Will had finally realized just how cruel this world could be, and just how weak he was in comparison. Mere disciples of the Shadow Devil kingdom had almost bested him, and he only survived due to his quick actions of breaking their weapons and the insane defence of his wings.
His wings were currently his strongest asset, and they had already saved his life multiple times. However, they could possibly be broken by someone at only the second stage of the silver core realm. In the expanse of this vast world, someone at the second stage of the foundational realm was absolutely nothing in comparison. This meant that as powerful as Will was, he was merely an ant in the eyes of the true experts of this world.
After realizing this, Will made a choice. He would cultivate until he was strong enough to venture out in the world, then he would join someplace powerful and rise further, further, and further until he ruled over all that was.
After this, he sat down on the ground and started to cultivate. He still could not leave the room so he decided that there was nothing better to do.
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He remained seated there for a total of seven days, not moving a muscle. However, he made sure to keep track of where everyone was through sensing their emotions. Through this, he would not hurt anyone with his dangerous qi.
In the first day, Kessia was still recovering from the traumatic experience, so she simply sat there the whole day. staring at Will, wondering if he would stay here for any longer.
On the second day, Will broke through to the seventh stage of the foundational realm.
On the third day, Kessia had now recovered and went on with her life.
On the fourth day, Will broke through to the eighth stage of the foundational realm.
On the seventh day, He broke through to the ninth stage of the foundational realm, finally reaching the peak of the realm. For the first time since he had received his ruby heart, he felt the existence of a bottleneck, which would take quite a while to break through.
Cultivation bottlenecks were the most common problem to encounter on the path of cultivation, and each one took a long time to break through. However, Will had not gotten any bottlenecks since he began cultivating with the ruby heart. Because of this, he was used to constant progress and not having bottlenecks.
He had once had an insurmountable bottleneck before he had gotten his ruby heart. It made it impossible for him to reach past the first stage of the foundational realm. However, the bottleneck he felt right now seemed to be tens of times stronger than that one, and it felt even more insurmountable.
Facing this, he could not help getting frustrated and getting up with a huff, surprising Kessia who was nearby. She had been minding her own business these past few days and did not bother Will, who had consistently broken through stages of the foundational realm, and he even reached the peak. Why would he be upset about that?
However, she decided to pay it no mind as Will would likely not tell her even if she asked. What she didn't know at this moment, however, was that every emotion she felt was getting stronger, and that Will could now keenly sense her confusion which seemed to flood out of her. The cut on her face had not yet healed even though she had taken a healing pill. However, she paid it no mind as she figured it was the spiritual power from the blade which she had thought cut her that was preventing her from healing. However, she did not know that a small amount of the cut had now converted to red crystal and was slowly growing with every passing moment.
This ruby was the result of Will's wing cutting her face. However, neither her nor Will knew that this was happening.
After reaching the peak of the foundational realm, Will had met a bottleneck, and he could no longer go any further. Because of this, he decided to call Old Man Dai over to ask for some martial techniques.
Old Man Dai then gave him a few techniques. However, these techniques all required the user to be in the spirit realm. However, Old Man Dai did not know that Will had met a bottleneck, so he gave him these techniques, figuring that Will would reach the spirit realm soon.
Despite these techniques being at the spirit realm requirement, Will still accepted them and decided to study them.
The spirit realm was the realm in which you would form inner breath, which came in the form of strands. Because of this, some people referred to the stages of the spirit realm as the strands of the spirit realm. In total, there were six stages to the spirit realm, and each additional stage would add on one more strand of inner breath into the cultivator's body.
The techniques used the strands of inner breath and directed them out of the body and formed flames out of them. After all, this was the Scorching Sun kingdom, which focused entirely on the path of fire.
Alas, Will was stuck at the peak of the foundational realm and could not progress any further in a short period of time.