Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Ten days later, in Furious Bears City…
The Temple of Immortals' scheme had been foiled, but its repercussions still plunged Furious Bears City into a swirl of events. Li Yao, on the other hand, was bothered by none of it. The most important task for him in the past few days had been to eat well, sleep well, and treat his wounds while consolidating his position in the unprecedented superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage.
Shua!
Sha Yulan plucked the last gold needle from his chest. Sensing the prospering circulation of spiritual energy inside his body, she smiled. "Your body is even sturdier than that of the healthiest qi-trainer than I've ever seen. I have no idea how you trained yourself to such an extent at all. I thought that you would have to lie on bed for a couple of months, but you've fully recovered after only ten days!"
Li Yao smiled, too. He sensed the strength that felt both familiar and strange flowing inside his body. He punched several times, and the air in front of him rippled like water. However, there was not the slightest sound.
His control over his strength had reached an amazing level that far exceeded the peak of the Building Foundation Stage in common sense. Even Cultivators in the beginning level of the Core Formation Stage might not have been as skilled as him!
Sha Yulan was beaming with interest and said, "The world of Cultivation is indeed full of changes and mysteries. I thought that you were dead for sure, but you've set yourself off on a whole new path!
"I've carefully analyzed everything in the last couple of days. Your status right now is different from the superlative height of the Refinement Stage. Not every qi-trainer can enter your level by compressing their spiritual gas after they reach a certain threshold in the Refinement Stage.
"At that time, the chaotic spiritual energy released from the cores of the apocalyptic beasts was still lingering inside your body, waiting to be transformed and absorbed. It was accumulating in your abdomen and could have killed you.
"As it turned out, Yan Xibei's attack with his apocalyptic strength battered the foreign spiritual energy and set it free from your body!
"Moreover, Yan Xibei's bloody mist covered you like a big cooker and restrained the escaping spiritual energy around you, making it have nowhere to run to.
"Also, everybody was in the most intense reverberation state at that moment.
"All the coincidences together led to your inexplicable level."
Li Yao chuckled and scratched his head, realizing that he was truly unbelievably lucky.
Sha Yulan suddenly changed the topic. "However, regarding the weird situation inside your body, I have two speculations, one good and the other bad. Which one would you like to hear first?"
Li Yao thought for a moment and replied, "The bad one, please."
"Although you've broken into the 'superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage' by luck and your combat ability has been significantly increased, I estimate that it will be ten times more difficult for you to enter the Core Formation Stage than for common Building Foundation Stage Cultivators," said Sha Yulan.
Li Yao raised his right eyebrow.
Sha Yulan explained, "You've received the harshest training of the qi-trainers, and now, you are in the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage. As a result, your veins, nerves, and abdomen have ten times the capacity of common Building Foundation Stage Cultivators'!
"Metaphorically speaking, if the body of a common Building Foundation Stage Cultivator is a lake, your body is an ocean."
Li Yao nodded. His spiritual energy capacity had indeed improved a lot over the last couple of months. After he entered the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage, he had been feeling hungry all day. His daily training always consumed dozens of crystals, and he still felt that he hadn't enjoyed himself. His body had become like a bottomless hole.
"Let's say that one would be able to enter the Core Formation Stage when the 'water level' reaches a certain height. One heavy rain will be enough to raise the water level of the 'lakes' of common Building Foundation Stage Cultivators and make them reach the threshold," Sha Yulan said. "But for an 'ocean' such as yourself, one heavy rain is far from enough. How much water do you need if you want to raise the water level of an ocean by one meter? I can't even imagine!"
Deep in thought, Li Yao realized that Sha Yulan did have a point.
Sha Yulan continued her explanation. "For a long while now, I've been wondering why none of the qi-trainers, many of whom were talented and smart, have ever entered the Building Foundation Stage successfully in the past several thousand years. There should've been some, no matter how low the odds are!
"Now, I finally understand that it was because the qi-trainers overstretched their veins and nerves, increasing their spiritual energy capacity. While their 'lakes' grew larger and larger, more and more 'water' could be stored, but it made it more and more difficult to improve the 'water level' in order to reach the threshold of the Building Foundation Stage!"
Li Yao slapped his thigh and observed, "Good point!"
"There's another fatal problem about your body. Your abdomen was pierced through by Yan Xibei's brutal attack. It is now like a bag riddled with holes. However much rice you put into the bag, some of it is bound to leak out.
"The strength that leaks out makes your whole new level. However, it also adds to the difficult of breaking through to the Core Formation Stage, because forming the core highlights the concertation of spiritual energy and not dispersion.
"All in all, my conclusion is that you've already deviated from the normal path of training. The superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage is not compatible with the Core Formation Stage, just like the superlative height of the Refinement Stage does not agree with the Building Foundation Stage!
"When the qi-trainers persist in walking on the superlative height of the Refinement Stage and surpassing the 50th level, the 80th, and even now the 100th, the price they pay is that they are unlikely to enter the Building Foundation Stage.
"If you go higher in the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage, you may reach the 10th, the 20th, and even the 100th level of the Building Foundation Stage, but it is very possible that you will have to pay your price, too, which is that… you will never enter the Core Formation Stage!"
