Chapter 455: Condensing the Core

After strengthening his own dantian, Song Qingming also felt that the recovery of his own magic power these days could no longer keep up with the speed of consumption. In order not to delay the time for Core Formation, Song Qingming decisively took out a small cyan bottle from his person and poured a drop of thousand-year spirit milk contained inside into his mouth.

This time, because his Core Formation failed, Song Qingming did not consume much thousand-year spirit milk. Now he still had a whole bottle on him, which was already enough to cope with his upcoming Core Formation.

Besides thousand-year spirit milk, Song Qingming could also borrow the residual map he carried with him to help restore his own magic power. This point would also allow the overall process of his breakthrough to Core Formation to take less time than that of ordinary cultivators.

Relying on directly swallowing thousand-year spirit milk and the blessing of the residual map, in less than a moment, Song Qingming had already replenished the magic power in his body to a perfect state. Next, he would begin to refine the magic power in his dantian to be pure.

After a cultivator breaks through Foundation Establishment, the original magic power stored in the dantian will also directly transform into a liquid form. As the cultivation base improves step by step, after reaching the final layer of Foundation Establishment, the ninth layer, the original magic power in the body is also almost stored to perfection.

After this, continuing to cultivate can no longer help a cultivator increase their own magic power; they can only slowly purify their own original magic power, preparing for the breakthrough to the next realm, condensing the Jin Dan.

This step of purifying one's own original magic power, although for every cultivator who can cultivate to the peak of Foundation Establishment, it is very easy to do, whether one can do this step well and let the subsequent core condensation be completed smoothly is a great test of a cultivator's personal ability.

After restoring the magic power in his body, Song Qingming sat cross-legged and entered a state of meditation. He operated the Jade Profound Scripture he cultivated, opened several acupoints on his body, and began to vigorously absorb the heaven and earth spiritual energy in the cave dwelling.

The so-called purifying of original magic power is actually to constantly and rapidly absorb the heaven and earth spiritual energy from the outside over a period of time, and then directly expel the spiritual energy in the body that has flaws and impurities from his dantian, allowing the original magic power in the cultivator's own dantian to reach a very pure state in a short time.

To do this well, one must not only have patience but also constantly grasp and control the rhythm of spiritual energy entering the dantian. Once one discovers that flawed spiritual energy has been absorbed, one must expel it from the body in time. Otherwise, once this flawed spiritual energy settles into the dantian and mixes into one's own original magic power, all previous efforts will be wasted, and it will be very difficult to find it again.

The biggest reason Song Qingming fell at this step of core condensation last time was that this step of purifying magic power was not done well, leading to the fact that later, during core condensation, the core liquid could never be smoothly condensed into a Jin Dan.

However, this time, with the help of the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye," this step of purifying magic power was not only much easier for Song Qingming than before, but the spiritual energy absorbed directly into the body from the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" was also purer than on other spirit veins. Song Qingming would also absorb much less flawed spiritual energy in this process than before.

Although this time, in terms of both personal experience and other conditions, Song Qingming was much better than his last seclusion, he did not become anxious or careless because of this. Song Qingming still walked this step of purifying magic power with great patience.

It was not until two whole years later that Song Qingming felt that his own original magic power was pure enough, and only then did he slowly put away his own magic power and complete this step.

At this time, because all the magic power in his whole body had been refined to a very pure state, a trace of spiritual light began to flash on his whole body from time to time, making him look very immortal and ethereal.

After walking through this step of purifying magic power, he had already completed a small half of the steps of Core Formation. Now, the original magic power in Song Qingming's dantian had also transformed from the previous transparent color into a golden-yellow core liquid.

The next step was to directly condense these core liquids in his dantian into a core. As long as this step could be smoothly achieved, Song Qingming would have completed the most difficult step in the Core Formation process and could be considered to have half a foot already stepped into the Jin Dan realm.

The reason Core Formation can stump many Foundation Establishment cultivators in the cultivation world is precisely because the difficulty of this step of core condensation is extremely high. As long as one is not a genius like a Heavenly Spirit Root, no matter how good your spirit root talent is, facing this hurdle is equally difficult to pass smoothly.

In the cultivation world, among all Foundation Establishment cultivators who failed to break through to the Jin Dan realm, the most common reason for failure was the failure to successfully condense the core. Almost more than 80% of cultivators fell at this step, including Song Qingming, who failed his first Core Formation back then.

After using a second-tier spirit talisman to readjust his own state, Song Qingming did not hesitate too much and directly swallowed the "Du Yuchen Pill" he had prepared in his hand, once again urging the magic power in his body.

The "Du Yuchen Pill" is a spirit elixir that can assist cultivators in better controlling the magic power in their bodies. This elixir can form a magic power barrier outside the dantian when a cultivator is condensing the Jin Dan, helping the cultivator isolate the conflict between the original magic power in the dantian and the spiritual energy in other meridians and acupoints in the body.

