Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 1001: Essence Awakening Realm

Wu Long raised his hand, looking at it with both nostalgia and unfamiliarity.

’This feeling... it’s been quite a while’, he thought as a smile appeared in the corner of his lips.

Advancements in Minor Realms were simply stages of the same transformation.

Advancements in Major Realms were a transition between different transformations themselves. They brought qualitative and quantitative changes to his body, mind, and soul, as well as expanded his abilities beyond that of a normal human.

Unlike those, however, the advancement into a Greater Realm was what was called an ascension, a fundamental elevation of him as a being from one to another, allowing a new set of transformations to be possible within him.

This happened because advancing into Greater Realms required the shattering of one of the so-called ’Heavenly Shackles’ - restrictions of the Heavenly Daos on any being.

In the case of the Seven Profound Realms, for many races including humans, the Heavenly Shackles were placed around the Seven Roots.

The center of the restriction was located within the Root of Longevity - it bound itself and all six of the other Seven Roots to certain fundamental laws and principles.

This was the metaphorical ’glass vessel’ located at the center of the Root of Longevity, completely encasing the Life Essence.

It was, of course, not literally made of glass, but a construct of laws.

It was called a ’glass vessel’, because like glass it allowed one to perceive what was inside without being able to interact with it.

Before shattering that ’glass vessel’ restriction, it was impossible to fundamentally affect the laws of the Life Essence within, and Life Essence, in turn, determined the basic principles of the Root of Longevity.

It was connected to ’glass vessels’ located in all six other roots, encasing each of the Essences. While encased in restrictions, the Essences were called to be in a ’dormant’ state.

And like a natural formation, all seven restrictions empowered and supported one another, making this structure invulnerable to damage. Even if any of the restrictions in other six roots were damaged, even shattered, they would be instantly restored.

But like in any formation, governed by principles of operation, there was a central node, and thus inevitably, a vulnerability.

The structure of the restriction formation of the Seven Roots was a very simple one, created by nature long before humans fathomed the formations, let alone their principles of operation. And thus it’s central node wasn’t cleverly hidden, but there in plain sight. It was a specific spot in the restriction within the Root of Longevity.

As that central node, when the ’glass vessel’ restriction was shattered within the Root of Longevity, the whole formation was disrupted.

As a construct of laws, however, it was only possible to shatter with another construct of laws. This was the ’blade’ that Wu Long formed within his Crystal Core, formed from the laws of the Crystal Core.

If the laws of a cultivator’s Crystal Core were not sufficient, it would not be able to shatter the ’glass vessel’ - in fact the opposite happened, as receiving damage, in the process of recovery the ’glass vessel’ would become more powerful, absorbing some of the laws that attacked it.

This was the reason why attempts at breaking through to Seven Profound Realms were not made lightly. If one failed, it was much harder to succeed the next time.

However, once that shackle was removed, the Essence within was subject to major transformations, and thus no longer ’dormant’.

This was, the Essence Awakening Realm.

Stepping into this cultivation realm for the second time, however, Wu Long didn’t feel like he was just regaining what he once had. Perhaps it was a part of it as well. But it wasn’t all there was to it.

Even before that, what he brought out of Nine Mortal Realms with him into this one was far more vast and richer. Not just in power, abilities, or achievements. It was on a deeper level of his mind, mentality and, perhaps, soul.

The time he spent as mortal again gave him a completely new appreciation, and a new perspective on everything. Like looking at life with a new set of eyes.

And then there was his family. Reuniting with those he loved and lost, which broke away a piece of him with every one, mended parts of his soul he didn’t even realise were broken or missing before, which helped him find meaningful new connections as well. And that, in turn, brought him more happiness than he thought was possible to obtain.

Happiness, of course, brought fears. It was natural, since in the jungle of the cultivation world, one required an ability to protect what they have, be it material possessions or happiness itself.

But that fear did not make him weaker.

No, the current Wu Long was a far more dangerous man to provoke than the feared God of Slaughter of the past. Precisely because he had something to protect aside from his life alone.

This breakthrough also was a chance for him to adjust his appearance to coincide with his current physical age of 21 rather than the looks he was stuck with before - of an 18 year old.

He finally gained back the height he was most comfortable with, the one he had throughout eons before his reincarnation, and his muscle mass finally adjusted to the perfection of human proportions he always possessed before.

This meant that the upper limits of his physical performance which were hindered by the physical age of the body were now expanded to their possible peak.

The same physique and stage of Body Tempering he trained so far gave him roughly 30% more expanded purely physical potential in all aspects including but not limited to speed, endurance, and power - all that just from that age adjustment alone, without any additional effort.

