Chapter 706 Celestial Core
Chapter 706 Celestial Core
When Luo Mingyu and Gong Cui appeared near Wu Long, they were surprisingly not alone, as Yuanfen was with them. She was usually hanging around Gong Cui, so it was likely she just followed along. And though Fen Baihu did not concsiously take her along, she had no time to be surprised about her so freely crossing the boundaries of her world this time.
“Sorry to interrupt you, Mingyu, Cui’er. But I need your help”, Wu Long chuckled.
The eyes of both beauties lit up with first surprise, and then overflowed with happiness It was the first time that Wu Long has relied on them in a critical moment.
“No need to apologize, Wu Long”, Luo Mingyu immediately nodded and sat down in a meditative pose not far from Wu Long, expanding her Dao Domain which immediately made Wu Long’s mind clearer and made it easier for him to resist the dissipation of his consciousness.
“Ehehe, I’m happy to be of help”, Gong Cui’s cheeks turned rosy as she bashfully chuckled, and sat down with her Zither in front of her, a profound melody spreading in the surroundings, further sharpening Wu Long’s concentration and heightening his ability to keep the change happening to him in check.
Yuanfen, as usual, ran up to Wu Long, but this time, without hugging him, simply plopped down right next to him with an innocent smile. And the moment her clear voice called out “Wu Long”, the only thing she seemingly knew how to say, a soothing sensation came over him, his mind grew incredibly sharper, as if all of the haziness from before subsided. And though it was only for a moment, it allowed him regroup and prepare to hold on for a longer period of time.
He didn’t have time to marvel at this phenomenon, focusing on his task.
For the first time since he learned to individually control the vortexes of Spiritual Qi in the Spiritual Qi ring around the Grandmist Core, he set aside the one Crystal Core that he was focusing on advancing all of this time, and concentrated on a different vortex.
All eight of the vortexes aside from the one Wu Long cultivated to the Core Formation Realm were left in Revolving Qi state from the time when he had no other choice but to cultivate all of the vortexes equally, resulting in quite a lot of efforts wasted on something that was then left without use.
Right now, however, Wu Long was grateful for that circumstance, as it had a base laid out already, which saved him both time and effort. It was also crucial that the vortex was not yet formed any crystal particles, in other words, had yet to approach the state of the Foundation Building Realm. Since at that point, there would already be a more robust and established structure that might be incompatible with the properties of the attributes of the Crystal Core he tried to make.
In other words, the eight vortexes as they were now were in perfect condition to mold them in however way he needed.
He started refining the Yin Qi he got from Fen Baihu and cultivating the vortex while simultaneously resisting the corrupting effect of his consciousness dissipating, and trying to slow down that process as much as it was possible.
But his efforts paid off faster than he expected, since as soon as the vortex entered the Foundation Building Realm state and crystallization particles appeared within it, he found that it became, although slightly, but easier to maintain his conscious will intact.
He also utilized a rather unique approach from that point on, not constructing Foundation Crystals with an efficient and robust structure, but allowing them to form naturally from the Yin Qi of the Celestial Fox. Since for this Crystal Core, he did not have to necessarily create the perfect structure or make it as powerful, it being his auxiliary core and not the one he would rely on to carry his whole cultivation.
Rather, by allowing the Foundation Crystals to form according to the natural flow of Celestial Fox’s Yin Qi he hoped for the future Crystal Core to be better adjusted to the power that he planned to control with it.
In addition to not heavily supervising the formation of the Foundation Crystals, Wu Long also did not pour any more resources into them than was necessary. Unlike when he formed the crystals for his first core which was now the Grandmist Core, or when he did so for the Crystal Core that he planned to use for his further cultivation, he was not as concerned with the quality of this auxiliary core, since its purpose was not becoming the base of his further cultivation.
It was one of the benefits of having multiple auxiliary cores that he was just discovering, that he had the freedom to experiment and be not as careful with each individual core.
After forming nine crystals his consciousness stopped dissipating into the surroundings, as if finding a stable ground, a focus point of sorts, and with the construction of a crystal core, he firmly grasped the feeling of his body and consciousness being connected once again. It was like gaining an anchor that linked his now more ethereal self that was created due to obtaining a Celestial Fox bloodline and resided in a phantom plane of existence to his physical self in the material plane of existence.
This allowed him to once again regain clarity of his inner self as a single entity rather than a mass of consciousness that infinitely spread without any cohesion.
‘It… still would take some time to adjust…’, he thought as he felt the slightly shifted perspective he currently had, as well as the expanded senses that stretched beyond just the material world.
But there was still a bit of work for him to do, a finishing touch.
Even though Fen Baihu’s Yin Qi was undeniably powerful even with her current state, enough for him to cultivate a vortex from the state of Revolving Qi Realm all the way to the Core Formation Realm, it still had limits, and was running out just as the core was almost complete, at the 8th level of Core Formation.
At the beginning, he set aside Fen Baihu’s Pure Yin Qi as he had an instinct that he would require it for the completion of this process, rather than the start. After all, Innate Yin Qi of such a unique entity as Fen Baihu was special, and thus required caution in use to get the maximum benefits.
Strictly speaking, even if Fen Baihu’s cultivation was currently damaged and thus she was unable to produce as potent Yin Qi as would be expected of her true cultivation, her Pure Yin Qi that had nothing to do with her current condition, was still of the Eight-Tailed Celestial Fox, a true Divine-Grade Mythical Beast, and thus normally too powerful for him to use. His cultivation was far too low to even attempt doing that.
However, there was a catch that mitigated that fact, which was the nature of the Celestial Fox as an entity. Her powers could not really be measured on the same scale, and the classification was only there to provide a rough comparison in power, and thus her Yin Qi, despite being potent for Dual Cultivation, did not possess the oppressive side that would cause her partner’s Yang Root and Spiritual Root to rupture even if their cultivation was significantly lower than hers.
Of course, Wu Long had no way of knowing that beforehand, but he had the suspicion due to the nature of Fen Baihu’s powers, that could not be strictly called ‘powerful’ in the usual sense of this word in the cultivation world. And he was able to confirm that suspicion as he interacted with her over the course of their time together.
As he refined that Pure Yin Qi and poured it into his brand new Crystal Core, profound ripples spread from him as the Core became complete, a light similar to that of Fen Baihu’s Soul Bead ignited at its center.