Chapter 284: Gravity Becomes Spirit

"Thank you, sir," Wang Ping slowly lowered his hand, his tone calm and unperturbed, "If not for your 'Thousand Mountain Seal' helping me grasp the final thread of the crucial point, my Gravity Dao would probably still be unable to truly take this step."

He spoke the truth. Yan Gang's ultimate condensed, environment‑mobilizing gravity strike was like the final heavy hammer, shattering the last layer of membrane in his understanding of gravity, allowing him to glimpse the path to 'True Gravity Meaning' and fully fuse it with his own earth‑attribute spiritual power and the earth's pulse.

Although he has not yet formally 'awaken the spirit', his understanding and control of gravity have undergone a qualitative leap.

"Arrogant!" Yan Gang snapped back from his shock, shame and fury intertwined.

He, a proud genius of the Stone Demon Clan and heir of the Earth War Body, was actually countered by a human in a gravity contest—this is utter disgrace! 'Just a cheap trick! Let's see how many of my moves you can still block!'

He let out a furious roar, no longer relying solely on gravity to crush, but instead pushing his physical strength to the extreme, his whole body turning into a gray‑brown meteor that slammed violently toward Wang Ping!

His fists pounded like war drums, carrying the might to shatter mountains and split stone; wherever the fist wind passed, the air exploded with sound!

This time, it was a pure, brutal physical slaughter!

Wang Ping's eyes narrowed. Although his gravity control had improved greatly, facing Yan Gang's furious, life‑risking strike, he still dared not be the slightest bit careless.

After all, his opponent's flesh, comparable to a magic treasure, and his violent strength were utterly real.

He shifted his feet slightly, his form drifting back like willow fluff in the wind, while simultaneously forming hand seals, and five‑colored spiritual light surged around him!

"'Five Phases Revolve, earth as the foundation—Thousand Layer Barrier!'"

Boom—rumble—rumble!

The ground before Wang Ping suddenly rose, a earth‑yellow rock wall dozens of zhang thick and over ten zhang high shooting up, its surface flowing with cyan, red, white, and black spiritual patterns; the Five Phases power cycled back and forth, reinforcing it to an unimaginable degree. This was no ordinary earth wall, but a composite defense built primarily of earth‑attribute with the Five Phases mutually generating.

Almost the instant the rock wall formed, Yan Gang's fist arrived.

"'Break it for me!'"

Thud——!!!

His fist slammed hard into the wall's center! A dull, thunder‑like roar exploded in the cavity, the violent shockwave spreading in rings, shaking the entire subterranean space! The rock wall shuddered violently, its spiritual patterns flashing wildly, countless rubble pattering down, a huge dent and countless spider‑web cracks appearing at the wall's middle—but… it ultimately did not break!

Yan Gang's punch, enough to blast a small mountain, was actually blocked!

"'What?!' Yan Gang's pupils contracted sharply. He knew exactly how much weight his punch carried; even an ordinary Golden Core cultivator's magic‑treasure shield might not withstand it, yet it was stopped by a hastily condensed rock wall?"

Just as his old force had faded and his new force not yet arisen, in the instant his mind wavered from shock, Wang Ping moved.

He did not burst out from behind the wall; instead, his form flickered, as if merging with the earth, and he silently 'slid' out from the wall's side. At the same time, he pressed together his right index and middle fingers, pointing empty‑handed at Yan Gang's position and gave a light tap.

This finger was aimed not at Yan Gang's body, but at the rocky ground beneath his feet.

"'Gravity Stacking, Threefold Wave.'"

In silent stillness, Yan Gang felt the supporting force from the ground beneath his feet suddenly shift!

First change: the gravity under his feet instantly increased fivefold! Caught off guard, his knees bent slightly and his body sank.

Second change: the gravity direction violently veered left by thirty degrees! His balance collapsed at once, and he involuntarily staggered left.

Third change: the veered gravity suddenly snapped back to normal, but its strength tripled! It felt as if someone shoved him hard in the waist and pressed a small mountain onto his head!

