when he revered spirit realm warriors, he couldn't help but grin. Clearing these thoughts aside, he slowly circulated his inner energy through one major revolution through his entire body, then he sent all that energy rushing into his Dantian at once. Within his endless Dantian, his demon core was slowly revolving.

This was the heart of his demon Dao, similar to the sword heart of swordmasters. Only that sword heart was much harder to form. Reaching the spirit realm wasn't very complicated. It requires one to condense their entire energy into a spirit core. That allow their energy to reach a new level that was superior to Yang cultivators. And in his case where he already had a demon core, he could use it as the foundation of his spirit core.

That way, he would simply be strengthening it and the end result would be a demon spirit core that was much stronger than normal cores if spirit realm warriors. And it would cause his demon and inner energy to begin to merge into one. That way, he would no longer have two different energies but instead a single demon spirit energy that was much stronger than either of the two. His inner energy rapidly flowed into his Dantian and gathered around his demon core.

The inner energy gathered until it was very dense, ready to surge into the demon core at once. This was the best method to breakthrough as doing it slowly would cause the energy to be imperfect after they merged. When Long Feng finally felt that he was ready, he controlled his inner energy to collide against the demon core. Normally, the energy would flow into the demon core and merge, transforming into a demon spirit core. Or any other Dao core that existed before.

But in Long Feng's case, his expression changed as a powerful rebound force burst out of the demon core, sending his inner energy straight out of his Dantian and rampaging in his meridians. His face paled as his meridians nearly tore under the sudden force. He had to focus all his attention into regaining control of his energy to prevent serious injuries.

"What's going on?" After he resolved that, he frowned deeply at this weird situation. This was never supposed to happen.

"It must be a mistake. I'll try again" he didn't believe that breaking through to the spirit realm for him would be hard. Others faced no bottleneck in this breakthrough, and he was certainly not the first person to have a Dao core before forming his spirit core. In fact, it was quite normal for geniuses. Thus, he decided to try again. This time, he was much careful, paying attention to the slightest changes or fluctuation in his energy. But the result was the same.

The demon core exploded with an even more savage rebound force that nearly caused Long Feng to cough up blood. His expression turned dark as he realized that breaking through seemed to be tricky for him.

"Why is my demon core rejecting my energy? Could it be that I am doing it wrong? I'll try to create a brand new spirit core without using the demon core. That should work" he decided to try a different method without using the demon core. Although that would drastically lower the advantages of breaking through for him, it was still better than being stuck at the Yang realm. He immediately began to breakthrough again.

Everything went smoothly as he gathered his inner energy in his Dantian again, this time far away from his demon core. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. To his relief, the demon core didn't react. He slowly began to condense his energy, trying to create a spirit core that would contain his new spirit energy. But soon, his expression became bitter again.

Whenever he was just about to create the spirit core, his energy would suddenly leave his control and rebound, completely refusing to form into the spirit core.

"Damn it! What's going on!" Long Feng was feeling very frustrated. Could it be that he couldn't break through to the spirit realm? He couldn't believe that. Everything he planned counted on the fact that he was growing stronger constantly. And that wouldn't be possible if he couldn't even reach the spirit realm.

"I don't believe that I can't breakthrough!" Long Feng roared in his heart. His fists were clenched as he tried again and again, but each time ended in failure. The rebound also got more and more powerful until he actually coughed out blood from his inner injuries. Long Feng was forced to stop, feeling bitter and frustrated. He thought of every possible reason for his breakthrough to fail but he couldn't think of any.

His foundation was unbelievable strong that his energy could compare with normal rank four spirit realm warriors. There didn't seem to be anything he did wrong to stop his breakthrough. Finding it hard to accept this, he rested a bit and continued to try. At the end of the day, his face was very pale and his energy was unstable from getting rebounded too much. Long Feng could only give up bitterly before he caused some irrecoverable damage to himself.

He waited until it was dark before he left the room with a bitter expression. His father and Li Yue'er who had been waiting for him to give their congratulations were shocked at his pale face. It was as though he was very injured.

"Feng'er! What happened to you?" Long Yuan rushed over and asked worriedly. Long Feng shook his head gently"I'm fine father. Just some minor injuries from my cultivation" Long Yuan wanted to ask more but decided to leave it at that.

"You should be more careful in your cultivation son. Don't push yourself too hard" he patted his son's back with a smile. Long Feng nodded. Later as they were leaving, he asked Li Yue'er about how her breakthrough went. Li Yue'er slowly explained everything, which was exactly what Long Feng did at the beginning. She already had her ice Dao core and simply reinforced it with her inner energy, merging them together to form an ice spirit core and reaching the spirit realm. Long Feng was left confused at this.

