Chapter 67 Condensing the Golden Core?

Because of Senior Brother Zhang Huai, Jiang Shuanger disliked the combative Wang Er very much.

The moment Jiang Shuanger saw Wang Er, she inwardly exclaimed that she hadn't checked the almanac before going out.

Feeling depressed, she turned her head away, only to unexpectedly see Yun Bai behind her.

"Oh? Yun Bai?" Jiang Shuanger said in surprise, "Why are you here too?"

Jiang Shuanger looked Yun Bai up and down and discovered that he was completely different from when she first met him a month ago.

The Yun Bai she saw a month ago was in rags, and his aura was somewhat weak; the Yun Bai she saw now was full of spirit, with a dense, sharp, and murderous aura on his body.

"Are you... just like him, about to have a Breakthrough?" Jiang Shuanger's eyes flashed with spiritual light as she pointed at Wang Er and said to Yun Bai.

"Miss Jiang has a sharp eye," Yun Bai smiled and said.

Jiang Shuanger could still tell his cultivation level so quickly; it was like that the first time they met, and it was still like that this time.

Yun Bai could see others' cultivation levels because he had the help of "Xiao Liu," but he didn't know what Jiang Shuanger relied on to know.

Soon, Jiang Shuanger voluntarily answered his confusion.

"Hehe, my father once taught me a little Qi-watching technique," Jiang Shuanger said.

"So that's how it is," Yun Bai realized.

"Hmph." Wang Er saw the suddenly arrived Yun Bai and nodded at him.

Although Wang Er did not find Yun Bai very pleasing to the eye, he had lost that day, and a loss was a loss.

After nodding to acknowledge him, Wang Er entered the Spirit Pool without looking back, randomly found a quiet room, went inside, closed the door tightly, and quickly activated the isolation Formation.

Yun Bai watched Wang Er's retreating back, feeling somewhat speechless.

Having experienced two lifetimes, he knew well the great mission upon him and had long passed the age of being hot-blooded.

He was somewhat speechless at Wang Er's mentality of constantly seeking to compete and fight.

"Miss Jiang, are you also here for a Breakthrough?" Yun Bai saw through the information provided by Xiao Liu that Jiang Shuanger's cultivation was also at the Middle Stage of the First Realm.

"My cultivation is not as impressive as yours!" Jiang Shuanger's almond eyes curved, and she pointed to the Storage Pouch embroidered with flowers and plants at her waist, saying, "I am here for Alchemy.

The Spiritual Qi here is dense and pure, which is greatly beneficial for stabilizing the furnace fire and improving the quality of the Medicinal Pill."

"Is that so."

It seemed the wonderful use of the Spirit Pool was not just to assist in Cultivation, but also to assist in Alchemy, Formation, and other Nine Arts of the Immortals.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Yun Bai and Jiang Shuanger each entered a quiet room.

Yun Bai chose an empty one, closed the stone door, and cut off outside interference.

As soon as he stepped in, majestic Spiritual Qi surged toward him like rough waves!

He sat cross-legged and circulated the "Gouchen Technique".

His eyes lit up!

This time, the Spiritual Qi was no longer a trickle but surged into his body like a rushing river!

His Dantian was filled as never before, and the pure Spiritual Qi was continuously compressed and condensed.

A round, pale golden glowing prototype of a "Golden Core" was slowly taking shape in the center of his Qi Sea!

"Now is the time!" Yun Bai highly concentrated his focus, guiding all the Spiritual Qi in his body to pour into that Golden Core prototype to perform the final solidification and condensation.

He was intimately familiar with the route of the Spiritual Qi circulation.

Starting from the Yongquan point on the soles of his feet, it traveled up the Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian; passed through the Huiyin point, entered the Ren Meridian, and refined the Spiritual Qi in the Dantian; then it moved up and down along the Du Meridian to the Upper Dantian, the Sea of Consciousness.

The Source Core Black Hole within the Sea of Consciousness rotated steadily, performing secondary purification, and finally spat out incomparably pure Spiritual Qi from the White Hole.

This Spiritual Qi was the key to finally condensing the Golden Core.

Yun Bai watched as the Golden Core became tangible bit by bit, the pitted holes on the surface of the Golden Core prototype being filled little by little with pure Spiritual Qi.

The smooth surface of the Golden Core emitted a dazzling light.

It was about to succeed!

However, just at this critical moment when the Golden Core was about to be completely stabilized and formed!

Deep within the Sea of Consciousness, that steadily rotating Source Core Black Hole began to spin violently without warning!

A terrifying, irresistible suction force suddenly erupted!

