Chapter 258: Saint Core? Astral Core? (1)

Heavenly Jewel Change

This thirty-seventh vortex slowly rose up from Zhou Weiqing’s DanTian, almost like it was floating up through the air. This was very slow, and it was only rising because Zhou Weiqing’s body had accumulated an even more massive amount of Astral Saint Energy.

At the same time, the other vortexes within Zhou Weiqing’s body began to transform as well. They originally had been spinning at a very fast pace. Now, not only did they begin to absorb energies more slowly, the rotation speed itself became slower.

Zhou Weiqing himself could sense as though his body was filled with quicksilver, dense and highly sticky quicksilver, which was slowly spinning. Even if he wanted to stop, he wouldn’t be able to. His body was like a statue that had become completely solidified inside. His blood flow had already slowed down to an incredibly low rate. If Shangguan Bing’er put her fingers beneath his nose, she would find to her amazement that Zhou Weiqing had completely stopped breathing.

Right. He wasn’t breathing, but this didn’t mean Zhou Weiqing was dead. He was in a very marvelous state which was filled with opportunity and danger.

Due to it only be possible to train to the thirty-sixth stage of the Immortal Deity Technique, Zhou Weiqing hadn’t had any suitable cultivation techniques for him to train in after he entered the nine-Jeweled stage. As a result, he was constantly improving his own Saint Energy. What was happening right now was something he had never even heard of. He had no idea what was going on, and could only continue according to his imagination.

In truth, even if he wanted to stop he couldn’t. A Saint Core. Was he really about to consolidate a Saint Core Nucleus? Although Zhou Weiqing wasn’t able to move his body, his head was blazing with flames. Six days ago, his Saint Energy had already broken through to the thirty-ninth stage. He had spent five days devouring energy, resulting in his Saint Energy being fully converted into Astral Saint Energy, which also took a full day. After that, he hadn’t seemed to make any further breakthroughs at all. He had no idea how his Saint Core Nucleus would be consolidated.

It must be remembered that he had Devoured the full Heavenly Energy of a Heavenly God-level Heavenly Beast! However, he still wasn’t able to break through to become a Heavenly King. One could imagine how harder the breakthrough requirements were for Saint Energy than any other Attributes.

According to what the great dragon Hui Yao believed, this time Zhou Weiqing’s Devour Skill should’ve at least allowed him to rise to the early Heavenly Emperor level. However, it now looked as though it would be good if he could even rise to the Heavenly King level. The only thing remaining of that Terror Sea Dragon was its final core essence.

Although the energy within the core essence was the purest of all, there just wasn’t enough of it. It was hard to say if it would be enough to help Zhou Weiqing break through to the Heavenly King stage.

The Saint Energy in Zhou Weiqing’s body continued to climb upwards. Although the process was slow, it was still agonizing to his body, as his meridians were full.

His bones and his meridians were all straining in pain due to being completely full. As for the thirty-seventh vortex, it had already risen to his chest as well. As it did so, it halted its rise and began to continue spinning once more. This time, however, it didn’t seem to be interested in drawing in anything else. And yet, Zhou Weiqing had a very special feeling about it as it continued to slowly spin.

This was an unclear, unspeakable level. When the vortex in front of his chest began to spin, he vaguely gained insight into a certain something. In that instant, everything around him seemed to undergo an utterly earth-shattering transformation. It was as though he wasn’t even in the Boundless Mainland.

This sensory world of his mind had become completely dark, but within the darkness there were countless specks of light. These specks of light slowly began to gather around him, spinning and forming a vortex around him.

More and more of the light appeared, slowly coming together into a series of long ribbons. As for Zhou Weiqing himself, his light around his consciousness began to grow stronger and stronger, as though transforming into a giant astral cloud.

Zhou Weiqing had never studied astronomy before, and he had no clue what this state was. He just had the vague feeling that aside from the atmospheric energies, there was another sort of energy that came from an incomparably distant world which was pouring into his body. What was this energy? It seemed to come from the skies. This was the energy of the Big Dipper constellation!

Zhou Weiqing’s emotions were currently quite stable. Although he didn’t know what was going on, upon entering this marvelous state all of his earlier pain vanished. The only thing left in his heart was enlightenment.

As more of those light ribbons accumulated, the entire astral cloud continued to spin at a pace which was neither fast nor slow. The astral cloud itself didn’t rise upwards; in fact, it actually began to shrink inwards. During this process, the ribbons of light began to gather around the larger cloud of astral light, causing it to grow brighter and brighter.

Zhou Weiqing didn’t know that when he had entered this state, the people outside were terrified.

