Chapter 4560 — Be Ruthless to Yourself

Wei Zhao poured the Star Ink Milk until it filled the entire pit, then without a word jumped straight in. But the very next instant came another splash, and Wei Zhao could only stare blankly at the spirit bird beside him, hopping about in delight. Who would have guessed this creature was such a sly little thing—it had actually leaped in after him and now wore an expression of pure, contented enjoyment. Fortunately the pit Wei Zhao had dug was not small, or else the man and the bird truly would not have fit.

Since the spirit bird wanted to join the fun, Wei Zhao did not mind in the least. Star Ink Milk might not have an absurdly miraculous effect on a spirit beast like this, but it certainly did no harm, and in any case it would not interfere with Wei Zhao himself.

After giving the spirit bird a word of instruction, Wei Zhao at once sank his qi into his dantian and began the work of condensing his Nascent Soul. Yet the first step was not to swallow a Nascent Soul Condensing Pill—it was to shatter the core golden pill within his own dantian to pieces!

As the name implies, the golden pill within the dantian is the wellspring of power for every expert at the Golden Core stage. By whatever means, shattering one's golden pill is an act of utter madness and extreme danger—at best one is crippled for life, at worst one dies on the spot. This was no joke.

Condensing a Nascent Soul is, to be sure, a process of breaking before building. But among other experts at the peak of Golden Core perfection, even the most prodigiously gifted would never dare such a gamble. At most they would slowly remold their golden pill, little by little, until it finally condensed into a Nascent Soul. After a thousand years of trials, this has been proven the safest and most reliable method.

Wei Zhao, however, plainly had no intention of following the crowd. The common method was safe enough, but the price of safety was potential sacrificed. Even with Star Ink Milk to assist him, he could never become the strongest Nascent Soul expert that way. If he truly meant to stand out from the rest, there was only one path: carry the words "break before building" through to the very end.

The risk of self-shattering one's golden pill is so high it can only be called a nine-in-ten chance of death. Without so much Star Ink Milk in hand, Wei Zhao would never have wagered his life on it.

But now things were different. This much Star Ink Milk was enough to guarantee that he would survive the shattering unharmed; even if it could not sustain him for long, if all went smoothly it should hold out until he finally condensed the strongest Nascent Soul!

So he told himself—though it was easy to foresee that nothing would go smoothly. The moment any mishap occurred, no amount of Star Ink Milk would save his life.

Wei Zhao had always rarely taken risks, but this time, to achieve the strongest Nascent Soul, he had no choice but to gamble. Spurred again and again by transcendent beings like the Western Mountain Old Sect and the Spirit Beast clan, if he did not take this desperate, risky path, then even after advancing to Nascent Soul he would have not the slightest ability to fight back. So he had to stake everything in one throw!

He threw all his strength into gathering his true qi in his dantian and slammed it viciously against the golden pill, the source of that true qi. For an ordinary Golden Core expert, shattering one's own pill is not really difficult—a Void Core expert needs only a single thought, and even a Solid Core expert needs only to stir his true qi a little. But Wei Zhao's was different. His was a perfect golden pill.

Empowered by the force of the stars, the toughness of a perfect golden pill was unprecedented. If Wei Zhao meant to shatter it himself, he would have to strike himself with all his might—a sensation no different from detonating a Wild Sand Thousand Burst Fist inside his own dantian. Anyone with even slightly less fortitude would surely have passed out from the agony.

Pfft! Wei Zhao gave a muffled groan and violently spat out a mouthful of blood. At that moment the perfect golden pill within his dantian had plainly collapsed into pieces, and the commotion inside his body was so great that even Ghost Thing, a mere onlooker, watched with his heart in his throat. He had seen plenty of ruthless men. But someone who dealt himself such a ruthless blow as Wei Zhao—this was the first he had ever seen.

"A man really does have to be ruthless with himself. You're quite the piece of work, kid!" Ghost Thing clicked his tongue in amazement.

"You flatter me, Senior. I'm managing, more or less..." Wei Zhao forced out a smile. That he still had the presence of mind to answer at such a juncture was truly admirable of him.

Even as he spoke, Wei Zhao once more forcibly stirred his true qi and blasted the already collapsing perfect golden pill into utter powder. At the same time, the Star Ink Milk he was soaking in seeped through every pore of his skin, flowing along the eight extraordinary meridians and gathering all the way into his dantian.

Because the perfect golden pill had been shattered, Wei Zhao's dantian had likewise suffered severe damage and teetered on the brink of destruction. The dantian is the foundation of every cultivator; once it is destroyed, no god or immortal can save you. Even if by sheer luck one clung to life, from then on one could never stir the slightest true qi again, becoming a complete and utter cripple.

Fortunately, there was the Star Ink Milk. The Star Ink Milk now streaming into him steadied his precarious dantian and at the same time created a uniquely favorable environment—a peerless environment for condensing the strongest Nascent Soul!

At this very moment Wei Zhao felt none of the agony of a shattered pill. Instead he had entered a mysterious realm beyond mystery, a sensation as though his body had suddenly ceased to be his own and he had become a detached observer, watching from the sidelines. Everything within his body became utterly clear and distinct, and places that had once been murky were now plain as day, thanks to the infusion of Star Ink Milk.

"The Realm of Clarity?!" Wei Zhao's heart stirred slightly. This was a wondrous state that existed only in legend, and to think he had encountered it today.

Cultivation is the cultivation of the heart, a process of gradually coming to know the supreme truth of heaven and earth. And in that process, every cultivator is at the same time gradually coming to know himself anew. Inner vision is one of the necessary stages—only through inner vision can one have complete mastery of every change within one's own body, and only then can one truly unleash one's fullest potential.

Yet inner vision at best counts as a foundational stage of self-knowledge: one can clearly see every point and every drop within the body, but how exactly it all connects into a whole and how exactly it circulates freely—that is very hard to perceive. To achieve this, one must transcend the stage of inner vision and reach the legendary Realm of Clarity!

Legend has it that any cultivator who has once reached the Realm of Clarity can ultimately unleash the full ten-tenths of his strongest potential and become a legendary expert of his generation. Wei Zhao did not much care for such talk, but one thing was certain: the Realm of Clarity could be encountered but not sought—it was not something one could reach simply by wanting to.

This realm beyond mystery could only be attained, with a sliver of a chance, at each breakthrough to a new major cultivation stage! (To be continued)