Chapter 160 – Cultivating the Core
The doubts in his heart grew stronger. He pondered for a moment before disappearing and crossing Hou Fen at a frightening speed. He went to one of the neighboring countries, Tian Mao.
The destination was the Tower of Heaven in the center of Tian Mo. The person inside was an envoy from a top-tier cultivation nation.
Not all tier-3 cultivation nations have a Tower of Heaven. Hou Fen and Xuan Wu don’t have one. This is why Hou Fen decided to attack Xuan Wu instead of Tian Mo.
Time passed slowly as Wang Lin cultivated inside the Heaven-Defying Bead. Soon, 100 days had passed.
On this day, Wang Lin suddenly opened his eyes. The “punishment” above his head became less and less red, until it turned from blood red to gray.
An invisible wave appeared and began to slowly push outward. The heaven-defying bead had initially emitted a soft light, but now, it began to shine brightly. As the wave spread, more and more light began to shine brightly. Eventually, every light in the area was shining brightly.
Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. He was shocked.
Shortly after the “Punishment” above his head shrank, Wang Lin could sense powerful spiritual energy fluctuations. These fluctuations grew increasingly intense until a round, gray pill appeared in the air.
A small flame floated above the pill. Wang Lin reached out his hand, and the flame descended onto his hand until it was an inch from his palm.
He scanned it with his divine sense and discovered that the spiritual energy contained within this pill was exactly equivalent to the full cultivation of someone at the mid-stage of Core Formation. Wang Lin recalled the information Li Muwan had given him about the kill order. After pondering for a moment, he put it away instead of using it immediately.
Wang Lin decided to save this pill for when he attempted to form his Nascent Soul. This pill would increase his success rate. The chances of forming a Nascent Soul were much lower than forming a golden core. The main reason he was able to form his core was because of the Underworld Ascension cultivation method and Li Muwan’s pill.
If either of these two were missing, he might not be able to successfully form his core and would likely be stuck in the Foundation Establishment stage forever. However, there was a more difficult hurdle ahead: the Nascent Soul stage.
Forming a Nascent Soul was simply too difficult. Wang Lin believed that even with Ma Liang’s physical talent, there was almost no hope unless he could find the legendary pill that Li Muwan had spoken of that could increase the chances of forming a Nascent Soul. However, almost all of those pills were for cultivation countries of rank 5 or higher, and they were rarely leaked.
Wang Lin muttered to himself, “Nascent Soul… Nascent Soul… even with the heaven-defying bead, I’m afraid it will take me hundreds of years to succeed… the most important thing now is to find a new cultivation method. The underworld ascension cultivation method has reached its peak and Situ Nan is still asleep, so I have to rely on myself.” The first thing he needed to find was a cultivation method for the Core Formation stage.
However, choosing a cultivation method was extremely difficult. Currently, all the cultivation methods he possessed came from the people he had killed. While some were suitable for a Core Formation cultivator, they were all too different, making it difficult to choose just one.
However, those weren’t the main points. The main point was that he wanted to choose a cultivation method that would increase his chances of forming a Nascent Soul. Thinking of this, his eyes lit up. From Ma Liang’s memories, the Divine Path of the War God Temple seemed to have this effect.
However, what confused Wang Lin was that if the War God Temple really had a cultivation method like this, plus the people in his own country were greedy, even rank 4 or rank 5 cultivation countries would not let him off lightly.
However, according to Ma Liang’s recollection, the Divine Path of the War God Temple had never attracted the interest of high-level cultivation nations. This puzzled Wang Lin.
However, the only clue he had was this Divine Path. Wang Lin decided that he had to obtain it no matter what. The Divine Path that Ma Liang knew about was something that came from a senior who had gained insight into the true Divine Path, so it was actually a fake. What Wang Lin wanted was the true Divine Path.
Everything Wang Lin did was to ensure that he would successfully form his Nascent Soul in the future. Only by preparing now could he maximize his success rate.
However, cultivation methods alone weren’t enough to give Wang Lin confidence. Forming a Nascent Soul was incredibly difficult. It had to be said that the qualification for a level 2 cultivation country to reach level 3 was for someone to reach the Nascent Soul stage. This alone demonstrated how difficult it was.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and returned to cultivating. After staying inside the Heaven-Defying Bead for a few more days, he prepared to leave.
