Honestly, they didn't need a month to just traverse the entire continent. Between Core Formation and Nascent Soul Infernals, a couple of days at most is what it would take the former to go a couple thousand miles and back.

While the latter might take an hour or two to make the same journey.

But that was assuming very minimal rests and not doing anything else the entire time. Just traveling as fast as possible for as long as possible.

Giving them a month was for a few different reasons.

One, they needed time to not only travel the land and come back, but information needed to be gathered and documented.

No need to rush that process.

Then came the mining. I wanted to give Lidaz some time to organize that process, since I'll be taking a bit of the workforce to go conquer cities and sightsee a bit.

Beyond that, I would like to take the boys on this journey with me, so I was giving them another month to see if they would be finished.

I highly doubt it, as it's only been a few months, and I expect them to be gone for quite a few more months on top of that. Training like this could last quite a while, and Elder Zal wouldn't cut corners with training.

In the meantime, I'll be getting back to some reading. It's been highly beneficial so far, and I think it's necessary to keep deepening my knowledge for the moment.

Only this time, I'll finally be dedicating some time to cultivating.

My core has been given more than enough time to not cement itself into my body, and by now there should be absolutely zero chance of causing problems from cultivating too soon after a major breakthrough.

Core Formation is separated into three different stages:

Ignition, Resonance, and Ascension.

Just forming and making the core is enough to reach the Ignition stage, but to progress from there will require me to essentially continuously purify my core over the course of months—perhaps more realistically, years.

Years… just for one minor stage.

Reaching Nascent Soul simply won't come with the same speed that I had in Body Tempering and Qi Refinement.

And the higher up the totem pole I reach, the longer it would take to get to the next stage.

Anyway, I needed to complete a purification cycle on my core to rid it of impurities gathered in the forming process, and once that is completed I will be able to advance to the Resonance stage.

It's a lot of effort, but at least the amount of cycles I need to complete is known exactly: one cycle per compression completed.

It's somewhat a blessing and a curse to be talented enough to successfully complete double-digit compressions. At the end of the day, I'll be stronger than someone who only did five or so, but they will advance faster than me.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Of course, I'll be able to punch higher than my stage suggests due to having much deeper foundations, but it's still a tiny bit annoying. Just a bit.

Now, Elder Zal gave me a lot of information regarding advancing through Core Formation, but I've also read a couple of books about it in the library.

Each cycle had three steps:

Circulate Qi throughout your body, which will eventually create a loop around your core.

Once a steady loop has been created, then compress it down as much as possible until you reach a point where the core itself will push back to show it cannot be compressed any further.

It will apparently feel like pushing against a wall.

After reaching that point, then it becomes a waiting game.

All that compressed pressure will quite literally squeeze a layer of impurities out of the core and onto the surface. That process could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days alone.

And it will not feel comfortable.

Then comes the fun part.

Igniting my Qi.

Hence the name of the stage being Ignition.

In this step, the core is essentially treated like a piece of precious ore that is placed into a special furnace where heat is used to burn away said impurities.

Though, based on what I've read, although the name of the stage is called Ignition, it is not always the case of 'igniting' the Qi. For most it will be, but for some, it could be a few other things.

It all depends on your Qi alignment, or even what type of core someone formed. Cores made of lightning or even water were a thing.

There was no need to do any of that for me though, as it could also cause very specific problems.

Anyway, Ignition would work just fine for me, with the exception that I would be using Infernal Qi, and not the regular kind.

Now this was the longest step in the entire process, and it was the only step that would be repeatable.

The previous two had to be done in the same session, but once the impurities were formed, igniting my Qi to burn small parts of it away would take multiple sessions. Hundreds… thousands even.

Especially since fighting with a core covered in impurities will be painful, so according to the book I read on the matter, people could spend years in seclusion just advancing past the first stage.

But it wasn't a requirement to do so, and it definitely wouldn't be something I did.

It was just a bit of pain.

…Though, if it ever did become unbearable, my pride isn't so thick that I couldn't decide to stop everything and enter seclusion.

Which brings me to the last gift Elder Zal would be giving me before she left:

A cultivation manual for the Core Formation Realm.

She was never going to continuously supply me with techniques, manuals, money, and other resources.

Her job was only to get me on my feet, and to get through those first couple of months—or years, depending on the situation.

I am a Patriarch.

Providing for myself and my Clan is a given. Counting on someone else to do that would be stupid.

Something that I'll be able to do quite easily nowadays just based on what Jrino and the Olirag Clan left me in the ring.

There were only three things in the ring:

A pair of formation nodes. Each could be placed in a small room to create a silencing array—one that essentially blocked all noise from entering the room it was placed in.

The next item was another pair of nodes designed for blocking senses below the Immortal Realm from entering a room.

Honestly, both items should have long been installed in my office—and even bedroom—but there was no need with Elder Zal watching things.

I suppose that was a bit of ignorance on my part.

Anyway, better late than never.

The final item was technically a whole lot of items.

Spirit stones.

Hundreds of them.

I haven't touched or even begun to use them yet, as it was important to have buying power when it was time to connect to the shops of other planets.

And it was a good thing I didn't touch them, as we needed to buy those mining tools.

Anyway, the title of the cultivation manual is Eternal Compression. Following the breathing techniques in this manual will essentially allow me to send compressed Qi throughout my body, allowing for far more passage, circulation, and purer Qi to flow and be absorbed.

The process was slower than simply absorbing Qi without techniques, but the tradeoff was well worth it.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.