Chapter 130: Core Formation (Part 1)

The Ancestral Aperture, Qi Sea, and Dantian each contain a Cold Core. Merging the three means breaking the balance of the three acupoints, causing the three Ancestral Aperture Cold Cores to sink and fuse with the Qi Sea Cold Core; this is the preliminary Fusion.

If this step is achieved, the next step is to sink to the Dantian and fuse with the final Cold Core. Merging these three has a certain chance of breaking through to the Core Formation stage, forming a true Golden Core.

Wang Lin sat quietly in the stone tunnel. In this small space, it was filled with dense yin cold qi. His eyes were closed, his Divine Sense returned to his body, and his mind was immersed in the Ancestral Aperture inside his body.

The first step he had to take was to break the Ancestral Aperture within his body, causing the Cold Core to sink.

The difficulty of merging the three cores was immense. Wang Lin had only known this slightly before, but now he deeply realized its difficulty. If the word "immense" were used to describe it, it would be a vast understatement. In reality, the difficulty was unimaginably great.

For this breaking of the Ancestral Aperture alone, Wang Lin had sat and attempted for a month. For this past month, he had been charging at it almost every moment. There was an invisible obstruction around the Ancestral Aperture, and no matter how he impacted it, he could not shake it in the slightest.

The requirement of the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art was that the Ancestral Aperture, Qi Sea, and Dantian must be shattered and established three times to form a Cold Core, and the difficulty increases with each time. The first time could only be said to have difficulty, the second time was very difficult, and as for the third time, it was incomparably difficult. What Wang Lin had to do now, calculated practically, was equivalent to shattering the Ancestral Aperture for the fourth time.

The difficulty can be imagined. After many failed impacts, Wang Lin changed his strategy. He stopped impacting and instead started slowly grinding it down. Slowly, that layer of invisible obstruction gradually became much thinner as time passed.

However, the pain caused by the constant friction of the Spiritual Qi within his body was far beyond what an ordinary person could imagine; even pen and ink could hardly describe it. With every friction, Wang Lin's body trembled violently, and large beads of sweat poured down like rain. The clothes outside his body had never been dry since the moment he sat down.

Merging the three cores, if one does not have great perseverance, it is impossible to complete. However, the thing Wang Lin lacked the least was perseverance. When he participated in the Hengyue School test back then, his perseverance was quite moving, leaving two trails of blood on the stone steps of Hengyue Mountain.

If it weren't for his lack of Aptitude, with his perseverance at that time, he definitely could have been highly regarded and focused upon by the Hengyue School. Unfortunately, all of this had long since vanished with the destruction of the Hengyue School, never to return.

Wang Lin's perseverance was astonishing. Enduring unimaginable pain, after three months of friction, the Ancestral Aperture shattered.

The fist-sized blue Cold Core slowly sank from the Ancestral Aperture position. As it sank, fine strands spread out from it, like thin lines, extending into Wang Lin's body.

Each time the Cold Core sank a bit, those thin lines increased by a thread. Finally, the Cold Core landed outside the Qi Sea acupoint, separated from the second Cold Core inside by only one acupoint.

Wang Lin took a deep breath and, without hesitation, began the second round of friction.

Another three months passed. The Qi Sea acupoint finally dissipated in a series of popping sounds. At the same time, the two Cold Cores violently collided. Wang Lin only felt his body go "boom," and a terrifying force immediately erupted from where the Cold Cores collided, raging within his body.

Wang Lin's complexion turned pale instantly. After his throat moved a few times, he spat out a mist of blood. As soon as this blood mist appeared, it immediately turned into frost, hanging on the surrounding cave walls, forming patches of red ice crystals.

After spitting out the blood mist, Wang Lin's body swayed. Eight Low-Grade Spirit Stones flew out from his Storage Pouch. After these eight Spirit Stones appeared, they collided, turning into spirit powder that fell outside his body according to a certain trajectory, forming a strange symbol.

This symbol flickered slightly and then disappeared. At the same time, a black Flying Sword flew out from the Storage Pouch. After circling Wang Lin once, it floated quietly in mid-air. The phantom of the Devil Head appeared on the Flying Sword.

It first looked at Wang Lin, a look of hesitation and struggle appearing on its face. But very quickly, the Divine Sense Wang Lin had hidden within its body took effect. The Devil Head suddenly could not raise a single thought of backlash and obediently began to stand guard around him.

After Wang Lin finished these things, he tilted his head and collapsed onto the ground. He only had time to set up a defensive Formation before losing consciousness.

Speaking of this Formation, Wang Lin had made many simple, instant-cast type Formations in the past few days, in preparation for emergency use.

