Chapter 45 45 – Core Formation Stage



2 months passed since Ken returned to his house in the clan. He didn't bother looking for information about the archer who participated in the ambush against him on his way back to the sect; he didn't believe for a moment that the Han clan left him alive.

As for the Han clan, he didn't plan to take revenge on them and go into an unending circle of attacks and acts of revenge; he had better things to do with his time. 

He also didn't bother telling his clan about the incident since they would just squeeze compensation out of the Han clan and take it for themselves.

He was practicing his new bloodlust techniques in a training room on the training grounds he got the rights to when he won the family competition. He obviously could use the best one for free.

'Mind-Poisoning Domain'

His bloodlust created a domain with a radius of 10 meters around him. The domain was one technique that included two modes, so one could consider it two different techniques.

'Paralyzing Mode'

The first mode used his bloodlust to create intense fear in his enemies, making their bodies stiff and their movements sluggish. 

He developed it to take care of many weaker enemies; he could slaughter them with his divided Slash if they didn't defend themselves, and he could spam his techniques if they were too scared to attack.

'Frenzy Mode'

This mode would send his enemies into a frenzy of killing. Their killing intent would surge, and they might even kill each other if their mind was too weak. 

Even if not, their team coordination would be completely ruined this way, and they'd take many risks and show many openings.

He also created a single target version of those domains. This way the effect would intensify, making it extremely hard to resist. 

'Bloodlust Sense'

The third technique was based on many techniques that heightened one's perception. He could perceive now easily any slight killing intent in a radius of 50 meters around him. 

Although it wasn't enough to deal with archers since they shot their arrows from further away, it would have been enough to find the close-range ambushers if there were any. Besides, the technique's effects would multiply by a few times once he broke through and formed his core.

It took him a while to get to the Advanced mastery realm with those techniques since he didn't go to kill anyone, but with his strong bloodlust that was already integrated into his constitution as well as his high intelligence, he did it in two months, including the time he needed to create the techniques.

'It's time to form my core.'

His foundation was as firm as it could be. He strengthened it repeatedly, had 8 Heaven-grade techniques in the Advanced mastery realm, and had plenty of pills of the best quality to support his breakthrough.

According to his calculations, while most manuals recommended bolstering one's breakthrough with around 5,000 medium Qi stones to make it as easy and smooth as possible, he'd need 15 times that amount. 

Luckily, he still had around 300,000 medium Qi stones and could afford those 75,000 easily.

He changed the Qi Gathering Formation in his training room and improved it, supporting it with more materials he purchased in advance. He placed 100,000 medium Qi stones in the formation just in case and sat down with his legs crossed.

He added a layer of Concealment Formation over the Qi Gathering Formation to block his bloodlust and sword Qi from leaking outside when he breaks through to the next stage.

Soon, Qi surged into his body in huge amounts. He felt parts of his soul get torn from his body, making him feel agonizing pain when those pieces assembled and merged into his dantian. 

It wasn't over yet. Some of his blood vessels broke and his blood started surging into the dantian. The blood was a representation of his body, and along with his dantian and the shards from his soul, the core would be formed based on his foundation.

His dantian sucked in Qi like a bottomless pit, and the three parts of him were slowly mixing with each other and turning into a single creation.

The Qi stones disappeared at an alarming rate, yet Ken didn't notice it at all. He trusted his calculations, and he already placed a safety net by adding 33% of the required amount.

Ken's core was taking shape over the course of 5 hours until there was finally a concrete core. If someone killed him and opened up his stomach, the core would materialize, and the enemy could take it, just like Ken did to the gorilla he had killed.

However, it wasn't the end of the process yet. Now that the core was formed, the most important part started. It was the part in which the core acquired the attributes of the soul.

In every step of the absorption, Ken made minuscule changes in his manual, avoiding wasting a single drop of his soul shards. The core was getting painted in faint colors.

There was bloody red for his bloodlust, shiny silver for his swordsmanship, fiery red for his alchemy, and navy blue for his formation mastery.

The four colors rotated around each other without mixing, until the core took its last form. It was a few times bigger than the core of any disciple in the sect, showcasing Ken's unlimited future.

While the three first stages were only a question of resources and the persistence of the cultivator, the fourth stage required talent. To give the core attributes, one would have to at least master one technique in the Advanced mastery realm. Without it, it would be bland, making the cultivator only slightly stronger than before.

If one had a low understanding power, they'd need a long time to get one technique to the Advanced mastery realm, and one technique was only the minimum requirement. The more techniques one could master the better.

Once in the fourth stage, the core's qualities could be considered the cultivation affinity of the cultivator, which was why the elite families spared no resources from deepening the foundation of their descendants.

The process of absorbing the soul's attributes into the core took Ken 3 more hours, and his breakthrough was finally completed.

He expelled a wave of Qi from his body and looked around him. His estimation was correct; he spent around 76,000 Qi stones, and the rest was still fueling the formation. 

Ken felt a strong connection to his sword now, and an unsatiated feeling of bloodlust. He also felt the urge to concoct pills and experiment with drawing formations. His mind was a mess as those strong forces pulled him.

'One Step.'

'Flash Unwind.'

'Snake Thrust.'

'Cloud Running.'

'Slash.'

'Bloodlust Sense.'

'Mind-Poisoning Domain.'

Ken performed his skills one by one inside the room, using Sword Qi and Bloodlust Qi. He felt a strong connection with the skills, and with every execution, he felt he was getting a better understanding of them.

This kept on for 8 hours straight until he heaved out a deep exhale and smiled in excitement. Although he knew his talent would grow by leaps and bounds the moment he entered the Core Formation Stage, he never imagined it'd be that amazing.

In 8 hours, he took all his techniques from the Advanced mastery realm to the Small Success mastery realm!

He knew that if he were to fight the same 3 disciples from the outer sect now, they wouldn't last 20 breaths before all of them were dead, and that's only because of the time he'd need to catch the archer.

He wanted to experiment with his improvement in alchemy as well, but it was too late. He was awake for nearly 20 hours and had to go to sleep. His body was still growing.

He also mastered a concealing technique to hide his cultivation from prying eyes. However, it was based on normal Qi and had no attribute, so it wasn't relevant to his breakthrough. 

He mastered it mainly for the time he will be outside after the breakthrough, so unless someone forcibly checked his cultivation, nobody would find out his cultivation stage. Even if someone did check it forcibly, they'd need to have a perception strong enough to see through his concealment.

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The next day, Ken was sitting in the study in his house in front of the furnace. He was ready to check his new talent in alchemy after getting into the Core Formation Stage.

While he used a cauldron when he was outside, rooms meant for alchemy had furnaces built inside them. There wasn't much difference except for the fact that furnaces were more durable.

He first tried to concoct third-grade pills. At first, he was doing it at his normal speed, but after a while, his speed rose exponentially. 

He was taking care of all the ingredients simultaneously, extracting their essences at once. Then, instead of mixing them into each other one at a time, he just mixed them all at once.

He created third-grade pills in a matter of minutes, and it was only because he had to give the ingredients time inside the fire and Qi; there was a limit to how much he could quicken this process.

However, he easily made up for it by creating multiple pills at once, making his speed higher than 3 pills per minute.

'It's time to practice the fourth-grade pills. Before advancing in my cultivation, I could only concoct a couple of them before going out of Qi.'