Chapter 329 – Zenith State
Weeks passed in the internal storage room where ti had completely stopped. Leyvi spent nurous hours there chanting the mantra perfectly, focusing every fiber of his consciousness on mastering its rhythm and tone. Though ti stood still in that space, he would occasionally return to his real body to test his progress by chanting aloud.
In the real world, only about three hours passed to test the mantra he learned inside.
Every ti he thought he had mastered the mantra, he would fail when chanting using his real body, so he returned to continue practicing in the ti-frozen space. Finally, after many cycles of practice and testing, he succeeded. From that point on, he no longer needed to retreat back to the internal storage room.
The first ti Leyvi completed the chant successfully in the real world, the effect was imdiate. A strange warmth blood in his head, pulsing gently like a heartbeat behind his eyes. It wasn't painful, but it was intense, like his brain was expanding inside a vast, silent sea. Colors sharpened, the air felt denser, and his thoughts suddenly grew quieter, more focused. It was as if his entire being had shifted a layer closer to sothing deeper, more real. The mantra had worked. His mind had begun to improve at a fast rate.
As he continued chanting, Leyvi could feel the mantra stirring sothing deep in his brain, amplifying and enhancing it. The longer he maintained the chant without interruption, the stronger the effect grew. But if he lost focus, the process would reset, wiping away precious progress. He realized then that a calm and steady mind was the key to unlocking the mantra's full power.
A week later, slightly past midnight, the bamboo forest lay quiet under the lingering hush of a recent rainfall. Dew clung to leaves, and the air was thick with the forest's usual magical fragrance—calming, rejuvenating, and now mingled with the fresh scent of rain. All the peaceful demonic beasts were minding their own business as usual; most were sleeping.
Only the seven pandas were still waiting patiently outside the nature-born formation, where Leyvi had remained for an entire week, making weird noises. Despite their simple minds, they had begun to worry. He hadn't moved much, hadn't eaten, and he kept muttering strange, incomprehensible words nonstop. Even now, as the rain paused, they could hear his eerie chanting drift out from within. Was their Panda God going mad?
But Leyvi wasn't mad. He was deep, deeper than ever within the mantra.
At this mont, he had been chanting continuously for nearly seven hours without a single mistake, his longest streak so far. He was so imrsed that his consciousness seed to transcend itself. His brain began to emit a soft, otherworldly light, and in the darkness of the night, the outline of his glowing skull shone faintly beneath his skin.
According to the spiritual cultivation manual, this phenonon marked the entry into a rare and exalted state known as the Zenith State. Achieving it required chanting the mantra flawlessly and without pause for at least a week, an almost impossible feat. Even lasting an hour without distraction was already considered difficult.
But in the Zenith State, extraordinary things occurred.
The sea of consciousness surged forward, evolving at a rapid pace. The brain operated at its peak, and the body, linked to the mind through spiritual force, responded by undergoing trendous internal and external enhancent. It wasn't only ntal strength that improved; the body itself grew stronger.
And for cultivators who also practiced Qi cultivation, like Leyvi, this state brought even greater rewards. While the mind was imrsed in mantra, the body unconsciously absorbed spiritual energy from the environnt, refining Qi at incredible speed. It was like cultivating three paths at once. Mind, body, and Qi, each reinforcing the other.
That was what was happening to Leyvi now.
His mind deepened. His body strengthened. His Qi surged.
And all the while, he chanted.
Of course, the only reason Leyvi had achieved this after rely seven hours of chanting was due to the magical, calming atmosphere of the bamboo forest, and more importantly, the nature-born formation that amplified that serenity to another level. Without this place, he wouldn't have reached the Zenith State so quickly, if at all.
An hour later, the glow around his head dimd and finally faded. His mantra fell silent, and he collapsed onto the glassy floor, spent. Both physically and ntally. Above, the two moons hung in the sky, not far apart. He let the sight be the last thing he saw as his heavy eyes closed. His brain, having operated at full capacity for so long, had consud all his energy. Even sparring all day with Valenia and Ava wouldn't have left him this drained. It just shows how much energy the brain needed to operate at full capacity.
