Chapter 98: Spirit Soul Stage.

Krista wrapped up her call with Andrew and then came back inside to find only Zen and Jake remaining in the kitchen. She looked around for Haru and Luke before hearing a giggle come from the living room.

"How did you get her to calm down?" Luke asked as he sat down on the couch next to Haru.

Krista followed the sounds of giggles and Luke begging Haru to teach him how to make Saki calm down. She entered the room to find them all sat down on the couch. Haru was holding Saki upright by her hands on the floor, Helping her take a few steps.

She couldn't stop herself from smiling when she saw her family bonding like this. And she went and sat down with them. Saki giggled uncontrollably bringing joy to everyone as she jumped up and down with the help of Haru.

Tine went by in a flash, as four days had passed. During the time that had past Haru had decided to spend time with his family and invited Suyin over to join them, Jake had gone on his date with Reina, and he had gone to go see his family off at the airport.

When he got back from the airport after saying goodbye to his family he went down into the basement after explaining to Zen that he would be going into closed doors cultivation for a few days to break through to the next stage.

Zen of course worried and asked him what he was going to do about food and water as he still didn't understand how it would work.

Haru made up an excuse by saying that he needed to fast during the time he cultivated to breakthrough but the fact was that his body had progressed to the point where it no longer needed to rely on nutrition to survive.

His body could survive only on the power of Qi which made things more efficient although he still enjoyed eating food so he couldn't drop that completely.

As he made his way down to the basement he made sure that Zen knew no matter what not to come down and disturb him or else it could have negative effects on Haru's cultivation and could possibly cripple him. It made Zen worry even more but he finally agreed that he would do as Haru asked and then he closed the door behind him.

Haru locked it from the inside and walked down the stairs in complete darkness. It didn't make a difference if it was light or dark but it would make it easier to forget about the time if he was in darkness.

His mind needed to be completely at rest for the breakthrough to be successful so it was easier if he felt like time wasn't passing on without him. He had done this multiple times already but this would be a major breakthrough so he wasn't sure how long it would take him.

Previously it took only a few hours but he decided to give himself a few days this time to make sure that nothing would go wrong.

After breaking through to the spirit soul stage he would be able to sense natural Qi. Previously he could only sense abundant Qi which was just the Qi that was emitting from objects or people when having too much Qi that the body or Object couldn't;t absorb it all.

Form Lao's teachings Haru knew that a truly strong cultivator will never be at full power since their body can contain so much Qi that it would be impossible for them to absorb too much. They were always in the process of gaining strength even during battle.

But it also made breaking through to the next stage much harder since they couldn't hit a bottleneck. The bottleneck was like a diversion in a river. All of the Qi would have to flow through one point which would cause the power behind the bottleneck to be much greater than the Qi in front.

To breakthrough, he would have to store a certain amount of Qi and force it through the bottleneck in a single moment. The explosive power would carry him through to the next realm. That is why sometimes a breakthrough could lead to an explosion or a static shock.

Sometimes even storms would appear from a breakthrough with thunder striking all around. But at Haru's current level he didn't have to worry about that.

He then made a nice space for himself in the centre of the basements floor. There were boxes stacked up all around so he pushed them aside and sat down cross-legged on the cold concrete.

The air was heavy in the basement due to the lack of heat and the build-up of dust but the Phoenix fire within Haru's body kept him warm. It was reassuring knowing that no matter what happened during this time that Lao and Kun would watch his back.

He wasn't expecting trouble but he also knew that it could come at any moment. The Cultivation association thought that he was a member of the black star sect which seemed dangerous. Who knew what they might eventually do to try to make him tell them the secrets of the sect.

Although if they actually feared Teacher Lin then they had best not try to abduct one of the disciples of the sect. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse. But the one thing he did know is that the people at the association were stronger than his current self.

That was something he needed to fix before they decided that the black star sect aren't as scary as they thought they were and moved against them.

Haru followed Lao's previous instructions and pulled out the beast core that he had taken from the snake back at the sect. The small blue glowing ball illuminated the basement. It wasn't enough for the light to escape but it was enough to cast a shadow on everything in the room.

Haru closed his eyes and began to sense the abundant Qi that the beast core was releasing. The amount of Qi coming from this small crystal was enough to put most of the cultivators Haru had met so far to shame.

The Qi surrounding the beast core seemed to have a mind of its own as it circled and spiralled around in many different directions.

Haru then brought it close to his face before closing his eyes and entering his soul ocean. Lao had already taken Kun into the space inside the dragon emperor's ring to create a quiet place for Haru to cultivate.

As Haru was sat down absorbing the Qi from the beast core on the floor inside his soul ocean he began to feel water rising.

He was tempted to open his eyes to see what was happening around him but he knew that if he did the Qi that he had absorbed so far would be wasted. It would merge with his Qi and wouldn't boost the power behind the bottleneck. So despite the odd sensation of water now rising up to his thighs, he carried on absorbing the Qi.

No less than a minute went by before the sensation of water had risen to his chest. It felt heavy and his body felt stiff as he continued to absorb the Qi.

The power of the beast core was starting to fade as the abundant power got absorbed into Haru's body. He could feel the walls of the bottleneck beginning to crack but they were still being held in place.

There was something he could do to speed up the process that Lao had taught him how to do, But the only problem was that it could harm his body if done incorrectly.

As the last bit of abundant Qi was absorbed from the beast core Haru decided he was going to be reckless once again.

The water had now risen to his neck and was rapidly rising more. He wasn't sure what it meant but he also didn't want to wait until his body became fully emerged. So he began to channel Qi into the palm of his hand.

He then placed his hand on his chest and released the Qi into his body. The sound of a muffled explosion echoed out shortly before he tasted a metallic liquid in his mouth. He had damaged his internal organs for sure but the extra boost of Qi was enough to break through to the spirit soul stage.

And with the feeling of static surrounding his body, he opened his eyes. The water that was previously beneath a barrier in his soul ocean was rising above it.

That was when he realised that it wasn't in fact water. It was liquefied Qi. He couldn't sense the Qi before but now that he had broken through to the next stage he could sense natural Qi.

That was when he felt an unimaginable amount of Qi coming from the hand where he was holding the beast core.

'Is this the natural Qi? It is so much stronger than abundant Qi. I wonder if I can absorb this power?' He though before continuing on with his cultivation.

Haru began to absorb the natural Qi released by the beast core until there was a cracking sound coming from bellow him. The barrier holding back the ocean bellow him had broken. And unprepared during cultivation he began to sink into the depths of the ocean.

He didn't dare to open his eyes and distract himself from absorbing the Qi despite the pressure around his body growing more and more powerful.