Eventually, Harry drifted off to sleep. Once he cried and vented all the emotions he could, he was left physically and mentally exhausted. He must have been sinking for five or six hours, with no end in sight, and he was too tired to stay awake. He allowed his eyes to close, just as he allowed himself to be carried downwards. If he woke up and was still sinking, then he'd just assume he entered a bottomless pit.
Considering all that had happened to him, Harry was completely burnt out. His body needed the rest, and quickly fell into a stupor.
He woke up an unknown time later, feeling much better. He stretched – and to his surprise, found that he was lying on something.
He was no longer floating!
Harry jumped to his feet, and found himself standing on something spongy but firm. The ground was still wet, but besides for a few shallow pools scattered here and there, the water had all vanished to places unknown.
He cast his vision around and lifted his Natural Essence above his head – far above, the dim orange light of the Swan's Seamount could just barely be seen. The watery blue light illuminated his surroundings. He was in a large cavern, too large for him to see the walls. The cavern had no roof, instead, the metal shaft that was the Swan's Seamount was above, like a chimney.
Looking down, he saw the surface he was standing on was a smooth plain of red. The material was rubbery, and each step he took sank slightly into the surface. Whatever it was, it wasn't dirt or rocks, meaning that although he was underground, he was in some kind of artificial chamber.
'I'm at the bottom,' he thought with equal parts of relief and disbelief. He actually made it to the bottom! He didn't know how long he had been sinking, but it was for a long time. At the very least, he was 15 miles underground. But he didn't know how long he had been asleep – he wouldn't be surprised if he slept an entire day, that was just how exhausted he was.
"I must be the first human to come down here," he marveled out loud. Quite possibly, this was the deepest any human had ever gone.
'Now, let's figure out what this thing is.'
He expected the floor to be another smooth sheet of orange metal, but this was anything but that. It was just this red and smooth surface, as far as he could see.
Harry spent a while exploring the cavern, walking back and forth along the surface. It took him an hour of walking, but he finally reached the edge. There, he discovered a vertical red wall, seemingly made of the same substance as the floor. For the rest of the day, he walked along this wall. Best he could tell, he was in large circular or oval cavern, perhaps with a perimeter of 20 miles or so. It was impossible to keep track of distance or time down here.
At the end of it all, he ended up back where he started. All he got out of it were aching feet.
After exploring the whole chamber, he found nothing. Other than him, there was nothing else down here. Strangely, there was nothing here that could have caused the eruptions. He didn't know what he had expected to find, but he knew that there must have been something that caused the eruptions. Even if it wasn't something he could understand, that was fine. But to see absolutely nothing at all was just perplexing.
The crushing helplessness was coming back, and he plopped down on the ground, looking upwards at the barely-visible orange shaft.
It was tantalizingly out of reach.
This time, there was really nothing that could save him.
"I'm going to starve to death down here," he sighed.
"All the plans I had for my life… so many hopes and dreams… I guess, they end now."
Once upon a time, a time that seemed like ages ago, he was just a weak boy who could only dream about the future. Before he was swept up in the whirlwind that had been the past few months, when his life was a simple quota of 20 Qi Crystals a day, he dreamed of gaining the strength to be independent and leave the shadow of the Dursleys. In his wildest dreams, he dreamed of searching the empire for his mother, to learn about his origins and family. Of course, that dream ended after he met Slughorn and learned that she was dead. But still, he had other things he wished for – he wanted the strength to travel the empire, the strength to defeat the Dursleys, the strength to never have to slave in the mines for another day in his life.
In some sense, he had achieved those. If he saw Dudley or Vernon Dursley now, he could get his revenge. He could kill them in a single slap, for that matter. If he wanted, he could easily replace Vernon as the ruler of Crystal Mine City.
But after meeting Slughorn and the cat, and learning more about himself and his strength, his horizons broadened. Accompanying that, his goals widened too. Now that he knew how powerful the Nameless Technique was, he began to dream larger. He found himself wanting to become an Inner Disciple of the Swan Sea Sect, wanting to visit the Tier 1 cities and the Scarlet Phoenix Capital, to explore the empire and live a life without regrets.
