The beam within the vertical eye was the convergence of Chen Chuan's mental consciousness; released through the Spiritual Visage, it manifested externally in this fashion.
As that shaft of light pierced through the luminous mist, it climbed continuously upward, boring a hollow cavity high above.
The luminous mists were not a static, clustered mass. Layer upon layer, stratum upon stratum, each level seemed to undergo a transformation, expanding outward in ripple after ripple under the impact, like concentric circles spreading across water.
Chen Chuan fixed his gaze upon it. He reckoned that those were likely the various layers of the heavens mentioned by the Xuanist, and his task this time was to find the highest Heavenly Pass—disregarding all else.
Due to the shifts above, it felt as though his entire being were continuously pulling upward.
Amidst this ascent, various taints seemed to encroach upon him, but no sooner did they appear than they vanished, as though shaken off and left behind in his wake.
In this realm, distance held no literal meaning. To reach the uppermost Heavenly Pass, his spiritual qi had to use each successive pass as a stepping stone, traversing upward stratum by stratum to finally arrive.
That was to say, the moment he made fleeting contact with the field of one Heavenly Pass, he moved on, quickly advancing to the next.
Even if the tainted entities lingering within those Heavenly Passes reacted and gave chase, they could not trace him back to his origin. This produced the sensation that he was ascending and soaring ever higher, leaving every taint far behind.
In the parlance of the old-era Xuan Cult, would this scene not be precisely "breaking through multiple Heavenly Passes and traversing the upper currents"?
Yet if he were to halt midway, he might become ensnared by the tainted entities of a particular Heavenly Pass; climbing higher would then become all but impossible. He had to surge upward in a single breath.
Fortunately, the preparations of the first two stages had not been in vain—they had been made for this exact moment. Bolstered by his profound foundation, an abundant reservoir of energy, and the empowerment of the ritual, he encountered no impediment here.
While strength still remained to spare, he finally "saw" it: at the ultimate terminus, a faint, brooding haze of purple qi came into view.
Just as when he had searched for the Six-Yang Gold, once he perceived the field here, he arrived. Even so, the barrier between the two realms still stood. Yet unlike last time, even without drawing the Xuejun Saber, he could force his way in using the Spiritual Visage—though doing so would expend far more energy.
Fortunately, there was no need for him to breach it by force.
A chorus of whimpering, wailing cries suddenly echoed around him, followed by multicolored forms whirling down toward him one after another.
He instantly recognized these as the local taints—the "essence-evils" the Xuanist had spoken of. Taking no chances, he willed the platinum fire of spirituality to instantly blanket the Spiritual Visage from head to toe.
As those creatures slammed into his Spiritual Visage, sparks burst in every direction, and the outermost layer of spiritual fire was sheared straight off by the impact.
Chen Chuan's gaze tightened. Under ordinary circumstances, not even an assault from a martial artist could strip away so much at once. The sheer violence of this impact was on an entirely different level from the taints he had faced before.
Yet the moment the blow landed, his body jolted to a sudden halt; he had already sunk into their midst.
Once his field touched the field of this domain, the taints' attacks followed naturally. And precisely because of these taints, he had no need to breach the barrier to reach this place—for this was the gathering ground of the essence-evils.
Immersed in this domain, he felt waves of rich, dense energy the likes of which he had never encountered before surging into his Spiritual Visage. In theory, this was the highest grade of energy a practitioner at this stage could endure; it would vastly bolster the Spiritual Visage while driving his mutated tissue into a higher echelon of metamorphosis.
Yet here, the number of essence-evils exploded exponentially. As far as the eye could see, the void was packed dense with them.
Each creature possessed only a head draped in disheveled, long hair, while its body seemed woven from swirls of multicolored smoke, bearing an uncanny resemblance to certain demonic fiends from old-era mythology. In truth, they likely had no fixed form; having employed the methods of the Xuan Cult and accepted some of its tenets, what manifested before him conformed to the imagery described in Xuan Cult lore.
The entities swirled incessantly around him, repeatedly crashing into the Spiritual Visage and scattering away portions of the fire of spirituality.
Although the breaches were patched almost instantaneously, every ceaseless assault drained his energy; the slightest lapse in focus could allow them to breach his defense.
What he had to do was absorb the energy here as quickly as possible, strengthening the Spiritual Visage to grant it greater resilience.
He was racing against the essence-evils' corruption. Fall behind in the slightest, and he would likely be knocked down, losing his footing here entirely—or worse, devoured whole by the taint.
The longer he remained, the more he would gain, so he had to hold out for as long as possible.
With a thought, a suit of resplendent, gleaming armor manifested over the Spiritual Visage, silken sashes fluttering between shoulders and arms. Brandishing weapons in both hands, it slashed and struck at the essence-evils. Every hit burst one into a cloud of smoke, yet even more surged forward to take its place.
At the same time, the Spiritual Visage drew massive streams of purple qi into its body, swiftly transmuting it into the nourishment needed by the mutated tissue. The mutated tissue drank greedily, advancing continuously at an astonishing pace. This transformation in turn reinforced the Spiritual Visage; rather than collapsing under the onslaught of the essence-evils, it grew ever more formidable.
After more than ten days, this rapid progress began to stall, grinding progressively slower.
Chen Chuan recognized the problem. He could clearly feel that he was still a sliver short of that final breakthrough.
