The Heavens Tremble, A Core is Born

The normally cautious Han Li still made the journey back to Condensing Jade Island.

He was well aware that without the support of his formation and puppets, charging recklessly through the Outer Star Seas with only Qu Hun and the two Bloodjade Spiders was far too dangerous.

Even if they could easily handle grade-five demon beasts, if a grade-six or higher beast took notice of them, death would be inescapable.

Besides, by his estimate, the demon cores he had collected should be more than enough to support his second cycle, or even his third cycle with plenty to spare.

Several hundred grade-five demon cores were worth at least several hundred thousand spirit stones, to say nothing of the many extremely rare varieties among them that would be worth even more.

Han Li was not greedy.

Everything he did was for the sole purpose of advancing a little further on the path of immortality. So the moment he sensed that continuing to lure and kill demon beasts had become too dangerous, he immediately decided to stop and turn back.

By now, they had already ventured deep enough into the Outer Star Seas.

If he hadn’t recorded a sea chart every time they passed an unfamiliar island, they might not even have found their way back.

The return journey took Han Li a full several months.

Carrying such valuable treasures, he was genuinely afraid of encountering powerful demon beasts or those rumored robbers along the way.

Demon beasts were the lesser concern; at worst, he would circle around them, and they generally wouldn’t give persistent chase.

But if they ran into cultivators with ill intentions, those people certainly wouldn’t let a lone pair like them pass by unmolested.

Not only would the demon cores be lost, but their lives would most likely be forfeit as well.

So throughout the journey, he and Qu Hun remained on high alert. The moment they detected any trace of other cultivators, they would immediately conceal themselves or flee far away.

And so, by taking these precautions, they managed to return to Condensing Jade Island without incident, allowing Han Li to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

He walked into that shabby little street. Other than two shopkeepers having been replaced by unfamiliar faces, everything else was exactly the same as when he had left.

Ignoring the slightly surprised looks from the onlookers, he walked straight into the stone house containing the teleportation formation.

The Heaven Star Palace cultivator inside had been replaced by a middle-aged man with a kindly face.

Seeing Han Li and Qu Hun enter, he smiled and asked, “Are you two Fellow Daoists looking to teleport?”

…

Han Li threw himself onto the large bed before him and fell into a deep, rumbling sleep.

He was back in his cave residence on the thirty-ninth layer of Heaven Star City. Utterly exhausted in both body and mind, he ignored everything else and slept soundly for several days before waking up refreshed and energetic.

This trip to the Outer Star Seas had truly worn him out.

After waking, Han Li took a stroll around his cave residence. He felt that, after not seeing it for a few years, everything inside gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

But when he reached the insect chamber, he found that the Gold Devourer Beetles had once again formed a massive silver ball, hanging upside down from the ceiling in hibernation.

At this sight, he couldn’t help but lightly shake his head.

Afterward, Han Li made a trip to the market district. He visited several stores and bought one copy of every alchemical formula available in the market.

Then he immediately returned to his residence and threw himself into the busy work of pill refining.

For two full years, Han Li worked within his cave residence, using the alchemical formulas he had gathered, along with his accelerated spirit herbs and those demon cores, to produce a great many pills of various types.

His former headache-inducing problem with medicinal resistance was finally no longer an issue.

During this time, he also slowly sold off all the various demon beast materials he had no use for, choosing small merchants who weren’t permanent residents of Heaven Star City. In doing so, he exchanged them for a large number of spirit stones.

For the time being, he no longer had to worry about money.

After finishing all of this, Han Li completely sealed his cave residence and began making preparations for the dissipation of his cultivation.

But while reorganizing the pills and leftover demon beast materials in his storage pouch, he accidentally stumbled upon something that gave him a bit of a headache.

These were the large quantities of several-century-old Rainbow Skirt Grass he had cultivated using the Heaven Vial’s Green Liquid to lure demon beasts back in the Chaotic Star Seas.

Selling these things wouldn’t fetch many spirit stones, and destroying them would be a bit of a waste, since they had been matured using no small amount of Green Liquid.

Besides, he had always been quite interested in why the Rainbow Skirt Grass, when it unfurled its leaves, had such a powerful attraction for demon beasts. He had long wanted to study it carefully.

Looking at the pile of Rainbow Skirt Grass before him, a strange notion inexplicably rose in Han Li’s mind. It grew stronger and stronger until he couldn’t suppress it anymore. This surprised him a little.

Tilting his head in thought, he suddenly gathered up the Rainbow Skirt Grass, took it to the insect chamber housing the Gold Devourer Beetles, and casually tossed a stalk of several-century-old Rainbow Skirt Grass inside.

