Chapter 230 - Breakthroughs
It wasn't surprising that Amber couldn't hold on. She succumbed to these sensations feeling the most at ease with herself.
Even normally calm Cain was having challenges just not pushing down Amber, following his instinctive desires. He could only barely hold on because he had a higher cultivated mental state.
And under this blissful state, Cain and Amber's Soul's Core massively stirred.
Under Amber's chest, a faint blue light shimmered. And under Cain's chest, a soft green light glowed to existence.
These lights didn't look ordinary at all. On the contrary, they looked borderline magical, breathtaking even as if they were straight from a spiritual source.
Anybody gazing upon it would feel lost, feeling like they were peering into an otherworldly scenery.
This wasn't an all-powerful aura like Qi or mysteriously mystical like Spirit energy. But it was very enlightening like one can see into themselves from these lights.
The cause of these lights came from Cain and Amber's Soul's Core!
Within anyone's body, the Soul's Core will stay deeply hidden, practically invisible to most Martial cultivators or World Spirit Masters.
Even if a person is pierced in this specific spot on their chest, their Soul's Core wouldn't be affected at all.
Similar to the dantian, Spirit Space, or Astral Space occupying the internal body, the Soul's Space could also be counted as a separated space.
The difference here is that the Soul's Space is imbued with incomparably unique properties at birth.
To those with lower comprehension abilities, the exact origins of the Soul's Space is a bigger mystery than the rest. But one underlying fact that even Lower Realm mortals faintly know about is that the Soul's Space is yet another blessing of the mysterious and complex Heavenly Dao.
It was incredibly odd to ponder about.
Despite the fact that the Heavenly Dao creates numerous upon numerous rules to tightly restrict the universe, it also gives countless lifeforms the chance to achieve enlightenment thanks to the blessing of the Soul's Space.
Wanting to precisely understand how and why these rules came about is challenging, almost near impossible.
Even Cain's immense perception abilities couldn't understand a faint threshold of it. But no matter the exact origins, Cain was grateful he had a full grasp over his Soul's Core.
At this moment, Cain was nearing the highest crucial point of the Soul Ritual. Although he broke through the invisible force of the Soul Ritual, the difficulties weren't over yet. If he wasn't precisely careful, the Soul Link could just slightly disrupt, resulting in complete failure.
In this type of situation, Amber's completely entranced, relaxed mental state was the best. Her thoughts were cleared without even a hint of distracting thoughts. She entirely engrossed into Cain, lulling herself into a perfect assimilated state for the Soul Ritual.
With this, her Soul's Core was ready for the next step.
Cain was the one that needed to focus his thoughts, perceiving each essence within his mental psyche and then controlling it with his Soul.
What he needed to perceive was Dragon Essence, Soul Law essence, his own Soul energy, and Amber's Soul energy. All essence and energies were the equivalents of splitting his focus four different ways.
Maintaining this type of splitting focus is challenging for any genius.
Comprehending upon just one essence took a regular genius around 70% of their mental psyche focus. Wanting to comprehend another at the same time would quite literally be impossible for the average genius.
Not even Cain had a smooth road with this.
Beads of sweat continually trickled down his forehead, his brows faintly knit together as he extended the most of his concentration he ever used in cultivation.
With each passing second, gradual faint headache-inducing pain struck Cain's mind. On pure instinctive, his face twitched whenever he felt a pang of pain.
But Cain determinedly persisted, ignoring all distracting thoughts.
Then, when around ten seconds flashed by, another tremendous change occurred.
At the same time, a faint green Soul energy stream flowed out of Cain's chest, and a light blue Soul energy stream flowed out of Amber's chest.
Two mystical Soul lights ignited the entire training room, drowning in it an otherworldly spectacle. Anyone would be drawn into the light of pure Souls.
Time seemed to come at a minor standstill as the light show glowed the world.
This was the most critical moment of the Soul Ritual.
Both Cain and Amber's Soul energy streams were imbued with the entirety of the Soul Dragon Union Arts. Now was the time to create the foundational Soul Link for the true Soul Dragon Mark!
Once this is formed, the first layer of the Soul Ritual will be perfectly done.
To achieve perfect results, everything was a slow process. Cain and Amber's Soul energies flowed towards each other at an agonizing snail pace.
Seconds soon turned into minutes.
Just slightly did Cain tighten his hold around Amber.
During this critical process, Cain's perception towards Dragon Essence and the Soul was steadily improving.
By grasping the principles of control in his mind and then applying them to his Soul, he was advancing far beyond what he could achieve with standard cultivation.
Then, when precisely ten minutes passed, Cain's Soul energy stream and Amber's Soul energy stream finally touched!
In this instance, Cain and Amber's bodies violently tremble.
The Soul pleasure had suddenly explosively enhanced by hundreds, no, thousands of degrees!
Neither Amber nor now Cain could resist falling into a lull trance. This was the proper process of their entire beings linking together, slowly an unbreakable connection that will never erode away.
And Soul Pleasure wasn't the only thing affecting Cain and Amber.
At the same time their Soul energy streams touched, the Heaven and Earth Origin energy violently stirred.
The essence of their Soul's touching directly influenced the environment, causing rapid streams of Heaven and Earth's Origin energy to flow into them as if they were magnets of nature.
