Chapter 261 - Harsh Cycle
Before Cain became too warped in the sensations, his Soul's Core stimulated, releasing soul energy that clarified his mind.
Focusing on himself, Cain quickly adapted into a cultivation state. His Soul Sense spread, rapidly assimilating to the nature of the Dragon Celestial pool.
Cain didn't focus on the sensation of power, nor did he try to absorb any essence into his body.
All of his will entirely concentrated on assimilating into the pool's nature.
Like this, time began to quickly pass. From seconds to a few minutes to an unknown amount of time.
Without any sense of time, Cain felt as if a long time and no time had passed at all.
But during this duration, his mental psyche seamlessly blended into the pool's nature.
Now, no matter how fantastic sensation swirled around his body, Cain was calmly focused. And it was only then that a significant change occurred.
Suddenly, Cain felt the power of space twist all around him. The pulling force sucked his body, instantly bringing him into a minor dimension.
It all lasted for a mere second.
The next moment, Cain instinctively opened his eyes, feeling a mix of curiosity and anticipation.
And what his eyes caught of completely awed him.
Cain couldn't even blink anymore as he sent his gaze all around this new scenery.
Starting with the ground, there truly wasn't an end in sight. Even when unknowingly spreading his Spirit Sense out, Cain still didn't catch the limit of this separate dimension.
The ground itself was a strange yet mystical mix.
It was a very translucent gray, nearly formless as if there was no ground at all. But mixed within was the most gorgeous green glow Cain had ever seen. This was surpassing even the Celestial mountains formed by Spiritual energy.
Cain was nearly tempted to say it was like staring into the essence of nature.
Comparatively, when gazing at the skies, it was incredibly different to a jarring degree.
One wouldn't think the sky or ground was related in any way.
The sky was simply a harsh, violent mix of the brightest color ever conceived!
Bright red, luminous blue, piercing yellow, radiant purple, and a bunch of other vibrant colors crashed together, creating an almost an blinding extravagant scene.
Cain actually had to reinforce his eyes just to keep staring into the skies. And even then, he felt a great sting on the level of staring into the sun for far too long.
The calmness of the ground and the high intensity of the skies truly created an unspeakable balance.
As for the environment, Cain was the most surprised by this one.
Whereas the God Galaxies had pure Divine Essence that felt comfortable to embrace.
This environment was utterly chaotic!
Just slightly expanding his Spirit Sense caused a slight sting on Cain's mental psyche. Furthermore, simply breathing in the air gave Cain a considerable sense of pressure.
Within moments, Cain quickly realized why the environment was so chaotic.
His eyes lit up as he inwardly thought, 'Even for a short moment, I sensed it all clearly. This environment is a mix of the most potent of Heaven and Earth Origin energy, Source Laws, and Spirit energy!'
Never had Cain encountered pressure so massive from just merely the environment. It was only because of his deep foundation that he could utilize his dantian energies to just barely resist it.
If this was any other average genius Innate Lord or even Sy Ruler, Cain fathomed it wouldn't take long for them to suffocate on the spot.
Only those like him who have slight attainment in the Heaven and Earth Path, Source Law Path, and Spiritual Path could become stable in the environment.
Without any hesitation, Cain quickly assimilated into a cultivation state. His breathing calmed as he gradually ignored the suffocating pressure.
Once he was focused enough, Cain stimulated his Soul, spreading out his Soul Sense.
This time, he was trying to gather the environmental energies into his mental psyche.
But, within only just a few seconds, an intense pain assaulted his mental psyche! It felt like a drill was slowly piercing his head, attempting to crack his skull wide open.
Cain nearly groaned from the intense wave of pain. But at the same time, he was quickly understanding the situation.
'The potency of each essence is far too great. My attainment in each path is heavily lacking, so my comprehension is terrible, leading to my control being terrible. If I had high enough attainment, I should be able to just slightly control one of the essences and lessen the pain.'
Coming to this understanding, Cain made a decision. He poured out more Soul energy, reinforcing his mental psyche to its peak state.
And instead of trying to feel out the whole environment, Cain focused on one essence.
This essence exuded sensation equal to mother nature itself. It wasn't the slightest calming, more so destructive as if the earth's trees, flowers, and grass would crush Cain at any second.
