Chapter 218
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 218
Chapter Title: Divine Dantian
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-Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
Setting aside even breathing, he chugged down alcohol and swallowed food.
For about thirty minutes, he abandoned his humanity entirely, possessed by nothing more than a machine transporting food and drink into his gut.
"Phew!!"
The table, which had been overflowing to the point of breaking legs, was now littered only with empty bowls and drained jars.
Having swept every last remnant into his stomach without leaving a trace, the emptiness inside him finally began to fill.
"Now I feel alive..."
"D-Did you eat all that in the meantime?"
Eris stared at him with weary eyes, asking if he'd really devoured it all in that short time, but he could brush off even that gaze with a laugh.
Why? Because the gods had blessed him. His utterly depleted dantian and body, on the verge of withering away, had recovered in an instant.
Our quarrelsome big sister, the goddess of strife, hadn't flown in completely bare-handed.
Ambrosia and nectar.
The food and drink of the gods, managed by Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera. Ambrosia granted immortality to the flesh, nectar to the soul.
Zeus's son Tantalus had stolen them and deceived the gods, earning punishment in the most horrific depths of Tartarus.
Even ordinary mortals could ascend to godhood by consuming them in abundance, while demigods recovered from the gravest wounds in moments with just a taste.
But that was by the standards of Greek heroes.
To him, these divine foods and drinks surpassed any spiritual elixir he'd tasted over countless ages—they were heavenly elixirs incarnate.
'Would even half-gods or immortals in myths feel like this?'
The long-forgotten sensation of depletion and emptiness from becoming an ordinary person vanished in a flash.
Pure demonic energy and true essence filled him like a clear mountain spring, leaving him in awe.
No matter how supreme the elixir of a thousand ages, circulating qi afterward was essential to purge residual toxins and convert it to inner energy.
Yet these divine foods required no such effort. The moment they were consumed, they permeated flesh and dantian, transforming instantly into the purest qi.
Even the frailest, withered body became unbreakable in an instant, and empty dantians and true essence reservoirs filled just as swiftly.
If even a fraction of these entered the martial world, the heavens and earth would drown in blood.
"Hoo..."
Exhaling deeply, he slowly circulated the demonic energy and divine power in his dantian. Hot energy rose to his crown, and his depleted meridians surged back to life.
As the saying goes, one truly appreciates something only after losing it.
His body felt light enough to soar the skies, brimming with vitality like an ox possessed—welcome sensations indeed.
'...What is this?!'
Examining his current state through the inner energy flowing along the eight extraordinary meridians revealed something profoundly strange.
Not even Paui Guma, who had plumbed peerless realms of qi mastery, or the Asura Lord, said to have approached the Heavenly Demon realm single-handedly in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's history, could behold this without astonishment.
'I-Is this even possible?'
Below the navel: the lower dantian. Near the solar plexus: the middle dantian. And between that middle dantian and his heart: another one.
The energy from the nectar earlier, divided equally among these dantians.
Thread-like presences rooted densely throughout his body pulsed as if they'd always been there—undeniably a dantian and meridians.
But what filled them was neither the lower dantian's demonic energy nor the middle dantian's divine power.
"H-How is it? Any... weird spots?"
"Eris?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"Thank you. Truly."
Expressing his gratitude to Eris, he slowly drew forth divine demonic energy into his palms.
-Wooong!
Compared to the fierce, violent surge he usually unleashed, it was tiny and fragile.
But its purity, reminiscent of silken night hair, was incomparably clearer and more transparent than before.
"I thought I'd reached the midpoint, but I hadn't even taken the first step?"
This seed of night, passed from ancient Greek shrine maidens to the modern era and now to him.
The seed had awakened and taken root.
He was the soil containing it, the stem grown from those roots, and one tree unified with it all.
Its origin was none other than the newly formed dantian.
What he'd once called divine karma—the seed of divinity that had now sprouted.
-Shaaa!
Gathering it into form, beneath that pitch-black shadow ripened a single red apple.
Unlike his past familiars, barely holding shapes of birds or snakes,
this was vibrantly fresh, as if plucked straight from the tree—an apple in truth.
