I had sat down on my cushion and had started cultivating, but I had to change the window to a picture of space because watching everyone walking around the streets was not helping me focus at all. Once I had settled, I opened the technique quickly, learning everything I needed to reach the realm that would allow me to walk amongst the other cultivators and be able to go shopping.

  My thumb dropped to the ring on my finger, gently turning it, as I mentally read over the soul tempering realm information. Then I turned my attention to my core as I tried to figure out how I would apply this new information. However, as much as I tried to settle my mind on the task, I kept thinking about everyone leaving to enjoy the ceremony and shopping. I really wanted to go sightseeing and buy some souvenirs too.

  I let out a loud sigh and tried to refocus my mind back on weaving a new lattice over the one that the golden core had required, but this one had to also weave into the holes the first one had to bind the two lattices together. I quickly weaved a new lattice exactly the same as the golden core around the old lattice. I was about to start looking at how I could weave this new one into the old when I noticed something peculiar. I noticed a speck of dust hanging in the air near me. Frowning, I began to look around me, noticing that the leaves were not swaying like they usually do and one of the plants was bent like a strong breeze was pushing it, but it had frozen. The next moment I blinked and it all unfroze. The dust fell, the leaves moved in the breeze and the plants straightened, causing me to feel confused about what just happened.

  After looking around the room for a while, I slowly began to turn my attention back towards the soul realm lattice and realised it had come undone while I was distracted. I took a moment to stare at the lattice of my golden core realm and realised the lattice had taken on a golden shine. I quickly realised that must be why they called it the golden core realm. I giggled softly for a moment as my body slowly relaxed, and my thoughts started flowing a little easier. I quickly started noticing problems with what I had to do and mentally moved to quickly rebuild the new lattice and put my mind to work solving the problems.

  After what felt like an hour later, I was resisting the urge to rip my hair out while I screamed. I ended up shattering my new lattice in frustration before turning my attention to figuring out how to build it small enough to be perfect while incorporating my golden core into it, instead of trying to force the golden core lattice to weave into my current golden core. I did consider tearing my golden core out and rebuilding it with the soul realm lattice already connected to it, but quickly abandoned that idea as I got the feeling that, besides it not working, it could injure my body and soul severely.

  I decided to pick a spot and start there. I pulled Qi from my dantian and formed it into the pipes that I had used for my golden core, then began to weave it in and out of the holes, slowly moving my way around. I had picked a spot I considered the centre of the bottom and was slowly working my way around forming a lattice that would hopefully reconnect with the start, creating the same lattice that I had used for my golden core. However, after weaving myself into a corner three times, I let out a loud scream.

  ”aaahh, fuck, why is this so difficult! It should be simple, weave the pipes through and…” I trailed off as I had a thought. I quickly started counting how many holes the golden core had. Then I started weaving a few strands of Qi to make sure there was enough that the theory could actually work. Once I had proven it could, I began devising a plan to weave a single strand of Qi through the golden core and after confirming it was possible I slowly began to follow the plan with a strand of Qi.

  Once it was complete, I felt my eyes shoot open. I didn’t see my cultivation room. Instead, I sat in the middle of a white room surrounded by open doors and paths that lead off into the distance.

  ”What the hell?” I whispered as I turned, looking through a door frame at a shimmering surface that showed me a street with people frozen in time as they walked past the door. I could also see storefronts on the other side of the street.

  I turned my head, looking through another door to a hallway I recognised as a hallway on the very ship I was currently on. I frowned as I turned to look at another door and found myself staring at an observation deck in space.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  ”Okay, this is starting to freak me out, what is going on?” I said as I tried not to actually freak out.

  I quickly turned around looking for the doorway back to my cultivation room and soon found it, displaying myself sitting on the cushion as the entire room around me appeared to be in that frozen scene once again. I was about to take a step towards it to get out of this place when I noticed out the corner of my eye a doorway that had Clara standing right in front of it like she was about to enter it. I instantly pivoted and took a single step towards her, the moment I completed that step I felt my body go from the most energetic to the most lethargic I had ever felt in my life. The next, I was suddenly laying on the floor of my cultivation room, unable to move.

