Wu Long's consciousness sank into the part of his cultivation base consolidated within the Crystal Core, viewing it in its more basic form by magnifying the scale at which he saw it, which as a result revealed an enormous complex structure of pulsating intricately interconnected energy and mass.
Usually, from this point one would need to use Spiritual Sense to meticulously comb through it all, searching for the parts they wanted to interfere with, but doing it so often in his past life created a habit of memorizing the internal structure of his cultivation base down to the smallest details.
Each time Wu Long cultivated, he made a mind map of what he removed, added or altered, resulting in him knowing exactly where everything he wanted to extract was.
Thin strands of newly refined Yin Qi entered the Crystal Core and stretched toward an area of the structure, and the tips carefully connected to all of the connecting bridges of one individual block he wanted to exchange. There were several that also connected to various parts of the structure around, controlling the energy flow through the block.
He then started creating a similar block from the new refined Yin Qi right next to it.
As soon as the replacement was created, he connected it with those threads, and started forcefully altering the energetic flow to go not through the original , but through the replacement.
More threads of Spiritual Qi entered from outside the core and connected to all the connecting bridges, so it would not start dissipating the moment he separated it, and then one by one he cut off all the connections, extracting it while the replacement block slowly took its place.
He observed the new block for a moment. It would require a bit of time to complete integrate, but there were otherwise no problems.
There was no hesitation or pauses in his work, as he meticulously and rather monotonically made each move with surgical precision.
He then made a similar procedure on all the adjacent blocks to this one, but instead of creating a replacement, he simply made a bypass for the energy while he altered the internal structure of the blocks.
All of these had a function of isolating the block that he just replaced, which was now unnecessary, and instead of leaving it as wasted potential, he repurposed it, thus slightly raising the efficiency of this part of the Crystal Core.
It might be a small effect from this one replacement, but as he already carefully made a plan of what other changes he would make, it was designed to work in tandem, with the end result having an estimated 70% increase in the Crystal Core's efficiency.
'Incremental details can make a lot of difference if you pay attention', he mused to himself, repeating the words of someone he knew, as he confirmed the success of this part and moved on to the next block replacement area.
"Fuu~", Wu Long breathed out a long sigh as his concentration was at its current possible peak for the past few days.
Before him were empty jade boxes and porcelain bottles where pills used to be, and there were golden and silver needles all over his exposed torso.
He took a moment to examine his Dantian in its entirety.
He had finally finished extracting the various parts of his cultivation base, replacing them, and adding them to separate dedicated vortices.
Thus, his Crystal Core could be now said to be a pure amalgamation of his cultivation base, with no mixing of specialized techniques or powers.
The only thing he could not separate was the Dual Extremes Infinite Union Art, which imprint was in all of his cultivation without exception.
What he extracted was not enough to make separate Cores, but each vortex has definitely shown signs of distinct features.
What excited him was that not only his three Supreme Cultivation Methods were now likely to have additional benefits due to dedicated cores in the future, but they would also be isolated even more, reducing any risks.
Though as they did not currently have cores, he temporarily could not use the abilities that came with those cultivation methods, resulting in a temporary weakening of his overall strength.
He also extracted parts created from three separate Extreme Yin Qi, and their respective Pure Yin Qi, though it required significantly more effort from him, since they were not segregated from his usual cultivation base, and thus constituted parts of blocks, instead of just being neatly in separate blocks.
It was especially true for some of Luo Mingyu's and Shen Min's Yin Qi which he got relatively early in his cultivation, and thus were significantly deeper, more interconnected, and more fundamental to his cultivation base.
He also had to deconstruct them, so that they would become pure energy again without dissipating.
The effort, however, paid off, as there were signs that the three vortices he made with that resulting energy also would produce unique cores.
'Funny how recognizing the Grandmist Core's identity did not make it any easier to operate…', he then inwardly chuckled, as he initially thought that now that he recognized the Chaos techniques which became the basis for it, he would be able to control it as delicately as he could with the techniques.
But it still required some figuring out, since the fusion created an entirely new dynamic of how it operated. He wasn't worried though, since now he knew the direction in which to look, and so it was now a question of time.
'One done, two to go', he then thought with a light smile appearing on his face, as if he was not counting insanely complex and risky procedures, but some small tasks, even if his inner tone was excited.
He removed the needles in his torso, and cleaned up the empty boxes and pill bottles, exchanging them for a smaller set of pills for Core Reformation, and then closed his eyes for an hour to meditate and adjust his condition.
He then started the process of Core Reformation he once did with the Grandmist Core, which, apart from the Grandmist Keepsake, proceeded largely the same. Although the risk was now lower, it was still not small, as this Crystal Core was almost three times as powerful as the previous one.
A destructive ripple hit the barriers of the room which creaked under severe strain.
'Good thing I made a few more for insurance…', Wu Long thought.
His ninth Core transformation created an even more violent reaction than previously, shattering most of what protection he installed in this room.
The floor under him was now fine sand, and the interior of the room now looked weathered and severely worn out instead of the new and shining gloss it gave off before.
He did not stop cultivating here, however, as he started further saturating his Crystal Core.
After a few hours, the center of his Core began showing signs of distortion, as the condensed energy reached a kind of peak, that started bending the crystal structure without breaking it.
This continued, as the zone of this distortion grew, and after it reached the inner boundaries of the core, he injected an enormous amount of Spiritual Qi inside.
The distortion shook and seemingly started collapsing on itself.
And then a formless ripple, harmless and calm, spread from Wu Long, his opening eyes shining with profound light.
His Crystal Core resumed its crystalline appearance, but there was now a more complete feeling to it, as if it finally became one whole. And an image appeared within the crystal, as if it was reflecting something.
Wu Long felt that his reserves of Spiritual Qi massively expanded, making room for almost ten times what he had before. There was now a separate space resembling Niwan Palace, that could be accessed through the Crystal Core, but not located inside it, that could hold Spiritual Qi in liquid form. When he completely fills it, it will become his Spiritual Sea.
He could also feel pulsating waves of Spiritual Qi spreading from the Crystal Core through his body, a change taking place in every tiny bit of his flesh on a fundamental level.
"Haa~, Mortal Transcendence once again… at last…", a sigh of relief and excitement came from him as he felt the signs of entering the final of the Nine Mortal Realms.