“You know,” Aurora said, her head poking out of my shoulder. “I expected something…less. This place is actually pretty nice.”
I nodded my head in agreement. The meditation chambers for the members of Clan Sturm were quite beautiful. There were three of them, and they were all built from a special material called Black Fulgurite. As the name suggested, it was a type of black stone laced with gold-like veins. It was created when powerful Lightning magic struck Blackstone, which was a mid-grade material similar to sandstone.
What made it interesting was that Black Fulgurite could only occur when natural Lightning magic struck Blackstone. It could not be created artificially. Due to its strong affinity with Lightning, plenty of people had tried, though none had succeeded as far as I knew.
The Tower of Magic was still conducting experiments in order to create Black Fulgurite, to no avail. Given my family’s elemental affinities, we were quite interested in the results of those experiments.
The walls and the floor were made from Black Fulgurite. The ceiling, on the other hand, was created from enchanted glass. This allowed the occupants of the meditation to see the sky while still keeping them separate from the world. At the moment, it was still cloudy and overcast outside.
In addition to the Black Fulgurite, there were clusters of Humming Crystals. They were tiny crystals that emitted a faint hum that was pleasing to the ear. They were also a high-grade material with a strong affinity for Air.
An intricate mana gathering magic circle, which incorporated mana crystals, was carved into the floor. It looked far more complex than any magic circle I had ever seen before. The amount of mana it drew was staggering. From what I understood, this magic circle synergized with the ones carved into the other two meditation chambers. Together, the three magic circles were more powerful than they would have been on their own.
In short, the meditation chamber was beautiful and filled with Air and Lightning mana. For someone like me, it was the perfect place to go into seclusion. The chamber was also warm and comfortable, since there were also magic circles in place to regulate the temperature. There were also magic circles in place to block out sounds, so the chamber’s occupants could cultivate and/or form threads in peace.
It was the day after my conversation with Mother and the others. After talking with Leroy, I finished with my preparations and headed to the meditation tower after a good night’s sleep. Not that there was much that I needed to prepare. I just had Sky’s Dream, the clothes on my back, and a bag full of pills.
Most of them were food pills, special rations cultivators ate so they wouldn’t starve while training or cultivating in seclusion. However, one of the pills was a Foundation Building Pill. This pill, and others like it, were used to help cultivators break through to the Foundation Establishment stage by giving them a big burst of energy. Given the amount of mana in the meditation chamber, I didn’t think that I would need it, but it was good to have on hand just in case.
A comfortable looking cushion sat in the middle of the mana gathering circle. I walked over and plopped myself on the cushion.
“All right,” I said out loud. “For the next several weeks, you and I are going to focus on completing the divine storm dragon core. Once we’re done with that, I’ll break through to the Foundation Establishment stage and then we can leave.”
Aurora flew out of my shoulder and floated in the air in front of me.
“How is secluding yourself in here going to make things go by faster?” she asked. “We can only work on the divine storm dragon core once a week. We’ll burn ourselves out otherwise.”
“By embedding the divine storm dragon core directly into my soul,” I announced.
Aurora stared at me for several long seconds.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It sounded like you wanted to insert the dragon core into your soul. Do I have that right?”
“Yes, you have that right.”
Aurora stared at me for several more seconds, before she grabbed my face with her front claws.
“Ga-bri-el,” she said, enunciating each syllable of my name. “That sounds like a stupid and dangerous idea.”
“Dangerous? Yes. Stupid? No. It’s the fastest way to form the divine storm dragon core. My soul will continue to nourish it, even when we’re not actively forming it.” I tilted my head from side to side. “The downside is that we’ll both need to keep watch over it, to prevent anything serious from happening. That’s why I wanted to go into seclusion, so we don’t get distracted.”
This was only possible because we had crossed a threshold when creating the divine storm dragon core. It had reached the point that if I left it alone in my dantian, and let my mana nourish it, the core would form…some time within the next few centuries. Embedding it into my soul, and working on it from time to time, would speed things up.
