Chapter 160 - Cultivating the Core

The doubt in his heart became even stronger. He pondered for a bit before disappearing and crossing Hou Fen at a frightening pace. He went into one of its bordering nations, Tian Mao.

His goal was the Heaven’s Tower at the center of Tian Mo. The person inside it was a messenger from an upper cultivation country.

Not all rank 3 cultivation countries have a Heaven’s Tower. Hou Fen and Xuan Wu don’t have one. This is also why Hou Fen decided to invade Xuan Wu rather than Tian Mo.

Time slowly passed as Wang Lin cultivated inside the the heaven defying bead. Soon, 100 days had passed.

On this day, Wang Lin suddenly opened his eyes. The “Punish” above his head became less and less red, until it went from blood-red to grey.

An invisible wave appeared and began to slowly push outwards. The heaven defying bead originally released gentle light, but at this moment, it began to shine brightly. As the wave spread out, more and more of the lights began to shine brightly. Eventually, every light in the area was shining brightly.

Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. He was shocked.

Shortly after the “Punish” above his head shrank, Wang Lin could sense powerful spiritual energy fluctuations. The fluctuations grew more intense until a grey, spherical pill appeared in the air.

A bit of flame floated above the pill. Wang Lin reached out toward it and it descended toward Wang Lin’s hand until it was one inch from his palm.

He scanned it with his divine sense and found that the spiritual energy contained in this pill matched exactly the full cultivation of someone at the mid stage of Core Formation. Wang Lin recalled the information that Li Muwan had given him about the kill order. After pondering for a bit, he put it away instead of using it immediately.

Wang Lin decided to save this pill for when he attempt to form his Nascent Soul. It should make the success rate will be higher. The chances of forming a Nascent Soul were much lower than forming his golden core. The main reason he was able to form his core was due to the underworld ascension cultivation method and Li Muwan’s pill.

If either of these were missing, he might not have been able to succeed in forming his core and might have been forever stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage. There was an even harder hurdle in the future though: the Nascent Soul stage.

Forming a Nascent Soul was simply too hard. Wang Lin believed that even with Ma Liang’s body’s talent, there was almost no hope unless he could find those legendary pills that could increase the chance of forming a Nascent Soul that Li Muwan talked about. However, almost all of those pills were in rank 5 or higher cultivation countries, and they rarely ever leaked out.

Wang Lin muttered to himself, “Nascent Soul… Nascent Soul… even with the heaven defying bead, I’m afraid I will need hundreds of years to succeed… what’s most important now is to find a new cultivation method. The underworld ascension cultivation method has reached its peak and Situ Nan is still asleep, so I have to rely on myself.” The first thing he needed to find was a cultivation method for the Core Formation stage.

But the choosing this cultivation method was very difficult. Right now, all of the cultivation methods he had were from people he had killed. Although there were some that were fitting for a Core Formation cultivator to use, they were all too different, making it hard to choose one.

These were not the key points though. The key point was he wanted to pick a cultivation method that would increase his chance of forming his Nascent Soul. Thinking about this, his eyes lit up. From Ma Liang’s memories, the War God Shrine’s Divine Path seemed to have this effect.

However, what confused Wang Lin was that if the War God Shrine really had a cultivation method like this, on top of people within their own country being greedy, even rank 4 or rank 5 cultivation countries wouldn’t just leave it be.

However, according to Ma Liang’s memories, the War God Shrine’s Divine Path never peaked the interest of the higher ranked cultivation countries. This confused Wang Lin.

However, the only clue he had was this Divine Path. Wang Lin decided that he had to get his hands on the Divine Path no matter what. The Divine Path that Ma Liang knew about was something derived from a senior who had gained insight to the original Divine Path, so it was actually a fake. What Wang Lin wanted was the original Divine Path.

Everything Wang Lin had done was to ensure that he would successfully form his Nascent Soul in the future. Only by preparing now could he increase the success rate as much as possible

But a mere cultivation method wasn’t enough to make Wang Lin confident. Forming a Nascent Soul was very difficult. It has to be said that the qualification for a rank 2 cultivation country to reach rank 3 is someone reaching the Nascent Soul stage. This alone showed how difficult it was.

Wang Lin secretly sighed and went back to cultivating. After staying inside the heaven defying bead for a few more days, he prepared to leave.

