Cultivating in Honkai!

Chapter 436: Chapter 435: Eternal Will

The entire palace was in a complete mess. The golden blood made them experience a person’s darkest times. It could not be compared to a Heart Tribulation. As long as they are able to find a ’flaw’ in that life, they could cause it to collapse completely.

The emotions they were subjected to was anything but a simulation. It is as real as it could be. The despair and helplessness contained within it was something no amount of ’heart tribulation’ could mimic. It felt as if they were re-experiencing things that had already happened.

Kiana’s mental strength is the strongest out of everyone present. She didn’t let herself drown in these emotions, instead becoming more concerned to Shi Tian. The long-haired Shi Tian and the Sea of Suffering he unleashed brought a lot of questions.

Just then, she happened to notice her Tao Heart. It is as intangible as it could ever be. Connected to her thoughts and mental stability, it was destined to grow stronger with every second. It was still a long way to the eighth-level.

Keyword, was.

The characteristic of the eight-level was the trace of Dao. At this point, the Tao Heart could manifest the Dao. It becomes perfectly capable of carrying the burden of its usage. Even, it could allow one to transcend their limits, influencing the world to an unprecedented extent.

Kiana reached the eighth-level Tao Heart.

’How..?’

She answered her own question soon enough.

The Sea of Suffering tempered her Tao Heart to the point her breakthrough towards the eighth-level is as natural as it could be. As for those who cannot handle it properly...

’Oh no!’

...their Dao Heart would suffer a crack.

*****

Seele considers Shi Tian as her family. It was his selfless act that drew her first, which led to curiosity. The more she knew about him, the deeper she fell for him. She wanted to know more about him. To connect with his heart. To become the subject of his affection. Once she succeeded, its sweetness far exceeded her expectations. She grew more devoted to reciprocating his love.

Despite not seeing each other every day, Seele loves him as much as she did yesterday. No matter how his two students ’rampaged’ every now and then, they wouldn’t be able to "compare" to the First Yandere. It was all thanks to her good relationship with Veliona as well as Shi Tian catching up to her emotions early on that she didn’t follow Mei’s footsteps.

Hence, when the Sea of Suffering submerged them all, her reaction towards these dark and suffocating emotions was intense. The moment she realized it all came from Shi Tian—his future projection—her heart sank to the bottomless abyss.

’Tian...’

Whatever that caused him these emotions, Seele did not like one bit. It was one thing to see Shi Tian in pain, but to cause him this level of suffering...

That was something she had never seen before.

Her chest felt extremely suffocated, leaving her breathless. The thought of him suffering alone made her think she failed him—that she wasn’t able to fulfill her promise of sharing his burden. It was the core of their agreement behind holding back his self-sacrificial tendencies.

The more she thought about it, the more she sank into his sea of suffering. Dark thoughts clouded her mind, influencing it to unleash a terrifying pressure towards others.

"Hey..!"

Slap-!

The stinging pain emptied Seele’s thoughts. She blankly touched her reddened right cheek. A faint red palm print could be seen on it.

"Are you crazy?! You would have fallen into a heart demon right here and then!"

Veliona did not care about the others’ presence. Her sharp gaze penetrated Seele.

"I thought you were better than this. Wallowing in sadness..."

She redirected her gaze towards Kiana.

"She didn’t do any of that." She paused, heaving her breath, before continuing. "Isn’t the answer to be by his side?"

Veliona’s words snapped Seele back to reality. Her mental pressure receded like nothing happened. Her gaze held a hint of shame. Now that she was clear-headed, she saw through the Sea of Suffering initiated by Shi Tian’s future projection. It wasn’t meant to drown them, but to temper them. It was the long-lost ’tempering’ that they needed—more so after spending hundreds of years in peace.

No matter how much they tried it, they had lost the sharpness gained from the desperation towards the Honkai. His move to submerge them all was precisely to deal with it.

"I am sorry..." Seele directed her gaze towards Kiana. "You too, Sister Kiana."

The latter sighed out of relief. She shook her head while smiling.

"As long as everyone’s fine."

The intersecting fluctuations within the Palace gradually died down. Whether their Tao Heart suffered a crack or not, only they themselves know. When Kiana scanned everyone’s expressions, she didn’t see anything wrong aside from the ’Yandere-like’ ones.

’Only he could calm them down... again.’

In the end, Kiana pushed aside her worries and began inspecting Shi Tian’s current condition. Aside from superficial injuries and spiritual qi exhaustion, everything remained fine. It made her feel more relieved in this chaotic situation.

Just then, Sushang’s somewhat loud mutterings caught her attention.

"I... did it. The final level."

"Hm?"

Senti didn’t need any ’reality checks’. She was one of the few who was able to snap back to reality on her own. She had just finished checking on Fu Hua—who seemed fine—when her good friend’s tendency to ’act up’ flared.

"The level above Formlessness! It is the highest Blade Mantra could ever reach..."

Her mumbling grew louder, attracting others’ attention.

"What do you mean..."

"Suffering... and an inviolable will. It is a state where one becomes unperturbed by all the world’s shackles..."

Li Sushang’s mouth became a gatling gun. She explained the principles of Blade Mantra one by one until she reached the so-called ’new level’.

"If one surpasses all troubles, nothing in the world could bring them down. At least nothing in this world..."

Unexpectedly, it was Kiana who raised a question first.

"What could it do?"

"I don’t know... at least not now."

Li Sushang moved her gaze towards the sleeping Shi Tian on Kiana’s lap.

"But it can mimic the heart’s unchanging nature."

As its creator, a suitable name popped up inside Sushang’s mind—

Eternal Will.