Chapter 24 Core Formation (2)

The robust ten flame pillars were melting simultaneously, like salt dissolving in water. The fluctuations of the essence spread throughout the Sixth Sense Realm, but for unknown reasons, there were no fluctuations outside, as if nothing had happened.

In this way, no one was aware he was in the process of breaking through, which could be both unfortunate and fortunate at the same time. No one would disturb him, but there was also a chance someone might interrupt him because they didn't know he was breaking through. However, the likelihood of that happening was low, as Shangguan didn't interact much with people, so no one would suddenly visit him.

Shangguan Yi fully concentrated on the melting process. Time progressed slowly. After a full day, Shangguan Yi had completely melted the pillars, leaving ten wisps of core essence. Still, Shangguan Yi couldn't relax yet. He guided each wisp of core essence to form the core. Others might form one core at a time, but he did ten of them simultaneously, so he had to concentrate ten times more.

Shangguan Yi had experience condensing the ten suns in cultivation, so condensing the ten cores was not a big problem for him. Each wisp of core essence circulated like a vortex, moving faster and faster as minutes passed. One after another, the cores were formed. Finally, after ten hours, Shangguan Yi completed condensing the ten flame cores.

Still, this was not the end. The last and most important step remained: to form a real core from the ten cores.

The ten ruby cores floated like suns in the Sixth Sense Realm. Shangguan Yi carefully started the process, with the ten cores circulating around like planets moving around the sun in a solar system. Seconds passed, minutes passed, and then an hour. The core was slowly forming in the center. A day later, the ten cores had disappeared, and the real core was formed.

It was ruby-like in color and about the size of an eye. Shangguan Yi could feel the heat and abundant essence emanating from it. If he were to refine level 2 supreme-grade essence pills now, Shangguan Yi felt that producing a hundred batches would not be a problem. As for high-grade essence pills, at least a thousand batches would be within his capability.

Moreover, Shangguan Yi felt that his Divine Sense could perceive far beyond the Azure Cloud Pavilion. Still, he refrained from testing it out for now, as it might accidentally alarm the experts in the Azure Cloud Pavilion.

Not only that, but his body was also tougher; normal weapons couldn't harm him anymore. His eyes, ears, nose, and tongue had been upgraded to another level.

"I finally reached the Core Formation Realm."

Shangguan Yi couldn't suppress his excitement. From now on, he would be able to step outside and see the true sky of the world.

In this cultivation world, whether you had talent or not, everyone was born to cultivate. Even if you did not step onto the genuine path of cultivation, being a martial artist could still earn you the respect of thousands. Not to mention, being a genuine Cultivator allows one to trample hundreds of martial artists and become the overlord of a small town. After all, in a normal city with millions of people, only 10% might become genuine Cultivators.

However, it was still a challenge for Foundation Establishment Cultivators to get a good foothold in the cultivation society, as this level had the most Cultivators. The cultivation world is not a peaceful place; Cultivators needed resources, and conflicts could occur at any time. The death of Cultivators each day was very normal.

A Core Formation Cultivator was the peak existence in the county. No matter where he went, he would be treated as the most important guest. After all, there were usually no more than 1,000 Core Formation Cultivators in each county.

After a while, Shangguan Yi checked on the system. The cultivation function had changed to reflect the methods for cultivating in the Core Formation realm. In this realm, cultivation focused on forming the core.

Similar to a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, who absorbs world essence, refines it into essence, and uses the essence to condense pillars, a Core Formation Cultivator follows a comparable process. One absorbs the world essence, refines it into essence, condenses the essence into core essence, and finally forms the core.

Although the processes are similar, forming the core is more complicated than building the pillar. Foundation Establishment Cultivators can directly use essence to build pillars, but Core Formation Cultivators must first condense essence into core essence before forming the core.

One core represents one level; the more cores, the higher the level.

Fortunately, restoring essence isn't as complicated. One just needs a sufficient amount of essence to restore the core. However, the amount of essence required for one core is more than that for ten pillars. When Shangguan Yi was a level 10 Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he needed five high-grade essence pills to fully restore his essence. Now, it might take a hundred or more high-grade essence pills to fully restore his essence.

This realization made him turn solemn. To cultivate in the Core Formation Realm, the resources he had previously prepared were no longer much use.

Shangguan Yi stopped pondering about it as he looked into another function.

In the technique function, there were many new features and choices to develop, especially in combat techniques. Shangguan Yi had been fully focused on cultivation before, so currently, he didn't possess any combat techniques, which was a dangerous situation if he were to get into a fight. However, this was within his expectations. He had collected various techniques, and there were many choices for him to create combat techniques from the system. Shangguan Yi pondered about this for a while before shifting his attention to the pill function.

The pill function hadn't changed much. Shangguan Yi still needed to gather sufficient knowledge about each type of pill before he could refine level 3 pills. Consequently, all the listed pills were still level 2. However, it was worth mentioning that the essence and time required for refining had significantly decreased. From now on, he could refine countless level 2 pills as long as he had the necessary ingredients. Shangguan Yi finally felt relieved of the burden of refining pills.

The being function recorded the beings he encountered, categorizing them into familiar and unfamiliar. Moreover, he could now discern the cultivation levels of those he couldn't before. It appeared that Old Wang was a level 3 Core Formation Cultivator.

He then moved on to explore the new function: the array function. Similar to the pill function, he needed to input sufficient knowledge about arrays, including materials required for creation and the utilization of essence. Shangguan Yi felt inspired; when he eventually left the Azure Cloud Pavilion to create a safe environment for himself, mastering arrays would greatly assist him in achieving that goal.

After careful calculation, it became evident that there were still a few years before the chaos time. Many indicators pointed towards it: shortages of essence pill ingredients, and certain powerful families ceasing to sell pills. 

Having studied the ten-thousand-year history extensively, Shangguan Yi understood the chaos time well; it represented both calamity and opportunity. The Azure Cloud Pavilion had established itself in Xi'An 500 years ago, but Shangguan Yi couldn't predict whether the chaos time would be a calamity or an opportunity for them.

"Now that I've reached the Core Formation Realm, staying here indefinitely means I won't make long-term cultivation progress. Therefore, I must prepare for unexpected situations," Shangguan Yi said, his gaze deepening.

Right now, he is a Core Formation Cultivator. However, his talent was not very good, and his cultivation path still heavily relied on pills. The essence pills could only help him restore his essence; to cultivate and progress, what he needed were the core essence pills. Otherwise, if he were to cultivate like normal Cultivators, who knows how long it would take him to progress one level.

When he was at the Foundation Establishment Realm, without the help of pills, it would take him at least five years to progress one level. But at the Core Formation Realm, it might be considered lucky if he could progress one level in ten years.

Old Wang's talent was definitely higher than Shangguan Yi's, but after cultivating for more than a hundred years, he had only reached the level 3 Core Formation Realm. Therefore, the current Shangguan Yi simply didn't want to waste his time cultivating until he could produce the core essence pills.

The ingredients for core essence pills were hard to find, and the appearance of the core essence pill was rare, even before the chaos time. Now that the chaos time is about to arrive, even the ingredients for essence pills are scarce, making it extremely difficult for him to find the necessary ingredients at this time.

Therefore, Shangguan Yi pondered about developing his combat strength.

"I'll start with combat techniques," Shangguan Yi thought as he shifted his attention to the technique function.