Chapter 502 - 501- Shadow’s Breakthrough

Suddenly, a great surge of spirit essence flowed through Grey’s inner body, circulating rapidly through his meridians before ultimately passing through his dantian.

The spirit essence surged forward like an unstoppable current, flowing through every corner of his body. It entered each of the one hundred spirit perforations he had painstakingly opened, causing them to tremble violently as they absorbed the immense influx of energy.

Then, as the spirit essence completed its first full circulation cycle, something within Grey’s body suddenly changed. A profound fluctuation erupted from his body.

His Fourth Ball of Spirit Fire was born.

Twenty-five spirit perforations could manifest one ball of Spirit Fire.

Fifty spirit perforations could manifest two balls of Spirit Fire.

One hundred spirit perforations could manifest three balls of Spirit Fire.

These were the limits that had been established throughout the countless years of cultivation knowledge. They were common sense that every cultivator who reached the Foundation Establishment realm understood.

However, Grey was an exception. With the addition of the Cold Yin Energy Core, which had already been integrated into his cultivation, he possessed a fourth ball of Spirit Fire.

In other words, although he had only opened one hundred spirit perforations, the power contained within his body was already comparable to that of a cultivator who had reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm.

And he had yet to finish opening his spirit perforations.

Sitting in the middle of the pitch-black Dead Sea, the magic ship swayed gently beneath Grey’s feet. The surrounding darkness seemed endless, stretching in every direction without a single trace of light. The only thing that could be seen was the faint radiance emanating from the ship and the occasional ripple spreading across the surface of the Dead Sea.

The transparent barrier surrounding the ship trembled slightly as waves of corrosive energy collided against it.

On the deck, however, a brilliant wave of light suddenly erupted. Intense spirit energy fluctuations emanated from Grey’s body.

The fluctuations were so powerful that even Grey could not suppress them in time. His one hundred spirit perforations suddenly erupted with their full power.

It was almost as though his entire body had transformed into a blazing furnace. The phenomenon was remarkably similar to the activation of his Special Brilliance Form.

Four radiant balls of light suddenly emerged around Grey’s body. They slowly revolved around him, each one resembling a miniature sun that illuminated the otherwise pitch-black Dead Sea.

Three of the fires burned with an intense and scorching heat. Their flames distorted the surrounding air, causing faint ripples to spread outward.

The fourth fire was completely different.

Instead of radiating heat, it released an intense and bone-chilling coldness. The temperature around it rapidly dropped, and a thin layer of frost began forming on the deck of the magic ship. Its coldness was so profound that it reminded one of the frozen lands of the North Pole.

Four Spirit Fires revolved around Grey’s body.

Their radiance illuminated his pale face and reflected within his eyes. At that moment, Grey’s perception underwent another transformation.

The world in his eyes became even sharper than before.

Particles that had previously been invisible to him became clearly distinguishable. He could see the minute movements of spirit essence within the air, the tiny fluctuations in the surrounding space, and even the faint traces of corrosive energy drifting through the Dead Sea.

Everything appeared clearer. More importantly, everything seemed slower.

The ripples moving across the surface of the spirit array appeared to slow down to an almost absurd degree. What would normally happen within the span of an instant seemed to stretch into several microseconds in Grey’s perception.

His mind processed everything at an incredible speed. Yet, despite the overwhelming increase in perception, Grey’s attention was quickly drawn toward another sensation.

An all-consuming emotion suddenly gripped his mind. It was an urge. An insatiable, almost instinctive urge to keep his Spirit Fires burning.

He wanted to maintain this state forever. The thought appeared within his mind with such intensity that it almost drowned out every other thought.

Why deactivate it?

Why return to his ordinary state?

The power coursing through his body was intoxicating. He could feel every single spirit perforation burning with vitality. The four Spirit Fires revolved around him, filling his body with tremendous strength and making him feel as though he could burn through everything standing before him.

He wanted to remain like this. He wanted to continue burning. He wanted to become brighter.

He wanted to burn as brightly as the sun itself!

The urge became stronger with every passing second. Grey’s expression gradually became solemn.

He realized that something was wrong. This wasn’t merely the excitement of breaking through.

The desire was interfering with his judgment. It was trying to convince him to continue using this state even though his body could no longer support it.

Grey gritted his teeth. His mind trembled beneath the overwhelming desire, but he forcibly suppressed it through sheer persistence and self-control.

Finally, the four Spirit Fires gradually faded.

His Special Brilliance Form was deactivated. The terrifying pressure surrounding his body instantly disappeared.

And the moment Grey returned to his dormant state, an enormous wave of exhaustion washed over him.

His body felt as though it had been emptied. Even his spirit perforations seemed to roar with faint unwillingness.

They trembled subtly, almost as though they were resisting Grey’s decision and demanding that he reignite the four Spirit Fires.

Grey remained motionless for several seconds. Then, after recovering his senses, he finally understood what had just happened.

Several seconds passed before he slowly exhaled.

"The urge to remain in my Special Brilliance Form is even more overwhelming now."

His voice was low and solemn.

"However, the power it fills my body with is also overwhelming."

Grey looked inward at his own body. His spirit energy reserves had been nearly depleted.

At this moment, he was running almost entirely on the few trickles of spirit energy remaining within his meridians.

If he had continued maintaining his Special Brilliance Form for even a few more minutes, the consequences would have been severe.

His spirit energy would have been completely exhausted. And once his reserves were depleted, the enormous pressure generated by the four Spirit Fires would have begun damaging his spirit perforations.

Permanent damage was not impossible. That was the frightening aspect of cultivation.

Even a breakthrough that brought tremendous power could simultaneously become a threat to the cultivator’s life.

