65. Core Formation Realm

***

"Hmm."

Hiro grunts as his eyes opens. Greeted by the dark night sky, he blinked back at the stars that blinked at him. His mouth released another low grunt. His entire body was exhausted, his bones ached and so did his organs.

Usually when he wakes up after being seriously wounded, he was fine. No, he was usually better than fine. His body was always refreshed when he woke up, so why was it different now?

Why were his muscles screaming in pain? Why were his senses dull? Why was every part of his body experiencing pain?

There was no answer to his many questions. He didn't have the luxury to think. The pain he felt didn't let him. He stared at the sky and sighed. There were pills with him, the problem was his hand wouldn't move. There was no way for him to.

With that, Hiro closed his eyes. It didn't take much after for him to fall into sleep.

…

Hiro opens his eyes. The bright sky causes him to squint as he did. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the light.

How long was he out for? Hiro couldn't tell. The sun was at its peak but for some reason, he felt this wasn't just the next day.

"I actually survived," Hiro thought. It was unbelievable and he still couldn't understand how it was possible.

His body was refreshed, the pains were gone and his mind was clear. Hiro was finally okay. No, he was better than okay. The only thing disturbing him right now, were the large amount of energy that weighed his body down.

"I should find somewhere safe to attack the core realm," he muttered.

The energies around tried to enter his body, however, his body had reached the full capacity for the foundation establishment realm. He had reached the peak of the ninth stage and the only way to continue was to step into the core formation realm.

He got up to his feet and looked at his surrounding. "This place is beautiful," he thought. There were trees of various sizes and types around and colorful flower bushes were scattered around them. Some flowers grew on the trees and some were just on their own. Hiro just couldn't help but admit it. This place was beautiful. The trees had sparse green leaves and the flower bushes had more of flower buds than flowers.

He frowned and took in a deep breath. After which he exhaled and muttered. "The dao of time. This place is filled with the dao of time."

His lips curled into a smile. He could feel it, the time dao was abundant here. It was as if everything around him was filled with the time dao. The trees, the flowers, the ground which he stood on and even the air he was breathing. He could sense time dao from them.

"Just where exactly am I?" he asks even though there was no one around to answer. "First, somewhere safe." He picked a random direction and headed in it.

…

Hiro walked around for a while, checking the surroundings to see if it was safe. Surprisingly, he found no beasts around. Everything he came across were normal animals with no sign of cultivation strength.

Right now, he stood by a river murmuring to himself while looking around. "I'm still in senior's world, the energy and the dao of time is proof of that. This must be a time related area like the Spatial maze."

"Hmm, in the Spatial maze, space was distorted, but I don't feel the distortion of time. I'm talking like I would know if truly time was distorted. Let's attack the core formation realm and then go look for Mia."

He sat down beside the river and took in a deep breath, before exhaling softly. He closed his eyes and inspected his body. The core formation realm, the realm where a cultivator forms a silver core in his or her body. The core becomes a storehouse for the cultivator, enabling him to take in more energy than his or her body could store before. The core formation realm was a realm were cultivators could release and use the energy stored in their body, instead of just circulating it within their body.

This wasn't something Hiro should know. Old Sai didn't tell him, Ming Lu didn't teach him, Elta didn't talk about it, neither did the old ancestor, Enji, Izuhi nor did Tanji make mention of it. He had no teacher to guide him. Though there were those who through inspiration or self enlightenment had formed a core without a teacher, Hiro was not under this category. Right now, Hong Xi's memory and experience was acting as a guide for him.

Hong Xi had stored his memories inside Hiro's soul space. At first they flashed through Hiro's eyes but he sealed them, leaving only the earliest part of his life unsealed. Right now, Hiro had a partial understanding of what to do.

After checking his body for internal injuries and finding none, Hiro began the process. He gathered all the energy in his body to his dantian. The Yuan Qi and the Ancient energy intertwine as the core begins to take shape.

It didn't take long for his core to fully take shape. The two energies flowed around and into the core, strengthening it from outside and within.

Blood crept out of the side of Hiro's lips and flowed down the left side of his chin. He didn't understand why and was too focus to worry about it now. He was at the climax of the process. If he failed to strengthen his core properly, his core could shatter now or during future activities and battles. One thing was sure, he would die if that happened. If he was lucky, he would live and become a mortal. This was the danger of trying to enter the core formation realm.

Right now, his core was as important as his heart. He had to strengthen it as much as possible. The two intertwined energies continued to flow in and out of the core, like blood vessels going in and out of the heart.

At this point, Hiro was drenched in sweat. His eyes was still closed, but he was relieved. He had encountered no problems and was about to complete the process.

It was much easier than he had anticipated, after what he saw in Hong Xi's memory. Hiro just couldn't help being amazed by Hong Xi's fits. With no guide or master, Hong Xi had gone through the process and succeeded, though after a hard time.

*Creak*

A cracking sound pulled Hiro back to reality. The smile on his face disappeared and a frown took its place. Blood rushed to his throat, and he swallowed, pushing it back down.

Hiro's newly formed core had cracked.

"How?" he thought. "How did it crack?"

He had gone through the process and followed exactly. So how did his core crack? Hiro racked his brain, for reasons and for solutions. But what solutions could he think of?

"Breathe, breathe Hiro. Panicking now wouldn't sort it out," Hiro tells himself. "What was different? Think, what was different?"

*Creak*

The core cracked again. "Think Hiro. If this goes on I'll die here. What was different? The time maybe? Senior took way longer time. Was I too fast?" Hiro sighs and takes a deep breath. "That shouldn't have been the problem. Then it's the energies. Senior only had Yuan Qi when he did."

"Even I can't take it directly into my body, no human can."

Hong Xi's words rang in his head and he couldn't help but sigh. What was the problem? It was the Ancient energy in his body. His core was meant for a human and could not handle the Ancient energy that wasn't meant for humans.

*Creak*

Again came another crack, this time Hiro directed his blood into the core. He didn't know what he was doing but wasn't going to give up that easily. This was the only solution he could think up.

"My blood was able to strengthen a spirit flame, it should be able to strengthen my core," he mutters.

His blood flowed into the core. Filling it up and covering the cracks. Was it going to work? Hiro didn't know but he believed. After all this was the only thing he could do. There was no old Sai to treat him if he failed and no Tanji to give him healing water. He had no choice but to believe in this.

He continued taking deep breaths, controlling his breathing as much as possible. To him this moment felt like an eternity. His blood had covered the cracks and the cracks disappeared. His core had been made whole as if nothing had happened to it.

A bright smile appeared on his face and Hiro finally gave out a sigh of relief. When he looked at the sky, it was already night time. Just how long had passed?

He felt his core rotate and with that, it pulled energy into his body. Ancient energy flowed into his core, at the same time, Hiro heard something break. At first he was frightened, however, he realized a huge amount of Yuan Qi flowed into his core.

The storehouse the old ancestor had made in his body was broken and the abundant Yuan Qi in it flowed into his core. Hiro was flabbergasted by how his core swallowed it all while also drawing in the Ancient energy. It was as if a bottomless pit had open up in his body, pulling in all the energy it could.

Hiro took out his pouch bag and took out a few pills. He swallowed them and closed his eyes to cultivate. There was an hungry child he had to satisfy.