Chương 356: Controlling true essence

Long Feng's mind was instantly expanded out of his body, or at least that was the feeling he had. His perception increased to an astonishing level. He could easily sense the entire forest without even trying. He could sense every wild beasts and some disciples who were exploring the forest. Every grain of sand, drop of dew and the flow of air, he could sense them all perfectly without even trying. His soul seemed to be rapidly ascending into the sky.

The feeling was intense and indescribable, but it was like he had ascended to a higher stage of being for a short time. He felt like he could overturn the seas with a wave, level mountains with a fist and disregard all beings beneath him. The entire forest would be reduced to nothing if he willed. He could sense extremely exquisite laws all around him, constantly transforming, breaking apart and flowing according to the flow of energy around.

He felt like he could affect these laws, unleash them through his movements and cause destruction on a scale he couldn't imagine. Long Feng was awestruck as he swam in this feeling and soaked it in as much as he could. He instinctively felt that this should be the so called enlightenment that the voice was referring to. He casually thought of his demon Dao and brand new comprehensions of it filled his mind. His understanding of the demon Dao rose dramatically, attaining a brand new stage in the blink of an eye.

"This... so this is the Demon Intent... this feeling is absolutely amazing. My comprehension ability has more than doubled! Is this how it feels to be a Dao realm master?" Words wouldn't do justice to this feeling. Having the strength to lord over a tiny part of the continent, this was the power needed for one to be considered as a truly strong person in a region! Long Feng's Demon Dao bellowed out of his body, forming a storm of dark energy that contained explosive power.

The demon energy rapidly gathered around him till it formed a brand new energy. Minor Demon Intent! In what seemed like a short minute, Long Feng had advanced his Demon Dao from rank nine concept stage into an Intent! He was overwhelmed with shock and excitement. He didn't hesitate to begin comprehending his light Dao and a while later, his surging demon intent receded and a light that could erase all darkness and burn the soul spread out from his body. Light intent! Long Feng was beside himself with excitement.

A thought appeared in his mind.

"Does it only work on Dao comprehensions? Or will it have the same effect on techniques?" He couldn't help but want to test it out. He focused his entire attention into perfecting his understanding of the Heaven firmament skill, and to his shock, it was impossibly easier for him to comprehend. In a few moments, he fully mastered the Heaven firmament skill, but he didn't stop there. He tired to see if the shattering the firmament skill would elude him as it always did.

He realized that while it was harder compared to the two Daos as well as the heaven firmament skill, he was still able to understand it! Long Feng poured all of his concentration into comprehending the intricate profoundness of that skill. Its power had already surpassed the limits of the Imperial realm and would easily dominate mortal grade skills. The only reason Long Feng was able to comprehend it was the enlightenment of the dead Dao realm master. Even then, it slowly got harder to comprehend.

He would need a long time to fully master it. But he was very satisfied already. He had comprehended roughly thirty percent of the skill! He would be too greedy if he tried to push much further. After he comprehended a bit more, he noticed the effect of the enlightenment wearing off slowly. It would appear that the shattering the firmament skill was taxing even with the enlightenment. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

It might not last for an incense stick worth of time as the voice stated. Realizing this, Long Feng began to comprehend the third step of the nine firmament steps. That was similarly a level that corresponded to the realm of deities. In normal situations, it would be beyond his capability to comprehend. But now, he was smoothly comprehending it without a hitch. He was fully immersed in the addictive feeling of getting stronger.

One didn't need to be a genius to know that his strength had risen to an unknown level once again. Long Feng would've wanted to experience this enlightenment for ever, or at least a longer time. Unfortunately, such a good opportunity was destined to not last. He wasn't even able to move to the sword Dao when the effect completely faded. He instantly felt downtrodden and sad, just as if he was suddenly brought back to reality after being drunk for a while.

If there was a way to experience that enlightenment once again, Long Feng would absolutely take whatever risk necessary to do so. But it wasn't realistic at all. Which Dao realm master would sever their Dao hearts before they died? The previous head warden was a unique exception. Even if others were willing to do the same, their Dao heart would instantly disperse the moment they severed it. The previous head warden had his own methods to preserve his Dao heart, and it was a secret he took to the grave with him.

Long Feng sighed and leaned his back on the tree trunk while staring blankly into the air. The feeling of experiencing enlightenment was... intoxicating. Dangerously so. One wouldn't help but want to experience it again no matter the cost, going as far as losing themselves. Of course, Long Feng's will wasn't so weak as to lose himself. But he couldn't easily disperse the side effects in a short time.

It was a long while later that he sighed once more and sent his consciousness into it Dantian and saw the changes that had occured. His spirit cyclone was steadily revolving normally once more, releasing a steady stream of energy for Long Feng's use. As for the Dao heart, it had embedded itself into the very center of the cyclone. Long Feng could sense a strange link between him and the Dao heart through his cyclone. Through that link, he could sense a terrifying amount of energy contained within the heart.

