Golden Veins

Like most of the clan disciples, Lingyun and his crew had been cultivating without the knowledge of what was happening in the outside world. It was not a matter that the younger generation should have been involved in.

Xiaoya had been monitoring Lingshi especially closely since her cultivation had to be precise in how it was managed. The inscription on her body had to be drawn before they wore down since any slight break during the cultivation would cause serious issues.

She was sitting on her heels now with her palms on her thighs. Her Qi had been successfully dissipated and now lit up the empty Yin Essense stones that Linghua had expended. They had made the perfect medium since their capacity for dense essence was already high.

As she was in the midst of the second phase of Core disintegration Lingyun had taken a break from his own cultivation to monitor her progress. It had been a month of continuous cultivation and his gains were so obvious. He had successfully refined and purified some of the Yang Essence and merged it with Yin Qi that Xiaoya had provided.

He opened his eyes and looked at the ore that Zhangxuan had provided. There was so much to do and so little time. When they had made that bargain he had said he would be at the peak of the True Core Mortal Realm by then. According to Xiaoya, the task would be simple enough given the circumstances at the time but the situation had changed in the last month.

Once he had achieved the perfect balance of Yin and Yang his meridians had begun to change into Yin-Yang Meridians. Xiao ya had insisted that before he established his core he should first evolve all his meridians and then establish a Yin and Yang Core. This would greatly help his attunement towards the concept of perfect balance and even later the Laws of Yin and Yang.

While he monitored Lingshi's situation he continued to circulate the Ying and Yang Qi in his body according to the adjustments that Xiaoya had made. This ensures a constant flow of qi near his heart where his core would be established later. He was doing this so that the meridians that would be near his core would be the first to evolve and thus the strongest.

They were already crystalizing as was the intention with the evolution growing outwards from that point.

Lingyun opened his eyes suddenly and walked towards where Lingshi was sitting. Her skin was becoming dark red with veins bulging from her entire body. Her jaws were clenched as if she was in great pain which was understandable. Her greatest strength was working both for her and against her.

Being a strength-based cultivator her body was already like a block of metal that had been constantly forged. This made her durable and sturdy. Core disintegration released so much energy that it was not surprising for the body to balloon up like it was going to explode but Lingshi had managed to maintain her body. She was struggling but this was a testament to how strong her body already was.

He prober her with his mental energy only to sigh in relief. The reason she was struggling was not that she had trouble maintaining her body, that part was easy for her, but because she was trying to use the fragments of her core to continue reinforcing her body which was a good thing. He wondered whether this was something she did deliberately or it was something instinctual.

Her Core had been successfully unmade and while she was supposed to be using some of the materials she had gathered for the Golden Veins Phase Lingyun was surprised that she was using her core fragments instead. Given the amount of energy it contained it wasn't a strain to say that not only would it be easier since it was not a foreign material but the result would be better once it was reinforced with the materials.

While she was doing this Lingyun focused on refining the materials to extract the purest form of energy from them so that it could be available when she needed it. This was all under Xiaoya's direction. Right on cue, she began to absorb the energy. It was like repairing cracks on a pot with gold only this time it was more like reinforcement. The more energy she absorbed the stronger her veins became. The colour began to change as well.

The materials should have been enough to create the veins themselves but using them for reinforcement proved to be better than he might have guessed. The progress was much faster too since this was more like healing an injury than creating a new organ.

The entire process which was supposed to be one of the longer ones took only three days. It was three days in which Lingyun had to constantly meditate to replenish his spiritual energy. Lingshi was doing all of this instinctually and thus Lingyun had to sacrifice his own time to help her.

Anyone else would have assumed that he was wasting his time but Lingyun didn't see it that way. Instead, the stronger his allies were the better it would be for him since they could rely on each other like a bamboo grove fending off the wind.

When the process was done her veins had adopted a dark yellow sheen and she opened her eyes for the first time in over a month. She saw Lingyun sitting in front of her and rushed to cover herself. What she had not noticed was that he was asleep. It might have been difficult to notice this since he was still actively cultivating this Yi-yang meridian.

"He had been helping you for three days without rest, this is the first time he is resting." a voice said behind her.

She looked over to see a tall handsome young man. The last she had seen him he still had the body of a round prepubescent boy who still had his baby fat. Could someone change so drastically and in such a short amount of time?

"He stood up and walked to the living quarter's section of the cavern. She began by stretching and then began practising her fighting techniques. She started with punches then kicks and footwork.

After some time she walked towards the entrance and said, "I am going hunting, I suddenly crave some meat."

She was obviously not going hunting but rather she needed to test out her strength. The end goal of the first volume was to get back to the same realm she had been in before but when she had done her techniques just before she didn't feel any weaker than she had been before and felt slightly stronger.

If many in the clan fought her now they would wonder why she had not grown as much as the others but she was astounded herself at the potential of this new technique. She had three more phases to go and was already getting excited about how much stronger she would become when she achieved Black Body Ascension.