The lifeform refined the spatial formation and its other techniques and after several lifetimes of effort it managed to become a foundation beast without compromising its life.
And thus the lifeform began its cultivation as a Foundation Beast.
It had noticed that as a Foundation Beast its luck was worse then when it was a Spirit Beast or even a normal beast but not as overwhelming as when it was ascending, which the lifeform chalked up to fate giving it passive bad luck due to it breaking through its obstructions and becoming a Foundation Beast.
As the cycles passed and the lifeform slowly advanced as a Foundation beast it had realised that every minor breakthrough it achieved as a Foundation Beast was met with tribulations in the form of beasts or humans but not as powerful as when the lifeform was becoming a Foundation Beast.
So the lifeform continued on its journey and progressed as a Foundation Beast at a steady pace, a pace that was much slower then what it was as a Spirit Beast as it needed an exorbitant amount of energy but the lifeform was still consistently making progress despite the bad luck and small tribulations it had to go through in the minor breakthroughs.
After many cycles the lifeform had begun to reach the peak of Foundation Beast consistently But the major barrier between the lifeform and the rank above Foundation Beast which was called Core Beast was the insane amount of energy it needed to breakthrough.
The lifeform would have to either be extremely lucky and find some sort of mythic fruit or mystic stone but that was out the question as fate had given the lifeform very bad luck whenever it broke through to become a Foundation Beast and also because that was an unreliable way to get energy as the lifeform couldn't consistently do that in its next lives.
The other option on how to gain the insane amount of energy the lifeform would need was to offend countless sects and families and school by somehow plundering their highly guarded treasuries and using their treasures to break through.
Between the two options the lifeform picked the latter one a thousand times out of a thousand.
The lifeform began to do the second option but it kept on failing, however if there was one thing the lifeform was good at it was getting up every single time it fell.
The lifeform would always get killed either in the process of stealing the treasures or while on the run with the treasures in hand and so it chose to learn every single type of technique or formation or arts it could find as the lifeform could just blame itself always getting caught and dying to its bad luck but the real truth was that if it was stronger it would be able to ascend, and so stronger is what it will become.
Thus the lifeform dedicated the next cycles of its lives to gathering information and techniques until it had enough information where it could have endless backup plans where it could escape from anything or at least survive for long enough to breakthrough.
During one of the lifeform's explorations it was in an ancient tomb that seemed to have not been entered for millions of years.
The tomb was massive but after searching it multiple times the lifeform could only find a single book on a table. It had no title, only a symbol that he didn't recognise.
It was what looked like a snake that was eating its tail that made a circle.
The lifeform read the book.
The general summary of the book was of a long forgotten myth of a mythical snake called ouroboros, and it talked about ouroboros life, and how he had no beginning nor end, how it endlessly died and rebirthed and how it was constantly in a struggle against the heavens and fate, this Ouroboros had a mission but ultimately in the end it failed. The mission wasn't specified and the entire story was very vague but it got the point across.
It was a children's story book, through and through but the book deeply resonated with the lifeform greatly as it shared countless similarities and struggles with ouroboros, but the thing that really moved it was a short poem at the end of the book.
The lifeform could only roughly translate what the poem said as it was in an ancient language that was only spoken countless eras ago but even the rough translation moved the lifeform immensely.
It stated,
—-
Myriad lives traverse countless millennia.
Heaven-forged manacles and human tribulations.
The serpent who does not yield, buckle, or bend despite fate's endless prosecution.
Ouroboros.
—--
After Ouroboros had completely finished the book it began to disintegrate into nothingness, as if the book had forced itself to stay in existence until the lifeform had the opportunity to read it, and now that the lifeform had read it the book could finally let itself go.
The lifeform stood in silence for a couple of hours after finishing the tale of ouroboros.
Although it was a simple book for children it made it realise something, it had no overarching goal or mission for its life, it was simply marching aimlessly in its life progressing through cultivation.
What was its goal?
Why was it fighting so hard?
As the lifeform thought and thought its countless scattered thoughts began to come together into one thought, one belief, one goal.
It wanted to become the strongest, so strong that things like fate, luck and the heavens would only be superficial things it could swat away like annoying flies, it wanted to be so strong that no human, beast or organism could endanger it. It wanted to be so strong that the entire universe and even beyond it could only bend a knee to it.
Despite the lifeform being alone it began to say a speech in a solemn tone.
"This book, which has been forgotten by history, shall forever remain in my heart… I once carried ridicule for the humans and beasts giving names to themselves and others, but now I revoke this ridicule. I do not know what happened to Ouroboros, but I shall carry on his legacy, in honor of him making me realise my aimlessness and the birth of my goal.
From this moment on, I am Ouroboros."
This moment signified the destruction of the nameless lifeform, and the birth of Ouroboros.
Time passed and lives went and went as Ouroboros accumulated more techniques, formations and many more, simultaneously he kept on challenging organisations' treasuries for their valuables , to see if this time he was prepared enough to survive and ascend.
He continued this cycle until his 2342nd life.
In this life he had successfully stolen from a couple of different families and sects. Ouroboros was sat in the middle of a massive and complex protection array called Azure Turtle Unlimited Ascension Array which could only work when inputted with an immense amount of energy and also could only work at full capacity when an individual was ascending. However despite its weird requirements it was an immensely powerful protection formation as outside of where ouroboros was ascending there were dozens of powerhouse from the families and sects he had stolen from sending their full power attacks at it trying to destroy it and reach Ouroboros.
Ouroboros sat in deep concentration doing his best for his ascension while his enemies were outside the array blasting at it with techniques and shouting profanities at ouroboros.
"You brainless fool! Are you really willing to forfeit your life for a mere moment as a Core Beast? We have already disabled the teleportation function on your array so your death is nothing but certain!"
"Stop your ascension at once and give back the treasures you stole from my clan, and I'll make your death painless!"
"I don't know what sort of Qi disease or cultivation technique needs you to have this much energy to merely reach the rank of Core Beast, but now you have stolen from me and offended me, I will make sure with all my being that you are eradicated!"
These were merely a couple of the remarks those dozens of cultivation powerhouses threw at Ouroboros but he remained silent having put all his effort into the ascension. He had to rush the ascension as despite the powerful protection array that ouroboros was using it was still cracking at the powerhouses attacks as even the weakest cultivators there, were at the peak of Core Condensation while the majority were at Nascent Soul.
After a few minutes, Ouroboros who was still ignoring the furious cultivators had finished with his ascension.
As he examined his body he could see a blood red core slowly spinning in the centre of his body. He had reached the rank of Core Beast.
Ouroboros couldn't help but to laugh hysterically, he had finally done it, after being stuck as a Foundation Beast for over a thousand lives he had finally reached the long desired rank, but he knew that this wasn't the end, he was still merely in the beginning stages of the long path of cultivation.
Ouroboros simply sat in the Azure Turtle Unlimited Ascension Array waiting for the powerhouses to come in while relishing in his new power while laughing uncontrollably.
By the time that Ouroboros had become a Core Beast the array was already on its last legs with several massive cracks on its surface. In only a couple of seconds the powerhouses managed to destroy the array and threw all their strongest techniques at Ouroboros.
While he was getting torn to shreds by the various techniques he didn't stop laughing, until his life was snuffed out of existence.
Even after killing Ouroboros, the powerhouses would not find any of their treasures, as he had used them all to ascend.
This was the first time Ouroboros had reached the rank of Core Beast, but certainly not his last.