Chapter 350: Advancing to the Nascent Soul Stage (Part II)

At this very moment, Zhang Nuo sat within the Zifu Tianqi Immortal Cave, his hands forming a strange Dharma seal, his eyes tightly shut, while streams of Spiritual Qi circulated incessantly around his body.

After decades of bitter cultivation, today he had finally reached the most crucial process of condensing a Nascent Soul! Shattering the Golden Core! Looking inward at the Golden Core slowly rotating within his body, Zhang Nuo felt slightly nervous!

Once the Golden Core shattered, the essence within would burst forth instantly; at the same time, he had to continuously circulate his cultivation technique to quickly condense the Nascent Soul, while his primordial spirit also had to be infused into it! Even the slightest mistake in this process would lead to a total failure!

As the Shangqing Sword Art within his body circulated through its ninth layer, the Spirit Power on his skin grew a layer denser. Calming his turbulent emotions, Zhang Nuo finally took this step!

After the Shangqing Sword Art completed a small circulation within his body, he suddenly gathered all his strength and charged toward the Golden Core in his dantian. This force was like a bamboo being split, like a strike meant to shatter the heavens! With a muffled "Boom—", a halo of light appeared on the surface of the Golden Core, and at the same time, ten thousand strands of Pill Fire erupted, enveloping the entire Golden Core!

This was entirely the autonomous consciousness of the Golden Core; it was not something Zhang Nuo had intended! Frowning slightly, Zhang Nuo circulated the Shangqing Sword Art a second time, charging at the Golden Core once more!

A thunderous "Boom—" echoed from within Zhang Nuo's body, followed immediately by an agonizing pain, as if his tendons were being pulled and his skin peeled, radiating from his dantian. Despite having prepared himself mentally, Zhang Nuo still let out a long howl, and the Dharma seal in his hands nearly collapsed!

He had fully expected this strike to shatter the Golden Core, but upon looking inward, Zhang Nuo was somewhat horrified to see that the Golden Core had not shattered; it only had a very deep crack on its surface! Inside the crack, golden light shone brilliantly, and viscous golden liquid was clearly visible!

Rapidly circulating his technique, the pain did not cause Zhang Nuo to sink into despair; instead, it made him even more clear-headed. The third strike had to shatter the Golden Core, otherwise, he would not be able to endure this kind of suffering!

With the five Divine Seas in his body activated in unison, five blinding white lights flashed, and vast Spirit Power instantly converged into the Shangqing Sword Art! After a small circulation, the sword art gradually condensed into a small white sword directly above the Golden Core!

At first, the body of the small sword was ethereal, but after a moment, this small white sword fully materialized. Fierce Sword Qi flickered incessantly. This high-density collection of Spirit Power did not seem as stable as he had imagined; had Zhang Nuo's Divine Sense not far exceeded that of others at his level, he truly would have had no way to control it at this moment!

As the Spirit Power from his limbs and bones converged into the small white sword, the sword gradually took on substance. The Spirit Power on the sword's surface slowly dissipated, and upon closer inspection, it was identical to a real Flying Sword!

This sword was the sword intent of the "Shangqing Sword Art"! Relying on this transformed sword intent, Zhang Nuo was confident he could shatter the Golden Core in a single strike!

With a movement of his Divine Sense, the small sword slashed directly toward the Golden Core below. The speed of this sword was extremely fast, yet it appeared very slow. This was just like experts exchanging blows; to outsiders, every strike between experts seemed as fast as lightning, but in their own eyes, it was very sluggish, as if the strike would take a long time to arrive!

At this moment, Zhang Nuo had exactly this feeling. The distance, which was originally only a few inches, felt as if it had taken months, or even years, to traverse!

Swish!

When the sword intent of the Shangqing Sword Art slashed across the Golden Core, it did not produce a massive boom like the previous two times. With just a "Swish—", the small sword easily split the Golden Core in two, and at the same time, the sword intent instantly turned into specks of spiritual light and vanished into his dantian!

Seeing the Golden Core split open, Zhang Nuo's mind faltered slightly, followed by a heart-wrenching, soul-shattering pain! It was the kind of pain that tears one's heart and lungs, making one wish for death but unable to die!

Zhang Nuo nearly bit his steel teeth to pieces! Amidst this immense pain, a beam of white light from the depths of his soul shot out from the crown of his head!

This white light was the primordial spirit triggered by the pain! At this moment, Zhang Nuo's physical body felt no pain, sitting on the Putan like a wooden or clay statue!

The primordial spirit floating above his head, however, was somewhat bewildered. In its faint consciousness, the primordial spirit wanted to return to the body below, yet it feared that heart-piercing sensation! For a moment, it actually hesitated!

If the primordial spirit, forced out by the pain of shattering the core, were to dissipate just like that, Zhang Nuo would be completely finished! But at this moment, the Shangqing Sword Art began to circulate on its own within his cold body below, gathering the strands of golden light permeating the dantian and rapidly forming the shape of an infant!

The shattered Golden Core, wrapped in Spiritual Qi, was like objects being pieced back together, its surface covered in cracks! At this time, Zhang Nuo had no autonomous consciousness; everything was being driven by the technique itself!

