Chapter 505 - 476: Top-grade Golden Core

Chapter 505: Chapter 476: Top-grade Golden Core

Li Yuan opened his eyes.

Inside the stone chamber, the Spiritual Light of the main Spirit Vein had dimmed by more than half, and the Spirit Gathering Array was operating at its lowest power. Traces of Demonic Qi, which had spilled out when his pill was shattered, remained on the ground, mixed with the aftershocks of Spiritual Power released when the top-grade spiritual pill formed. The two completely different auras intertwined, not yet fully dissipated.

The changes in his body went far beyond just his cultivation realm.

Li Yuan immersed his Divine Sense into his body, and the first thing he noticed was his lifespan.

The process of shattering his pill and re-cultivating had brought about a complete reconstruction of his foundation, but the increase in his lifespan wasn’t as exaggerated as he had imagined. It was more of a replenishment. The previous lifespan boost had already occurred when he condensed the Demon Qi Golden Core.

The real substantial increase came from Adversity Remolding.

The effect of this blue permanent trait was exceptionally unique: after a drop in one’s realm, their cultivation aptitude and lifespan would permanently increase. The higher the realm one fell from, the greater the boost.

He had fallen from the Late-stage Golden Core to the Early-stage Golden Core, a drop of two full minor realms.

A warm power slowly surged from the depths of his bone marrow, seeping into every inch of his skin and every meridian. This power was not Spiritual Power, nor was it Qi Blood; it was something more fundamental, as if life itself was undergoing a silent expansion.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, sensing the change.

His lifespan was climbing.

It was extremely steady, extremely persistent, like fine sand flowing ceaselessly from one end of a flipped hourglass to the other.

A moment later, the climb stopped.

The lifespan increase from Adversity Remolding, combined with the replenishment and boost from shattering his pill and re-cultivating, brought his total lifespan to over twelve hundred years.

Twelve hundred years.

As this number appeared in Li Yuan’s sea of consciousness, an extremely deep hum suddenly emanated from the depths of his body.

The hum came from his Dantian, his meridians, his bones, his blood—from every corner of his body. It was as if countless violin strings had been plucked at the exact same instant, all producing the same note.

Upon reaching a lifespan of a thousand years, a life-form undergoes a metamorphosis.

Everything inside his body began to make minute adjustments.

The arrangement of his meridians became more rational, and the flow path of his Spiritual Power automatically optimized, removing several redundant twists and turns. The density of his bones didn’t increase noticeably, but their structure became more uniform. The rhythm of his Qi Blood circulation naturally fell from a rapid, combat-ready frequency to a calm, unhurried, long-period cadence.

It was like a hastily built tower undergoing a round of fine-tuning after its foundation was reinforced. The tower’s height remained unchanged, but its resistance to tremors had significantly improved.

The metamorphosis was complete within a few breaths.

Li Yuan stretched his neck and shoulders. Although the changes within his body were not drastic, the feeling of being perfectly integrated was much more pronounced than before he shattered his pill.

Then, with a thought, Li Yuan equipped the Core Formation Platform.

[Condition for making Platform Providence (Purple) permanent has been met]

[Platform Providence (Purple) has become a permanent trait]

’I’ve met the condition for forming a core on the Core Formation Platform.’

A purple light exploded in his sea of consciousness.

A vast torrent of information instantly flooded his sea of consciousness.

The vision showed an incredibly magnificent underground palace. Its dome was dozens of zhang high, and in the center of the hall sat a simple stone platform, nearly identical to the Core Formation Platform Li Yuan had used, but the Array Patterns on its surface were much brighter.

A middle-aged Female Cultivator in a white robe sat cross-legged on the Core Formation Platform, surrounded by arrays. Pure Spiritual Power flowed continuously into the platform.

The white-robed Female Cultivator’s expression was as calm as still water. In her Dantian, a Golden Core was slowly taking shape.

This was the complete operating principle of the Core Formation Platform.

From the method of guiding Spiritual Power and the application points of auxiliary force to the underlying logic of the platform’s Array Patterns, everything was displayed in the vision with perfect clarity.

From this, Li Yuan gained a profound understanding of precise Spiritual Power control. This understanding wasn’t merely knowledge; it was an instinct, as if accumulated from personally assisting in hundreds of Core Formations.

The vision faded.

But the system panel did not close.

Immediately after, a second notification popped up.

[Condition for making Three Elements Union (Purple) permanent has been met]

[Three Elements Union (Purple) has become a permanent trait]

’The condition for making it permanent was to condense a Top Grade Golden Core. I’ve already met that requirement.’

Another purple light exploded.

In an extremely small Artifact Refining room, an old man with white hair and a white beard sat before a furnace, holding three thumb-sized beads in his hands. The three beads—one red, one white, and one cyan—emitted completely different auras.

The old man placed the three beads into the furnace at the same time. The scene then shifted, and the three colored lights intertwined, forming a pure white pillar of light that shot into the sky.