The three gravity changes came in rapid succession, irregular and bizarrely tricky. Despite Yan Gang's formidable physique and strong gravity adaptation, this exquisite, hair‑splitting control caught him off guard; his footing instantly went awry, he retreated seven or eight steps with a thud‑thud‑thud, barely stabilizing his posture, looking quite embarrassed.

Wang Ping, meanwhile, seized the opportunity, his form flashing like lightning, once again widening the distance between them, his gaze already fixed on the floating earth‑yellow light sphere at the cavity's center—the Earth Vein Marrow.

"'Damn it!' Yan Gang flew into a complete rage. Being toyed with again and again shattered the pride of his Stone Demon Clan genius. Gray‑brown spiritual light blazed wildly over his whole body, his aura surging again, faintly showing a tendency to break some limit! His skin began to show stone‑like natural patterns, his eyes turned wholly earth‑yellow, exuding a ferocity like that of a primordial beast."

"'It's you who forced me! Earth War Body, Burn Blood!'"

Obviously, he had activated some secret art that harms his foundation, intending to fight to the death!

Wang Ping frowned slightly. He could sense that Yan Gang was now several times more dangerous than before; the violent mix of earth‑attribute spiritual power and qi‑blood burning made his heart palpitate. A head‑on clash would certainly be unwise.

His gaze fell once more on the Earth Vein Marrow. That pure, vast earth‑attribute origin and gravity field were his goal for this trip, and also the chance to fully perfect his Gravity Dao and attempt to awaken the spirit.

In the flash of a thought, Wang Ping had already made his decision.

He no longer paid heed to the raging Yan Gang, who was about to finish activating his secret art; instead, he turned and stepped toward the cavity's center, toward the floating earth‑yellow light sphere!

This step entered the core gravity field radiating from the Earth Vein Marrow!

Boom——!!!

It was as if he had stepped into a mire‑filled deep sea, or struck an invisible wall of copper and iron! Unimaginably terrifying gravity pressed from all directions, from every pore, from every inch of bone and flesh! The five‑colored spiritual light shield around Wang Ping couldn't even hold for a breath, shattering like a soap bubble!

Ugh——!

Wang Ping let out a muffled groan; his bones all over emitted a grating, teeth‑aching sound, his skin instantly beaded with fine droplets of blood, which the immense pressure ground into blood mist. His waist and back bent involuntarily, his knees trembled, as if he would be forced to kneel in the next second—or even ground straight into minced meat!

The gravity in this core region exceeded the periphery by more than a hundredfold! Had his body not been tempered repeatedly by thunderbolts, and had he not just gained a fresh insight into the Gravity Dao, he would likely have collapsed the instant he stepped in.

Behind him, Yan Gang, having finished activating his secret art with an aura like a volcanic eruption, watched this scene, first stunned, then burst into wild laughter: 'Idiot! The core gravity field of the Earth Vein Marrow is something even Nascent Soul cultivators dare not lightly enter! You're seeking your own death! Good, saves me the trouble—I'll wait until you're crushed into minced meat, then the marrow will still be mine!'

He actually halted his steps, intending to watch Wang Ping be crushed to death by the gravity field.

Wang Ping turned a deaf ear to the mockery behind him. At this moment, he devoted all his mind to opposing the all‑penetrating, seemingly molecular‑crushing terrifying gravity.

Pain! Indescribable agony! It felt as if countless mountains were pressing down on him simultaneously; every inch of flesh, every meridian, every bone was wailing, struggling on the brink of collapse.

But he gritted his teeth and endured. Not only did he endure, he even strained a thread of divine sense to reach out, to contact and perceive the source of that gravity field—the Earth Vein Marrow.

The instant his divine sense touched the sphere, Wang Ping 'saw'.

It was not a simple clump of energy, but a … miniaturized, seemingly alive earth core! Countless earth‑yellow, extremely condensed origin runes flowed, collided, and arose and faded within it; each flow drove vast gravity undulations.

Deeper still, he 'heard' the earth's pulse—clear and rich a million times over—it was the planet's heartbeat, the throb of crustal motion, the breath of flowing magma!