The Devil Head paced around while secretly looking at the collapsed Wang Lin, its heart struggling again. It secretly thought: "Should I fight him? Hmm… he shouldn't be faking it… hard to say, this guy is too cunning… Sigh, should I really fight him? But if I don't win, the consequences…" The Devil Head couldn't help but shiver and quickly threw this thought to the back of its mind.

One day later, the thought it had thrown to the back of its mind slowly came back. Its eyes flickered, looking at Wang Lin, its heart struggling again: "Fight him? This is the best opportunity. Once missed, I'm afraid I'll never have a chance again… No, this Wang Lin is very cunning. How could he not be prepared against me? He even let me out while he passed out; this doesn't make sense." The Devil Head shook its head fiercely and stared at Wang Lin, continuing to think viciously: "I won't fall for it. You keep pretending."

The idea of going up to fight was once again thrown to the back of its mind.

Another day passed. The Devil Head stared eagerly at Wang Lin, its heart stirring again. It roared lowly and thought to itself: "Fight it, death is death. I don't think this guy is faking it. Fight, fight, fight!"

Its eyes were red, and its body rushed out quickly, pouncing towards Wang Lin. The defensive Formation had no effect on it, and the Devil Head passed directly through it, pouncing onto Wang Lin.

But immediately after, the Devil Head screamed repeatedly, its body emitting green smoke with a sizzling sound, showing signs of dissipating. As it quickly retreated, it wailed: "I knew this guy was cunning. How could he not worry about me backlashing and let me out so easily? This heaven-slaying bastard, when did he leave Divine Sense in my body? I… how will I live in the future…" The Devil Head beat its chest and stamped its feet, wailing endlessly.

After experiencing this, the Devil Head resigned itself to its fate, squatting obediently in the corner, staring blankly at the opposite wall, its mind filled with grief and indignation.

On the third day, Wang Lin woke up. He sat up and smiled bitterly, saying nothing. He knew he had still underestimated the difficulty of merging the three cores. The destructive cold qi produced when the two Cold Cores merged was the key to the Fusion.

This cold qi could not be allowed to vent out of the body, otherwise the Fusion would fail. But if it were not vented, his body would not be able to withstand it. Wang Lin's expression was uncertain, and he remained silent.

Fundamentally, it was still that his body could not withstand the cold qi. But Wang Lin was very puzzled. How did his predecessors who practiced the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art merge the three cores? Not to mention far away, just speaking of Situ Nan, he also practiced the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art. How did he succeed?

Wang Lin racked his brain but could not find the answer, and Situ Nan had never mentioned this point.

"How can I make my body able to withstand that cold qi?" Wang Lin muttered to himself. After a long while, he sighed and cast his gaze on the Devil Head in the corner.

After Wang Lin woke up, the Devil Head had been carefully stealing glances at him. Seeing Wang Lin's gaze sweep over, its body trembled immediately, and it quickly said: "I have been protecting the law, without the slightest slack."

Wang Lin reached out a large hand, grabbed the Devil Head, and threw it into the Flying Sword. He stood up, jumped out of the tunnel, and left the stone room.

Outside Li Muwan's room, Wang Lin looked inside. Li Muwan was half-lying on the stone table next to the Pill Furnace, breathing evenly, fast asleep. Her silk-like hair was casually pinned up on her head, with a few strands winding around her ears. Her pretty face was slightly rosy, having a flavor of "not needing powder and paint, yet her color is like morning clouds reflecting on snow."

A purple dress draped over her body, making her look like a delicate beauty in a painting, her skin as white as congealed fat, making one's heart flutter uncontrollably. At this moment, the Pill Furnace beside her emitted wisps of white steam, and this scene suddenly had a feeling of "a pure woman with a fairy's appearance, beautiful as a painting."

Coupled with the careful decoration by Li Muwan in this stone room, with green vine branches she got from somewhere hanging all over the cave walls, that feeling of being "beautiful as a painting" became even stronger.

A scent of medicine drifted over faintly. Wang Lin took a deep breath, and his mind immediately became a bit clearer.

After watching for a long time, he slowly withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the next stone room. Half of this stone room was planted with a large amount of medicinal herbs, while the other half was placed with some non-Alchemy Materials, among which half of a Dragon's skull was impressively among them.

The Dragon's skeleton was too long, especially the skull which was huge. It would be a waste if it were all used to set up the Nine Departures Skeleton Formation. So, for this skull, Wang Lin had let Li Muwan keep some of it when he came out once before.