Almost the very first thing he had done was to fully absorb all the final core essence of the Terror Sea Dragon. Then, his body suddenly unleashed an incomparably dazzling silver light. When this light appeared, an enormous gray image actually descended from the heavens and entered Zhou Weiqing’s body. But, even as it merged it wasn’t able to change the silver light which was glowing across his body.

Even if the Terror Sea Dragon didn’t have Heavenly Energy, its body remained at the Heavenly God level. However, just as Zhou Weiqing’s body began to emanate a strong aura of starlight, the dragon’s great corpse began to tremble nonstop. It was as though its flesh and blood had also transformed into energy and had been swallowed away by Zhou Weiqing. In the next instant, the two great dragons latched onto the Terror Sea Dragon and instantly reduced the body to dust.

Right at this moment, the specks of light around Zhou Weiqing’s body suddenly became incomparably tough. They began to rotate rapidly, exploding with a terrifying aura was simply indescribable. Hui Yao’s first reaction was to draw Shangguan Bing’er into its own body, while its wife fled far away from Zhou Weiqing.

It wasn’t incapable of resisting this energy, but if it tried to resist by force it could end up hurting Zhou Weiqing. What type of energy is this? A sense of indescribable awe appeared within Hui Yao and Duo Si’s minds. They had no idea what level Zhou Weiqing had just reached.

In the next instant, something even more stunning occurred. Originally, the two great dragons had completely controlled the weather in this area, ensuring that nothing disturbed Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation. However, the heavens suddenly changed.

The bright day suddenly transformed into night, while the skies became incomparably translucent. Not a single cloud could be seen.

They were able to clearly see that every single star within the skies was shining with radiant light. As for Zhou Weiqing, he floated there like the stars above the waters. The lustrous light emanating from him actually resonated with the astral light in the skies, and a few dim strands of astral light actually gathered within his body.

Not even the long-lived dragons held any memories of such a strange phenomenon, despite their ancient histories. That sense of pressure vanished, but the two great dragons could no longer sense Zhou Weiqing either. It was as though he had completely fused into the stars of the night sky and was no longer a mere human.

Shangguan Bing’er had been covering her lips this entire time, shocked. She was a human, and her senses were different from those of the two great dragons. In this instant, she suddenly felt as though her Little Fatty was no longer on the same level of existence as her. This wasn’t something which came from a disparity of power, it came from an indescribable intrinsic quality he now possessed.

The astral light emanating from Zhou Weiqing grew even denser and thicker, and it coiled around him faster and faster. The ribbons of light sped up to an inconceivable amount, with all of the light suddenly vanishing within Zhou Weiqing’s body.

In the next instant, a burst of terrifyingly bright light which couldn’t be stared at blasted out from Zhou Weiqing’s body. This light stretched out for thousands of kilometers, and in that instant all of the stars in the skies turned dim.

The mighty light didn’t have a powerful aura to it, but even so, the two great dragons simultaneously could sense a spiritual pressure pushing them down into the sea.

W-what type of power is this?! The two great dragons were completely stunned. They had no idea what Zhou Weiqing was doing.

In truth, not even Zhou Weiqing himself knew what he was doing. He had the feeling that all of the astral light had merged into his body, which seemed to have immediately exploded. His thoughts and senses sped up to an incredible rate, but the only thing he could sense was that boundless astral light.

He didn’t sense any energy, but Zhou Weiqing realized that almost everything in the starry skies seemed willing to follow his lead. This was an extremely strange feeling. In that instant, Zhou Weiqing discovered to his astonishment that his Saint Energy had completely disappeared. Right. All of the Astral Saint Energy had completely vanished.

When he noticed this, he finally sensed that his thoughts had returned to his own body. The Astral Saint Energy had vanished, but something else had appeared within his body. It was a faint golden pearl that was perfectly smooth.

This pearl hovered within his chest, and the strangest thing about it was that it was actually surrounded by slender little ribbons of light that circulated around it. Zhou Weiqing scanned himself and instantly realized that he seemed to have undergone an earthshaking change. His body no longer seemed to exist, while everything within the world was available for him to command, including the endless starry night sky.

I-is this my Saint Core Nucleus? Zhou Weiqing felt incomparably stunned.

Outside his body, the night sky finally turned back into day. Everything quickly went back to normal… but the great dragon Hui Yao couldn’t help but let out an astonished cry.

What could cause a Heavenly God-level great dragon, especially one who was a progeny of the Dragon Emperors, call out in shock? One could imagine how truly stunning this scene was! “Forty-nine days? It was actually forty-nine days?!” Hui Yao stared dazed as it mumbled to itself.

Puzzled, Duo Si asked, “What do you mean, forty-nine days?”