And of course, he cultivated to expel the poison out his body, and –
"Right!' Harry exclaimed and leapt up.
"I finished the Nameless Technique! So now, I can reach the 9th level of the Body Tempering Realm, and expel the poison – ah, but what's the point?"
His sudden rush of excitement was abruptly stifled, and he sat back down again, depressed and defeated. One of his most important goals was to reach the 9th level of the Body Tempering Realm and remove the Fetal Crippling Poison. He had been blocked from completing that because of the Nameless Technique, but just when he finished that, it all became pointless.
Indeed, how was reaching the 9th level going to help him now?
"But still, I want to do it! I want to remove this poison, even if I'm doomed to die down here! At the very least, I'll die without this regret!"
"Well, even though I say that… how am I going to get to the 9th level? I don't have any pills on me, and it's not like there's any Qi down here – well, there's this, I suppose," Harry thought out loud, while looking at the Heaven Grade Natural Essence.
Unfortunately, it was impossible for him to refine this Natural Essence. He had to be in the Qi Absorption Realm for that.
He knew from past experimentation that although the Nameless Seed could effortlessly refine elemental Qi, it was only for the Nameless Technique. Once he was done with Strengthening Flesh for example, it was impossible to use the Nameless Seed to refine more Wood Qi and use that for regular cultivation. The moment the Nameless Seed had its fill of a certain element, it would only accept the next one. Now that he was done with Water Qi, perhaps it would only accept Wood Qi again. Or perhaps, it wouldn't accept any Qi at all.
He gave the Nameless Seed a hopeful nudge, but it didn't respond no matter how many times he tried.
"Forget it," Harry sighed. It seemed he didn't have the ability to reach the 9th level.
"Damnit… if only I hadn't given those two pills to Slade…" he moped over the two lost Qi Gathering Pills. If he kept those, he could have used them to refine the Qi in this Natural Essence.
Harry lay at the bottom of the Swan's Seamount for an unknown period of time, just staring upwards, vainly trying to see the top. But it was a fool's errand, something that hurt the more he stared. Finally, he tore his gaze away.
"What a pity… and just as I completed the Nameless Technique too," Harry groaned. To him, that was the biggest frustration. Right after completing the Five Minor Accomplishments, and unraveling the mysteries of the Nameless Technique, he didn't even get a chance to use it. His accomplishment would go unknown.
"Actually, now that I think about it, there is one more mystery I never figured out," he spoke to himself. It was a single sentence that dwelled within his mind, one of the hundreds that made up the text of the Nameless Technique, but the only one he hadn't yet understood.
'Condense the Ring of Elements, refine twice as fast with half the effort, revolve the Ring of Elements, gather the strength of Creation.'
"Well, I have plenty of time to think about this statement," Harry sighed.
"Condense the Ring of Elements, condense the Ring of Elements, what's the Ring of Elements?"
"Obviously, it should refer to the Five Elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. And the 'ring' should refer to how they form a cycle. Wood feeds Fire, Fire produces Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal collects Water, and Water nourishes Wood. Like that, the cycle forms a ring – could that be the Ring of Elements?"
"No, that doesn't seem right. It says to condense the Ring of Elements – that makes me think that the Ring is a physical object, and I'm supposed to make it appear, like how other people condense their Magic Spirits. I must be missing something," he frowned.
"And then the next line is about revolving the Ring of Elements. That just further points to it being an actual object."
Harry mused and ruminated over these words for a long period of time. After all, it wasn't like he had anything else to do. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he cursed and leapt to his feet.
"Ah, what's the point of all this? I'm not the kind of person who figures it out by thinking it over. I'm a person of action!"
For the first time, he activated all of the Five Minor Accomplishments together.
Strengthening Flesh! Burning Blood! Rebirthing Muscle! Forging Bone! Washing Marrow!
The Nameless Seed immediately jolted into action, releasing five different types of Qi throughout his body. He felt the surging Wood Qi permeate through his flesh, the raging Fire Qi dance through his blood, the thick Earth Qi settle into his muscles, the hard Metal Qi strengthen his bones, and the gentle Water Qi replenishing his marrow. The five types of Qi filled every part of his body, and he felt whole.
