Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Yan Zaizen sat in the lotus position, his eyes closed, and his blood emitting a faint throbbing sound that echoed outwards. His current room was filled with dense, pure atmospheric essence. It was so incredibly thick that any Essence Formation Cultivator could leap from the early-stage to the peak-stage with a single hour of cultivation. Not only was it thick to the point that it appeared to be smoky wisps, but it was also incredibly pure. It held a translucent quality that seemed to be untainted by the world's natural taint.

The room wasn't large; it was cubic-shaped and one hundred meters in area. The walls were made of white jade with a faint golden glow, very similar to Zhou Xiuhei's Xiuhei Titan Hall.

"Hwooo!" Yan Zaizen inhaled. His quad-lungs expanded as a vast quantity of thick and pure essence was siphoned into it. Within a single breath, the entirety of the room's atmospheric essence was directly consumed. This essence wasn't converted into deathly energy but instead was diverted en route to the lungs. The essence funneled into his meridians and dantian via his qi pathways.

His physique assimilated the essence into his heavenly-tempered meridians, converting the essence into true-essence infused with a hint of heavenly aura. This true-essence surged into his qi-pathways, his dantian, and refunneled into his meridians. With each rotation, the true-essence would dwindle in quantity as it would be used to refine these three critical areas.

He could feel his cultivation base strengthened by a tiny amount. His dantian and qi-pathways were not as bad, but his meridians were infinitely difficult to enhance. With this level of thick essence, any standard mid-True Essence cultivator would've reached the peak of the mid or late-stage by now. Unfortunately for him, his cultivation was thousands of times more difficult.

"Grandpa Xiu was correct," helplessly exclaiming, he felt conflicted in his heart. Who would've thought that having TOO good of a foundation would be detrimental. It was truly mind-boggling. Pinaka would often call it 'perfect cultivation' problems in jest. Disregarding her need to joke, it truly was as she said. Yan Zaizen's foundation was simply too solid.

If he compared his expelling speed to others, his qi-pathways could accommodate near-instantaneous gathering and release. If he compared his true-essence reserves in his dantian, it exceeded other cultivators of similar realm by hundreds. If he compared his conversion speed, processing speed, or stability of true-essence eruption, his far, far exceeded others at the same cultivation realm.

He withdrew a small, grey box from the Meteor Ring. With a wave of his hand, a pill bottle was withdrawn from within. In this pill bottle, a nearly translucent pill with enlivened essence surged within. A slight throbbing surged from the pill in a rhythmic manner. "Essence Heaven Heart Pill!" With bright eyes, he didn't hesitate. With a motion, the pill directly entered his mouth and into his dantian.

It stayed solidly within his dantian, slowly throbbing and emitting a faint heavenly aura that caused even Yan Zaizen to tremble slightly. As the aura was directly in his body, he couldn't help but do so.

"Haaaa!" He exhaled his previous inhaled breath. As he did, the Essence Heaven Heart Pill rotated with the ferocity of a high-speed cyclone. It spun so quickly that the shape of the pill no longer existed. It was now a translucent tornado. With each spin, wisps of its medicinal efficacy were assimilated into his dantian, which traveled through his paths, which reached his meridians, which continued its travel back towards the tornado.

With each rotation, he could feel his cultivation rise rapidly.

Truly RAPIDLY!!

In two seconds, he had already reached the late-True Essence Realm! His body underwent the minor evolution in such a short period of time. Before it could stabilize, ten seconds passed. His essence cultivation bodily system reached its absolute limits! It could evolve no longer, undergoing one last change as his meridians were smooth like the surface of a pearl. His dantian's walls were toughened to its limits and his pathways were like thick, fleshy veins that carried immense amounts of blood without strain.

"This pill!" Yan Zaizen exclaimed in euphoria. When one's cultivation makes a breakthrough, the feeling was as grand as losing your first time to a top-beauty - not like Yan Zaizen would know, but all the same.

"Don't lose yourself in cultivation," Pinaka's voice softly warned from his soul. She was like an ever-vigilant guardian standing by to prevent any hints of cultivation deviation or cultivation ecstasy. The latter was particularly malicious.

When breaking through, a person would experience a great pleasure that they could easily lose themselves to. If they do, their cultivation would no longer be controlled by themselves in an appropriate manner, often overdoing their cultivation which leads to injuries or even death! However, this death would be sudden and one would still be in pleasure during which!

"En." Nodding, he refocused his priorities. Recalling the cultivation method for the Essence Path, he aimed at his next goal: Crimson Star Realm!

In the Essence Path, there was Nine Realms - Six Core & Three Foundational. The realms were Qi Foundation, Qi Cyclone, Essence Formation, Dantian Refinement, Pathway Expansion, Origin Core, True Essence, and Crimson Star.

Dantian Refinement, Pathway Expansion, and Crimson Star Realms were foundational realms and thus optional! In the myriad realms, specifically realms like Xiantu Realm or Deluge Realm, the average cultivator skips the Dantian Refinement, Pathway Expansion, and Crimson Star. Due to the fact they didn't directly enhance one's lifespan and took up a considerable amount of resources and time, they were often foregone for a quicker cultivation increase.

However, as the level of realm continues to rise, this standard heavily changes. In the Sirius Titan Realm, the Dantian Refinement and Pathway Expansion were essentially foregone conclusions, the vast majority, even the ordinary cultivators, reached the peak-stage in both. Resources were far, far more abundant and the atmospheric essence was denser in quality, producing an easier time to cultivate.

The Crimson Star Realm is an anomaly, however.

Even in the Sirius Titan Realm, it is often foregone by even above average cultivators! There is one simple reason for this: difficulty.

