“Hahaha!” Zax’s voice rolled as he laughed in jubilation. “Sooner than I antic.i.p.ated. Good, good!” He was pleasantly surprised, since now he would able to spend a while longer in New Earth before leaving for Ercas Mir.
“Let’s see how my Inner Panorama and soul have changed”. He entered his sea of consciousness to have a look.
‘Whoaa! It’s so abundance! So that is the sea of consciousness of a second realm soul!’ Before he even got to his Inner Panorama or soul, Zax was captivated by the transformation of his sea of consciousness.
The s.p.a.ce that had been like an empty sh.e.l.l, occupied by the tiny soul and a patch of Inner Panorama, was now a sea and a sky of grayish colors.
Zax’s manifested form stood at the edge of his Inner Panorama. His bare legs could feel the sensation of water splas.h.i.+ng on them as the sea water gushed. Although it was a cool and harmless feeling, Zax’s hunch told him that despite this sea and sky being his, he should not underestimate them.
‘I wonder…’ Zax mused before calming himself completely. As he did, the sea water was subdued into a state of tranquility and the grayish sky also stood still.
‘They are affected by my mood’. Zax smiled in satisfaction. Nevertheless, he continued to refrain from stepping into the sea. He somewhat had the impression that regardless of its state, it would not by accommodating as the Inner Panorama.
Zax turned his attention to his primary objects of interest, first, the Inner Panorama.
It was a circular field of what looked to be hundreds of thousands of kilometers in parameter. It was grand beyond Zax’s expectations, vastly more than prior to his comprehending of the fifth bottleneck of insight. In the field grew countless blooming black flowers, and they stretched throughout the entirety of the Inner Panorama. What was amazing about these flowers, though, was how they exuded an obscure impression of each and every of the bottlenecks of insight that Zax perceived, and how they seemed to move along his feet as he walked atop the land of the Inner Panorama.
‘They look like they reached the peak of their growth. For some reason I feel as if the last bottleneck will not make the flowers metamorphose further’.
Zax familiarity with the black flowers was short and limited by his capacity to investigate them. However, due to them being part of him, he was able to have this deduction.
‘The world energy… I can now better sense it in my Inner Panorama than outside. And it’s converting and circulating much more comfortably in my body’. It was quite a surprise for Zax, which made wonder if he should laugh or cry.
Before he comprehended the fifth bottleneck, Zax a.s.sumed that it would be decades of world energy absorption before it would be enough for his body to break through the second realm. Now, he feels like five years is the longest that he would need, which will slightly be troublesome since soon he will leave to Ercas Mir and the laws there prevent second realm New Earth’s natives from traveling freely.
‘I don’t believe that I’ll spend more than two and a half years in Ercas Mir, but I should be careful either way. Senior Ariel and Earth’s Records said nothing about how the five powers enforce their rules’.
The issue could not be dealt with before he will leave to Ercas Mir, and Zax did not intend to cultivate his body after this session, so he put the matter on hold until his departure and proceeded to examine his soul.
‘It certainly changed from the grand shape it had before’.
The soul was in a spherical form, having a diameter of one hundred and ninety one centimeters, same as Zax’s height.
‘Odd, I can finally see it clearly, but…’ Zax was a tad uncomfortable by the change to his soul.
For the very first time it was perfectly lucid, by just willing it he could submerge inside it to his spirit, or survey the memories imprinted on it. However, there was still something Zax felt amiss. When he raised his hand to touch the soul what he sensed through the palm of his hand was a hard, smooth crust.
Zax frowned. Just like he could deduce the state of the black flower in full confidence, he could tell that despite his breakthrough to the second realm of the soul, it might became stronger than before, but actually also imperfect.
‘It is not right. Did I mess up the breakthro-’
As he was about to complete the thought, Zax suddenly stiffened. His manifested naked body, which still kept contact with the soul, appeared as if it was in a trance.
From within the spherical soul, a silhouette reflected in its clear darkness. The silhouette flickered in place several times, and when it settled down, it reached from the other side to the spot in the soul where Zax touched.
In the cavern.
A tremor pa.s.sed through Zax’s physical form, his body, causing him to yelp involuntary.
In the dantian.
