Chapter 3. Forming the Energy Core

Amon felt a wave of strange feeling from below his navel. It was warm, but also somewhat painful. The feeling reminded him of a text he read in a book. It was regarding the forming of one's energy core. He was bewildered, wasn't one's energy core supposed to form when one reached five years of age?

But since it was happening, he did not question too much about it. He had read the instruction in the book that when the Energy Core was formed, several steps needed to be taken. Otherwise, it might leave repercussions on later progression in his cultivation.

From the information he had read, large clans usually had instructors to educate their young ones about how to deal with this situation when it occurred. Amon believed the occupants of this mansion also planned the same thing for him, but none of them might have expected his energy core to form this early.

It's a good thing there are many books regarding this energy core forming. Every human in this world went through this development, so there were many records regarding it.

It would be easier if an experienced instructor was guiding him in the process, but there was no time to look for one. The one he thought to be most qualified would be his caretaker, but he was not in the mansion at the moment. All the books indicated that this initial process couldn't be delayed. The core would form by itself if it was ignored, and the quality would be sub-par at best.

Hence, Amon decided to experiment by himself. He sat cross-legged on the bed. From the various information he had read, it was advised that one should immerse his or her consciousness into the newly formed energy core and the essence was to guide the aether to form a strong wall around the core.

It was vague guidance. The notion of immersing consciousness into oneself would be laughable in his old world. But he had learned to stop thinking using the old world logic in this new one, so he allowed his imagination to take hold.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the strange feeling below his navel. He shut down all his senses and just focused on the feeling. There was nothing at first, but he suddenly felt a pull from underneath him. He experienced some sort of vertigo within the darkness. The feeling of being sucked was getting stronger. He did not fight the feeling, some books had described a similar experience.

He soon felt himself floating in a vast expense of space. He remembered the book described this space as Energy Space. There was nothing all around. No, there was something there. He was still closing his eyes, but at the same time, he could see everything within this space. He floated to where he had sensed an existence within this infinite space.

He arrived and saw scattered grains of dust floating there. This must be the base essence that formed his core. Now the next step was to bring the surrounding aether to the inside of this space.

Absorbing Aether and refining it was a cultivation method. And there were many cultivation methods in this world. Such methods were not available to the public. However, if to simply absorb a small amount of aether, there was a book that taught him the basic way of doing it. It was through respiration.

He sent part of his consciousness to his outer body and controlled it to perform the breathing technique described in the book. He could sense some sort of substance entering him via his respiration. This substance materialized in his Energy Space. It appeared as a thin white fog.

Amon approached this fog and tried to grab it. The fog swirled away as if alive. It was as described in the books, the aether was like a living entity. It had a will of its own. The information was to guide the aether to the core, the books did not inform any specific way of doing it. The books, however, described that the Energy Space was its owner's private space. Every foreign element that entered the space could be bent to the owner's will, provided that the owner's will was stronger than the foreign element's will.

Amon then stopped trying to chase after the aether fog. He steadied himself into a tranquil state, expunged all unnecessary thoughts, and focused his attention on the aether fog. He imagined an invisible hand grabbing the fog. The aether fog sensed his invisible approach and adeptly flee to another place.

Amon sent his hand of will chasing after it, but it produced no better result than when he was chasing after it directly. Seeing that this method bore no result, he changed his approach. Capturing gas using a tangible hand was never the right way, so he copied the method from his old world. He imagined a large vacuum cleaner that sucked the fog over.

The aether fog tried to flee again, but this time, it stuck in its position as it resisted the pull. It was working! Now it's only a matter of will. He concentrated harder as he imagined a stronger pulling force. The aether fog slowly lost ground.

Not long after, it gave up and the fog was pulled rapidly to his side. Amon looked at the floating fog in front of him. He could sense it was still trying to move away, but his will was holding it still. He moved the fog around under his imaginary grasp as he got used to all this illusory mechanism.

When he felt he was adept enough, he brought the fog to the grains of dust that were the components of his Energy Core. He moved the fog over to the dust. As the two touched, the dust started to bond together. The fog seemed to act as some sort of adhesive material for the dust.

Amon applied the fog over all the dust and brought them together. The books indicated that the core needed to be formed into a ball. The more compact it was, the better.

Amon then started to apply pressure to the collected dust. He imagined it being squeezed. The collective dust was getting smaller as it continued getting compressed. Amon did not let up the pressure as he continued to press. He exerted all his will on the task.

Finally, the dust turned into a tiny ball the size of a small marble and did not seem to be able to compress any further. Amon let go of the pressure and observed the tiny ball. It was silver in color and seemed to be reflective.

Such a tiny thing was his Energy Core? Could this thing truly produce miracles as depicted in the books?

The next step was strengthening the Energy Core, but since he did not possess any cultivation method, the process would be very slow. The basic respiration technique could only draw in so little aether. It would not be enough for proper cultivation.

However, he still did it just to experiment with it. He drew another round of aether into his Energy Space. Another small mass of fog entered. He used the same method to control the fog and brought it to his newly formed Energy Core.

He directed the fog to enter the core. As the white fog touched the tiny silvery ball, it vibrated, and the fog slowly dissolved into it. Amon could feel the aether fog nourishing his Energy Core as it entered. He could sense the thirst of the core, it was as if a person in the desert who had not drunk for days, and was offered a glass of water. It drank the aether greedily.

Although it was not visible, Amon could feel its Energy Core growing. Once the last strand of aether fog was absorbed into the core. Amon felt an intense thirst as the core demanded more aether.

Amon chuckled. The entire experience was fascinating. He had arrived in a truly stimulating world. He could not wait to conquer it.

The next step would be to look for a cultivation method. He knew that his caretaker had one, as the old man cultivated every night. He would need to find a way to acquire it.

He did not intend to let any other people know about his already formed energy core first. Although the people of this mansion took care of him, the way they treated him was more like a tool, not a family. He did not understand how he was related to them, nor how they came to possess him when he was a baby. He would look for this information later.

As he was about to leave this Energy Space, he felt something. He looked at his Energy Core. There was something about it. Amon did not understand, so he cleared his mind and focused his attention on it. He felt it. It was as if the core was… communicating.