After sealing off the world and dealing with the members of the evil fiend clan, Solanky returned to the continent. He settled in the sky and began comprehending Behan's techniques. The first technique he chose to study was known as Spiritual Essence Compression.
Spiritual Essence Compression was a method Behan had experimented with countless samsaras ago, long before he broke through to become a guarding ancestor.
The technique operated on a principle that was both simple and profound. A cultivator would first absorb enormous quantities of energies and essences from the external world, treasures, and artifacts until their body could no longer accommodate any more. Once this limit was reached, the cultivator would channel the excess energies and essences out of their body and into a storage treasure or another vessel capable of containing them. It compresses the spiritual energies and essences to x times its original volume. By compressing the essences and energies, it initially makes the being weaker but when released it surges and becomes several times purer and plentiful than its original volume before compression. This is extremely useful for beings with a higher lifeform. It could only be used once in every cultivation stage.
The remaining energies and essences, which belonged exclusively to the cultivator, would then undergo a process of compression and crystallization. These crystallized reserves would be stored within the cultivator's internal world, forming a powerful reserve of concentrated energy that could be accessed whenever necessary.
Through this process, the purity and density of the energies and essences within the cultivator's main internal world would increase several fold.
However, the technique did not end there.
The energies and essences that had been transferred into the storage treasure could subsequently be reabsorbed into the cultivator's body. These reserves would replace the compressed and crystallized energies and essences consumed from the internal world, providing the cultivator with an alternative source of power.
Depending on the quantity stored, these reserves could sustain a cultivator for years. More importantly, they would allow the energies and essences naturally produced by the cultivator's internal world to accumulate without being constantly consumed in battle.
Once the cultivator released the crystallized reserves together with the absorbed energies and essences, they could unleash an explosive surge of power several levels beyond their normal capabilities without suffering the usual backlash associated with such an increase.
When incorporated into attacks, this temporary amplification could elevate the laws and concepts governing those attacks to a level beyond what the cultivator could ordinarily comprehend or execute.
The technique could also serve as a lifesaving trump card. Since the cultivator's original energies and essences would remain largely preserved within their internal world, they would not need to worry about exhausting their natural reserves as quickly as they otherwise would.
Furthermore, with sufficient practice, the crystallized energy and essence reserves could absorb additional power from the cultivator's internal world and consciousness space, replenishing themselves over time.
This created a secondary reserve that could be deployed whenever the internal world's normal production failed to keep pace with the cultivator's energy consumption.
The significance of this ability became even more apparent when considering beings at the Entity Level and above. The energies and essences possessed by such beings could sustain the life of a dying sun or star in the lower realms for an additional five million years, even if their internal worlds stopped producing new energies and essences throughout that period. Only when the stored reserves were finally depleted would their sustaining influence come to an end.
After thoroughly comprehending the principles behind the technique, Solanky immediately recognized its value.
He possessed two bodies. If both could master Spiritual Essence Compression, their combat power, endurance, and chances of survival would increase considerably.
With that thought in mind, he waved his hand, summoning the lightning cauldron beside him.
His Black God clone entered the cauldron first, followed by his source-defying main body. Throughout the entire process, the puppet remained outside the continent, standing guard against any unexpected intruders.
Inside the lightning cauldron, Solanky waved his hand again.
Countless treasures and corpses appeared before him and his Black God clone. More than a hundred transcendent grasses of eternity floated in the air, their powerful medicinal properties radiating through the surrounding space. At the same time, three hundred billion cubic feet of eternal soil poured onto the base of the enormous cauldron.
With the necessary resources prepared, Solanky formed a series of hand seals and activated the Devouring Heart Technique through both bodies.
They began devouring the energies and essences contained within the eternal soil and transcendent grasses of eternity.
Within their respective internal worlds, the energies and essences began undergoing a remarkable transformation. Meanwhile, the absorbed power from the eternal soil and transcendent grasses flowed into their world veins, circulating throughout their internal worlds like mighty rivers.
