During this time, Chen Ming took no missions and returned to the cave where he had first found the opportunity that advanced his Heaven and Earth Art and improved his cultivation.
Outside the cave, Chen Ming set up several simple formations he had bought at the market-a soundproofing formation, a defensive formation, and an Illusion Formation-before entering to cultivate.
These days, besides cultivating the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Art and studying the True Explanation of a Hundred Poisons, Chen Ming set aside one day out of every three to attempt to open his upper dantian.
At present, his martial true essence and the spiritual essence of the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Art circulated together in his lower dantian. He had opened his middle dantian to hold the poisonous spiritual essence of the True Explanation of a Hundred Poisons.
During this time, Chen Ming had a wild idea: he would open his upper dantian, draw the martial true essence out of his lower dantian, and guide it into his upper dantian. Once he had formed both a golden core and a poison golden core and had enough time to spare, he would resume his martial cultivation. He truly wanted to know what lay beyond the martial dao grandmaster realm.
He wanted to become the first person to advance beyond martial dao grandmaster. Mortal martial artists could not break through because their bodies simply lacked the strength and resilience required for what lay beyond that realm.
At the same time, mortal lifespans were too short for them to advance from martial dao grandmaster to another height of martial cultivation. Moreover, once martial artists reached a certain age, their blood and vitality began to decline. For mortals, advancing beyond the grandmaster realm was therefore all but impossible.
This time, he changed his strategy. On his previous three attempts, he had forcibly assaulted the location of his upper dantian, using martial true essence like a battering ram against the barrier between his brows. Each attempt had ended with damaged meridians.
He controlled the martial true essence in his lower dantian and sent it upward along an extremely obscure branch of his meridians. This branch was so narrow that the slightest mistake would tear it apart, but it led directly to the rear of his upper dantian.
If his upper dantian were a fortified city, his previous three attempts had been frontal assaults on its gates. This time, he intended to tunnel inside.
Like a cautious snake, his martial true essence slowly crawled along that narrow meridian. More and more sweat gathered on Chen Ming's forehead, and his face began to pale-such delicate manipulation consumed an enormous amount of mental energy. The slightest mistake would send his true essence out of control, rampaging through his meridians.
For he had sensed it-at the end of that meridian lay a faint resistance. Behind that layer of resistance,
His heart skipped a beat, but he immediately forced himself to calm down. The closer he came to success, the easier it was to make a mistake. He controlled his martial true essence, at
Understanding dawned on Chen Ming. He adjusted the shape of his true essence and made it spin-like a drill rotating at high speed, it slowly pressed against that membrane.
A stabbing pain came from between his brows.
It was an indescribable sensation, as though someone were driving a red-hot needle into his brain through the space between his brows. Chen Ming gritted his teeth and continued-
For he could feel it-that membrane was growing thinner, bit by bit.
An unknown amount of time passed, perhaps the time it took an incense stick to burn, perhaps two hours, before Chen Ming suddenly felt the pressure between his brows ease
The membrane had broken.
His martial true essence flooded into his upper dantian like water bursting through a breached dam. A buzz rang through Chen Ming's mind, and the entire world seemed to freeze in that instant.
He "saw" a starry sky.
It was a wondrous experience. Though his eyes were closed, he could "see" a vast, dark space dotted with points of starlight.
Chen Ming then slowly guided the true essence from his lower dantian into his upper dantian. After a period of guidance, the final wisp of true essence passed from his lower dantian into his upper dantian.
Only then did Chen Ming let out a long breath, wipe the sweat from his forehead, and slowly rise to his feet.
Over these years, Chen Ming had not worked to improve his martial cultivation. He remained at the second innate stage.
The foundation establishment stage granted only two hundred years of life, merely twice a mortal's lifespan. Without resources or fortuitous encounters, even reaching the golden core stage would be difficult.
This was merely an experiment, an attempt to pass the time while his immortal cultivation was making little progress.
Recently, Chen Ming had recalled how Mo Juren, a martial dao grandmaster, had managed to kill Yu Zitong, who was in the qi refining realm. From this, he drew a conclusion.
The qi refining realm was equivalent to the mortal martial dao grandmaster realm. If a martial dao grandmaster advanced another step, would that not give him strength equivalent to the foundation establishment stage?
In this mortal world, immortal cultivators ruled supreme, but mortal martial arts also flourished. They had simply failed to break through to a level that would let them stand as equals with immortal cultivation.
Lifespan limited how high mortals could climb, but that did not mean martial arts had reached their end. The Trapping Dragon Art, for instance, had not truly reached its limit. It was merely that Mo Juren's mindset had changed after he encountered immortal cultivation.
Coupled with Yu Zitong's later manipulations and schemes, the poisonous curse afflicting him, and his understanding of the world, he could no longer spare any thought for exploring that possibility.
Chen Ming was different, for he was not from this world. Even setting other myths aside, he had heard legends of a supreme god who attained the Dao through sheer power.
What kind of power was that-magical power or martial might? Who could know?
He still remembered those words from the Martial God: "What makes a genius? Someone who can smoothly break through realms no matter what cultivation art they practice." At this thought, possibilities began stirring in Chen Ming's mind.
Three months later
In the Yuanwu Kingdom, a bedraggled figure appeared. A foundation establishment realm cultivator flew swiftly on his sword, an iron-black Azure Wolf Mask on his face. Far behind him, a middle-aged man wearing the robes of a Ten Thousand Monsters Sect deacon pursued him through the air.
"Run! Do you think you can escape?"
This golden core stage deacon of the Ten Thousand Monsters Sect was Zhao Qian, the master of Zhou Yan, whom Chen Ming had killed.
One day, over a month earlier, Chen Ming had just completed a mission when an aura locked onto him as he passed through the Ten Thousand Monsters Sect's territory. He immediately brought out the Azure Glow Sword and fled.
During his escape, he had been caught three times and forced to endure three palm strikes. Only then had he realized that late foundation establishment cultivation and the golden core stage were not on the same level at all. He had suffered considerable injuries. Had he not routinely carried poisons and had the help of the poison arts in the True Explanation of a Hundred Poisons, he would never have escaped for this long.
Seeing Zhao Qian drawing closer again, Chen Ming hurriedly took several bottles and jars from his Storage Bag and flung them behind him. Then he sent a Wind Blade after them. As the Wind Blade shattered the containers, powder scattered through the air, filling it with multicolored poisonous mist.
After completing this series of movements, Chen Ming hurriedly accelerated and charged toward a sect's mountain gate ahead. Seeing a figure wearing an Azure Wolf Mask rushing toward them, the disciples at the gate were about to step forward and question him.
Yet less than ten meters from the gate, Chen Ming suddenly turned, lowered his flying sword, and sped through the forest below.
Zhao Qian had already stopped when he saw Chen Ming charging toward this sect. Hatred had not clouded his judgment. This was a righteous sect of the Yuanwu Kingdom. Even though Chen Ming had not charged inside, he had still entered its territory, where powerful cultivators could easily sense him.
A foundation establishment stage cultivator passing outside their sect might attract little notice, but a golden core stage cultivator was another matter. Anywhere in the Heavenly South, golden core stage cultivators counted among a sect's high-level fighting forces, and this was a particularly sensitive time.
Chen Ming circled around to the mountain behind the gate. Seeing that Zhao Qian had not followed, he plunged into a river in front of the mountain, submerged himself, concealed his aura, and circulated the Trapping Dragon Art as he moved underwater.