Chapter 295: Breakthrough

Chapter 295: Chapter 295: Breakthrough

Chapter 295: Breakthrough

A dazzling flash of spatial light illuminated the dim inner chamber.

Dozens upon dozens of exquisite bottles materialized, hovering gently in the air before him.

Every single one of them was packed to the brim with flawless Mystic-Grade pills.

For any Domain Master in the outside world, a single one of these pills was a legendary treasure.

But Rhain looked at the hovering fortune with eyes as placid as a still lake.

He didn’t waste any time.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Rhain popped the corks off three at once.

He tilted his head back and poured the flawless Mystic-Grade pills directly into his mouth as though he were drinking water.

BOOM—!!!

An ocean of pure medicinal essence detonated within his stomach.

The pitch-black core hovering at the center of his dantian instantly awakened.

It spun fiercely, radiating a suction force so powerful that the torrential flood of essence was dragged inward and refined into pitch-black essence in a matter of heartbeats.

It continued to spun with a stronger suction force, as if demanding more.

Rhain had no choice but to empty five more bottles.

The energy within his body was now so dense that any ordinary cultivator, even an early-stage Domain Master, would have instantly exploded into a mist of blood.

But the Abyssal Sovereign Physique merely roared with a ravenous, insatiable hunger.

It was like a supermassive black hole that could never be satisfied.

Rhain’s brow furrowed.

’Still not enough.’

He raised his hand and unsealed twenty more bottles.

He swallowed them all.

Hours began to tick by.

The darkness of the night deepened.

Rhain’s meridians tore continuously under the pressure of the rampaging energy, only for the tyrannical recovery of the Abyssal Sovereign Physique to knit them back together—wider, tougher, and more resilient than before.

Sweat poured down Rhain’s pale face, instantly evaporating into white steam from the blistering heat generated in his body.

Fifty pills.

Seventy pills.

Ninety pills.

’Something is wrong,’ Rhain thought, a frown creasing his forehead.

By all logic, he should have already broken through.

He had accumulated more than enough energy to shatter a minor bottleneck several times over.

The amount of energy he was consuming had reached a level of absurdity.

He was literally digesting the wealth of minor noble in a single sitting.

Yet the barrier separating him from the second level of the Core Formation Realm hadn’t shattered.

But Rhain didn’t stop.

He continued swallowing more and more pills.

When he finally consumed his one hundred and tenth flawless Mystic-Grade pill, the explosive pressure inside his body reached at a critical point.

CRACK!

The invisible bottleneck inside his body finally shattered.

An overwhelmingly tyrannical aura erupted from Rhain’s frame.

Core Formation Realm—Level 2!

But the moment the breakthrough occurred, Rhain’s dark grey eyes snapped open, a flash of profound shock tearing through his usually calm composure.

"What... is this?" Rhain murmured.

Inside his dantian, a transformation was unfolding.

As expected, his first pitch-black core rapidly expanded, its density and essence capacity multiplying exponentially as it absorbed the breakthrough’s qualitative leap.

This was normal.

Every cultivator’s core expanded and refined itself upon advancing a level within the Core Formation Realm.

But the remaining torrent of essence did not just settle into the newly expanded core.

Buzz—!

Directly beside the expanding pitch-black core, the swirling void within his dantian abruptly convulsed.

A second core formed.

Two cores hovered side by side within his dantian, both radiating an aura of boundless destruction and unfathomable depth.

’Two Cores?’ Rhain’s mind spun with rapid calculations. ’How is this possible?’

In every single cultivation manual he had ever read, a cultivator condensed exactly one core in the Core Formation Realm.

To possess a second core was simply unheard of.

Then, the realization crashed down upon him.

’No wonder,’ Rhain exhaled a long, heavy breath, a bitter yet amazed smile curling his lips, ’No wonder the energy requirements to step into the second level were so impossibly astronomical.’

He finally understood why he had failed to break through previously, and why it had required such high amount of energy of over a hundred flawless Mystic-Grade pills to force the advancement.

’It must be because of my Physique,’ Rhain deduced, ’The physique, combined with the Abyssal Sovereign Technique, exists entirely outside the natural order of the world. It simply does not play by the world’s rules.’

He couldn’t fully comprehend the exact limits or the future implications of this strange anomaly just yet.

But one thing was certain: his essence reserves were no longer just double that of an ordinary cultivator.

With two pitch-black cores acting as supermassive oceans of essence, his stamina and raw output had reached a completely anomalous dimension.

Rhain pushed the shocking revelation of the second core aside.

Right now, he had another matter to focus on.

The moment the second core fully stabilized, the mysterious seed mark between his eyebrows had awakened once again.

Sensing the massive, qualitative influx of higher-tier essence generated by the dual cores, the Origin Seed greedily devoured the energy, translating it directly into raw law fragments that rained down upon his spiritual sea.

Rhain immediately closed his eyes, entirely submerging his consciousness into the profound mysteries of the world.

His comprehension of the law crept upward.

Fifty-one percent!

Fifty-two percent!

The explosive surge of understanding finally slowed to a halt at fifty-two percent.

Rhain slowly opened his eyes.

The swirling vortex of darkness within his pupils lingered for a second before fading back to his placid dark grey eyes.

Fifty-two percent comprehension of the Law of Darkness.

The gain was smaller than he had hoped—the Origin Seed’s release rate was still bound by his cultivation realm, and a single minor level advancement could only unlock so much.

But combined with the twin cores, the difference in his overall strength was staggering.

"Lucius," Rhain whispered chillingly. "Enjoy your days while you can."

With his power rapidly escalating in the blood-soaked crucible of this underground hell, he was taking massive strides forward.

He was one step closer to take his revenge.

-------------------

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from the lawless depths of the Crucible Arena.

Inside the sprawling, majestic bounds of the Royal Palace in Solathane City.

Lucius listened to the information provided by his subordinate.

"Your Royal Highness," the envoy reported, his head bowed respectfully. "The decree has been delivered exactly as you commanded. Celestial Elixir Pavilion has been given an ultimatum of one month. The major and minor powers have already begun to sever their previous ties. The entire commercial district is already abandoning them."

A low chuckle escaped Lucius’s lips.

"Excellent," Lucius murmured with a chilling light in his eyes.

"Grandmaster Korryn," Lucius said the name mockingly, "He dared to reject my royal envoys three separate times. And he even had the audacity to turn me away when I graced his pathetic establishment in person, hiding behind the cowardly excuse of a ’secluded refinement’."

His handsome face twisted into a ruthless, triumphant sneer.

"He did not want to meet me when I asked politely," Lucius laughed arrogantly, "But now? Now I have forced him to crawl directly to my palace on his hands and knees."

In the Solathane Dynasty, the Emperor’s decree was like the will of the gods themselves.

No matter how heaven-defying Korryn’s alchemy was, no matter how many flawless Mystic-Grade pills he could produce, he was still just a merchant residing within the borders of the Royal family’s domain.

Faced with the threat of total annihilation, Korryn would have no choice but to emerge from his hole, travel to the Royal Capital, and obediently bow his head to the Imperial Family.

And once Korryn was within his grasp, he would like to see who can save Rhain.

Lucuis was certain that Korryn was the ultimate backer providing Rhain with the limitless wealth and resources required to act so brazenly.

"I want to see exactly how Grandmaster Korryn saves you now..." Lucius mocked, his voice sounding like a venomous viper preparing to strike. "...when he cannot even save himself."