"The Essence, Qi, and Spirit Three Elements have become one," the old man said, looking at the pure white bead in his palm and letting out a long sigh.

"It’s just a pity that it can’t achieve true mutual conversion. It’s more like using a method similar to the Blood Sacrifice Skill, which consumes Qi Blood to replenish Spiritual Power."

The vision faded.

The profound principles of interconversion between Essence, Qi, and Spirit settled in Li Yuan’s mind. Layering with the effects of his existing traits, his understanding of the three elements deepened yet again.

The system panel lit up for a third time.

[Condition for making Breaking Realm and Condensing Origin (Blue) permanent has been met]

[Breaking Realm and Condensing Origin (Blue) has become a permanent trait]

The vision that flooded in was brief. A cultivator in a sealed chamber consumed an Origin Condensing Bead and then broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage. The vision focused on how the Origin Condensing Bead guided Spiritual Power to breach the barrier during the breakthrough, and how it automatically adjusted the level of assistance based on the cultivator’s foundation.

The three permanent upgrades were completed in succession within a few breaths.

Li Yuan returned to his senses from the torrent of information and took out the All-Seeing Mirror and the Kun-Peng Swallowing Technique from his personal space.

The moment the All-Seeing Mirror was in his hand, the panel popped up.

[Equipped: All-Seeing Mirror (Complete)]

[All-Seeing Regression (Purple) activated]

A dark green, illusory bronze mirror sank into his equipment slot, and an immense power surged into his sea of consciousness.

The strength of his Divine Soul instantly skyrocketed by fifty percent.

The borders of his sea of consciousness expanded by a large margin, and his already extremely solid Divine Sense became even denser. Li Yuan’s perceptual range didn’t change significantly, but the precision of his perception and his information processing capabilities took a qualitative leap.

Everything in the surrounding stone chamber appeared in his Divine Sense with unprecedented clarity. The flow frequency of Spiritual Qi in the main Spirit Vein, the Spiritual Power load on the array nodes, and even the amount of residual water vapor in a hairline crack on the rock wall were all automatically captured, analyzed, and categorized.

This was the passive effect of All-Seeing Regression. His Divine Sense was no longer just a tool for perception; it had become an automatic analyzer.

Then, with a thought, Li Yuan turned his attention to another area within his Dantian.

The residual energy from his shattered Mid-grade Demon Pill was still scattered throughout his Dantian and meridians. When the top-grade spiritual pill condensed, it had absorbed a portion of it, but most of the Demonic Qi fragments were repelled from the Spirit Pill’s structure. They were like silt settled at the bottom of a river—not affecting the flow, but not dissipating either.

The source of its Essence, Qi, and Spirit had already been exhausted when the pill was shattered. This residual energy was merely an enormous amount of pure Demonic Qi. Without the core of a Golden Core, it couldn’t circulate on its own and wouldn’t interfere with the Spirit Pill.

Li Yuan collected it into his personal space, then sat down cross-legged again and closed his eyes to rest and recuperate.

The process of shattering his pill and re-cultivating was immensely draining; he needed some time to recover.

Li Yuan settled into a cross-legged position and began to formally circulate the power of his top-grade spiritual pill.

’I don’t have a Tier Three Spiritual Power Cultivation Technique right now, so I can only circulate the Cyan Wood Longevity Skill for the time being.’

The moment Spiritual Power surged from his Dantian, Li Yuan noticed a huge difference.

The Spiritual Power released by the top-grade spiritual pill was like an extremely pure, silver stream, without a single impurity or murky patch. When the Spiritual Power passed through his meridians, there was almost no resistance, like mercury gliding through a glass tube.

As Li Yuan guided the Spiritual Power to his chest, a powerful tremor suddenly came from deep within his Dantian.

Below his Dantian, a mass of extremely dark light was slowly pulsating.

The Lifebound Spiritual Artifact embryo.

The hazy membrane of light on the embryo’s surface had become denser, and the Spiritual Power patterns within were several times clearer than before.

The degree of refinement far surpassed what it was when he had condensed the Demon Pill.

A Top-grade Golden Core brought about a qualitative leap in both the incubation speed and the quality ceiling of a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact.

Li Yuan withdrew his attention from the embryo and continued to circulate his Spiritual Power, stabilizing his cultivation at the peak of the early stage.

For the next several days, Li Yuan remained in the stone chamber in seclusion.

The circulation of Spiritual Power from his Top-grade Golden Core grew smoother with each passing day. For the first few days, the Spiritual Power would occasionally encounter minuscule delays at a few newly widened meridian branches, but the perfect control from Platform Providence quickly eliminated these hitches.

With each breath cycle, his cultivation at the peak of the Early-stage Golden Core made minuscule progress, slowly approaching the threshold of the Mid Stage.

The speed wasn’t fast, but it was extremely steady.

Every bit of accumulation was solid, without the slightest hint of instability.