73 Golden Core

'I feel like I shouldn't be forceful, but gently convincing these girls to come with me will take a lot of work...Celes is busy helping her father though. Crap, I'll just have to give it a try.'

Jim: "Everyone, the bandits are dead. I'd like you to come with me, but if you don't want to, you're free to go."

The girls started looking at each other with some hope of Jim having told the truth, they also feared that this was just some cruel joke the bandits wanted to torment them with. The cell doors were now open, their chains broken, the girls whad gathered and wanted to head upstairs.

Jim: "I need to warn you, it's not a pretty sight out there."

Several of the girls started vomiting when they saw the gory scene. They now knew Jim was telling the truth and looked at him with both fear and appreciation.

Jim: "Well, anyone willing to come with me, please gather over here."

Luckily, the girls seemed to have bonded and decided to come all come along. 'I'm surprised my terrible attempt worked.'

Jim pulled them into companion storage, although there was still some fear and distrust remaining, companion storage just needed the target to not reject entering. Jim teleported to his city, he ended up turning back in human form. 'Didn't I just make a resolve to become accepted in Sura form?' Sighing internally, he felt it couldn't be helped. The Foxes would be gripped with intense fear and a need to be subservient when faced with someone of the Sura race, he didn't want to torture them just to feel better about himself.

'In the first case, wasn't I originally Human? Something is wrong, why did I want to be accepted as a Sura? It felt really good to make that resolution so I didn't realize anything wrong with my thought process.'

Jim greeted Zana and left the girls to her before shutting himself in his house, he needed to carefully check what might be wrong with himself. He hadn't used Serene Mind in a long time as it was no longer useful in raising his cultivation, but recalling that it helped sort out his mental state, he decided to use it again.

A few hours passed before Jim finished circulating the technique. 'I see now, it's similar to the overwhelming instincts of savagery that I had as a Goblin. I'm glad I caught this so early, Sura seem to naturally lean towards intense pride and vanity. I need to get back to having a human base.'

A window suddenly appeared.

[Host Species Change Function]

[Please Select: Human, Goblin, Sura]

'Oh? Nice, didn't know the system would let me do this at will.' Selecting Human, Jim felt his body begin tearing apart, a strange energy began forming around himself. He felt it was similar to the crystal that had encased him as he changed into a Sura before. Distracting himself from the pain, he focused on studying the energy. 'Something the system produces would be rather useful, right? What if I can replicate it?'

The form change ended, he unfortunately hadn't fully grasped the energy yet. It was too profound and mysterious. 'Oh well, my original goal was achieved. I still need to handle the horde to the east, help with the government reforms, and return home. I think I should form more clones in order to multitask, but the Qi needed is too large. Let's make a breakthrough in my cultivation first, with a higher realm and Qi capacity I'll be able to make clones at a faster rate.'

Circulating Eternal Heavenly Art, Jim smiled when he found Divinity being generated alongside the normal benefits. After a few hours, Jim felt he was about to break through to the next realm. According to what he knew, the Golden Core was supposed to crack open like an egg, releasing what was known as a Nascent Soul. It was effectively a second life that cultivators could use. Even if their entire body was destroyed, the Nascent Soul could leave the dantian and travel around until it eventually formed a new body, though the cultivation would take a hit during the process.

On Bahn Tai, forming your Nascent Soul was known as the Sage realm. Reaching this realm was considered a dividing line between mortal cultivators and immortals, along with the second life, a Sage realm cultivator's lifespan would expand tremendously. Entering Sage realm also granted a massive boost in power, far more than the gap between previous realms. A Golden Core Cultivator would be considered a powerful warrior, capable of being a sect's elder, but a Sage was a king among men. Forget joining a sect, you could create your own at that point.

However, Jim's Golden Core didn't crack open. He was confused, he felt a few hours wasn't enough time to make such a large leap in cultivation realm, but he did feel his cultivation rise. Since it was at Peak Golden Core, the only breakthrough to make was to Sage, right? Inspecting his dantian further, Jim was stunned. Qi was pooling, a Golden Core was being formed. 'What the hell is this? Two Cores?'