The path to forming a Nascent Soul was nothing more than the unification of the three treasures and the Five Qi Gathering at the Origin.
The so-called three treasures were essence, qi, and spirit!
They corresponded, respectively, to the body's blood essence, spiritual energy and mana, and the divine soul and psyche.
Extracting their purest essences and blending them into one, they joined with the golden core to form a spirit embryo. Once that embryo quickened, one could shatter the core to form the Nascent Soul, stepping onto the Grand Dao of the Nascent Soul!
Long before participating in the Jiazi Tournament, Zhou Fuyou had already thoroughly learned all the knowledge regarding breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm from his master, Fairy Qinglan.
Guided especially by his master and the Old Ancestor, he had consciously begun harmonizing the three treasures early on.
By the time he reached the ninth layer of Core Formation, the spirit embryo within him had already taken clear shape.
Now inside the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, as the days of quiet cultivation passed one by one, his cultivation climbed steadily and solidly upward.
In moments of leisure, he looked inward to inspect himself.
Within his sea of qi, magic power surged like a vast ocean, and two spirit pearls floated—one large, one small.
The smaller one was his natal magic treasure, the Sea-Calming Bead. It bore the renowned reputation of calming vast oceans and suppressing the heavens. Most precious of all, upon its formation, the bead had undergone tempering by lightning tribulation, reaching the grade of a True Artifact.
At this moment, the petite Sea-Calming Bead spun playfully around the larger pearl in intimate circles.
For that larger pearl was none other than Zhou Fuyou's golden core!
Unlike an ordinary cultivator's golden core, this core was pitch-black throughout, devoid of even a speck of impurity, looking as though it could swallow all light.
And from that profound blackness, it seemed capable of bringing forth myriad creations from absolute nothingness.
When the golden core could no longer absorb a single shred of magic power, an inexplicable sensation welled up from Zhou Fuyou's consciousness.
Thump!
The embryo quickened!
The spirit embryo trembled—a sign that the moment had arrived to shatter the core and birth the Nascent Soul.
An ordinary cultivator in this position would draw on past wisdom to suppress the impulse to break through, turning instead to consolidating their realm. Step by step, they would acclimate to the sensation before marshaling abundant auxiliary resources to push through to the Nascent Soul stage in a single burst.
At the very least, they would thoroughly prepare their protective measures against the Nascent Soul lightning tribulation first.
Zhou Fuyou, however, cast aside all past precedent.
He had an intuition: the Dao was born of nature—why restrain it?
Follow nothing but one's true heart!
With a single thought, his body's blood and vitality surged toward the golden core inside, rendering his already lean frame even more gaunt.
Boundless magic power rippled outward in expanding rings, centering upon Zhou Fuyou.
From initial ripples to surging, crashing waves, the momentum grew ever more immense.
Amid these incessant fluctuations, heaven and earth seemed to fall into resonance with his rhythm.
Boom!
Within Three-Tier Falls, the fourth-tier spiritual vein suddenly erupted with a torrential outpouring of spiritual energy, sweeping across a hundred miles around.
The cascading waterfall whipped upward like a bolt of white silk, reversing its flow thousands of feet into the air and transforming into a silver-white dragon.
Atop the great dragon's head sat the gaunt youth cross-legged, riding the waves high into the sky, soaring straight into the ninth heaven.
Crack!
Without anyone noticing when it had begun, the void had grown dense with dark clouds. Slender silver-white electric serpents darted through them, truly terrifying to behold.
Faced with such an extraordinary sight, any cultivator would instantly recognize it as the heavenly tribulation of a Core Formation cultivator breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Yet anyone would be utterly astounded by the sheer ease with which Zhou Fuyou had formed his spirit embryo and beckoned the lightning tribulation.
From beginning to end, he had not relied on a single external aid.
Neither the pills his master had prepared for him nor the wealth of breakthrough resources awarded to him for winning first place in the Jiazi Tournament had been touched.
He had simply felt the time was right, and so it was.
In the blink of an eye, the lightning tribulation finished gathering its might.
Unlike normal tribulations, this one made no exploratory preliminary strikes.
The moment Zhou Fuyou showed himself, a bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket crashed down with a thunderous roar!
Zhou Fuyou remained calm and simply raised an open hand.
The thousand-foot waterfall beneath his feet morphed into a water dragon, roaring as it surged upward to meet the lightning.
