Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

With the foundation fully established, true essence becomes like mercury, and the spiritual platform becomes clear and pure.

However, the invisible barrier leading to the Golden Core Path remained an insurmountable chasm. He Damin sat in meditation in the Valley of Despair for seven days, contemplating and deducing, and realized that mere hard work and comprehension were insufficient to break through this barrier. Condensing the Golden Core was an act of seizing the creation of heaven and earth, requiring one's own perfect foundation to trigger the trials of the laws of heaven and earth, to be tempered and sublimated in tribulations, so that liquid true essence, pure soul, and a trace of understanding of the "Dao" could be completely fused into an immortal Golden Core.

This calamity is unavoidable and requires no avoidance.

He needed a sufficiently open, secluded place, far from human habitation, and capable of withstanding the power of the heavenly tribulation. Although the Valley of Despair was secluded, it was surrounded by sheer cliffs, with limited space. If the heavenly tribulation were to arrive, it might damage his foundation and easily stir up the earth's energy, causing unpredictable chain reactions.

On this day, as dawn broke, He Damin tidied up everything in the valley, applied spiritual water containing a trace of true essence to the medicinal fields, and closed the door of the treehouse. He changed into a clean gray cloth robe, stored all the necessary items into his Taiji space, leaving only the Soul Refining Banner hidden in his spiritual sea, merging with his own aura.

He took one last look around the peaceful place where he had lived for nearly three months, his eyes calm and undisturbed. Then, his figure moved, like a roc soaring into the sky, following the path he had long since mastered. With the help of ropes and his light-footed skills, he climbed to the top of the cliff in a few leaps and disappeared into the vast forest above.

He ventured deeper and into the more desolate heart of the Yanshan Mountains. His spiritual senses were fully activated, like invisible tentacles sweeping across the mountains, valleys, and streams he passed. He avoided any trace of possible inhabitants or hunters, choosing instead places with exposed rocks, sparse vegetation, and desolate landscapes.

After two days of arduous travel, venturing nearly three hundred li into the main ridge of the Yanshan Mountains, a vast, desolate stone plain suddenly appeared before them, seemingly cleaved by an ancient god with a giant axe. In the center of this plain stood a solitary, hundred-zhang-high, grey-black stone mountain. Composed entirely of incredibly hard granite, the mountain was barren, except for a few traces of moss in the shady areas. Its steep slopes and jagged rocks appeared particularly cold and austere under the leaden sky, like a colossal tombstone abandoned beyond the reach of time.

"This is it." He Damin stopped at the edge of the stone plain, his spiritual sense sweeping across the entire stone mountain and the surrounding dozens of miles. Apart from the howling wind whistling through the cracks in the rocks, there was no other sign of life. This place was desolate and lifeless, with stagnant earth energy, making it the perfect place to withstand the heavenly tribulation and avoid harming the innocent.

Without further hesitation, he gathered his strength and leaped, reaching the summit of the rocky mountain in a few bounds. The summit was a relatively flat, massive rock platform, roughly ten zhang in diameter, its surface riddled with erosion marks from wind and rain. He walked to the center of the platform, sat cross-legged, and sat beneath the cold, hard rock.

Adjusting his breathing, he brought himself to his optimal state. Within his dantian, the lake of spiritual liquid formed from liquid true essence rippled gently, radiating a soft and restrained brilliance. In his spiritual sea, his soul body appeared solemn and dignified, its soul power pure and flawless. The Soul Refining Banner floated silently, its crimson light contained within, as if it too was waiting for something.

"Let's begin."

He silently recited the mantra, no longer suppressing his perfect Foundation Establishment aura.

boom--!

As if a forbidden gate had been opened, an aura of perfection, vastness, yet carrying a hint of defying the heavens and unyielding will erupted from him, soaring into the sky!

The once leaden gray, calm sky suddenly underwent a dramatic change!

Thick, dark clouds, seemingly appearing from nowhere, surged forth as if stirred by an invisible giant hand, frantically converging towards the sky above the stone mountain! In an instant, the sky within a radius of several miles was shrouded in thick, churning, inky-black storm clouds, the sky suddenly darkening to the depths of night. Within the clouds, instead of ordinary flashes of lightning, a chilling, dark purple electric snake writhed and intertwined wildly, emitting a low, oppressive rumbling sound, as if an ancient thunder beast had awakened and roared within the clouds.

A vast, majestic, and indifferent, terrifying pressure, seemingly representing the will of heaven and earth, descended from the sky, locking onto the tiny figure atop the stone mountain! The air became thick and heavy, the wind stopped, and even sound seemed to be stripped away, leaving only the increasingly loud and rapid thunder in the tribulation clouds!

He Damin looked up at the sky, his face calm. He knew that the heavenly tribulation had arrived.

"Snap—!!!"

The first bolt of tribulation lightning struck without warning! It was not ordinary silver-white lightning, but a terrifying pillar of lightning as thick as a bucket, dark purple in color, with strands of destructive black electric current wrapped around its edges! It tore through the thick clouds, with a deafening roar and an aura of incineration, and struck straight at the top of He Damin's head!

