The room was thick with spiritual energy, dense as mist. Yang Kai sat cross-legged, his mysterious cultivation technique spinning to life. The ambient spiritual energy immediately surged toward him from all directions like ten thousand rivers flowing into the sea, drawn into his body and circulating through his meridians, blood, and flesh.
Gradually, the area around Yang Kai seemed to transform into a vortex that could swallow everything, pulling the surrounding spiritual energy inward until it vanished without a trace.
The capital of the first-order Emperor Realm was slowly accumulating and growing stronger, with increasingly obvious signs that a quantitative change was about to trigger a qualitative one. The vital energy within his body rose and fell, his meridians swelled, and his flesh squirmed.
These were unmistakable signs of an imminent breakthrough.
Yang Kai guarded his mind with unwavering focus, refusing to let external distractions affect him. His expression remained perfectly calm — neither sorrow nor joy — and as time trickled by, his aura grew steadily more powerful.
The shackle of the first-order Emperor Realm stood before him like a great mountain. The beautiful scenery all around represented the tribulations along the path of advancement. If he were distracted by that scenery and lingered, his martial path would end right here. And the howling winds, thunder, and lightning that swept down from the summit were the obstructions to his growth. Countless martial artists had been stopped dead before their own barriers, turning it into a lifelong regret — beating their chests in anguish in their twilight years, when there was no chance to choose again.
Yang Kai climbed the mountain, winding his way upward, paying no mind to the breathtaking scenery. Neither the gale winds nor the thunder and lightning could slow him by even a fraction. Only one thought lingered in his heart: crest the mountain before him, behold the vaster world beyond, and stand at a higher vantage point from which to gaze down upon the masses below.
He didn't know how much time had passed when his calm expression finally began to shift, his brow furrowing slightly. Then, the change grew more pronounced.
At last, with a soft "puft," Yang Kai spat out a mouthful of blood. His aura, which had climbed to its absolute peak, collapsed inward like a punctured balloon, withering away in an instant.
If the path of advancement were likened to mountain climbing, then in that moment he had experienced the sensation of tumbling from the very summit. His goal had been so close — he could almost taste it — just one more effort and he would have surmounted the barrier before him. But that final step simply wouldn't come. Instead, the failure sent him plunging off the cliff, the violent shock to his vital energy even leaving him with minor injuries.
His expression turned grim. He opened his eyes and looked at the source crystals around him, finding that seventy to eighty percent of the ones he had prepared were gone.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and fished out several Emperor Pills, popping them into his mouth.
With a wave of his hand, the room was instantly filled with countless high-grade source crystals once more.
Again!
This time, he was even more cautious and deliberate. Above the Emperor Realm, breaking through each minor level was extraordinarily difficult, and every advancement represented a dramatic leap in strength. He was stuck at the peak of the first-order Emperor Realm — he could almost touch the threshold of the second order, yet he was simply that one sliver short. There was no way he could accept that.
He spent some time recovering from his injuries and adjusting his condition. When everything was in order, he attempted the breakthrough once more.
The spiritual energy stirred again. Under his guidance, the source crystals in the room began to sublimate into mist, pouring into his body.
His aura climbed steadily — not quickly, but stably.
In less than half a day, the aura of the first-order Emperor Realm had risen to its peak once more. Yang Kai's hands rapidly formed a series of seals, channeling his power to slam against that barrier.
Boom.
A psychic shockwave detonated directly inside his mind. Yang Kai's vision went white, and he felt dizzy and disoriented. A sweetness surged up his throat that he couldn't suppress, and he coughed up yet another mouthful of blood.
His aura withered once again.
One more sliver!
A flash of ruthless determination crossed Yang Kai's face. Again. Ever since he had set foot on the martial path, his journey had been anything but ordinary — filled with richness and color, but also ceaseless tribulations. He had cheated death more times than he could count, pulled off miracles time and again. Compared to all of that, what was this little obstacle before him? He refused to believe he couldn't break through the barrier of the first-order Emperor Realm.
A day later, Yang Kai grunted, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. When he opened his eyes, a fierce glint flashed through them and vanished — he was still one sliver short!
Again!
One sliver short!
Again!
The stubbornness buried in his bones was thoroughly ignited. A grim determination festered in his heart. If he failed, he would try again. As long as he wasn't dead, there was always a chance.
…
He didn't know how many days had passed. Yang Kai charged at the barrier again and again, failing each time, until finally he was forced to accept a reality.
His cultivation had hit a bottleneck.
Once he came to terms with this, Yang Kai took several deep breaths to calm the churning blood and energy in his chest. He made no further attempts to break through. Instead, he simply sat there, cross-legged and motionless, his expression blank, betraying no joy or anger, no sorrow or delight.
His journey thus far, though fraught with peril and punctuated by brushstrokes with death, had never presented him with anything quite like this. Every previous breakthrough had come naturally, as smoothly as water flowing downhill, every single one steady and sure. This was the first time he had ever been blocked by a bottleneck.
He could feel that he was just a hair's breadth away — as though a thin membrane stood between him and the mysteries of a higher martial realm, seemingly within arm's reach yet utterly impossible to tear apart.
This was no longer something brute force or sheer willpower could solve. He had already attempted it dozens of times. If it were going to succeed, it would have succeeded by now.
So this was the Emperor Realm? The obstacles here were indeed far greater than those of any other level.
Yang Kai suspected it had something to do with how smoothly his cultivation had gone in the past. He had never encountered a bottleneck during his previous breakthroughs — never known what this feeling of wanting something with all your heart yet being powerless to grasp it was like. It had accumulated over time, and now, upon reaching the Emperor Realm, it finally erupted, introducing him to the rite of passage that every ordinary martial artist had to face.
Well, that was only fair. After the storm came the rainbow. Only through setbacks could one savor the joy of success.
And only by enduring such trials was the martial path truly complete.