“‘Anything serious?’” Aurora said. “You mean like permanently damaging your soul? That kind of serious?”
“Well, yes.”
Aurora gave me a flat look.
“This is a terrible idea,” she said.
“It’s a bit risky,” I admitted. “But as long as we both remain vigilant, it’ll be fine.”
“I don’t trust your definition of fine, Gabriel. Your middle name might as well be ‘reckless’ instead of Alexander.”
I rolled my eyes and gave her an exasperated look.
“Do you have any better ideas?” I asked.
“Yes! Be patient! What’s the rush? It’s not like we need to form the divine storm dragon core right away. We can afford to take our time with this. Why are you in a hurry to enter the Foundation Establishment stage anyway? We’re not on a time limit.”
I raised an eyebrow at my familiar.
“As I recall, you were also in a hurry to become stronger as soon as possible, so we would stop getting picked on by people more powerful than us. Remember when we met Shattering Thunder?”
“I mean, yeah,” Aurora said. “But I didn’t think we’d be in this much of a rush.”
“Besides,” I said, frowning. “Call it a gut feeling, but my intuition is telling me that the faster we build our strength, the better. Something is brewing, and we don’t want to be caught unprepared.”
Aurora fell silent at that.
My soul was sensitive to the currents of fate. While I wasn’t as in tune with them like a seer or an oracle or a fortune teller would be, my intuition told me that something big was brewing. I needed to become stronger if I wanted to face it. Aurora, as a former divine being herself, must have felt the same way.
“Fine,” Aurora said after a while. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Your warning is duly noted. Now then, let’s begin.”
Aurora nodded, before diving into my dantian again. I performed some breathing exercises and sank deep into a meditative trance. Soon, I focused all of my attention inward and gazed at the ocean of mana that was my dantian.
As Aurora and I formed the divine storm dragon core, it had gradually changed the quality and color of my mana as it rested within my dantian. Now, instead of a whitish-violet color, it was closer to silvery blue and violet. It was the same silvery blue as Shattering Thunder’s scales.
My mana was also more draconic. Whenever I used any of my spells or techniques, they would all contain traces of draconic mana. While I knew something like this might happen, I hadn’t realized just how bad it would be. It turned out that the resonance between the storm dragon blood in my veins, my body cultivation technique, and the divine storm dragon core was stronger than I had anticipated, thanks to the drop of Shattering Thunder’s blood.
It had gotten to the point where even wizard spells that relied entirely on the ambient mana within the environment were also affected. This would just get worse when I finished the divine storm dragon core, so I decided not to bother hiding it. After conferring with Grandfather Gabe and Father, Mother and I decided to let some of the truth leak out, if and when it became a problem.
Our cover story was that a storm dragon sent by Tempest had blessed me, fixing my shattered Circles and imbuing me with a portion of its power. This would garner all sorts of attention, which I had wanted to avoid. However, hiding wasn’t feasible anymore, so it was better to just roll with the punches and move on.
The divine storm dragon core itself floated in the center of my dantian. It was dark red in the center, thanks to the drop of Shattering Thunder’s blood. However, the outer layers of the dragon core were silvery blue. They were dark nearer to the center, but grew lighter the further away they were from the drop of blood. The dragon core also glowed with power, and it absorbed my mana at a steady, if minuscule, rate.
I grabbed the dragon core with my divine energy, lifted it out of my dantian, and brought it to my soul. Aurora followed along.
‘When I put this inside my soul,’ I said to her. ‘I’ll need you to keep in constant contact with it, so you can provide it with a steady supply of your own energy.’
Aurora nodded and laid a claw on the dragon core, a serious expression on her face.
Before I began, I took a moment to compose myself. This was going to hurt.
I formed my divine energy into a blade, and stabbed my soul right in the center. Pain unlike anything I had ever felt before racked my entire being. It was like I had stabbed myself in the heart, which wasn’t far from the truth. My soul had endured a lot during my life as Immortal Celestial Thunder, but this was the first time I mutilated it myself like this.
