Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 578 Golden Core Level 3
Five years later.

In the gourd world, Ji An sat cross-legged under the Gathering Yuan Tree. The vortex of spiritual energy above his head surged into his body with each breath, flowing rapidly through his immortal veins.

As the cultivation technique was activated, the spiritual energy rapidly liquefied.

The surface of the Five Elements Divine Palace is shimmering with light and veins, while the surface of the Kidney Water Palace is covered with ever-changing cloud patterns, resembling a satellite cloud map, changing every moment.

The veins of the Liver's Wood Palace are various vine patterns, with colors changing from emerald green to dark green, and then to withered yellow, like the color of dry grass in winter.

Then, verdant green blossoms emerge from the withered and dilapidated state, like the cycle of a spiritual plant's life.

The surface of the Heartfire Palace is covered with golden flame patterns in various styles, which are constantly leaping.

The main lines of the spleen's earth palace veins are several closed frames, like cracks exposed on parched earth after many years. Other areas are outlined with soft lines like sand dunes, carrying a sense of weight and vicissitude.

The vein patterns of the Lung (metal element) are unique, resembling the marks of a knife or axe, exuding a sharp and hard aura.

The liquefied spiritual energy circulates through the Five Elements Divine Palace before finally crystallizing.

In the lower dantian, the primordial fire burned fiercely, illuminating the area with a bright glow.

At the beginning of its breakthrough to the Golden Core stage, its color was a pale gold, but now it is a pure gold, with a warm and lustrous glow, freely radiating a rich life force.

The primordial fire is the manifestation of the body's essence and energy. It can be understood as the "life" in the dual cultivation of body and mind in the previous life, referring to the body, life, energy, and all other real things.

Bathed in golden light, even the three-colored flames of the Azure Lotus Burning Heart Flame paled in comparison, its aura clearly compressed.

The magical crystals fell like tiny snowflakes, and the stone tortoise opened and closed its mouth, swallowing half of them.

Its carapace gleamed, and its half-closed eyes revealed an expression of enjoyment.

The other half of the magic crystal fell into the primordial fire, and the golden flames grew even stronger.

Within the Tanzhong acupoint, the golden elixir floated, rotating clockwise. The crystallized magical power that gathered in was drawn in by an invisible force and quickly captured by the golden elixir.

Like a drop of water falling into a lake, it merges into the water in the blink of an eye.

As he cultivated for a long time, his realm became increasingly profound, and Ji An's reverence for cultivation grew ever stronger.

The lower dantian and the middle dantian are originally ethereal and intangible places.

They have practical uses, and cultivators can sense their existence, but they are invisible to the naked eye and can only be observed through internal spiritual perception.

These unseen places hold hidden wonders, capable of containing tangible things.

The stone tortoise and the three magical treasures are all located in the lower dantian. The golden core is also a tangible object, and cultivators can force it out of their bodies through cultivation techniques.

However, cultivators are very careful with their Golden Core treasures. Although they know that the Golden Core is hard and difficult to damage, they will not refine their inner cores to attack enemies like demonic beasts do.

Ji An became even more curious about his future cultivation. Breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage required opening up the Upper Dantian Mystic Aperture, and his Dao Body increasingly resembled a microcosm.

He gathered his scattered thoughts and became fully focused again.

Suddenly, the speed of the Five Elements Cycle circulated noticeably faster, and Ji An felt a booming sound in his eardrums.

The speed of the golden core's rotation also increased, and he instinctively opened his mouth to inhale, causing the vortex of spiritual energy gathering above his head to suddenly decrease by half.

At this moment, the golden elixir emitted endless light, like the midday sun, and its size noticeably expanded.

At the same time, a powerful spiritual pressure emanated from Ji An's body, like a bomb being dropped from the sky. Centered on his body, the shockwave kicked up dust more than three zhang high and spread outwards.

If someone were to look down from the air, they could see a distinct loess belt rapidly breaking outwards, much like a rapidly spreading watermark.

After inhaling, Ji An instinctively exhaled. At this moment, a powerful spiritual pressure gathered within his body, causing him to let out a long roar.

A majestic roar echoed throughout every corner of the small world, and spiritual pressure exceeding that of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator surged into the sky.

In an instant, the once quiet little world became noisy.

When he cultivates, all the beasts and magical artifacts know to remain silent.

The earthen qilin's deep roar, the wood azure dragon's soaring cry, and the fire phoenix's high-pitched neighing, while the roars of bears, the cries of eagles, and the calls of deer served as background noise.

The golden-haired creature leaped onto the treetop, and the blue shell emerged from the mud of the pond. The three magical artifacts and several tamed beasts could all sense that their master had become even more powerful.

A moment later, they all gathered in the center of the small world.

The whistling sound lingered and echoed, and Ji An released all the joy in his heart.

It took him nearly fifty years to break through to the second level of the Golden Core stage, but only twenty years to break through to the third level.

After his cultivation level improves, his speed of refining spiritual energy will increase again, and his body's self-purification ability will be stronger, allowing him to take pills at a higher frequency.

Once a cultivator completes the initial comprehension of the Five Elements power during the Chaoyuan stage, they can focus more efficiently on refining essence into qi to improve their cultivation level during the Jindan stage.

To break through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, one needs to accumulate more mana, but with faster cultivation efficiency and a sufficient supply of pills, the time he spends won't be much longer than the time he spends at the second level of the Golden Core realm.

