Breakthrough to Saint-level

Morning had arrived in Yunfeng Town, but the mist had yet to disperse.

Akes sat cross-legged atop a bluish stone on the back mountain, fire elements slowly circulating around his body. He had been here for three days now, meditating on this stone every morning and sensing the rhythm of the fire elements. Three consecutive days of meditation had further increased his affinity with fire elements, and he had faintly touched upon the bottleneck of the Ninth Rank Peak.

The mountain mist gradually dissipated beneath the morning light. Dew dripped from the leaves with crisp little sounds. Akes took a deep breath, and the magic power within him slowly began to circulate. The surrounding fire elements gathered toward him as though summoned. He could clearly sense the joy of every wisp of fire element as they danced through the air, flowed through his meridians, and ultimately converged in his dantian.

"Ding—Sign-in function activated. A special scenario sign-in has been triggered."

The mechanical voice ringing in his mind made Akes pause slightly.

Akes's heart stirred. He was currently cultivating fire magic, and the fire elements around him were unusually active. If he could obtain some treasure related to fire... He silently prayed that his luck would not be too bad.

"Beginning sign-in."

"Sign-in successful! Congratulations, Host, you have obtained a rare item from the world of Sword and Fairy—the Golden Silkworm Gu."

Golden Silkworm Gu?

Akes froze. Of course he knew what the Golden Silkworm Gu was—it was an exceedingly rare treasure in Sword and Fairy, capable of directly raising one's cultivation by a level without any side effects. In the game, it was practically a cheat item.

"Golden Silkworm Gu: A peerless spirit gu from the Sword Immortal World. It can permanently increase the consumer's spiritual power, with the extent depending on the consumer's aptitude. It has no side effects and is remarkably effective in breaking through bottlenecks."

The system prompt sounded again. Akes carefully read every word. An increase in spiritual power? That was far more precious than simply raising his magic level.

Akes took a deep breath and suppressed his excitement. He was already a Ninth Rank Peak fire mage and had been stuck at this bottleneck for months. At a normal cultivation pace, breaking through to the Saint-level would take at least several years, perhaps even longer. The Saint-level was an enormous dividing line, and countless geniuses remained trapped there for their entire lives without making another step forward. But this Golden Silkworm Gu...

"Perfect timing." Akes murmured, his gaze firm.

With a flip of his hand, he took out the Golden Silkworm Gu. It was a thumb-sized insect covered entirely in gold, emitting a faint glow. Looking closely, its body was nearly transparent, with golden liquid slowly flowing inside, as though it contained endless vitality and energy.

According to the system prompt, the Golden Silkworm Gu had to be swallowed directly.

Akes did not hesitate and placed the Golden Silkworm Gu directly into his mouth.

The Golden Silkworm Gu melted the instant it entered his mouth, not even giving him a chance to chew. A warm current instantly burst through his mouth, then surged through his limbs and body like a living thing. The sensation was exceedingly strange, as though countless tiny streams were rushing through him. Each one carried a warm, gentle power, and wherever they passed, his cells trembled with delight.

"This is..." Akes's pupils contracted slightly.

Then, the warm current began gathering toward his mind, like countless tiny streams flowing into the sea. It grew faster and faster. The warm currents pouring from every part of his body surged madly toward his head like a hundred rivers returning to the ocean. Akes felt his head swell, and his consciousness instantly entered a state of utter clarity.

Boom—

It felt as though something had exploded in his mind. Akes only felt his consciousness expanding at incredible speed. His spiritual power, which had originally only been able to sense several miles around him, now spread outward like a tide—ten miles, twenty miles, fifty miles, a hundred miles!

He had never experienced anything like this. It was like being trapped in a cramped room, only for all the walls around him to suddenly collapse, opening his view as the entire world threw open its gates before him.

The explosive growth of his spiritual power lasted for roughly a quarter of an hour before gradually stabilizing. Akes's consciousness slowly withdrew from that mysterious state of expansion, but his complete awareness of everything around him did not fade. Within a hundred-mile radius, even the slightest movement of wind or grass could not escape his senses.

And once his spiritual power stabilized, an even more astonishing change occurred.

The Fallen Heart Flame within Akes suddenly began to pulse violently. The Heavenly Flame that had been quietly lurking in his dantian seemed to have received some kind of stimulation and abruptly swelled! Golden flames surged in an instant, nearly bursting through his dantian.

"This—"

Before Akes could react, the Fallen Heart Flame had already transformed into countless tiny threads of fire that rapidly spread throughout his body along his meridians. Wherever each thread passed, his meridians were scorched and torn apart. The pain was like being sliced by countless blades at once. Yet under the effect of the Three Thousand Burning Flame Seed, his torn meridians healed instantly, the speed of recovery even surpassing the speed of destruction.