He Damin neither dodged nor avoided, nor even stood up. He simply pushed the Tai Chi Harmony Exercise to its limit, and the liquid true essence within his body surged to the top of his head like boiling magma, forming a solid and thick Tai Chi true essence energy shield around his body, with black and white energy flowing continuously!

"BOOM!!!"

The dark purple lightning bolt slammed into the Tai Chi energy shield! The blinding lightning collided and annihilated violently with the black and white energy! He Damin's body trembled violently, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly appeared on the rock platform beneath him! The destructive lightning force penetrated the energy shield, surging wildly into his body, ravaging his meridians and scorching his flesh!

"Hmph!" He groaned, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. But his eyes remained resolute as he frantically circulated his cultivation technique, guiding the raging tribulation lightning power along a specific path to cleanse and temper his body! Each cleansing brought excruciating pain, but it also made his meridians more resilient, forcing out and burning away impurities from his true essence, making it purer and more refined!

We withstood the first lightning strike!

The calamity clouds seemed to be enraged, and they churned even more violently.

Then came the second, the third, the fourth… each bolt of tribulation lightning thicker and faster than the last, its color gradually shifting from dark purple to deep purple, eventually even taking on a hint of destructive dark gold! The power of the tribulation lightning increased exponentially!

He Damin's Taiji Qi shield shattered during the fifth tribulation lightning strike! He had no choice but to stand up and withstand the attack with his physical body, while using the soul power emitted by the Soul Refining Banner to protect his soul and prevent his intelligence from being shattered by the will of heaven and earth contained in the heavenly lightning.

Sometimes he would use the explosive force of Bajiquan to directly confront the lightning, causing the lightning snakes to explode; sometimes he would use the swift movements of the Twelve Tan Tui to dodge between lightning tribulations; and sometimes he would have to sit down cross-legged and fully utilize the secret methods in the Taoist Primordial Elixir to guide the tribulation lightning to temper his dantian, qi sea, and internal organs.

When the seventh tribulation lightning struck, his entire body was charred black, his clothes turned to ashes, his skin cracked and bleeding profusely, and in many places even his charred bones were exposed! However, under the repeated tempering of the tribulation lightning, the liquid true essence in his body not only did not decrease, but became more solid and heavy, and began to be compressed frantically into the deepest part of his dantian!

The eighth and ninth bolts of tribulation lightning, carrying a dark golden light of destruction, nearly engulfed him completely. Blood flowed from his seven orifices, his soul swayed, and his consciousness began to blur. The Soul Refining Banner wailed in his spiritual sea, and even its surface developed fine cracks. At the critical moment, he bit his tongue hard, maintaining his last shred of clarity under the intense pain. He frantically mobilized the pure soul power stored in his spiritual sea to repair himself, while simultaneously absorbing the medicinal power of several centuries-old ginseng roots stored in his Taiji space to replenish his nearly depleted life force.

The tenth tribulation lightning! It was like a pillar of heaven collapsing, the dark gold now tinged with a chaotic gray! This strike was enough to level a small hill!

A resolute glint flashed in He Damin's eyes. He stopped defending and instead took the initiative to meet the attack! He compressed his entire body's liquid true essence to the extreme, along with his pure soul power and indomitable will, and concentrated it all at a single point in his dantian!

"Freeze—!!!"

"boom--!!!"

The lightning completely engulfed him! Large sections of the stone mountain platform crumbled, and smoke and dust mixed with lightning shot into the sky!

Ten breaths passed before the lightning slowly dissipated.

On the spot, a charred crater several meters in diameter and several meters deep appeared. At the bottom of the crater, He Damin was barely recognizable as a human, like a piece of charcoal, his breath extremely faint.

However, deep within the dantian of this charred body, a faint yet incredibly resilient, dazzling golden light, as bright as the rising sun and eternally unmoving, quietly emerged!

The nascent form of the Golden Core has been formed!

The tribulation clouds seemed to sense the imminent birth of that heaven-defying entity, and let out their final, most ferocious roar!

The eleventh and twelfth tribulation lightning bolts merged into one, transforming into an ultimate lightning spear, only as thick as an arm, yet condensed to the extreme, its entire body displaying a chaotic and ethereal color, seemingly capable of piercing through time and space. Silent and yet faster than thought, it pierced straight down towards the golden light at the bottom of the pit! This was the final and most deadly combination of the inner demon lightning tribulation and the annihilation lightning tribulation, testing the Dao heart and extinguishing life force!

He Damin's blackened eyelids were too weak to open, but his spiritual sense "saw" the deadly lightning spear. On the verge of life and death, all his fear, obsession, memories, and even his pursuit of the "Dao" transformed into the purest thought—to hold onto that glimmer of golden light!

Within his spiritual sea, the tattered surface of the Soul Refining Banner suddenly unfurled, firmly protecting his remaining consciousness. The Taiji Space trembled slightly.

"Buzz—!"

Just as the Chaos Thunder Spear was about to touch the golden light, the newly formed, rice-grain-sized, dazzling golden core within He Damin's dantian suddenly unleashed an immense suction force! It wasn't absorbing external force, but rather collapsing and devouring inward!

