1 year later…
Silver opened his eyes after reading endless amount of texts during his first year. His Ancient Bookworm and Eternal Soul Refinement skills reached new heights as he continued to use it. From hundreds of books to being able to read hundred thousands of books at a time and categorize it mentally.
"So far, I've read 20% of the library…" mumbled Silver.
Silver had awaken 3 times during the first year. Each time he awaken, he immediately made use of the new knowledge and begin consolidating his foundation. Biding his time to steadily and slowly reach each stage and realm.
Currently he reached late-stage Earth Origin, half a step into reaching early-stage Star Origin. He closed his eyes again, focused in cycling his qi to tackle the next breakthrough point. Building his qi, he fervently smashed against the barrier hindering his next advancement.
From what he could gather, once one is ready to advance to Star Origin you must condense your dantian and then skillfully implode it into the [Starry Sea]. One must of have a constant stream of qi to continuously expand it, then condense and repeat. The process itself was dangerous as those who died from reaching Star Origin innumerable. Most would stay in the Earth Origin for years before attempting it while others gave up and stayed stuck there forever.
Such is the path of cultivation. One must take risks to progress to the next stage or realm. In his old world, it was quite easy to reach the next realm as they weren't as complicated. But here, in this world, it was complicated to raise one cultivation after reaching late-stage Earth Origin.
Where other has failed, he shall surpass them.
Silver continued to repeat the process of condensing his dantian to the size of a grain of rice and then expanding it into the size of an orange. With the a constant supply if void qi, he was able to condense his dantian 13 times.
Once he manage to shrink it to the size of an pit of a peach the 13th time, Silver began struggling to condense it. With each time he condensed it by a strand of hair, his dantian would emit a rumbling sound. He struggle a bit more to and it finally shrunk to the size of an apple seed.
From there, his body began to shake violently as the void qi was trying to explode but he continued to condense his dantian. Silver was covered in sweat as he was close to reaching the size of a grain of rice. Once he got there, he tried to shrink it further and continuously supplying it with void qi. If he lost control, the devastation that it could cause is akin to the explosion of at least 2 hydrogen bombs*. That's why many powerful cultivator would who guided disciples into breaking through to the Star Origin would use hundreds of protective arrays around them.
Silver kept condensing his dantian with absolute focus, almost reaching the molecular level.
Unknown to him, a being hidden within the void of the library had always kept an eye on him. Because of Silver's low cultivation, he couldn't sense the hidden void above the tablet he was sitting under. Yet, it didn't matter at this time as he was too focused in breaking through to the next realm.
Steadily condensing his dantian, a random surge of void qi entered it before he could notice. He lost focus for a second, startled by the random surge of qi. Unable to stop the surge of qi, Silver stabilized himself once more and began forcefully condensing the apple size dantian.
'I have no idea why this is happening. It doesn't say it in the texts or maybe it's because it's a different qi,' thought Silver trying to maintain his focus.
He would of never thought that something was trying to mess with his breakthrough.
Silver's body was drenched in sweat as he tried his best to condense and keep his dantian tamed. The being that lurked in the void continued to observe, eyeing Silver's dantian. It had purposely expanded to see what this human would do.
If the human cleared through this small obstacle, it would help him. But if Silver didn't, the being would send the human through the void to explode. Luckily, Silver maintained his calm at the last moment.
As if the heaven chose to help him, Silver finally condensed it to the utmost of his ability. Cracks began to spread across the surface of his dantian. In between each cracks, a golden light shone through as it continue to suck in the other shell of the dantian. Soon the outer shell ceased to exist as the shining golden light dimmed into the empty darkness along with it.
Silver could see an emptiness, devoid of the dantian once there. But he didn't feel sad or frustrated but a strength emanating from the void in his body. A tiny flickering light like the flames of a candle faintly appeared. A light pulse of qi emitted from the flickering light as it steadily grew brighter.
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As if he watching the creation of the universe, a light shattered with a powerful bang. Silver kept watching as the light finally faded, he saw a sea of stars where his dantian once was. He finally broke through to early-stage Star Origin but it didn't stop there. His starry sea continue to expand to mid-stage Star Origin, late-stage Star Origin, early-stage Nova Origin, mid-stage.., late-stage Nova Origin, and finally stopped at early-stage Null Origin.
If the being that was hidden in the void hadn't interfered, Silver would of stopped at early-stage Nova Origin. Even so, the hidden being, was still surprised by the sudden leap in cultivation realm.
