Chapter 321: Ch 321 : The Boundless Dantian

The air in the Throne Room had shifted. It no longer felt like a palace; it felt like the den of a monster.

Sunny sat on his Throne, his eyes analyzing the entity that stood before him. Beru, the God of Evolution.

The benefits of the breakthrough were immediately apparent, transcribed onto the mind of Sunny through his God’s eyes

Beru stood seven feet tall, his sleek obsidian exoskeleton absorbing the ambient light of the room.

But there was something else, a layer above his body. It was a translucent film of energy, invisible to the naked eye but deafening to the Divine Sense.

It was Conceptual Armor.

It was the physical manifestation of the Law of Evolution. It whispered a simple truth to anyone who looked at it: To hurt this being, you must be more evolved than him. And he is the Apex.

Cai Zhen, the God of Cultivation, stepped forward. He looked small compared to the insectoid tyrant, but his aura was sharp as a straightsword.

“I want to test how strong you have become,” Cai Zhen said, his voice steady. His eyes scanned Beru’s new form, searching for a weakness and finding none. “Your presence… it makes my skin crawl. It is a good feeling.”

Beru tilted his crowned head, his slit pupils narrowing.

“I am eager to test the durability of this new shell as well,” Beru rasped, his voice vibrating deep in his chest. “But you…”

He pointed a clawed finger at the cultivator.

“You are a dull blade, Cai Zhen. You are still broken. You are not match for me currently.”

Beru crossed his arms. “Take your blessings from the Emperor first. Increase your strength. Then, and only then, will I grant you the honor of being my punching bag.”

Cai Zhen gave a small, grim nod. “Fair enough.”

For a moment, he closed his eyes. The adrenaline of the conversation had momentarily suppressed the ghosts haunting his mind.

But as Beru mentioned “Increasing his strength” some unwanted thoughts suddenly began to appear in his mind.

He thought about the screams. He thought about his burning Sect. He thought about his parents.

He had spent decades running, hiding, and surviving. He had forgotten the thrill of the fight. He had forgotten that before he was a Refugee, he was a Warrior.

“I need to be strong,” Cai Zhen whispered to himself. “Not just to survive. But to kill.”

Sunny, watching from the throne, smiled behind his mask.

“Good,” Sunny thought. “Competition breeds strength. Iron sharpens iron.”

He stood up and descended the stairs once more.

“Cai Zhen. Step forward.”

Sunny snapped his fingers.

HUMMM.

Space distorted again. A second sphere manifested in the center of the room, it was at the same place where Beru had just transformed.

To a mortal, the two spheres might have looked identical, shimmering bubbles of isolation. But to the Gods present, the difference was night and day.

Beru’s sphere had been empty. His evolution was internal; it required only the catalyst of the Law to trigger a chain reaction on his body. He was a self-contained nuclear bomb.

But Cai Zhen was a Cultivator.

Cultivation was the art of theft. It was the act of stealing energy from the heavens and earth, refining it, and storing it within the body. You cannot fill a cup if there is no water.

“If I put him in an empty vacuum, he will dry out before he ascends,” Sunny noted.

The isolation chamber was filled with thick, heavy mist. It wasn’t water vapor; it was Qi.

“Go,” Sunny commanded.

Cai Zhen walked toward the sphere. As he crossed the barrier, he gasped.

“Ah…”

He staggered, nearly falling to his knees. The density of the Qi was crushing. It was heavier than lead, yet softer than silk.

“So pure…” Cai Zhen exclaimed, his eyes widening.

In his old multiverse, cultivators fought wars over “Spirit Veins” that trickled a fraction of this energy. He had spent thousands of years refining impurities out of his Dantian.

But this? This was pristine. It was the breath of creation before it had been polluted by the chaos of reality.

Every pore on his body opened instinctively. His meridians roared, sucking in the golden mist like a starving man inhaling a feast.

“I could live here,” Cai Zhen thought, a wave of euphoria washing over him. “I could sit here for an eternity and just… exist.”

It was tempting. To forget the pain. To forget the demons. To just float in this ocean of warmth.

But then, he looked up.

Sunny had entered the sphere behind him, floating silently in the golden mist like a dark star. The Emperor wasn’t saying anything. He was just watching.

The sight of the masked figure snapped Cai Zhen out of his trance.