The white light above his head, after hovering for a while, actually manifested a phantom image. This phantom was about a foot tall, with small hands and feet, and its face was shockingly similar to Zhang Nuo's!

Looking at the nascent form of the Nascent Soul taking shape within the body below, the primordial spirit actually revealed a hint of joy!

At this very moment, above Tianqi Immortal Mountain, the cloud bank where Spiritual Qi and Demonic Qi intertwined suddenly became restless. At first, these manifestations of Spirit Power merely collided simply, but in the blink of an eye, they erupted into thunderous roars on a massive scale!

The rumbling sound was like ten thousand thunders galloping. In the center of the clouds, a crack slowly opened. Within a few breaths, the crack grew several times larger and transformed into the shape of a cave entrance!

Inside the entrance, a golden light emerged. The seemingly gentle golden light appeared to possess extraordinary power; in the blink of an eye, the restless Spiritual Qi and Demonic Qi in the surroundings calmed down and began to gather toward the golden light!

The brilliant golden light, like a small sun, cast its soft, holy radiance vertically down onto a certain spot on Tianqi Immortal Mountain!

Baijiaowang, who was standing on the mountaintop observing the celestial phenomena of the Nascent Soul formation, was suddenly stunned. His gaze turned toward the direction where the golden light fell, and he saw a cliff face with a clear little lake beneath it!

In an instant, Baijiaowang seemed to understand something. His figure flickered slightly and vanished from where he stood. The next moment, space fluctuated hundreds of feet away, and his figure appeared!

After several consecutive movements, Baijiaowang finally arrived at the edge of the little lake. Looking up at the golden light in the sky, he frowned deeply and let out a heavy sigh!

He seemed to understand that the Zifu Immortal Cave of Tianqi Immortal Mountain was likely within this little lake! However, it was already too late. The surroundings of the little lake were filled with dense Spiritual Qi. Although Spiritual Qi was a good thing, excessively dense Spiritual Qi would also make a cultivator's body unable to bear it!

Just by standing by the lake for a moment, Baijiaowang felt the blood in his body stir, and the Spiritual Qi around him was actually drilling into his body on its own!

After taking one last look at the little lake, Baijiaowang's figure vanished without a sound!

At this time, the golden light in the sky became increasingly intense. Gradually, these golden lights began to converge into a golden pillar of light, passing through the Illusion Array directly into the Zifu Tianqi Immortal Cave, acting upon the top of Zhang Nuo's head and his primordial spirit!

Enveloped by the heaven-descended golden light gathered by the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, the primordial spirit immediately felt a sense of peace and tranquility. At the same time, in the dantian of Zhang Nuo's physical body, the nascent Nascent Soul, wrapped in layers of Spiritual Qi, was slowly floating out of the body!

The nascent Nascent Soul and the primordial spirit bathed together in the golden light, the two looking at each other as if there were some kind of connection in the dark! Suddenly, with a soft "Whoosh—", the primordial spirit turned into a beam of white light and drilled directly into the body of the nascent Nascent Soul!

What happened next was even more astonishing! The nascent Nascent Soul, which had been cracked on the surface, was now frantically absorbing the waves of Spirit Power coming from the golden light! Its body was rapidly becoming complete at a speed visible to the naked eye!

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a Nascent Soul appeared above Zhang Nuo's head. Its two small hands were constantly grabbing at something in mid-air, and brilliant light bloomed within its pupils!

It looked up at the golden light still pouring down, and with a sudden movement, it drilled directly into Zhang Nuo's body! As if the soul had returned to its vessel, Zhang Nuo's physical body trembled slightly, and he immediately opened his eyes!

Only after changing the Dharma seal in his hands several times did he stabilize his mind! The joy of the newly condensed Nascent Soul returning to his body did not make Zhang Nuo lose his head, because this was only the first step in breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage! There was still much to do! At this moment, his cultivation was still at the Golden Core Late Stage; if he wanted to successfully advance to the Nascent Soul Stage, he had to gather all the golden light collected from the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth into the Nascent Soul!

The Nascent Soul turned slightly within Zhang Nuo's body, appearing somewhat unaccustomed, but half an hour later, the Nascent Soul's small hands and feet kicked hard, followed by a soft whistle from its mouth! It grabbed hard at the void in front of it!

With a flash of spiritual light, the Nine Dragon Sword Case appeared before the Nascent Soul! With a hug from its two small hands, it pulled the case into its embrace! As a spray of five-colored light mist was exhaled from its mouth, the sword case was enveloped within it. After a moment, the Nine Dragon Sword Case floated quietly in front of the Nascent Soul!

Using the same method, the Nascent Soul separately claimed the other Magic Treasures within Zhang Nuo's body for its own use! The Magic Treasures rotated slowly around the Nascent Soul. At this moment, the Nascent Soul did not appear relaxed; instead, with a slightly nervous expression, it stretched out both small hands simultaneously!

After specks of spiritual light were released from its snow-white fingertips, strands of silver flame surged out from various parts of Zhang Nuo's body, and in the blink of an eye, they condensed into a silver ball of fire the size of a thumb in front of the Nascent Soul!

The "Red Glow Fire" was the next target the Nascent Soul was about to subdue!