Samael tuned Myelle and everything else out, falling into a state of deep and unbreakable concentration.
The first step of Ashen Madness was Tribulation Sear—a stage where one crumbled under the force of falling pillars of heavenly lightning, then rebuilt oneself into a perfect vessel.
The second, though, was called Risen Madness—a stage where you didn't crumble beneath the weight of the skies but instead tamed it.
A stage where the flames and lightning of the heavens became hammers in your hands—hammers used to forge a blade of untold beauty.
The first three stages of awakening relied on Tribulation Sear, while the next three would depend on Risen Madness.
And today, Samael planned to breeze through the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of awakening.
RUMBLE!
The tribulation continued to grow, just as it had the last time it sensed the presence of countless living beings within its range.
Though Samael no longer had his cultivation platform, his body still rose into the air, lifted by the tribulation itself, so as not to harm the soldiers he sat upon.
A bubble formed around him, encasing him and sealing him off from the world, as if the tribulation had learned from the last time and refused to let him use an artifact akin to the platform.
Of course, this time, he wouldn't need it.
WHOOOSH!
His bubble rose into the skies, leaving the coliseum, soaring past the bed of clouds that rained down with no end, and finally settling into the heart of the tribulation clouds—right within their midst.
Suddenly, Samael's Qi Ring took shape behind him, and his Elemental Origin Crown began to shine, harmonising with his ring in a soft and tranquilising pulse.
And horrifyingly enough… the bed of clouds, the sea of fire and lightning… fell silent, submitting to the reign of his ring and crown.
Samael didn't react to this. He simply closed his eyes and focused.
Following the third stage of awakening, Spiritualisation, came the fourth stage—The Flawless Palace Stage.
The Flawless Palace Stage was, in a sense, a fusion of the Qi Circle Stage and Spiritualisation Stage, brought to an extreme.
In this stage, one had to sense the most pure and primordial qis in the atmosphere, tame them, and then use them to change and refine the very structure of both body and mind—pushing them to the edge of what their potential could yield in terms of qi sensitivity and fleshy might as well as mental depth.
It was a stage that brought one to the very brink of their innate potential—thus achieving the Flawless Palace State. And this, in turn, directly tied into the fifth stage of awakening: the Resonant Ladder Stage.
Once the body and mind had reached their respective extremes, the cultivator then had to focus on what bridged the two—their senses.
Smell, taste, hearing, sight, touch, and everything in between would need to be opened to the realms of qi.
They would have to evolve—to allow one to smell pure and impure qi, to see the differences between qis of varying natures, to feel out the shape of qi itself, and so much more.
These two stages were ones Samael particularly loved, because not only did they allow him to further modify his body, they also allowed his control over qi to expand drastically.
WHOOSH!
His ring slowly spun, forming a vortex that pulled in the surrounding clouds, fire, and lightning—breaking them down into the purest and most docile qi that could possibly be formed at his level.
Then, it flowed into him.
Like a river of silk and softness, this pure and primordial qi seeped into the fibres of his muscles, the strands of his nerves, and the surface of his bones.
Unlike before, where the process reflected scenes of gore and near-death—where Samael had to be reduced to a charred mess in order to reforge himself—this time, the process was quiet and painless.
But it was no less shocking to behold.
His skin slowly and softly lifted from his frame, his muscle fibres unraveling, and his organs began to open and split, just as his bones seemed to melt.
Looking at him, he appeared nothing like a human. He embodied the truest sense of the word unexplainable.
Then, step by step, Samael rewired the very workings of his body, even as he opened his senses to qi. Using the knowledge from his past lives, the process was smooth and beyond what the word perfect could describe.
He took the time to further study the effects of the Puffer Sark Bloodmead coursing through him. He analysed it, observed its effects on his body, and modified himself accordingly—perfecting the seed of his heavenly constitution and burning away every imperfection.
Simultaneously, the very ceiling of his potential only continued to rise—pushed higher and higher by the divine qi flowing into him.
Strength flooded both his mind and flesh. A process that might have taken him mere moments in the past now stretched into an entire day.
All the while, the storm engulfing the sector only intensified beneath the weight of the tribulation, which, too, kept growing.
It was a beautiful cycle—too beautiful, in fact.
SHAH!
A pulse echoed through the sector as Samael reached a limit—a perfect limit.
His seed had been perfected. The potential of his body rose to a level hundreds of thousands of times beyond its original state, and at last, his senses had fully adapted to the qi surrounding him.
Without wasting time, he moved on to the sixth stage.
The Harmonic Echelon Stage.
In this stage, once one had reached the absolute zenith of their potential, they were required to harmonise fully with the ambient flow of qi in the world—and then use their rings to shatter that very limit.
Breaking this limit would not only double one's potential, providing new space for growth in both mind and body, but it would also allow the birth of an additional Qi Ring—thus refining and sublimating one's control over qi.
And within this stage, there were thirteen steps. Each step resulted in a new ring being born, with the final step baptising all thirteen.
Each step exponentially doubled the cultivator's potential.
It was a stage of furious, unstoppable growth.
BANG!
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the skies as Samael broke through the first of his Potential Limits, another Qi Ring rapidly taking shape behind him.
More potential opened within him, allowing even more primordial qi to pour in and further elevate his strength.
But he wasn't done.