The Taiji space, which was suspended above the spiritual sea and closely connected to his soul, suddenly trembled violently. The Yin and Yang energies spun wildly, and the entire structure of the space seemed to be summoned and resonated by the golden core. It turned into an invisible stream of light and instantly disappeared into that small golden core!

"boom--!"

It wasn't an explosion, but a strange, earth-shattering hum that resonated within He Damin's body and deep within his soul!

The Chaos Thunder Spear pierced the Golden Core, but it was like a mud ox entering the sea, completely absorbed and transformed by the Golden Core, which suddenly expanded and seemed to be undergoing earth-shattering changes inside!

The surface of the golden elixir was no longer simply golden; instead, a crystal-clear Tai Chi pattern emerged, slowly rotating. At the center of the pattern, there was a barely perceptible "point" that seemed to contain infinite possibilities.

The Taiji Space has actually completely merged with the Golden Core!

No, it's not just fusion. Rather, with the Golden Core at its core, the rules of the Tai Chi space were completely activated, reconstructed, and sublimated, forming a nascent, unique inner world belonging solely to He Damin!

At the same time, the original Yin-Yang portion of the Taiji Space, that hazy, lifeless, and cold abode of souls, underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of the newly born "small world" laws. It was no longer merely a space storing souls and Yin energy, but began to evolve vague, illusory rules—the rudimentary form of the **Six Paths of Reincarnation**!

The six realms of existence—Heaven, Human, Asura, Animal, Hungry Ghost, and Hell—representing different destinies and karmic consequences for souls, are like seeds, gathering and swirling in the void of the Yin-Yang region. Though merely the most primitive and crude prototypes, far from perfect, they have already begun to operate spontaneously, generating a profound and unfathomable power—the power of reincarnation—capable of drawing, refining, and transforming the essence of the soul!

This newly generated power of reincarnation was extremely weak, yet it carried the aura of supreme law, flowing like a clear spring through He Damin's nearly collapsing body and soul.

A miracle happened.

His charred body, nourished by the pure life force of reincarnation and the newly formed small world, began to visibly rejuvenate! The scabs peeled away, revealing new skin as white as jade, radiating a faint, precious glow. Broken bones reformed, becoming even stronger and more robust. His dried-up meridians were widened and reshaped, like newly opened river channels, flowing with a more condensed liquid true essence, carrying a faint purplish-gold luster—this was the Golden Core True Essence, fused with the power of the small world's origin!

Under the baptism of the power of reincarnation, the broken parts of his soul were repaired, and the malevolent energy and calamity fire he had been tainted by were purified, making him more complete, transparent, and powerful. His soul core was completely connected to the "world origin point" at the core of his golden core, becoming the nominal "ruler" consciousness of this small world.

In the sky, the heavy tribulation clouds, having exhausted their last strength and unleashed their ultimate attack, seemed to have completed their mission and began to slowly dissipate. The oppressive pressure receded like a tide, and a sliver of sunlight pierced through the gaps in the clouds, scattering across the ravaged stone mountain peak.

At the bottom of the giant pit, He Damin slowly opened his eyes.

Gone was the previous cold sharpness in his eyes; in its place was a profound tranquility, like the starry sky, seemingly capable of encompassing the birth and death of all things. Deep within his pupils, a faint yin-yang symbol spun, endlessly evolving and transforming.

He stood naked amidst the scorched earth, his posture upright, his skin radiant, his black hair cascading down like a waterfall. His body was spotless, exuding an aura of harmony, completeness, and boundless vitality. All his previous injuries had healed, and he was even stronger than before.

With a slight thought, a golden pill the size of a longan, perfectly round, pale purple-gold in color, with clear flowing Tai Chi patterns on its surface and seemingly containing swirling clouds and flowing stars inside, slowly emerged from between his brows, hovering quietly, radiating a powerful yet refined aura and spirituality as vast as the sea.

Golden Core Realm achieved!

Not only did the Golden Core condense, but due to the changes and accumulation during the tribulation, it merged with the Taiji Space, opened up the prototype of the small world within the body, and transformed the Yin into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, giving birth to the power of reincarnation.

From then on, the dantian and dantian transformed into the core of the golden elixir, the spiritual sea and soul power connected with the origin of the small world, the physical body achieved the immaculate golden elixir body, lifespan greatly increased, and supernatural powers began to manifest.

He reached out, and the purple-gold elixir gently fell into his palm, warm and round, as if it were the crystallization of his life and his path to enlightenment. With another thought, the elixir sank into the center of his brow, sinking deep into the center of the newly born, vast, and vibrant "small world" in his dantian, becoming the "sun" and energy source of this nascent world.

He Damin looked up at the clear blue sky that had been revealed after the clouds of calamity dispersed, and then looked around at the shattered stone mountain platform.

He knew that from this moment on, his path, his destiny, and even the world he could influence would all be shaped by this golden elixir that combined the small world and the nascent form of reincarnation, and would take a completely different and more magnificent turn.