Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 373 - 371 Century (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

Chapter 373: Chapter 371 Century (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1

Core Formation, a chasm in the sky!

For any Foundation Establishment Cultivator, apart from those with a Heavenly Spirit Root, it is an unavoidable barrier!

Taisui’s Core Formation resulted in several failures, wasting quite a few third-tier Demon Pills, and rare spirit medicines like the Earth Origin Pill from the Red Sun World.

Eventually, it was only after Fang Xi refined a furnace of high-grade elixirs with a third-class medium-grade Wooden Element Inner Core as the main ingredient, that he barely managed to pass.

Taishu Hong himself possessed a high-grade Spiritual Root and would not hold him back during Core Formation. Moreover, he was refining the Beast Inner Dan, which was much less difficult than true Core Formation.

Only Daqing... was simply a matter of luck!

However, for Zhong Hongyu, the situation became grim.

After all, this woman was merely of a mid-grade Spiritual Root, and even Foundation Establishment was somewhat forced, so Core Formation was bound to be a burden.

Moreover, the cultivation method she cultivated was not entirely compatible with the ’Void Spirit Root’, leading to slow progress in her cultivation.

Even though she was determined and received aid from Fang Xi’s elixirs, it wasn’t until she was over one hundred and seventy years old that she barely managed to cultivate to the perfection of Foundation Establishment, reaching the threshold of Core Formation.

Without Fang Xi’s support, it is possible she might not have achieved a breakthrough before her life’s end.

Yet, when it came to Core Formation, the real test began.

Although this woman was fortunate to use the ’Water and Fire Refining Golden Pill’ secret method to refine the "Mysterious Water Crystal" and "Heavenly Fire Liuli" — a configuration considered luxurious even below consuming the Five Elements Spirit Fruit — it only increased her chances of Core Formation by two or three tenths.

Even purchasing a Five Elements Core Formation Pill was not as useful as these two spiritual materials.

After all, the Five Elements Core Formation Pill still has requirements for Spiritual Root attributes, whereas the ’Water and Fire Refining Golden Pill’ secret method is applicable to any Spiritual Root attribute.

It could be said that without Fang Xi’s support of spiritual materials, Zhong Hongyu’s initial Core Formation might have ended in failure!

Instead, now with the help of the secret method and spiritual materials, she has consecutively overcome several major hurdles, preliminarily condensed the form of a Golden Core and triggered the Core Formation celestial phenomena!

Fang Xi’s powerful Divine Consciousness entered the woman’s dantian and saw a somewhat illusory Golden Core form with countless fissures on its surface.

He was very familiar with this scene, it was exactly like when he had barely managed to form his own Golden Core. If the Golden Core could not be operated smoothly to draw in the Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi and transform into a flawless Golden Core, it would sooner or later fall back, signifying a true Core Formation failure!

But looking at Zhong Hongyu now, it appeared she had nearly exhausted her energy and was incapable of pushing any further.

"Is she going to fail?"

"Just short by that final bit?"

"Doesn’t that mean all my efforts are wasted, not only squandering precious Core Formation spiritual materials but also missing the chance to witness the evolution of Void Symbols during Core Formation of the Void Spirit Root?"

"Good thing, I have a contingency in place."

Fang Xi sighed, and with a flash of his figure, he was beside Zhong Hongyu.

"Sir... I..."

Zhong Hongyu’s cheeks were pale, her smile woeful.

"Calm your mind, for now, I still have a method that can remedy this..."

Fang Xi immediately uttered a string of incantations.

Upon hearing them, Zhong Hongyu’s cheeks flushed...

...

Outside.

Zong Linghu watched as the convergence of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy gradually became difficult, her expression indiscernible, "This celestial phenomenon seems arduous... It looks like Sister Zhong’s Core Formation this time is... likely to be..."

Suddenly, she looked in amazement as the Core Formation celestial phenomena, which were about to dissipate, started to reconvene and even evolved smoothly to the extreme.

Boom!

