Those once-blurry Dao diagrams grew clearer and clearer in his eyes.
He saw it.
A great path of golden light stretching beneath his feet.
At the end of that road stood a tightly shut gate.
Who knew how much time had passed.
Tan Lin suddenly felt the golden mist in his Sea of Consciousness beginning to thin.
It felt like a vast ocean gradually drying up.
His heart tightened, and he quickly stopped cultivating.
He looked inward at his Sea of Consciousness and discovered that the once boundless golden space had now shrunk by more than half.
The golden mist had also become extremely sparse, as though it could dissipate at any moment.
"This deduction consumes too much..."
he muttered.
First opening up and expanding the Sea of Consciousness, then plotting for the Immortal Platform—while it was immensely helpful for taking the high-level overview approach, it also placed a tremendous drain on the thoughts within the Sea of Consciousness.
This was also reflected in the depletion of the blood and vital energy throughout his body, because the body's spiritual vitality and essence were now entirely sustaining the Sea of Consciousness within his skull, where the pressure was immense.
At this critical juncture, without enough "external force" to replenish it, forcing himself to continue cultivating would only lead to the Sea of Consciousness running dry and damage to his soul.
What he did not know was that, over these past days, the reason his cultivation had proceeded so smoothly was that he had already unknowingly consumed an amount of Evolution Fluid that a Four Extremes Secret Realm cultivator could use for who knew how long.
"Looks like it's time to wake from this 'dream'..."
With that thought, his consciousness slowly withdrew from that profound state of enlightenment.
Then, he felt