Chapter 131: Chapter 36: Battle of the Divine Soldiers
Meanwhile, within the belly of Taibai Volcano.
Su Zhou was sitting casually in a chamber within the volcano that opened directly to the inner wall of the crater, his eyes closed in Cultivation.
Hundreds of meters below was a boiling lake of lava, and beside him was an opening that led directly to the sulfur-choked interior of the crater. In the Spirit Realm, the tornado of Fire Spirit Qi swirling within the crater had transformed into a massive storm of Flame that connected heaven and earth. It surged endlessly from the depths of the Earth Vein, reaching all the way to the cumulonimbus clouds at the summit.
Within the clouds, golden Thunderbolt flashed, born from the conflict between the superheated air currents and the northern snow clouds.
An ordinary person in such a desolate place would die instantly from the heat and poison, let alone be able to cultivate. Even with a heat-resistant suit and a gas mask, just inhaling a tiny bit of this Extreme Yang Spiritual Energy would scorch and damage any insufficiently fortified Spiritual Power circulation within their body.
But Su Zhou, who had now achieved the rank of Grandmaster, could cultivate freely in this deadly environment.
Wisps of golden-red Spiritual Qi were extracted from thin air by Su Zhou, drawn from the Spiritual Qi storm inside the crater and into his body. For anyone else, this would be an act of self-destruction, destroying their very foundation. But for him, it was no more dangerous than normal Cultivation—in fact, it was incredibly nourishing.
’My Spiritual Attribute leans toward Burst and destruction—the so-called Fire Element. While it’s vastly different from real fire, it’s very similar to the nature of the Spiritual Qi in this volcano, which makes it a valuable reference for me to study and verify my own path.’
Ever since he became a Grandmaster—reaching the Awakening Peak—Su Zhou could feel his connection with nature’s spiritual energy deepening. The most tangible manifestation of this was a further improvement in his Spiritual Vision.
With a single glance, he could not only see the trajectory of the Spiritual Qi’s movement but also perceive the fine details of its flow. Peering through the layers of soil and rock, Su Zhou could see how the lava beneath the volcano was gathering its power, poised to erupt. He could even predict that this volcano would erupt in one hundred and twenty years, blooming into a magnificent, scorching flower of ash upon the snowy plains.
If he were looking at a human, Su Zhou could even see whether the ’qi’ circulation in their body was healthy!
And now, he was absorbing the Extreme Yang Spiritual Energy, channeling it into his body and simulating the rhythm of the volcano’s pulse to temper himself.
This was the foundation for reaching the Innate realm, also known as the Extraordinary Tier: a powerful adaptability to all kinds of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.
’Only those who possess Spiritual Power are true Cultivators... To go from the Mortal World to Spirit Awakening, one needs a spark of Spiritual Energy born from one’s life—that is, from the body and soul.’
’With Spiritual Energy, one can place their Brand upon the Spiritual Qi in the world, converting it into Spiritual Power that can be used personally. When a person can control their Spiritual Power with their own will, they have reached the Awakening Tier.’
Having reached his current realm, Su Zhou’s understanding of Cultivation had become much clearer.
He was born with Spirit Awakening and had unconsciously accumulated a massive amount of Spiritual Power over a long period. Because he couldn’t control this Spiritual Power, it passively dispersed to enhance his body, making him stronger and stronger. This laid a solid foundation for his future Awakening, allowing him to rapidly reach the Awakening Peak within just a few months of Cultivation.
Although Spiritual Energy is the foundation of Cultivation, immense Life Force can still accelerate one’s progress. This is the principle behind the ancient practice of Dual Cultivation of Life and Spirit—a healthy body can house a healthy soul and a larger reserve of Spiritual Power.
’But the human body, as a primitive biological structure, has a natural limit to the Spiritual Power it can contain. Even a Perfect Body like mine can’t withstand tens or even hundreds of times the Spiritual Energy of a normal Awakener. In other words, even a genius among geniuses like me couldn’t possibly cultivate the Circulation Mist Armor to Minor Achievement while still in the Awakening Tier.’
At that moment, Su Zhou activated the Gale Seed in the center of his forehead. The armor, formed from a Gale, took on a golden-red hue due to the Spiritual Qi in the volcanic region.
He sensed the structure of the Gale Seed and confirmed his thoughts: ’At this stage, I must transcend my original life form. I need to use my existing organs as a foundation—or even create an Extraordinary Spiritual Power Organ from scratch—to store more Spiritual Power. It’s like a Golden Core or a Magic Melting Furnace. The names are different, but they all boil down to the same thing.’
’If I want to store more Spiritual Power in the future, I have to use Spiritual Power to sublimate and transform my internal organs. They must become more than just organs for a human’s physical, material cycles; they must also become organs that transport and store Spiritual Power. Then, using that as a foundation, I can form more Extraordinary structures within my body to command Spiritual Qi.’
’The Gale Seed is a perfect example. The Circulation Mist Armor is a crude Innate Technique compared to Sacred Geometry, but it allows me to understand and take steps toward the Extraordinary Tier, even before I receive the second volume of the Sacred Geometry inheritance from Yara.’
This was the path Su Zhou had found to the Extraordinary Tier.
The Extraordinary Tier was a leap in the hierarchy of life. For humans, it meant transforming from a basic flesh-and-blood species into an Extraordinary Creature with Spiritual Power Organs in its body. In the Divine Wood World, this step was called Postnatal Returning to Innate, a concept closer to the original ’Dao’.
This also highlighted the difference between a Cultivation Method and a Secret Technique. A Cultivation Method, like Sacred Geometry, was used to expand a Cultivator’s Spiritual Power foundation and possessed little to no combat capability on its own. A Secret Technique, like the Circulation Mist Armor, was purely a method for using Spiritual Power in combat or daily life. As for how to cultivate the Spiritual Power needed to activate the technique, that was not its concern.
