Chapter 144 – Core Formation (1)
There were cold cores in his head, chest, and dantian. He had to break the balance between them so that the cold core in his head would sink and merge with the cold core in his chest. If that succeeded, it would be the initial fusion.
The next step is for the fused cold core to sink and merge with the cold core in the dantian. When the three cold cores merge, there’s a chance for the formation of a true core.
Wang Lin sat quietly in the small stone room filled with Yin energy. His eyes were cold, his sense of divinity was in his body, and his focus was on the cold core in his head.
The first step for him was to make this cold core sink.
Wang Lin had known that it would be difficult to fuse the three cores before, but after experiencing it, he felt that difficult was an understatement. More like extremely difficult to fuse the three cold cores.
Wang Lin had been trying to submerge the first cold core for over a month, and he had been trying non-stop the entire time. It seemed as if some mysterious force was blocking him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break through.
The requirement for cultivating the Underworld Ascension Method was to destroy the Ancestral Point, Qi Sea, and dantian three times, each time more difficult than the last. The first time could be said to be difficult, the second time extremely difficult, and the third time extremely difficult. However, what Wang Lin was trying to do now was actually destroying his Ancestral Point for the fourth time, so one could only imagine the difficulty.
After numerous attempts to break through, Wang Lin changed his tactics and decided to slowly break down the barrier. As time passed, the force blocking him grew weaker.
However, the pain inflicted while grinding was beyond imagination. Each time he grinded, his body would tremble, and his forehead would be covered in sweat. His clothes had been dry since he began this process.
Transforming three cores into one wasn’t something that could be achieved without strong determination. However, determination wasn’t something Wang Lin lacked. Even in the Heng Yue Sect, his determination had left two streaks of blood on the path to the mountain.
If not for his poor talent, he would definitely be the focus of the Heng Yue Sect’s care and nurturing. However, all of this is useless now that the Heng Yue Sect has been destroyed.
Wang Lin’s determination was truly unimaginable. After enduring three months of pain, the Ancestral Point finally shattered once again.
The fist-sized cold core slowly sank into his sea of Qi. As it sank, bits of energy from the cold core entered his body,
Each time the cold core sinks, more of these energy threads emerge until the core is finally just above the sea of Qi.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and began grinding the barrier in front of the sea of Qi without hesitation.
Three months later, the barrier finally shattered and opened. At the same time, the two cold cores collided. Wang Lin heard an explosion as terrifying energy flowed through his body.
Wang Lin’s face instantly turned pale. After his throat moved slightly, he coughed out a mouthful of blood. As the blood flowed out, it froze and hit the wall, causing the wall to be covered in blood-colored ice crystals.
After coughing up blood, he immediately took out eight medium-grade spirit stones, all of which he crushed and turned into dust. The dust quickly swirled around him, forming strange symbols.
The symbol glowed faintly before disappearing. Then, a black flying sword appeared and circled Wang Lin once before stopping in front of him. A demonic figure slowly emerged from the sword.
The devil first saw Wang Lin and began to struggle to decide what to do. Just at this moment, the divine sense embedded within the devil activated, and it lost all desire to attack Wang Lin and began to obediently guard him.
After completing all this, Wang Lin’s body fell to the ground. He only had enough time to form a formation before he fainted.
Speaking of this formation, Wang Lin had prepared several simple formations to be used during emergency situations.
The devil guarded the cave and secretly glanced at Wang Lin a few times. He began to struggle again and thought, “Should I attack him? Well… he doesn’t seem to be pretending… it’s hard to say. This person is too cunning… Ah, should I fight him? But if I can’t defeat him…” The devil shivered and threw this idea out of his mind.
After a day, the idea he had thrown out of his mind resurfaced, and he began to struggle. “Should I attack him? This is the perfect time. If I miss this opportunity now, then I might never have another chance… No, this Wang Lin is too cunning. How could he not have some kind of defense against me? He fainted, but he still let me out. This doesn’t make sense.” The demon shook his head and glared at Wang Lin viciously. “I won’t fall for it. You can keep pretending.”
The idea was once again dismissed.