But perhaps more importantly, this, at last, removed the discomfort of adjusting movements he was so familiar with to another height and muscle structure, - which meant improvement both for fighting, and of course, Dual Cultivation.

All this meant that in a purely physical sense, without even counting the Essence Awakening Realm advancement or other factors, he was almost twice as dangerous as he was before.

His face now gained even more mature handsomeness. He now looked even more like the Wu Long of the past lifetime, the one Hong Yue saw in that vision of his Weight of Soul, but there was a completely different look in his eyes now.

His hand slowly formed a fist.

While invisible to the naked eye, if one watched the flow of natural Qi of Heaven and Earth, where this motion of a Nine Mortal Realms cultivator would create small ripples, what happened now was sending waves out for meters around him.

Suddenly, the waves began subsiding until eventually they turned to ripples, and then even those came to a halt as he once again was not producing a single disturbance when moving.

And just like that, he completed the adaptation to his realm, fully gaining control over his aura and output of power, a process which usually took ordinary cultivators months if not years, and even for his beauties - a group filled with geniuses and exceptional talents - took nearly a month. The only exception was, of course, Ye Ling, since she shared with him the fact they both already conquered this realm once before.

He then closed his eyes to feel the bloodlines of the Celestial Fox, Grand Void Eagle, and Soul-Dimming Nether Vine rushing within his veins. True bloodline activation began in Essence Gathering Realm, but already at this stage, the hidden potential of the bloodlines was triggered, allowing him more insight into each of them.

In these past days of seclusion, he finally gained enough Yin Qi from Song Lingfei to complete a new core he decided to call Void Core, allowing him to finally gain the path to channeling the power of the Grand Void Eagle bloodline as well.

Of course, that, as was the case with the Celestial Core, did not mean he could use it from the get-go, as he still needed to complete the nine reformations of Core Reformation Realm and then push it to the Mortal Transcendence Realm. But he already had enough of Song Lingfei’s Yin Qi to do that.

The only reason he did not do it right away, now that he was done with ascending to the Essence Awakening Realm, was his experience when completing the Celestial Core.

He had a hunch that just like with the Celestial Core, completing the core and transitioning it into Mortal Transcendence Realm might require a trick or an enlightenment of sorts, while going through the nine Core Reformations might trigger an instability or momentary weakness that would only solved by completing the core.

Doing so at this moment was not convenient as his time for seclusion was coming to an end. Any more and he might lose control of events happening on the continent.

The same was for the Soul-Dimming Nether Vine bloodline from Liang Yuhan, which was a Spirit Race bloodline, forming a Nether Core he had yet to complete despite having the means to.

He was also able to form the second Celestial Core, also leaving it in a state of the gate of Core Reformation Realm.

Finally, he took a deep breath, and thin yellow-golden lines of light in vein-like patterns appeared on his skin in some places like neck, back, chest and near joints on the torso, as well as extremities of limbs like on his hands and feet. The light did not appear static, but flowing, as if a golden liquid was flowing through them. They lingered for a moment, and disappeared without a trace.

"Ashen Breath Extreme Yang Physique, huh? I see now why the ancients called it that", he chuckled, taking this short moment to adjust to and control the physique - something that would make a certain trio of beauties cry a bit if they saw how effortless it seemed for him to do.

"And why is that, handsome?", a small fox appeared on his shoulder, fidgeting a bit as if to shake off the heavy and oppressive feeling of the fury of the Heavenly Daos that still lingered in the air around.

He chuckled, since it was this more mature face she was more familiar with, and yet it seemed she got so used to seeing the younger him that this change made her very excited, "You’ll see soon enough"

"Che~, that snake girl was right, you’re a cheapskate~"

"Hahaha, no longer a cold-blood worm?"

"Well I can’t call her that now that I see where the wind is blowing~"

"I did like her, and she’s my type of beauty, but there’s nothing set about that yet", he chuckled.

"Yeah~ yeah~, if you say so~", the Celestial Fox rolled her eyes causing him to laugh, shaking his head at how sure she sounded.

He looked around, standing amid a ruined stone foundation of the tower covered in cracks and stone rubble, while any wood or other materials making up the tower were now simply dust that filled some of the cracks or lay in patches or small mounds, blown away and dissipating into the wind.

He wryly smiled, "It seems I’ll need a new tower built"

"You could’ve chosen to breakthrough out in the open", she yawned.

"Wasn’t it you who said I’d look like some bum and not a Valley Master if I did that?", he raised his eyebrow.

"Hmm, I still think that, who cares about a building?"