Immediately after, a phrase appeared in his mind.
Five Element Battle Body
"Five Element Battle Body," he said out loud, marveling at how right it felt. Indeed, there was an overflowing power surging through his body right now. To put it in a single word, he felt unstoppable.
Each of the five elements added a type of strength to his body. The five kinds of energy intertwined through his body, strengthening each other but also complementing each other. Each of the Five Elements were like links in a chain – individually they were strong, but when joined together, they became even stronger. They acted and counteracted, existing in a delicate balance.
"This feeling… it's amazing," Harry closed his eyes, and just enjoyed the sensation of strength rippling through his body.
'Wood feeds Fire, Fire produces Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal collects Water, Water nourishes Wood.'
Indeed, he could feel the Fire Qi drawing on Wood Qi to burn even hotter, the Earth Qi being generated out of the Fire Qi for additional strength, Metal Qi formed from Earth Qi, Water Qi collecting out of the Metal Qi, and finally, Wood Qi being nourished by the Water Qi, only for the cycle to start over again. Constantly cycling, the Five Elements were born over and over within Harry's body.
In a ring it went, a ring of elements, creating a perfect balance within his body. He felt that he finally understood the fundamental relationships behind the five elements.
With that understanding, Harry opened his eyes again. When he did, he found that the chamber was lit by a bright, five-colored glow.
'Huh?' he leapt in shock. He whirled around, and saw that behind his back, five balls of light had appeared. They formed the five points of a perfect pentagon, silently floating in the air.
There was a ball of vivid green light, a ball of blazing red, another of dark brown, a fourth ball of deep gold, and finally, a fifth ball of sparkling blue. They were the Five Elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.
Even as he watched, the balls of light stretched into circular arcs, elongating and joining up to form a perfect circle. The circle was split into five sections, each a different color, each a different element. Together, they formed a five-colored ring.
"The – the Ring!" Harry blurted out. So, this was the Ring of Elements!
As he suspected, the Ring referred to an actual object, not just the interpretation of the cyclic nature of the Five Elements.
"I did it!" he exclaimed. As it turned out, to condense the Ring of Elements, he had to complete the Five Minor Accomplishments, and fully understand the relationship between the elements and the changes in his body. After that, it could be summoned and activated with just a thought.
And now, to revolve the ring…
All it took was his will, and slowly, the ring became to turn. It sped up as it did, each section merging into the next, gaining more and more speed, until it became of five-colored blur revolving behind him.
As it picked up speed, Harry's eyes widened as he felt a strength gather in between the ring. It was like a suction, taking in all the energy between the heavens and earth.
The inside of this chamber was bare and desolate, without any Qi. But, there was one single source of Qi in there – the Heaven Grade Natural Essence that was in his hand.
With rapt attention, Harry watched as a thick stream of Qi was drawn out of the crystal, and connected with the blue segment of the ring. As the ring spun, more Water Qi was drawn out, similar to how a seamstress might unspool yarn. Within the center of the ring, a ball of Water Qi could be clearly seen, growing and accumulating, until it reached a critical point and shot into Harry's body.
"This is the Qi from the Natural Essence? And it's entering my meridians – wait! I'm not ready –"
Whatever he was about to think next was cut off as his world drowned into the worst pain he had ever felt.
The Qi was entering his meridians, through the Lung Meridian, Heart Protector Meridian, then the next six, until finally it was into the Skeletal Meridian. Without the chance to mentally prepare himself, the rushing Qi from a Heaven Grade treasure forcefully entered the 9th meridian, where the Fetal Crippling Poison lay waiting.
"AAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," Harry let out the loudest scream of his life.
A war was being waged in the depths of his bones, one caused him endless pain and torment. Under this kind of pain, nothing else compared. Opening the previous eight meridians were painful, but they paled in comparison to this. Getting stabbed, slashed, burned, punched, all of those painful experiences were meaningless in front of this one.
Despite having completed Forging Bone, he could feel his skeleton cracking under the vicious battle taking place within, he could hear bones creaking and snapping. He screamed as he both felt and saw the radius bone on his right arm shatter, and his entire arm suddenly went limp.