Ordinary beings would have struggled to make full use of such enormous quantities of foreign energies and essences. Without a suitable technique, absorbing them did not necessarily mean that they could refine and integrate everything into their own power efficiently.
Solanky, however, possessed the Devouring Heart Technique.
Its extraordinary refinement capabilities allowed both bodies to transform the foreign energies and essences into their own, enabling them to absorb, circulate, and utilize the power as naturally as if it had originated within them.
As the transformation approached completion, the production of energies and spiritual essences within their internal worlds gradually slowed.
The energies and essences that had already accumulated within those worlds began condensing into countless crystalline spheres. These crystals formed an almost impenetrable barrier along the boundaries of each internal world, creating a vast reserve of compressed power.
Meanwhile, the energies flowing through Solanky's world veins underwent another transformation.
His world veins had already been sixty percent transformed to match those of a first-turn being. With the assistance of the eternal soil and transcendent grasses of eternity, the purity of his energies and essences increased to an entirely new level.
The moment Solanky attempted to unleash his true offensive power, he faintly sensed the approach of the peak-summit trials.
His expression changed slightly.
He immediately suppressed his rising power and sealed away forty percent of the energies and essences surging through his world veins. He could not afford to attract the trials prematurely, especially when he still had important matters to accomplish.
Even after sealing away that portion of his power, the improvement was astonishing.
His main body could now unleash attacks equivalent to 850 billion times the power of an Infinite Source God, while his Black God body could exert power equivalent to 750 billion times that of an Infinite Source God.
Solanky scanned his internal world and physical body with his spiritual sense. After confirming the results, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Sixty percent of his energies and essences had now been transformed into peak-life energies and essences.
This achievement carried a significance beyond the immediate increase in his combat power.
It officially placed him among the extraordinary half-step peak-turn beings capable of sensing the peak-summit trials.
Within this cultivation realm, the ability to sense either the peak-summit trials or the peak-turn reincarnation was considered an exceptional accomplishment. A half-step peak-turn being who could perceive these phenomena was generally far more powerful than others at the same cultivation level.
Such beings could even wield true-peak power through their strongest attacks, allowing them to match the base attacks of an ancestor.
This distinction could be decisive in battle. While ordinary cultivators might struggle to bridge the gap between their cultivation levels and those of higher beings, these exceptional individuals could overwhelm opponents who were supposedly equal to them.
Solanky understood the implications immediately.
His power had advanced to a point where he could begin touching the boundaries of a higher realm without having to complete the breakthrough itself.
After studying Spiritual Essence Compression in greater depth, he also understood why Behan had developed the technique in the first place.
It was particularly suitable for beings whose lifeforms were comparatively weaker and whose bodies could not naturally accommodate enormous reserves of energies and essences.
Through the technique, such beings could temporarily bridge the gap between their lifeforms and those of more powerful existences.
However, this advantage would only last until the absorbed energies and crystallized reserves were completely depleted. Once that happened, the cultivator would return to their original state, and the difference between their lifeform and that of their opponent would once again become apparent.
The technique also possessed a significant weakness.
The moment all the crystallized energy and essence cores within the internal world were exhausted, the cultivator's power would decline rapidly.
This happened because the internal world reduced its normal production of energies and essences while the external reserves were available. Since the cultivator's immediate needs were already being met by the stored power, the internal world had little reason to continue producing energies and essences at its usual rate.
Consequently, once the reserves ran dry, the cultivator would temporarily find themselves with a diminished supply of naturally produced power.
Nevertheless, Solanky considered this an acceptable trade-off.
After all, the technique was designed to provide an extraordinary temporary increase in power, not to create an endless source of energy.
As for his Black God clone, its lifeform had not undergone a corresponding increase in rank. However, the density of its energies and essences had increased considerably.
This improvement strengthened its endurance and enabled it to execute several sophisticated techniques that would previously have been difficult to sustain.
Satisfied with the results, Solanky turned his attention toward the base of the cauldron.