"Y-You, you... no way...!"
"...Want a bite?"
Until now, his authority had only manifested familiars as familiar weapons or simple message carriers.
Now, he wielded instinctively the power Eris had flaunted with playful gestures.
"N-No way... Are you actually a god now?"
Eris flapped her dragonfly wings, gripping his shoulders in shock, but he slowly shook his head.
"As you see, I'm still mortal."
Beneath his skin, red blood still pulsed fiercely.
Yet the sprout within had rooted throughout his body, growing into another stem.
To describe it...
"The Realm of Divine Manifestation..."
Not manifesting as a god, but manifesting the state of being a god.
A realm that could only be called that.
"Kuhuhu... Kuhahaha!"
"U-Um, little bro?"
He couldn't contain the laughter bubbling up.
The arrogance of overconfidence crept in unnoticed, now laughably absurd.
The delusion that he'd grasped this divine Greek world entirely—equally ridiculous.
But above all, this newly revealed realm, the path forward now clear, filled him with uncontainable joy.
A small dantian filled not with demonic energy, true essence, or divine power—but pure divine demonic energy.
He dubbed it the Divine Dantian, a pointer to the realm awaiting him in this era.
"Eris!!"
"Kyaa!?"
What could be more welcome to a traveler lost in the night than the distant light of dawn?
The path, vaguer than in his past life yet still hazy, now sharpened as fog lifted.
Unable to contain his emotions, he suddenly scooped up Eris beside him in a tight embrace.
"Wh-Wha-What's thiiiis..."
"Kuhahaha! It's done! It's really happened!"
Lost in irrepressible emotion, hugging Eris and roaring with laughter—how long?
"Hahaha... Eris?"
"Heh... heung..."
When he came to, Eris was flushed red from head to toe, eyes spinning as she fainted.
* * *
Had he hugged her too tightly in his emotional surge?
Red as boiled octopus, Eris floundered in his arms for a while before regaining her senses.
"Heh, heuk?! Dianes?"
"Coming around?"
She'd rushed to bring him the elixir(?) in one bound and stayed by his side these past days, so he couldn't just leave her fainted on the cold floor.
But asking for a bed elsewhere wasn't ideal—this was Aphrodite's temple, after all.
Eyes and ears of the goddess he most dreaded lurked everywhere.
Even her earlier retreat had felt oddly suspicious. Now, emerging from a room alone with an unconscious Eris in his arms?
He couldn't predict the fallout.
Needing to circulate qi and stabilize anyway, he laid Eris on his lap and meditated briefly.
Thankfully, she soon stirred and sat up.
"Y-You! You you you!"
"Heh, sorry. I lost myself for a moment."
Just as her color returned, she bolted up and flushed beet red again.
Grateful for her and catching a glimpse of budding feelings, he wanted to reciprocate—but time was short.
"H-How dare you embrace a goddess's body without permission! What do you think you're—"
"Sorry, sorry. But we don't have time right now."
From Aphrodite's earlier vision, Heracles and Atalanta were likely clashing with Poseidon's twins, the Aloadae, by now.
After glimpsing that pitch-black entity that induced qi deviation from memory alone, and my mother Nyx embodying the cosmos itself, he understood.
The profundity of oracles, backed by ancient gods' authority.
The Aloadae's indestructibility(?) was certified by Nyx's peer, Gaia.
Not mere innate power—their fates decreed by beings whose glance or word spanned thousands of li.
Even Heracles and Atalanta now couldn't be overwhelmed but wouldn't repel them either.
"We need to go now. Whatever you say later, I'll take it. Help me this once, okay?"
"Y-You... trying to weasel out like this..."
Time was of the essence.
Even in peak condition, reaching Tegea would take at least three days.
His two disciples could hold out that long, judging by their prowess.
But that old Iasos surely hadn't deployed only the twins after gauging his strength—he had to return to the battlefield ASAP.
"Eris, please. I need your help."
"....!!"
Gripping her hand tightly, he pleaded with Eris once more.