I long to return home!

It took Qi Qingqing a long time to recover. She straightened her torn clothes, looked in the direction the red-robed Taoist had left, and then her gaze fell on the old man who had died tragically beside her.

His death was extremely gruesome; his withered body was riddled with holes, and his golden core was pierced by blood thorns. The blood sword stuck in his body was the real killing move.

As Qi Qingqing looked around, she suddenly noticed something, and her pretty face immediately showed a look of disgust and disdain.

A few days later.

Huai Zhen returned to the Star Watching Academy and to his residence. This experience remained vivid in his memory, especially the moment he killed the Old Man of Rotten Wood. He felt no discomfort whatsoever, and even he felt a chill run down his spine at the cold look in his eyes, as if he had killed many people without feeling anything.

After a long while, he gradually got used to it, raised his hand and placed the captured storage bag in front of him. Just as he was about to look at the spiritual treasure inside, he was blocked by a powerful force.

“Divine consciousness sealed,” Huai Zhen murmured to himself.

"It seems that it's true that high-level cultivators can seal their storage bags and magical artifacts. Fortunately, that person's cultivation level is only at the early Golden Core stage, so breaking through this divine sense seal shouldn't be too difficult." Huai Zhen took one last look at the sealed storage bag before putting it into his own pocket. He then took out a mid-grade fifth-tier pill, the Spirit Profound Pill, from his own storage bag.

“Back then, it took Your Highness nearly half a year to form your core, but now that I have a deep foundation, I can form my core in a short time with the help of the Spirit Profound Pill.” Huai Zhen took out the Spirit Profound Pill that was emitting spiritual light, sat cross-legged on the bed, and swallowed the Spirit Profound Pill after a moment’s thought.

The fifth-grade pill has immense medicinal power. As soon as it enters the mouth, one can feel the spiritual energy within the body being drawn in, like a joyful child restless, wanting to achieve a breakthrough.

This was not the first time Huai Zhen had taken high-level pills. Several years ago, when he was recuperating in Wuji Imperial City, he had taken several high-level pills, including quite a few of the third and fourth tiers, and even a few of the fifth tier. However, most of them were for healing and nourishing his body.

Having had experience, Huai Zhen was naturally able to withstand the medicinal power of the fifth-grade spirit pill washing over his entire body; it was like a thorough baptism.

A few days later.

The medicinal power of the fifth-grade elixir had taken deep root in Huai Zhen's body, nourishing the spiritual power within him and even elevating his spiritual root. Several more days passed, and just as he had witnessed Lei Mengying forming her core, the spiritual power in each meridian was surging towards his dantian.

Huai Zhen seemed to have a sudden flash of inspiration, with points of spiritual light emerging from his entire body. His dantian was churning violently, with almost half of his spiritual power spinning rapidly there, a sign that he was preparing to condense into a pill.

Huai Zhen was overjoyed. Who would have thought that he, with his pseudo-spiritual root, was about to form his core? And he was only in his early thirties. In the history of cultivation, there were only a few people with pseudo-spiritual roots who formed their core before the age of one hundred, but he would be the first to do so at the age of thirty.

In response, Huai Zhen focused all his attention on the swirling vortex of spiritual energy in his dantian, trying to experience what it was like to form a golden core.

Time passed by, and Huai Zhen didn't pay much attention to it at first, but gradually he became suspicious, and only today did he realize that something was wrong.

His spiritual energy was rapidly draining away without any noticeable trace, and not a single bit of the swirling spiritual energy was used for core formation.

Huai Zhen gradually began to panic. He had not even successfully formed a core embryo yet, and most of his spiritual energy had already been depleted. If this continued, he would definitely fail to form a core. But what he didn't know was where the lost spiritual energy had gone.

Huai Zhen was so angry that a trickle of blood flowed from his mouth. He frowned and looked tense, as there was no reason why his spiritual power had disappeared.

Soon, the spiritual energy in his body was visibly depleted, and he couldn't even see the shadow of the nascent elixir. Huai Zhen finally couldn't hold back any longer and spat out a mouthful of blood. He hurriedly took out several spirit-replenishing pills from his storage bag and swallowed them, which slightly replenished his almost exhausted spiritual energy.

As the situation worsened, Huai Zhen couldn't help but wonder if he had bought a fake pill. But the medicinal power emitted by a fifth-grade pill couldn't be faked.

He moved his hands, compressing the little spiritual energy left in his body, but then he made a surprising discovery: there was something extra in the place where the golden core should have been condensing at the spiritual energy vortex.

As he probed with his divine sense, he discovered that it was a vortex formed by a black mist and a white mist, which seemed like a bottomless pit, absorbing the spiritual power in his body.

"Damn it, what is this thing? Spit it out!" Huai Zhen cursed inwardly, his hands forming hand seals as he channeled his limited spiritual energy to pull against the black and white vortex.

Gradually, he realized that everything was in vain in the face of this black and white vortex, and no matter what method he used, he would only be swallowed up.

A day later, the little spiritual energy left in his body was completely absorbed. Huai Zhen spat out another mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with disbelief as he looked at the complete absence of spiritual energy in his body, indicating that he had failed to form his core.

"Why! Why! What is this thing?!" Huai Zhen shouted angrily, his fingers digging hard into his dantian. If he could, he would have liked to pull out his black and white vortex-like thing from his body.

He gasped for breath, sat cross-legged again, placed his hands on his dantian, and prepared to form his core. But he had no spiritual power left in his body, so how could he form his core?

"boom"

His anger and resentment drove him to punch a large hole in the stone bed. He recalled everything that had happened two years ago and up until now, but he still couldn't figure out what the problem was. What exactly was that black and white vortex? Why was it preventing him from forming his core?

Huai Zhen is currently somewhat deranged; he's likely to fight to the death with anyone who dares to provoke him.

Three days passed quickly. Huai Zhen lay on the bed in a daze, resenting himself for being a pseudo-spiritual root. If he weren't a pseudo-spiritual root, wouldn't things be much less troublesome?

Suddenly, he felt something unusual in his dantian, which he quickly noticed. He sat up abruptly, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes, focusing his mind.

The black and white vortex kept spinning from beginning to end, but this time it was clearly not devouring the spiritual energy in the body, but rather seemed to be harmonizing the spiritual energy within the body.

Under Huai Zhen's perception, his body received new nourishment, and even the spiritual energy stored in his body was greatly expanded, reaching the level of a Golden Core cultivator.

Huai Zhen had never heard of this phenomenon before, but fortunately it wasn't a bad thing. Out of wishful thinking, he wondered if he was about to form his core.

However, things did not develop as expected, but they were not far off. As the whole body received a new boost, the black and white vortex gradually disappeared without a trace. Right where it disappeared, it inexplicably condensed into a semi-transparent sphere.

"Golden Core! No, this is... a Core Embryo?" Huai Zhen was somewhat astonished. It had taken more than ten days for his spiritual energy to be absorbed, but in the end, it condensed into a Core Embryo. His cultivation had also reached the Pseudo-Core realm.