Tearing and healing repeated over and over, each cycle more intense than the last. The pain made the veins on Akes's forehead bulge. He gritted his teeth so hard that he nearly cried out. Sweat had barely seeped from his skin before it evaporated, becoming white mist that swirled around him. Yet he clenched his teeth tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms. He knew this was another benefit brought by the Golden Silkworm Gu—it had stirred the Heavenly Flame within him, allowing the flames and his spiritual power to merge perfectly.

If anyone had looked from afar at that moment, they would have seen Akes entirely shrouded in a golden halo. Faint golden patterns flickered beneath his skin; they were the paths traced by the Heavenly Flame as it circulated through his meridians. His aura fluctuated violently, sometimes strong and sometimes weak. At its strongest, it was enough to make the surrounding magical beasts tremble in fear; at its weakest, he seemed no different from an ordinary person.

After an unknown amount of time, the burning sensation within him gradually faded. The final thread of fire returned to his dantian, and the Fallen Heart Flame quieted down. However, it had become more solid than before, and its color had changed from deep gold to pale gold, faintly beginning to transform toward colorless transparency.

Akes slowly opened his eyes and discovered faint golden flames flickering deep within his pupils. He blinked, and the flames vanished, but upon closer inspection, a trace of indistinct gold could still be seen in the depths of his eyes.

"Did I... break through?"

He raised his right hand. With a thought, a ball of golden flame appeared in his palm. Its temperature was incredibly high, warping the surrounding air from the heat. Even the surface of the bluish stone showed signs of melting. Yet he did not feel the slightest heat himself, as though the flame were simply a part of his body.

Even more astonishingly, the spiritual power fluctuations contained within this flame were more than ten times stronger than before! The fire constantly changed shape in his palm, becoming a sword one moment, a blade the next, then transforming into a blooming golden lotus. Every petal was lifelike, and every strand of flame moved according to his will.

"Holy Archmage..." Akes murmured, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice.

He could clearly feel that he had crossed the threshold that had troubled countless mages—the Saint-level! It was a vast chasm that innumerable geniuses could not cross in their entire lives. Yet with the aid of the Golden Silkworm Gu, he had stepped over it so easily.

He reined in his aura and examined himself inwardly with his spiritual power. Within his mind, his spiritual power had condensed into a golden ocean, more than ten times larger than before. The golden sea was calm and still, but Akes knew that with a single thought, it could raise monstrous waves. At the center of the sea, an even more brilliant golden light slowly revolved. It was the core formed from condensed spiritual power, as well as the origin of his consciousness.

Within his dantian, the Fallen Heart Flame and the Three Thousand Burning Flame Seed floated quietly. Faint golden threads linked them together, clearly the result of some resonance produced by this breakthrough. The Fallen Heart Flame was more solid than before, and a faint milky-white trace appeared at its center, a phenomenon that could only occur when the temperature reached an extreme. The Three Thousand Burning Flame Seed had also expanded from the size of a thumb to the size of a fist. The golden patterns on its surface had become more intricate and profound, faintly showing signs of breaking out of its shell.

"The Fallen Heart Flame's power should have improved considerably, and the Three Thousand Burning Flame Seed has grown by a great deal as well," Akes thought. He tried to stir a wisp of Fallen Heart Flame. It was only a tiny flame, yet the air around it twisted violently, and the bluish stone beneath his feet instantly melted into a fist-sized pit. He hurriedly withdrew the flame, both shocked and delighted.

After breaking through to the Saint-level, not only could he control more powerful magic, but more importantly, his understanding of the elements had reached a new level. Many obscure magic theories that he had struggled to comprehend before now became perfectly clear. He had even faintly touched upon the threshold of the Mysteries of Fire Element. It was a feeling too profound to be explained in words.

"Akes!"

A familiar voice came from the foot of the mountain.

Akes smiled slightly, rose to his feet, and reached the foot of the mountain in a few leaps. Linley stood there, and when he saw Akes come down, a flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes. It was an indescribable feeling. Akes clearly looked the same as before, yet it seemed as though everything about him had changed.

"You just now..." Linley looked him over. "Why do I feel like you've changed somehow?"

"What's changed?" Akes asked with a smile. He had deliberately concealed his aura. Unless the other person's spiritual power greatly exceeded his own, there was no way they could see through his true cultivation.

Linley frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "I can't explain it. It just feels like you're standing there, as if you've blended into the environment around you, but also seem strangely out of place. It's a weird feeling, like... like seeing someone who suddenly grew much taller. It's clearly still the same face, but it just feels different."