The pain was so great that I felt like I would pass out. Somehow, I stayed conscious and kept going.
After I made a large enough incision, I wrenched it open. The pain from before paled in comparison to the pain I felt now. It was so great that I would have passed out if it hadn’t been for Aurora, who fed me a steady stream of her own power to keep me awake. She wore a pained expression on her face, but she didn’t try to stop me. For that, I was grateful.
After I opened the incision wide enough, I inserted the dragon core. While the insertion itself didn’t hurt, it felt uncomfortable. Even though the dragon core was made from my divine energy, it was still a foreign object. It didn’t help that my entire being continued to throb with pain. This would persist until we finished forming the dragon core and I healed the wound in my soul.
If I had known that it would be like this, Aurora said in an upset tone. I would have never agreed to this.
I gave her a mental grin to try and reassure her, though I wasn’t sure how well I succeeded. Given the amount of pain I was in, it felt more like I gave her a grimace instead.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘This is nothing. I’ve endured worse.’
That wasn’t a lie. The pain I felt from Celestial Hound’s betrayal hurt worse than this. After he stabbed me in the back, I-…
Huh.
I don’t remember what happened after that. There was just a large gap in my memory. By the time it picked up again, I was already Brandon Norwood. That was…concerning.
Knowing Celestial Hound, he wouldn’t have left things half-done. He would have destroyed my soul as he killed me, in order to prevent me from coming back to get vengeance. Yet, here I was. Why? I had been so busy that I hadn’t taken the time to consider the circumstances of my first death.
And I couldn’t consider them now. I needed to keep my attention focused on the divine storm dragon core, or I could end up permanently damaging my soul.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Just because you’ve endured worse, Aurora said. Doesn’t mean I enjoy seeing you in pain like this. Why are you kind to others, but ruthless to yourself?
‘I need to be,’ I said. ‘So I can become strong enough to protect everyone.’
Aurora didn’t respond right away.
You don’t need to take on every burden yourself, she said. It’s all right to rely on others. It pains me to see you treat yourself like this, and I’m sure the others would say the same if they could see you now.
That would be an understatement. Since all of my attention was focused on my soul, I had no idea what my body looked like at the moment. I must be a mess right now.
‘This pain is temporary,’ I said. ‘It is the price I must pay to do what must be done. I would endure it a thousand times over if it meant protecting my loved ones. Look at the core. My idea is working.’
And it was. The dragon core was absorbing my divine energy at a steady rate. Not enough to exhaust my soul, but enough to speed up the core’s formation. At this rate, it wouldn’t take long for us to finish. Aurora and I just needed to add a few more layers.
After some quick mental calculations, I estimated that it would take us five or so weeks to complete the divine storm dragon core. Add in another two to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and we would be out of here in seven or so weeks.
Not bad, by my reckoning.
----------------------------------------
The next five weeks were an exhausting, pain-filled ordeal. I spent every waking moment keeping an eye on the divine storm dragon core, making sure nothing happened to either it or my soul. Even a moment’s inattention could be disastrous, though thankfully nothing happened. There were a few close calls, such as when it looked like the divine storm dragon core might go out of control and explode, but Aurora and I handled it before it became a problem.
Other than a few blips, things went smoothly, with me providing the divine energy, and Aurora providing the storm dragon energy. Once a week, the two of us added more layers to the dragon core. As it grew more and more powerful, I could feel it thrumming in my soul. It was like the beating of a heart, but on a deeper, more primal level.
On occasion, I took breaks so I could eat and take quick naps. I had reached the Second Rank of my body cultivation technique, but I still had mortal needs. While I could ignore them for a time, I couldn’t ignore them indefinitely. During those moments, Aurora had to hold down the fort, so to speak. The food pills sustained my body, so I didn’t need to worry about that.
However, it wasn’t easy getting any sleep during this time, and the sleep I got wasn’t all that restful. The constant agony I felt from the divine storm dragon core in my soul made things more difficult. Even when I did fall asleep, I couldn’t stay asleep for long. The pain woke me up after a while. Not only that, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of the divine storm dragon core for too long.