Boom!
A deafening roar erupted. Zhou Fuyou was completely unmoved, merely raising an eyebrow.
"Is this all the strength the lightning tribulation possesses?"
From the Dao Sect's ancient texts, he knew that a cultivator underwent only three heavenly tribulations throughout their life, each consisting of three rounds, totaling nine rounds—hence known as the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.
Yet this first heavenly tribulation seemed utterly beneath concern to Zhou Fuyou.
"Perhaps the later ones will be stronger. If a shaped lightning beast like the Old Ancestor spoke of appears, that would be even better."
Far from feeling fear at the thought, an expectant look appeared on his face.
He did not have to wait long. The second round of tribulation arrived on schedule.
This time, five bolts of lightning slammed down.
Five lightning strikes crashed from above, threatening to annihilate heaven and earth.
Zhou Fuyou remained unperturbed. Bringing his hands together in a circle, a limpid water mirror emerged.
He laid the water mirror flat and gently pushed upward with both hands.
The five bolts of lightning crashed in unison against the azure mirror, sending up wave after wave of spray.
Crack, crack...
Fracturing sounds rang out in quick succession.
When the azure mirror shattered, the five bolts of lightning were spent as well. With a simple flick of his sleeve, Zhou Fuyou dispersed the remaining crackles of electric arcs.
Having been thwarted so effortlessly through two consecutive rounds, the heavens seemed enraged.
From the churning dark clouds came a suppressed, restless rumble.
Now, Zhou Fuyou's expression finally turned solemn.
Yet blended with that solemnity was a touch of anticipation.
When four beastly legs resembling pillars of heaven stepped out from the heavy clouds, the suspense in Zhou Fuyou's heart finally settled.
A shaped lightning beast had come!
Legend held that only cultivators of extraordinary natural talent and extraordinarily profound foundations would draw forth a terrifying shaped lightning beast during their Nascent Soul tribulation.
Such an entity possessed terrifying destructive power, far beyond what an early Nascent Soul cultivator could handle.
It was a force intended to obliterate the tribulation-crosser!
Yet if the cultivator could absorb and harness that power, its potential ceiling far outstripped ordinary killer techniques.
The Old Ancestor had prepared for this long ago.
And Zhou Fuyou possessed additional auxiliary methods, determined to claim the tribulation lightning for his own.
With a shudder of his body, streams of black air rose from him, carried along by surging Ming Water.
The technique of Qi Sea Floating Heaven manifested once more, forming another black celestial canopy centered upon him.
It contrasted sharply with the heavy thunderclouds above.
When the lightning beast resembling a turtle emerged fully from the thunderclouds, Zhou Fuyou let out a low shout:
"Come!"
The shaped lightning turtle strode forward on its four limbs, roaring as it charged toward Zhou Fuyou. Facing the grim canopy conjured by Qi Sea Floating Heaven, it did not dodge, plunging straight in.
Everywhere it passed, Zhou Fuyou's signature killer move began to crumble retreat after retreat, seemingly powerless to resist.
Right then!
Zhou Fuyou opened his mouth, and a pearl flew spinning out.
Treasure light flashed as the young man pointed a finger.
"Freeze!"
A terrifying suppressive force poured forth, causing even the lightning turtle formed by the heavenly tribulation to freeze for an instant.
That fleeting instant was precisely what Zhou Fuyou needed!
Forming incantation seals with both hands, the immensely pure Ming Water within his boundless sea of qi transformed into flood dragons. They lunged at the lightning turtle like chains, tightly binding its limbs, torso, and even its head.
Surging streams of qi darted forward, burrowing with eerie sentience straight into the turtle's body of pure lightning.
Enraged, the lightning turtle struggled to break free and press forward. But from within, the air streams dissolved its form, while from without, the Ming Water flood dragons bound it fast. With Zhou Fuyou relentlessly channeling the Sea-Calming Bead on top of it, it could not advance an inch.
Its body even began to break apart, reducing to the most primitive, pure power of tribulation lightning.
"As long as I merge this tribulation lightning into Qi Sea Floating Heaven, this killer technique will truly take on the embryonic form of a divine ability!"
"The Old Ancestor's vision shall be brought to fruition by my hands!"
"From now on, in the Nascent Soul realm, I will possess the world-shaking ability where my heart is heaven's heart, commanding thunder and driving lightning!"