Akes silently praised Linley's sharp senses. Even though he had deliberately concealed himself, Linley had still noticed something unusual.

"I did make a little progress," Akes said without hiding it. "I just broke through."

"Broke through?" Linley froze, then said in delight, "You reached the Saint-level?" The moment the words left his mouth, he was stunned himself. Akes had only reached the Ninth Rank Peak not long ago. How could he have broken through so quickly?

Akes nodded. "Yes, a fire-element Holy Archmage."

Linley's eyes widened as he stared at him in disbelief. "You... you only just reached the Ninth Rank Peak, didn't you? How did you suddenly break through?"

Akes smiled. "I was just lucky. I obtained a treasure that directly helped me break through the bottleneck." He did not explain the origins of the Golden Silkworm Gu in detail, and Linley did not ask. That was the tacit understanding between brothers. Everyone had their own secrets, and there was no need to dig into them.

Though Linley was shocked, he was even happier for his brother. He patted Akes on the shoulder and laughed. "Great! That means we have another Saint-level expert on our side! When we get back, Barker and the others will definitely drop their jaws. You haven't seen how they've been acting—they keep going on about breaking through as soon as possible, but you ended up overtaking them despite starting later."

"Don't tell them yet," Akes said. "I want to keep a low profile. Although the Saint-level makes me one of the strongest in Yunfeng Town, it's still nothing in the entire Yulan Continent. Revealing my strength too early would only invite unnecessary trouble."

Linley thought about it and nodded. "That makes sense. Fine, I'll keep it secret for you. But you're being far too modest. A Holy Archmage under twenty years old—if word got out, the entire Yulan Continent would be shaken. I remember the youngest Holy Archmage in history was already in his thirties."

The two smiled at each other and headed down the mountain side by side. Morning sunlight shone on them, casting two long shadows over the mountain path.

When they returned to their residence, Barker and his four brothers were training on the practice grounds. Seeing Linley and Akes return, they greeted them one after another. Akes casually chatted with them for a while.

Returning to his room, Akes sat cross-legged and examined his body inwardly once more. He needed to fully understand his current condition and prepare for his next stage of cultivation.

The effects of the Golden Silkworm Gu were far more astonishing than he had imagined. It had not only allowed him to break through to the Saint-level in one stroke, but had also created a deeper fusion between his spiritual power and Heavenly Flame. Now, when he cast fire magic, its power had increased by at least fivefold. He tried condensing the most basic fireball spell in his palm. The fireball, originally the size of a fist, was now as large as a head, and its temperature was so terrifying that the air itself crackled and burst.

"The Three Thousand Burning Flame Seed has grown quite a bit too." Akes observed the seed within his dantian. It had originally been only thumb-sized, but was now as large as a fist, with faint golden patterns flickering across its surface. According to the setting of Battle Through the Heavens, once the Three Thousand Burning Flame truly awakened, its power would be enough to burn the heavens and boil the seas. Though it was currently only in its seed form, the energy it contained was already incredibly formidable.

At this rate, the Three Thousand Burning Flame might truly awaken before long. When that happened, combined with the Fallen Heart Flame, his strength would rise by leaps and bounds once again. The Fallen Heart Flame governed the inside, able to burn away impurities within the body and temper magic power; the Three Thousand Burning Flame governed the outside, able to burn all things and possessed astonishing offensive power. The two Heavenly Flames complemented each other and would be enough to let him challenge opponents above his level.

"Once I truly master this flame, together with the Fallen Heart Flame, I'll have the strength to fight even a Saint-level Peak expert," Akes silently calculated. However, he also knew that now was not the time for arrogance. The Saint-level was merely the beginning. Above it lay the Saint-level Peak, and beyond that were Deity-level experts. The road of cultivation had no end.

Three days later.

Linley prepared to set out for Chier County City to fulfill his five-year promise with Jenny.

When Akes learned the news, he took the initiative to propose traveling with him. "I'll go with you. If we run into any trouble, we can look out for each other."

Linley considered it, then nodded. "All right. If I go alone, none of you will be at ease." He understood his brother and knew Akes was worried that something might happen to him. Although few people in Chier County City could threaten him with his current strength, an extra helping hand was always a good thing.

Barker and his four brothers had originally wanted to go as well, but Linley refused. "Stay in Yunfeng Town and continue cultivating. Akes and I will be enough. Too many people would only attract attention."

Though Barker and the others were reluctant, they knew Linley was right. They could only urge the two to be careful on the road, not to act rashly if something happened, and to return quickly.