Gravity is the extension of that heartbeat, pulse, and breath—the invisible arm by which this earth embraces, binds, and simultaneously nurtures all things!

Enlightenment, like lightning tearing through a black night sky, illuminated all his doubts about gravity.

All along, he had been 'using' gravity, as if it were a tool. But now he understood: gravity is not a tool; it is part of the earth's life, a living force possessing 'will,' 'emotion,' and 'rhythm'!

It can be a heavy shackle or a firm reliance; it can be a destructive crush or a gentle support. The key lies in how you comprehend it, how you communicate with it, how…… you earn its 'approval'!

"'With the body as earth, bearing all things; with the heart as guide, communing with the earth's veins……'"

In Wang Ping's heart, the ultimate secret scripture of the Earth Way flowed naturally. This was not text, but a realization pointing straight to the Great Dao.

He abandoned pure opposition to the gravity field.

He opened all defenses of body and mind.

He let himself become a clump of earth, a speck of dust, merging into this vast, weighty will of the earth.

He no longer "resisted" gravity, but went to "feel" it, to "understand" it, to……"become" part of it.

A wonderful change occurred.

The terrifying gravity that originally would have crushed him, upon touching his "released" body and mind, hesitated slightly. Then, like ice meeting spring wind, it began……to become gentle.

No, it wasn't that gravity became gentle, but Wang Ping's own way of "existing" changed. His body density was minutely adjusted on some level of law, his spiritual power frequency synchronized with the earth's pulse, and his soul's aura produced deep resonance with this land.

He still stood there, enduring the radiation of the earth vein marrow, but the deadly crushing sensation receded like a tide. In its place was a… strange feeling of being embraced by the earth and nourished by the earth veins.

Inside his dantian, the earthy-yellow spiritual light blazed with unprecedented brightness! The Earth Dao patterns on the surface of his Golden Core flickered wildly, extended, and intertwined, finally breaking free from the Golden Core's surface, condensing, compressing, and collapsing beside it… into a thumb-sized, perfectly round, dark-yellow seed, its surface naturally etched with countless intricate, mysterious patterns… an Earth-origin seed!

At the instant this seed formed, Wang Ping's comprehension of gravity surged in like a floodgate opened, pouring in tumultuously!

The rhythm of the earth's throb, the ripples of the gravity field, the breath of the crust, the torrent of magma… countless insights and artistic conceptions about gravity, about bearing, about profound virtue, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, gathered within this nascent seed.

The seed began to glow. Not a blinding light, but a warm, heavy, inwardly gathered earthy-yellow halo. Within the halo, one could seemingly see mountains and valleys rising and falling, see the earth extending, see all things growing upon it and returning to it in a cycle.

Point Spirit realm — Gravity Technique, at this moment, came to fruition naturally!

It was not a matter of forcibly imposing will, but rather naturally allowing the core of this art to give birth to its own "spirituality"—a will of the earth that "bears all things and pulses without cease"!

Hum——!!!

Centering on Wang Ping, an invisible yet vast as a sea force field erupted like an awakened beast! This force field shared its source with the gravity field of the earth vein marrow, yet bore Wang Ping's unique imprint. It was no longer merely a downward pull; instead, it seemed alive, able to transmit, stack, and resonate like waves, and could become an invisible hand performing fine traction, distortion, and interference.

At the edge of the cavern, Rockstrong, who had been waiting to watch the show, saw his ferocious grin freeze abruptly.

He felt that the gravity field of the earth vein marrow's core region ahead… had changed! No longer a chaotic, violent crushing, but had become… orderly? No, not merely orderly, it seemed to have acquired a "backbone", a "consciousness"! And the source of this newly born force field, which faintly resonated with the marrow's gravity field yet existed independently, was precisely that human kid!

"This… this is… Point Spirit?! Gravity Point Spirit?!" Rockstrong's voice changed tone, filled with incredulous shock. As a Stone Demon naturally attuned to earth's gravity, in his clan only elders of Nascent Soul or higher could master gravity control to the Point Spirit realm! How could a human, a Golden Core cultivator, achieve gravity Point Spirit in such a short time right under his nose?!