A pressure belonging to a genuine Core Formation Cultivator burst forth!

Zhong Hongyu’s Core Formation was successful!

At this moment, many of the Zhong Family on Dragon Fish Island were moved to tears, while the faces of the other Cultivators expressed extreme complexity!

...

Inside the secret chamber.

Zhong Hongyu picked up her clothes off the ground, her face full of blushes, "Sir..."

"No need to thank me; if you hadn’t progressed to the last step, and were only a shred of Primordial Energy short of Core Formation success, I couldn’t have transferred some Primordial Energy to you using a secret skill," Fang Xi said as he cast a Cleaning Skill on himself, instantly freshening up his garments.

He then thought about the silver symbols that became more complete in Zhong Hongyu’s Golden Core during her final stage of Grand Accomplishment, and his heart surged with the urge to retreat and ponder deeply.

"Thank you so much, Sir..."

Zhong Hongyu made a bow, "If my situation caused a great loss of Primordial Energy to you, Sir, I would be indebted beyond redemption..."

"Now that you have formed your Golden Core, you should address me as Sir in the future... As for the Primordial Energy, a trifling amount like this will return after a few months of meditation; there’s no need for concern. I’m going to retreat now; you familiarize yourself with your new realm..."

Fang Xi left stylishly, not taking a single cloud with him.

"Just Sir, then?"

Zhong Hongyu’s face showed a bitter smile, which quickly became calm again as she began to sit cross-legged and comprehend the mysteries of the Golden Core.

After Core Formation, it is advisable to avoid extreme joy and sorrow, as it could easily lead to a fall from one’s realm, turning joy into grief...

...

Inside the secret chamber.

Fang Xi sat cross-legged, several Blank Jade Talismans laid out before him.

He closed his eyes to ponder; the silver Void Symbols that appeared within Zhong Hongyu’s dantian during her core formation seemed to flash before his eyes.

Simultaneously, the insights he gained from the Heterodox Nascent Soul contemplating the cosmic chessboard...

The insights from his creation of the ’Prohibition Space Talisman’...

The inspiration from endless Prohibitions and Arrays within the teleportation matrix...

And the incomplete symbols he had seen when Zhong Hongyu was establishing her Foundation...

Of course, the last thing was the vague but seemingly Dao-filled patterns from the ’Treasures of All Heavens’...

They all surfaced one by one in his mind, constantly intersecting and merging...

Finally!

Fang Xi suddenly opened his eyes, as if two bolts of lightning streaked through the void.

The next moment, he raised his hand and a blank jade talisman flew out, while the silver powder from another box instantly melted and was carved onto the blank jade talisman using his divine thoughts as the brush and the silver powder as the ink.

Before long, a brand-new ’Prohibition Space Talisman’ appeared!

"Talisman inscription completeness... 67%! Not enough!"

Fang Xi closed his eyes and continued to contemplate.

Time flowed like water...

In the blink of an eye, several more years passed.

While Zhong Hongyu stabilized her Core Formation early-stage cultivation, emerged to shock the cultivators of Thousand Island Lake, and held her Core Formation celebration, Fang Xi was still silently contemplating.

Inside the quiet room.

Jade talismans lay scattered about on the ground, each piece, if seen by a Core Formation cultivator, would surely provoke envy.

Yet now, they were discarded like trash.

"Merge!"

A flash of spiritual light in Fang Xi’s hand entered one of the jade talismans.

When that talisman fell, it was caught by a green magic power hand and brought in front of him.

"Completeness has reached 80%... this is the limit," he said with a sigh. He then executed another magical spell, infusing it into the brand-new ’Prohibition Space Talisman.’

Something miraculous happened.

The ’Prohibition Space Talisman’ began to slowly deform, transforming into a white... chess piece?!

The heterodox Nascent Soul smiled and beckoned with his hand, and that white chess piece swiftly entered the chessboard filled with stars, shrinking and becoming motionless.

"Combined with the chessboard, a treasure of the void, this new ’Prohibition Space Talisman’ should be more powerful, right?"