The next day passed. The devil looked at Wang Lin and was tempted again. “Forget it, let’s fight! I don’t think this guy is pretending. I want to fight, fight, fight!”
His eyes turned red and he leaped toward Wang Lin. The defensive formation had no effect, so he managed to touch him.
But soon, the demon screamed pitifully as green gas erupted from his body, and he looked like he was about to disappear. He immediately retreated, crying out in pain, “I knew this guy was cunning. Otherwise, why would he let me out without a care? Damn it, when did he leave that divine sense inside me? How… how am I going to live from now on?” The demon fell to the ground and began to wail.
After experiencing this, the demon obediently stayed in the corner, staring at the wall with angry eyes.
On the third day, Wang Lin woke up with a bitter smile. He had underestimated the difficulty of the fusion. The destructive power created by the fusion was a crucial part of the process.
He couldn’t let this energy escape or the fusion would fail, but if he kept it inside his body, his body wouldn’t be able to withstand it. Wang Lin’s expression was dark and unsettling.
In fact, his body couldn’t handle this level of Yin energy, which made him extremely confused. How did a senior who practiced the Underworld Ascension Method fuse three cold cores? Forget about everything else, how did Situ Nan manage to cultivate the Underworld Ascension Method?
Wang Lin thought hard but couldn’t find the answer. This was one of the things Situ Nan had never said.
“How can I make my body able to withstand Yin energy?” Wang Lin muttered to himself for a long time before sighing, then his gaze fell on the demon in the corner.
After Wang Lin woke up, the demon had been constantly spying on him. Now that Wang Lin was looking at it, his body trembled, and he quickly said, “I’ve been guarding you all this time and have always been vigilant.”
Wang Lin caught the demon and threw it onto the flying sword before leaving the stone chamber.
Wang Lin looked into Li Muwan’s room and saw her slumped over the table, sound asleep. Her silky hair was tied back in a ponytail. Part of the ponytail rested on the side of her face and the rest tucked behind her ear. Her face was slightly red and glistened like sunlight reflecting off snow.
The purple dress she wore made her look like a painting, making anyone’s heart beat faster. At this moment, a puff of white smoke was rising from the pill furnace beside her, making her look like a fairy in a painting.
The decorations that Li Muwan added to her room, such as the green vines she picked up somewhere, made this scene look even more like a painting.
The faint scent of medicinal herbs wafted from his room. As soon as Wang Lin inhaled it, his mind immediately became clearer.
He stared for a long moment before turning his gaze to another stone room. His room. Half of the room was filled with herbs and the other half with other ingredients. A dragon skull was among them.
The dragon’s corpse was too large, especially its bones. It would be too wasteful to use it all on the formation, so Wang Lin went out once to tell Li Muwan to keep some of it.
After giving the order, he began to fuse the three cold cores. Wang Lin began to ponder. There was a slight purple tinge to this bone, making it look more like metal than bone. He reasoned that this must have been formed due to the unique structure of the dragon’s body.
Just as Wang Lin was observing, his heart suddenly moved and he turned around. Li Muwan stood up, yawning, and opened the door. He was surprised to see her. All his sleepiness was gone.
In the past few days, Li Muwan’s mentality had slowly changed. Initially, she had been wary of Wang Lin, afraid that he would suddenly attack her. After all, those who practiced the Death Mantra often harvested Yin energy.
However, he later realized that Wang Lin was almost always practicing in seclusion. Previously, he had thought that his brother was diligent in his cultivation, but after seeing Wang Lin, he felt that he was truly diligent.
In her view, Wang Lin was already at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage and only a step away from the Core Formation stage. However, how could the Core Formation stage be achieved so easily? In Li Muwan’s memory, the youngest person to reach the Foundation Establishment stage was 17 years old, but that person took 30 years before reaching the Core Formation stage. This person was Hou Fen’s ancestor, the first person to reach the Nascent Soul stage, and the person who elevated Hou Fen from a rank 2 cultivation country to a rank 3 one.
However, looking at Wang Lin’s appearance, she assumed he was only in his 20s. It was impossible for him to form a core in such a short time. When Wang Lin told her that he would send her home once she reached the Core Formation stage, she secretly sighed. She believed it would take decades for him to successfully reach the Core Formation stage. She felt a tinge of disdain for Wang Lin. If he had wanted to keep her, he could have just said so instead of using this trick.
