18 How Could That Be?

Krune was looking at the spirit stones beside the spiritual vein lake. He had almost two thousand of them now, and among them, nearly 300 were at Rank Two.

'This should be more than enough for the breakthrough. According to Ruik, the part that usually spends the most spiritual energy is breaking the core's interior. The more thoroughly the core is broken, the easier it is to model after. After pondering over it, we got to the conclusion that the final part, which is to fill the 'universe' with spiritual energy, will spend just as much.'

Krune first calmed down and made sure that he was at his peak. When he started breaking down the interior of his core, he didn't know what he would feel since his own soul was one with the core. Though, he was certain it was going to be really painful.

Krune started the process, and soon, the spiritual energy in the surroundings started to gather around him. There was plenty of spiritual energy in the air because of the spiritual vein beside him. It would help him save quite a lot of spirit stones. Once enough spiritual energy was gathered at the center of his core, Krune forced it into a rampage, barely keeping control over it.

"Crack!"

As soon as Krune heard the sound of the core cracking, he almost fainted.

Painful!

Extremely painful!

Wisps really had it hard. It felt as if what was breaking wasn't his core but his soul instead. Fortunately, he was prepared for it and managed to keep his control over the spiritual energy. But while doing so, Krune noticed one thing.

'Ruik was right. You can only feel it after you start the process. I can tell that my core is barely holding on from fully breaking apart. You must have a cultivation level at the peak of 9th Stage Qi Condensation to be able to go through it. Otherwise, the core won't be resilient enough to resist.'

It turns out that if someone tried to start the shattering process before reaching the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm, the core would immediately shatter. If it didn't, there would be those who would try to enter the Foundation Establishment Realm much earlier. Of course, if such a thing was possible, this cultivator would have a very unstable foundation, so very few would try it either way.

Slowly but surely, Krune kept breaking the core's interior. Every time he used spiritual energy to smash it, he would feel like he wanted to die. An ordinary cultivator would be much faster in this process since even though it would hurt, it was just pain from the core. But for Krune, he was hurting his own soul in the process. He must always wait some time to stabilize his state of mind before continuing the process.

'Ruik said that his shattering process only took him three days, but with the way things are going, I definitely will take much longer than that.'

There's no helping it. Not only did Krune need to stop every time he broke it, Krune's plan was to keep smashing its interior until he felt that it couldn't be broken any further. His universe foundation was bound to be very difficult to model, so he couldn't take any chances even if it kills him.

---

Slowly, an entire month went by.

Inside the spiritual vein lake room, one could hear a grunt coming out of it every now and then. Krune had kept at it until now, and he had received great harvests.

First, his core's interior was truly smashed to powder now. Even though he wasn't near finished yet, the process was going much more smoothly now.

Second, all the pain had tempered his soul to an unbelievable degree. If he tried to use his Divine Sense right now, it would definitely span further than a kilometer in radius. And that was considering that he was still in the Qi Condensation Realm! He couldn't help but think of the old saying.

'With great risks come great rewards. I already don't have a need to stop anymore between every move I make. It still hurts, but it's not unbearable. Also, I feel like I understand now.'

What Krune found out was that he could measure how finely broken his core's interior was according to the pain his soul felt.

'If my conjecture isn't wrong, my core's interior will only be perfectly broken when I feel no pain in my soul anymore. That's when I know that I've achieved perfection in the first part of my breakthrough.'

Krune was right. That was an unexpected gain for him. Using the pain in the soul to measure the progress in the shattering process was something that only wisps would ever be able to use. But how many wisps out there have ever tried entering the Foundation Establishment Realm before? It's bound to be very few and far between. This fact would help Krune achieve something that only great clans and sects can do, which was a perfect foundation.

Those great clans and sects would never divulge their secrets on how one could do that. Each of them had their own ways to ascertain if the core or dantian's interior was perfectly broken. But for someone to use the pain of their souls to find out about that? Only wisps were able to do so! The impressive thing was that wisps didn't even know about the perfect shattering process.