In response, Wang Ping slowly turned his figure.

At this moment, Wang Ping still stood within the terrifying gravity field of the earth vein marrow, yet he walked as if on level ground. A faint, warm earthy-yellow halo enveloped him, his robes fluttering without wind, his hair tips lifting slightly. Looking closely, the space beneath his feet twisted minutely, as if light passing through were gently "supported" by an invisible force.

His gaze was calm and profound, like the eternal, heavy earth; his look at Rockstrong held no trace of former solemnity or wariness, but instead carried a… faint, overlooking inclusiveness.

"Now," Wang Ping spoke, his voice not loud but carrying a strange, earth-resonating heavy echo, "It's my turn."

He raised his right hand toward Rockstrong's direction and made a vague grasping motion with his five fingers.

No grand display, no burst of spiritual power.

But Rockstrong felt that the space around him… had "come alive"!

From all directions—up, down, left, right, front, back—the gravity coming at him went berserk, pulling, squeezing! Sometimes pressing him to the ground, sometimes lifting him into the air, sometimes yanking left, sometimes pushing right… the speed, strangeness, and treachery far surpassed any gravity traps he had faced before! What was worse, these gravity changes stacked and resonated, forming a chaotic yet orderly "gravity strangling field" that sought to tear and grind his formidable flesh from every angle.

"Earth Battle Body, unmoving like a mountain!" Rockstrong roared in shock, pushing his Blood-Burning Secret Technique to the limit, as gray-brown spiritual light condensed into substance-like rock armor covering his whole body, his feet driven deep into the ground, attempting to resist with brute force and talent.

But this time, it was different.

Wang Ping's gravity control had already reached Point Spirit, containing the will of the earth's throb. It was no longer rigid field manipulation, but a living force endowed with spirituality. It could sense the weak points in Rockstrong's defense, find the gaps in his power flow, and, like the craftiest hunter, continually probe, drain, and seek a killing opportunity.

"Gravity tide, ninefold waves."

Wang Ping's five fingers twitched slightly, as if plucking invisible strings in the void.

First wave: gravity from all directions simultaneously pressed inward! Rockstrong's rock armor emitted a grating, teeth-aching creak.

Second wave: the pressing gravity suddenly sank downward! Rockstrong's feet sank deep into the rock strata, his knees bending again.

Third wave: the downward force not yet spent, a sudden upward "buoyancy" appeared! One down, one up, forces counteracting, Rockstrong's qi and blood surged, his viscera shook violently.

Fourth wave, fifth wave, sixth wave…

One wave after another of strange, unpredictable, multifaceted gravity impacts, like surging sea waves, relentlessly battered Rockstrong. His prized Earth Battle Body and Blood-Burning Secret Technique, under this gravity strangling field imbued with spirituality and exquisite subtlety, appeared clumsy and passive! He was like a lone boat in a gale and towering waves; even if the hull were sturdy, he was tossed east and west, liable to capsize at any moment.

"Crack!"

A slight crisp sound. The rock armor on Rockstrong's left elbow joint, after enduring who-knows-how-many strange gravity tugs, finally showed a fine crack.

Rockstrong's face completely changed. He sensed the threat of death! This human kid's gravity control after reaching Point Spirit was too strange, too exquisite, too… restraining him! If it continued, he might truly be ground to death in this invisible gravity field!

"Roar——!!!"

At the moment of life and death, Rockstrong bellowed like a beast, no longer meeting force with force, but gritting his teeth to endure a gravity tear, he slammed his feet into the ground and his massive body shot backward violently! He wanted to retreat from the area under Wang Ping's control.

"You think you can leave?" Wang Ping's eyes turned slightly cold. This man was brutish and domineering, repeatedly striking killing blows—how could I let him walk away? With a thought, the invisible gravity field, like a bone-deep infection, clung tightly to Rockstrong's retreating silhouette and spread with him; at the same time, several rock-wall nodes at the cavern's edge, under his gravity pull, "boomed" a few times, collapsing large boulders that blocked Rockstrong's escape route.

