That breath that Lyren took felt different and something he did not know was happening became clear.
He had not realized that the Elyria in the surrounding had been getting denser and denser with every passing moment and this might have been one of the reasons the panther had given in to fear.
That breath seemed to have Elyria in it and his core tingled.
He had a bad feeling because the Elyria was already pressing on him and to make matters worse, he could not help but recall his seventh stage breakthrough.
The moment he had swallowed the remaining pills all together might have actually triggered the core.
Performing the VANTAGELESS BLADE in his situation had dried his Elyria and that deep breath tickled the core which was already pulling Elyria.
He gritted his teeth and he did not have time as the palm pattern took control and started drawing Elyria. A familiar vortex surrounded him and he quickly got into meditative position dropping the sword.
He could only brace himself as the single channel was about to be assaulted once more.
He could not look into his core without his mind's eye but that did not mean that he could not tell when it started rotating. He closed his eyes tightly as the core finally started devouring the Elyria.
Lyren knew that further breakthroughs were only going to become more painful and dangerous for his single channel but knowing did not equate preparation.
He was easily overwhelmed as the vortex in the core world drew Elyria greedily uncaring where it was coming from. His hand quickly became numb and even that did not stop the pain.
The channel expanded threatening to rapture but is somehow managed to hold on. Lyren couldn't take it anymore as he started screaming.
It reached a point he felt like his palm was pulled into the channel. He tried to focus but he gave up and let the pattern and the core collaborate in causing him pain.
He felt the Elyria in the surrounding and he felt like shedding tears. It was twice as much as he had taken in while braking into the seventh stage.
He stopped screaming and chuckled. It was ridiculous. The next moment though, he was screaming his lungs out.
***
Each realm was divided into three parts which were further divided into three parts each. The early and middle stages were familiar as there was a clear separation in each of them.
Advancing a stage was like advancing a single stair. But that changed in the late stages.
The late stages were like one huge staircase and it was divided into three parts. The seventh stage was the first part and it covered a third of the whole staircase. The same went for the eighth and ninth stage. But it was different.
Once one reached the peak of the ninth stage, it did not actually mean that you were going to enter the next realm.
It was point where you had to increase your cultivation further and also, your foundation would determine whether you were worthy of getting to the next realm.
This was a reason many people never left the first realm.
The Awakening Realm.
***
One could wonder why Lyren felt that breaking into the eight stage was like he was taking in twice as much as he had taken when breaking to the seventh realm.
It was the same staircase but it had increased in width and not weight. This was why he was now on the verge of shedding real tears because it felt like forever.
The core was absorbing Elyria as fast as it could but the energy required to break through was a too much and the strained single channel barely could keep up.
The fight had taken place during late night hours and it had dragged on for a long period. His breakthrough took a long time and even in the crack of dawn, he had yet to advance.
He had stopped screaming but that did not mean the pain was gone. His throat hurt and his hand was so numb he could not feel it.
When the breakthrough came, it was different and he was suddenly assaulted by a familiar white light and he was almost knocked out unconscious.
He managed to hold on just barely and in this white space, he felt so distant from his body and what came next was hammering.
His head hurt from the inside and slowly, he could hear something breaking. As the sound continued, he could see cracks appearing in the white light and they increased in number and it became obvious where the hammering was coming from.
The final hammer came with much shock such that when it broke through, debris appeared to be sent flying towards him and it was at that moment he came face to face with whatever was causing all that pain and headache.
A golden eye stared at him and when they met, it stated dragging him towards it and swallowed him through the pupil.
Lyren wanted to scream but was there anyone who could save him? He was on his own and helpless.
He was dragged inside and he felt like every fiber of his being was being absorbed by the eye until nothing was left of him. To make matters worse, it was painless so there was no telling whether it was a good thing or not
That was confusing because he had not died yet. And in what appeared like a blink, his eyes opened and the world came into view once again.
The sun was already up and he was confused by what was happening. He could tell that he had already advanced and he was glad his arm was not that numb which brought him to wonder how long he had been in that eye for.
When he thought of the eye, his mind's eye came into his thoughts and he realized that he could not actually feel it. This drove him to panic as he wondered what had happened.
He tried to look inside himself and he could not see anything. He looked at his core and saw the changes that had taken place.
The world had expanded further and the Elyria in it was not that much but he could tell it was more than what he had in the seventh stage.
The core was condensing further and becoming smaller yet its brilliance seemed to bled perfectly with the world. The core had started getting closer to being golden which made it appear like a miniature sun.
He looked in his mind once again to check the mind's eye and he sighed. Something was definitely wrong. He looked again and then look…
He looked. Yeah. He was looking.
He was looking.
Of course he was looking!
How else could he be able to see inside himself other than using his mind's eye? He facepalmed again and again before he laughed at himself.
He was so focused on the physical eye that he had ignored the fact that he had had his entire being integrated with that golden eye. Now that he thought about it, he never saw it and he just assumed that it was in his mind.
The golden eye must have been its actual form and the fact it had absorbed him which he did not like the sound of somehow left him excited.
He did the usual and opened the mind's eye and to his surprise, he saw all the things that dwelled there, the technique and the scroll. He then opened it in his core region and the same happened.
That was it. He was the one who had given it a specific location. Inside his head and when he had not found it there, he had panicked.
He opened the eye in his finger and well, it opened. Then he tried it on the core of the palm pattern and it did.
He could not stop the side of his mouth from twitching as laughed masochistically.