However, no matter how destructive it felt, this was indeed the purest Heaven and Earth Origin energy!
Cain blocked out Source Laws essence and Spirit energy from penetrating into his mental psyche. His Soul energy acted as a mental shield, allowing him to concentrate on the purest Heaven and Earth Origin energy.
Like this, Cain slowly gathered Heaven and Earth Origin energy into his mental psyche.
Immediately, another intense wave of pan thrashed through him. His mind was becoming daze as if it felt like thunderous explosions were simultaneously occurring all around him.
But even in this state, Cain felt great admiration. This potency of Origin energy is truly on another level!
When comparing it to the Divine Essence in the Imperial Palace, Cain even felt that it was numerous times inferior compared to this Origin energy.
Such high potency was understandable after all.
The first Huang Dragon Ancestor likely had a lifespan stretching for at least hundreds of thousands of years.
He was someone living in the Emperor Spirit Era, and though Shi Wei hadn't specifically told him what specific time period the first Ancestor was in, Cain assumed it at least had to be during the tail-end of the Era.
But even so, the accumulations of his foundations would be immeasurable deep.
Within this Dragon Celestial Pool contains the purest essence of an unknown number of various peak geniuses.
None of them were ordinary at all, even going so far to still surpass the current Era even after so many years passing. Their comprehension and Inner World accumulation perfectly mixed together, creating the purest essence that many would pine for across the God Galaxies realms.
And naturally, wanting to comprehend, control and then fuse these essences into his dantian would be a tremendous task.
As Cain gradually understood this, he determinedly continued forward with attempting to comprehend this Origin energy.
Even more seconds passed until a full minute finally went by.
And it was finally then that Cain's body started to intensely shiver.
Pain was crawling all throughout his body like thousands of small worms drilling into his intestines. At the same time, he heard audible cracking noise come from his mental psyche and even felt that it was about to crack open!
Still, even under such a deplorable state, Cain calmly persisted.
But it was only moments later his eyes instinctively flashed open, his expression twisting in anguish.
"Bleh!
"
Cain violently coughed up blood, his body still shivering nonstop. The spurts of blood crashed onto the ground, but it was mysteriously absorbed into it.
Cain couldn't pay attention to such small detail as he took deep, calming breaths while massaging his temple.
Both his mental psyche and body felt as if they had just got smashed by a massive hammer, the pain being worse than what he experienced in most of his battles.
But after only a few minutes, the vast pain and wave of dizziness were quickly clearing up.
Cain already had a high regenerative factor because of his innate Dragon bloodline. But also, the Dragon Celestial Pool itself has hidden healing properties that silently infused into Cain's bodies once he was injured enough.
The difficulties may be immensely great but not to the point where it would seem impossible.
As Cain gradually returned to a stable state, he calmly analyzed that previous experience. 'It hurts like hell, but this is also for us to rapidly grow so naturally, this place would quickly fix me up again. Still, I can't be relaxed at all. Even if I have the Dragon Charm, it would be negligible for this pool. The nature essence would simply overpower it. No wonder grandmother took it away.'
Shaking his head of such distracting thoughts, Cain sat up again, quickly assimilating back into a cultivation state.
Though the experience didn't last long, Cain did truly feel his comprehension towards the Heaven and Earth Path just slightly rise.
Cain wasn't sure if there was a visual for this or if he had something to directly check about it, but the Origin energy did indeed feel less mysterious.
Considering that he never felt this way even under the best environment, Cain assumed it was most likely the case.
Anticipation swelled in Cain. Once he did have high enough control, his cultivation would soar to the skies!
With the heavy amounts of pain he continually experiences on his journey, Cain was almost entirely used to it. Without suffering, he would have never been able to reach this universe in the first place.
Calming his eagerness, Cain closed his eyes, spreading his Soul Sense out once again.
And once again, intense Origin energy assaulted his mental psyche, bringing about another painful sensation of cultivation.
Minutes passed once again until Cain hacked up blood, ending this session.
He made so little progress, but Cain wasn't the slightest bit discouraged.. No other thoughts enter his mind besides resiting the pain and continuing this harsh cycle.