The concept of the Crimson Star Realm is the evolution and refinement of one's actual heart into a dantian! In the Essence Pathway, your three critical points - Dantian, Pathways, and Meridians - were often segregated from the rest of the body normal's system. This realm closes that bridge immediately. No longer will your entire body only receive faint refinement of essence through proximity but through actual refinement!

The Six Yang & Five Yin Organs would be completely interconnected via the heart like a secondary qi-pathway. Your entire body, at this point, becomes a reserve of true-essence! If the dantian, a small central location in the upper-navel could hold a profound amount of true-essence, one could imagine what would happen if an entire body was turned into a dantian!

"To evolve one's heart, you'll first have to construct an embryonic dantian within the core of it!" In the Qi Foundation Realm, one undergoes the awakening of their natural embryonic dantian, interconnecting it with their awakened meridians and pathways to produce qi.

The Essence Heaven Heart Pill was specifically designed to help produce one's embryonic dantian within the core of the heart! As for the rest, that depended solely on yourself.

The Essence Heaven Heart Pill continued to rotate rapidly as a tornado, a faint throbbing wisp of energy was extracted and sent into his heart. If it was anyone else's heart, this could very well severely damage the heart, and in truth, Yan Zaizen wasn't an exception! The difficulty of this realm had to do with the delicateness of the heart. After all, if a True Essence Realm expert had their heart destroyed, they would instantly die.

The same was true for even Heavenly Genesis Cultivators! Even Fiendgods was not an exception! They may be able to use their heavenly might or vital energy to shroud and protect their hearts, but nothing more. Unless one's soul cultivation reached the Astral Soul Realm, they couldn't project their souls outside their bodies and their deaths were essentially sealed.

Unfortunately, if soul cultivation isn't your path, then protecting your astral soul was as same as using paper to shield you from the rain - pointless!

Yan Zaizen's heart was deeply lacerated by the wisp of energy. Normally, this laceration would've caused him to spew up blood and use his vital energy or true-essence to heal or patch up his heart. After, he'll restart when he fully heals his heart.

However, Yan Zaizen was different!!!

The moment the wisp sliced Yan Zaizen's heart during insertion, it immediately healed in less than the time it took for mortals to blink.

"Huh?!" Shocked, Yan Zaizen's eyes lit up. To others, the heart was a precious location that could instantly led to death, but Yan Zaizen's heart was actually destroyed! In the Asura Phantom Realm, his heart was ripped to literal shreds, yet he was still here.

The one and only reason for this: his heart was refined and was essentially the embodiment of a law of life! Unless it was destroyed all at once, it would unyieldingly hold on against the heavens itself!

Yan Zaizen immediately sped up the embryonic creation process. His heart was lacerated nearly a million times. If anyone else took this line of action, their fates would've been sealed, but Yan Zaizen only laughed with elation and ecstasy! By this point, the embryonic dantian core was situated within his bright, white and fleshy heart. This heart faintly had a sky-blue aura, releasing subtle soul fluctuations.

"EVOLVE!" Yan Zaizen thunderously roared, his true-essence in his body completely and thoroughly funneled into his heart. Normally, after the formation of the embryonic dantian core, they would slowly and steadily integrate their true-essence to undergo the proper evolutionary phase, but Yan Zaizen threw away all this needless caution. After all, he was an Immortal Herculean! He suspected, even without his unique heart, he could still do this easily!

Time passed. In three days, Yan Zaizen's heart had been pummeled and smashed by powerful energy, but never did his heart relent in its healing. With every cut, it'll heal that cut. With every explosion of the aorta, it'll heal an aorta!

Yan Zaizen's heart was now fundamentally different. Unlike normal hearts, flames emitted from the surface of his heart like an actual sun. It was confined but exceptionally powerful! This was true-essence. With each pump, true-essence would circulate through his fleshy body, filling his body with ample amounts and refining his body with each and every pump.

Not only that, his true-essence no longer was unattributed at its core! It was bright white with a faint trace of sky-blue! Normally, cultivators would pursue an attribute with their true-essence, such as Shin Xuanji's blood qi or Yao Wuhen's water-attributed true-essence. However, Yan Zaizen's true-essence had always lacked any distinctive attribute. This became a moot point after his bloodline enabled him to shift to any attribute, but it still lacked a true core-attribute!

Now, this core was filled.

"Hwooo! Haaaa!" Inhaling and exhaling, Yan Zaizen felt enlivened. His entire body radiated true-essence. He felt that if he erupted with his true-essence completely, perhaps he could rival a Heavenly Genesis Cultivator!

"Peak-Crimson Star Realm? Hmph, wasn't that difficult." As he said that, he felt like an unnatural amount of cultivators within the myriad realms had their eyebrows twitch in irritation. Chuckling awkwardly, he stood up. With a quick stretch of his body, his eyes lit up.

"The Crimson Star Realm is a foundational realm, but it is profoundly important! If you reach the seventh-floor of the Heavenly Genesis Realm, you'll develop a hint of heavenly essence! The Crimson Star will allow you to refine your body with heavenly essence, allowing you to become closer and closer to the heavens! The benefits are inestimable, especially when you attempt to produce your own heaven during the Heavenly Creation Realm!" Pinaka's voice was filled with excitement at Yan Zaizen's success.

"Mhm." He merely nodded. The benefits for any of the foundational realms were not small, this was obvious. Unfortunately, for those who reach the Heavenly Genesis Realm and develop heavenly might, they would be simply unable to refine their hearts without instantly killing themselves. After all, a wisp of true-essence was thousands of times weaker than a trace of heavenly might or aura.