Longevity Martial Arts: Grinding Experience in the Chaotic World

Chapter 1816: Chapter 921: Sea of Consciousness Compression Charging Toward Ninth Grade

"Boom," a complete explosion, soul scattered!

"Uh... ah!"

A low, muffled groan squeezed out from Gu Sheng’s clenched teeth.

He concentrated all his willpower, urging the power from the deepest part of his soul, a force more primordial and mystical than spiritual power. The intangible Soul Power transformed into a myriad of shackles and countless solid foundations, forcibly suppressing the edges of the Sea of Consciousness, firmly confining the boundary from continuously expanding outward!

It was like building a dam forcibly on the side of a river with a devastating flood, constantly raising it and reinforcing it to withstand waves. The torment, originating from the soul’s depths, flooded Gu Sheng’s will like a tide.

His face was pale as paper, his sweat had long drenched his clothes, dripping onto the floor to form a small puddle.

Meanwhile, he also had to divert his attention to guide the constantly inflowing spiritual power, which was restricted to a fixed volume. Quantity changes lead to qualitative changes, yet this process requires guidance and compression. Within the Sea of Consciousness, the silvery-white spiritual power surged like a boiling ocean, frantically flowing, impacting, colliding, and squeezing against each other.

Under the guidance and high pressure from Gu Sheng’s Soul Power, the form of some spiritual power began undergoing subtle transformations, changing from pure gaseous and liquid states to a more solid, firm crystalline tendency. Nearly substantialized spiritual energy continued to accumulate in the limited space of the Sea of Consciousness, growing denser and more terrifyingly pressurized.

In the serene space inside the Nine Dragon Universe Cauldron, Qin Ling’er, dressed in a red dress, slowly opened her beautiful eyes.

Her gaze seemed to penetrate the cauldron’s body, observing the perilous scene unfolding in Gu Sheng’s Sea of Consciousness.

"What a madman..."

Qin Ling’er whispered to herself, her cool voice carrying a hint of subtle complexity.

"Such violent compression and purification, forcibly causing a qualitative sublimation of the sourceless spiritual power within the Eight Grade limit of the Sea of Consciousness. A slight mistake could lead to the collapse of the Sea of Consciousness, soul trauma, and even becoming a fool would be the least of the concerns.

Only he, having undergone the first tempering through merging with Tantai Xueling’s spiritual origin, and gaining her sister’s assistance, who didn’t hesitate to mobilize Innate Spirit Fire’s origin for a second consolidation and stabilization, dared to attempt such a risky method."

She recalled the scene where Tantai Xuefei seemed to be domineering yet secretly helped Gu Sheng stabilize his spiritual origin.

That strand of origin power from the Innate Spirit Fire was one of the critical guarantees enabling Gu Sheng to endure this extreme cultivation method, coating his fragile Sea of Consciousness’s barriers with a layer of tenacious "fireproof membrane."

"The sourceless spiritual power may be excellent, but without the foundation laid by the previous two opportunities, it would have already burst his Sea of Consciousness several times."

Qin Ling’er gently shook her head, but her gaze remained fixed.

"However, enduring this hardship... once he surpasses this stage, his spiritual power will truly undergo a transformation. But the process..."

She said no more, simply watching quietly, as if witnessing a grand gamble.

Time slowly passed in the midst of extreme pain. The faint light filtering through the window gradually turned from the cold morning white to a bright golden, then slowly tinged with the orange-red of evening.

More than two hours, for Gu Sheng, enduring the soul torture, felt as long as several centuries.

Finally, the steaming white vapor above his head gradually weakened, his damp hair began to dry, and the tightly furrowed brows slightly relaxed. Within the Sea of Consciousness, the tumultuous silver "ocean" calmed. It didn’t vanish, but completed some key transformation.

The vast spiritual power had been extremely compressed into the existing space of the Sea of Consciousness. It was no longer merely a liquid but took on a peculiar gel-like form. Deep within the core, there were even tiny, diamond-like solid crystals floating and flickering, emitting stable, firm, and powerful waves.

The entire Sea of Consciousness seemed to have been compressed from a vast lake into a piece of high-density mental crystal, its volume unchanged but the energy contained and its essence vastly different.

The qualitative change was more than halfway complete.

At this moment, Gu Sheng’s tightly shut eyes suddenly opened!

"Buzz—!"

There was no blinding light, no overwhelming momentum leaking out. But an invisible, intangible ripple of spiritual power, centered around him, spread silently yet swiftly!

This spiritual ripple penetrated the walls of the room, disregarding the numerous protective restrictions within the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, spreading everywhere like mercury, pervasive and unimpeded.

In an instant, it covered a thousand-mile radius centered around him! Within a thousand miles, the bustling of the workshop, the whispers of cultivators, the low roars of Demon Beasts, the rustle of wind blowing through leaves, the writhing of subterranean insects... Countless vast and trivial pieces of information flooded in like a tide.

But Gu Sheng’s mind was incredibly clear, like a lofty observer overlooking from cloud height; these information streams flowed through his consciousness without causing any chaos, instead allowing him to perceive this area with minute clarity.

He "saw" Gu Yuanyuan, Qidiao Yaoyao, and Su Youwei, quietly cultivating in the room next door; "saw" the trading guests and busy attendants in various layers of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall; "saw" the unceasing flow of people in the streets of Emperor City, even perceived the presence of some hidden cultivators, whether strong or weak...

This sense of control was indescribably delightful.

His spiritual power had officially stepped into the Ninth Grade threshold! Even though it was just an initial entry, and achieved through smart compression, requiring prolonged polishing and stabilization, its total volume and purity, especially the meticulous perception of the surrounding environment, were vastly superior to the past.