Yang Shi, even after using pills, did not compromise his foundation and remained very strong. After all, his previous base, combined with the very precise control over the pill's energy effect achieved through the help of many powerful minds, allowed for a safe advancement without major complications.
After the breakthrough, he did not immediately proceed to the Golden Core, keeping his eyes closed while refining his foundation and stabilizing his cultivation.
Even though the use of pills made the foundation less perfect than natural cultivation, it was still possible to correct most of the defects by stabilizing and refining the foundation over time.
If this weren't the case, alchemy might never have reached the glory it now held.
The only real issue was excessive use and dependency, which would progressively weaken the foundation.
It was precisely because of alchemy that, in a resource-rich continent like Beiyan, so many powerful cultivators existed.
This was not only due to an abundance of talent, but also because even mediocre talents could use pills in moderation and reach unimaginable heights compared to those in a desert continent.
Aotian wasn't against using pills either. However, since his cultivation was already progressing rapidly thanks to synthesized techniques, he preferred to cultivate without such aids, which—even if only slightly—would weaken the foundation if used frequently. This was especially relevant because his foundation was connected to that of his avatars.
He wasn't obsessed with perfection, but he always tried to do the best he could with what he had.
Aotian was proud of having made the right decision in the past—cultivating martial arts and techniques using nearly perfect manuals. Even now, with an entire database at his disposal, he still couldn't create a perfect technique—not even the simplest ones, like Qi Refinement.
And the difference in strength between the techniques he used in the past and the ones he could create today was minimal. If he had insisted on waiting for perfection, he would still be at the beginning of the Foundation Establishment stage with Tian Zhu, and Bao Hui and Lie Zheng would still be at the beginning of Qi Refinement.
He might not even have Bao Hui or Lie Zheng. After all, without cultivation at that time, he wouldn't have attended the pre-expedition banquet at the Red Tiger Mountain—and without going there, he wouldn't have met Rihai. Without meeting her, and without power, he wouldn't have been able to escape the city attacked by beasts… and he would have died.
And dying would mean reviving in an avatar, which was the same as losing it.
'Most likely, I would've started cultivating anyway if I had died due to a lack of strength. Thankfully, I was sensible and not arrogant enough to pursue absolute perfection.'
He reflected with relief as he thought about it.
While Yang Shi continued refining his foundation and correcting the aftereffects of a pill-driven breakthrough, the next elder in the room took a pill from Yang Shi's bottle and began his own advancement.
Some of the elders sent to the Beiyan continent were already at the perfection of Foundation Establishment thanks to prior pill use, so they didn't need to go through the same process. A bit more refinement of their current cultivation was enough before moving on to the Golden Core.
Thus, across both continents, the sect's outer elders advanced and quickly began refining their foundations. Occasionally, one of Bao Wuji's minds would descend upon them, and with his powerful mental strength, he would precisely locate minor flaws and help the avatars correct them.
Aotian always sought to optimize the use of his resources—and that included the use of his avatars' minds.
Not all of them were advancing with pills, as Aotian liked to leave some cultivating naturally to generate more insights for his own cultivation. These avatars were usually a few days ahead of him.
They also wouldn't take long to reach perfection on their own, and a few days later, his main body would also advance.
...
Days flowed like water, and Aotian's cultivation—along with that of his outer elders—grew stronger and stronger.
Thus, a month and a half passed.
Due to the potent energy he had obtained from Rihai on the first day they practiced dual cultivation, his advancement to the perfection of Foundation Establishment wasn't far off.
Fortunately, the Yin energy he had absorbed from her was special. Its absorption didn't cause inconsistencies in his cultivation base, allowing him to progress steadily. In fact, it was an energy that nourished the body and the roots, rather than directly advancing the dantian itself.
Strengthening the roots allowed for the molding of a much more powerful and controllable energy, which is why Aotian advanced so quickly and steadily that night.
With well-nourished roots, building the Dantian became much faster and easier. And since it wasn't the Dantian that advanced, but rather the roots—followed by natural cultivation—the foundation remained solid.
In fact, during that first night, his minds were cultivating for him the entire time, while his main mind focused on Rihai and that special moment between them.
Spiritual roots are the foundation of a cultivator. If they are strong and well-nourished, forming the Dantian becomes a quick task.
They are so important that Rihai, before recovering her cultivation—even with a Foundation Establishment Dantian—only had the strength of Qi Refinement. This was because her roots had lost their power and nourishment, rendering a stronger Dantian useless.
Of course, without a good Dantian and solid foundation, aspects like control over spiritual energy, energy storage, structure, and mobilization capacity would be compromised. A poorly built Dantian meant a weak cultivator with limited prospects.
The Dantian is the core of a cultivator's energy control. If it's not strong, not even the elemental energy in the roots will be properly nourished, which basically means there will be no further cultivation progress.