Ji An took out several second-tier top-grade spiritual fruits from the Void Stone and fed them to the beasts, patting each of them on the forehead:

"Go away."

The reason we give them top-grade spiritual fruits is that it would be a waste for them to eat third-grade spiritual fruits at their current level.

The spiritual energy within the third-tier spiritual fruits was denser and more vibrant; even the Azure Deer couldn't be refined before it dissipated. The Golden Fur's muscles bulged, no longer possessing the cuteness of its childhood; instead, its face was fierce.

Ji An often thought that this was the price of growing up.

Although its appearance has faded considerably, the golden retriever has become increasingly formidable. Even demonic beasts that have broken through to the Chaoyuan stage are no match for this spirit-seeking rat.

The beasts gently touched their master with their heads and then dispersed.

The magic weapon then transformed into its original form, flying back to Ji An's body like a swallow returning to its nest, and entering the embrace of the life-giving fire in his lower dantian.

He feels much more relaxed now than before, and tending to the three items is no longer a burden for him; he can handle it completely.

Having made progress in his cultivation, Ji An naturally wanted to reward himself. He flew to the edge of the pond on a cloud and instructed the Azure Water Turtle, who had also just arrived:
"Catch a late-stage Foundation Establishment level Treasure Dragonfish, and then catch a Red Grouper."

The Azure Water Turtle is currently only at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment stage, making it difficult to catch more powerful spirit fish. In addition, there are not many rare treasure dragon fish at the Chaoyuan stage.

Blue Shell let out a low growl and entered the water. Its clumsy body seemed to become agile, and its limbs gracefully stirred the water. Its carapace, which looked like it was made of crystal-clear ice, rippled with dreamlike colors.

Soon, it surfaced, carrying a precious dragonfish in its mouth.

With a sudden jerk of its head, the spirit fish was flung toward the shore.

Ji An used his object manipulation technique to grab the spirit fish and bring it to his side, then unleashed a mental roar.

Unable to bear seeing the spirit fish suffer any more pain, he unleashed an attack with the powerful soul force comparable to that of a mid-to-late stage Golden Core cultivator, instantly shattering the spirit fish's consciousness and turning it into an idiot.

Cleaning and scaling the fish, he was like a highly skilled fishmonger, finishing the spirit fish in just a few breaths.

Cut off the fish head to make soup, steam the fish body, and marinate and air-dry the fish tail for later stewing.

Before he could wait long, Lanbei caught another red grouper that was over three feet long.

This fish is best grilled with white honey; it tastes the best that way.

Skillfully removing the entrails and scaling, the fish is split in half and marinated with seasonings.

After arranging the fish, Ji An cooked some broad beans and began searching for vegetables to accompany his drinks in the spiritual field.

This time, we drank a third-grade low-level Spirit Peach Wine, which tasted like fire and had a spiritual energy like a tide.

The following day, Ji An rode a cloud to the Immortal City and entered the Certification Association.

"Fellow Daoist Qingfeng, these are the purification talismans you have drawn. Please count the number."

In recent years, due to the scarcity of materials, he has not been able to receive many tasks, whether it is refining pills or drawing talismans.

Although he was exceptionally capable, the association also needed to take care of other cultivators and could not assign him all the tasks.

No matter how strong he is, he is still just one person and cannot complete all the tasks.

Master Qingfeng laughed heartily a few times and said:
"Fellow Daoist's efficiency has never disappointed. As I expected, you are still the first cultivator to submit your task."

"Sit down and let's talk. I'll take stock of the quality and quantity of the talismans."

After a moment, he nodded in satisfaction and said:

"There are a total of 850 purification talismans, of which 450 are of superior quality and 400 are of medium quality."

Fellow Daoist received 1,000 sets of talisman materials. The success rate requirement is 40%, resulting in 450 extra high-grade talismans.

According to the agreement, the purchase price for each high-grade talisman is 320 spirit stones, and a payment of 144,000 spirit stones is required, which is equivalent to 10 high-grade spirit stones and 8 mid-grade spirit stones.

In addition, you will receive 5,000 contribution points.

Because of the increasing consumption, the purchase price of a superior-grade purification talisman has increased by twenty spirit stones compared to a few years ago.

Ji An took out the authentication jade token and said with a smile:

"Quickly transfer my contribution points; I need to exchange them for the Gengjin Divine Thunder Talisman!"

With these five thousand, his contribution points on his jade tablet are finally about to break the 100,000 mark, much later than he expected.

He originally thought he could accumulate so many contribution points in one or two years, but he did not expect that there would be a shortage of talisman-making materials, which greatly slowed down his speed of acquiring contribution points.

"Haha, I know you've been waiting for this day for a long time."

Master Qingfeng took the jade tablet and placed it on the spirit plate to operate. "Currently, it is 103,200 contribution points. Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment while I go and fetch the jade slip of the Gengjin Divine Thunder Talisman."

He put away the talisman, took out a sufficient number of spirit stones and placed them on the table, then quickly left.

A moment later, he returned to his room and handed over the pale gold jade slip:

"This is the method for drawing talismans. Please take a look, fellow Daoist."

Ji An took the jade slip and eagerly placed it on his forehead, extending his divine sense to read the information within.

The drawing of the third-order thunder talisman was much more complicated than he had expected, with a large number of drawing details and techniques recorded in the inheritance.

Thunder talismans are extremely powerful, which places higher demands on the materials used in their creation. It is almost impossible to draw a top-grade talisman using talisman paper and cinnabar.

(End of this chapter)