Chapter 336 The Path Forward 2

Chapter 336 The Path Forward 2

The Dao Bridge involved using both one's energy and soul to connect with the world. In truth, given what he currently knew about everything, it seemed like among the various power systems, these cultivators had discovered the closest path to ascension.

Dante didn't doubt that in some universe, cultivation was real. It was entirely possible to rely on external energy - maybe not always spirit energy - to methodically evolve oneself into an origin being.

In fact, the very immortals that cultivation spoke of seemed like Origin Beings. From the description and details of the highest realm of the mortal stages, which was the Ascension realm, this involved converting one's spirit energy accumulated from the start into the higher grade Immortal energy which was unmatched.

But Dante was digressing. For him, energy did not matter; laws did. As such, he closed his eyes and entered his soul space. The scene was the same as always, a starry sky in the middle of nowhere without the backdrop of planets nor nebulas.

However, just before he was about to begin his work, he paused and tilted his head. For the first time since he entered his soul space, Dante finally asked himself the pressing question.

Why exactly did his soul space take on the visage of a starry sky? A starry sky implied that there were - obviously - stars in the far distance of space, so what were those dots that should be stars be representing?

"Levi." Dante was not the type of person to crack his skull open and think down rabbit holes when he could simply ask and receive the answer.

The giant hawk-like creature flew over from around the Origin Core where he and the others usually basked, enjoying the feeling of such pure and homely energy.

"What's up? Got any questions that need resolving?" Levi asked as he floated before Dante casually.

"Of course, bruv. What exactly are those star-like entities at the edge of my soul space?" Dante greeted and pointed into the distance.

Levi turned to look and seemed to finally have noticed this phenomenon for the first time. He tilted his head and then closed his eyes to focus.

Immediately, Dante felt his origin core pulse strongly as an intense feeling of drainage worked on him. His core's brightness significantly reduced in that moment, but about 10%.

Dante's face changed significantly, as he glanced at Levi with shock. Jesus, it took that much energy for the Truth Beast to use his abilities to peer into greater truths? Then how much had Etz Chaim been paying when he asked Levi about Lara as well as First Gate secrets?

"Oh, now this is interesting." Levi muttered as he opened his eyes.

First, Dante took a huge amount of energy from his Origin Core, nearly 50% of it at once, and let it flow around his soul projection. Moving this much energy at once made his summoned beasts alarmed as they stopped lazing about and rushed over to see if there was any trouble.

Even the usually reticent Etz Chaim manifested in Dante's soul space, glancing at his soul projection with a curious look.

"Huh? What is this fellow doing now?" She muttered to herself as she watched with wide eyes, not wanting to miss any mind- boggling things this mortal might do.

Dante paid no mind to anything around him and focused on his task. The wave of origin energy snaked around him, almost forming a virtual dragon of energy. Using the might of his soul, he coiled the energy round and round his soul projection before unleashing it forward like a whip.

BANG!

Immediately, the point in 'space' where his energy struck began to crack like a windowpane that had been punched. Both the summoned beasts and Etz were stunned by this because even if you gave them a thousand brains, they could never have calculated that this was what Dante would do.

A strange kaleidoscopic light glowed behind the cracks Dante had formed, revealing a scene that was indistinguishable on the other side. Meanwhile, Dante himself was sweating and panting both in real life and within his soul space because you could be sure as hell that such an operation hurt.

He did not follow the full path of cultivation and skipped stages, so he did not have the refined ability of a Nascent Soul turned Essence Soul, meaning his soul was far weaker than that of a cultivator at the same stage.

Why he dared to do this was obviously the presence of Weaver, his Soul Beast. Dante immediately beckoned the fellow over and patted the cloud-like substance gently before giving his orders.

"Protect the core of my soul with all your might, use as much energy as necessary." Dante instructed, to which Weaver naturally obeyed. The would-beast expanded to cover the entire space, including the origin core, the summoned beasts, and the quantum gate.

Etz naturally refused the protection of the Soul Beast as she was confident in her power and was dying to see what the purpose of this was.

Dante continued his work. He took another bout of energy just as large from the Origin Core, causing it to reduce for a second before it produced its next batch of energy. Using this long dragon of energy, Dante whipped the same spot as before which was at the edge of his soul.

The cracks then expanded and were on the brink of shattering, which caused Dante to take another break to recover from the pain. It was already warned in the technique that many of the different breakthrough stages would cause significant pain to the mind and body, so cultivators needed to have strong wills.

Dante felt the change on the horizon, and this time, the energy he took from his origin core was not temporary, but a permanent link. He took around 1/4th of his total origin energy to form a huge energy dragon that was constantly growing in size as it was fed with energy for each 'production cycle' the origin core underwent.

Using this ever-growing wave of energy, a glint shone in Dante's eye as he whipped towards the cracks for the final time, using all of his strength in this one.