The incident in the lecture hall changed the sect's perception of Li Yao. He was no longer just the quiet, mediocre disciple, nor merely the "servant" Wang Jin despised. He was an anomaly. His display of control was a language the cultivation world understood—a language of latent power and deep, unsettling skill.
He began to receive cautious, appraising looks from other disciples. Mei, the hunter, started leaving choice cuts of spirit beast meat she'd hunted near his door. A few older, struggling outer sect members even approached him with subtle questions about "control exercises," which he deflected with practiced modesty.
He accepted it all with quiet grace, using the social capital not to build a faction, but to acquire more diverse resources. He traded the spirit beast meat for rare minerals, used the faint hints of goodwill to get access to the sect's basic scripture library, cross-referencing its contents with the System's vast database.
His focus, however, remained internal. The peak of the Late Sub-Realm was a plateau of immense pressure. His core, now a brilliant, marble-sized sphere of condensed light, pulsed with a rhythm that echoed his own heartbeat. The energy around it was no longer a scattered cloud but a dense, swirling nebula, ready to be drawn in for the final, critical integration.
"Breakthrough to Perfection Sub-Realm Imminent. Prerequisite: Body-Soul Resonance. Warning: This stage involves a minor spiritual test from ambient law ripples. Failure can result in soul shock or a fractured core."
The System provided no technique for this. It was a trial of fundamental comprehension, of one's harmony with the universe's most basic laws. He could not force it. He could only prepare his vessel and await the ripple.
He found his spot on a isolated cliffside behind the sect, a place where the wind whipped fiercely and the Qi was wild and untamed. It was here, amidst the chaos of nature, that he hoped to find the stillness required for perfection.
For three days and nights, he sat in deep meditation. He did not cycle his Qi. He did not practice any technique. He simply was. He let his senses expand, feeling not for energy, but for the patterns beneath it—the law of the wind's path, the gravity that held him to the stone, the inevitable decay of the leaves at his feet.
On the fourth night, under a sky blazing with unfamiliar stars, it came.
It was not a sound or a light. It was a shift in the fabric of reality itself, a subtle, cosmic vibration that passed through him. The Law Ripple.
To an untuned spirit, it would have been nothing. To Li Yao, at the precipice of perfection, it was an earthquake.
His core shuddered. The carefully maintained harmony between his body and his nascent soul was disrupted. His physical form felt suddenly heavy, clumsy, a prison of flesh. His soul felt like a kite whose string had been cut, threatening to drift away into the void. This was the test: to recenter himself, to prove that his body and soul were not two separate things, but one integrated entity.
He felt a terrifying disorientation. Memories of his life on Earth flashed—the sterile office, the glow of his phone, the screech of the truck. They felt more real than the stone beneath him. He was Li Yao, the office worker, dreaming a strange dream. The cultivator Li Yao was the illusion.
"Cognitive integrity failing. Soul-Body connection destabilization at 42%. Initiate emergency resonance protocol."
The System's voice was a lifeline in the psychic storm. But it couldn't do the work for him. It could only guide.
The body is the anchor. The soul is the ship. The anchor must be unwavering, the ship must know its home.
He remembered the pain of his broken body in the gutter. The taste of the dry flatbread earned from his first salve. The feel of the Spirit Stones in his hand. The cold determination in Wang Jin's eyes. These were his memories. This was his reality.
He focused on the pulse of his core, the steady rhythm that was uniquely his. He felt the energy within it, not as a foreign power, but as the very essence of his being. He felt the wind on his skin not as an external force, but as a conversation between his body and the world.
He stopped fighting the disorientation. He embraced it. He allowed the sensation of being two people to exist, and then he gently, firmly, wove the threads together.
The Earthling's mind for analysis and pattern recognition.
The cultivator's body for endurance and power.
The System's knowledge as his guide.
The original Li Yao's memories as his roots.
They were not separate. They were all him.
There was no explosive boom, no radiant pillar of light. There was only a profound, settling silence, both internally and externally. The Law Ripple passed through him and was gone.
He opened his eyes. The world was the same, yet utterly transformed. He could feel the air molecules brushing against his skin. He could hear the deep, slow grind of tectonic plates far beneath him. His body felt impossibly light and supremely powerful at the same time. Every cell hummed with energy, and his soul was no longer a resident within his body, but its master and its perfect counterpart.
"Breakthrough Successful. Host has reached the Perfection Sub-Realm of the Essence Gathering Realm. Body-Soul integration achieved. All physical and spiritual parameters have increased by a factor of 10 from the mortal peak. Lifespan stable. Ready for Core Formation Realm."
He stood up, his movements fluid and effortless. He was now at the absolute peak of the Energy Path's first great realm. He had weathered the first true test of the heavens and passed.
As he walked back towards the sect, he saw a figure waiting at the edge of the training grounds. Wang Jin.
The Young Master had felt it. The moment Li Yao had broken through, a wave of perfectly harmonized energy had rippled outwards, a silent announcement of his ascension to Perfection.
Wang Jin's face was a complex tapestry of emotions: rage, bitterness, and a stark, undeniable shock. He was still at the Late Stage, his progress, while steady, was now visibly outstripped. The servant he had vowed to break had not only matched him but had surpassed him, achieving a state of perfect harmony that Wang Jin, with his flawed foundation, could only dream of.
He said nothing. He simply stared as Li Yao walked past, his own aura, once so dominant, now feeling clumsy and coarse in comparison.
Li Yao did not look at him. He didn't need to. The message was sent, not with words, but with existence itself.
The first realm was complete. The foundation was laid. The Energy Path stretched before him, with eight more immense realms and their own tribulations waiting. But for now, he had achieved perfection. And in the world of cultivation, perfection was not an end. It was the only valid beginning. The journey to form his Core, to truly step onto the path of immortality, began now. And he was ready.