A few days later, a few hours after the sun had set.
While Kaelen was in the final sprint towards his breakthrough, a giant black bear approached from a distance.
The bear was incredibly large, towering over most trees as it slowly walked closer and closer to the area where Kaelen cultivated. Unlike the previous beast, there was a high degree of spirituality that could be seen in its blood-red eyes. The bear surveyed the surroundings while it walked. It may have sensed the disappearing presence of the purple spider and decided to claim this part of the territory for itself.
Kaelen, who was completely immersed in a state of cultivation, did not notice the new arrival. However, the Golden-eyed Shadow Leopard had sensed the bear a moment ago and had taken a 'crouching tiger' stance as it glared at the great beast.
The bear soon stood less than ten meters away from the leopard and twenty meters away from Kaelen. Despite being on all fours, the bear easily towered over the leopard; it is widely known that leopards are one of the smallest of the 'big cats' family, while the bear is often larger than lions and even tigers, who are the biggest cats. These differences are not just accounted for among their mortal variations but also in their variant or monster beast forms. While size wasn't everything, for two very physical beasts, the leopard was at a disadvantage from a strength and reach perspective. Not to mention, the aura the bear released was significantly stronger than its own. Meaning it had probably reached Innate Spirit. If the two fought, the fight would not last more than a dozen minutes, and that's a compliment on the leopard's side, since its shadow abilities made it harder to deal with than even higher-ranked earthly beasts of the same realm.
"Crack… crack." While the Golden-eyed Shadow leopard eyed the giant bear, noises of tree branches snapping erupted from its left side. Another large shadow lightly walked towards them at a steady pace.
It had long, gorgeous grayish-white fur, a pointed dog-like face that stretched downwards, and the purest, purple eyes imbued with an incredible glint of consciousness that denoted its intelligence. An indescribable aura was released by this beast, as the void around it trembled slightly. Besides it, a tall, godly form walked. She marched, adorning a light silver gown that reflected her river-like, dark amethyst-colored hair. An indescribable beauty, matched with an even more indescribable aura of mystic and nobility. Her steps could barely be heard; she walked on the grass and ground; her dainty feet bare. She stood by the beautiful beast, forming a forming a mystical sight.
If Kaelen could see who it was, he would be completely shocked, because this was the girl he had seen on the moon. Now here she was, on the ground.
The tall girl looked at the bear that stood in front of the leopard and then turned her face to look at the young boy that cultivated peacefully on the ground, a majestic and tyrannical crimson-bronze aura covering his figure. A perceptible glint flashed in her gorgeous eyes while she peered at the extraordinarily handsome boy with deep interest.
At the sight of those two, the giant black bear and the golden-eyed leopard both froze in terror. Their empowered beastly instincts told them that these were creatures that could end their lives in an instant.
The girl furrowed her small brows, apparently thinking, her thoughtful expression coupled with her beauty forming a picturesque scene. Then, with a resolute expression, she lifted her hands and pointed towards the bear. A silvery purple light condensed at the tip of her index finger. She tapped gently, and the light flew at high speed towards the bear.
It collided with its fur and quickly expanded into a silverish-purple light cover that encased the bear.
Afterwards, the tall beauty glanced at the terrified leopard and smiled lightly at it. Her smile had an incredible charm that soothed any that may be lucky enough to gaze upon it. The terrified cat actually felt its heartbeat relax and its tensed up muscles loosen as it observed the smiling woman.
She nodded with a satisfied smirk, and then turned around to disappear. The silver-furred beast following alongside her.
A few moments after they disappeared, the bear that was still covered in the radiant purple light tried to move when it sensed their presence gone. It soon realized that it could not move an inch; its entire body frozen in space by the moon-like aura.
The leopard, which had turned back to glare at it, noticed the situation, but it dared not try to pounce at the bear, for it may actually release it from its shackles. It waited patiently for the boy to end his cultivation.
A few hours later, a 'cling' noise sounded from Kaelen's side.
He subsequently opened his eyes, but slowly, revealing his gorgeous amber eyes, with mysterious red luster flashing deep in his pupils.
"Finally, I've broken through," he mumbled, "that took me less time than expected; only three days. My brain has been thoroughly refined, becoming more resistant and improving its structure, thus improving my cognitive abilities. Even my eyesight and senses seemed to have improved significantly. Also..." An indescribable peace and clarity submerged Kaelen as he tasted the fruits of his breakthrough.
He noticed a clear improvement in all that required the mind's activation, which was almost every action and faculty, except the few autonomous ones like breathing. His ability to perceive objects and distinguish them at high distances has improved, obviously noticing the giant black bear that stood frozen in front. He could hear slightly better, clearly hearing the noise of ants crawling dozens of meters away. The most improvement definitely came from his mental capacity, however; his ability to focus and think was now much more advanced. He felt his understanding of the True Heart Sutra improve just by thinking about the mnemonics tied to its cultivation method. Closing his eyes, he began mouthing them. Inside his mind space, a vast yellow and an even vaster crimson sky had now appeared; it was his sea of knowledge. It normally opened when breaking through the Innate Spirit Realm, but in refining his brain thoroughly, he opened his sea of consciousness much earlier. Inside the space, mysterious bronze Buddhists like characters accompanied by a heart-calming sound emerged from the sea and floated about the crimson sky.
Hundreds of characters danced in the mind void and began clumping together into a heart shape. The rough edges from the characters' outlines began smoothing out whilst Kaelen mumbled the mnemonics and mantra associated with the True Heart sutra. Eventually, a perfectly shaped heart was formed. Immediately after, the bronze heart shed its bronze color into a silver color, entering the next stage.
