Chapter 1288: Tempering in the Great Immortal God Elixir

Dark-golden energy raced beneath his skin before he withdrew his fingers, and for several seconds the bones inside them glowed faintly beneath the flesh. It was not heat but a god’s leftover marrow forcing its way into a mortal’s bone, a brief like a vicious baptism that made his fingers feel as if they had been dipped into realm-burning heat!

But then the pain vanished.

His fingers felt stronger, although barely enough to measure yet Phei knew his own body.

Something had changed from two fingers touching the pool for less than a breath.

His smile slowly widened: "Interesting."

"You would want to get in before the feathers lose more essence into the spring than your body can claim."

That successfully motivated him.

Phei stripped away the clothes covering his upper body before allowing Void-Ice to dissolve the rest from him, then lowered one foot into the pool. "Enjoy the show my love."

His entire leg seized: "Fuck."

Heat exploded upward through him invading his whole being in dark-gold fire that tore up through muscle and marrow as if the Great Immortal God’s essence had been waiting for a worthy living body to absorb it, scalding every meridian it found and then demanding more.

Phei’s jaw clenched as he stepped deeper.

The dark-golden liquid climbed over his knees, his thighs and finally his waist, each additional inch introducing another wave of energy into his body until his Primordial Blood began roaring through his veins in answer. The Dragon’s body answered the pain with hunger, swallowing what should have been lethal and still asking for the rest; for more!

By the time he lowered himself completely into the sunken pool, leaving only his shoulders and head above the surface, sweat had already formed across his forehead despite the heat being far deeper than anything ordinary skin should have produced. The spring did not sit around him and seeped deeper into him and encasing him like molten gold coffin of unfathomable energy and possibilities for his Body Cultivation closing around the Dragon’s living flesh like it was teaching his body, inch by inch, how to survive a power that had once belonged to a being far above the entire existence and a single touch of its energy could’ve otherwise killed him and his souls too!

The spring entered him everywhere.

Through his pores, breath, meridians that opened wider beneath the pressure, his blood itself, which seemed to seize pieces of the Great Immortal God’s essence and drag them inward before the rest of his cultivation could decide who possessed first claim.

Phei exhaled slowly.

Dark-golden steam escaped with the breath.

[Ding! Your body has absorbed a Great Immortal God’s World Essence!}

"Gods..." Phei looked at the system before pain brought him back.

The pain was incredible too.

But so was the nourishment beneath it.

He could feel the elixir washing through whole body, every inch part of Phei’s body and stripping away tiny weaknesses his regeneration had never considered; it then entered his bones and made the marrow burn. It moved through his organs in burning waves, nourishing them until every heartbeat struck harder against his ribs. His skin prickled as impurities too deeply in him were forced outward and dissolved before they could even reach the surface.

Each pulse of the pool felt like being rewritten from the inside, a slow, hellish forging in which mortal leftover was burned away so something older could take its place.

Then it found his meridians even more grippingly and cruelly and Phei’s face tightened.

Those pathways began widening beneath the enormous pressure.

They were not merely stretching but the elixir was tempering the walls of each meridian while forcing them to endure greater volumes of essence, strengthening them so future power could flow through without tearing the channels apart. Smaller branches that had carried almost nothing before began opening beneath the dark-golden current, connecting forgotten paths through out his body and giving his cultivation more roads through which to circulate.

It felt as if someone had taken a blade of immortal fire and carved new rivers through him, widening the old ones until they screamed and then filling those screams with gold.

Phei could feel his internal capacity changing with them.

His body had always possessed limits to how much Void-Ice essence and other energies it could hold before pressure began accumulating faster than his present cultivation could control.

But those limits were being pushed outward.

Not through some artificial increase that would leave him swollen with power he could not command.

The vessel itself was becoming larger.

Stronger and deeper.

"Your outer-flesh will be tempered first," Sienna explained while Phei breathed through another wave of heat. "Muscle, bone, marrow, organs and blood. The Immortal essence will force your body to shed weaknesses left behind by mortal growth and give your regeneration a stronger foundation to restore toward."

Phei lowered his eyes toward the liquid.

Dark gold travelled beneath his skin in faint threads before Primordial Blood swallowed the color.

"Your meridians will widen and harden while smaller pathways are opened. That will allow your essence to circulate faster, endure greater pressure and recover more smoothly after heavy expenditure. Your body will also learn to contain far more power without placing the same burden upon your flesh."

Phei could already feel it.

His Void-Ice reservoir seemed almost eager.

The emptiness left from recent use was drawing in the elixir and converting what it could, his deeper Void responding slowly while Primordial Blood behaved with considerably less manners and devoured everything reaching it.

Sienna continued, her voice remaining calm despite Phei feeling as though someone had lowered him into the world’s most expensive volcano.

"It will temper your spiritual foundation too, strengthen the connection between body and soul, nourish your vitality and refine the channels through which your Soul Energy will eventually move more freely. Your bloodline should also take what it can from the Great Immortal God’s essence. It should at least. But to be honest I do not know what your Cosmic Dragon Bloodline will get from it though."

Phei laughed through clenched teeth. "Comforting."

"It should also open several dormant acupoints and deepen the circulation routes around your major meridians. Your cultivation will become more efficient. The same amount of essence will move through you with less waste, and your body will replenish what it consumes more quickly once the tempering settles."

The spring surged.

Phei’s shoulders disappeared briefly beneath a wave of dark-golden liquid before he straightened again. The surge hit like a second drowning, a denser tide of Great Immortal God’s essence slammed through already-burning meridians until his vision briefly went gold at the edges.

Sienna gave him no sympathy.

"Do not resist the pain and guide the essence through the places that hurt most. Those are usually the weakest parts."

"Usually?"

"Or sometimes those parts simply hurt."

Phei stared at the wall.

He could almost hear Sienna’s expression.

’My Goddess wife has jokes now. I am glad.’

Another piece of feather dissolved and the entire pool brightened. Phei’s eyes widened as a far denser wave of energy struck his body; his blood thundered and his muscles tightened visibly.

Several meridians opened at once, sending dark-golden brilliance racing through his torso before disappearing beneath Primordial Blood. For one terrible instant his whole body felt too small like a living cage trying to hold the leftover weight of a Great Immortal God while the Dragon inside him laughed through the agony and swallowed anyway.

Sienna’s voice became quieter. "The most important change will happen deeper."

Phei steadied his breathing. "How deep?"

"Your body has gained power much faster than your cultivation realm was built to endure. You possess energies and soul foundations that belong to beings far beyond Master Stage, but your mortal foundation still lacks something that later cultivation will demand."

Phei’s brows drew together.

The dark-golden liquid continued churning around him.

Sienna spoke again. "This spring elixir will begin tempering the place where your cultivation will eventually gather itself into a true center. It will clear the surrounding meridians, deepen the inner reservoir, compress your essence and prepare your body to withstand the pressure when that center begins taking form."

Phei slowly turned toward the wall separating them.

Something in her wording had caught him. "Sienna."

"The process will not create it immediately. Your cultivation still needs to reach the proper realm and forcing it now would be foolish."

Phei’s eyes narrowed: "Create what?"

A small pause followed.

Then the Nether Goddess answered with maddening calm:

"Your Core."

"My what?"