Fang Chen played with the Three Solar Fruit for a while before tossing it back into his storage ring. This item was very precious. At the right time, it served as hard currency to a Dao Union Realm cultivator and was even more enticing than mid-grade spirit stones. Didn’t Chu Lan mention that artifact masters had difficult temperaments? With the Three Solar Fruit, even the most difficult artifact master would be tempted.
"Now, let’s see if I can successfully condense my Golden Core within the next ten years."
Not long after Fang Chen consumed five hundred mid-grade spirit stones, he found himself back in the Realm of Three Thousand Dao. While performing the Eight Desolation Supreme Sword Scripture along with other techniques, he passed the spiritual treasures from the Surpassing Dragon Battle General and Qin Nie to Little Sword to devour and absorb.
To Fang Chen, exhausting his spiritual energy was equivalent to cultivation. In fact, it was much faster than cultivation. Not only would it increase his proficiency in techniques, but it would also boost his cultivation level, which effectively saved him time compared to others.
It took Little Sword a month to absorb the low-grade, profound-rank spiritual and the high-grade, yellow-rank spiritual treasures. With Little Sword assisting in performing the Eight Desolation Supreme Sword Scripture, Fang Chen had to expend more spiritual energy, but his cultivation speed also accelerated.
A year passed in the blink of an eye. With his spiritual energy repeatedly depleting, recovering, and enhancing, Fang Chen’s spiritual energy approached its limits.
He roughly estimated that one year of cultivation in this manner might be equivalent to several decades or even a century of cultivation for others.
Before long, Fang Chen noticed that his spiritual energy had stopped enhancing. It was then he realized that he had reached the peak of the grand completion of the Foundation Building Realm and was on the verge of forming his Golden Core.
Unlike the Foundation Building Realm, forming the Golden Core didn’t require consuming any elixirs or pills. As long as the practiced cultivation method allowed for a breakthrough into the Golden Core Realm, then that was it.
Indeed, the Three Thousand Dao Art was a top cultivation technique, with every root foundation step far exceeding that of ordinary cultivators. With such a technique as the root foundation, if one's cultivation advanced to higher realms, it would be difficult to find equals among peers.
"My talent...at the very least should allow me to achieve above sixth revolutions. Perhaps there is a chance to break through to nine revolutions…" Fang Chen murmured to himself as he began his first attempt to form his Golden Core.
He closed his eyes and started to mobilize the abundant spiritual energy in his meridians, guiding it through a profound path within his body.
For a cultivator, forming the Golden Core was a process of spiritual energy compression, aiming for a qualitative transformation through a quantitative one. The Golden Core formation technique was one method of spiritual energy compression and these methods varied widely. Some would be simpler while others would be more difficult. The simpler the method, the lower the quality of the Golden Core.
Given the choice to choose between the simpler and difficult methods, no one would opt for the simpler one. After all, this decision would be crucial to how far a cultivator could walk on the path of cultivation.
The method inscribed in Three Thousand Dao Art was indeed among the most difficult. Fang Chen had to meticulously control his spiritual energy through an extremely complex path. As the energy traveled, it began to compress. When it finally converged in his Sea Core, a Golden Core formed.
This process required stabilization for three months and he could not afford any external interference or even the slightest distraction during this period. Otherwise, the Golden Core would disintegrate and he would have to redo it again.
Even if forming the Golden Core was successful, a small flaw in the process could result in a third revolution and below Golden Core.
In his first attempt, Fang Chen took five months just to complete the first step and form the Golden Core in his Sea Core. However, during the stabilization phase, the spiritual energy became extremely volatile, like a rebellious child constantly throwing tantrums.
The process was mentally exhausting and even Fang Chen found it difficult to manage. A momentary lapse in concentration led to the disintegration of the Golden Core, washing the six months of effort down the drain.
With his superior divine soul and extraordinary Radiant Divine Eyes, his control over spiritual energy surpassed that of others in his realm by a significant margin. Despite these advantages, he still failed on his first attempt. It would be better to use simpler methods for other Golden Cores. For a ninth revolution Golden Core of the Three Thousand Dao Sect, it might take one or two hundred years. Or perhaps they might never succeed at all. �
After reviewing his mistakes, Fang Chen steeled his resolve and began his second attempt at forming the Golden Core.
In his second attempt, Fang Chen once again spent five months progressing to the second step of forming the Golden Core. Having learned from his previous failure where he only managed to stabilize the Golden Core for ten days, this time he managed to hold out for one month before failing again. By this point in time, two years had passed since he entered the Realm of Three Thousand Dao.
Eight years left... It should be enough….
Fang Chen closed his eyes and began his third attempt.
The third attempt failed. So did the fourth, fifth, and countless more after that.
Fang Chen could not remember the number of times he failed but now he only needed three months to reach the first step and in his second step, he could stabilize the Golden Core until only seven days remained before the required three months were completed. However, the remaining seven days seemed like an insurmountable barrier.
Each time he reached that point, the Golden Core would become extremely unstable before disintegrating.
"What exactly am I doing wrong?" Fang Chen pondered, deep in thought.
By now, more than nine years had passed. With just over six months remaining before he had to leave the Realm of Three Thousand Dao, Fang Chen was still stuck at the second step of the Golden Core stabilization phase.
The remaining seven days felt like a roadblock to Fang Chen. He had no clue how t o overcome this hurdle. He knew that if there was a little breakthrough, he might be able to achieve the three-month stabilization phase in one go.
"Little Black, Little White, both of you are experienced seniors in the Dao Sect. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Is my talent insufficient, thus making it this hard to form the Golden Core?" Fang Chen turned to them.
When he noticed that he was repeatedly failing, he had asked the black and white paper figures to observe. As outsiders, they might be able to see the things he couldn't and hopefully be able to use their experience to help him solve the problem.
The black and white paper figures exchanged glances, their stiff faces showing a hint of an odd expression.
The white paper figure spoke first. "Lord, your talent is definitely not the problem."
The black paper figure followed, "Lord, your foundation is also solid and your cultivation level is more than sufficient."
The white paper figure continued, "Your application is also flawless."
They looked at each other again and shook their heads simultaneously.
"We can't see any problems either. Maybe you should try again?"
"You don’t see any problems?" Fang Chen asked confusion.
Suddenly, Mirror of the Universe’s voice appeared, "Brother...."