So the very few wisps who had tried to break through into the Foundation Establishment Realm would go as far as to keep breaking their cores until there was no more pain. They just wanted to get over this painful process as fast as possible. Because of this, Krune could be said to be one of the firsts, if not the first himself, to ever achieve a perfect shattering process among the wisps!

And just like that, Krune kept at it, smashing until he couldn't feel even an itch. After 45 days, Krune suddenly stopped.

'Hmm? I don't feel anything? Other than the rumble of spiritual energy, I couldn't feel anything else after this last shatter with spiritual energy. Just to make sure, let's try it a few more times.'

Krune gathered spiritual energy and tried to use it to break the interior. Even with that, he couldn't feel anything at all. It was as if the spiritual energy flowed around his core without any obstacles. His core's interior couldn't even be said to be powder anymore. It looked like clay at this point.

'Seems like this is it. I can't wait longer anyway. According to Ruik, once you have decided that the core's interior can't be broken any further, you must start the modeling process straight away. Otherwise, it will lose its balance, and the process will fail.'

Krune then started the modeling process, and he had thought about it hundreds of times. He would first open the space that was supposed to be his small universe. By removing the clay-like interior out of the way, it didn't take long for him to create a void between his core's shell and what would become his planet's foundation later on. One must understand that once the shattering process has concluded, the core or dantian shell would increase in size. This was more or less a certainty. Otherwise, the cultivators wouldn't be able to model anything since there would be no space to do so.

To form the void was the easy part. There was nothing to be modeled there. After that came the hard part, which was to use his spiritual energy to model a world. To be more exact, a world that had everything a real world would. Of course, at a much smaller scale and with fewer things on it. But even so, it was bound to take a lot of time.

Krune wasn't dejected though, after all the pain of the shattering process and the tempering of his soul as a reward, Krune was very ecstatic. He could feel that he was a step closer to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Krune then started the modeling process. First, the planet itself, leaving just an area big enough to store his soul and his future core.

After that, he started to model the surface. First, he created the atmosphere since it was necessary to hold the air, regulate the seasons, and stop things like the ocean from evaporating into the universe. After that came the seas. Almost all life came from water, so the seas and oceans came second. Terrestrial life forms needed land to walk, so continents came in third. Energy was necessary to give birth to life. Usually, it would be provided by the sun.

Then again, Krune didn't have one, so he used the rainbow-like spiritual energy he had thought of before to nurture the seas and lands. As for that rainbow-like spiritual energy alone, he spent almost 1000 spirit stones. After all, his enclosed universe was much bigger than something like the island in the lake foundation.

After that came life forms, forests, animals, and so on. At this point, the planet modeling process would take a very long time. Nevertheless, Krune didn't care. He paid attention to every detail and revised them several times. Time wasn't a problem for him. Krune had just recently become 4 years old, so he was still quite a young wisp.

---

It had already been three months since the start of the planet modeling process. By now, Krune had already finished his little planet. He spent the last two weeks revising it and making corrections here and there. Time seemed to have no meaning for Krune anymore. All that mattered was his foundation. But today, Krune had finally arrived at the conclusion that he couldn't modify anything else to his little planet.

'I've revised it hundreds of times, and I can't find anything else to fix. At most, I would just change the position of some places. That wouldn't be because they're wrong, but because they would look better in the eyes. Then again, I won't do that. A planet wasn't something born to look good. It's a balance. As long as the key points are there, the planet itself wouldn't care what it looks like. If I do that, my planet might even be rejected by the heavens instead. One must remember that even the heavens aren't perfect, let alone a planet. My chances will be better if I keep it as close as possible to the real thing.'

'Now then, it's time to create a home for my soul and my future golden core.'

Krune had heard from Ruik that when one broke through to the Core Formation Realm, one's core would be golden in color. Then again, Ruik only heard about that himself, so he wasn't sure about the details.

'Now that I think about it, my soul feels like it had been vagrant all around inside my core. This feeling of not being attached really makes me feel uncomfortable, so I hope everything goes as planned. I intend to build the planet core to be compatible with what my soul was housed in before my breakthrough. But I will only know if it's a good idea after I finish it.'

