45 Fatal injuries

It's been four days since Nero threw out a challenge to the five ruling powers, and since then, he has locked himself in his room training nonstop. The training in question was not something a normal martial artist would do to get stronger. In this case, Nero was probing his body condition trying to know the depths of his injuries.

Looking at where the dantian should be, one could see a deep blue revolving sphere. This was the spirit core that forms when one steps into the Core formation Realm. Deep cracks appeared on the surface of the core; it looked like it could shatter at any moment. Nero probed the core to find out that the cracks were slowly expanding.

The spirit core served the purpose of the dantian, storing energy. The dantian can only be considered as the elementary form, whereas the core is a more advanced form. The core unlike the dantian doesn't only store Qi but also compresses Qi to its minimal state at the time. To describe in simpler words, the dantian can store up a sizeable amount of Qi, but the spirit core can not only store up Qi but can also compress it giving more room to accumulate more Qi. If the dantian can store up Qi the size of a river then the core can store up Qi the size of a mighty sea.

In his clash with that ancient artifact, Nero took a lot of damage to fend off the power released by that artifact. This led to him sustaining injuries in the major parts of his being- his spirit core, his meridians, and his divine sea. Nero shifted his senses to his meridians and what he saw made him sigh bitterly. Up to 90% of his meridians were torn apart, and this was only his major meridians. His minor meridians were left in a more miserable state, only a measly 10% of them remained.

If a normal martial artist was to sustain such levels of injuries, then a miracle was in no way enough to explain why they were still alive. The soul which is housed in the divine sea, the meridians which serve as channels through which Qi can flow, the spirit core which is the source of all energy in the body. These parts are what make up a martial arts cultivator. If one of them were to be injured in even the slightest way, the least cause would be turning to be cripple; a martial artist reverting to his mortality forever losing the ability to pursue the path of cultivation and perceive the wonders of martial arts.

Nero's core had deep cracks that slowly expanded, the majority of his total meridians are torn apart, at this point he was scared to look at the third part… his divine sea. Steeling his mind, his senses moved and appeared in his divine sea.

As expected, everything was in shambles. The divine sea can be described as a vast expanse of one's intellectuality. Apart from that, it also housed the soul. The soul is the most important aspect of every martial artist. Even if one's body was destroyed as long as the soul was still intact they could reform another body despite the number of years it would take.

Nero's divine sea was in no way what a normal martial artist's divine sea should look like. Before him, was an endless darkness with occasional flashes of light and the sea was like a ravaging tiger undulating as it spread forth. This was no doubt dreadful. Nero's divine sea was almost shattered with its power undulating nonstop. It was truly a wonder how Nero was able to survive with this level of damage to his divine sea!

While Nero was immersed in his training, a loud knock that almost broke down the door resounded. Nero's eyes trembled as he slightly frowned, this knock had come unexpectedly which caused him to be moved a bit. Nero completely disregarded the knock and adjusted himself to his previous state. This time around what came next wasn't a knock but a push. The doors were flung wide open and a dazzling beauty walked in. This beauty was Amaya!

"Training as usual? Your concentration makes me greatly envy you." Her voice echoed calmly, softly penetrating the ear causing one's heart to waver. Nero didn't even flinch when she walked in; a beauty described as capable to bring down nations, a dream that not many influential figures could get close to, and she was standing in front of this fellow and he didn't even bat her an eye!? If those men could see Nero at this moment they would beat him to death.

Amaya frowned but didn't think much of it. Her lips curved into a smile as her she walked up to a tray of delicious fruits. She picked one up and casually tossed it in the air a couple of times before launching it with all her might, aiming straight at Nero's head. The fruit moved at an extreme speed aiming straight at Nero!

Nero's brows tilted upwards as his hand moved fast and reached out to catch the fruit. With his eyes still closed, he asked with an intimidating voice.

"What do you want?"

Amaya chuckled and replied, "I'm only here to entertain my guest, but it appears the only thing you're interested in doing is training."

With his eyes still closed, Nero asked, "Is it wrong to train? You seem to have been busy training yourself too…." At this point, he slowly opened his eyes and his green eyes glistened with a bright light.

Some mortals were born with different eye colors from the usual black or brown, but this happened sparingly. Such people were said to have a great deal of good fortune on their path. Nero can be considered to be one of such people.

As Amaya stared at his green eyes her thoughts turned hazy like she was lost in them but she abruptly snapped out of it. With her initially lofty voice she continued.

"You always seem to have something to say all the time. Well, you're not wrong. I spent four days trying to stabilize my cultivation and refine out the medicinal essence of the recovery pills I took. I've gotten stronger than I was before!"