Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Chapter 338: Intense Cultivation

The empress remained seated in the middle of her chamber with her legs crossed and her palms resting lightly upon her knees. The stillness of her posture contrasted sharply with the ocean of energy that churned beneath her skin. She steadied her breathing until every single inhale moved with the rhythm of her heart, and every exhale carried away another layer of mortal weakness that clung to her body. The Yang she had taken from Lucas still coursed through her meridians like rivers of molten silver, and with every passing second it sank deeper, merging with her celestial core.

She knew her cultivation had already reached the summit of the mortal realm. There was no higher stage she could push her body toward without stepping into the mystery of immortality. She had walked every known path that a celestial could walk, studied every recorded method, and endured trials that would have shattered the minds of lesser cultivators. Her realm stood at the very peak, yet she remained bound to the limits of flesh and bone. She was a celestial trapped within a mortal vessel, a being whose spirit had outgrown the shell meant to contain it.

To break past this point, she had to undergo the transcendence that ancient texts described with reverence and fear. She needed to abandon the mortal body entirely and form an immortal and ethereal vessel that could withstand the pressure of higher realms. Such a transformation required an enormous amount of pure Yin essence and a surge of Yang energy strong enough to ignite her dormant immortal spark. It was a dangerous path, one that had claimed the lives of countless cultivators who attempted it too early or without the necessary foundation.

This was the stage where most celestials stalled for hundreds of years. Some waited for a thousand. Others died still waiting. The transformation demanded patience that stretched beyond human temperament and discipline that erased the concept of time. To attempt it through conventional cultivation was to accept that one’s lifetime would be spent in contemplation and slow refinement. Yet she no longer needed to follow the long and lonely road that her predecessors had walked.

Dual cultivation had changed everything.

The energy she drew from Lucas did not merely strengthen her. It completed her in a way that her own Qi could not. His body carried an unusual vitality that resonated with her celestial core in a manner she had never experienced. The balance between Yin and Yang that she absorbed through him was sharper, purer and more potent than anything she had cultivated alone. Instead of taking centuries to gather the strength she required for her transcendence, she now held that strength within her in a single night’s exchange.

She understood the magnitude of this opportunity, and the rare blessing it represented. She would not need to wait for time to grind away at her weaknesses. She would not need to linger in the mortal realm for decades while her energy slowly sharpened. If she succeeded now, she would become the fastest person in recorded history to break the mortal boundary and ascend into true immortality. She would escape the limit that had trapped even the greatest prodigies of old.

The power of dual cultivation had given her the chance to step into the ethereal world long before her natural lifespan could carry her there. It offered her the bridge that legends spoke of but few ever found. If she managed to refine all of this energy and reshape her body into its immortal form, she would leave the mortal world behind entirely and take her place among the ethereal celestials who governed realms far beyond human sight.

This was the destiny she was working toward at this very moment, and she would seize it without hesitation.

She shut her eyes tighter as the waves of celestial Qi within her body surged toward the barrier that had trapped her for so many years. She guided the flow with calm precision, forcing the Yang-rich energy she absorbed from Lucas to blend with her own celestial essence. Her breathing deepened as she channeled the torrent through every meridian, pushing her body as close to its limits as it could bear.

Yet for all her discipline and mastery, the bottleneck refused to break.

She steadied her spine and clenched her jaw as another rush of energy slammed against the invisible wall inside her core. The impact reverberated through her bones and left a faint tremor in her fingers. Her body tried to suppress the reaction, but she could not hide the strain from herself. This bottleneck was not merely a thin barrier of Qi resisting her. It was a lifetime of natural laws trying to hold her in place.

Her brows furrowed slightly as she drew in a long breath and sent the next wave hurtling forward. The room responded instantly. The barrier she created around the chamber shuddered like a shield bracing against a storm. The air grew heavy enough for the furniture to creak beneath the pressure. Even her shadow flickered as the light bent around the energy radiating from her form.

Still, the bottleneck endured.

She opened her palms wider and pulled more of Lucas’s remaining Yang energy from deep within her meridians, using it to refine her Yin essence until it glowed with a purity that ordinary celestials could never achieve. Sweat began to form along her temple as she forced the powerful mixture toward the center of her core. The attempt sent a sharp pain rolling through her chest, but she did not waver. Pain was nothing. Exhaustion was nothing. Only transcendence mattered.

Even so, the transformation resisted her efforts with frightening tenacity.

She exhaled slowly, the breath shaking ever so slightly. She had known the breakthrough would challenge her, but the difficulty surpassed everything she had imagined. The immortal body required perfection, and perfection demanded a sacrifice of strength, stability and time. Her current energy was powerful enough to shake mountains, but forcing it to break the laws woven into her flesh was another matter entirely.

Still, she pressed on.

She gathered the swirling energy into a tighter spiral and sent it crashing against the barrier again. A thin crack formed for a moment—a faint ripple that vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Her eyelashes trembled, but she did not open her eyes. She could not afford to. She willed herself deeper into focus, refusing to let frustration poison her concentration.

The bottleneck might have been unyielding, but she was relentless. She would not withdraw. She would not falter. If the path to immortality demanded that she break herself a thousand times, she would endure it a thousand more.

She continued cultivating with every ounce of strength she possessed, chasing the breakthrough that teetered just beyond her reach.

As for Lucas, who had collapsed beside the wall with his breath shallow and his limbs limp, something far beyond his understanding was taking place within him. He remained completely unconscious, unaware of the extraordinary transformation unfolding in the depths of his core. The celestial Yin essence he had absorbed from the empress was unlike anything he had ever encountered before. It refused to simply settle in his meridians the way ordinary Yin energy did. Instead, it moved with an intelligence and force that seemed almost alive.

The energy spread through his channels in slow, deliberate waves, as though it was searching for every imperfection it could find. When it discovered the lingering instability within his ice affinity, it wrapped around it gently at first, then began refining it with a precision no mortal cultivator could ever hope to achieve. The frigid affinity that once felt somewhat rough inside him now became sharper, purer and far more potent, as though a veil had been lifted from its nature.