Li Muwan pondered for a moment, then asked, “Your cultivation… has reached saturation?” Her soul blood essence was in his hands, so if he had any crazy requests, she wouldn’t know how to respond. This question had been on her mind for a long time. Today, when she saw the frown on his forehead, she couldn’t help but remember that the death spell required the user to absorb Yin energy from women in order to cultivate. Based on her calculations, it had been months since he last killed someone or touched any women.
Wang Lin didn’t know what Li Muwan was thinking. He looked at her and nodded.
Li Muwan’s heart pounded. She took a few steps back, her face turning pale. She struggled slightly, biting her lower lip and said, “I… I only promised to help you refine the pill. If I… I… even if I die, I won’t agree.”
Wang Lin was surprised by Li Muwan. He turned his gaze to the dragon skull and asked, “Why is the dragon skull colored like this?”
She bit her lower lip and said softly, “The dragon’s body is filled with poison, so it’s no surprise that its bones are this color.”
“Filled with poison?” Wang Lin was surprised as he carefully examined the skull.
“Before a dragon dies, its body is filled with deadly poison. Once it dies, the poison can transform its body into a kind of treasure. The most poisonous part of a dragon is its marrow, and its most valuable part is also its marrow.” Li Muwan’s expression gradually turned cold, and her voice calm.
Wang Lin silently stared at the dragon’s skull and began to ponder, his expression troubled. He muttered, “A body filled with poison… why wasn’t the dragon affected by the poison when it was alive…” An idea flashed through his mind. It came quickly, but it left just as quickly. Wang Lin only got a hint before becoming confused again.
Li Muwan stared coldly at Wang Lin. Seeing his frown tighten, she couldn’t help but say, “A dragon’s body is made from poison from its flesh, bones, guts, and even saliva, so it naturally won’t be affected…”
Suddenly, an idea crossed Wang Lin’s mind. The idea became clearer, and the wrinkles on his forehead gradually relaxed until he finally laughed and put the dragon skull into his storage bag.
“Since my body can’t withstand the Yin energy, then let my body completely merge with the Yin energy. As a result, I will be able to withstand it.” Wang Lin took a deep breath, looked at Li Muwan, and walked toward her.
Li Muwan’s face grew paler. She backed up against the wall, her body trembling. Just as she was about to commit suicide with a bitter smile on her face, Wang Lin said, “When I reach the Core Formation stage, I’ll send you back to the Lou He Sect.”
With that, he turned around, rushed out of the cave, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Li Muwan was completely dumbfounded. Her mind was in disarray as various thoughts flooded her mind. Finally, she sat down with her back against the wall.
Wang Lin activated his earth escape technique to its peak as he charged towards the valley of corpses. After gaining insight from Li Muwan’s words, he was now 100% certain that he could unite the three cold cores.
His speed was incredibly fast. He arrived at the Corpse Valley in three days. He charged straight through and flew from the first valley to the thirteenth. Outside the fourteenth valley, he took a deep breath and stepped inside.
In the fourteenth valley, the ground was covered in a layer of ice. As Wang Lin walked on it, fragments of Yin energy entered his feet. Wang Lin hesitated for a moment before slowly sinking into the ground with the earth escape technique.
As he sank, the Yin energy grew stronger. After he sank about 100 meters, he had to stop because the powerful Yin energy of the earth had frozen his body. This was his limit. If he dived any deeper, even his soul would freeze.
As for how deep the fourteenth valley was and what secrets it might hold, Wang Lin didn’t care. He carefully controlled his heartbeat and moved his body into the lotus position.
“I will not leave this valley until the three cores merge into one!” Wang Lin muttered this in his heart and closed his eyes.
Time passed and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.
The disaster in Hou Fen was finally resolved. A fourth-level cultivation country had dispatched three Soul Formation cultivators. They had spent 19 days taming all the fire beasts. They refined them into mid-grade spirit beasts, then returned to their country.
The quality of spirit creatures varies widely. They are categorized into abnormal, spiritual, desolate, and celestial beings. Each level has high, medium, and low quality.
