The moment Guo Xingyue took the hit from the eighth lightning strike, his flying sword was knocked away, and the residual force of the lightning struck his chest with overwhelming force. The powerful lightning energy surged into his body, crashing through his meridians like a raging storm, causing countless meridians to rupture. When the lightning energy reached his dantian, the lightning ball within his nascent soul suddenly shrank. What had been a slowly rotating ball of lightning began to spin violently, Creates a powerful suction force that pulled in the invading lightning energy. Guo Xingyue heard a loud ringing in his ears and then lost consciousness.
At this moment, Guo Xingyue's meridians were shattered, and his consciousness was severely injured, plunging him into a deep slumber. After approximately a year of unconsciousness, Guo Xingyue's consciousness began to awaken from its dormant state, and he sensed that he was in a dark and confined space, with an eerie silence surrounding him. When he tried to mobilize his true essence, he realized he couldn't even muster a fraction of it.
For a cultivator, the consciousness usually resides in the mind, and it isn't until one reaches the Combined Body stage that the consciousness merges with the nascent soul. Guo Xingyue, still in the initial stage of Spirit Separation, had attained a level of consciousness equivalent to the late stage of Combined Body, but it remained confined to his mind and had not yet merged with his nascent soul. Given the complete rupture of his meridians, his consciousness had lost its connection to the nascent soul, rendering him unable to mobilize his true essence.
If it were anyone else in this predicament, they would likely be overwhelmed by loneliness, possibly leading to despair and ultimately losing their life. However, Guo Xingyue, being a trained assassin, had endured solitary conditions, so he found the isolation manageable.
With no way to mobilize his true essence, he couldn't cultivate, but Guo Xingyue refused to give in to fate. He repeatedly practiced the Zen Heart Technique taught to him by the old monk at the Shaolin Temple on Pangu Star. In this state of isolation, he was impervious to external stimuli, making it an ideal environment for cultivating the Buddhist practice of selflessness. His consciousness gradually grew stronger with this sustained practice.
After about two years, Guo Xingyue's consciousness had significantly surpassed that of an average cultivator. While still unable to mobilize his true essence, he could now extend his awareness to cover his entire body, making him acutely aware of everything happening within a radius of several hundred feet. He sensed the concern and worry of Ye Mingcheng's family for him, capturing every detail of their care. He noted how Ye Kai would come by daily to practice, silently keeping him company, which filled Guo Xingyue with gratitude.
Though Guo Xingyue possessed a powerful true essence, his meridians had suffered severe damage, with nearly every inch ruptured. Unable to utilize any of his true essence, he could only begin his recovery from the closest meridian to his dantian. After painstaking efforts over six months, he finally completed the restoration of the Shaoyang meridian. The subsequent repair process sped up significantly, and the other eight extraordinary meridians were finally restored by the time Ye Kai stepped out of the room.
While Guo Xingyue had completely repaired all his meridians, his true essence was depleted. He could barely move a finger or blink an eye, leaving him helpless. He attempted to call out to Ye Kai, hoping he could retrieve a Returning Essence Pill for him, but found he couldn't produce any sound and had to abandon that idea. Guo Xingyue chuckled to himself, realizing he was even more helpless than an infant, who at least had the ability to cry, while he lacked the strength to do so.
Since he couldn't receive external assistance, he resolved to rely on himself to restore his true essence. Fortunately, his meridians were repaired, allowing him to focus on recovering some true essence so he could retrieve the Returning Essence Pill from his storage ring. Guo Xingyue attempted to channel the last bit of true essence remaining in his nascent soul, beginning to circulate it through his meridians.
As his true essence flowed, it gradually intensified, starting as a drop of water before transforming into a trickling stream, and then into a rushing river. The nascent soul benefited from this influx of true essence, allowing it to recover gradually. At that moment, the lightning ball in the dantian began to rotate rapidly, creating a powerful suction force that drew in the surrounding spiritual energy from the earth, which quickly gathered around Guo Xingyue, forming a misty cloud.
This phenomenon caught the attention of the disciples of the Golden Stone Sect. The elders, including Dongxu, rushed toward Ye Mingcheng's home.
Guo Xingyue slowly sat up, realizing he was presented with a rare opportunity. He focused intently, entering into a deep state of cultivation. The dense spiritual energy continuously surged into his body from the spiritual veins, and as it passed through his nascent soul, it transformed into true essence, joining the flow within his body. The once modest stream of true essence expanded into a mighty river, circulating throughout Guo Xingyue's body. With each cycle, he compressed the essence further, refining its density continuously.