Washing Marrow!
Harry desperately activated the last of the Five Minor Accomplishments, and the soothing Water Qi spread through his body, mending his arm. But even as the fragments of bone were put together, another one in his body broke under the strain.
Healed and broken, healed and broken, over and over this cycle went. Harry wished it would stop, but in his state, couldn't exert any control over the five-colored ring spinning behind him. As long as it spun, Water Qi was drawn out of the Natural Essence and pushed into his body.
He could understand why no one had ever defeated this vile poison, why being infected by this substance was equivalent to a certain death. Even with his immense willpower, he knew that without the Ring of Elements forcing Qi into him, he would long have begged for it to stop.
Further, unless the cultivator had a power like Washing Marrow that could continuously heal the user, their body would have been ripped apart from the strain. They would become nothing more than a pile of flesh and skin, with every bone of their skeleton reduced to fragments.
Harry screamed until he was hoarse, then screamed some more afterwards. After what must have been hours, with a sudden heave and lurch forward, Harry knelt over and vomited out something, something dark and nasty, a black liquid that dribbled through his lips. It was like glue, or a sticky pudding, regurgitating out his mouth and both nostrils. Just when the first mouthful was over and Harry took a deep breath, he heaved again and out came the next batch. Again, and again, for a total of nine times, the remaining bits of the Fetal Crippling Poison were expelled from his body in the only way it could.
When the ordeal was finally over, Harry just rolled over and collapsed, completely spent. Every nerve of his body was tingling in pain, and he felt like if he moved even slightly, his world would explode again.
'That black thing must be the Fetal Crippling Poison. Damnit, whoever poisoned my mother sure was vicious!'
Just a glance at the disgusting substance and one could tell it was a horrible thing. It radiated a sense of wrongness, a feeling of pure evil. Just being near the substance gave Harry the shivers.
'Someone actually put that in a fetus!' Harry seethed. 'Whoever you are, you better not let me find you!'
The sheer amount of depravity it required to put that sort of thing into a fetus left Harry sick. It was an act steeped in pure evil, one he couldn't possibly bring himself to ever do. Even for the people he hated the most, though he wished them ill, or even wanted them dead, he wouldn't be able to poison them with something like this. Just what kind of evil powers had his mother been mixed up with?
But despite all that, and through the haze of pain, he felt a great sense of accomplishment. With his own strength, perseverance, and willpower, he actually managed to remove the poison that was said to have no cure.
"I actually made it to the 9th level of the Body Tempering Realm," he marveled at himself.
"My life goal was to reach the 9th level, and I actually did it! Even if I die tomorrow, at least that's one less regret I have. Hah, I must be the first Spiritless person to make it this far… huh?"
Just as the Qi finished settling into his Skeletal Meridian, he felt a vast existence suddenly stir in his body. Like a flower blossoming, or a cloud splitting open to let out the rain, something in his body awakened, and he gasped as a wondrous feeling flooded his senses.
'This… can it be…'
And then he was rushing upwards, not in physical body but in spirit. His consciousness was shooting towards the Heavens at a tremendous speed, soaring like a comet, until the surroundings were blurred and then he was in a different space, in the middle of a vast expanse of darkness, where the background was lit by countless distant stars.
Far off, he saw the innumerable stars twinkling in the cosmos, forming rivers of light that wound through the universe. Huge clusters of them floated together, orbiting even larger bodies. He was drifting, somewhere, in the endless void.
Yet, he wasn't alone.
Directly in front of him was a tall figure wrapped in endless chains, massive chains that stretched for millions upon millions of miles, far into the void behind him. Hundreds of them extended into the darkness, wrapping around what looked like a gigantic pillar that stretched vertically without end, though it was too large to make out what it was. Countless more were heading downwards, disappearing into the pitch-black depths. They wrapped every inch of the figure's body, turning him into a crucified mummy, so that the only visible part of his body was a single closed eye. But despite the heavy chains, the figure stood tall and straight, refusing to bow.
The moment Harry laid his eyes on the figure, a name appeared in its mind.
Cursed Sovereign Spirit