Of all the information that was displayed for all those who survived the first culling process,how and when to breakthrough into the awakened realm carried most weight. Williams most certainly deduced that this was the only way that one would be able to survive the upcoming trial.
He would love to settle his thoughts and sort them out in a systematic way as to plan his next moves,but the current situation forced him to recall the two methods by which one would be able to breakthrough to the next realm.
Firstly,and the most effective way. To be aided by a being of greater strength.
This method included the greater being tracing the divine aperture and locating it. Guiding energy throughout the mortals body and openening the divine aperture all the while making sure that the mortal doesn't die due to the speed of energy moving inside his body.
The only advantage would be that, the mortal would have to actively visualise the divine aperture and forge it to his own image. In recorded history,as the information said,it spoke of how this aided the cultivator in multiple fronts such as making the divine aperture more suitable to house an expression.
Now,the disadvantage was actually more perilous than the advantage. It required the being guiding the energy inside the divine aperture to have an on depth comprehension of the body,soul and spirit. If a single irregularity or mistake happens when during the process,it spell certain doom for both the mortal and the stronger cultivator.
It may have looked easy when Norlan broke through but,in all sense the guy had a goddess to aid his breakthrough. His success rate reaching 100% compared to the normal 10% when others do it.
This 10% success rate is also the reason why this practice is only done in large clans or families in Albera.
Williams however, although finding the whole process intriguing could only hope to succeed via the second method. Like how in the hell is he supposed to find a kind good stronger cultivator to aid him??
The second method and most widespread,is to connect the three dantians.
In the information in William's head,the three dantians were well explained. Their location,their functions, how to circulate natural energy inside them.
How to turn natural/spiritual energy in the lower dantian into physical energy,how to turn natural energy in the middle dantian into spirituality for one's own use and how to turn natural energy in the upper dantian in to soul energy.
After having all these kinds of energy together,one then needs to circulate the three energies in great momentum until the dantian ruptures. Although the most dangerous point,one still needed to endure and merge all three into a single specific area where the divine aperture is supposed to be and use that to open the divine aperture by force.
It was truly a perilous endeavor and Williams decided to view it in his own terms as he tries to breakthrough.
Due to the saturation of energy in his body, his panic and other mental factors,all these methods had slid out of his mind. He knew what he was supposed to do,but his rationality and modern way of thinking got the best out of him.
To him his current situation was about basic physics. Potential energy and kinetic energy. But Williams replaced kinetic energy with spiritual energy. Or did he? Since spiritual energy is still moving and it's difference drives movement, doesn't that mean spiritual energy is still a type of kinetic energy just different in form?
Those were his thoughts.
His mind seized on the idea. He couldn't command the energy to circulate because it had nowhere to go. Every part of him was equally full. But if he created a vacuum, even a small one, the energy would rush to fill it. And in that rush, it might just follow whatever paths his body offered.
Paths that could become meridians if enough energy forced through it.
He needed a target. A gathering point. Somewhere to pull energy toward.
He instinctively decided on a point. Three fingers below the navel. What should be the physical lower dantian.
Williams didn't know if his dantian existed yet, but he knew where it should be. He focused there, pushing aside the awareness of his swollen, pain-wracked body. He visualized that spot as a magnet, as a void, as a hungry mouth demanding to be fed.
Come here, he thought, not as a command, but as an invitation. Come here and fill this space.
For a long, terrible moment, nothing happened. His body continued its slow march toward detonation. The pressure mounted. Spots danced behind his eyelids.
Then, subtle as a whisper, he felt it.
A trickle. A single thread of spiritual energy, unwinding from the stagnant mass in his chest, sliding through tissues and flesh toward the point below his navel.
It worked.
Williams almost wept with relief, but he caught himself. One thread wasn't enough. He needed more. He needed a flood.
He pulled harder. Not forcing—attracting. Like breathing in, but with his soul. The trickle became a stream. The stream became a current. Spiritual energy from his arms, his legs, his bloated face, all of it began migrating toward the gathering point below his navel.
The swelling in his extremities began to recede. His fingers, though still puffy, regained some definition. His tongue shrank slightly in his mouth. The pressure in his head eased.
But new pressure built in his lower abdomen. The energy accumulated there, denser and denser, until it felt like a white-hot coal burning inside him. The spot pulsed, throbbed,and demanded release.
Now, he realized. Now it needs somewhere to go.
But then his body now didn't have enough energy, almost all was concentrated in his lower dantian but in his mind there were still three locations where he needed. To concentrate energy. He was in a dilemma,a few minutes ago,he had too much energy,now he had too little to carry out the process.
He looked around frantically,his mind racing and searching for the beast cores around the cave. He stumbled and he went for them. Gathering all in a single circle around him.
Under the same principle of deficit and gradient,the spiritual energy inside the beast core was siphoned into his body. Violently heading through to the other two dantians with great momentum.
Inside the three dantians,the energy moved in constant increasing momentum, spiraling in a vortex manner ontowards a certain point in the dantian that ground and made the spiraling energy more denser, more viscous and more different from it's initial form.
Williams smiled as he noticed this phenomenon. He didn't understand the mechanics that made what was happening possible. But he also didn't care. It was time for the next stage.
