The Azure Sea Guesthouse was a masterpiece of tranquil luxury. Carved into the face of a white sea cliff, its open-air balconies and wide, moon-shaped windows offered an uninterrupted vista of the endless ocean.
For three days, Li Yu remained in seclusion within its walls, a "Do Not Disturb" plaque hung on the door, a request that Branch Master Jing enforced with the diligence of a temple guardian. To the outside world, the city's savior was resting and recuperating. In reality, a storm of power was brewing within the villa's quietest chamber.
Li Yu sat in a meditative posture on the floor, his breathing slow and deep. Before him, resting on a simple silk cloth, was the small, light-absorbing box containing the Deep Sea Abyssal Crystal. The title deed to his new spire was tucked safely away; property was a concern for another day. Power, however, was an immediate and pressing priority.
With a thought, his spiritual consciousness dove deep within himself, entering the vast, inner world of the Koi's Sanctuary. He manifested on his central island, the air thrumming with life. His first order of business was to address the incessant, demanding presence that had been nagging him for the past three days.
He focused his will, and the dark, heavy box appeared before him. He opened it. The Void Core fragment, a piece of starless night given form, immediately exerted its strange, heavy gravity on the spiritual environment.
"Finally!" Khaos's voice boomed in his mind, dripping with an eager, almost undignified impatience. "You dawdle like a sea snail in winter, boy! Give it to this king!"
A shimmering distortion appeared in the air, and Khaos's immense, galaxy-shelled form manifested nearby, his colossal pincers clicking together in anticipation.
Li Yu smiled faintly. "You have earned it, Khaos. Your assistance was invaluable."
He levitated the Void Core fragment, sending it floating slowly towards the colossal crab sovereign. Khaos didn't catch it. Instead, he opened his maw, a dark, vertical slit that seemed to lead into the void itself, and the crystal was drawn inside, vanishing without a sound.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a profound tremor ran through Khaos's entire body. The distant galaxies swirling on his midnight-black shell began to spin faster. A deep, resonant hum emanated from him, a vibration of space itself. Cracks of pure, black energy spiderwebbed across his shell, not as damage, but as if he were molting an old concept of reality.
"The power… it is magnificent!" Khaos's voice was a low, awestruck rumble. "It resonates with my bloodline… strengthens my hold on the void…"
Li Yu watched, fascinated, as something unexpected began to happen. As Khaos refined the immense void energy, a thin, pure stream of starless black Qi, like liquid night, began to leak from his form. It did not dissipate. Instead, it was drawn by an invisible current, flowing directly into the great central lake—the very heart of the Koi spirit.
The moment the void-aspected Qi hit the water, it was instantly absorbed, and a profound change began in Li Yu's spiritual body. The stream of power flowed from the Koi directly into him, a feedback loop of unimaginable value. The pure void energy surged through his meridians, tempering them and coating them with a resilient layer of void essence.
"Hmph. A pittance leaks out during this king's refinement," Khaos grumbled, though Li Yu could sense no real annoyance in his voice. "Consider it a trivial reward for finding such a treasure for me."
With his most powerful retainer occupied, Li Yu turned his attention to his second prize. He teleported to the isolated island where the Core-Leech Parasite still thrashed mindlessly within its void cage. His plan was audacious: he was going to devour its power.
He sat cross-legged before the cage and raised his hands. The water from the surrounding lake rose, forming a massive, swirling vortex around the cage. It was a living refinement array, the abyss-black water of the lake shot through with veins of gold, shimmering with an absolute power within this domain.
'Khaos,' he projected. 'I need a slow, steady leak.'
"A simple task," the distracted rumble came back. A tiny fissure of black energy appeared on the cage. A thick, viscous stream of poisoned, brine-colored energy began to leak out, hissing as it touched the vortex.
But any struggle was futile. His Koi spirit, having evolved alongside him, was now on a completely different level. The vortex didn't struggle; it simply consumed. The instant the dark, parasitic energy entered the black and gold swirl, its malevolent will was annihilated without a hint of resistance. What remained was a stream of the purest, most potent oceanic energy Li Yu had ever encountered.
He opened his spiritual mouth and began to drink. A torrent of power flooded his dantian.
As the first wave of pure energy entered his spiritual sea, something stirred in its abyssal depths. From the endless black ocean that was his core, his nascent soul emerged. It was a miniature, ethereal leviathan, a creature of pure, flowing shadow and light.
