77: Chapter 77 Martial Arts Golden Core!

Within the System space!

Watching his other self in the System space, who had spent millions of years persistently trying to break through only to end up exploding and dying, Chen An's lips couldn't help but twitch slightly.

"It seems this System is not without its flaws; pay-to-win is not omnipotent either!"

He finally saw through the essence of his Golden Finger—it was an extremely powerful executor, but by no means a qualified creator.

It was indeed proficient in deduction. Whether it was a Cultivation Technique, Martial Skill, or secret art, as long as it was given a direction, it could tirelessly deduce for millions of years, polishing it to absolute Perfection.

However, all of its actions had to be built upon his explicit commands.

If he told it to Cultivate Basic Saber Techniques, it could practice them to an unprecedented Realm of Perfection;

if he told it to deduce the Extinction Blade Intent, it could slowly strip away the essence of the Saber Intent over endless years;

if he told it to compress Gang Essence to raise his cultivation, it could condense the Gang Essence to the absolute limit of a Great Grandmaster.

But once this path reached its end and there was no ready-made path ahead, it would be completely at a loss.

It would not contemplate why a path was a dead end, think about whether there were other paths to take, and certainly wouldn't explore a completely new direction of the Martial Dao on its own.

It would only mechanically repeat its past successful experiences, using the bluntest brute force to crash against that impenetrable barrier again and again. Even if it was smashed to pieces, it wouldn't adapt in the slightest.

"The reason why everything went smoothly from Qi Condensation to Great Grandmaster in the past wasn't because the System was smart, but because the cultivation paths for those Realms all had standard answers."

"The System was merely following the standard answers to solve the problems for me. But at the Martial King Realm, there are no more answers to reference."

Chen An's eyes flickered as realization dawned upon him. He then turned his gaze back to his other self in the System space, who had just exploded and died once again.

"Since there are no answers to reference, I will solve the problem myself!"

"Right now, my cultivation has already reached Great Grandmaster Perfection!"

"Furthermore, my cultivation was previously elevated step-by-step entirely by relying on the System, making my Foundation incomparably solid."

"Therefore, whether it is my Dantian, Meridians, or Physical Body, they have all reached the absolute limit of my current Realm."

"As I am now, no matter how much more I compress my Gang Essence, it would only be like pouring more water into an already full bucket!"

"The result would either be the water overflowing or the bucket bursting!"

"This is exactly why my Meridians kept rupturing and my body kept exploding in the System space!"

"Therefore, breaking through to the Martial King Realm is not about holding more power at all."

"It is about turning the container itself into power!!!"

A brilliant light flashed in Chen An's eyes.

"A Great Grandmaster is 'the person nurturing the power,' where the power exists dependently on the person. A Martial King, however, is 'the power becoming the person,' where the person and the power merge into one, indistinguishable from each other!"

"It is no longer the Dantian holding Gang Essence, but the Gang Essence condensing into a core, becoming a part of my body and the Origin of my life!"

The moment he figured this out, the figure in the System space that had been constantly repeating the cycle of 'compression - explosion - Rebirth' suddenly came to a halt.

Chen An's consciousness completely merged with that figure.

He no longer attempted to compress the vast, boundless sea of Gang Essence within his Dantian. Instead, he slowly closed his eyes and sank his mind deep into his Dantian.

With a thought, Chen An mobilized the sea of Gang Essence within his body, using the center as a singularity, and made it slowly rotate.

At first, it was just an imperceptible vortex, but as his mind was continuously poured into it, the vortex spun faster and faster, growing increasingly violent.

The originally calm and waveless sea of Gang Essence suddenly surged with monstrous waves. Countless drops of pure liquid Gang Essence were swept into the center of the vortex, frantically compressed, torn, and condensed by that terrifying centrifugal force.

"Hmph!~"

Even though he was only a consciousness right now, he couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.

As each drop of Gang Essence was compressed to the limit, it erupted with astonishing energy, like countless tiny bombs detonating one after another within his Dantian.

His Meridians were stretched taut and bloated, as if they would snap inch by inch in the next second. Sharp, tearing pain washed over the walls of his Dantian, as if countless sharp daggers were frantically churning inside.

Rumble!!!~

With a loud bang, Chen An exploded once again, his flesh and blood scattering everywhere.

"Holy crap! Why did I explode again?!"

"No, that feeling just now..."

"My idea is correct!"

"However, something is still missing!"

"What is it?!"

"With Gang Essence as the Foundation and the Divine Soul as the guide, what else is missing?!"

"A Concept?!"

"Yes, it's a Concept!!!"

Chen An's consciousness returned once more. Looking at his resurrected self in the System space, he possessed it yet again.

This time, he was in no hurry to activate his Gang Essence. Instead, he sat cross-legged, quietly savoring the sensation from that brief moment.

"The rotation speed cannot be too fast. It must be done step-by-step, like grinding ink, grinding the Gang Essence finer and purer bit by bit."

"The power of the Divine Soul cannot be poured in all at once. It must be like silk threads, wrapping around the particles of Gang Essence strand by strand, letting them slowly fuse."

"And then there's the Concept. I have the Mountain-Collapsing Domain. The Domain must act like a thin membrane, wrapping around the entire vortex to prevent energy from leaking out."

Having summarized his experience, he opened his eyes once more, his gaze incredibly resolute.

"Again!"

With a thought, the sea of Gang Essence slowly began to rotate again, centered around his Dantian.

This time, he kept the rotation speed extremely slow, so slow that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

As each strand of Gang Essence was drawn into the center, it would undergo tens of thousands of grindings until it became smaller than cells and molecules, only then being gently enveloped by a strand of his mind.

Time ticked away second by second. In the System space, another few million years passed.

At the center of his Dantian, a black speck of light the size of a grain of rice finally condensed.

Yet, just as the speck of light was about to stabilize, a tiny imbalance in energy triggered another earth-shattering explosion.

Rumble!~

Once again, he exploded and died.

"It's fine. This time I lasted for a hundred thousand years, which is much better than before."

Chen An's consciousness calmly watched his resurrected self and possessed it once again.

"Again!"

...

Once, twice, a hundred times, a thousand times...

With every explosion, he would glean some experience; with every Rebirth, he would adjust some details.

He adjusted the shape of the vortex, changing it from a perfect circle to a spiral;

he adjusted the angle of the Domain's injection, changing it from vertical to tangential;

he even tried to begin condensing at different hours and under different states of mind.

Failure had long since become routine, and the pain of his body exploding had become numbing.

The passage of time in the System space could no longer be measured by numbers.

He didn't know how many hundreds of thousands of years had passed, nor did he know how many times he had been blown to pieces.

On this day, as Chen An once again guided the Gang Essence vortex to rotate slowly and injected the 1,080,000th strand of his mind into it, the walnut-sized black light sphere at the center of his Dantian finally stopped trembling.

It quietly floated there, its surface flowing with profound, earthy-yellow patterns, like a miniature of an Immemorial Divine Mountain naturally conceived by the Heavenly Dao. With every rotation, it emitted a terrifying pressure that was as immovable as a mountain and as heavy as a peak.

Rumble!!!~

...