Two of the three eye sockets of Sal's skull weren't empty.
They were filled with his own eyes.
The third eye socket of his skull, however, was empty.
It resembled a bottomless pit, empty and dark.
At a glance, Sal's curiosity was ignited, and he wanted to probe inside, which could be easily made possible with his spiritual consciousness.
He willed his spiritual consciousness to change direction.
Under the influence of his will, his spiritual consciousness, which was moving towards his eyes, suddenly changed direction, surging towards his empty third eye socket like a small wave.
As he watched this, Sal's heart welled up with anticipation. He wondered what he would find after his spiritual consciousness entered inside.
However...
It never happened!
As if his spiritual consciousness had encountered a hidden barrier, it came to a stop right at the entrance of his third eye socket. His spiritual consciousness couldn't advance an inch into it.
"W-What the?"
Sal felt surprised seeing that he had failed to probe inside, but he was recognized as the strongest grandmaster of the 3000 World for a reason.
He quickly recovered from his shock and composed himself, thinking about why such a thing happened.
Not only was he intelligent, but he was also wise. Not many could rival his wisdom. Thus, in a matter of moments, he came to a conclusion.
'Although the skull of the Limitless has become one with me in both body and mind, I am too weak to explore its intricacies and properly utilize it.
'At the moment, my spiritual consciousness isn't strong enough to bypass its natural restriction.
'But once it's strengthened… I should be able to probe inside.'
Strengthening spiritual consciousness wasn't an easy task.
In his current situation, thinking about it was just a waste of time.
Thus, he moved on.
Although deeply interested in exploring the mysteries of the skull, he shifted his focus back to what he was doing before he was sidetracked.
Influenced by his will, his spiritual consciousness retreated from the entrance of his empty third eye socket and surged into his eyes.
As his spiritual consciousness poured into his eyes, the view of his surroundings changed.
Clusters of dots of varying sizes became visible to his eyes.
These dots are a mixture of black, grey, and white. Each dot represents a few to several units of spiritual energy. The bigger the dots are, the more units of spiritual energy they contain.
The grey in the dots represents parts of spiritual energy rich with impurities.
These parts are 50% impure and thus unsuitable for cultivation. After all, if the spiritual energy inside one's spiritual vessel was 50% impure, their strength would be 50-80% less than an introductory phase combatant whose spiritual vessel is filled with 90-99% pure spiritual energy.
The black represents parts of spiritual energy completely overrun by impurities.
If these were to be absorbed into the spiritual vessel, a slight surge in strength might be experienced, but the chances of falling sick would undoubtedly increase exponentially.
After all, the more impurities there are in the spiritual vessel, the higher the chance of suffering from illness. And a spiritual combatant's illness is not like a mortal's illness. Recovering from it requires special medication. So absorbing such tainted spiritual energy was definitely a no-go.
The white in the dots represents spiritual energy that was yet to be tainted with impurities. However, they were present in very minuscule amounts.
Typically, in a dot composed of three colors, only about 5% of the dot was white, indicating a small fraction of untainted spiritual energy amidst the predominantly impure energy.
These dots were everywhere to be found, signifying that spiritual energy was in abundance in this world.
"Harnessing such impure spiritual energy should lead to an early death for a spiritual combatant. But Big Joe is over 40 years old and at the second level of the introductory phase, yet he is still alive. The people of this world must have already developed spiritual energy purification manual," Sal concluded. 'The peak of the first step is the highest state achieved by the spiritual combatants of this world, but they are certainly not as ignorant about cultivation as I have thought.'
'I can't underestimate them.'
'But I don't need to be excessively wary.'
'A chick that has just hatched can't compared to a fully grown hen.'
Sal wasn't sure how effective their methods were, but he had no doubt that the effectiveness of their methods couldn't be compared to the purification effect of the Ancestral Breathing Technique, which was the second strongest low-level cultivation manual.
The Ancestral Breathing Technique was a compilation of a thousand breathing patterns that allowed one to harness and manipulate spiritual energy in various ways.
It could also be used to purify spiritual energy from impurities and harness it to enter the first realm of cultivation. However, immense concentration and strong efforts were required.
Time to cultivate!
Sal focused.
His breathing pattern changed.
If previously he was simply and effortlessly breathing from his nose, with his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, then now it felt as if his breathing carried a unique rhythm to it, one that closely mimicked the waves of the ocean at dawn.
Ancestral Breathing Technique, the first form, Breath of Purification, Detachment!
Swoosh!
A sharp gust of wind blew.
All the dots around Sal were broken down into even smaller parts as if a blade had passed through them.
Most parts were thick with impurities.
Some were thick with spiritual energy but still had impurities in small amount.
Only a rare few were free of all impurities, glowing with pure spiritual energy and only that.
Before these parts could be tainted by the impurities present in the air, Sal's breathing pattern changed again, resembling a Toe Tie opening its mouth to swallow the Sun and the Seas.
Ancestral Breathing Technique, the second form, Breath of Domination, Devour!
He opened his mouth and took a deep breath in after exhaling from his nose.
A great suction force was released from his mouth.
Under his expert control, this force only acted on those broken down part of spiritual energy that were entirely pure, pulling them towards himself.
In a blink of an eye, all the 100% purified spiritual energy present in his surroundings were sucked into his body where they accumulated into his spiritual vessel, bringing about a great change in Sal's state.
His status elevated from a mere mortal to a full-fledged level 1 introductory phase combatant!