Chapter 34: Besieged

Zax was lying on the ground. Beside him was Laivien, with eyes emanating great reverence. Next to Laivien was the group of young and adult Krikitories, with all kinds of bizarre expressions plastering on their bear's faces.

"Woah!" Zax exhaled, spitting grass, stones and mud from his mouth. His jaw, his tongue, his teeth, his lips and his stomach were astonishingly hurting.

'Too frightening! Too frightening!' Zax bellowed in his mind. 'The third bottleneck of insight ... How many days has it been since I perceived its spark?' Zax truly wanted to know. The only thing he remember from the moment of finally finding the spark of light, after a month and a half of training, was tasting something too good to put into words.

'Advanced phase Mist Lord ... Next bottleneck will either place my soul a step from the Core Master realm or will completely make me break through the Core Master realm. Aha ... Hope it would be the former'.

Zax continued to stay with his back on the ground, panting. Each time he breathed out a blade of grass, grains of sand, minced fragments of stones would fly out.

The third bottleneck of insight has affected his sense of taste. When he just encountered the spark of light, it cause every breath his body took to feel as if even air suddenly had a flavor, and one so good he forgot to exhale!

After comprehending the bottleneck of insight, the taste of the world, Zax figured, and exiting his sea of consciousness, then the nightmare began.

Like the previous two bottlenecks, the third one was even a bit more overwhelming. Before his eyes had the chance to glance at the surrounding of Laivien's little valley, his mouth was already salivating.

Since then, for a period of a month and a half, Zax struggled with everything he had against the urge to devour everything, luckily, it excluded living beings. As a result, his mouth was endlessly chewing on stones, grass and earth, while occasionally breathing so much air, nearly exploding his lungs. More than once Zax pushed himself to utter exhaustion and passed out. Only then did his body reluctantly release the strain from his lungs.

During the month and a half, for the first few days, Zax's Master had come to Laivien's valley, to keep an eye on his Martial son.

He left, eventually, after assuring his little sister that due to his body fitness level Zax is actually having it easy and is fine.

As a matter of fact, according to Kartius, Zax was much more than fine, since it appeared like the bottleneck he comprehended is the catalyst bottleneck that would allow him to keep cultivating the Seven Stages Of Bodily Refinement without relying on external supplements. At least until he will break through the seventh gate.

"Is it over? Have you adapted to the third bottleneck?" Laivien inquired after Zax sat up.

Zax grimaced and nodded. The sweet, indescribable flavor of the world reminisced on a few of his taste buds. Everything else he consumed, that was not yet digested, caused his stomach to discharge extremely bitter gases, sometimes with a bit of leftovers...

WHOOSH!

Zax could not stand the calmness anymore, which only made the bitter taste in his mouth more pungent, and jumped to his feet. "Give me a moment". He told Laivien and the rest and closed his eyes, entering his sea of consciousness.

First thing Zax caught a glimpse of was the size of his Inner Panorama. After comprehending and getting adapted to the third bottleneck of insight, the radius of his Inner Panorama grew larger again, encompassing almost five hundred meters around his soul!

Such a large increase in size was not to belittle. Even though those nearly five hundred meters were still a drop in the vast sea of consciousness, with every added millimeter in size, the sensation of intense lucidity spread farther. Allowing Zax to maintain a certain degree of it even if he is outside of the Inner Panorama and make him wonder to what degree it then would be, when he will comprehend all six bottlenecks of insight.

Tapping with his manifested toes on a small patch of sandy land of the Inner Panorama, although Zax was curious about the little dark attribute buds and how they evolved after he comprehended the third bottleneck, he put them aside for a moment. The instant Zax's naked body completely manifested, his gaze was captivated by something greater, his soul.

Ignoring the fragrance, the ticklish feeling and the newly added flavor that sprouted in his Inner Panorama, Zax walked with hurried steps to his soul.

'Strange ... Strange... ' Zax murmured. His soul towered above him, high, suddenly so tall that, perhaps, its height was not shorter than the Inner Panorama's length to any direction from it. 'There is almost barely fog, and it's easier to see in comparison to how it looked before I comprehended the third bottleneck... ' His voice softly said.

Turning his head gently to the sides, Zax was bewildered by the width of his soul. Opposite to its height, the width was an entirely different matter. Now, instead of looking like a giant structure, the soul was so thin in its first two thirds, that starting up above to the last third, it gave Zax the feeling of standing next to a colossal, elder tree.

As Zax got to four meters from his soul, a bizarre phenomenon suddenly started to occur. The dark attribute inside his soul began to wiggle like a curtain in the wind and from the other side of its darkness, something hazy reflected.

Zax squinted his eyes, to try and perceive the shape of the reflection. Contrary to his effort, the hazy reflection and even the soul turned blurry and the previously scarce fog gradually thickened.

Within the fog, without realizing when it happened, Zax's five senses, even those stimulated by the fragrance, ticklish feeling and flavor, suddenly became numb. As if his manifested body was possessed, Zax started walking backwards and stopped only after he left the region of the fog. Simultaneously, as he left, the fog once more dissipated.

'Mm?' Zax awakened from the daze. His face looking straight at his soul, he felt at odds with himself. At the first breath he could just vaguely recall the memory of the steps he took, but at the second, as he refused to let go of the thought, he bit by bit felt as if he issued the decision to go back.

'Can I not approach my own soul?' Zax asked himself in the third breath, frowning, yet after couple of seconds his face relaxed. 'Absurd'. The sixth breath almost sounded as if he said it jokingly.

Strangely, by the seventh breath he did not care anymore about what transpire moments ago. He also seemed to forget about why he was captivated with his soul and the hazy reflection behind the dark attribute curtain. He certainly was not worried about how close he can get to his soul.

As if to prove something to his indifferent demeanor, Zax turned around and looked up. Remembering that he spent all of his Soul Binding formation against Ginlin, a stream of soul energy flew from his soul as he casually constructed the shapes and pieces till one formation was ready for use.

'Almost there'. The formation was not far from perfection. 'Later I'll create more'. Only now Zax lowered his head to examine the dark attribute buds.

'Oh ... they grew a little'. The vista of his Inner Panorama has been through more than just a change in its size.