Translator: AnubisTL
Before addressing any of these matters, there was a more pressing concern: advancing to the golden core realm.
Jieming's wizard rank had long been firmly established at the second-tier, but his corresponding cultivator cultivation had remained stuck at the great perfection of the foundation establishment realm for an extended period.
Initially, Jieming believed this bottleneck stemmed from the psychological trauma caused by the deaths of his friends Amy and Victor on the planar battlefield.
However, upon closer reflection, his emotions at the time hadn't been as extreme as he'd thought. There was no overwhelming grief, no searing rage—just a layer of mist settling over his heart, a very ordinary mist.
The mist wasn't thick, yet it was enough to obscure the great yang.
Now, Jieming understood the name of that mist: loneliness.
As a transmigrator, a subtle yet persistent barrier had always existed between his soul and this world.
Amy and Victor's presence had been like opening two windows in that barrier, allowing him to glimpse and feel a sliver of this world's warmth.
Their sudden departure slammed those windows shut, leaving behind the icy mist of loneliness.
Until... he faced Jack's face, twisted with jealousy.
That ugliness, that raw, undisguised emotion—born from his own inadequacy and burning resentment of others' talents—struck Jieming like a blinding light, piercing through the fog in his heart.
He suddenly realized that regardless of rationality or indifference, the wizards of this world—indeed, all living beings—were, beneath their masks, living, breathing "people" with the seven emotions and six desires.
They wept, they laughed, they envied, they raged, they acted on their desires, and they retreated in fear.
This realization, this profound sense of the world's "reality," paradoxically allowed his wandering heart, that of a foreigner, to truly begin to sink into the earth of this world.
In that moment, he felt not disgust, but an indescribable sense of relief, almost like "coming home."
With the knot in his heart untied, the bottleneck dissolved.
He clearly sensed that the barrier between foundation establishment and golden core had become as thin as a cicada's wing.
The reason Jieming had forcibly suppressed his breakthrough during the planar war, rather than attempting it, stemmed from his profound apprehension of Dionysius Spencer, the seventh-tier wizard of the fate system.
How could he dare attempt an immortal cultivation breakthrough—a process involving the very essence of his soul and a quantum leap in energy levels—under the watchful gaze of a being capable of peering into the threads of destiny?
Jieming simply didn't possess that level of audacity.
Now, having returned to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, a realm entirely under his control, he felt no such constraints.
To ensure absolute certainty, he refrained from rushing the process.
First, he spent over a decade immersing himself in the depths of his consciousness, connecting to the Great Dao Library Pavilion. There, he meticulously reviewed, compared, and studied tens of thousands of medicinal pill recipes and jade slips detailing insights into advancing to the golden core realm.
Then, drawing upon the principles of potionology and alchemy from the wizard world, he refined and distilled this vast knowledge through repeated simulations. Ultimately, he successfully refined a vial of advancement potion perfectly tailored to his unique circumstances.
Having completed these preparations, Jieming's previously restless mind had calmed considerably.
Gazing at the vial of advancement potion radiating a brilliant golden light, he suddenly realized, "It seems the time for advancement has arrived!"
He activated the planar defense system he had previously constructed as part of the planar transformation infrastructure, completely sealing off all passages between the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and the outside world, transforming the area into an absolutely isolated sanctuary for secluded cultivation.
Everything was prepared.
In the quiet chamber, Jieming slowly sat cross-legged, his palms facing upward.
A faint medicinal aroma permeated the air. The turbulent energy of the sulfur plane outside was completely isolated by layers of magical formations, leaving only absolute stillness.
He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, his gaze becoming incomparably clear and resolute.
"Let's begin."
His consciousness sank into his dantian, guiding the foundation establishment true essence, which had already reached its maximum capacity, to launch an assault on the invisible barrier of the golden core.
Jieming's mind stilled, his consciousness completely withdrawn and focused on his lower dantian.
There, the liquid foundation establishment true essence, which had previously swirled gently like a vortex, was now compressed to its absolute limit.
At the center, a brilliant golden radiance was gestating, radiating boundless vitality and an indescribable dao resonance.
His accumulated resources over the years were truly formidable. First, there were over two hundred years of diligent cultivation, during which he had uninterrupted access to various high-grade resources.
After spending over eighty years traversing two planes in relentless warfare, repeatedly flirting with death, and gaining profound insights into his dao path, his foundation had been forged into an unshakeable bedrock.
Now, his breakthrough to the golden core realm felt as natural as water flowing downhill, encountering virtually no resistance.
The invisible barrier that had once blocked his progress, now that his mental block had dissolved, was as fragile as morning dew.
Under the relentless assault of his pure and boundless true essence, it shattered and dissolved without a sound.
Hum...
A faint hum, perceptible only to the soul, resonated from the depths of his dantian.
In that instant, the golden speck at the dantian's center erupted with blinding light!
Like the first ray of light at the dawn of the universe, it instantly illuminated every meridian and channel within his body.
All the liquid true essence, like a hundred rivers converging into the sea, surged toward that golden speck, compressing, condensing, and solidifying!
There were no earth-shattering phenomena, only a profound metamorphosis occurring within his body's energy matrix.
The moment the golden core coalesced, the three treasures—essence, qi, and spirit—seemed to find a common nexus, spontaneously merging, resonating, and undergoing an indescribable qualitative transformation.
How long did it take? Perhaps a fleeting instant, or perhaps an eternity.
When Jieming's consciousness once again clearly "saw" into his dantian, a flawless, dragon-eye-sized pill, suffused with a warm, yet infinitely powerful golden light, hovered serenely at its center, slowly rotating.
With each revolution, it naturally inhaled and exhaled the surrounding spiritual power, creating a profound resonance with heaven and earth.
The golden core had formed!
He hadn't even needed to use the carefully prepared advancement potion beside him. Relying solely on his accumulated reserves, he had smoothly crossed the heavenly chasm that countless cultivators dreamed of overcoming.
However, just as the golden core stabilized, before Jieming could fully grasp its mysteries, an overwhelmingly powerful, almost savage suction force erupted from his lower dantian!
This force wasn't directed outward; instead, it frantically drained the newly transformed, yet still insufficient, spiritual power within him, as well as the essence contained within his flesh and blood.
Far from being alarmed, Jieming felt a surge of joy, understanding dawning in his heart: "Just as I suspected, the next stage of the Inner Circulation has begun!"
The core of the Inner Circulation cultivation method he practiced was the art of opening a grotto-heaven.
During his advancement to Foundation Establishment, this method had already opened an initial internal space within his body.
Now, with the formation of the golden core, his energy level and life essence had undergone a quantum leap. Naturally, his internal space would evolve and expand accordingly!
Jieming had long anticipated this and prepared contingency plans.
(End of the Chapter)
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