The only reason why I could get any rest at all was because of Aurora. As a spirit, she needed to sleep far less than I did. While she enjoyed taking frequent naps in my dantian, lazy creature that she was, they weren’t necessary. Still, it wasn’t fair to leave everything on her shoulders, so I kept my breaks as brief as possible. This was my idea after all.
We received one small blessing during all of this. Aurora and I didn’t dream of the Stone Corridor once during these past five weeks. I assumed Master Tempest took pity on us, since we were already going through an ordeal. Putting us through another one would be the height of cruelty. I didn’t think I would be able to handle it, reincarnated Immortal or not.
However, that wasn’t to say that I didn’t dream at all. When I slept, I dreamed of my life as Immortal Celestial Thunder. They were snippets of my life back then, snapshots of a time long gone.
The first dream I had was of when I met Celestial Hound. Of course, he wasn’t called that back then. It was when I was…Hmm, I think I was seven or eight years old. I grew up on the streets of Burning Crest City, an ambitious name for a large town that was only famous because it was located near a hidden realm. Back then, every day was a struggle to survive. I stole, begged, and fought when I needed to.
Despite this, I somehow ended up as something of a bleeding heart. More often than not, I ended up giving away my food to the weaker and younger urchins. Sometimes they paid me back, but most of the time they just took the food and ran off. It amazed me that I managed to survive despite this massive flaw.
One day, I got into a fight with a skinny little dog over half of a roasted chicken that some wealthy merchant threw away. The little fucker almost took my fingers, but I won in the end. The dog ran away, but returned a few minutes later just as I was about to enjoy my prize. He looked at me with big sorrowful eyes, tail between his legs, and whined. The sound broke my heart.
Of course, with me being the sucker that I was, I gave him half of the chicken. The dog took it and ran off. I never expected to see him again after that, but to my surprise, he came back a few days later carrying an entire gourd in his mouth. I had no idea where he got it, but we split the gourd between us. It tasted terrible, since we couldn’t cook it, but food was food.
After that, the two of us were inseparable. I named the dog Mutt, due to his dubious parentage. We worked together to survive, though Mutt grew annoyed at my bleeding heart tendencies. He was always more intelligent than the other dogs, and he gave me a reproachful look whenever I gave my share of our earnings away.
I later learned that he had dog spirit beast blood running through his veins. This allowed him to cultivate as well when I started cultivating. After we both joined Sky Piercer Peak of the Blossoming Lotus Sect, I received the name Celestial Thunder while Mutt received the name Celestial Hound.
The funny thing was, I remembered Celestial Hound’s original name, but I couldn’t remember my own. Did I even have a name back then? I didn’t know. It was such a long time ago, and frankly, it didn’t matter to me. That name belonged to someone else, someone who spent his formative years suffering and struggling to survive.
No wonder I preferred being Gabriel Sturm. My life was much less shitty this time around.
----------------------------------------
After five weeks of constant agony, I opened my eyes and let out a groan.
“I am never doing that again,” I muttered out loud, before laying down on the floor. The Black Fulgurite felt warm to the touch, and my skin tingled wherever it made contact with the magical material.
I stared up at the glass ceiling. Unlike before, when I first entered the meditation chamber, the sky was clear. It was night. The stars glittered in the sky above me, and I caught a glimpse of the moon, though I didn’t know what phase it was in.
“You’re damn right we’re never doing that again,” Aurora said, flying out of my dantian. “The next time you come up with something this stupid, I’m slapping you across the face.”
She looked as exhausted as I felt. As a spirit, she always shone with an inner light, but at the moment, that light had dulled. Her head drooped as she hovered in the air in front of me. After flying in a circle above me, Aurora settled on top of my chest and curled up into a pile.