As before it possessed a long, serpentine body, but instead of scales, its form was woven from a brilliant, crimson-gold light, and it had the graceful, powerful tail of a primordial fish. It swam in a slow, majestic circle, its very presence causing his inner sea to calm and stabilize.
The nascent soul acted as the true core of his being. The refined energy from the vortex flowed into the spiritual sea, and the crimson-gold leviathan drank it in, acting as the final filter and conductor. It then released the power in great, controlled waves, causing the water level of the abyss-black ocean to rise at a visible, alarming rate.
The boundary marking the first level of the Core Formation Realm was instantly submerged. Without a pause, the tide of power, guided by the nascent soul, continued to rise, crashing over the barrier to the second level. The refined energy was far vaster than he had anticipated, and the waves of his inner ocean grew tumultuous as the tide shattered the barrier to the third level of the Core Formation Realm in a brilliant flash of internal light. His spiritual presence swelled, threatening to overflow the very concept of his dantian.
It was at this peak that Khaos's voice cut through his concentration, sharp and commanding.
"Foolish boy! You take in so much raw power, but your ocean is too shallow! Do not let it settle! Use the void essence this king has gifted you! Use it to forge your sea! Crush it! Condense it until a single drop is as heavy as a mountain!"
Li Yu's eyes snapped open. Khaos was right. He had the quantity, but he could now achieve a new quality of power. He focused his will, and his nascent soul responded. The miniature, crimson-gold leviathan let out a silent, spiritual roar. It swam to the surface of the raging inner ocean and called upon the new, void-aspected Qi coating Li Yu's meridians.
This dark, heavy energy flowed into his dantian and spread over the surface of his spiritual sea like a layer of starless night. Then, the nascent soul acted. It coiled its serpentine, light-woven body and squeezed.
An unimaginable pressure, born of the void and directed by his nascent soul, crushed down on his entire inner ocean. It was a terrifying sensation, as if the sky of his spiritual world were collapsing. The expansive aura of a 3rd-level Core Formation expert was violently compressed. The abyss-black 'water' of his ocean, with nowhere to go, was forced into itself by the coiling leviathan, its very nature changing. It became denser, heavier, and unbelievably potent.
The process was agonizing, but the results were immediate. His spiritual sea, once a vast and swelling ocean, began to recede under the nascent soul's pressure, not by losing water, but by becoming impossibly deep and dense. Its color deepened into a profound, abyss-black liquid that seemed to swallow the light, holding the faintest glimmers of distant stars within its depths.
When the process was over, the torrent of energy was fully absorbed. The nascent soul uncoiled, swimming majestically in the now-calm but incredibly deep ocean, its own crimson-gold light seeming even more brilliant against the star-dusted blackness. He took a spiritual breath and examined himself.
His power was immense, far beyond what it had been at the 3rd level. Yet, the aura that radiated from him, both inside the sanctuary and in the real world, had receded dramatically. To any outside observer, he would now appear to be a cultivator who had just barely stabilized his breakthrough into the 1st stage of the Core Formation Realm. That is if were to reveal his full power, he would still need to keep up the front that he was only at the 7th stage of cultivation to avoid troubles.
This was not getting weaker to build a more stable foundation. This was forging a more powerful existence. A normal cultivator's power was like a wide, shallow lake; his was now a deep-sea trench. He possessed the power of a peak 3rd-level expert—or perhaps even more—condensed into the framework of a 1st-level cultivator. Every drop of his spiritual ocean was now immensely heavy and potent, his foundation qualitatively superior to anyone at his supposed level.
He slowly opened his eyes in the real world. A knock came at his door. "Guest Elder Li?" It was Captain Feng's voice. "Branch Master Jing and Elder Quan have returned."
Li Yu took a deep, calming breath, effortlessly suppressing his new, condensed aura, letting only the familiar 7th-level Foundation Establishment presence show. His reclusive nature was now easier to maintain than ever.
"Let them in, Captain," he called out. The two elders entered, their faces bright with good news.
"My friend, I hope we are not disturbing your rest," Jing boomed cheerfully. "The architects are ready to begin work on the Silver Shoal Spire! And better yet, the Azure Shell Chamber's shipping contracts are being canceled. Our sanctions are already bleeding them dry."
"That is wonderful news, Branch Master," Li Yu said with a genuine smile.
He looked at his two friends, at the peaceful, thriving city beyond the balcony, and felt a profound sense of accomplishment. He had come to this city seeking a simple business of power in the southern seas that would ensure his peace for a long, long time to come.