After giving instructions for this, he began the Fusion of the three cores. Looking at the small piece of skull, Wang Lin pondered. The color of this skull revealed a hint of purple, looking not like a bone, but rather like some kind of crystal. It must have been formed by the special structure within the Dragon's body.

Wang Lin was observing when his mind suddenly stirred. He turned around. Not long after, he saw Li Muwan yawning sleepily as she walked to the outside of the stone room. She looked at Wang Lin in surprise, and her sleepiness vanished instantly.

During these days, Li Muwan's state of mind was slowly changing. She began to often let her imagination run wild, fearing that Wang Lin would act like a beast towards her. After all, people who practice the Death Curse Art are often good at harvesting primordial yin.

But later, she found that this Wang Lin was almost always in seclusion. Before this, Li Muwan had always thought that her brother Li Qiqing was extremely diligent in cultivation, but after seeing Wang Lin, the word "diligent" immediately transferred to him in her heart.

In her view, Wang Lin was already at the Foundation Establishment Great Perfection False Core cultivation. The next step would be the Core Formation stage, but how could this Core Formation stage be so easy to pass? As far as Li Muwan knew, the fastest Cultivator to reach Core Formation in the Fire Burning Country in thousands of years reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection at seventeen, but it took thirty years to reach the Core Formation stage. This person was the ancestor of the Fire Burning Country, the first Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, who raised the entire Fire Burning Country from a second-Rank to a third-Rank.

But looking at Wang Lin's appearance, he was at most twenty years old. Wanting to reach Core Formation in a short time was simply impossible. What Wang Lin had told her initially, that he would send her away after reaching Core Formation, made her smile bitterly in her heart for a long time, sighing that if the other party wanted to reach Core Formation, it would probably take decades or a hundred years, and it would be impossible to succeed. In her heart, she even developed a hint of mockery towards Wang Lin, thinking that if he wanted to keep someone, he should just say it directly; why bother being mysterious?

"You… you are Cultivating, and you have reached a Bottleneck?" Li Muwan hesitated for a moment, looking into Wang Lin's eyes, and asked softly.

Her Soul Blood was in the other's hands. If he made any excessive demands of her, she did not know how she would choose. This problem had been on her mind for a long time.

Today, seeing him constantly frowning, she couldn't help but think that Cultivating the Death Curse Art required constant absorption of the three qi, otherwise the Cultivation Technique would stagnate, and a Bottleneck would easily appear.

She calculated in her heart that since he returned, he had been in secluded cultivation for several months. In these months, he had not touched a woman or killed anyone, so it was very likely that his Death Curse Art had encountered a Bottleneck.

Wang Lin did not know what Li Muwan was thinking. He glanced at her and nodded.

Li Muwan's heart skipped a beat. She stepped back a few paces, her face turning pale again. She struggled for a moment, then finally gritted her teeth and smiled miserably: "You… I only agreed to perform Alchemy for you. If… I… I would rather die than submit." Her voice was mournful, like a complaint, like a yearning, like weeping and pleading.

Wang Lin glanced at Li Muwan with surprise, then turned to look at the skull and asked indifferently: "Why is this Dragon skull this color?"

"A Dragon is poisonous throughout its entire body. It is not strange for this bone to turn purple." She bit her red lips and said in a low voice.

"Poisonous throughout?" Wang Lin was startled and carefully examined the skull.

"A Dragon has potent poison in its body while alive. Once it dies, the toxins can transform its body into a supreme treasure. Ancient books once said: 'A Dragon has a poisonous body in life, a treasure body in death.' The most poisonous part of a Dragon is its bone marrow, but after it dies, the most precious part is also the bone marrow." Li Muwan's voice grew colder, and her expression gradually became indifferent.

Wang Lin stared at the Dragon skull, saying nothing. His face shifted between light and shadow as he fell into deep thought. He muttered to himself: "Poisonous throughout… This Dragon contained potent poison in its body, so why was it not affected itself…" A flash of inspiration crossed his mind. This inspiration came quickly and vanished just as swiftly. Wang Lin had just grasped a clue, but immediately became confused again.

Li Muwan glanced at Wang Lin coldly. Seeing his brows furrow tighter and tighter, revealing a look of deep contemplation, she couldn't help but say: "The Dragon's body was full of toxins while alive. Its flesh, bones, internal organs, and even its saliva contained potent poison, so naturally, it would not be affected…"

A thought flashed through Wang Lin's mind like lightning. This thought became clearer and clearer, his eyes grew brighter, and his brows gradually relaxed. Finally, he, who had not laughed in a long time, suddenly burst into laughter. He reached out with his large hand, and the Dragon skull was immediately stored away into his Storage Pouch.