If Old Yam and Starfinder saw him breaking through and skipping two realms so easily, they would hide in embarrassment. It took them a hundred years from Earth Origin to reach early-stage Null Origin, but here Silver did it in a little over a year.
After breaking through to early-stage Null Origin, Silver felt startled and noticed a huge change in his body. Within the depths of his starry sea of, a small mark was being formed at the center. He couldn't make out the shape of the mark since it was blurry but felt it was related to the King Realm.
He stood up and immediately began practicing his skills. Surges of immense strength course through his body from the blurry mark. This power couldn't be compared to his old self! His body was tyrannically powerful. Even if an evolved ranked attacked him, they wouldn't even put a scratch on his skin. He was sure those under the King Realm could not even faze him!
The being hidden within the void felt interesting with Silver. It could feel that this human was similar to it in many ways.
Silver stopped practicing when he realized a strong ripple in space was being emitted above him. Staring up, a huge shadow loomed above him as the mysterious being slowly emerged from its void.
Appeared before him was a colossal black dragon* floating before him. The dragon was almost 15,000 meters* long but compared to the size of the library, it was only a 18th of it. Silver had seen experience many things, so facing a dragon of this size didn't bother him. But no matter what, he couldn't see through this dragon's cultivation at all. It's as if it doesn't exist in this world's plane.
"You're the first human who maintain their calm heart after seeing me," praised the colossal black dragon.
"How far have you read in this library?"
"I've read about 20%. Give or take," replied Silver unsure of what to do.
Even though he was calm, it was still odd to face a legendary existence like the black dragon already.
The black dragon felt inwardly shocked after hearing Silver's answer. Of all the cultivators who came here to attain some form of enlightenment could barely reach .02 percent. That was the highest achieved given 10 years of seclusion within the library to boot!
"Human, what is your name?"
"I am Silver."
"A very plain name, it seems."
Silver's eyebrow twitched for a split second.
'Simple your mother!'
His name reigned terror and recognition from both foes and allies. It was hard to think that his name was just simple! It was unique and given by his master since he was an orphan baby.
"Hmmm, it seems I hit a nerve? Quite the odd human you are, fretting over an opinion of your name. No matter, I wish to make a bet with you."
"What kind of bet?" inquired Silver sighing inwardly.
"If you can read 100% of this library within the remaining years here, I will give something to further your cultivation path in return."
"I will only agree if you tell me your name."
"I am Lord Baruch of the [Void Race]!"
"[Void Race]? But aren't you a black dragon?"
"Yes. I may appear as a black dragon but I was born from the void. I already had this appearance since I was born."
Silver felt more puzzled by the background of the Isle of Wisdom and Lord Baruch. He had never heard of these terms before. It seems like ever since he reincarnated and cultivated the [Chaotic Void Skill], his encounters had become equally strange. He didn't even know where to start with his questions.
"Do not bother with your questions. You would understand everything about us [Void Race] from within this library. Only those who can read 100% will be able to grasp the mysteries of this Temple of Knowledge," Lord Baruch pointed out as he noticed Silver's expressions.
"I can tell that you can cultivate void qi like us. For reaching 20% within a year, I will impart a skill of mine to you."
Silver stood still, accepting the skill imparted by Lord Baruch as they placed the very tip of their tail against his forehead. Streams of information appeared, imprinting itself into his mind and soul. The skill Lord Baruch imparted was called [Myriad Avatar Technique].
A rare technique that allowed the cultivator to create millions of avatars once they reached the highest realm. Starting from the Star Origin, they could create one avatar that could live for about 20 years. Once they reached Nova Origin, the avatar lifespan will increase by 100 years. Then after they reached Null Origin, the avatar lifespan will reach a thousand years and allow the individual soul and mind to transfer over if their main body were to be destroyed.
Whatever the avatar learns, vice-versa, the cultivator will naturally learn it too. They can even fuse with their avatar to become stronger after cultivating the avatar to a suitable realm!
When breaking through to the King's Realm, the technique will go under a qualitative change. The technique will allow them to create more avatars as much as they want. The true downside of the [Myriad Avatar Technique], one must have a powerful soul, since the technique takes piece of your soul to form the avatar and they will always start at zero!
Lord Baruch felt startled once more as he watched Silver go into the state of enlightenment after imparting his technique. Silently chuckling in his heart, he sent Silver into the void to cultivate. One would learn that thousands of years can pass in the void but only a minute would pass in the world Silver reincarnated in.
In this way, Silver truly struck mountain of treasures ever since he joined the Floating Cloud Sect.
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Black Dragon* - eastern style dragon but all black (wingless)