Solanky rushed into the safe zone and sat cross-legged to recuperate his lost energies. Using the finger of terror technique more than five times had taken its toll on his spiritual reserves, and the effort of escaping with everything he had left him with only 20% of his spiritual energies remaining.
He settled down. Through his spiritual sense, he felt every being in the safe zone staring at him in shock — they had all witnessed the miserable state of the half step peak-turn malevolent spirit, a being that struck terror into their hearts and minds, brought so low. The mysterious woman, who knew this malevolent being's strength better than most, was greatly shaken; she had clashed with it before and, as a special life form, had come away at a disadvantage. She knew her own spiritual body was slightly more powerful than Solanky's — which meant, in terms of technique, he was far more terrifying than she was. The transcendent seniors within the spiritual space were the most stunned of all, having never imagined a junior could kill several powerful transcendent spirits and gravely wound a half step peak-turn spirit in a single encounter. They marked him then, quietly, as someone worth befriending the moment they left the golden statue's spiritual space — there was no doubt left in their minds that he would become a transcendent entity himself, someday.
Within the spiritual bag, Solanky's consciousness descended in the form of the source-defying flames. He began refining and absorbing the essences of the transcendent spirits first, before turning to the harder work of breaking down the energies sealed within the halo. Activating his observational technique, he found himself unraveling the hidden secrets of the devouring heart's secret technique — a technique even the desolate god himself had failed to grasp. Solanky understood, with quiet clarity, that it was his connection to Supremo that had made this possible. Between his spiritual body's eyebrows, a black dot appeared, and along the left side of his chest, three more black dots emerged — marking his completion of the devouring heart technique's comprehension.
Solanky ceased his practice and turned his attention instead to the energies of the malevolent spirits still rampaging within his spiritual body. He smiled, looking toward the darkness where the half step peak-turn malevolent spirit remained. Watching it closely, he noted that its energies were rapidly diminishing, now that it could no longer use its halo. Its life was in his hands now — the longer time passed, the weaker and more irreversibly damaged it would become, even should it somehow reclaim the halo by some miracle. Solanky felt no remorse looking at it. Only a blank, distant calm.
He sat once more, formed seals with his hands, and several formations bloomed beneath him. He summoned the spear spirit, which carried its own spiritual world — a realm only a few light-years across, but more than enough for him to cultivate in, to grow his spiritual body's size and edge toward becoming a transcendent being in the physical realm. The formation sealed the space from outside beings; only true peak-turn beings could hope to enter. Solanky's body dissolved into a streak of light and passed into the spear's world.
Once inside, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and activated the devouring heart secret technique for the first time. The three dots on his chest began to rotate slowly, and the dot between his eyebrows started to expand. The rampaging energies of the malevolent transcendent spirits' essences stabilized and drifted toward his brow, drawn steadily into the waiting black dot. After a while, every trace of that energy had vanished into it, absorbed completely.
Solanky formed new seals, moving to the technique's next stage — the devouring heart secret technique held three levels in total. The first, the devouring move, drew energies into the small dot, which functioned like a black hole. The second, the absorption move, converted everything gathered into the practitioner's own strength. The third was reflection — upon activation, the entire body would be covered in tiny black spots that absorbed incoming energy on contact and reflected it back at its source, regardless of distance.
Having mastered the second level, Solanky attempted the third, but found it beyond his reach for now — it demanded the spiritual strength of a half step peak-turn being paired with a physical body at least at the saint venerable transcendent stage. Recognizing the effort was fruitless for the moment, he let it go and turned instead to absorbing the essence-energies he'd already converted. By the time he finished, he could feel his spiritual body had grown markedly stronger — its height now eight trillion light-years tall. He was elated, though a flicker of disappointment remained; he was still shorter than the mysterious woman's spiritual body.
Solanky made the decisive call to absorb the halo of the half step peak-turn malevolent spirit. He drew it from his spiritual bag and began undoing the spherical seals one by one. When the last seal fell away, the halo pulsed with a majestic aura — its energy several times stronger than it had been the moment he'd first snatched it away. A clear sign that, outside the spear's world, the half step peak-turn spirit had fallen into a truly desperate state, its halo now forcibly drawing in what remained of its life essence since it could no longer wield it.