"Since my body cannot withstand the cold qi, then I will let my body completely turn into cold qi. In this way, I will naturally be able to withstand it." Wang Lin took a deep breath, turned to look at Li Muwan, and walked towards her with large strides.

Li Muwan's face grew paler and paler. She retreated to the wall, her body trembling slightly. She gave a miserable smile, and just as she was about to sever her own heart meridians, Wang Lin suddenly said: "The day I achieve Core Formation will be the day I send you back to the Luohe Sect!"

Having said that, he turned and left the Immortal Cave without looking back. He leaped out, rushed through the Formation, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Li Muwan was completely stunned. Her mind was in chaos, and various thoughts surged like a spring. Finally, she slid down the wall and sat on the ground.

Wang Lin fully unleashed his Earth Escape Technique, aiming for the Corpse Valley. Li Muwan's words just now had cleared the clouds for him. This time, he had full confidence in allowing the Fusion of the three Cold Cores.

He moved at high speed. Three days later, he arrived outside the Corpse Valley. Familiar with the path, he revealed his figure and flew in, flying all the way from the first valley to the thirteenth. Outside the thirteenth valley, he took a deep breath and resolutely stepped inside.

Inside the fourteenth valley, the ground was covered with a layer of blue frost. As Wang Lin stepped on it, wisps of cold qi emerged from under his feet and drilled into his body. Wang Lin hesitated for a moment, then stomped his right foot lightly. Under the effect of the Earth Escape Technique, his body sank down bit by bit.

As he sank, the yin cold qi became denser. After sinking about a hundred zhang, Wang Lin had to stop. His body was already frozen stiff. This massive amount of earth-yin quality yin cold qi meant he could only sink to this point at most. If he went any deeper, not only his body but even his Soul and Divine Sense would be instantly frozen to pieces.

As for how deep the ground under the fourteenth valley was, or what specific mysteries lay at the very bottom, Wang Lin had no time to speculate. He tried his best to maintain his heartbeat and slowly moved his body into a cross-legged position.

"If the three Cold Cores do not undergo Fusion, I swear I will not leave this valley!" Wang Lin thought silently to himself and closed his eyes deeply.

Spring passed and autumn came; time flew like a shuttle, and three years passed in a flash.

Regarding the Fire Beast calamity in the Fire Burning Country, people were sent down from the fourth-rank Cultivation Country. Eventually, three Soul Transformation Stage experts spent nine days to completely subdue all the Fire Beasts. They refined and combined these Fire Beasts together, creating a Medium Grade Spirit Rank Fire Beast, which they took back to the fourth-rank Cultivation Country.

The Ranks among Spirit Beasts had strict classifications, divided into four tiers: Strange, Spirit, Desolate, and Immortal. Each tier was divided into High, Medium, and Low Grades.

The Fire Spirit absorbed by the Heaven Defying Bead was a sub-Desolate beast that had half a foot in the Desolate tier. If ranked by tier, it should have been at the Peak of the High Grade Spirit Rank. Its descendants were all Low Grade Spirit Rank. The magnitude of the gap between High, Medium, and Low Grades could be seen from this. If that Fire Spirit had not been in a weakened state, it would have been impossible to be devoured so easily.

One must know that a Peak High Grade Spirit Rank is equivalent to a Great Perfection Soul Transformation Stage. The Medium and Low Grades correspond to the Great Perfection Nascent Soul Stage and Great Perfection Core Formation Stage of a Cultivator, respectively.

That dead Dragon was a Medium Grade Spirit Beast.

Although the Fire Beast calamity was eliminated, the Fire Burning Country could not afford the cost of clearing the hot Spiritual Qi within its borders. They could only wait for time to pass, so as to slowly neutralize the hot Spiritual Qi.

The battle with the Xuanwu Country continued, but battles involving more than a hundred people rarely occurred. Most were small-scale duels between dozens of people. Gradually, the Fire Burning Alliance stood its ground. After carving out about one-third of the territory, they truly had no energy to continue advancing, so they stabilized.

As for the duels between the Cultivators of the two countries, they evolved from initial life-and-death struggles into a trial ground for the Disciples of both countries to gain combat experience. For those Disciples on both sides who died on the battlefield during the initial expansion, this was a rather helpless irony.

Returning to Wang Lin: after sinking a hundred zhang below the fourteenth valley, he became silent like an old monk in meditation. His heartbeat slowly decreased, and following that, endless extreme yin qi drilled into every part of his body, spreading into his flesh.