If he did nothing wrong in his breakthrough, then what exactly was stopping him? A hidden injury? This couldn't be. Wu Kong had completely healed all of them after that event, even their lost life sources were recovered. It couldn't be due to any hidden injuries. Then he paused. Wu Kong! So far, everything that happened seemed to have a connection to Wu Kong that he didn't know about. If this was also one of them… perhaps Wu Kong knew what was going on and could tell him how to complete his breakthrough.

Coupled with the fact that Long Feng already had several questions to ask his master, he now had more reasons to meet him. The only issue was… he couldn't do that. Wu Kong was like a ghost, only appearing when he wanted to. He could already be gone for all Long Feng knew. His mind was filled with different thoughts as he returned to his room and absentmindedly sat on his bed. He tried sending his consciousness into his Dantian to see if he could find Wu Kong, but he couldn't even find a single shadow.

His heart was getting increasingly heavy as he sat down for several minutes, untill suddenly, his consciousness was forcefully drawn out of his body by some invisible force. Long Feng was completely unable to resist this force. His surroundings were a bit blurry and when he regained his sight, he found himself standing in the endlessness of his starry sky Dantian. The infinite twinkling lights that seemed like stars that he couldn't touch were unspeakably beautiful.

Far away, he could sight the three ridiculously massive dragons as they danced around. Even now, this sight was very shocking to him. Perhaps even the sun would merely be comparable to a tiny dust before any of these three. And turning around, he was startled to find a peerlessly handsome man in white standing, staring into the depths of this starry sky. Long Feng's face immediately brightened"Master!" He was extremely excited as he clasped his fists and bowed.

Although this master of his was very unreliable, it was an irrefutable fact that he was unfathomably strong, was his master, and had saved his life just a week ago.

"You have a lot of questions" Wu Kong calmly said, his eyes still staring into the endlessness starry sky. Long Feng didn't reply, aware that before this his terrifying master, a single thought was like he was shouting it out loudly.

"Sit!" Wu Kong suddenly said. Before Long Feng could ask where to sit in this place, he suddenly felt the hardness of land beneath his feet. Looking down, a small floating land had suddenly appeared under their feet out of nowhere. It wasn't big, just enough for a few people to sit. Long Feng's heart was filled with awe as he sat down. This was his Dantian. He was supposed to have ultimate control in this place, but it actually didn't feel like it belonged to him.

And Wu Kong was the one who seemed able to manipulate it like a god. He sat down quietly after Wu Kong did the same.

"You failed your breakthrough?" Wu Kong asked softly. Long Feng simply nodded, not finding it necessary to say anything.

"Look over there. What do you see?" Wu Kong suddenly said, pointing a slender finger at the distance. Looking over at the direction he was pointing, Long Feng found the three dragons galloping through the vast starry sky.

"I see the three dragons" he replied, feeling confused.

"Look again. What do you see?" Wu Kong asked again. Long Feng frowned and stared at the three dragons with full focus. Slowly, his eyes brightened.

"I see… Darkness, and light. Divided by a thin barrier" This was truly what he could see. The Demon dragon represented ultimate darkness, the peak of all demonic energy, the end of all light. And the Azure dragon represented brilliant light, a kind of light that seemed Immortal, completely opposed to the darkness of the demon dragon. And between them was the final dragon, one that seemed to exist between reality and illusion. It existed and yet it didn't exist at the same time.

That was what separated both extreme energies from colliding and resulting in a horrifying explosion that Long Feng paled just by thinking about it. Wu Kong nodded faintly.

"Do you understand?" He asked. Long Feng frowned deeply then shook his head. He failed to understand how this would help him with his breakthrough.

"You're extremely unique. Your path is much different from that of others, and much harder too. You have these three existences in your Dantian. Have you ever wondered why? There's darkness and light here, Demon and Immortal energies. Yet you seek to cultivate just the demonic path. You have the most sublime source of these two Daos, yet you don't use them. Do you understand?" Wu Kong spoke softly, his words shaking Long Feng's mind. Long Feng nodded a minute later.

He understood, though that understanding brought so much more questions. He needed to comprehend the demon Dao alongside this… light Dao. Or Immortal energy as Wu Kong called it. But then, why was that? And wasn't his comprehension of the demon Dao as a result of a series of coincidences? Back in the Origin Spirit Palace where he inherited the demon Dao, how was that related to this? Why were the three dragons influencing his path? What were they? Why were they in his body?

Everything was cloaked in a mystery that hid a terrifying truth underneath. And he wanted to know everything!