Back to the present, Aotian observed his Dantian within his own body.
It was extremely dense. Unlike the Qi Refinement phase, where the Dantian appeared ethereal and unreal, now it was solid, dense, and seemed on the verge of becoming something completely real—besides being much larger.
If before it was the size of a small walnut, now it was comparable to a baseball. Aotian was relieved that the Dantian still existed somewhere between real and unreal—otherwise, it would be strange to have a sphere that size inside his body, just below the navel.
Pulling up his status, he looked with a deep breath.
[Host: Long Aotian
Cultivation: Perfection of Foundation Establishment
Body Cultivation: 1st Level Foundation Establishment
Physique: Mortal
Qualifications: Low-Grade Five Element Spiritual Root (Low Qualification)]
Aotian had a slightly complicated expression as he looked at his current cultivation.
'... It's already been more than a year and a half since I came to this world. In less than two years, I went from a mortal to someone about to reach the Golden Core. Excluding my disciples, who in this world can claim to be this monstrous in cultivation? Even Rihai, with her divine root and top-tier resources of this world, took around five years to reach this level back then.'
'With my sect, and my disciples advancing at speeds not much slower, I'm basically mass-producing talents above the divine physique level like water.' He couldn't help but feel emotional about how overpowered having a system was.
'Haah… Aotian, Aotian, it should be a sin to be this excellent,' he thought with an arrogant face, charmingly running his hand through his hair.
After a small session of playful narcissism, he became serious again.
Bao Wuji appeared behind him and placed his hand on his back.
Aotian observed through his perspective and saw that his cultivation couldn't be more solid, and every small problem he had previously found with Bao Wuji had already been resolved.
With the inspection complete, Bao Wuji vanished into the shadows once more.
'All set, time to advance. Ugh... I'm a little nervous,' Aotian thought, trembling slightly.
Golden Core was no small thing for him. After all, besides being a significant realm and the pinnacle for cultivators in the desert continents, his breakthrough didn't just mean he alone would ascend…
It meant all of his avatars would reach a new realm.
His outer elders had already taken a step forward and reached the Golden Core, and now it was his turn, along with all his other avatars, to step forward as well.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes again and focused on his roots, which seemed saturated with nourishment, just a hair's breadth away from breaking through.
He then threw hundreds of mid-grade elemental and spiritual stones onto the ground around him like candy.
Connecting his energy to the stones and drawing their inner energy into himself, he began his breakthrough.
His roots, struck by the elemental energy, immediately broke past their limits, and his saturated energy condensed, further strengthening his meridians as his elemental affinities reached a higher level of quality.
The elemental energy entering him was instantly devoured by his roots, even faster than before, and impurities were expelled from his body while the pure spiritual energy was condensed and pumped into the dantian at high speed.
When the energy reached the Dantian, under Aotian's control, it completely surrounded it and then compressed against it fiercely, like a sphere crushing and hammering everything within.
Aotian's body trembled from the impact, but beyond that, his expression didn't change.
But as for the Dantian, it shrank slightly, seeming even denser than before, and small cracks appeared.
A bit of the high-quality spiritual energy condensed by the roots infiltrated those cracks, nourishing the Dantian under Aotian's control and mending it, making it even stronger.
Normally, when a cultivator undergoes this process, the Dantian ends up full of cracks, but Aotian's barely had any, proving the depth of his foundation.
If a cultivator lacks a solid foundation, it's dangerous for the Dantian to break during this breakthrough process, which can result in death or crippling.
With the minuscule cracks repaired, the previously white and misty Dantian began to take on a faint golden hue.
As the Dantian recovered, the energy surrounding it only grew in quantity and condensed even more.
Then, once again, Aotian guided it to crash violently against the Dantian.
Again, his entire body trembled from the much stronger impact, and the Dantian condensed once more, shrinking slightly.
This time, the small cracks were a bit larger, but they were quickly repaired, and a stronger golden glow emerged with the Dantian's reinforcement.
And so the process repeated.
Each time, the impact force increased, and each time, the Dantian became smaller, more condensed, and its golden radiance brighter.
As the hammering continued, a moment came when the Dantian was engulfed in a dazzling golden glow, and Aotian's body trembled violently as a powerful aura emanated from him and surged outward.
However, as the aura reached the walls, formations appeared and blocked its spread.
Looking at his Dantian now, it resembled a perfectly round ball made of gold, and Aotian felt that, if he wished, he could remove it from its place—even from his body—and make it real.
Yes, that was the Golden Core, the origin of this realm's name. A transformation of the Dantian into something beyond.
Aotian had officially reached the Golden Core.
But even after reaching this realm, he didn't stop accumulating the energy surrounding the Dantian, as if intending to continue tempering it.
His eyes remained closed, and his expression was extremely solemn.
'It's time to forge an almost-perfect Golden Core.'