The enormous quantity of eternal soil resting there had barely changed.
He carefully examined the remaining soil with his spiritual sense and discovered something that left him astonished.
Despite both bodies having absorbed such tremendous quantities of energy, they had managed to extract only forty percent of the energies and essences contained within the eternal soil.
Solanky stared at the remaining soil for a moment before his eyes brightened.
The rumors he had heard about eternal soil possessing the ability to heal the wounds of ancestor-level beings were apparently true.
If both his bodies could absorb only forty percent of its available power, then the remaining energies and essences must be extraordinarily difficult to extract. Even so, the amount they had already absorbed was enough to produce a remarkable transformation.
An idea suddenly occurred to him.
Perhaps he should allow his puppet to absorb some of the remaining energies and essences.
However, after considering the matter carefully, he abandoned the idea.
Instead, he decided to refine the eternal soil into lifesaving pills that he could use in the future.
With his decision made, Solanky sat down and waved his hand, drawing large quantities of eternal soil from the base of the cauldron. He began shaping and refining the soil into pills, carefully controlling the process to preserve as much of its extraordinary power as possible.
Fortunately, his source-defying flame and nine lightning thunder proved invaluable during the refinement.
Under their influence, impurities and imperfections within the materials were gradually eliminated. The medicinal properties were further refined, increasing the purity and density of the energies and essences contained within each pill.
The refinement continued without interruption.
A hundred years passed quietly within the lightning cauldron.
By the time Solanky finally completed the process, he had successfully refined millions of pills.
He immediately summoned his puppet into the cauldron and selected thirty of the newly refined pills. After feeding them to the puppet and allowing their energies and essences to be absorbed, he successfully raised its cultivation to the mid-peak-life stage of the third turn.
Solanky was pleased with the result.
He had also given five hundred of the pills to the Forsaken God and reserved another thousand for Elisa. He intended to present them to her the next time they met, providing her with additional resources that could prove useful in the future.
Having completed these preparations, Solanky rose to his feet and teleported out of the lightning cauldron.
His Black God clone remained behind, sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the enormous vessel. It would continue studying the mission, examining the available information and formulating possible strategies for the challenges that awaited them.
Solanky had no intention of entering the mission unprepared.
The moment his main body appeared outside the cauldron, he noticed an immediate difference.
His entire existence felt lighter, as though an invisible burden had been lifted from his shoulders. The laws and concepts of the Beyond Realm became much clearer to his perception, and he could sense their intricate structures without making any deliberate effort.
The transformation was not merely a consequence of his increased power.
The refinement of his energies and essences had also improved his ability to perceive and interact with the fundamental principles governing the surrounding world.
More importantly, he could now sense the location of his peak-summit trials with far greater clarity.
A breakthrough to the ancestor level was drawing closer.
Within the Beyond Realm, no being had managed to surpass the threshold of 750 billion times the power of an Infinite Source God without attempting the breakthrough to become a true peak-turn being.
Elisa remained the sole exception to this established rule.
Now, with his main body capable of unleashing 850 billion times the power of an Infinite Source God, Solanky had crossed the very threshold that had prevented other beings from advancing further without facing their trials.
The implications were obvious.
His breakthrough was no longer a distant possibility. It had become an approaching inevitability.
Nevertheless, he still possessed approximately one million years to prepare before making his attempt.
For Solanky, this was more than enough time to strengthen his foundations, refine his techniques, and explore the opportunities available to him.
Yet he could not afford to become complacent.
The mission awaiting him represented an extraordinary opportunity, one that might never present itself again. Breaking through to the ancestor level immediately would mean abandoning the chance to obtain whatever benefits the mission held.
Solanky was not willing to make such a sacrifice without good reason.
He had come too far, and the path ahead promised discoveries that could fundamentally change his future.
For now, he would suppress his breakthrough and focus on the mission.
After all, becoming an ancestor was only one step toward the heights he intended to reach.
And Solanky had never been content with taking only one step when he could seize an opportunity to advance much further.