"Besides, my advancement in array paths also has been rapid, and I should now barely be able to set up an ultra short-distance transmission array..."

The so-called ’Ultra Short-Distance Transmission Array’ naturally refers to a transmission array that does not exceed a thousand miles. Strictly speaking, it’s not very useful.

But this signifies Fang Xi’s improvement in array arts, giving hope that in the future, he might set up short-distance transmission arrays beyond thousands of miles, or even genuine long-distance transmission arrays, and perhaps even ancient ones.

"Hmm?"

Just then, Fang Xi’s expression changed.

He could sense that his arrangement outside Jade Island had yielded some results!

"Have you finally come?"

"The hundred-year agreement?"

Fang Xi murmured with a hint of expectation in his eyes, looking in the direction of Jade Island.

...

Jade Island.

A blue escape light flew in, revealing the figure of a Core Formation cultivator—it was Zhan Tu!

"Thousand Island Lake... Dragon Fish, Jade..."

"I have finally returned," he muttered, with a wistful and contemplative look on his face.

"Hmph!"

A snort resounded from within his sea of consciousness: "I must have been blind to choose you for the Same Destiny Secret Skills. Had I chosen the Dragon Fish Island’s Lord Master... He’s already at the late stage of Core Formation!"

The old ghost grumbled discontentedly, "During our travels these past few days, we heard that the spiritual beasts and cultivators on that island... have been consolidating their Core Formation recently. You, who’ve only just managed to reach the middle stage of Core Formation after exhausting so much of my effort, do you feel like crashing your head against a wall in frustration?"

"The Island Master didn’t go to Jade Island during the period when the ruins appeared. You’re overthinking it, old ghost... Furthermore, the refining skills of the Kuyong Skills are profound. Reaching the middle stage of Core Formation is already quite an achievement for me," Zhan Tu sighed. "I just didn’t expect... Zhong Hongyu would also reach Core Formation, and hers is not a false Core, but a true Golden Core! If it weren’t for urgent matters, I actually would want to participate in her Core Formation celebration... after all, she and I were both Immortal Seedlings from the same batch on Dragon Fish Island."

"Right... Why did you, old ghost, make that hundred-year agreement back then? Were you so sure that the Island Master could cultivate to the late stage of Core Formation in a hundred years?" Zhan Tu suddenly remembered something and asked.

"Fool... how can I calculate a cultivator’s exact progress in cultivation? If I didn’t say so back then, would that Island Master have let you go?" the old ghost sneered. "Moreover... I was also worried you’d fail to successfully form your Golden Core or advance to the late stage of Core Formation... It was just an extra precaution, but unexpectedly, it seems that precaution has come into play... And thankfully, now that the Dragon Fish Island’s Lord Master has advanced to the late stage, otherwise with your mere middle stage Core Formation cultivation, entering that Ruins Secret Realm would have been extremely troublesome... If you had already reached the late stage of Core Formation, we could have just left that person behind and acted on our own."

"I see."

Zhan Tu nodded: "Shall we notify the Island Master now?"

"Wait..."

The old ghost suddenly said, "There’s something not quite right about that place ahead of you!"

"Hmm?"

Zhan Tu was startled, and a blue Sword Qi instantly flew out, oscillating in mid-air and revealing an array prohibition.

"A concealing prohibition? It’s an array!"

The old ghost shouted, "Someone has just been spying on us..."

"Hmph!"

Zhan Tu, after all, was a midterm Core Formation cultivator. He snorted coldly, and a magic treasure, the Green Wood Sword, flew out, drawing a rainbow several tens of meters long that fiercely struck the prohibition.

The array disintegrated in an instant, leaving behind only a wooden puppet.

Zhan Tu was about to seize the wooden puppet to study it, but in the next moment, the prohibition that Fang Xi had prearranged inside the puppet came into effect.

The wooden puppet burst into flames out of thin air, turning to ashes, leaving not a trace behind...