Inside his heart space, the bronze spear resonated with the silver heart inside his sea of knowledge. It spun in place at high speed, forming a hazy bronze spiral. While it spun, the bronze color slowly disappeared, leaving space for a new, silver sheen.
After a few moments, a metallic 'pang' resounded both in his heart and mind, as his Heart spirit reached the next stage.
"Sweet, refining my brain actually greatly increased the speed at which I cultivate the True Heart Sutra. It's understandable since it's an enlightenment-based art, requiring an absurd level of comprehension. There are about a million different characters associated with the mantra. Upon understanding all of them, my heart spirit will reach the final level. I currently only understand around a thousand, which is the threshold for the silver grade, then ten thousand for gold, hundred thousand for black gold, and a million for the last stage, Diamond Heart spirit. Plus, upon entering the gold stage and above, each breakthrough comes with a new ability. The ability is formed from enlightenment induced by the breakthroughs, so each person will have a different new ability depending on their enlightenment." Kaelen excitedly said. He opened his eyes and stood up from the ground.
If someone heard him, they would be absolutely shocked; guaranteed enlightenment induced from cultivating? That shouldn't be possible, at all. It must be said most cultivators spend their lives never attaining enlightenment. This doesn't mean they won't have moments of sudden clarity, but that and enlightenment are two completely different concepts. Moments of clarity, as they are called, are moments within which a cultivator suddenly makes a breakthrough on something that had caused him to stagnate. It may be his cultivation realm, technique, martial art, law, concept comprehension or learning a divine ability. He may break through a small stage or even go from the peak of a major stage onto the next one, like Kaelen just did going from the bronze heart spirit to the silver spirit. However, although enlightenment does bring an increase like that, it goes much, much deeper. Sudden enlightenment can help him drastically break through, and not only that but build a foundation that may have taken him years to build, thus making his road much easier in the future. For example, upon gaining enlightenment in the concept of fire, the cultivator will have a much easier road towards complete understanding of the concept. While the Moment of clarity would only help him understand the next level, with no long-lasting boost for the following levels. And if one was lucky, he may gain a powerful ability while in enlightenment, which wasn't possible in moments of clarity.
The moment he stood up, Kaelen looked at the frozen bear, confused. "That's… the Blood-eyed Berserk Bear, ranked seventieth in the Earthly beast top hundred list. It seems to have reached the Innate Spirit level, but why is there a purple light around it, halting its movements?" He turned to the black leopard for answers. The latter simply looked in a direction, causing Kaelen to follow its gaze. Only, there was nothing to see. Yet, Kaelen could more or less guess what it meant. The moon-like aura that covers the giant bear was definitely not placed by it, or the bear itself, so someone else must have frozen the beast to allow him to breakthrough. He could also tell it wasn't his master because it was a completely different aura. It seemed… Kaelen thought for a moment as he came to a conclusion.
He bowed in the direction the leopard pointed at. "Senior, if you can see and hear me, thank you for helping me, but now that I have finished breakthrough, you can release the beast from its shackles; I can take care of it myself." He respectfully said, shouting.
A moment of silence followed his voice.
He patiently waited for an answer or something to happen. Seeing nothing happening he was about to turn back when a purple, moon-like light flashed from behind and soared in the sky, disappearing.
He turned to see the bear was now unshackled. He turned again to bow, then walked back to his cultivating place and took the Blood-Swallowing Spear on the ground.
"Alright. Let's have some fun, you and me." Releasing a devious grin, Kaelen lifted his head to look at the hill-sized bear. He wielded his spear and spun it beautifully a few times before slamming it on the ground and taking a ready stance.
"Grr, Human, you have chosen death, threading within this mountain with your lacking cultivation. But to think you would defeat that ugly spider; I sense a powerful blood energy from you. An energy that will allow me to grow and maybe evolve; as such, today is the day you become my meal." It actually spoke for the first time, as Kaelen heard a rough voice inside his head.
"It can speak!? No, it sent a telepathic message with its divine sense; an ability you gain at Innate Spirit, and because I opened my sea of Knowledge, I can hear him." Kaelen quickly understood what was happening.
When a cultivator reaches Innate Spirit, they open their sea of knowledge and gain access to divine sense, a mysterious power of will that helps control one's mental powers and spirit energy, a spiritual form of energy than required the opening of the sea of knowledge to control it. Every individual has a specific innate quantity of spirit energy; it is the sea inside their mind space. Obviously, Kaelen's innate spirit qi was unfathomably high. However, one needed a powerful divine sense in order to control spirit energy, thus a cultivator would slowly gain the ability to use an increased amount of his innate spiritual qi as his divine sense became stronger.
"This is neat, that means I'll be able to communicate with the shadow cat after it breaks through the Innate Spirit realm." Kaelen rejoiced at this discovery. 'Shadow cat' is how he called his leopard companion.
"I will become your meal, you say. It is not yet sure if I'm the prey and you're the hunter, you dumb beast; You have eyes but cannot distuinguidh the firefly from the sun. Come, show me what you got." Snorting, Kaelen held his spear with one hand and taunted the bear to approach with the other.
"Grrrrr, you shall feel my wrath, puny human." The great bear growled loudly; a dark red aura formed around its body as its red eyes blazed with deep fury. It ran towards the small human figure in a rampant fashion, crushing the trees around it, the ground trembling in its path.
"Shut up and taste my spear. Heaven-Ending Stance, first move, thrust of annihilation." A loud explosion resounded as a crimson-silver aura blazed around Kaelen's figure. The crimson aura exuded an aura of sovereign tyranny and destruction, while the silver aura shone with a calming blaze and an extreme piercing intent. The dual colored energy quickly condensed into his spear, making it shine brightly, the space around it undulating slightly as apparent lines rippled as a result of the intense aura.