Slowly, the extreme yin qi accumulated more and more. Half a year later, the flesh and blood of his limbs had turned blue, with faint signs of crystallization. In this half-year, his heart had beaten a total of 9,837,543 times. His body had sunk to one hundred and eighty zhang.

Another half-year passed. His torso and internal organs were all invaded by the extreme yin qi. The flesh of his limbs showed crystallization, and his hands and feet had even completely turned into blue crystals, as if they would shatter into pieces with a slight tap. In this half-year, his heartbeat dropped to 487,659 times. His body had sunk to seven hundred and thirty zhang.

Another half-year passed, and the crystals spread to his limbs. Looking at them, his arms and legs had all become blue crystals, and one could even clearly see the bones inside. His torso also began to show signs of crystallization. His heartbeat was 3,865 times in half a year. His body had sunk to one thousand four hundred and sixty zhang.

Another half-year passed. His body, except for his head, had completely become blue crystal. His heart had been frozen and stopped beating. At this time, his location was three thousand six hundred and seventy-two zhang from the surface.

Two years passed. In the middle of the third year, Wang Lin's head slowly turned into blue crystal. At this moment, all traces of life in Wang Lin disappeared, and he truly reached the requirements of the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art — the Yellow Springs Realm.

His body sank to seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine zhang, appearing in a deep blue space. Around him, countless huge Spirit Beast remains were densely packed. For some reason, despite being in this place of extreme yin, the flesh of these remains had dissipated, leaving only a dense sea of bones.

Inside the sea of bones, without exception, every skeleton was the color of blue crystal.

Wang Lin sat quietly in the sea of bones for half a year. During this half-year, he spent one month restoring his heartbeat, two months restoring his Divine Sense, and three months sensing the three Cold Cores.

Afterward, the Ancestral Aperture Cold Core and the Qi Sea Cold Core slowly collided. Destructive cold qi appeared once again, but compared to the extreme yin qi currently filling Wang Lin's body, this cold qi seemed slightly insignificant.

Easily, the two Cold Cores merged together, inseparable, and gradually condensed into one.

Immediately after, the fused Cold Core continued to sink and arrived at the Dantian point. The invisible barrier outside the Dantian point only blocked it for half a stick of incense's time before it immediately disintegrated layer by layer and shattered completely.

The Cold Core sank and collided with the Dantian Cold Core. Cold qi more than ten times stronger than before immediately surged out. This cold qi was of extremely high concentration, but it was still slightly inferior to the extreme yin qi within Wang Lin's body. Slowly, the three Cold Cores completed their Fusion and blended together.

However, its color was not golden, but a lifeless gray.

Wang Lin did not know that the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art he was Cultivating had become slightly different because of the Heaven Defying Bead and because he had developed the extreme realm. The difficulty he experienced could be said to be unprecedented.

The reason the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art was called the fastest for achieving Core Formation was precisely because it took a shortcut in reverse: first forming a Core Embryo by merging Cold Cores, then using Spiritual Qi to impact it, and finally transforming it into a Golden Core to enter the Core Formation Stage.

He had now completed more than half of it, with only the final Spiritual Qi impact remaining. However, the Core Formation Stage was not so easy to reach. This final impact was not a sure thing; it had a certain failure rate.

Once it failed, the Core Embryo would instantly shatter, and he would have to start all over again.

Please take a look at the following words — —

The climax is coming next. Er Gen has already conceived the subsequent series of plot points, so please stay tuned.

My physical condition has not been good lately. Sitting for a long time causes severe back pain. Sometimes I have to hold onto a wall for a while after standing up before I can move. I originally thought it was an old ailment that would get better after resting for a few days, but yesterday I went to the hospital for a CT scan, and the doctor said it was a lumbar disc herniation, specifically the L5-S1 disc. Sigh, I am only 30 years old.

This has nothing to do with writing the book; it is an old ailment I acquired in the past. But now, writing the book every day, sitting for seven or eight hours at a time, I really can't handle it. I really cannot do 9,000 words a day, really.

I can only guarantee 6,000 words a day, no less. If my physical therapy is effective during this period, I will write more; I definitely will.

I never thought this book could stay in the top ten of the new book rankings. Even if it entered, I think it would eventually fall off, especially since the three books behind me are only about thirty votes away from catching up. Previously, I was quite unwilling to accept this. The subscriptions for this book are actually quite good, dozens of times my current monthly votes. Unfortunately, after asking for votes for more than half a month with little effect, my heart has faded. Let it fall if it must. It must be destined by fate; I am not meant for the top ten of renegade immortal. Since fate is like this, I accept it. I can change Wang Lin's fate, but I cannot change my own; after all, I am still just a Mortal.