Solanky activated the devouring technique at full strength. The black spots on his forehead spun at a blistering pace, and the dot between his eyebrows seemed to pop free of his skin entirely, hovering before him, swollen to seven times its original size. The halo shuddered, straining against the pull, but the suction only grew stronger, and it stabilized under the force. Separated as it was by the boundary between spiritual worlds, the halo remained blind to the fading presence of the half step peak-turn spirit outside.
After several days within the spear, Solanky had drawn out 60% of the halo's energies. He paused there, storing the halo back in his spiritual bag, and turned to absorbing what he'd gathered — intending, once his spiritual body reached the half step peak-turn stage, to leave the golden statue's spiritual space, return to his physical form, and enter seclusion to break through his body's bottleneck into a true transcendent entity.
He sat and began the slow work of converting the halo's energies into his own, forming seals with practiced hands. But something was wrong — the conversion was moving far slower than expected. Only 20% had converted so far, and that fraction alone matched the combined energies of all the transcendent spirits he'd absorbed earlier. Solanky was stunned. Those earlier energies had been comparable to a being like the third venerable one of the forsaken realm — a powerful saint emperor transcendent entity in his own right — yet this spirit's power dwarfed even that by a staggering margin. It could only mean one thing: this had never been an ordinary half step peak-turn spirit. It was a special life form, corrupted into something far greater than its rank suggested.
He kept at the absorption, estimating that the remaining 80% locked in the black dot would take at least two more days to fully convert. Partway through, Solanky sensed a terrifying, oppressive aura sweep past his spiritual body — though he remained safe within the spear's world, shielded further by the safe zone's formations for that brief, tense moment. The pressure faded as quickly as it had come. He realized, with a start, that he'd brushed against the presence of the peak summits trials — though it had receded almost instantly, since his physical form hadn't yet reached the level required to face such a challenge.
Still shaken by the sheer weight of that encounter, Solanky checked his spiritual body once more, curious what had drawn the peak summits' notice. What he found left him reeling all over again — his spiritual body now stood twelve trillion light-years tall, surpassing even the mysterious woman by a wide margin. He understood why: as a source-defying life form, fundamentally different from other beings, the usual constraints simply didn't bind him the way they bound others. At this height, he could contend directly with half step peak-turn spirits, most of whom stood around ten trillion light-years tall.
Elated as he was, he knew better than to flaunt it — he'd need to shrink himself down to nine trillion light-years to avoid drawing suspicion. At that size, most beings would find themselves at a disadvantage, unable to wield their full strength — but not Solanky. As a source-defying life form, his abilities remained unfathomable, his limits unknown even to himself. His source-defying spiritual body was awakening by degrees, freeing him from constraints that bound everyone else — he could adjust his height and appearance at will, a gift most beings didn't have and had never even heard of.
Solanky emerged from the spear's space, dissolved the formation, and dashed back into the darkness to finish what he'd started with the half step peak-turn malevolent spirit once and for all. The others watching him in the safe zone stood frozen — the moment he stepped out, the aura radiating off him matched the mysterious woman's in raw power. She murmured to herself, half in disbelief: "Who is this monster? How could he grow this fast and come out the other side of a fight with that spirit still standing? Wait — could it be he already beat it, and now he's finishing the job, absorbing it whole?"
Solanky dropped from above like a falling meteorite. With the halo in hand, he could pinpoint the malevolent spirit's exact location without effort. The spirit, now hollowed out and weak, stood no chance against him — reduced to a mere 5% of its former power and fading further by the moment, it looked up at him and simply accepted its fate. A single slap ended it where it stood.
With the spirit gone, Solanky noticed the conversion of its energies surge to three times its previous speed — the remainder would finish converting in under a day. He didn't linger. He left the darkness behind, returned to the safe zone to record his progress, and prepared to exit the golden statue's spiritual space, return to his physical form, and break through into the ranks of a transcendent entity at last.