Before he left, he went to visit Situ Nan and his parents’ souls. After silently standing there for a bit, he left the heaven defying bead.

At some location underground, there was a flash of rainbow-colored light as Wang Lin appeared. Right after he appeared, he quickly dashed off into the distance.

At the same time, he spread out his divine sense and carefully observed the outside. It was the dead of night and everything was quiet. Wang Lin pondered for a bit before quickly moving toward the Hou Fen Union.

But before he moved much, he suddenly felt a sense of danger coming from his divine sense. He used his earth escape technique to its limit to quickly go further underground. From 300 feet to 1000 feet, he continued to go down and his speed only increased.

An old voice echoed throughout Wang Lin’s divine sense. “This old man has waited 97 days for you, little guy!”

Wang Lin’s skull tingled, his hair stood up, and his face was gloomy. Without a word, he continued to descend. 1000 feet, 2000 feet, 3000 feet, 4000 feet…. 10,000 feet. Wang Lin descended straight down, and as he got deeper, he felt a force resisting him, causing him to immediately change directions into a diagonal descent.

“Hehe, good thing I borrowed this earth boat from someone. It would be really hard to catch you when you escape past the earth’s crust thanks to the force there.” The voice continued to echo in Wang Lin’s divine sense.

Wang Lin remained silent as he suddenly changed directions and started heading up. From 1000 feet underground to 100 feet, and he charged out to the surface with the Hou Fen Union mountain range right before him.

The moment he appeared, he charged toward the mountain. A screen of light appeared around the mountain. The moment he touched the light, he took out the identification jade he was given. He effortlessly passed through the light and then looked back.

At this moment, a large, black, wooden boat came up from the ground. The old man stood on top of the boat and looked at Wang Lin on the other side of the light screen. He nodded and said, “Not bad. Your divine sense is very strange. Although you have adjusted it to your body, it is still a bit off. It seems you’ve stolen that body. Little guy, come with me. This place can’t protect you.”

Wang Lin’s face was gloomy as he silently sneered.

The old man’s lips moved, revealing a strange smile. His right hand gently pressed against the light screen, making a few cracks appear before the entire light screen completely shattered. The entire mountain shook, kicking up a lot of dirt and dust.

The Hou Fen Union’s Nascent Soul cultivators flew out one by one, terrified.

Wang Lin’s pupils shrank. He turned around and sunk back into the ground to escape again.

The old man sneered and was about to chase when one of the Evil Devil Sect’s Nascent Soul cultivators bit the bullet and asked, “Fellow cultivator, why did you destroy our sect’s protective formation?”

This person had been around for three months. He didn’t do much most of the time besides scan past the area with his divine sense. His divine sense was very strong and it shocked all of the Nascent Soul cultivators present.

Secretly, the cultivators of Hou Fen were keeping a tab on the old man. Today they saw a disciple of the Hou Fen Union coming, but before they could take a closer look, they were all dumbfounded by the old man destroying their sect’s protective formation with one press of his palm.

If they were to let this go, the Hou Fen Union would lose all face. It was the Evil Demon Sect’s turn to guard the mountain today, which was why this Nascent Soul cultivator was the one to bite the bullet and ask the question. This way, their attitude on this matter was voiced. Whether or not the old man answered, the Nascent Soul cultivator wasn’t going to force the subject either way.

The old man stared at the cultivators of Hou Fen and said one word: “Scram!”

This one word sent out a powerful shockwave that rang inside the cultivators’ ears.

After the sound wave passed, the old man had already disappeared without a trace. The cultivators all looked at each other. Some of them are bleeding out of their mouths and noses. None of them were able to utter a word.

But the old man soon returned. His face was very gloomy as he stared at the mountain. His eyes closed and then suddenly opened as his powerful divine sense spread out. He scanned every single person in the mountain and even searched up to 1000 feet underground. The more he scanned, the more he burrowed his brow. Finally, his body moved and from one he became two, then from two he became four.

Four identical-looking old men spread out in four directions, each scanning with their own divine sense, but they still found nothing. The old man stomped the ground as he and his three avatars each went to the four corners of Xuan Wu. Their divine senses connected and encircled the entire country.

“There are only three years left. Little guy, in these three years, I, the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord, will refine Xuan Wu to find you. Ah, if it wasn’t for that place needing the death spell to pass through, I wouldn’t spend all this time trying to capture you!”