Not that I could say much. After checking myself out with my divine sense, I could definitely say that I looked a lot worse. The weeks of keeping a constant eye on the divine storm dragon core, weeks spent in constant pain, had taken their toll on me. I now looked thin and gaunt, instead of lean and toned. My skin was paler than normal. It also looked thinner, more fragile, as if the slightest touch would cause it to split. There were dark circles under my eyes; duffel bags rather than totes.
And that was just how I looked. I felt much worse. I was weak, weaker than I had ever been during this lifetime. My body ached all over, and exhaustion had seeped into my very bones. An emptiness filled me, something akin to hunger, but it went beyond the mere physical. Creating the divine storm dragon core had taken a lot out of me, and it would take me some time to recover. I needed to rest my body, mind, and soul.
Still, it was worth it. The now complete divine storm dragon core floated in the ocean of mana that was my dantian. It was bigger than before, and now glowed with power. As before, it was dark red in the center while the outer layers were silvery blue. However, its colors were deeper, richer than before. The dragon core had a vibrancy that it lacked before. It also radiated draconic mana. At this point, even if I didn’t incorporate the dragon core into my foundation, it had still permanently changed the quality of my mana.
Back on Spirit Earth, cultivators would have killed to get their hands on this dragon core, since it was made from the divine energy of a reincarnated Immortal and the storm dragon energy of a former divine being. Even if they couldn’t incorporate it into their foundation, they would still be able to consume the core and get a significant boost to their power. Hell, it would allow them to go up a large realm or two, depending on their circumstances.
“Now what?” Aurora asked in a tired voice.
“We sleep,” I said, my voice just as tired. “I’m too tired to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. If I tried, I would just make a mistake and harm myself. I might even end up permanently crippling my cultivation.”
The chances of that were low, but not zero. That wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
“I like the sound of that,” Aurora said with a yawn. “Going to sleep that is. Not you permanently crippling your cultivation.”
I just snorted at that, before closing my eyes and falling asleep.
----------------------------------------
Over the next week, Aurora and I spent our time resting, as my body regained its strength and the wound in my soul knitted itself together. Thankfully, the wound wasn’t too large, or it would have taken longer to heal.
I slept, using the cushion as a pillow, while Aurora remained curled up on top of me. Every time I woke up, I scarfed down a food pill before falling back asleep. Time passed by in a blur, and sometimes I had difficulty telling the difference between the waking world and the world of dreams.
When I opened my eyes on the seventh day, I knew that today was the day when I would begin breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage. While my body and my soul hadn’t completely recovered, they had recovered to the point where I was willing to take the risk.
“Aurora,” I said, looking at my familiar. “Wake up. Today’s the day.”
She didn’t respond and remained curled up on top of me.
“Wake up.”
I poked Aurora. She let out a grumble but remained asleep.
“I said, wake up!”
This time I gave her a little zap with my magic. Aurora yelped and flew into the air.
“I’m up!” she exclaimed, looking around in a slight panic before she glared at me. “Was that really necessary? You could have let me sleep in.”
“I could have,” I admitted. “But if I have to wake up early for this, so do you.”
By looking through the glass ceiling, I could tell that it was early morning, just after dawn.
“Jerk,” Aurora muttered, before diving into my body and entering my dantian.
I pulled out the Foundation Building Pill from my bag and set it beside me. Once I started my breakthrough, I wouldn’t be able to stop, so it was better to make preparations beforehand. I didn’t think I would need the Foundation Building Pill, but it was better to have it and not need it rather than the other way around.
I took some time to compose myself, sat atop the cushion, and closed my eyes. In moments, I fell into a meditative trance. The rest of the world faded away as I focused inward. The meditation chamber, time, the sky above. I lost awareness of everything, except my dantian and the mana that surrounded me.
On the inside, my dantian was an ocean of mana that glowed with silvery blue and violet light. In the center, Aurora hovered above the divine storm dragon core. It pulsed, as if in anticipation of what was to come, sending a ripple throughout my mana.
On the outside, Air and Lightning mana filled the meditation chamber. It was much thicker than it had been when I first entered. Since I hadn’t used it at all over the past six weeks, quite a lot had built up. In fact, there was so much mana in the air that I took in a little every time I breathed in.