Li Yao felt a headache coming on. It was indeed a tough choice.
The superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage was a significant improvement to his combat ability. According to Li Yao's self-evaluation, his maximum combat ability was close to that of the middle level of the Core Formation Stage. Even if he ran into an experienced Core Formation Stage Cultivator such as Fengyu Zhong again right now, he would not necessarily be on the losing side.
If he could march into the 30th or the 50th level of the Building Foundation Stage someday, it was not unlikely that he could defeat the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
However, Cultivation was not simply about the improvement of combat ability.
The Core Formation Stage, Nascent Soul Stage, and Divinity Transformation Stage represented the major landmarks in the path of evolution.
He was like a dinosaur among Cultivators right now.
The combat ability of dinosaurs was naturally much higher than that of monkeys.
But that did not mean that dinosaurs were more advanced than monkeys; monkeys had endless potential due to their intelligence!
Li Yao took a long breath and asked curiously, "Then, what's the good news, Sister Sha?"
Sha Yulan smiled and replied, "Need I inform you of the good news? Your body is now an ocean. Although it is ten times more difficult to enter the Core Formation Stage, you will be the strongest Core Formation Stage Cultivator in history should you succeed some day! I don't even know whether or not 'core' will be an appropriate word to describe your status by then. Your capability will definitely be terrifying!"
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shone. It was quite true. Raising the water level of an ocean by one meter was naturally much more troublesome than lifting that of a lake. However, the force used when the ocean moved several meters would be much more intimidating than when a lake moved!
"It's decided then!" Li Yao clenched his fists, his eyes glittering. "I will not abandon the Core Formation Stage. Maybe I will suddenly break into the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage from the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage one day during my training!
"Superlative height of the Core Formation Stage! Wow. I'm drooling just thinking of it!"
Sha Yulan couldn't help but chuckle. She covered her mouth and said, "Alright. Alright. You can study how to form the ultimate core right now. I'll go and change Big Xiong's medication. Right, come to Big Xiong's ward soon. Captain Lei seems to have brought Big Xiong something, and he wants to share it with you!"
After Sha Yulan left, Li Yao pondered for a moment and locked the door from inside. Then he secretly established communication with Sparkle.
Sparkle was hiding dozens of meters below his ward. Since the distance was very short, the point-to-point communication was not in the least hindered by the rock stratums in between.
Sparkle had not been idling by in the last couple of days. Li Yao had sent the broken Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and the pieces of the Apocalyptic Extension into Sparkle. Professor Mo Xuan had taken charge of the repair work, and everything was successfully completed three days later!
Li Yao explained his situation to the five spectral Cultivators. He also told them that he wouldn't give up on the Core Formation Stage. Mo Xuan and the rest of the spectral Cultivators couldn't have agreed with him more.
As refiners, they did not think too highly of the improvement of combat ability that the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage brought.
What the Core Formation Stage could offer was not only enhancement of combat ability, but also a totally different understanding of spiritual energy.
Many kinds of planetary-level magical equipment could only be utilized by those above the Core Formation Stage. Li Yao wouldn't be able to make use of them even if he was in the 10,000th level of the Building Foundation Stage.
"The path to the Core Formation Stage is always full of perils," said Mo Xuan. "Thankfully, we still have plenty of time. It's been only less than one year since we arrived in the Flying Star Sector, and you have already entered the unprecedented superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage. Maybe in the next ten years, you will really find an opportunity to become an ultimate Core Formation Stage Cultivator! If there are no other ways, we can always try to facilitate the process with magical equipment! But let's settle the details later. We've been drilling below the underground for too long. Two crystal reactors exploded in the morning, and we are still working on them."
"Alright. Let's talk soon."
Li Yao nodded his head. He was going to shut off the communication, when he suddenly bulged his eyes and shouted, "Wait!"
Mo Xuan was caught unprepared. He asked, "What's the problem?"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes deep in thought while he mumbled, "Facilitating the process with magical equipment…
"Professor Mo Xuan, look, one of the biggest problems for me right now is that my abdomen is too huge and my veins too thick, resulting in a huge consumption of spiritual energy during my training. The other problem is that my abdomen is riddled with holes that seem fine in everyday life but leak spiritual energy in extreme moments.
"Let's say that we can craft a piece of magical equipment whose form and mechanism are similar to those of crystal reactors. It will be a pressure cooker three to four meters in diameter!
"Then, I will sit inside the pressure cooker and form the core there.
"Since it is a fully-sealed pressure cooker, the spiritual energy inside my body will have nowhere to escape to even if it wants to run away. Instead, it will only be pressed by the overwhelming pressure from all directions until it is all compressed to the same spot. Won't that be the ultimate core that I talked about?"
Mo Xuan was silent for a long time, before he replied, "That's an interesting thought, young man. Let's talk about it later!"
Mo Xuan cut off the communication.
What does he mean? Isn't it a great idea?
Li Yao rubbed his hands. Hooked by his bold hypothesis, he started making designs on a blank light beam.