Chapter 359 - 354: Core Formation Again

It was Du Youqian’s twelfth year in the Human World.

The Zouma Gang’s leader, Ma Cong, had reached his expiration date. It was time for him to be retired.

The main issue was that after the gang’s period of rapid expansion ceased, certain conflicts that had been previously suppressed began to surface.

The Foundation Establishment Cultivators who had been indiscriminately absorbed during the Zouma Gang’s growth each had their own ambitions.

The struggles between the various factions within the gang were becoming increasingly intense.

At a time like this, some sacrifices had to be made.

Thus, Ma Cong, who had already successfully reached Foundation Establishment, led several of his most loyal subordinates in a lightning-fast strike. They assassinated two of the most disruptive Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the gang, completely crushing the morale of the factions they represented.

This brought a brief period of calm to the gang.

The consequence, however, was that Ma Cong’s direct lineage faction enjoyed a moment of unrivaled prominence, which in turn made them the new greatest source of instability within the Zouma Gang.

And so, Ma Cong had to be sacrificed as well.

Of course, considering Ma Cong’s hard work and significant contributions, Du Youqian didn’t truly execute him. Instead, he used the powerful Divine Sense of his Golden Core Perfection Cultivation to create the illusion of an assassination. In reality, he let Ma Cong escape, allowing him to start a new life under supervision in a different Oasis.

Ma Cong was naturally overcome with gratitude.

He had already fallen into despair, believing his death was certain, never imagining that Du Youqian would grant him a way out.

He had never been particularly ambitious to begin with. Given his aptitude, reaching Core Formation was an unrealistic dream.