In fact, the core of the planet would be quite easy to finish since it would more or less be a copy of what his core was before. The only difference was that at the very center was the place where his future golden core would be nurtured. The idea was that his soul would live together with his future golden core. Krune didn't know if this was a good idea or not, but he decided that it was worth a shot.

'From what I heard from Ruik, I must leave the place where my future golden core will be nurtured completely empty. It must have no obstacles and enough space.'

After ten more days, Krune had finally finished everything. Before concluding the process, he decided that it was better to attach his soul back to the core first. That's because he was afraid that he might not be able to go back when he finished his breakthrough. His foundation might consider it as if he wasn't supposed to be there. Unlike other races, his soul must be part of the foundation itself. He had no other choice.

'Alright, everything is done. Now I just need to complete the process and wait for the heavens to check my foundation. I've been here for three and a half months, and Ruik said that the time spent creating the foundation doesn't matter. Then again, he has never heard of anyone taking more than a month to finish it, let alone more than three.'

What determined whether the creation of the foundation was over or not was the flow of spiritual energy. That's also why Krune gathered so many spirit stones. If the flow of spiritual energy was interrupted before finalizing the modeling, the process would be considered a failure. So he had to make sure he had enough spirit stones available. It was the same for everyone as well. At the same time, one would need to stop the flow of spiritual energy by themselves after finishing the modeling process. By doing so, the new foundation would try to gather spiritual energy by itself from heaven and earth. After that, the process will be finished.

The moment the new foundation tried to gather spiritual energy from the outside world would be the moment that the heavens felt its existence. It will then check if it's in accordance with its rules.

By now, during those three months of creation, Krune had already used almost all of his spirit stones. No more than a hundred were left in the end. Fortunately, he didn't damage his spiritual vein lake. After staying so long in this place, he couldn't help but feel a bit of attachment to it. It might be a low-grade spiritual vein, but it had helped him and his companions a lot. Krune then calmed his thoughts and made up his mind.

'Alright, this is the final moment. It all depends on whether the heavens like it or not.'

Krune then cut the flow of spiritual energy and waited. Not long after, his foundation seemed to come to life. It started to absorb the spiritual energy from heaven and earth through his Spiritual Energy Meridians. Krune was also able to confirm one of his guesses from the past. Before, he couldn't use all his three Spiritual Energy Meridians at full power. He always thought that it was because his core was too weak, and it turns out that he was right. As soon as the foundation started to absorb spiritual energy, his Spiritual Energy Meridians started to work at full power. Krune felt relieved with that.

But he didn't have time to check, that's because soon after, he felt as if the world around him disappeared. It was like there was only him left in the world as a whole. Suddenly, a comfortable sensation assaulted his soul. It was like all the laws of the world were at his grasp. He understood what was happening. The heavens had descended to check on his foundation. He could feel that every part of his core was being run by some kind of energy, and it was a very magical feeling.

It didn't last long, though. No more than a minute. In fact, Krune's check-up by the heavens already lasted much longer than it would for someone else. It's proof that his foundation was much more complicated compared to any other ordinary one. Of course, Krune didn't know that.

After that, that energy simply disappeared as if it had never been there. Krune checked his core foundation, and it didn't feel like it would break apart anytime soon. Not only that, it was fortifying as time passed.

'Does that mean I succeeded?'

Krune was just about to celebrate when suddenly, he noticed something wrong.

'Wait! Where's my future golden core?'

Once one entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, one's foundation would create a core that would be nurtured until one is ready to enter the Core Formation Realm. It isn't a real core though, it's more like a false core. But in his case, the core was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't have time to think for long, though. That's because all of a sudden, he could feel a lot of spiritual energy congregating above him. Krune was inside the cave room, so he couldn't see what was happening outside. But it felt like the entire world itself was angry at him.

---

In the middle of the cave, Ruik was sleeping when suddenly, he felt the spiritual energy of the world starting to gather above the mountain range. He then immediately rushed outside to see what was happening. When he looked up to the sky, his heart almost stopped. He knew what it was because he had seen it happen before from a distance.

"How could that be?"

The more he looked at it, the more frightened he felt.

"Heavenly...tribulation!"