After a day most disciples had left, only a handful had amassed enough wealth to stay in the dragons den just a day longer
As Kei was cultivating he noticed many disciples breakthrough and reach higher realms, it was much easier to breakthrough for them since they were in lower realms than Kei. Some even broke though to foundation establishment so they had to rush outside and defend against the heavenly tribulation
None of Kei's friends had broken through, they were in the golden core realm after all and it had only been a day
Kei decided to focus on his cultivation for now, he felt that his soul would reach Rank 5 soon
On the start of the third day Kei finally felt his soul strength needing to power up
'I'll step inside my divine sea one more time.'
As he went inside the space that housed his soul(in soul form)
He started practicing the soul expansion technique once again. Right then, a giant black cube appeared over Kei
~crccth~
And it crushed him
"GGAAAAAAHAHAHHH OUCHHH!"
His soul body quickly reformed but the pain didn't leave him
"Damn this soul technique."
The cube disappeared and materialised again above Keisuke
~crrrrrutctsh~
Each time Kei was crushed his soul reformed just a little bit stronger
*Half a day later
Kei had been crushed thousands of times, the cube changing little by little every single time he was crushed as Kei's soul was getting stronger
Kei dejected, now questioned the cubes' appearance
It was black and with each time Kei was crushed another small speck of white was added onto the cube
"Could this be a representation of my own soul?"
And finally
~CcCrRrrTchh~
The cube fell on Kei one more time,
But the cube didn't move
~crack~
Cracks were forming on the bottom of the cube and Golden light gushed forth from below the cube
"HA HA AH AH HA! FINA-LLY!"
The cube was slowly being pushed up, revealing Keisuke's Golden figure.
After a little bit of struggling Kei was holding the giant cube above his head
"HUP!"
Kei threw the cube straight up
but it didn't go far up, immediately starting to fall to the ground towards Kei once more
"TAKE THIS! SERIOUSLY STRONG SOUL PUNCH! HAAAAA!"
Kei focused all his strength in his right arm and punched the cube with all his might
~THUD~
for a second it felt like time had stopped
~CRACK CRIKC CRAK CRKAKMKAKK~
The cube crack everywhere and it broke down to pieces
"Hufff, that's what you get damn Cube."
~Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud~
The cube was now scattered all around Keisuke's divine sea
But then it started slowly getting absorbed by the divine sea
"So it really was a representation of my soul."
Kei looked at himself, his soul form had gone from light blue to Gold
Kei had really managed to reach Soul Rank 5
"I guess I broke through... Haaaah. I have a long way to go."
Kei looked up at the sky of his divine sea with longing eyes
"Well then, I should check the situation outside"
Keisuke got out of his divine sea and used his divine consciousness to probe his surroundings as he cultivated
By now no other disciples were inside of the dragons den except for Yang Ming, Da Zhan, Zhan Liu and of course Kei
'HOLD ON!'
Kei was surprised
'Ha! To think that both of them would start breaking through! I'm going to be left behind!'
Kei had a smile on his face
Both Yang Ming and Zhan Liu had started breaking through to golden core Late stages
'I can't let them get ahead of me now can I?'
Now that Kei reached Rank 5 some of the pressure he was feeling was now lifted
So Kei got up
~Step~
And stepped closer to the middle
~Step~
He wouldn't let them get ahead of him
~Step~
Soon he was close to Da Zhan
'This will do for now.'
Keisuke plopped his ass down and started cultivating, he had no time to focus on others so he only focused on his own cultivation
Many days later
On the start of the 7th day
Keisuke was vacuuming in Qi rapidly and the winds produced by him were turbulent, he was on the verge of breaking through, just like Yang Ming and Zhan Liu had been
At this point Kei had no other thought other than focusing on his breakthrough, he was determined to breakthrough today
And so, half a day later Qi gathered around and above Kei and hurriedly went inside of him
~Boom!~
With a loud boom and a wave of Qi, Keisuke had broken through to Golden core Late stage
Kei opened his eyes
"To think I'd breakthrough this easily... Even when it took me so much time just to reach golden core... Did that really have to do with impurities in my body?"
Kei looked around only to find out that he was alone
"So everyone's time limit is already up? I wonder if those two managed to break through..."
"..!"
Suddenly Kei felt something under the sea of condensed Qi
It was right under the middle of this sea
"What is..."
Kei got up and stepped on the middle of the lake, as he had broken through and became much stronger, stepping in the middle of the lake wasn't a problem anymore, Kei used his devine sense to probe under the condensed Qi
"Is that... A fire?" Keisuke understood right away that he had to acquire that fire
Thankfully it wasn't that deep beneath the surface
But nonetheless, he would have to dive
"Could it be that it felt my presence and came to me as it felt me breaking through? Well, whatever the case I have to get it!"
Kei swiftly submerges himself in the lake and swims towards the flame
'This is much thicker than I thought'
Not only was the viscosity high but so was the pressure, it had much higher pressures than outside, but it was fine since he wasn't here to stay and cultivate, Kei's goal is more of a hit and run
'ugh!..'
As Keisuke was nearing the flame the crushing pressure was getting more and more unbearable
Kei reached towards the flame with his hand and it was getting crushed by the pressure
And blood came out from his finger tips, but he pushed on
Kei had almost reached the fire, he just needed to go just a little further
He bit his lip
'I WON'T WASTE THIS LUCKY ENCOUNTER!'
and with a push he finally caught it
'YES!'
and swiftly got out from the condensed sea of Qi
"GAASPP! I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!"
Kei took a look at the fire on his hand
"AAAAA I'M GOING TO GET BURNED!"
and threw the fire to the ground in a panic
But he looked at his hand
'What.?'
It hadn't been burnt, in fact, it was healed instead
Kei looked at the fire as it was dancing on the ground
"You... Have you gained spirituality?"
*to be continued