Chapter 272: Chapter 272 The moment his fiftieth Spirit Perforation was unlocked, an earth-shattering transformation erupted within Grey’s body.
In the Foundation Establishment Realm, breaking through levels was both simple and agonizingly difficult. Simple, because advancement required nothing more than time and sufficient spirit energy. Difficult, because both were demanded in terrifying amounts.
Each Spirit Perforation required an enormous quantity of spirit energy to shatter open. And with every new perforation unlocked, the next demanded even more energy than the last. The consumption multiplied exponentially.
For many cultivators, years, sometimes decades, could be spent trapped within a single stage. Advancement was not limited by talent alone, but by endurance, resources, and sheer will.
However, once a cultivator crossed a certain threshold, when enough Spirit Perforations had been opened, they would begin to resonate with one another. Acting as a unified system, they would give birth to a higher form of energy.
That energy was known as Spirit Power.
And from Spirit Power, the Special Brilliance Form could be awakened.
When Grey opened his fiftieth Spirit Perforation, the amount of Spirit Power that was born was so immense that his entire body trembled violently. His bones creaked. His muscles tightened. His meridians felt as though molten metal was being poured through them.
Then,
A wild aura exploded outward.
A wave of scorching heat burst from Grey’s body, sweeping through the surroundings like a raging tide. The air warped. The ground beneath him cracked faintly.
The heat far surpassed what he could produce when he possessed only a single Spirit Fire.
Which meant only one thing.
He had manifested his second ball of Spirit Fire.
Two blazing spheres of radiant energy materialized beside him, rotating slowly around his body like twin suns. Their light reflected in his eyes, which now burned with clarity and intensity.
The moment the second Spirit Fire formed, Grey felt his body undergo a profound enhancement.
His Sea of Consciousness trembled violently before expanding outward, becoming broader, deeper, more vast. His senses sharpened. His perception widened.
The Spirit Power surging through his meridians became dense and torrential. Waves of heat rolled off his skin in visible distortions, forming a protective current that forced the infiltrating cold aura to halt and retreat.
His vision cleared completely.
Then,
A tyrannical aura erupted from him as he summoned both Spirit Fires and activated his Special Brilliance Form.
It was as though a colossal volcano had awakened within his body. Lava roared through his veins. Power flooded his limbs.
For a brief moment, Grey’s expression revealed faint astonishment. The sudden breakthrough had caught even him off guard.
But it did not end there.
Without warning,
A violent, freezing aura burst forth from his body.
The moment it erupted, all the charging spirits froze mid-motion for a split second. Though it lasted only an instant, the pause was unmistakable.
Something ancient had awakened.
Within the depths of his body, where his true Spirit Fires resided, Grey sensed his dormant Cold Yin Core suddenly stir.
For a long time, ever since he ceased cultivating cold yin energy, the core had remained quiet, circulating independently, neither interfering with nor reacting to his spirit energy.
The two energies had always coexisted like strangers sharing the same body.
Even when they brushed past one another within his meridians, they refused to acknowledge each other’s existence.
But now,
The Cold Yin Core erupted.
Dense, frigid yin energy burst outward, instantly circulating throughout his body. The heat from his Spirit Fires did not extinguish it. Instead, a strange equilibrium formed.
Grey felt as though he had been plunged into an abyssal ocean of ice.
Then, shockingly, the Cold Yin Core expanded till it was twice its original size. Then without warning, it exploded.
The explosion was silent, yet devastating. The core shattered into over a hundred razor-thin threads of pure Cold Yin energy. These threads were so frigid that Grey’s organs nearly froze solid. Frost spread across his internal meridians.
Yet the threads did not disperse aimlessly.
They converged.
Gathering together, weaving into one another, they formed a small sphere.
This sphere ignited.
But instead of blazing with scorching heat, it burned with icy blue flames, flames that seemed to originate from the underworld itself. Flames that did not melt... but froze.
Even spirit energy would be suppressed in its presence.
Then, the Cold Yin Core reformed. But no sooner that it did, it expanded till it was twice it’s size before exploding again.
This process repeated itself multiple times.
Each time it exploded, hundreds more threads were born. Each time, those threads rushed into the growing sphere of icy flames, strengthening it, condensing it, refining it.
The small blue sphere gradually grew larger and denser.
It became even more terrifying until finally, a ball of icy blue flames comparable in size to his Spirit Fires was formed.
Yet unlike his blazing Spirit Fires that radiated volcanic heat, this new flame emanated an endless, abyssal cold. It felt as though it could freeze the world and drag existence into an era of eternal frost.