Chapter 4137 — Something Has Gone Wrong
In this state, not only were his meridians liable to burst at any moment, he was a hair's breadth away from qi deviation.
It went on for a full half-hour. With sheer inhuman willpower, Wei Zhao painstakingly channeled the terrifying true qi that had swelled beyond all measure within him because of the golden core, bit by bit, entirely into his dantian.
And that brief half-hour, in the eyes of ordinary people, felt to Wei Zhao as long as half a century. Fortunately, he had weathered it in the end.
Yet this was far from the time to relax. Up to now, everything he had done had been mere preparation. Drawing all his true qi into his dantian was done; what came next was the real matter—condensing the golden core.
The so-called Golden Core stage differs from the Foundation Establishment stage above all in this: a golden core is condensed within the dantian. That single golden core becomes the source of all the true qi in the body, the mark of the qualitative transformation from a Foundation Establishment expert to a Golden Core expert, and at the same time the very lifeblood of every Golden Core expert.
Condensing the golden core—that process is said to be exceedingly difficult, yet also quite easy, for there is in truth not much technique to it. It is simply a matter of continuously gathering and compressing the vast true qi already drawn into the dantian until it finally crystallizes into a solid true qi crystal. That is the golden core.
Generally speaking, if one can successfully endure the earlier and most perilous channeling of true qi, then the step of condensing the golden core is one in which very few ever fail. Yet even though everyone condenses a golden core alike, the gulf between one and another is as vast as heaven and earth, and this very step directly determines one's future strength and potential.
Some Golden Core experts have cores that are hollow and insubstantial, known as hollow cores; their strength is by nature that of the lowest and weakest among all Golden Core experts. Others have cores hard as stone, known as solid cores; their strength is by nature that of the first-rate among all Golden Core experts.
Even when all cultivate the same martial art, the might of a solid-core expert far surpasses that of a hollow-core expert by a wide margin, and the root of it all lies in the quality of the golden core condensed at this very moment.
So although the step of condensing the golden core is not as perilous as what came before, it is the crucial step that no one dares treat lightly. Slack off or grow careless even slightly now, and it can never be made up for afterward.
No expert with any ambition would wish to condense a hollow core. Only a solid core offers any hope of advancing further and taking a place among the strongest. Yet what Wei Zhao was about to do now was different from everyone else's.
What he meant to condense was no solid core, but the Myriad Beauty Golden Core!
An ordinary solid-core expert's core is hard as stone, but the Myriad Beauty Golden Core that Wei Zhao was about to condense went a level beyond: hard as meteoric iron from beyond the heavens!
And all of this depended on the power of the Star Ink Stone. Only by absorbing the power of the stars and the power of the sea at the same time, in the very process of condensing the golden core, could a true Myriad Beauty Golden Core be formed. That alone was a perfect breakthrough; that alone could make one the strongest of Golden Core experts!
While slowly governing the vast true qi within his dantian and letting it condense, Wei Zhao had to divide his attention three ways: part of his true qi seized the power of the stars within the Star Ink Stone and drew it into his dantian, while at the same time he had to control his divine sense to gather the power of the sea and channel that into his dantian as well.
Dividing one's attention three ways is enormously difficult for anyone. A single misstep in the process and all would be ruined—at best he would fail to condense the Myriad Beauty Golden Core, at worst the core condensation itself would fail, or even his strength would regress, leaving him forever incapable of another breakthrough.
Yet at this moment Wei Zhao showed no sign of strain whatsoever; on the contrary, he was methodical and quite steady.
In this, beyond his own innate talent, there was credit due to the Ghost Thing as well. Foundation Establishment experts generally have little skill in using divine sense, and the hardest link in the three-way division lay precisely in using divine sense to gather the power of the sea. Without this grandmaster-level spirit-essence expert to point the way, Wei Zhao could never have managed so easily.
Having come this far, condensing the golden core was the final crucial stage. Wei Zhao had thought this cross-realm breakthrough would proceed smoothly from here on, all the way to condensing the Myriad Beauty Golden Core and achieving a perfect breakthrough. But the very next moment, he knew he had been far too naive.
Condensing the golden core within his dantian was no problem. Using divine sense to gather the power of the sea—the step with the greatest technical difficulty—was likewise no problem. What startled Wei Zhao beyond measure was that the seemingly simplest link of all, seizing the power of the stars, was where a fatal accident occurred!
The instant he drew the power of the stars into his meridians, a great gash abruptly tore open in them—they had split apart outright!
The incomparable agony, together with the shock he had no time to guard against, nearly threw everything within Wei Zhao's body into utter chaos. The true qi that had been gathered in his dantian flowed backward into his meridians, and he stood on the verge of qi deviation and disaster.
Fortunately, at the last moment Wei Zhao came to his senses, forcibly driving the true qi back, and at the same time circulating his mental method to repair the split meridians in time. Even so, for the moment he dared not continue seizing the power of the stars from the Star Ink Stone.
The power of the stars is by nature supremely fierce and sharp. The meridians had split just now precisely because they could not withstand its edge. This was not something that could be endured by simply gritting one's teeth. If he went on this way, Wei Zhao was certain that before he ever condensed the Myriad Beauty Golden Core, every meridian in his body would be ruined by the power of the stars!
Amid the lingering dread, Wei Zhao could not help but feel a sliver of gratitude: thankfully he had been channeling the power of the stars in through his meridians, so there was at least a chance to mend and heal. Had he without a word poured it straight into his dantian, then it would not have been his meridians that split, but his dantian.
Once the dantian is ruined, there would be no chance of remedy at all; one would simply fall to being a cripple through and through.
Yet even without such a disaster, Wei Zhao for the moment did not know what to do. The Ghost Thing had taught him how to use the Star Ink Stone, but after all it had never used one itself, so it could not possibly know such fine details.
At present only two choices remained to Wei Zhao. The first was to abandon the Star Ink Stone and condense the golden core by the book—the safest course, but the price was that a perfect breakthrough would be impossible.
As for the remaining choice, it was to grit his teeth and keep seizing the power of the stars—but the likeliest outcome was that the core condensation would fail and he would become a cripple himself!
Wei Zhao gritted his teeth and brooded for a moment. To choose the first, he could never bring himself to accept; yet to choose the second was far too dangerous. Without an effective solution, it was nothing short of courting death.