The energy in the three dantians wanted to move. He'd already created the difference, the potential,andthe driving force. But it needed a path. It needed channels.
The memories spoke of meridians—eight extraordinary, twelve regular—but those were names, not locations. Not in his body.
He had to feel them. Had to sense the paths of least resistance.
The energies, packed tight in his dantians,all of different nature,began to pulse with a rhythm independent of his heartbeat. Each pulse sent a spike of pressure outward, testing the boundaries of his internal landscape.
Williams paid attention. He followed those pressure spikes with his awareness, mapping where they went, where they stopped,and where they encountered resistance.
There. A path toward his spine. Another up his center. Two more branching toward his legs.
There was resistance everywhere. His pathways were clogged, narrow, obstructed by a lifetime of mundane living and zero spiritual cultivation. The energy wanted to flow, but the channels weren't ready.
Then make them ready!
Williams took a breath—the deepest his swollen lungs would allow—and made a choice. He stopped trying to control the energies gently. He stopped coaxing and inviting. He'd created the pressure differential; now he'd let physics do its work.
He released his mental grip on the gathered energies in his dantians.
The explosion was internal and absolute.
Three distinct energies blasted from his dantians like water from a broken dam. It surged outwards through his center, tearing through blockages, carving pathways where none existed. It screamed down toward his legs, splitting into twin torrents that scoured his thighs, his calves, his feet. It punched toward his spine, wrapping around his nervous system in a spiraling inferno of pure power.
Williams screamed. Actually screamed, his swollen throat tearing with the effort. Every nerve in his body lit with agony as energy forced open channels that had never been opened. It felt like being flayed from the inside, like molten metal pouring through his veins.
But he didn't stop it. He couldn't. This was the breakthrough. This was the moment.
The energy reached his chest and split again, sending rivers into his arms, his shoulders, his neck. It surged toward his head, and Williams braced for the worst pain yet—
And stopped.
At the base of his skull, the energy encountered something different. Not a blockage, but a... door. A gateway. Sealed, but not obstructed. Waiting.
His divine aperture.
The energy pooled there, pressing against it, testing it. Behind that door, Williams sensed infinite emptiness. Infinite potential.
Instinctively,he knew this was it. His divine aperture!
But the door wouldn't open.
Not yet.
The energy needed something else. Not more pressure—he'd learned that lesson. Pressure alone wouldn't work. It needed...
Understanding.
The memories crystallized: The divine aperture opens not only to force, but to recognition. It is the door to your own nature. To open it, you must know yourself.
Know himself. What did that even mean in this context? He was a former Earth human thrown into a nightmare realm of beasts and blood. He was hungry, scared, swollen, alone. He was—
He stopped.
He was alive.
Despite everything—the culling, the wolves, the bear, the poison fruits, the swelling, the agony—he was still alive. Not because he was lucky. Not because fate favored him.
Because he refused to die. Because when his body failed, his mind kept fighting. When his mind faltered, his instincts took over. When everything said give up, something in him said no!
That was his nature. That was who he was.
A survivor.
Williams looked at the door in his mind—the divine aperture, the gateway to awakening,and instead of trying to force it open, he simply identified with it.
"I am who I am. And in this hell,I am a survivor."
The energies spiraling outside this point began to loose momentum. They slowed down until the become docile. Like a spring breaze, Williams willed for them to come in contact with the divine aperture.
They seeped through like gasses in a porous wall, engulfed it from the inside out and..
The door opened.
It didn't crash or shatter or explode. It simply... opened. Like it had been waiting for him to recognize himself, to claim his own nature.
And everything changed.
The energy that had been pressing against the door rushed through, flooding into a new dimension of his existence. His divine aperture drank it in, transformed it, and sent it back through his newly carved meridian.
The swelling vanished completely, absorbed into his new spiritual circulation. The scratches and cuts on his body knit themselves closed, leaving only faint pink lines. His muscles, wasted from hunger and exertion, filled with new strength. Even his hair seemed cleaner, darker, healthier.
He lay on the cave floor, breathing slowly, feeling his energy cycle through him in a continuous, gentle circuit. The pain was gone. The pressure was gone. In their place was something he'd never felt before: fullness. Not the bloated fullness of sickness, but the deep satisfaction of a body,soul and spirit working in harmony.
Williams Hexwill opened his eyes.
The cave looked different now. Brighter. Clearer. He could see the faint glow from deeper within, and he understood it now, natural spiritual energy, radiating from something. A spirit spring, maybe. Most likely the reason why the bear chose this cave. The reason the fruits nearly killed him.
He sat up slowly, marveling at how easily his body moved. He flexed his hands, watching the muscles play under his skin. He was still in his shredded underwear, still covered in dried blood and mud, but he felt like a new person.
No. Not a new person.
An awakened person.
He looked toward the cave entrance, where moonlight filtered in. Somewhere out there, at the bottom of a cliff, lay the bodies of a mountain bear and a massive wolf. Both probably had beast cores. Both probably had edible meat. Both were his for the taking.
But first...
Williams turned and looked deeper into the cave, toward the glow of the spirit spring.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Alright," he said to the empty cave, his voice rough but steady. "Let's see what else you've got."