So ti later, Leyvi woke up. It was still night. He saw the two moons again, but much closer, nearly overlapping. Judging from the movent of the bigger and brighter moon, the moon he usually noticed in the night sky, he estimated he'd only been asleep for about an hour.
"What a nice formation. It can even rejuvenate
from total exhaustion to full energy in just an hour," Leyvi murmured, stretching slightly.
Then he paused and shook his head, catching himself.
"No, no. My praise priority is wrong. I should praise the formation for enabling
to enter the Zenith State much, much easier than it should have been. If only I could bring this place back, maybe I could enter the Zenith State every ti. This is such a great cultivation land."
Still lying on his back, Leyvi used his spiritual sense to inspect his body thoroughly. The increase in physical strength wasn't imdiately noticeable as his body was already well-tempered from body cultivation, after all. But he knew that if it had been soone without his level of physical training, the change would have been significant. The Zenith State truly enhanced more than just the mind.
Next, his attention turned inward to his dantian, where his unique transparent core resided. At its center was a single, brilliant point of light. It looked nearly the sa. Still small, but Leyvi could tell the light had grown ever so slightly in size. He had observed it long enough now to understand its significance: once that light expanded to fill the entire transparent core, he would reach the peak of the Core Formation Realm.
"Wow, my cultivation actually increased this much in such a short ti? Great! Hahaha!" Leyvi laughed out loud, his joy spilling over, then quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. He didn't want to disturb the bamboo forest's residents.
Using the light as a gauge, he estimated the growth to be equivalent to at least three months' worth of cultivating with low-grade spirit stones. A grin crept back onto his face. That was a serious ti saver.
No wonder Dastan said the three types of cultivation are interlinked. From what I've seen and experienced so far, they really are, Leyvi thought.
After finishing his inspection, Leyvi relaxed again, still lying on his back, gazing up at the night sky. The two moons were now directly overhead, their edges nearly touching. A rare sight like this didn't co often, so he decided to stay and watch them fully align.
Fifteen minutes passed in tranquil silence.
The smaller moon slowly slid behind the larger one until it vanished completely from view.
"Huh?"
A glint of blue light appeared at the center of the overlapped moons. In the next instant, a brilliant blue pillar of light shot down from the sky, directly onto Leyvi.
More precisely, onto the glass floor beneath him.
For a few seconds, the world connected to the moon through that radiant column of energy. When the light faded, the glass beneath Leyvi glowed intensely, still humming with the energy it had absorbed. The entire atmosphere within the formation subtly shifted.
Leyvi sat up, his instincts kicking in. Sothing was stirring within him. His sea of consciousness and his core began to resonate, but unlike before, this ti the resonance seed to be initiated by the blue light.
"It's happening again!" he said aloud, eyes wide with realization.
Without hesitation, he folded his legs beneath him and settled into a ditative pose.
This ti, he was ready.
Thum!
The space trembled.
A golden light enveloped Leyvi, illuminating the forest with an ethereal brilliance. It was the sa golden light from before—mysterious and beyond his control. Once again, his body no longer obeyed him.
His spiritual sense surged outward on its own, extending over forty kiloters in every direction. Just like last ti, he was a re spectator, his awareness flooding across the bamboo forest and beyond into the surrounding lands.
He quickly noticed sothing unexpected: his maximum range had increased, but only by ten ters.
That's it? Leyvi blinked in surprise. He even entered the Zenith State while cultivating, which was supposed to be a big deal. He expected a more significant leap.
Is this normal? he wondered. I should ask Dastan later.
Thinking about the crown prince, his spiritual vision automatically focused and locked onto his figure sowhere at the northern edge of the bamboo forest.
Huh? It responded to my will this ti? Leyvi thought while looking at the crown prince.
All this ti, Leyvi thought that Dastan was exploring, looking for treasures. But he was wrong. It turned out that the crown prince had been practicing his martial skills.
That's weird. Didn't he say he doesn't like practicing his martial skills because he didn't need to? What changed his mind?
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