Chapter 17: A Slight Increase in Power and a New Awakening
In the cold darkness of night, beneath the desolate forest canopy, Shen Yuan sat quietly, gazing at the stars. After his bloody battle with the giant serpents, his resolve felt harder than steel. Slowly, he rose to his feet and walked toward the corpses of the beasts, knowing that even in victory, his work was far from over.
This time, he wasn't after their cores, but something far more dangerous—their venom sacs. Earlier, the Elder had told him that the Pearl of the War God possessed many sealed properties that could be unlocked under certain conditions, and one of those was poison. Poison—though seemingly weak—could turn the tide of battle in moments of desperation.
"Why did the Elder insist on starting with this path first?" Shen Yuan muttered to himself, before letting out a faint smile. He didn't fully understand the reason, but he trusted the Elder almost blindly. After all, they were the same person—only in different timelines.
He carefully searched through the three massive serpent corpses until he found three large venom sacs. After storing them inside his spatial ring, he noticed the absence of any beast cores. He wasn't surprised. Beasts without cores were naturally weaker than their counterparts and often relied on numbers for survival. For them, ascending to a higher rank was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Once he finished his work, Shen Yuan made his way back to his familiar cave—the one where he had previously obtained the Hellfire Lotus Seed. He had been using that cave as a temporary home during his stay in the forest.
As soon as he stepped inside, the Elder's voice echoed clearly within his mind:
> "Go and take the lotus flower this time—whole. Mix it with the venom sacs. The fusion will grant the effect of paralysis and corrosion combined. It will serve you well in battle."
Shen Yuan nodded and followed the instructions precisely. He drew out the three venom sacs, mixed them with the lotus, and added a small amount of molten water that had recently formed near the flower. The mixture's color shifted from deep green to dark crimson, emanating a sinister aura that seemed to thicken the very air.
There was another reason for this concoction: poison alone was not enough to create a decisive effect in real combat. But when fused with Hellfire Lotus essence, its potency multiplied severalfold—even if the base came from low-tier, coreless beasts.
He commanded his black ring to hover over the mixture. Slowly, it sank into the fluid and began absorbing it. Within ten minutes, the mixture had been completely consumed, and Shen Yuan felt a rush of information flood into his mind. What he learned left him astonished.
First: he could now release poison automatically with every sword strike, as long as the pearl was supplied with energy. This meant he could create an almost limitless reserve of toxin. However, it came with a price—his spiritual energy needed to be strong enough to handle the burden.
In simpler terms: if the poison were potent enough to kill a Human Ascension Realm cultivator within minutes, then Shen Yuan's current strength wouldn't even suffice to produce a single drop. But the toxin he'd created now was within his capacity—and he was confident he could wield it effectively.
Second: although still within the Body Refinement Realm, he had gained the ability to infuse a trace of Qi into his sword to sharpen its edge—something unheard of at his level. To him, this was like having a hidden trump card waiting for the right moment.
Once the process was complete, the Elder's voice came again—this time deeper, steadier, and filled with pride:
> "Now I can tell you something else… You must understand—the boundaries of every cultivation realm are not absolute. These limits were established by humans during the Primal Era, after observing beasts and drawing enlightenment from them. Therefore, the ninth level of Body Refinement is not the true limit you believe it to be."
Shen Yuan froze for a moment, taken aback.
"You mean… the cultivation realms aren't fixed at nine stages? Then… what does that mean?"
The Elder answered calmly, without hesitation:
> "When you reach the so-called peak of your current realm, that only represents the ceiling for most humans—not all. That's why it was labeled as such in that ancient age. But with techniques like the Primordial Body Art, there are higher thresholds beyond the ninth stage. And even without such techniques, my body—back then—was capable of breaking those limits."
Shen Yuan detected a faint trace of pride in the Elder's tone, but that didn't stop him from asking the question that filled him with unease.
"…Does it hurt?" he whispered.
The Elder's response came instantly, sharp and unwavering:
> "Of course. No pain, no gain."
The firmness in his voice made Shen Yuan's heart skip a beat. He swallowed hard, realizing that the path ahead of him would be paved with agony and struggle…
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> Author's Note: The beginning will contain a lot of buildup and world explanation. I don't want the protagonist's power to rise suddenly without proper reasoning—even if his
older self was once the strongest being in the universe.