Therefore, living in seclusion, finding a few beautiful wives and concubines, and spending the remaining two hundred years of his life producing heirs—perhaps even founding a Cultivation Clan—was a rather good outcome for him.

~~~~~~~

After Ma Cong, a newcomer to the Zouma Gang was appointed as the new Gang Leader.

His Cultivation was at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and he had joined during the Zouma Gang’s expansion.

His entry into the gang had been peaceful. Seeing the Zouma Gang’s power, he had simply merged his own forces into it. He had essentially brought his own assets to the table.

Du Youqian chose him after careful consideration. The Zouma Gang needed to dilute its old identity and make the successive waves of newcomers feel a sense of belonging, and this had to be reflected in the appointment of high-level personnel.

Of course, this man was also firmly under Du Youqian’s control via a Spiritual Sense Secret Technique.

This wasn’t a matter of trust.

If you don’t give others the opportunity to betray you, they naturally won’t. The logic was simple.

Then, under the pretext of avenging the former Gang Leader Ma Cong, this man led the Zouma Gang to annex another power, using the opportunity to consolidate the gang.

After this restructuring, the Zouma Gang stabilized internally and entered a period of peace.

During this time, Du Youqian focused on his Cultivation, trained Li Fei, and nurtured the unwaveringly loyal core team that Li Fei had gathered for him.

On a certain day, thirteen years to the day he arrived in the Human World, Du Youqian’s Cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer.

Perhaps by next year, he could reach Foundation Establishment Perfection and attempt Core Formation.

Du Youqian reckoned he now possessed a certain degree of self-preservation ability.

He could go and bring Xi Mengran over, and while he was at it, retrieve his hidden treasures.

He mounted his Flying Sword and, after a day’s travel, arrived at his treasure’s hiding spot.

First, he scanned the area meticulously with his Divine Sense. He breathed a sigh of relief only after confirming no one had touched the place.

If they had, the loss would have been truly heartbreaking.

Then, he sent out several newly refined Tier Two Puppets and began to dig.

In just under half a day, they had excavated down to his treasure cache, right outside the natural cave.

Suddenly, his expression flickered, and his eyes swept toward a specific spot.

Seeing she had been discovered, Xi Mengran materialized as a faint figure and asked warily, "Password!"

Du Youqian shot her a glare. ’Is there some hidden secret in this natural cave?’

He hadn’t seen this girl in thirteen years, and she was already approaching the Core Formation level.

A Core Formation-level ghost was a rare thing indeed.

"I didn’t leave you a password. Besides, didn’t I tell you not to show yourself? Has your strength gone to your head? Are you getting cocky?"

"..." Xi Mengran looked at him pitifully.

"Truly an un-cute Ah Piao."

Xi Mengran’s lips trembled, as if she were about to burst into a torrent of tears.

The name "Ah Piao" had only ever come from Du Youqian’s mouth, so she knew at once that the annoying man was back.

She immediately projected hundreds of tons of resentment at Du Youqian with her Divine Sense...

So boring, so dull, so boring, so dull...

Du Youqian had to suppress her with the Divine Sense of a Golden Core Perfect Cultivator, cutting off her transmission.

"Shut up!"

Xi Mengran looked at him with a wronged expression, then turned and floated back into the cave.

Du Youqian followed her in.

The inside was virtually unchanged from how he had arranged it thirteen years ago.

The unique desert climate, combined with the simple array he had casually set up, had produced this near-miraculous phenomenon.

The Elixirs were perfectly preserved, their medicinal efficacy having faded only infinitesimally.

And his Treasures, under the effect of the Spirit-Gathering Array, had been absorbing Spiritual Qi, preventing their Realms from degrading.

He was especially surprised and pleased by his Jinhuan Sword, a Treasure that had been upgraded to Tier Four with the friendly assistance of Master Wu Fei. Over the past decade and more, not only had it not lost any Spiritual Qi, but it seemed to have grown stronger by absorbing it.

Even if left untouched and unnourished, it might ascend to Tier Five after a thousand years or so.

And if Du Youqian could nurture it daily, perhaps in one or two hundred years, it would advance to Tier Five, a weapon that even a Divinity Transformation Cultivator wouldn’t find shabby.

This was because Master Wu Fei, grateful for his world-saving feat, had unsparingly used all the precious materials the Taihe Sect and Holy Blood Sect could muster, including quite a few Tier Five Materials.

To put it bluntly... if those precious materials had been left behind, no one else could have used them. It would have been a complete waste.

In Momenan, due to the restrictions of the Laws of heaven and earth, a Tier Four Treasure was the absolute limit. A Tier Five Treasure was simply impossible.

It was only after arriving in the Human World that Du Youqian discovered this wonderful benefit.

After collecting all his treasures, Du Youqian asked, "What exactly happened to you? Why has your Cultivation skyrocketed?"

Xi Mengran had a blank look on her face.

Du Youqian communicated with her for a while using his Divine Sense and found that she was genuinely clueless.

Du Youqian pondered for a long time. He concluded that either there was something spiritually unique about this place, or the Laws of heaven and earth in Momenan had been restricting Ghost Cultivators.

After some thought, he asked again, "What about Meng Xiao? How much of his Spiritual Wisdom has he recovered?"

Xi Mengran’s expression softened considerably.

Du Youqian also breathed a sigh of relief.

Was it perhaps because Meng Xiao was already a Core Formation Master when he turned into a Ghost Cultivator?

His transformation had been extremely unsuccessful.

For over three hundred years, he remained at a level equivalent to a Human Race Qi Cultivation Cultivator, with no memories and a rigid, almost nonexistent Spiritual Wisdom.

He was basically a cardboard cutout.

If not for Xi Mengran’s rather patient ghost and her special feelings for him, Du Youqian himself would not have had the patience to care for him.

Hearing that Meng Xiao had improved, Du Youqian felt relieved.

He took out the Soul-Imbued Jade that housed Meng Xiao and summoned his ghost.

Indeed, Meng Xiao was much more animated now, looking about the same as Xi Mengran’s ghost did after a hundred years.

Du Youqian communicated with him via Divine Sense and found that he truly gave off a sense of intelligence.

’How embarrassing...’

’It’s been almost four hundred years.’

Du Youqian thought for a moment, then said to Xi Mengran, "How about this: you and Meng Xiao continue to practice your Cultivation here. I’ll prepare some supplies for you. I’ll come back for you later."

Xi Mengran nodded repeatedly.

For Meng Xiao’s sake, she could endure the boredom.

"By the way, you’re about to reach the Core Formation Realm, but do you even know how a Ghost Cultivator achieves Core Formation?"

Xi Mengran looked completely baffled.

"Forget it..." Du Youqian was speechless. "Anyway, Ghost Cultivators have an extremely long Celestial Lifespan. I’ll take my time and find a Ghost Cultivation Technique from the Human World for you."

Leaving Xi Mengran there, Du Youqian rearranged the cave before finally departing.

Before returning to the Oasis, he first went to check on his corpse.

It felt a bit strange to put it that way.

But he really was going to see his own corpse.

The corpse of the Golden Core Perfection Body Refining Cultivator.

After some effort to dig up the body, he used Magic to clean its surface. Du Youqian examined his own corpse, his Spirit lifting.

Thirteen years had passed, but the body showed no signs of decay. The face was still lifelike; he looked as though he were merely asleep.

It probably wouldn’t decay even in another hundred or a thousand years.

’If I could find a way to heal this body’s injuries completely and then put my soul back inside, would I be resurrected in this body?’ Du Youqian wondered.

Of course, this was just a wild fantasy.

It had no practical significance.

After all, the main reason this body was incurable back then was the lack of the Power of Human Dao to replenish it, causing his Golden Core to face collapse.

Without finding a massive source of the Power of Human Dao, even if the body’s injuries were healed and he was resurrected, it would only continue to disintegrate.

But this was, after all, the corpse of a Body Refining Cultivator, and a Golden Core Perfect one at that...

’If I can find a method for creating an Outer Body Incarnation in the future and refine this into my incarnation, that would be for the best.’

Unfortunately, no such Secret Technique existed in Momenan; otherwise, he would have obtained it long ago.

After a moment of reflection, Du Youqian re-buried the corpse, this time much deeper, and set up more arrays.

Until he was capable of properly utilizing this corpse, it would just have to continue waiting here.

Upon returning to the Oasis, Du Youqian continued his low-key, stable life and Cultivation, and began to set up a protective Grand Array.

In his fourteenth year in the Human World, he began his attempt to reach Core Formation again from within the Grand Array.

The phenomenon of Core Formation naturally attracted the attention of countless people.

There were even some petty individuals from other powers who wanted to disrupt his breakthrough.

But with the protection of the Tier Three Grand Array, Du Youqian was perfectly safe.

If any Core Formation Master came to spy, they would immediately feel a bone-chilling Sword Intent, forcing them to retreat.

Many people speculated about who was breaking through.

They simply assumed it was a secret expert cultivated by the gang.

No one would have ever imagined that the one known for being low-key and good-natured, Vice Gang Leader Zong Li, would be the Zouma Gang’s first Core Formation Master.

Only Li Fei knew. Full of pride, she happily and quietly told the children she was training: "The one you pledge your loyalty to is a great man, a truly great figure! When he emerges from his seclusion, he will lead you to rule over the entire Western Domain of the Endless Desert Sea!"