If he could remain here indefinitely, he could slowly grind his way up to that level. The problem was that every passing moment consumed the energy reserves stored within his body; his previous rapid advance had been bought at that exact cost.
Moreover, the ritual outside that empowered and stabilized the fissure could not last forever. He could not afford to simply wait.
He had to change his approach.
That Xuanist had not told him what to do at this stage, yet through the preparations of the first and second stages, the answer had already been imparted.
He glanced at the essence-evils. He would open up his defenses just the same, allowing the corruption inside to serve as fuel and sustenance for his advancement.
Having decided, he relaxed his guard slightly, letting some in. Instantly, an essence-evil plunged into the Spiritual Visage, followed by another, and then more and more swarmed inward.
In that instant, energy—which had been dwindling in absorption—flooded into his body once more, and the mutated tissue surged with renewed vigor.
Yet all of this was bought at the cost of the Spiritual Visage virtually sacrificing itself. Where the essence-evils tainted the Spiritual Visage, mutations began to fester, and a separate consciousness seemed to germinate, faintly threatening to tear away.
The faces of the essence-evils shifted as well, growing somewhat akin to his own, their features rippling with expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight.
Yet a moment later, a brilliantly radiant light suddenly erupted from his body. Touched by that bright luminescence, the essence-evils instantly turned to billowing smoke.
He had used the Grand Radiant Light Forms to disperse them directly before the Spiritual Visage could collapse. But before the visage could fully mend, even more essence-evils swarmed forward.
What followed was this cyclical struggle. Whenever he felt the Spiritual Visage destabilizing, he would banish the taint with the Grand Radiant Light Forms.
Yet even Chen Chuan gradually began to feel the strain. The onslaught was endless and omnipresent, demanding every ounce of power his body could summon to withstand it; even with the ritual's empowerment, the pressure was immense.
Even so, after that initial burst of speed, his momentum slowed once again.
Chen Chuan realized that this still did not solve the fundamental problem. Perhaps it was due to his own unique circumstances: he had broken through the limits with an unprecedented foundation. Where others might have achieved a breakthrough at this juncture long ago, he fell short of full fruition because he required far more.
Standing within the Spiritual Visage, he recalled the words spoken by the Xuanist:
"Plant the golden lotus, light the purple chalice, smelt away the hidden yin..."
He lifted his head, gazing upon the riddled, battered external visage, the essence-evils burrowing and thrashing within it, and the boundless sea of purple qi before him. A gleam gradually sparked in his eyes.
The Xuanist had not stated explicitly how to act, offering only an esoteric term from the Xuan Cult. At first, Chen Chuan had not fully understood it.
Thus, he had initially referenced Wansong Company's methods: absorbing foreign essences and outer qi, tempering the Spiritual Visage, and establishing a tether with a particular Heavenly Pass.
But now, he understood.
What use was merely swallowing energy? What use was establishing a simple tether?
What he needed to do was completely claim this realm, turn this stratum of heaven into his own possession, and fuse with it wholly—leaving no room for any outside entity to intrude or covet.
Once this realm was seized, the countless essence-evils around him would lose their foundation and cease to exist, and he would never again be tainted by them.
With this single realization, clarity dawned. His expression turned solemn; hovering in midair, he sat cross-legged, gently closed his eyes, and formed a Xuan Cult hand seal from the Taibai Contemplation. Outside him, the Spiritual Visage assumed the exact same posture.
In that instant, the Second Self converged upon him. The platinum fire of spirituality billowed outward like a raging inferno, radiating waves of brilliance. Wherever it touched, the filthy essence-evils dissolved into nothingness.
Viewed from afar, his entire being resembled a blooming lotus flower, under which lay the boundless purple qi. Moments later, a speck of platinum brilliance fell from his vertical eye, dropping straight into the purple qi. At first, nothing seemed to stir. But after a brief pause, this Heavenly Pass shuddered violently. As if ignited, the entire expanse boiled and surged, swirling around that speck of spiritual fire. Moments later, it swept rapidly along the flames toward him, threading into his body strand by strand, before coiling securely around the mutated tissue.
Stimulated beyond measure, the mutated tissue throughout his body accelerated its metamorphosis, advancing far faster and far more violently than in any prior stage.
The innumerable essence-evils that had surrounded him now dissipated into thin air like wisps of smoke. Only a few clinging to his Spiritual Visage bit with their mouths and clutched with their hands, refusing stubbornly to let go.
After an unknown stretch of time, the mutated tissue seemed to cross a certain threshold that had bound it. With a sudden tremor, the fierce, active upheaval finally quieted down.
A faint wisp of purple light emerged between Chen Chuan's brows. He slowly opened his eyes. A flash glinted in his gaze, and the essence-evils still clinging to him let out a chorus of mournful shrieks before dissolving away.
He cast his gaze downward; his fire of spirituality and the purple qi had merged almost seamlessly into one.
The so-called Heavenly Bridge lay right there, within himself. Once built, the crossing was achieved.
He lowered his eyes, only to see a line of characters surface upon the dark robe:
"The golden lotus beholds the purple chalice; bridging the heavens, the spirit returns."
After gazing at it for a moment, an intuition stirred within his heart. Pausing in contemplation, he reached down with a finger, tracing a line of script upon it:
"A single thought illuminates the true intent; asking after the realm of everlasting peace!"
Chapter 1011