Chapter 198

  Over the Summit (IV)

  The first thing I felt was a slight loosening in my dantian.

  It was honestly... strange, even now, as there was no comparison to any feeling I felt back on Earth. Though, technically, dantian was in the center of the abdomen, the sensation of it was felt everywhere. Yeah, I know, it makes no sense, but perhaps in some manifold logic of the higher math and higher dimensions, it all ties together neatly.

  Or perhaps not.

  I don't really know.

  The loosening, as best I can sense it, was sort of like wearing a belt over already tight pants, going to a wedding, eating an absolute mountain, and then coming back home and undoing that very belt. It was a very perverse comparison, but, you know, the closest that I could tie it to.

  Though it started with my dantian, it soon spread out to my meridians--I felt myself heating up, bit by bit, as Qi turned to stir and cruise throughout me, each revolution leading to a slightly denser center of energy.

  **

  Long Tao opened his eyes and glanced backwards; he'd seen possibly hundreds of thousands of people cross into the Revolving Core Realm in his lifetime.

  He'd seen absolute talents causing all kinds of phenomena on their way over the summit--one, four-year-old boy caused a spontaneous appearance of a previously nonexistent species of Spirit Beasts, who all followed him and eventually helped him earn his title, Emperor of the Wild.

  A six-year-old girl once caused a pillar of holy light so bright that it blinded the world for seven days. At its end, she merged with a pair of feathered wings and went on to become the Empress of Light.

  His Master, for however amazing he was, would not cause anything remotely of that nature, Long Tao knew. It would be a miracle if the man simply crossed over smoothly with a Mortal Core.

  Though this specific crossing was of greater importance than perhaps any other on the journey to Immortality, that was only truly the case for those pursuing the absolute pinnacle, the vast skies even beyond the crown of the Emperor.

  Otherwise?

  None of it mattered.

  Just to prove it, he'd once taken an 89-year-old mortal man with absolutely no talent for cultivation and made him an Emperor. It wasn't even particularly difficult--just inordinately expensive.

  Compared to that, his Master was a heaven-defying genius.

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  None of it truly mattered, in the end.

  Though his Master would never be able to follow him there, he didn't want to be followed there. It was his place to go and his war to wage. He'd make of the man in front of him an Emperor, a lasting figure, though it was entirely possible that in order for Long Tao himself to cross that mark, the man in front of him would be needed.

  Being perfect across every step wasn't enough.

  He'd seen firsthand that it wasn't enough.

  Something else was needed.

  And, somehow, some way, the man in front of him is bound to Dao. Which Dao? How exactly? For what purpose? Those and a hundred more questions levitated like the eternal stars upon the night sky, but none had answers.

  However, there was perhaps a chance that the man might know the answer to the looming thought, the Great Barrier, as it was called, that separated the 'heavens' and the rest.

  He briefly glanced out and toward the ground. Most believed that the 'heavens' resided upward, beyond the skies, somewhere in a distant firmament, but, positionally, they were actually 'below' all the other layers.

  He'd taken a peek, the briefest of them, and saw it. Saw what he'd have to conquer should he ever get a chance.

  Sighing, he spun back around and faced his Master.

  The Qi around the man began to fizzle and spasm, behaving erratically.

  "Good," Long Tao mumbled.

  These were the signs of a higher-rated Core being formed.

  The winds began to pick up and howl, chattering through the gaps in the walls and windows. Within moments, the man slowly began to float as iridescent colors began to emerge from his abdomen, blooming into a spinning spiral that shot outwardly into a semi-transparent cocoon.

  Long Tao frowned, his muscles tensing for a moment.

  He'd... never seen this phenomenon.

  It wasn't strange, not really--practically everyone has their own 'mini' phenomenon during this specific breakthrough, the weight of it determined by both their bond to Dao as well as the quality of Core being formed.

  The current level suggested a Spirit Core, but also... marginally a Heaven Core?

  That shouldn't have been possible.

  Not even close.

  His Master's talents were absolutely rotten--even after his body was 'purified', it should not have mattered. Even Long Tao himself, as he was right now, would barely manage to form a Heaven Core. He suspected he'd need at least two years in order to properly restructure his body as well as his Spirit in order to have a chance at the Eternal Core.

  The cocoon of colors burst suddenly, but not with any fanfare--there was no sound and no visible pulse of light; it was more that the colors dispersed as though guided by invisible hands, slowly settling into the shape of a Dragon.

  The bodice gently settled around his Master's body while the head came to the front, its eyes opening and staring at his.

  --Long Tao felt it.

  Instinctual fear.

  Reverence.

  He quickly suppressed it, as the Dragon wasn't real. But the fact that it could trigger his instincts so viscerally...

  Something was off.

  The auspicious visage of a mythological beast, especially one as revered as the Azure Dragon, should trigger such a grand heavenly phenomenon that the entire world would see it. The dragon should have swept upwards and danced in the sky, turning the night into a day for everyone to see, and only after come and settle here.

  So... why didn't he?

  Why was the breakthrough that should be alarming the heavens being undergone so quietly? So much so that the Eternal Visage would remain unseen by everyone except him?

  "A Trace of your Divinity resides in the canyon," a voice boomed within his mind, shattering all the barriers he raised therein.

  IMPOSSIBLE!

  Long Tao shot to his feet, alarmed more so than he was even at the time of his death. For someone--or something--to have crawled directly into his mind, through so many mental barriers he'd set up...

  "You will need it to cross the River." The voice was soft, as though a young girl's, but it echoed like thunder in his mind. He found his head beginning to hurt and his eyes and nose beginning to bleed. "He will guide you. He will guide all of you. To restore that which was shattered..."