Gritting his teeth and paying no heed to the depletion of magic power, Zhou Fuyou continuously dissolved and absorbed the shaped lightning turtle's strength.
The dark clouds swirled furiously across the heavens as if in rage. But the three rounds of heavenly tribulation had concluded; powerless to intervene, they could only watch as the shaped lightning turtle dissipated bit by bit.
"Draw!"
With a low shout, streams of air crackling with electric arcs retracted into Zhou Fuyou's body.
Looking up, he saw the dark clouds gradually dispersing, replaced by a torrential downpour of spiritual energy rain.
From the ground below, golden lotuses formed of spiritual energy burst through the soil, drifting toward Zhou Fuyou.
Golden lotuses springing from the earth, heavenly cascades pouring into the crown!
Zhou Fuyou smiled faintly and formed a hand seal.
Within him, the golden core shattered with a collapse.
He gave a muffled grunt, and from within the golden core, a tiny figure appeared.
Initially no larger than a thumb, the tiny figure began to grow vigorously after consuming the shattered golden core.
As if feeling there was still not enough food, the tiny figure flickered and emerged from Zhou Fuyou's physical body, gazing outside with sheer delight.
The droplets of spiritual rain and golden lotuses of spiritual energy were the finest nourishment.
The tiny figure flew onto a golden lotus, sat cross-legged, and let the deluge of spiritual rain wash over it.
A feeling of joyous exhilaration arose naturally, accompanied by the dizzying illusion of returning to the mother's womb.
Amid that trance, the Nascent Soul figure seemed to remember something.
With a beckoning wave of its hand, a streak of light flew out from the storage ring on his physical body and was swallowed into its mouth.
It was the fourth-tier mirage core obtained earlier from slaying the fourth-tier flood dragon mirage beast, containing a sliver of spiritual opportunity.
The moment of forming a Nascent Soul was the most perilous time, with the threat of heavenly tribulation looming without and the pressure of condensing the three treasures pressing within.
Yet what the world did not know was that the moment of forming a Nascent Soul was also the closest a cultivator would ever come to heaven and earth in their entire life.
Having weathered the lightning tribulation, all barriers with heaven and earth temporarily vanished. And because the barrier of the purple palace had not yet formed, the Nascent Soul was almost entirely integrated with heaven and earth at this fleeting instant.
When Luo Chen formed his Nascent Soul years ago, he had experienced a similar sensation, but knowing the fact without grasping its principle, he had subconsciously let it slip by.
In truth, even if Luo Chen had realized it, there was little he could have done, for he lacked one crucial element.
A spiritual opportunity!
And Zhou Fuyou happened to possess one.
Though meager—just a single wisp.
It was more than enough!
As the mirage core entered its body, the Nascent Soul figure slowly closed its eyes, letting the surrounding world envelop it.
Vaguely, he sensed the underlying laws governing the world, woven and traced by crisscrossing principles. Above these laws, the great Dao's order reigned supreme.
The rules of the great Dao were too colossal, like heavy sledges an infant could not lift. Yet the laws were like balls of yarn—threads that a laughing child might easily pull loose.
"Where should I pull from?"
Innumerable threads intersected and intertwined, with no starting end in sight, leaving him nowhere to begin.
He knew not how much time passed...
Suddenly!
The Nascent Soul figure snapped its eyes open, staring with burning intensity—and a hint of dread—at his own mortal flesh.
There lay a clear, fully intact thread!
Could it be that he, Zhou Fuyou, possessed a priceless treasure without even knowing it?
...
At the center of the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven.
Upon an expansive plain, dozens of figures sat cross-legged in arcane formations.
Beneath them ran crisscrossing lines of glowing patterns.
Viewed from high above, it was none other than the layout of a Weiqi chessboard.
These individuals each occupied a node on the board, each commanding roughly a tenth of its area.
At the very center sat an extremely aged elder with graying temples, sitting cross-legged like a withered tree; the position he occupied was the Tengen of the chessboard.
All of a sudden!
The elder's heavy eyelids twitched, and the dormant magic power within him stirred with a slight ripple.
Sensing the shift, someone asked with concern, "Senior Martial Brother Ke, what is the matter?"
The elder slowly opened his eyes and gazed into the distance.
