Core Formation

Lu Yang had entered a rather wondrous state. He felt his perception of the outside world drastically diminish, able only to sense the Golden Core combatants attacking him, while everything further away grew hazy. In contrast, the shroud of mist at his dantian grew thinner and lighter, as though he only needed to push aside the mist to see what the halo of light behind it truly was. A demon beast with the head of a tiger and the body of a flood dragon pounced fiercely toward Lu Yang. This was a Hujiao, a creature that lived in water for extended periods, at the late Golden Core stage, capable of moving on land temporarily. The Heaven Herding Grass had specifically brought it out of a lake to hunt Lu Yang down. Detecting the Hujiao's attack, Lu Yang lightly exhaled a breath of Three-Flavor True Fire, coating the Green Blade Sword with it. With the addition of the Three-Flavor True Fire, the already razor-sharp Green Blade Sword became even more formidable than before. The Hujiao roared and lunged toward Lu Yang. With a flick of his wrist, Lu Yang uttered a soft shout: "Sever!" The Green Blade Sword flashed past, and the Hujiao's severed head rolled down beside Lu Yang's feet, the cut edge emitting an appetizing roasted aroma. This was the Sever Formula. It lacked the sheer power of the Break Formula, which drained more than half of his spiritual energy, but it could be executed repeatedly, and its single-target potency was slightly greater than that of the Slash Formula. The Heaven Herding Grass still attempted to command the Hujiao's carcass to attack, but Lu Yang had anticipated this. He triggered the Sever Formula once more, carving the beast into eight pieces. Taking advantage of the opening, another demon beast appeared at Lu Yang's feet. It was relatively small, had three legs, and resembled a softshell turtle. Holding sand in its mouth, it spat a mouthful toward Lu Yang's shadow. It was a Yu, capable of spitting sand to strike shadows, poisoning enemies to death through their shadows. Lu Yang had kept his divine sense active all along and had long noticed the Yu's sneaky maneuver. He channeled a sudden surge of sword qi into the Green Blade Sword, causing the Three-Flavor True Fire on the blade to flare up violently into a blazing inferno, instantly shifting his cast shadow. With a reverse thrust, Lu Yang pierced through the Yu's hard, dark-green carapace, stabbing it to death. A Ba Serpent and a Feiyi appeared on either side of Lu Yang. Both were ancient demon beasts of serpentine form and similar appearance. They struck simultaneously, seeking to coil around Lu Yang and strangle him to death. Lu Yang used Drawing a Circle as a Prison to drag the Ba Serpent underground, then utilized Shrinking the Earth to descend after it. With the space underground ill-suited for wielding the Green Blade Sword, he coated both hands in True Fire and attacked with the Arhat Fist. Majestic fist prints blazed as earth turned to scorched soil; before the Ba Serpent even had a chance to react, the Arhat Fist shattered its dantian. Lu Yang emerged from behind the Feiyi, popping a Great Restoration Pill to restore his spiritual energy as he slashed out with the Green Blade Sword, bisecting the Feiyi. "I refuse to believe so many Golden Cores can't bring you down! You're nothing more than a Foundation Establishment brat—stop struggling and die!" The Heaven Herding Grass panicked, forced to shout at the top of its voice to mask the turmoil in its heart. Whether the Hujiao or the Ba Serpent, these were its trump-card servants, each having possessed immense potential in life, second only to Lu Yang as nourishment. Yet now they were all slain by Lu Yang's fluid, effortless strikes. It could feel Lu Yang growing stronger step by step, his control over power becoming ever more refined, his movements more nimble and fluid, his fighting style increasingly ingenious, allowing him to achieve victory at the lowest possible cost. This transformation had to be stopped! It shifted its primary focus from the Immortal Fairy back to Lu Yang, diverting even more demon beasts to besiege him. Noticing the changes in Lu Yang, the Immortal Fairy could not help letting a faint smile slip across her lips. More and more demon beasts assaulted Lu Yang, only to be slain by his blade or have their dantians pulverized by his Arhat Fist. Yet in contrast, Lu Yang's physical condition deteriorated further and further. Repeatedly deploying sword formulas and the Arhat Fist consumed spiritual energy at a frantic pace; constantly popping Great Restoration Pills could no longer keep up with the rate of consumption. Several Golden Cores had even inflicted severe injuries upon him: his left arm was fractured, several gouges slashed across his abdomen and back, the deepest wounds revealing stark white