Hum!

Yun Bai felt his body suddenly empty out!

The Golden Core prototype about to form in his Dantian instantly became illusory and dim!

The majestic Spiritual Qi that had just been condensed, like a breached flood, uncontrollably flowed backward along the Du Meridian, surging madly into the Niwan Palace, and was mercilessly devoured by that rotating Black Hole!

The Spiritual Qi had reversed?

The suddenly retrograde Spiritual Qi viciously impacted Yun Bai's Meridians in reverse.

Yun Bai was caught completely off guard, and his Meridians were torn by the out-of-control Spiritual Qi, causing a burning pain.

"The Cultivation Technique is running in reverse, the Spiritual Qi is turning back; this will lead to Qi Deviation!" Yun Bai was greatly alarmed, "Could it be that a Heavenly Demon has entered my body again during this Breakthrough?"

He hurriedly began to chant the mantra — the Heart-Clearing Mantra.

Since he began practicing the "Gouchen Technique", he had rarely circulated the Heart-Clearing Mantra.

The main effect of the Heart-Clearing Mantra was to stabilize the will, resist the invasion of Devilish Qi on the mind, and simultaneously defend the Sea of Consciousness, repelling Heavenly Demons from entering it.

However, the Heavenly Demon did not arrive as expected.

In the few panicked breaths of Yun Bai, he discovered that more than half of the Spiritual Qi he had worked so hard to condense in his Dantian had been sucked away.

The Golden Core prototype completely collapsed, turning into specks of spiritual light and dissipating.

Yun Bai's aura, like a punctured balloon, rapidly withered and eventually fell back to... the Middle Stage of the First Realm!

This was not the Perfection of the Middle Stage of the First Realm, but the state he was in just after breaking through to the Middle Stage of the First Realm.

The specific manifestation was that the Golden Core prototype in his Dantian had regressed to the appearance of the earliest gas mass!

"Pfft!" The shock caused by the backlash of Spiritual Qi made Yun Bai's throat taste sweet, and he spat out a small mouthful of blood, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

"Xiao Liu! What is going on?!" Yun Bai asked in the Sea of Consciousness, filled with shock and anger.

[Detected abnormal activity in the source core.]

[Analysis: The pure Spiritual Qi flow generated at the moment of Breakthrough triggered the source core's autonomous devouring mechanism.]

[Total Spiritual Qi devoured: Approximately equal to 100 standard units of Spiritual Qi.]

[Conclusion: The Breakthrough process was interrupted because the energy was intercepted.]

"Weakening? Loss?" Yun Bai hurriedly looked inside his Sea of Consciousness.

The Source Core Black Hole was still rotating slowly, and the Source Sea seemed a bit brighter than before; looking at it as a whole, there was nothing abnormal.

But... the Golden Core he had worked so hard to condense was gone! His cultivation had regressed!?

"Energy should be conserved! Spiritual Qi cannot disappear into thin air!

The Spiritual Qi in my body, after being sucked away by the Black Hole in the Sea of Consciousness, can only be spat out from the White Hole.

But this time, the White Hole did not spit out Spiritual Qi, nor did any Spiritual Qi return to the Dantian.

Could it be... there is a loophole? Did the Spiritual Qi leak during the conversion or transmission process?"

Yun Bai was extremely puzzled, his heart filled with unwillingness and anxiety.

He was unwilling to give up, suppressed his churning blood, and circulated the Cultivation Technique again, attempting to re-condense Spiritual Qi to impact the Late Stage.

Once, twice, three times...

Every time, at the critical moment when the Golden Core was about to form, the Sea of Consciousness Black Hole arrived as expected, greedily devouring most of the pure Spiritual Qi!

Every attempt was accompanied by a failure and the disappearance of a large amount of Spiritual Qi after being devoured by the Black Hole.

Yun Bai was like an ant trapped in a Möbius strip.

When he finally realized that it was impossible and prepared to give up, he was shocked to find that he had been sitting in the quiet room for a whole night!

"Yun Bai, Quiet Room Bing-07, Spiritual Qi consumed... 735 units."

Yun Bai looked at a light screen in the quiet room, and the light screen coldly reported the numbers, "Exceeded the free quota by 635 units, totaling 50,800 Low-Grade Spirit Stones."

Over 50,000 Spirit Stones!

Yun Bai looked at the glaring numbers on the bill, only feeling his vision go dark, his heart dripping blood.

He clearly hadn't gained anything!

His cultivation hadn't risen but instead regressed, and he had thrown away over 50,000 Spirit Stones for nothing!

This was simply a disaster for no reason!