Every step forward carried risk. Every increase in strength came with a corresponding price.

In the end, cultivation was still a matter of life and death. Breaking through was never truly safe.

Nevertheless, Grey’s expression gradually became calmer. This breakthrough had given him an entirely new level of confidence in his abilities.

He now possessed four balls of Spirit Fire. And he wasn’t even finished opening his spirit perforations.

Once he reached the one hundred and fiftieth perforation, he would manifest a fifth ball of Spirit Fire.

A fifth Spirit Fire.

Something so rare that even during the ancient eras before God’s arrival, such a phenomenon had almost never occurred.

The thought alone made Grey’s eyes flash with anticipation. But there was something else that bothered him.

Grey lowered his head and looked inward at his own body. Breaking open spirit perforations was essentially the process of opening hidden nodes within a cultivator’s body.

These nodes acted like miniature furnaces. Once opened, they could absorb and refine spirit essence before transforming it into Spirit Fire.

The more perforations one opened, the more furnaces existed within the body. It was an incredibly profound cultivation method.

Yet there was one thing Grey couldn’t understand. Normally, when a cultivator first manifested their Spirit Fire, they would experience a contradiction within themselves.

The first Spirit Fire represented the beginning of the Foundation Establishment realm, and the process of forming it would usually force the cultivator to confront some form of internal contradiction.

Grey had experienced this himself. When he first broke into the Foundation Establishment realm, he had faced a contradiction.

However, after that initial breakthrough, something strange happened. He had never encountered another contradiction.

Not once.

Even after opening dozens of spirit perforations, he had never experienced the phenomenon again.

Now, after opening his hundredth spirit perforation and manifesting his fourth Spirit Fire, Grey couldn’t help but find the situation suspicious.

It was simply too strange. His brows furrowed slightly. There had to be a reason.

Perhaps it was related to his unique body or the Cold Yin Energy Core.

Or perhaps...

It was connected to something that had happened in his past.

Unfortunately, no matter how much Grey thought about it, he couldn’t establish a connection between the phenomenon and any event he could remember.

There was nothing he could use as a clue. Still, Grey had a faint feeling. He would find the answer soon.

Very soon.

For now, there was nothing he could do except continue moving forward. The process of breaking through the ninety-ninth and hundredth spirit perforations had taken some time.

About thirty minutes had passed.

By the time Grey finally stabilized his cultivation, the surrounding Dead Sea had already become even darker. But during that period of time, something else had begun to change.

The shadow beneath Grey’s feet. It seemed to have reacted to his breakthrough. At first, the shadow had only trembled slightly.

Then, its movements gradually became more violent. It trembled excessively as though something trapped inside was desperately struggling to escape.

Grey’s gaze immediately became serious. Slowly, the shadow cocoon beneath his feet began to morph and change.

Its originally smooth surface started becoming distorted. The black mass wriggled continuously, and faint cracks began spreading across its surface.

At the same time, corrosive substances from the surrounding air began seeping into the cocoon. Even Grey’s own body seemed to release traces of corrosive substance that were gradually absorbed by the shadow.

But that wasn’t all. The Dead Sea beneath the magic ship also began reacting.

Corrosive substance rose from the depths of the black sea. It seeped through the surrounding space and somehow infiltrated the barrier around the ship before surging toward the shadow cocoon.

The shadow devoured everything. Every trace of anomalous substance that came into contact with it was greedily absorbed.

The more it consumed, the more violent its movements became.

Then—

Crack!

A clear cracking sound suddenly echoed across the deck.

Grey’s eyes narrowed.

Another crack appeared.

Then another.

In the blink of an eye, numerous cracks had spread across the entire shadow cocoon.

From within those cracks, Grey could sense something.

A presence.

An extremely malevolent and malicious presence.

It was unlike anything he had sensed before.

Even Grey’s expression became slightly solemn.

The thing inside the cocoon was reaching its breaking point.

Seeing this, Grey remained silent for a moment.

Then he reached into his storage space and took out three pitch-black pills.

Without hesitation, he tossed them toward the shadow.

The three pills landed around the cocoon.

Grey then deactivated the first barrier around the magic ship.

The instant the barrier disappeared—

Boom!

The three black pills exploded simultaneously.

They did not release flames or an ordinary explosion.

Instead, they transformed into an enormous cloud of pitch-black dust.

The black dust rapidly dissolved into the surrounding air.

Almost immediately, the corrosive substance in the nearby area began to react.

It entered a state of frenzy.

The Dead Sea beneath the ship suddenly surged violently.

Waves of black seawater slammed against the sides of the magic ship, and enormous quantities of corrosive substance rose from beneath the surface.

The corrosive energy seemed to have been drawn toward the shadow by an invisible force.

It surged forward.

It poured into the shadow cocoon.

And the shadow devoured it.

The cocoon expanded slightly as it absorbed the massive influx of anomalous energy.

The cracks across its surface became even more pronounced.

Crack!

A large section of the cocoon’s surface split open.

From within the darkness, something began to emerge.

Black tendrils slowly seeped through the cracks.

They twisted and writhed like living creatures, their surfaces covered in an indescribable black substance.

One of the tendrils slowly fell toward the deck. The instant it touched the floorboards, an intense sizzling sound rang out.

The wooden floorboard rapidly corroded beneath it. Grey’s eyes narrowed as he watched the scene.

The corrosion was terrifyingly intense. Even the specially refined material used to construct the magic ship was unable to completely resist it.

And yet, the shadow continued devouring the corrosive substance without the slightest hesitation.

The more it consumed... The more cracks appeared.

And the more terrifying the presence within became. Something was about to emerge.