The Origin energy soared straight into their dantians, rapidly strengthening it.
This was the fantastic effect of the Soul Layer of the Dragon Union Arts.
The pure Yin essence that formulates Amber's Soul's Core and the pure Yang essence that composes Cain's Soul's Core connects, creating a very similar effect on the level of bloodline yin-yang harmonization.
Within their internal bodies, Cain's pure Soul Yang essence flowed into Amber, absorbing into her bloodstreams to replenish her lost Yin essence. And this Soul Yang essence also converts into the purest of origin energy and streams into her dantian and mental psyche.
The exact process was also occurring within Cain's internal body. Amber's pure Soul Yin essence replenished his lost Yang essence and then converted into the purest of origin that absorbed into his dantian and mental psyche.
From both the environment and their Souls, Cain and Amber's cultivation was soaring on all fronts!
Along with strengthening their dantian, their mental psyche is also rapidly advancing.
If they were ordinary cultivators, this would be highly crucial, allowing them to steadily improve their cultivation base without any worry.
Of course, with Cain and Amber's current perception abilities, it wasn't entirely necessary. But it was sure to help them for their future Martial Road.
In this blissful state, time quickly flew by.
And within Cain and Amber's mental psyche and Soul's Core, Dragon Essence from the Dragon Union Arts had finally engraved itself.
At this moment, Cain and Amber now have access to a higher form of Dragon Essence! The benefits wouldn't be immediately apparent, but in the future, their cultivation and combat prowess would be steadily enhanced by this.
As more time flew by, Cain felt that his dantian energy accumulation and Martial perception accumulation reached their peak. The breakthrough sensation formed, and the invisible force of the mental block spawned.
From Middle Stage to Late Stage Profound Soul, the average accumulation needed to breakthrough would amount to months, years even.
Cain had numerous shortcuts to take within this realm. However, at his previous rate, it would've taken him at least four more days to break through if he poured all of his time into cultivating.
But thanks to the wonderful effects of the Soul Dragon Union Arts, this time was immensely shaved down to unbelievable proportions!
It was even faster than just regularly dual cultivating! But this was understandable when understanding the Soul Dragon Union Arts.
With Soul Yin-Yang harmonization, the energy that is converted from the Soul is at a faintly higher layer than regular bloodline Yin-Yang energy.
After all, no matter how much refinement the internal body undergoes, it is impossible to completely rid of all hidden impurities. Thus, the Yin-Yang bloodline energies would be at a lacking quality compared to the purity of the Soul's Core.
Even at one's formation in the womb, the Soul's Core will remain untainted by all foul air, being truly blessed by the Heavenly Dao.
Furthermore, there was also the Soul influence on the surrounding environment, similarly being at a higher degree, allowing for far purer Heaven and Earth Origin energy to flow in.
And finally, there were the added benefits of the Dragon Essence amplifying all energies that are absorbed, further boosting their cultivation.
With all this combined together, Cain's quick breakthrough was inevitable.
Typically, Cain would opt to suppress this breakthrough in favor of perfecting his foundation. But with the looming event of having to come home, Cain decided to go for extreme cultivation speed.
So with just a thought, Cain summoned his Soul energy, directing it straight towards his mind, linking it to his mental psyche.
At that moment, he felt a small layer of resistance blocking him from Late Stage Profound Soul Qi.
With a simple exertion of his Soul energy, Cain directly impacted the Late Stage mental block!
'Ka-Cha!'
Easily shattering the mental block, Cain's mind and body quiver; all around him, the Heaven and Earth Origin energy chaotically stirred.
Harsh dark blue lights rapidly swirled around Cain, whipping his long hair and flapping his clothes akin to a violent hurricane.
As his Spirit Sense broadened, Cain instantly perceived Late Stage Profound Qi and directly absorbed it into his dantain.
Cain's dantian experienced rapid changes. His Qi Origin Seed glowed brighter, and faint dark blue mist flowed throughout the space. This was the dantian fusion with stronger Qi energy.
No matter if it's a minor boundary or a great boundary, the dantian will fuse with every accordance of stronger Qi energy, causing it to gradually transform.
And when the dantian reaches the absolute limit of energy accumulation, meaning it can no longer store extra energy, this was the sign of completed energy accumulation.
As his dantian fused with Late Stage Profound Qi, Cain felt his mental psyche rapidly draw near to the mysteries of the world. It was like he was only several steps away from breaching this door and peering into an entirely new realm of power.
At this moment, Cain had officially stepped into the Late Stage Profound Soul Realm!
And this wasn't the only phenomenon.
Simultaneously, a powerful aura gushed from Amber as her body trembled from an influx of energy.
Evidently, she was nearing the end of her breakthrough. Although, unlike Cain, Amber wasn't able to violently stir the surrounding Heaven and Earth Origin energy.
Still, her dantian rapidly fused with Peak Stage Profound Qi while her mental psyche significantly broadened.
An indescribable sensation tumble through Amber. Just a hairbreadth away was she from the door the mysteries of the world.
Amber could admit it; this sensation was nearly breathtaking. She was genuinely engrossed by this.
At this moment, Amber had reached the Peak Stage of the Profound Soul Realm!