Chapter 80: The Gate to the Heavens

However...

Staring at the dazzling point of light glowing on Zhou Yi’s body, it was simply too blinding. Even the wooden sword in his hand, usually smooth and cool as jade, now seemed to burn to the touch.

For a moment, Mo Hu couldn’t find the words to describe his feelings—it was complicated. He had known before, he really had, but he hadn’t given up hope. He kept feeling there was still a chance left to him. Yet reality proved he was only deluding himself, and especially now, looking at that piercing point of light, he was utterly certain.

Yes, he was doomed!

“What?” As he wrestled with his complicated emotions, trying to compose his thoughts, a sudden sight made Mo Hu unable to hold back his shock—he cried out involuntarily.

“What the hell?” Huang Yue couldn’t contain herself either; her eyes widened in disbelief as she exclaimed.

“What’s happening?” Xue Kai’s gaze was dazed, his eyes glued to Zhou Yi, unable to look away.

As everyone watched, not far from the original point of light on Zhou Yi’s body, a second point began to shine with its own radiance.

“What is this?” Mo Hu’s mouth hung open; his lips were dry and his mind was dizzy—was he seeing things? How could anyone open two Celestial Gates at the same time?

Normally, to break through from the Innate Realm to the Celestial, one must open three hundred and sixty-five acupoints within the body, known as the Celestial Gates. But this didn’t mean one had to open all of them to complete the breakthrough to the Celestial Realm.

In truth, one only needed to break through a single Celestial Gate—just one acupoint—to achieve it. The remaining three hundred and sixty-four are gradually opened after reaching the Celestial stage.

Of course, it’s not impossible for someone to open more than one during the breakthrough, but the crux of the matter is that these acupoints aren’t simply opened at will!

The reason over ninety percent of cultivators get stuck at this bottleneck is because they simply can’t find these acupoints.

That’s right, they can’t find them!

The acupoints must be found—they exist within the body, but even if you know their precise locations, to actually reach the stage of opening the Celestial Gate, you must sense their presence within the body’s inner space.

To sense them requires spiritual power. In simple terms, only with a sufficiently powerful spirit will these acupoints reveal themselves. It’s that straightforward.

But if your spiritual power isn’t enough, no matter how skilled you are, you won’t find a single acupoint, and you’ll forever be stuck in the Innate Realm.

Strength can be increased through training, inner energy through internal arts—but how does one increase spiritual power?

No one knows!

“Survive a thousand tribulations, overcome ten thousand hardships, and you may attain the Celestial.”

So goes an ancient saying, the only known clue to reaching the Celestial stage.

Translated, it’s quite simple; compared with the requirements for the breakthrough, it’s even clearer.

In plain language, through relentless tempering and hardship, spiritual power gradually increases. But the process is agonizingly slow—so slow that only after a thousand tribulations and ten thousand hardships can one accumulate enough spiritual strength to attempt the breakthrough.

Even then, the power amassed is usually just enough to sense a single acupoint.

Since ancient times, whenever someone senses an acupoint, they are overwhelmed with joy—burning incense, bathing, making countless preparations, and only with everything in place do they dare try to open it.

Yet here was Zhou Yi, right before their eyes, shattering this age-old tradition!

What shocked the three of them even more was not that Zhou Yi dared to attempt opening the Celestial Gate without any preparation, but that his spiritual power was strong enough for him to discover two acupoints at once!

This was the true reason they were utterly dumbfounded.

“Hmph!” After a while, a trace of delight flickered across Mo Hu’s face. Staring at Zhou Yi, a glimmer of hope rose in his eyes as he sneered, “He’s courting death!”

Finding the acupoints required spiritual power, but so did opening them. In the past, even Mo Hu himself, after discovering an acupoint, had to prepare for ages, and only by pouring in all his strength at the moment of opening could he succeed.

For those with a weaker foundation than Mo Hu, nearly ninety-nine percent failed because their spiritual power ran out during the attempt—the gate closed, their spiritual strength was sealed away forever, and their martial abilities fell drastically. Only a lucky few, for various reasons, managed to succeed against the odds.

Utter exhaustion!

Initially, seeing the light of a Celestial Gate on Zhou Yi, and witnessing him already working to open it, Mo Hu felt nothing but despair.

He had never doubted Zhou Yi would succeed—after all, if he, Mo Hu, could do it with his own foundation, then for this monstrous prodigy Zhou Yi, it would be even easier.

Neither he nor Huang Yue or Xue Kai believed Zhou Yi would fail to open the Celestial Gate.

But now, everything was different—Zhou Yi was courting death of his own accord!

Possessing enough spiritual power to sense two acupoints was a great thing, but to attempt to open them both at once—this turned a certain victory into a gamble fraught with risk.

The difficulty of opening one acupoint, compared to two simultaneously, was not just doubled—it was multiplied many times over, especially in terms of the spiritual power required.

Mo Hu did not believe—he simply couldn’t believe—that Zhou Yi’s spiritual strength was enough to open two Celestial Gates at once.

The spiritual power needed to sense an acupoint and that required to open it were not the same—close, but not quite enough.

Mo Hu was certain that even if Zhou Yi’s spirit was strong enough to find two acupoints, it would only barely suffice—it surely couldn’t open both at once.

And even if, by some miracle, Zhou Yi had enough power to open both, Mo Hu was confident he could make him fail at the last moment.

During the process of opening the Celestial Gate, there could be no pause—once begun, it had to be completed in a single attempt. Otherwise, if the acupoint remained unopened, it would instantly close; the spiritual power poured into it would be sealed away forever.

This was why, after a failed breakthrough, one’s strength would drastically decrease.

Right now, Zhou Yi was attempting to open two Celestial Gates at once. His attention had to be fully focused inward, leaving little spiritual power to control his body. If, at the critical moment, Mo Hu struck him and disrupted the process, Zhou Yi would be thrown into chaos.

If anything went wrong, Zhou Yi would surely fail, and as his spiritual strength was sealed away, his power would sharply decline.

Mo Hu refused to believe that under such circumstances, Zhou Yi could still defy the heavens and turn the situation around.

If, by some miracle, Zhou Yi succeeded even now, Mo Hu would accept whatever fate awaited him—for he had done everything possible. If things still went awry, then truly, nothing more could be done.