Before leaving, he went to visit Situ Nan and his parents’ spirits. After standing there silently for a while, he left the heaven-defying bead behind.
Somewhere underground, there was a flash of rainbow-colored light as Wang Lin appeared. Right after he appeared, he quickly ran into the distance.
At the same time, he spread out his divine sense and observed the outside closely. It was midnight and everything was quiet. Wang Lin pondered briefly before quickly moving toward Hou Fen Union.
But before he could move much, he suddenly sensed danger from his divine sense. He used his Earth Escape Technique to its fullest potential and quickly descended deeper underground. From a depth of 300 feet to 1,000 feet, he continued to descend, his speed steadily increasing.
An old voice echoed throughout Wang Lin’s divine sense. “This old man has been waiting for you for 97 days, little fellow!”
Wang Lin’s head throbbed, his hair stood on end, and his face was gloomy. Without another word, he continued down. 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet, 3,000 feet, 4,000 feet…. 10,000 feet. Wang Lin descended straight down, and as he got deeper, he felt a force holding him down, causing him to immediately change direction to descend diagonally.
“Hehe, it’s a good thing I borrowed this earth boat from someone. It would have been very difficult to catch you once you escaped through the earth’s crust thanks to the power there.” The voice continued to echo in Wang Lin’s divine sense.
Wang Lin remained silent as he suddenly changed direction and began moving upward. From 1,000 feet underground to 100 feet deep, he charged toward the surface with the Hou Fen Union mountain range right in front of him.
As soon as he appeared, he charged toward the mountain. A screen of light appeared around the mountain. As he touched the light, he took out the identification jade he had been given. He easily passed through the light and then looked back.
At this moment, a large, black wooden boat rose from the ground. The old man stood on the boat and looked at Wang Lin on the other side of the light screen. He nodded and said, “Not bad. Your divine sense is very strange. Even though you’ve adapted it to your body, there’s still something amiss. It seems like you’ve stolen that body. Little fellow, come with me. This place can’t protect you.”
Wang Lin’s face was gloomy as he sneered silently.
The old man’s lips moved, revealing a strange smile. His right hand gently pressed on the light screen, causing several cracks to appear before the entire light screen shattered completely. The entire mountain shook, sending up a large amount of dust and dirt.
The Nascent Soul cultivators of the Hou Fen Union flew out one by one, terrified.
Wang Lin’s pupils shrank. He turned around and returned to the ground to escape again.
The old man sneered and was about to give chase when one of the Nascent Soul cultivators from the Evil Demon Sect mustered up the courage and asked, “Fellow cultivator, why did you destroy our sect’s protective formation?”
This person had been around for three months. He hadn’t done much other than scan the area with his divine sense. His divine sense was extremely powerful, shocking all the Nascent Soul cultivators present.
Secretly, the cultivators of Hou Fen watched the old man. Today they saw a disciple from the Hou Fen Guild coming, but before they could take a closer look, they were all stunned by the old man destroying their sect’s protective formation with a single press of his palm.
If they allowed this to happen, the Hou Fen Union would lose face. It was the Evil Demon Sect’s turn to guard the mountain today, which was why this Nascent Soul cultivator was the one who dared to ask questions. This way, their stance on the matter was expressed. Regardless of whether the old man answered or not, the Nascent Soul cultivator would not force the issue.
The old man stared at the Hou Fen cultivators and said one word: “Get lost!”
This single word sent a powerful shockwave reverberating within the cultivators’ ears.
After the sound wave passed, the old man had disappeared without a trace. All the cultivators looked at each other. Some of them were bleeding from their mouths and noses. None of them could utter a word.
However, the old man soon returned. His face was extremely grim as he stared at the mountain. His eyes closed, then suddenly opened as his powerful divine sense spread out. He scanned everyone on the mountain and even searched 1,000 feet underground. The more he scanned, the deeper his brows became. Finally, his body moved, and from one he became two, then from two he became four.
Four identical-looking old men spread out in four directions, each scanning with their own divine sense, but they still found nothing. The old man stomped the ground as he and his three avatars each went to the four corners of Xuanwu. Their divine senses connected and surrounded the entire land.
“There are only three years left. Little brat, in these three years, I, the Eighth Extreme Demon King, will refine Xuan Wu to find you. Ah, if that place didn’t require death spells to pass through, I wouldn’t have spent all this time trying to catch you!”