It was at least five times more than the original energy contained within the Dao heart. Realization instantly struck him.

"I was wondering how the cyclone was revolving again without issues. The remaining huge amounts of energy I devoured are now contained within the Dao heart, removing the risk of it destroying my cyclone. What a relief." He smiled. His strength had greatly increased within a short time, and he was worried about the risk posed by the extreme amount of energy he devoured within the inheritance ground. Now though, that worry was resolved. There was a new thing to be worried about though.

"This Dao heart... what exactly does it do?" Long Feng sent his consciousness into it and found himself back in the blue world of earlier. The difference was that beneath him wasn't an ocean of water. Instead, the ocean was made purely of true essence! An ocean of true essence... this was something even peak deities would never possess. Only at the Dao realm could a person possess perfect true essence of such quantity. The Dao heart itself was meant to be inherited by a deity.

Not even the original owner of it could ever imagine that the inheritor would be an Imperial realm master. As Long Feng stared at the bast true essence beneath him, a crazy thought appeared in his mind.

"I've comprehended about thirty percent of shattering the firmament skill, but I can't use it because It requires true essence." He rubbed his chin with a glow in his eyes.

"What if I can somehow wield true essence as an Imperial? Shattering the firmament skill would possess power beyond my imaginations. And with true essence to drive other skills, each of them will contain earth shaking power." As he imagined unleashing just the earth firmament skill using true essence, he couldn't even picture how strong it would be in his mind. With true essence, even a mere Yin grade skill would have the power to shake the earth. Moreover, this wasn't ordinary true essence.

This was the true essence of a Dao realm master! Even though it was severely weakened compared to its peak, it could still compare to the true essence of mid stage deities in terms of raw power. Of course, that was also exactly why pulling this feat off would be extremely hard even for Long Feng. He was essentially thinking of controlling mid deity true essence within his Imperial stage body. A hint of hesitation appeared in his eyes.

"Technically, it should work. The dao heart now belongs to me, so the true essence here is completely mine to control. What I'm actually worried about is it's power. As long as I can control it enough to not release it's energy within my body till it leaves my body, then I should be able to withstand using it for a short time." The plan sounded crazy but it was technically possible. Practically though, it was something else entirely. This was what he thought, but he would never know for sure unless he tried it out.

A deep breath left his mouth as he rose to his feet.

"Alright, here goes nothing." He mentally controlled a tiny amount of the true essence to flow out of the Dao heart. Instantly, the revolving cyclone began to distort slightly under the mere presence of the true essence. Long Feng's expression was focused to the extreme as he contained all the aura and fluctuations of energy within the true essence, preventing anything from leaking out. When he was sure enough, he directed the energy to flow out of his Dantian and into his meridians.

A frightening weight seemed to appear within his body instantly. His meridians began to expand forcefully wherever the true essence passed and some minor tears were left in some places. But there was nothing major, which counted as a win. Long Feng slowly extended his arm and a blast of pure true essence erupted from his palm, blasting dozens of trees into splinters and causing a sizeable crater on the ground.

"Hahahaha!" Long Feng burst out laughing in excitement.

"It worked!" This was just a small amount of true essence, but it was nonetheless a sign that his plan could work.

"My body should be able to withstand roughly enough true essence to power the earth firmament skill a few times or the heaven firmament skill two to three times. As for the shattering the firmament skill, I'll have to seriously push my body to the limit before I can unleash it just once. Also, my estimate is that I can only afford to control the true essence once in a few days at least to prevent destroying my own body, causing an irreparable damage or leaving behind hidden injuries."

These were the only conditions he could calculate. As long as he didn't overdo it, he wouldn't cause too much damage to his body. In exchange, he would be able to control true essence as an Imperial! If his act of refining a Dao heart and making consecutive breakthroughs could shake the sect, then this feat could shake the entire region! He was essentially a deity as an Imperial. Without putting his true essence control in consideration, he was already stronger than crimson Chen.

Even if crimson Chen wasn't injured, Long Feng could easily defeat him. His strength would roughly compare to the top ten outer peak disciples. If his true essence was added, then no one could tell exactly how powerful he would be. Right now, Long Feng couldn't help but want to fight a deity head on and see how strong he was. Would Bai Zijun be his opponent? That was unknown. But for sure, Bai Zijun would absolutely be terrified out of his soul the next time he met Long Feng.

Unknown to him, he was now the common enemy of all ten deities. The top ten outer peak disciples had begun a manhunt for him, going as far as to order all of the outer peak disciples in the mystic realm to comb every corner for him. It didn't take much effort for them to dig up his identity. He was a rank one imperial who was allowed into the mystic realm only as a new disciple. This revelation enraged the deities to no end.

Even just mentioning his name would have them gritting their teeth as though he had slaughtered their families before their eyes. The ignorant Long Feng leisurely walked out of the forest and boldly flew high in the sky, completely unaware of the storm he had caused in this mystic realm. At the same time, only a few hours were left until the mystic realm closed and everyone alive would be sent back to the sect.