Chương 289: Shattered core

This single crack caused his expression to change greatly. What he feared the most had happened! This spirit core was the very foundation of his entire cultivation. If anything happened to it, it was very possible that his cultivation would decline back to the Yin realm, if he didn't lose it entirely. That was because breaking through to the spirit realm entailed condensing the entire energy gathered from the Connate realm to the peak Yang realm all into the spirit core. Losing that would be catastrophic.

Long Feng's heart nearly froze as he paused all actions and waited tensely, observing the crack. After a few breaths, he sighed, relieved that the crack wasn't expanding. Even then, his forehead was dotted with cold sweat. He even had the thought of stopping everything and retreating. He had already successfully began the initial merging of the demon and sword energies. In a few hours, they would fully merge completely. At that time, he would be able to suppress the light Dao and keep it under control.

That would be the safest path for him to follow right now. But if he did that, then he wouldn't be able to use the light energy as he had to keep it suppressed at all times. Similarly, he wouldn't be able to bring out the full power of his sword energy or the demon energy, otherwise he would risk causing an instability in his spirit core. This put him in a dilemma. He had to make a choice quickly; either to continue with his first plan and merge the light energy into the sword energy as well, or to stop now.

The former would have a high risk of his spirit core shattering, and he wouldn't be able to withstand that. The latter was safer, but he would be essentially restricting himself. His combat power might drop precipitously. After a few minutes, Long Feng closed his eyes and took a long and deep breath. Then he opened them again, and this time, there was no hesitation in his pupils.

"All or nothing…" he sighed, then began to actively speed up the merging of the demon energy and sword energy. He fell into a silent state of meditation that lasted hours. It wasn't untill seven hours later that he finally paused and smiled, his eyes revealing some excitement.

"Finally…!" He raised his right palm and a ball of demon energy gathered on his palm, writhing and tumbling above his palm. This was pure demon energy. Then he raised his left palm and pointed a single finger. Extremely sharp sword energy gathered on his finger tip. His smile widened as he dispersed both energies. Then he extended two fingers forward and focused.

A faint aura began to seep out of the two fingers, then a pitch black energy that emanated an extremely piercing aura surged out and coated the two fingers completely. The energy possessed the explosive power of the demon energy and the extreme sharpness of the sword energy. This was the merger of the demon and sword energies; the true demon sword.

The previous Demon sword required Long Feng to focus and merge some of his sword and demon energies together, unleashing a powerful strike that merged the full force of both Daos. Now, this was no longer a mere skill. It was an ability unique to him. He could unleash the demon sword strike whenever he wished without delay, and it would only be stronger than it was before. If the former merging was superficial, then the current one was much deeper. It couldn't yet be considered perfect; it was merely initial.

There was much room to perfect it later. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Now, time for the light Dao. This is really all or nothing. If I fail, then it's goodbye to my cultivation." Long Feng's smile faded and he became serious. The main issue wouldn't be the merging itself. It would be to withstand the impact of the collision. His spirit core might instantly break down. He needed to do all he could to hold it together and prevent it from falling apart. Clearing his mind, Long Feng controlled his sword energy to surge towards the light energy.

He couldn't use the demon sword energy because the demon and light Daos could never interact, no matter what. The sword energy was merely driving them; it wouldn't prevent a terrifying battle between the two energies should they come close. The demon energy was now fully under control, but the same couldn't be said about the light energy. It seemed to have gone crazy as it rammed into the sword energy, shaking the spirit core slightly. Long Feng's expression tightened and he didn't hesitate any longer.

He silently controlled every ounce of sword energy he possessed and controlled it to savagely collide against the light energy. The rebound force was even greater than before. Long Feng's soul itself seemed to shake and all he could see was darkness. The first thing he felt wasn't pain; it was numbness. Then an extremely sharp pain spread throughout his body in an instant, causing his body to shiver.

Many of his meridians ruptured from the powerful impact and he coughed up a mouthful of blood while more blood flowed out of his nostrils. But Long Feng wasn't in the mood to bother about his injuries yet. His whole attention was directed to his Dantian, where his spirit core floated. The spirit core was very different from before. The single crack has greatly expanded to cover the entire surface of the round core! The entire spirit core looked extremely bad, filled with cracks all over it.

This caused Long Feng's heart to jump to his throat. A single fluctuation of energy would cause the current extremely cracked and fragile core to shatter instantly. His tense heart didn't calm down for several minutes until he was sure that the core had stabilized temporarily and wouldn't break apart suddenly. Even then, it was likely that his future cultivation would be affected. A spirit core that was cracked to such an extent would become a great flaw to any cultivator. Even his progress may be impeded.