Good. I was going to need it.
‘Ready?’ I asked Aurora.
My familiar nodded. Thanks to her time in the Stone Corridor, and some instruction from me, she knew what to do.
Without further ado, I began circulating my cultivation base and taking in the mana all around me. Right from the get go, I felt a pressure build up inside me. Since I was at the peak of the Energy Condensation stage, I couldn’t take in anymore mana. I would either break through, or risk severe damage to my cultivation base.
The wound in my soul ached, since it hadn’t healed all the way yet, but it was nothing compared to the pain from before.
At first, the ocean of mana that was my dantian was silent and still, like a tranquil lake. However, the moment I started taking in more mana, it began to bubble and boil, roil and writhe. It was as if there was a storm brewing right beneath the surface. It tossed the divine storm dragon core to and fro.
The pressure inside me continued to build as I took in more and more mana. It felt like I was pressing against a wall. No. That wasn’t quite right. Walls were rigid and unyielding. The barrier that blocked my path was firm, yes, but it was also somehow pliable at the same time. With just enough force and pressure, I would be able to break through it and reach the other side.
Aurora continued to hover above my dantian. Unlike the mana below her, she remained calm and tranquil, as if the storm brewing beneath her disturbed her not at all. She wouldn’t do anything until it was the right time to act.
I continued to take in mana, and the pressure inside me built and built, until it felt like I would burst from it. The mana in my dantian started to swirl like a maelstrom, with the divine storm dragon core at the epicenter. I was on the verge of breaking through the barrier. It stretched out, ready to snap at any moment now. I just needed a little bit more mana.
However, just as I reached this point, the mana in the meditation chamber ran it. I had taken it all in. The mana gathering formation continued to draw in more, but that would take time that I didn’t have.
I stood balanced on a knife’s edge, and I felt myself starting to fall. If I didn’t do anything, I would cut myself. Thankfully, I had prepared for this moment. It turned out that I needed the Foundation Building Pill after all.
Keeping my eyes closed, I reached for the Foundation Building Pill and popped it into my mouth. It tasted like static. My mouth and throat buzzed as a rush of energy filled me. The Foundation Building Pill contained as much mana as the meditation chamber used to have before I started my breakthrough. It was more than enough for my purposes.
However, this was where things became dangerous. The Foundation Building Pill was crafted by a master, but it still contained minute impurities. For most cultivators, allowing these impurities through wouldn’t be much of a problem since they could purge them later on.
Hell, most cultivators wouldn’t even be able to notice such small amounts of impurities. Since I wanted to build a perfect foundation, however, I wouldn’t let those impurities through. Even if I purged them later on, letting them through would still leave flaws in my foundation. Minute flaws, almost unnoticeable, but flaws all the same.
I had to purge the impurities with my divine energy before they reached my dantian. This required me to divide my attention. A dangerous task for most cultivators, but less so for me. Thankfully, I had Aurora on my side.
My familiar aided me as I purged the impurities from the mana from the Foundation Building Pill, while also circulating my cultivation base. As I took in more and more mana, the pressure inside me increased exponentially, pushing me past my breaking point. The barrier in my way held for a single moment, before it tore open and I stepped through to the other side.
As soon as I broke through the barrier, a void replaced the pressure; a void hungry for mana. My dantian whirled faster and faster, sucking in the energy from the Foundation Building Pill. The mana inside me started to condense, forming into a silvery blue and violet pillar with the divine storm dragon core right in the center. The ocean of mana inside me grew smaller and smaller as the pillar grew taller. Aurora added her own energy into the mix, tying herself to my foundation.
Soon, the ocean disappeared altogether. All that remained was the pillar made up of my mana, Aurora’s energy, and the divine storm dragon core. It was pure, perfect, and whole. The pillar shone with a silvery blue and violet light that was dark red at the center.
I opened my eyes and grinned. I had finally reached the Foundation Establishment stage. Aurora let out a triumphant roar. The sound reverberated through my entire being.