’No,’ Cai Zhen scolded himself. ’Comfort is for the dead. I am here for power.’

He turned around and bowed deeply to Sunny.

“I am ready, Emperor.”

His eyes burned with a renewed fire. He didn’t want this energy for peace. He wanted it for power.

Sunny nodded. “Good. The Law of Cultivation is greedy, Cai Zhen. It takes everything. Make sure you have the will to hold it.”

Sunny floated closer. He reached out and placed his gloved hand on the cultivator’s head.

Sunny plunged his consciousness into Cai Zhen’s soul.

He navigated the complex pathways of the God’s spiritual network. And deep in the center, he found the golden spark of the Void Mother.

“Awaken.”

ZING.

The reaction was immediate.

Just like with Beru, the Law Particle woke up. It sensed Sunny’s presence, the closest thing to its creator.

It shot upward, trying to leave Cai Zhen’s body to fuse with Sunny.

“Why are you guys like this,” Sunny whispered.

He caught the particle in his grip. It buzzed against his will, demanding to return to the source.

“You have a job to do,” Sunny commanded, forcing it back down. “Repair him. Expand him. Make him infinite.”

With a final push, Sunny shoved the Golden Law deep into Cai Zhen’s Dantian.

“Fuse.”

Sunny withdrew his hand and stepped out of the sphere instantly, sealing the barrier behind him.

The transformation began.

But unlike Beru, there was no pressure. There was no cracking of armor or expanding of flesh.

Cai Zhen simply sat down in the lotus position. He closed his eyes.

And then… nothing.

The golden mist swirled around him, but his body remained still. There was no explosive aura. There was no earth-shattering pressure. He looked like a mortal man taking a nap in a sauna.

Seconds passed. Minutes passed.

Beru, watching from the outside, clicked his mandibles in confusion.

“Did it fail?” Beru asked aloud, voicing the concern of everyone in the room. “Why isn’t his strength increasing? When I ascended, I felt like I was tearing the universe apart. He looks… asleep.”

Thera chewed her lip, her hands trembling. “Maybe… maybe he is still refining the energy? He talked a lot about ’stabilizing the foundation’ during our travels. Perhaps it takes time?”

She tried to be optimistic, but the lack of reaction was terrifying. Was the Law rejecting him? Was his body too broken to accept the upgrade?

Merlin frowned, shuffling his cards nervously. “His presence is disappearing. It’s like he’s not even there.”

Just as the panic began to set in, Sunny walked past them. He climbed the steps to his throne and sat down, utterly unbothered.

“You are looking at this with the eyes of Beru,” Sunny said calmly.

“Evolution is explosive. It is external change.”

Sunny pointed at the silent figure in the sphere.

“But Cultivation? Cultivation is an internal conquest.”

“He isn’t sleeping,” Sunny whispered, his eyes gleaming. “He is cultivating.”

Inside the sphere, Cai Zhen wasn’t silent.

Inside his mind, a storm was raging.

The Golden Law had merged with his Dantian. It began to repair his foundation.

His Dantian, once a ’Sea of Qi’, shattered.

In its place, a Black Hole formed.

The golden mist filling the sphere, the energy equivalent to the creation of thousand universes… was being sucked into his pores at a very high speed.

His body was compressing the energy. Compressing it until it turned into liquid, liquid into solid, and solid into plasma.

Externally, he was still.

Internally, he was undergoing a Big Bang.

Sunny looked at the changes in Cai Zhen’s body using his god’s eyes, and smiled.

[Talent : The Boundless Dantian (SSS-Grade)]

[Effect: Energy Capacity is infinite. Passive Qi Regeneration increased by 10,000%.]

Suddenly, the golden mist inside the sphere vanished. All of it. Instantly sucked into Cai Zhen’s body.

The sphere became clear.

Cai Zhen opened his eyes.

There was no flash of light. His eyes were simply… deep. They looked like the calm surface of a lake that hid a leviathan beneath.

He stood up.

CRACK.

The sound didn’t come from him. It came from the space around him. The reality of the Throne Room fractured like glass, unable to bear the weight of his existence.

He took a breath, and the room trembled.

“I see,” Cai Zhen whispered.

He looked at Sunny and bowed.

“Thank you for this opportunity, Emperor”

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