Long Feng wiped the sweat on his forehead and began to slowly merge the light and sword energies together, accelerating the merging. The time required was lesser than before and he was completely done in less than six hours. Long Feng's tense heart finally calmed down to some extent. The most dangerous time had passed and his spirit core hadn't shattered. That was worth being relieved for. His current spirit core strangely looked even more beautiful than before.

It's surface was covered in cracks, and within it, one half was filled with pitch black demon energy mixed with sword energy. The other half had the dazzling light energy that was merged with the sword energy. And then at the center was a tiny blurry sword that completely separated the two energies, taking the place of the previous strand of gray energy. This time, it wasn't a suppression. Instead, the three energies were now connected together, all led by the sword energy.

And the sword energy was fully under Long Feng's control, meaning both the light and demon energies were now completely under his control! Long Feng's heart was filled with joy. His aura which had been chaotic ever since he broke through to the spirit realm suddenly regained order, becoming extremely calm. He could effortlessly conceal his aura once again without issues, and even peak Imperials would find it hard to see through his actual cultivation.

Most importantly, he could utilize his full energy, and his spirit energy reserve was now much greater than before. Long Feng smiled brightly and released his full aura, sensing the perfect control he had over his energy. His foundation couldn't be any more stable than it was currently. His plan had worked! Although the side effect was that his spirit core was now covered in cracks, it hadn't shattered and that was all that mattered.

As he dwelled in his excitement, Long Feng's spirit core suddenly shook ever so slightly. The movement was very tiny, but Long Feng sensed it. He hadn't stopped being cautious even in his excitement. His focus had remained on the spirit core. His joy instantly extinguished and his expression became serious as he directed his full attention to the spirit core at once. Long Feng had always had a question at the back of his mind; what would happen when he regained full control of his energy?

Would there be any changes? Or would everything simply return to normal? After all, this was a path no one had ever taken before. At least, he had never heard of anyone dual cultivating two extreme Daos, not even in the most ridiculous myths. Now, he would finally have an answer to his question. As he carefully observed his spirit core, nothing happened at first. But a few minutes later, it shook again. It was more noticeable than before.

"What's going on?!" Long Feng felt alarmed. His spirit core was already so fragile, the slightest mistake could shatter it. And he had no idea what was happening, or what was about to happen. That was the most frightening part. The unknown was definitely terrifying. And Wu Kong had placed him on a completely unknown path. He had no idea what to expect and how to deal with it. This was one of the many times when Long Feng wished he had the courage to face Wu Kong and say "F*ck You!"

The spirit core shook a third time. This shake seemed to resonate with Long Feng's entire body; his heartbeat, his thoughts, his brain waves, everything. His soul shook along. The inside of the spirit core suddenly became extremely chaotic again. This wasn't due to the demon and light energies fighting any more. Instead, it was from the spirit core itself. Long Feng suddenly had a feeling that his spirit core was unable to withstand the presence of three Dao energies! And truthfully, this was unprecedented.

Most people who comprehended two Daos usually always had two spirit cores, one for each. It was unheard of for someone to merge two Dao energies into a single spirit core, and those two energies were extreme opposites; the very epitome of Yin and Yang. Not even fire and water would spark as much reaction as darkness and light energy colliding. Yet that was exactly what Long Feng did; he forced those two energies into his spirit core.

The core should've immediately exploded, but the sudden appearance of the gray energy changed everything. It forced the two energies to calm down and stabilized the spirit core itself, and Long Feng failed to sense that. Now that the energy was gone, the Spirit Core could barely keep itself together. But then Long Feng's sword energy joined the fray. Three Dao energies within a single core wasn't a miracle. It was insanity, suicide even. There was no way the spirit core would hold; it would collapse upon itself.

This was exactly the situation Long Feng was currently facing. The spirit core slowly expanded, unable to contain the energies within it. The cracks on it's surface spread even further until there was not a single place on the core that wasn't cracked. Long Feng's heart was literally frozen in his chest as he watched with his mind blank. Not in his wildest dream did he expect this situation. If he had known, then even if he was ten times more reckless than he was, he wouldn't dare to go ahead with his plan.

The strand of gray energy wasn't just keeping the two Daos energies from destroying each other — it was holding his very cultivation together! And he had foolishly interfered and broke that delicate balance! The spirit core expanded rapidly until it was about the size of a clenched fist. Then before Long Feng's blank gaze, it shattered!