Rockstrong was both startled and enraged, yet he had no choice but to halt, facing the gravity field pursuing him from behind and the boulders falling from above. In that brief delay, Wang Ping had already stepped out of the earth vein marrow's core region.

He did not continue chasing Rockstrong. Having just attained Point Spirit, his realm was not yet fully stabilized, and the fortune of the earth vein marrow remained unclaimed. He merely gave the floundering Rockstrong a cold glance and said flatly, "Scram. Dare to set foot here half a step again, and you die."

His tone was plain, yet it held an undeniable authority that subtly resonated with the pulse of the earth beneath his feet, shaking Rockstrong's heart and soul.

Rockstrong's face flushed pale then red, shame, fury, fear, unwillingness… all intertwined. But he knew that Wang Ping was now beyond his ability to oppose. The gravity control after Point Spirit was a natural counter to his fleshly martial method. Staying longer might truly get him killed.

"You… you just wait for me!" In the end, the urge to survive overrode pride; Rockstrong squeezed these words from between his teeth, then spun around, punched open the blocking boulders with both fists, and charged headfirst into the passage he'd come from, vanishing into the darkness, leaving only a distant echo of vengeful, hate-filled roars.

Wang Ping did not give chase. Never pursue a desperate foe, and the fortune here was paramount. He slowly exhaled a turbid breath; the warm earthy-yellow halo around him gradually withdrew, but the hint of the earth's heaviness and depth etched deep in his pupils had already been imprinted, impossible to erase.

He turned his body and once again gazed upon the floating earthy-yellow light sphere—the earth vein marrow.

At this moment, in his gravity perception after attaining Point Spirit, the earth vein marrow was no longer merely a violent energy source; it resembled a slumbering, docile beast. He could clearly sense within it the vast, pure Earth-origin essence, and the throb that resonated with his newly born "gravity spirit," sharing the same source.

He extended his right hand, palm upward, toward the earth vein marrow.

A slight stir of his will, and the seed just born in his dantian, containing the will of the earth's throb, gave a gentle tremor.

Hum…

The earth vein marrow seemed to sense it, the sphere's surface rippling with a gentle wave. Immediately, a strand of exceedingly pure, substance-condensed earthy-yellow qi flowed forth, as if summoned, slowly separating from the sphere and drifting down like a swallow returning to its nest, lightly landing in Wang Ping's palm, then traveling along his arm's meridians to merge into his body.

The qi entered his body, transforming into the most primal Earth power, nourishing the newborn seed, cleansing his meridians and flesh, consolidating the Point Spirit realm he had just broken through. Under this force's infusion, his physique grew stronger, his bones faintly gleaming with an earthen gold luster, becoming more tenacious. His cultivation also surged, taking a solid step toward the perfected Golden Core stage.

But this earth vein marrow was a heavenly treasure, its primordial power vast as an ocean; Wang Ping did not greedily drink it all. He merely took a single strand of its utmost purity, using it to solidify his realm and nurture his spiritual seed, then actively severed the connection.

The earthy-yellow light sphere flickered faintly, as if conveying a whisper of "approval" and "goodwill," then returned to tranquility, continuing its slow rotation and emitting a steady, vast gravity field.

Wang Ping offered a solemn salute to the earth vein marrow. This breakthrough, I owe to the earth vein's bounty. After the rite, he did not linger, turned, and headed back the way he came.

His steps were steady, his landings soundless. With each stride, the stone beneath his feet seemed to faintly resonate with him, the gravity field flowing naturally to support his body, allowing him to tread the complex, rugged underground labyrinth as if on flat ground. After attaining Point Spirit, his gravity technique not only grew vastly stronger; its fine control, environmental adaptation, and even movement on journeys brought about earth-shaking changes.

He knew that, after this battle, his Earth Dao had reached the pinnacle of his current realm, and gravity Point Spirit had vastly increased his overall strength. Now it was time to head for the ultimate fortune—the Myriad Methods Pool.