bone. He was covered in blood, staggering with every step. If this continued, he would soon die of exhaustion, and the Heaven Herding Grass would have its wish fulfilled. This ought to have been good news, yet the Heaven Herding Grass could not find it in itself to rejoice. It noticed that although Lu Yang's wounds mounted, his eyes shone as bright as the moon, standing out strikingly against the gloom of the dense forest. "What are you laughing at?! What are you laughing at?!" the Heaven Herding Grass roared, feeling as if Lu Yang were mocking it. Indeed, Lu Yang was smiling, and smiling with utter delight. "Why shouldn't I smile? A swarm of Golden Cores rushed me together and still couldn't defeat a lone late Foundation Establishment cultivator like me. Shouldn't I be glad?" "Is it that I'm too strong, or that this mob of Golden Cores is too weak?" Lu Yang advanced toward the Heaven Herding Grass step by step. Battered by grievous wounds, he nearly collapsed multiple times, yet each step set the grass's heart trembling with dread. Frenzied, the Heaven Herding Grass ordered all the demon beasts to attack Lu Yang at once, no longer caring about precise control. Even if by sheer weight of numbers alone, it would crush this human prodigy to death! Lu Yang no longer possessed the strength even to hold his sword. He met the demon beasts one by one with plain fists, pushing himself to squeeze out the very last drop of his strength. At the same time, the dense fog at his dantian grew thinner and lighter. Or rather, it wasn't that the fog was thinning, but that the halo of light behind it was absorbing the fog, becoming increasingly complete and perfected. A realization struck Lu Yang, and he guessed the origin of the dense fog: *Is it the combat experience I accumulated while fighting above my realm in this dense forest?* Lu Yang's body began to undergo subtle changes. The wounds on his abdomen and back gradually closed and scabbed over, his broken left arm miraculously reset itself, and his essence, qi, and spirit converged into one, burning fiercely like a blazing torch. Fresh fuel was constantly added to it, feeding the torch of essence, qi, and spirit to burn higher and brighter. The mist cleared away entirely, revealing the true face of the halo—a plump, lustrous Golden Core. This Golden Core was mystical to the utmost; its very emergence represented invincibility. With a gentle spin, it swept away all of Lu Yang's exhaustion. Lu Yang felt boundless strength surge forth, a power so colossal that it was no longer something the Foundation Establishment stage could possess. Under the scouring wash of this power, the bottleneck of the Foundation Establishment stage was effortlessly broken through. The Golden Core stage! "Yazi, kill him!" A majestic demon beast stood out like a crane among chickens amid the Golden Cores. It was the demon beast Yazi, with the body of a jackal and the head of a dragon, born of a dragon and a jackal. Holding a precious sword in its jaws, it glared furiously at Lu Yang. This was a great demon beast comparable to the Jiuying, an overlord of the dense forest, yet before the present Lu Yang, it was not even worth mentioning. Lu Yang extended his index and middle fingers, pressing them together, which manifested as an incomparably sharp phantom of a sword. "Go." The phantom sword swung down, then vanished into thin air. The Yazi glared at Lu Yang, yet an exceedingly fine line of blood appeared atop its head, extending all the way down to its tail. Lu Yang blew a gentle breath, and the Yazi split in two, falling to either side. The power of this phantom sword alone surpassed Lu Yang's strongest Break Formula! "You broke through to the Golden Core stage?!" The Heaven Herding Grass stared at Lu Yang in utter disbelief. All its previous shocks combined could not compare to this one; it had never heard of anyone breaking through like this. Lu Yang disregarded the Heaven Herding Grass's astonishment. The grass no longer posed a threat to him. He was currently examining the Golden Core he had just formed. "This Golden Core seems to hold many mysteries I haven't uncovered yet, nor are they recorded in ancient texts. In other words, this Golden Core is one of a kind. What name should I give it...? Ah, I've got it: the Hunyuan One-Qi Core!" Just as Lu Yang settled on the name for his Golden Core, the Immortal Fairy's delighted voice rang in his ears: "Hey, isn't this this immortal's Invincible Core?!" "You dishonest rascal, Lu Yang! You said with your mouth that you'd never form my Golden Core, but deep down in your heart, you still knew that this immortal's Invincible Core suits you best!" Having dealt with the demon beasts surrounding her, the Immortal Fairy nudged Lu Yang with her elbow, winking and flashing him a radiant smile. Lu Yang: "...Say what?!"