Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 196: Breaking Through

For promotions, the system in the game would assist everyone and allow them to smoothly break through. It would even give them all the information they may need. However, for some reason, Sofia had decided it was better for Adam to let go of the system, and breakthrough on his own.

Adam actually had speculations as to why she wanted him to not rely on the system. The system had been made by the gods, so depending on it meant to depend on the gods. Surpassing them while depending on them seemed hard.

Moreover, for the millions of years since the war of the gods, not a single person had managed to ascend to divinity. There was definitely something fishy with this, and if Adam had to guess, he would say this had to do with the system.

Of course, he had no proof, but this speculation was enough for him to prefer breaking through on his own rather than relying on the system. Although it would make his breakthrough more dangerous and give it chances to fail, Adam had built an unbelievably powerful foundation, which made it almost impossible for him to fail.

Adam took control of all the Qi across his body and flooded his dantian with it. The next realm was called the Foundation Establishment Realm on Earth, and there was a reason for that. That was because one would need to transform their dantian into a foundation when they brokethrough.

As his dantian was filled to the brim, Adam didn't stop sending Qi into it, and cracks began appearing on it. This would be a very dangerous situation if he weren't in the process of breaking through as having his dantian destroyed was the same as losing all his aura. He would have to recreate it from scratch.

However, it wasn't as dramatic as being crippled for life. Having his dantian, foundation or later inner core destroyed only meant he would have to recreate them, and his body would remain as powerful so it would only take time to recreate them.

Adam's Qi was in a gaseous state inside his dantian, and as it was cracking open, the gas became more and more concentrated, until the dantian broke into pieces.

Then, instead of dispersing, his Qi instead stayed in place as it became thicker and purer, using large amount of Qi. Meanwhile, his body was sucking in the surrounding Qi at a frantic pace, pushing more and more Qi where his dantian used to be.

As the minutes passed, the gas became so concentrated that it started changing into a liquid. For any cultivator, at Bronze Rank, their gaseous dantian would transform into liquid Qi as they brokethrough to the next rank/realm.

Then, depending on the strength of their body, their Qi would be formed into a different number of pillars of liquid Qi/Aura/Mana. The higher the number of pillars, the stronger the foundation would be.

This was also why this was known as the second most important breakthrough in this world. The first would determine one's class, and the second their strength within their class. If their foundation was strong enough, even an SS Class, or an S Class, could rival with a Sovereign in the future.

Usually, the number of pillars people would form would be under five, as even the average Sovereign would hardly go past five.

But all of this was for normal people. Adam's body had become so freakishly strong while he was Bronze Rank that his Qi was turning into pillars at an astonishing speed. Five, six, seven, eight

For three hours Adam's body absorbed an absurd amount of Qi which even shocked Sofia who was waiting on the side. In the end, as Adam formed his 15th Pillar, he finally felt like his body couldn't go on anymore, and he stopped.

The fifteen pillars of liquid Qi stabilized, before sending out a mass of energy toward the entirety of Adam's body, strengthening it at a quick pace.

After some time, the Qi in Adam's body started to calm down as it converged back into his pillars, ergo his foundation.

Adam then opened his eyes, and a blue light shone in them. He looked at his hand, and clenched it. There was so much strength in that clench that the air in his hand had no time to move away and was compressed on the spot, and created an explosion sound.

On the side, Sofia said "You always seem to surpass the expectations. Now that you have broken through, it is time for you to split your body and soul in half. I will help you with this, but you will have to bear through the pain."

Adam nodded and said "I am ready." Sofia's face became serious as she walked to Adam's back and struck him with her palm.

Adam felt his soul split open as immense pain flooded his body no, not just his body, his entire being, his entire existence felt the soul tearing pain. Then, a second wave of pain came from his body, and although Adam wanted to cry out, he couldn't.

Adam's body began turning into ashes as his soul left his body. Once out of his body, his soul began splitting in two as his body was destroyed. Or at least, it's what it looked like.

Instead of being destroyed, his body had been transformed into ashes, and were turning into cells, before becoming even smaller elements.

However, the change was slow, and every second Adam felt a pain he couldn't even describe anymore. But he held on, he gritted his teeth and persevered. What was a little pain to him, could it even hold on in front of his dreams, hopes and ideals?

Adam's will furiously battled against the pain as his being was being split and remade. Like this, several hours passed, then turned into days. However, they were currently in a room where the time rules were altered, and barely a second had passed in the outside world.

Finally, after days of suffering, the transformation was coming to an end. Adam's soul had been split in two, and his body had been transformed back into it's macroscopic state, except that there were now two of them.

With a wave of her hand, Sofia sent a half of Adam's soul in each body, completing his transformation. Now that his pain had ended, Adam had a peaceful face as both his bodies fused with the half soul injected in it.

Adam felt a strange connection between his two bodies, they were separate, and yet at the same time they were one. They each had their own thoughts, but at the same time their thoughts were the same It was a truly weird experience.

Then, the two felt their connection with the Blood Tower and Neith reconnect. Thankfully, time had also been put to near stop for Neith, or she would have freaked out when Adam's soul disconnected from hers.

When he had been in his transformation, the Blood Tower had been ejected from his soul and was floating in front of the two Adams.

Then, Yin Adam and Yang Adam both opened their eyes at the same time, revealing a pair of blue and red eyes respectively. The eyes were said to be the window to the soul, and it was not a legend.

Yin Adam's blue eyes were calm like a lake, while Yang Adam's red eyes were fiery and flames seemed to dance in his pupils.