"Among this batch of disciples who entered the grotto-heaven to cultivate, is there anyone with exceptional talent?"
"Reporting to Senior Martial Brother Ke: the ten who entered are all elites among mortals, and Zhou Fuyou in particular possesses the Xuanming Dao Body—he truly stands out above the rest!"
Lost in thought, the elder murmured, "Then it must be him."
The others were puzzled.
Soon, however, with the elder's gentle, gratified remark—"He has formed his Nascent Soul"—the crowd came to a sudden realization.
Following that, endless murmurs of praise and wonder arose.
Everyone knew of Zhou Fuyou's innate talent, yet only thirty-odd years had passed since entering the grotto-heaven, and he had already reached Nascent Soul.
Converted to the outside world, this could be hailed as reaching Nascent Soul in under a century!
Such terrifying cultivation speed was almost unprecedented across the tens of millions of years in the Mountain Sea Realm.
"Junior Martial Brother Li, go invite him here! Though the spirit treasure known as the Lanke Chessboard recognized me as its master long ago, I am not a Soul Formation powerhouse after all. When the time comes to drive it with full force, I must rely on the strength of you all. Since Zhou Fuyou has formed his Nascent Soul, he can serve as a reserve force to lend a hand should any of you struggle to hold on."
The Nascent Soul cultivator addressed by the elder as Junior Martial Brother Li was precisely the Martial Uncle Li from when they had first entered the grotto-heaven.
He hailed from the Li family, one of the Twelve Great Houses. His realm was not particularly high, hovering around the third layer of Nascent Soul, but he had extensive connections and exceptional interpersonal skills; whether dealing with superiors or juniors, almost everyone knew him.
Having received his orders, Martial Uncle Li did not decline, steering his escape light toward the direction pointed out by the elder.
In reality, the distance between them was not great; Three-Tier Falls was situated within the inner reaches of the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven to begin with.
By the time Martial Uncle Li arrived, Three-Tier Falls had returned to its usual serenity, with only a light pitter-patter of rain falling continuously.
Martial Uncle Li scanned the surroundings and saw none of the devastation typically left in the wake of a cultivator's tribulation. He could only marvel that this junior was truly extraordinary, having weathered his solo tribulation so easily.
However, the weathered scorch marks and sword gashes upon the exposed rock stirred deep emotions in him.
"These must be the marks left behind during the five-hundred-year grotto-heaven tournament back then, when the Desolate Hermit, Luo Chen, held his ground single-handedly against Shi Ju, Gu Yuan, Gu Daosu, and the others. Who would have thought that after all these years, time has yet to wear them away."
Amid his musings, Martial Uncle Li detected traces of the formation Zhou Fuyou had laid out.
Politely stepping forward, he opened his mouth to call out, but swallowed his words before uttering them.
Zhou Fuyou had only just formed his Nascent Soul and was bound to be at a critical juncture of consolidating his realm. An abrupt disturbance might disrupt him.
Senior Martial Brother Ke was in no rush either, so leaving a message to notify him would suffice.
Retrieving a voice transmission talisman, Martial Uncle Li recorded a message with his divine sense and sent it flying inside. After watching it circle briefly, he leisurely departed.
Meanwhile, inside the cave abode at Three-Tier Falls, Zhou Fuyou remained seated cross-legged upon his prayer mat.
Strangely, his Nascent Soul remained outside, its gaze fixed intently on his mortal body.
"Why is there a spring sealed inside my mortal flesh—and one containing the Water Origin at that?"
"Is this the origin of my Xuanming Dao Body?"
"Who did this?"
"Father, Mother... or the Old Ancestor?"
Zhou Fuyou could find no answer. And the moment his Nascent Soul returned to his body, the seal upon that spring crumbled like a bursting dam, unraveling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At that instant, boundless, vast power flooded through Zhou Fuyou.
Looking down at his hand, a light squeeze felt as though he held rivers, lakes, and oceans in his grasp.
He lifted his eyes toward the dome of the cave abode, his vision seemingly piercing through the stone walls to behold the drizzling curtain of rain outside.
"Disperse!"
With that whispered murmur, the rain clouds blanketing the sky vanished in an instant.
Such mastery over the changing momentum of heaven and earth was beyond what an ordinary Nascent Soul True Master could ever wield.
Zhou Fuyou fell into silence.
Chapter 1073