The Black Core madly discharged black energy to Zax’s sea of consciousness while shrinking in accelerating rate. In a matter of milliseconds the Black Core lost ten percents of its size, than a quarter, a third… when about half of its original size remained, the shrinking decelerated. Losing fifty five percent, sixty, sixty two percent and finally it stopped at sixty four percent.
But it was only a cessation.
The remaining thirty six percent of the Black Core, when there was no trace in the dantian to the dark energy that flowed to the sea of consciousness, shattered into countless fragments and was consumed by the other Earth Core in Zax’s dantian.
The other Earth’s Core was the one Zax found in the Great Earth’s Core Pursuit nine years ago. At the time it turned black when the Black Core entered his body, now, after seizing the shreds of the Black Core, it double in size.
In the sea of consciousness.
The silhouette inside the spherical soul retreated as a wave of black energy rushed into the sea of consciousness.
For a fleeting instant Zax regained his bearing, but then the black energy started to spread in the grayish sky above him, comprising a series of images and sounds that recaptured Zax.
‘Listen’,
The voice was poised and dignified. It did not attempt to be loud, yet it rang in Zax’s ears like the ring of a great bell, compelling him to abide.
As for Zax’s thought with regards to the sudden voice, he had none, due to the simple command to simply perk his ears and listen.
‘I was at the pinnacle of Martial cultivation and a step beyond it, too…’
The first image elucidated.
Innumerable celestial objects, in the midst of an immeasurable formation, encompa.s.sed by an endless and cold s.p.a.ce. Watching by, as the grand event of the creation of a new planet in unfolding, was a ma.s.s of black mist.
‘The *****’, the word was indistinct. ‘Has chosen a Core for itself and invested its deep insights in the formation it erected to construct it’. The voice explained.
Years pa.s.s, millions… billions… The wait was long, but the ma.s.s of black mist was patient.
‘The energy, the insights, the investment of an entire *****, I had to have or else I would have been stranded at the Peak, forever unable to ascend!’ The voice lamented. ‘My path was too hard…’
The celestial objects have taken a spherical shape, a ball of earth and fire, which, at last, triggered a reaction from the ma.s.s of black mist.
It swirled and compressed a huge shadow that radiated dark attribute like a miniature black sun. The shadow descended and breached the ball of earth and fire to its depth. There it settled down.
‘It was finally time. For as long as it would be needed, I was prepared. This opportunity… I was not the only one aiming for it; there were others who followed after me, afraid that I would ma.s.sacre them if they will challenge my claim for the Core’. The voice snorted in despises. ‘Only one could comprehend the insights of the *****, I was bent on it being I!’
Another image. The pa.s.sage of time, the evolution of a planet continuing.
‘I noticed when others left. This attempt was far from easy and wreathed in danger. Imprudence could result in a range of various consequences, most the strongest of them could not shoulder, and from a few even I should have been careful!’
First life was the next image, jumping to large sea creatures and then to first to walk the earth.
‘It was not right. It should not have occurred due to our aggressive foreign invasion, yet the evolution of life happened, and I was awakened at its late phases, when it already was abundant and I was the sole one comprehending!’
Large beasts, no! Dinosaurs!
‘All of the others have left in resignation. They were too weak and accepted the fact. But I… I was deeply engaged with what the ***** has left in the Core it created that I have not noticed when it began to consume me for its development!’
Life thriving. The world is dominated by reptilian giants.
‘It was not good! I was too careless and the ***** too cunning!’
‘My grandeur was being exhausted for the sake of this planet; it was being drained for a long, long time without me being aware!’
‘I was mad with frustration! Unwillingness! I fought as my consciousness was becoming feeble by the day!’
‘O Earth, O Earth, how long, how many?
Set me free, O Earth, O Earth, Let nothing remain.
Others came and gone, O Earth, why me?
O Earth, cast me away, cast me away’
‘I begged for it to kill me and be done with it, for at least that way there was still a chance for rebirth, but the Earth did not respond to pleas’.
BOOM!
A new image. Earth’s crust bursting. The land, the sea, the sky… they were all set aflame.
‘At the moment of acceptance I was consumed by an urge for vengeance before my doom’.
‘The ***** constructed a planet around for its Core. I will reshape this planet for my legacy. And what is to come when it will be completed, that would be an heir for the mightiest legacy since the beginning of this revolution!’
