Chapter 503: Breaking the Barrier
The sixtieth day by the Spirit Lake.
Su Ming sat cross-legged on the stone, and had been sitting for a full three days.
The spiritual-energy lake inside his body was violently surging. Liquid spiritual energy battered against the Dantian’s barrier—not a gentle push, but an expansive force that had been building from within to its limit. Like a pot of water that had been boiled too long, the lid had already begun to rattle.
Red veins showed in his eyes, his face paler than usual.
His mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation had hit a ceiling. The spiritual-energy lake in his Dantian was full—not just “there’s a little room left” full, but utterly incapable of accepting even a single drop. Every time he circulated his energy, newly inhaled spiritual energy struck the lake’s surface and was bounced back. He needed to break through the invisible barrier between mid and late Foundation Establishment.
“Don’t rush. Take a Spirit Nourishing Pill, circulate three full cycles. When you break through, the biggest danger isn’t a lack of force, it’s losing your rhythm.”
Su Ming took a Spirit Nourishing Pill from his storage pouch and swallowed it, then began circulating the Like Water Art. After three full cycles, the tempo of his spiritual-energy flow steadied.
“Master, I’m ready to push.”
When he had first formed foundation at the Cold Pool, his bone structure wasn’t perfect, and his Dao foundation carried hidden damage. Later, Lin Yu repaired it in a manner similar to kintsugi. Those repaired scars remained—like a bowl broken and glued back together with gold powder; it looked whole, but the gold-lined cracks would always be the most fragile spots.
“When you strike the barrier, the spiritual energy will vibrate fiercely. Your Dao foundation’s kintsugi repairs don’t have the same toughness as the original structure. If the vibration is too violent, the repairs could loosen.”
“What happens if they loosen?”
“At best, your spiritual energy will leak and your cultivation will regress.” Lin Yu paused, “At worst, you deviate from the proper path and go berserk.”
Su Ming was silent for a long time, then said, “I understand.”
First attempt, seventy percent power. Spiritual energy converged into a torrent and crashed at the barrier—the barrier trembled, but did not move at all. The energy rebounded, and Su Ming gave a muffled grunt. The kintsugi repair showed no sign of shifting.
Second attempt, eighty percent power. Cracks appeared on the barrier, like thick glass struck with a hammer, web-like fractures spreading a short distance. The rebound was stronger. Blood-tinged foam leaked from Su Ming’s mouth as he inspected his Dao foundation inwardly—the kintsugi spot was slightly warm and quivering. Like a rejoined porcelain piece on a trembling table, the tremor made his heart race.
After those two impacts, Su Ming spent a full hour thinking. Both attempts had been brute-force pushes—gathering spiritual energy into a flood and slamming it at the barrier. He needed a more precise approach.
He inhaled deeply. This time he used all his spiritual energy.
The entire lake inside surged. He guided it to rotate in one direction—clockwise. Faster and faster. As it spun, the spiritual energy was compressed, the lake’s surface area shrinking while its depth increased. The first compression completed. On the second rotation, he changed direction—counterclockwise. On the third, he changed direction again.
After three cycles of rotational compression, the spiritual energy in his Dantian had transformed from a small lake into a fist-sized, deep-blue sphere. The force contained within was far fiercer than the flood-like torrents of the previous attempts.
Su Ming slowly moved the sphere directly in front of the crack on the barrier. The rotation slowed, slowing more and more, almost stilling.
Then—release.
At the instant of stillness, Su Ming abruptly removed every constraint. The power amassed over the three rotations drove forward like a precision awl aimed straight at the fracture.
Bang—!
The barrier split. The crack radiated outward from that point in every direction, dense and growing—
Snap.
The barrier shattered.
The web-like cracks instantly spread across the entire surface, and the barrier collapsed like thin ice pierced by a blow, breaking into countless fragments that turned into sparks of spiritual light and fused into the inner wall of the Dantian.
The spiritual-energy lake abruptly expanded the moment the barrier vanished. The Dantian’s space rapidly enlarged—from the size of a bowl to that of a large vat. The lake’s surface area blew up several times over and its depth shot downward.
Late Foundation Establishment. He had made it.
Su Ming slowly opened his eyes. The world had changed—he no longer needed to toss leaves to feel the flow of spiritual energy in the mist; he could see the direction of formation lines on tree bark without placing his hand on it; even the rotating formation layers under the water in the depressions were one layer clearer.
Ying flew up from his shoulder and hovered a foot above the water’s surface. Three runes on her brow simultaneously lit—Edge, Concealment, Obliterate.
But this time she did not vanish.
Ying dove. Wings folded, her body shot like a black arrow straight into the water. The Edge rune lit on her. Su Ming’s pupils shrank—Ying was as fast as a streak of black lightning.
Boom!
The liquid spiritual-energy surface erupted, an enormous spray of vapor bursting up like an inverted blue blossom. droplets slapped across Su Ming’s face, icy and stinging. Ying flew out of the spray and back to his shoulder, shaking her soaked feathers, blue spiritual droplets splattering Su Ming’s face.
Then she lifted her tiny head and chirped: “Chiu—!”
Triumphant, cocky, unbearably proud.
Su Ming watched her and a small smile curved his lips. He reached out and flicked her forehead again. “Try it again if you dare.”
Ying was not convinced, and she really flew up once more. This time she struck harder, the splash even greater.
Su Ming raised a hand to shield the mist from his face, laughing, his laughter echoing through the quiet depths of the Ancient Path.
Su Ming stayed by the Spirit Lake for another two months; he needed to stabilize his cultivation and refine his understanding of the formation runes.
A late-Foundation Establishment spiritual-energy lake needs time to adapt. The enlarged Dantian wouldn’t run perfectly overnight. Every day Su Ming circulated the Like Water Art, over and over letting the spiritual energy flow through the new Dantian space. By the end of the third month, his cultivation had fully stabilized at late Foundation Establishment, with faint signs approaching Foundation Establishment completion.
But he stopped. Not because he couldn’t continue, but because he clearly understood—the cracks in his Dao foundation remained. The kintsugi seams were like gold lines on porcelain; if he forcefully formed a Golden Core, that core would inherit the hidden danger.
He must not form a core before using the Heaven-Mending Pill.