Chapter 4137 — Something Has Gone Wrong
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
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.