But the hibernating Gold Devourer Beetles showed no reaction at all.

Seeing this, Han Li let out a few self-deprecating laughs.

But after hesitating for a moment, he still had Qu Hun move the Rainbow Skirt Grass to several large coral reefs inside the herb garden.

Soon after, Han Li entered the secret chamber and, following the cultivation-dissipation method provided by the Three Revolutions Heavy Origin Art, began the careful process of dispersing his cultivation.

For the sake of safety, Han Li’s dissipation process was extremely slow.

The entire process lasted half a month. He gradually lowered his cultivation level all the way down to the early Foundation Establishment stage before it was considered complete and satisfactory.

At this point, Han Li temporarily emerged from seclusion. He let himself stabilize his cultivation a bit after the dissipation, before then taking medicine and beginning to cultivate the Three Revolutions Heavy Origin Art.

During this period, on a whim, Han Li once again used Green Liquid to accelerate a stalk of Rainbow Skirt Grass. Just as it released its strange aura, he tossed it into the insect chamber.

Then he stood outside the chamber, peering through a slender hole in the wall, and stared intently for a while. He felt a little disappointed.

The silver ball formed by the Gold Devourer Beetles remained completely still, seemingly no different from before.

This outcome was both somewhat unexpected and not particularly strange.

After all, Rainbow Skirt Grass wasn’t attractive to all demon beasts.

And the Gold Devourer Beetles were ranked so highly that it was perfectly normal for them not to be affected by it.

Han Li sighed lightly. He was about to stop wasting time and Green Liquid on this grass and focus all his efforts on refining the Spirit Nourishing Pill to upgrade the two Bloodjade Spiders, which would be a far better investment.

Just as he was thinking this, the silver ball inside the insect chamber suddenly split open!

Several hundred Gold Devourer Beetles, their compound eyes flashing with red light, swarmed toward the Rainbow Skirt Grass that was emitting the strange aura. In an instant, they devoured it completely, leaving not a trace behind. Then they continued to buzz lowly, seeming somewhat agitated.

Seeing this, Han Li was momentarily stunned. But then a hint of joy appeared on his face.

It seemed this experiment could continue after all.

In a much better mood, Han Li left the insect chamber and instructed Qu Hun to toss another stalk of the same Rainbow Skirt Grass inside at regular intervals.

He wanted to see just what effect this grass had on demon beasts and satisfy his curiosity.

Not long after, Han Li carried all his pills into the secret chamber and began a life-and-death seclusion.

He had completely abstained from eating, and in order to focus wholeheartedly on cultivation, he decided that he would not take a single step out of the secret chamber until he had recovered his cultivation level.

As for everything in the cave residence, he didn’t need to worry about it too much since he could remotely control things through his incarnation, Qu Hun.

And so Han Li took out a bottle of pills from his storage pouch, swallowed one, and slowly closed his eyes, entering a state of self-forgetful cultivation.

From then on, Han Li would only contact Qu Hun outside the secret chamber once a day. All his other thoughts were devoted to circulating his qi and meditating.

As time went on, Han Li naturally became single-minded. Whenever he felt his internal qi was insufficient, he would casually take out a pill, swallow it, and then continue cultivating.

In this way, time passed extremely quickly.

The monotonous life of cultivation, cultivation, and more cultivation—day after day, year after year—passed by unnoticed under Han Li’s intense desire to form a core.

Ten years flashed by in an instant. The door to the secret chamber remained utterly still.

Twenty years passed. The door still remained tightly shut.

Thirty years…

Time flowed on, the sun and moon turned like shuttles.

On a certain day, sixty years later, dark clouds suddenly pressed down above Han Li’s cave residence. Silver lightning serpents danced wildly, and the weather abruptly underwent a massive change.

At the same time, strands of spiritual qi from over a hundred li in every direction wildly converged on the cave residence, forming a massive, visible vortex of spiritual energy.

Shocked by this, all the nearby cultivators—whether they were just passing through or living in the area—stopped in their tracks or came out of their residences, gazing toward the place where the anomaly was occurring with looks of astonishment on their faces.

“Forming a core! Someone is forming a core again!”

Many cultivators stared dumbly at the scene, murmuring to themselves. The expressions on their faces varied wildly, ranging from jealousy to bewilderment, but the most common were looks of intense envy.

At the same time, many of the Core Formation-stage and above cultivators in the city, though they couldn’t see the world-altering heavenly phenomenon directly, could still detect the anomaly in the spiritual qi of the entire Heaven Star City through their powerful divine senses.

They glanced toward the direction of Han Li’s cave residence with expressions that ranged from unmoved to faintly excited to furrowed-brow concern…