The fire spirit absorbed by the Heaven-Defying Bead was only half a step away from becoming a masterless spirit beast. According to this scale, it would be at the peak stage of a high-quality spirit beast. All of its descendants were low-quality spirit beasts. This clearly demonstrated the difference between high, medium, and low-quality. If it weren’t for the fire spirit’s weakened state, it wouldn’t have been devoured so easily.
It should be said that a high-quality spirit beast is equivalent to a late-stage Soul Formation cultivator, a medium-quality spirit beast is equivalent to a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and an early-stage spirit beast is equivalent to a late-stage Core Formation cultivator.
The dead dragon is a medium quality spirit beast.
Although the fire beasts were extinct, the spiritual energy of fire in the country made it impossible to cultivate them. They could only wait for the spiritual energy of fire to slowly dissipate over time.
The battle with Xuan Wu continued, but fights between hundreds of people were now extremely rare. Most battles were now between a few dozen people. After conquering about ⅓ of Xuan Wu, the Hou Fen cultivators truly had no strength left to advance any further, so everything stabilized.
As for the battle between the two countries, it turned from a mutual killing spree into a training ground for both nations’ followers. This was a great humiliation for all the followers who had died during the outbreak of the war.
As for Wang Lin, after he sank 100 meters into the ground of the fourteenth valley, he sat there like an old monk. His heartbeat slowed down as boundless Yin energy entered his body and spread throughout his flesh and bones.
Gradually, more and more Yin energy accumulated in his body, causing his flesh to turn blue, as if it were about to turn to ice. In the past six months, his heart had beat 9,837,543 times, and he had sunk to a depth of 180 meters.
Six months passed. Yin energy had invaded all of his internal organs. His flesh and blood began to freeze, and his hands and feet had turned into ice crystals. It felt as if any force could crush him. In those six months, his heart had only beat 487,659 times, and he had sunk to a depth of 730 meters.
Six months later, the ice crystals had spread to his arms and legs. A closer look revealed his bones, visible through the ice. His body was also beginning to turn to ice. His heart had beat 3,865 times, and his body had sunk to a depth of 1,460 meters.
Six months had passed. Her entire body, except her head, had turned to ice crystals, and her heart had stopped beating. Her body had sunk to 3,672 meters.
Two years passed. Halfway through the third year, his head also turned into ice crystals. There were no more signs of life from Wang Lin. He had finally reached the Netherworld realm required in the Netherworld Ascension Cultivation Method.
His body had sunk to 7,979 meters and emerged in a dark blue space. His surroundings were littered with the bones of ferocious beasts. For some reason, all the flesh of these beasts had disappeared, leaving behind a sea of corpses.
All the bones here have turned into blue ice crystals.
Wang Lin sat within the sea of bones and spent one month to recover his heartbeat, two months to recover his divine sense, and three months to sense the three cold cores.
After that, the cold core of his Ancestral Point and the sea of Qi collided, creating a powerful surge of Yin energy. However, compared to the Yin energy currently in Wang Lin’s body, it felt somewhat disappointing.
He easily united two cold cores and condensed them into one.
Soon, the cold core that merged sank and arrived at the dantian. The barrier in the dantian only lasted half an hour before collapsing.
The fused cold core sank and collided with the cold core in the dantian. Suddenly, more than ten times the Yin energy from last time surged out. This Yin energy was extremely dense, but still slightly less than the Yin energy in Wang Lin’s body. Slowly, the three cold cores fused into one.
However, the color is not golden but full gray.
Wang Lin didn’t know that the Underworld Ascension Cultivation Method had undergone some changes due to the Heaven-Defying Bead and the Ji Realm. It could be said that the difficulties he faced were unprecedented.
The reason the Netherworld Ascension Cultivation Method is said to be the fastest way to reach the Core Formation stage is because it first forms a cold core prototype. It then uses spiritual energy to transform it into a golden core.
He had now completed more than half of it, so he just needed more spiritual energy to make that final push. However, the Core Formation stage was not easy to reach. There was a certain chance of failure.
If he fails, the prototype core will be destroyed and he will have to start again.