With the help of the "Du Yuchen Pill," during the process of condensing the Jin Dan, a cultivator can better concentrate their own energy into the dantian and focus on controlling the core liquid that has already been transformed in the body, without worrying about the magic power from other parts of the body rushing into the dantian at random, which would bring unfavorable effects to their own condensation of the Jin Dan.

A moment after taking the elixir, Song Qingming soon felt a relatively gentle magic power appear in his body, which soon tightly wrapped the entire dantian. Song Qingming, having had experience, naturally knew that this was the medicinal power of the "Du Yuchen Pill" taking effect.

Having reached this step, Song Qingming naturally would not waste time and hurriedly concentrated his energy to begin controlling the core liquid that had already been prepared in his body.

After Song Qingming began to urge his own magic power, those golden-yellow core liquids stored in the inner core also began to rotate automatically, soon forming a small vortex in the dantian.

At the very center of this core liquid vortex, the color of a trace of core liquid also began to reveal a very dazzling white light. This white light directly penetrated Song Qingming's dantian and flesh and skin, beginning to illuminate the entire cave dwelling where he was in seclusion.

As time passed, the rotation speed of the vortex formed by the core liquid also began to become faster and faster, and the white light on Song Qingming's body became increasingly bright.

He did not know how much time had passed, but Song Qingming felt that the core liquids in his dantian had become much less and denser, so he began to directly control his magic power to compress the core liquids in the dantian.

Soon, the elixir liquid stored in Song Qingming's dantian was compressed by his controlled spiritual power into a sphere the size of an egg. This golden sphere began to rotate continuously within Song Qingming's body, emitting an intense white light.

After successfully gathering and solidifying the core liquid in his body, Song Qingming did not stop and poured another drop of thousand-year spirit milk into his mouth, beginning to increase his magic power to continue polishing the golden sphere in his dantian.

Although this golden sphere was condensed from the true essence core liquid in Song Qingming's body, it was still only a magic core now, and there was still a long distance from the Jin Dan in the body of a true Jin Dan cultivator. It still required Song Qingming to continue polishing and compressing the true essence inside, so that this magic core could transform into a true Jin Dan.

After the golden sphere in his body slowly shrank by more than half, Song Qingming took a deep breath and directly adjusted a powerful magic power hidden in his five internal organs and four limbs into his dantian, increasing the magic power to compress the golden sphere in his dantian.

This magic power hidden in Song Qingming's body was precisely the "Hidden Essence Art" he had cultivated for many years. After this powerful magic power was added, Song Qingming soon successfully compressed the golden sphere to the size of a thumb tip. Seeing that the Jin Dan, which was already 70-80% formed in his body, had no abnormalities, Song Qingming could not help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

If there were no help from the "Hidden Essence Art," Song Qingming could not have completed this most important step of core condensation—compressing the true essence core liquid—so easily. Spending over a dozen years re-cultivating the "Hidden Essence Art" truly did not let his efforts go to waste.

Back when Song Qingming began to cultivate the Jade Profound Scripture, he obtained the spell "Hidden Essence Art" from the cultivation method. Back then, Song Qingming, who had just achieved Foundation Establishment, was precisely because he had this spell in his hand that he began to have a trace of confidence in Core Formation.

The spell "Hidden Essence Art" does not have much use in normal times. The magic power stored in a cultivator's body after cultivation can only be put to use at such a critical moment of Core Formation. But just the fact that it can increase the probability of Core Formation by 20% is enough to make the function of "Hidden Essence Art" far exceed ordinary high-tier spells.

After successfully condensing the true essence core liquid in his body into a Jin Dan, Song Qingming had already passed the most important step of Core Formation and could be considered to have half a foot already stepped into the Jin Dan realm.

At the same time, outside Song Qingming's seclusion cave dwelling, the demon king Qingluan happened to be enjoying a pot of spirit wine Song Qingming had given her. Just as she was happily preparing to pour herself another cup, she suddenly felt a change in the surrounding spiritual energy, which was rushing madly toward a stone door not far from her side that had been sealed for a long time.

Seeing this scene, Qingluan's expression changed instantly. She immediately put down the spirit wine she had not finished drinking, stood up, walked out of the cave dwelling, and came directly outside.

Just after flying out from the bottom of the pool, Qingluan saw that in the sky above her head, a pile of white clouds had already gathered, and the heaven and earth spiritual energy around the pool was also rapidly rushing into the cave dwelling at the bottom of the pool.

This sudden scene made the low-tier demon beasts hiding in their own cave dwellings nearby feel some abnormalities, and they also ran out one after another to find the place where the heaven and earth spiritual energy was inexplicably gathering.

However, these low-tier demon beasts, just after approaching the edge of the pool cave dwelling, felt a huge pressure coming from the front, which scared them into turning around immediately and fleeing in a panic, not even daring to return to their original cave dwellings.

"This brat, finally at the time of Core Formation. I don't know if he will make it this time!" After driving away the low-tier demon beasts nearby, the demon king Qingluan raised her head to look at the sky and muttered to herself.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 456 =====