Time flew by, and more than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
Out at sea, not far from the planet's continent, Qi Jingshi and the other two were still sparring, testing their understanding of their own power.
With Qi Jingshi's guidance, Qi Tianshou and Qi Shangye gradually began to sense, through one battle after another, what it felt like for will, consciousness, power, and energy to merge together.
That sensation was impossible to describe in words. Still, after slowly experimenting, Qi Shangye had gotten the hang of it. He was only one step away from mastering that state, while Qi Tianshou was still a little short.
"What's going on?"
The three suddenly stopped sparring when they felt a tremor coming from the ocean floor. They rose into the air together and saw ripples spreading across the distant horizon.
"What's that?" Qi Tianshou asked curiously.
"I don't know. Let's go take a look." Qi Jingshi finished speaking, and the three burst forward at top speed toward the center of the "ripples."
The closer they got, the more they felt the terrifying surges of power, and the stronger those surges became.
By the time they reached their destination, the towering waves, tens of thousands of meters high, were already putting pressure on them. This was no ordinary tsunami or natural disaster.
"This power—it's the Buddha Lord!" After sensing it, the three immediately recognized Qi Tian as the one behind all the commotion.
"Big brother, what should we do?" Qi Shangye asked Qi Jingshi.
Qi Tianshou also turned to look at him. Qi Jingshi stayed relatively calm and surveyed their surroundings. The waves were piling up in layer upon layer, and the situation had become dangerous.
"We can't let the tsunami continue. Let's go down to the ocean floor and see what's happening."
As soon as Qi Jingshi finished speaking, he spread golden energy around the other two and led them beneath the waves. They pushed through the increasingly violent tremors toward the underwater rift where Qi Tian was.
Qi Tian had completely fallen into a state of enlightenment. The energy within him flowed faster and faster, growing denser than before as it gradually resonated with a strange fluctuation.
The cramped cliff walls around him had already crumbled into rubble under his repeated attacks. Later, as he released his energy outward, it had blasted one enormous crater after another into the seabed.
At the same time, Qi Tian floated over the underwater crater with his arms and legs spread wide. Eyes closed, he sensed the mysteries of heaven and earth. His fists were clenched as golden energy continued to condense and compress.
The terrifying energy stirred the seawater into a vortex on either side of him. Slowly, they grew into dreadful waterspouts.
"I can't go any farther. Even from this distance, the tremors are making my blood and qi churn and battering my internal organs."
Of the three descending toward Qi Tian, Qi Shangye was the first to reach his limit under the tremors caused by Qi Tian's released energy. He hurriedly sent the other two a mental message.
The other two were struggling just as badly. Only Qi Jingshi could keep enduring it, while Qi Tianshou could already feel pressure on his internal organs.
Qi Jingshi stopped the water currents driven by his energy. Now that he had confirmed Qi Tian was beneath them in the deep, dark sea, he sent him a mental message, hoping he would receive it.
"Buddha Lord... Buddha Lord..."
As Qi Tian prepared a terrifying attack, a faint voice sounded in his mind, disrupting his strange state.
"Who is it?"
Qi Tian's eyes snapped open. A powerful pressure of will erupted from his gaze as he angrily searched for the person who had sent the mental message.
"Buddha Lord, please stop! If you continue, the land will be destroyed."
This time, Qi Tian clearly sensed the voice in his mind. His thoughts spread outward, and he saw Qi Jingshi and the other two struggling to approach him under immense pressure.
"What is it?" Qi Tian asked them in a tone devoid of emotion, speaking with an authority he had never shown before.
The three sensed the anger simmering beneath his voice and were horrified. They hurriedly sent him a mental message.
"Please calm your anger, Buddha Lord. We didn't mean to disturb you. But your cultivation is having too great an impact. It's creating powerful currents on the ocean floor and setting off one terrifying tsunami after another. If the waves grow any stronger, they could wash over and submerge the entire land."
Qi Tian froze. He immediately spread his thoughts across the ocean to inspect the surface and found that terrifying waves had formed across a radius of thousands of kilometers. Far away, the colliding waves had piled up to a height of tens of thousands of meters.
He was fortunate Qi Jingshi and the others had interrupted him. Otherwise, he would have destroyed with his own hands the low-level civilization he had worked so hard to build.
"What a pity."
His memory of that state had already begun to blur. The fist that had almost taken shape seemed to resonate with a strange fluctuation he had sensed before. Given a little more time, it would have become his most powerful move.
"Although it didn't take shape, the lingering resonance in that punch has given me some new insights."
After calming himself, Qi Tian flashed over to Qi Jingshi and the others, then brought them up from the ocean floor to hover above the surface.
"I entered some kind of state while cultivating, and I couldn't control it in time," Qi Tian explained.
Qi Jingshi and the other two hovered nearby. They relaxed a little at his explanation, and when they saw that he wasn't angry, they believed he had forgiven them.
"Thank you for understanding, Buddha Lord," the three said together, bowing their heads to him.
Qi Tian nodded. "Return to the Sacred Hall first and bring Shi Xuan with you. I'll arrive later. After that, I have something to announce."
The three answered in unison, bowed to Qi Tian, and quickly flew back to the continent.
After watching them leave, Qi Tian remained where he was and closed his eyes, carefully sensing the lingering resonance of his earlier enlightenment as he tried to recall that state.
During this process, strange fluctuations flickered faintly through his body once more, but soon disappeared.
Only after he could no longer sense the lingering resonance did Qi Tian sigh. He sensed that both the Will Divine Fire and his soul had changed somewhat, then turned his consciousness toward the Consciousness Sea Space.
"I didn't expect that after such a short time of having my will burned, not only would my will grow stronger, but my soul would also grow a little."
"And the Will Divine Fire is no longer like a candle flickering in the wind. As my will grew stronger, the divine fire kindled by it turned into a small flame."
"This Undying talent hasn't let me down. I look forward to the day it undergoes a qualitative change."
Meanwhile, with Qi Jingshi's golden energy carrying them along, the three returned quickly. They reached the Gold Soul Clan Sacred Hall in just over half an hour.
After receiving a mental message from Qi Jingshi, Qi Shixuan hurried over. When he entered the Divine Temple and saw the three standing respectfully beneath the altar, he quickly went over to them.
"Father, Uncle Tianshou, Uncle Shangye," Qi Shixuan greeted them.
The three nodded slightly. Looking at his son, Qi Jingshi felt gratified. "You've worked hard handling the clan's affairs these past few years."
Qi Shixuan shook his head. "Everything I do is only right, for the Buddha Lord and the Gold Soul Clan."
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