Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 159: Core Formation Perfection!

The liquid-like Dharma Power was at least twice as powerful as the mist-like state, able to move twice as fast through his meridians while half of its volume was required for the same actions compared to before. The kind of power this begot upon Li Ling was truly inspiring, and he felt that with this liquid Dharma Power, he could have operated his Grandmist Dharma Power to not just grind the eighth bolt of the One Nine Heavenly Tribulation, but even digests at least half of it. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

He only spent a brief moment feeling his power, because he still had a lot to do and the third realm was only one of the many stops he would cross. Immediately, 9000 Slaughter Points were paid and he ascended to the fifth level of Core Formation.

Now, there was something to be said about the specific changes in the structure of the core with each breakthrough from the early to mid to late stage of cultivation, and that is the fact that each realm had a specific name for the core that was formed.

In the early stage, where the core was transparent with mist-like Dharma Power, it was called the Void Core. Its nature had already been felt and experienced by Li Ling, who even used it to survive a heavenly tribulation, so there was no need to reiterate.

In the mid stage, when the core became translucent and had surging liquid Dharma Power, with visible bands around its sphere-like body, it was called the True Core. This was where Li Ling was and as he went from the 4th level to the 5th, his core swelled by twice the size, allowing the circular bands that formed around the core to become visible.

His liquid Dharma Power doubled in quantity, but there was no significant quality change, so the power increase was just in the form of higher sustainability. Shaking his head, Li Ling paid 10,000 Slaughter Points and advanced to the sixth level of Core Formation, with the same effects as the level that came before.

The True Core swelled to double the size as before, looking like a small tennis ball from the perspective of spiritual introspection. With raised eyebrows, Li Ling paid 11,000 Slaughter Points to advance to the seventh level and immediately, a significant change occurred once again.

The previously stable core began to expand and contract twice as fast as it had done during the fourth realm breakthrough, with more intensity and severity than before. Many times during this process, Li Ling felt the core expand to a point where he was certain that it would definitely explode, but it was just a perfect inch away each time, and the same happened with the compression, where he felt that it was about to be mushed into bits.

But this was just the perfect ratio of expansion and contract under the dao that his body could handle, and when it was done, he gave birth to a tiny golden core that spun furiously, full of energy and life. Even more so, this golden core had solid golden bands around its form, and the Dharma Power within had changed from liquid to solid, becoming like crystal shards piled within.

Just feeling the power, Li Ling could tell that this was a two times boost from the mid stage where he possessed a True Core. Now, he had stepped into the late stage of the ancient time, the stage of the Golden Core itself!

However, this was nothing special in the long run given the goals Li Ling harbored in his heart.

12,000 Slaughter Points gone and the young man advanced to the eighth level of Core Formation, where the core expanded by twice its size, and then 13,000 Slaughter Points to hit the penultimate, ninth sub-realm where the core doubled again, reaching its limit.

The golden core had reached pseudo-perfection, but was that truly the case? No, since the sages at Tian Shu Institute had managed to break the three ancient sub-realms into ten, there was still one to go, which was the previously unmentioned ’peak’ realm where one achieved true perfection of the overall major cultivation realm.

Li Ling paid 14,000 Slaughter Points and felt the tennis ball sized golden pill shift and compress, not expanding this time. This time, it just compressed and compressed until it reached the limit, then it seemed to solidify at the level, becoming as small as a... well, as a pill.

There was no big change per se, but the core was sturdier, the crystal Dharma Power was more robust and plentiful and everything had just increased in terms of efficiency rather than raw power.

Li Ling breathed out as his cultivation was completed, having spent 95,000 Slaughter Points in total to go from the peak of Foundation Establishment to the peak of Core Formation. Compared to the ’average’ Core Formation cost of 5500 Slaughter Points, it was clear that Li Ling had severely ’overpaid’, but the benefits were worth it.

More than that, he still had over 140,000 Slaughter Points left, so his eyes inevitably fell on the Blood Asura Descent which was also eligible for upgrade. As that was the technique necessary to advance his position within the sect, so immediately invested the 1000 Slaughter Point cost to raise it.

Immediately, his already perfected and rebuilt body of the Body Foundation Realm began to shift and quake, with a focus on his middle dantian, which was the human heart.

Now, one should understand that the third realm of Body Refinement was called the Golden Body Realm. However, the issue was that for body refiners of old, the perfection of Body Foundation was already the limit of what they could achieve by purely enhancing the body using spiritual energy.

So where to go from here?

Naturally, it was to find rare materials to infuse into the body to generate new effects and after centuries of testing, the body refiners of old found that the best method was to utilize a material called Heavenly Gold!

Heavenly Gold was a semi-rare resource, just slightly above the level of uncommon, found in mines within certain regions or from rare demon beasts with a strong metal affinity. Like the spiritual milk Li Ling found in the Boundless Joy Sect’s region, Heavenly Gold was one of those things that when discovered, a fight was bound to happen.

After all, a stable supply of it meant immense profits from sales as well as being able to provide it to their own forces in order to train third realm body refiners quickly.

A normal body refiner would need varying amounts of it. Some high level techniques required more and also to infuse it in more places while lower level ones needed less, just enough to mostly cover the body parts necessary.

For the Blood Asura Descent, as a supreme quality body technique across the entire Firmament Heaven which even led to immortality, it required a steep amount of a hundred jin, or fifty kilograms.

As Heavenly Gold was sold at 100 low grade spirit stones per catty in the Holy City, which was already the market price and one of the cheapest on the entire continent due to high availability and resource abundance, it meant that for an Asura Blood disciple to perfect the third realm, they had to spend 10,000 low grade spirit stones for their practice.

That was not much at all given how much a second realm person could earn in a short time, even if they were solely doing tasks rather than tradeskills, but once again, this was only due to being in a very high level place where a semi-rare resource like this was bumped down to ’common’ due to power differences.

But for Li Ling, it should be obvious that the payment was done by the Infinite Slaughter System, which used the finest Heavenly Gold in exchange, much higher quality than what artisans of this era could smelt for sale.

The first area to be dealt with was surprisingly the heart, which was shattered and reformed with Heavenly Gold mixed into its very steepest atoms, bonding with its fundamental structure to form a beating organ that had a light golden sheen.

Immediately happened, Li Ling felt his body shift and undergo the baptism of upgraded life power, his blood becoming more potent as his flesh also benefited from this. His lifespan was extended slightly while his strength also increased by leaps and bounds, breaking through the shackles that held it back before.

Most importantly though, his Blood Aura which had formed 120 meters at Perfection of Body Foundation was mixed with this new peak-quality Heavenly Gold from the system, forming the third realm Blood Power that all Path Ascenders and Path Controllers of the Asura Blood Hall possessed.

More than that, when Li Ling casually deployed his new Blood Power—which hadn’t increased in range—he noted that what had previously been a crimson mass with a deep hue free of impurities was now the same but with flecks of gold within, looking extremely precious and majestic.