  It took me five minutes to figure out what had happened, and I felt absolutely shocked when I found my dantian was completely empty, and from there I quickly figured out that the single step I had taken had used up every single bit of Qi in my dantian. A few moments later when I had managed to recover myself I started to think about how it would take me thirteen more steps to reach that door, and instantly winced slightly.

  “No wonder they said I had to reach the immortal realm first, without the dantian size, I would never be able to take the steps needed to reach a door that far from my location.”

  I slowly rolled over onto my back and stared up at the image of space. I must have drifted off because I found myself jerking awake, and I wasn't surprised that I was feeling better than I had before, I quickly checked my dantian to see it had filled slightly and quickly sat up and began to draw the Qi back into my Dantian. With each bit drawn back in, I was feeling better. I finally felt like myself again when my dantian reached twenty percent full, but I kept going until it was full, then finally turned my attention towards the nascent realm technique, wanting to complete this and get to shopping.

  I froze and tilted my head in confusion when I slowly read the nascent section of the technique. I went over and over it again and again, trying to figure out how shoving nine spikes into the dantian was a good idea. I read it a few more times before looking at my dantian as I tried to work out how the spikes were even meant to get inside the tightly weaved lattice. After a few minutes I just rolled my shoulders and was about to pull out nine strands of Qi, then the warnings started to sink in, and I quickly double-checked the technique.

  I opened my eyes feeling mentally strained and stared out at space for a while, for some reason my Qi was slightly draining, almost unnoticeable but was quickly replaced by the Qi I was pulling into my dantian. I tried to follow the Qi to see where it was going and was surprised when it leads up to my brain. That’s when I noticed the surrounding room was frozen again. I tilted my head slightly, feeling confused, and quickly raised my eyebrows as a larger bit of the Qi vanished.

  “This Qi stuff is getting more confusing.” I mumbled as I had a thought about the steps and quickly got to my feet and took a single step. I nearly had a panic attack when a quarter of my Qi vanished. I quickly calmed down and tried another movement. I raised my hand, swinging it as if I was performing an upwards slice with a sword. I stepped forwards again, once the imaginary sword reached the pinnacle of its upward swing I changed direction and brought it down as I stomped forwards pretending to cut someone's head off. My Qi dropped to half, and I was surprised that the two steps and arm movements hadn't eaten more of my Qi.

  I quickly turned and sat back down on the cushion, my Qi drained some more, but I was now using my breathing technique to draw it back in and replenish my dantian. I slowly closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. I turned my attention back to the technique and slowly studied it, yet again, trying to figure out what I am meant to do after I stick the spikes into my dantian. However, no matter how much I searched, I came up with nothing. It seemed I was to just stab them in and hope for the best.

  “This is bullshit, there should at least be a hint of what is meant to happen next.” I screamed.

  My eyes landed on the bent plant nearby, and I observed how it seemed to be frozen for a few moments before I slowly started tracing where my Qi was in my body and how it was rushing to my brain. After a few moments of observation, I tried to stop the flow and redirect it back to my dantian. The moment I did, the plant unfroze and everything around my room started moving again until I redirected it back and watched everything freeze again.

  “Well, that is certainly fascinating.” I whispered.

  I turned my thoughts back to the technique and started thinking about the risks of going through with this, without any knowledge of why or what for. I soon came to the conclusion that the technique would not tell me to do it if there wasn't a reason and I had to trust it in order to advance or something like that.

  “Whatever, there has to be a reason, and the next technique will tell me what it was. Besides, as soon as I get this over and done with, I will be nascent and allowed to go shopping.”

  I quickly started pulling nine strands of Qi from my Dantian and reshaped them into tubes, after a moment of hesitation, I quickly reshaped them to look like needles. From there I started moving them around the core trying to decide the best locations to insert them. For some reason, I slowly moved one to a position I thought of as the heart, then another to the position of the brain. The needles slowly moved around the core until I understood they were positioned for nine positions in my body.

  “The brain, the heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidney, the skin, the bones, the eyes, and lastly the soul.” I whispered softly to myself. The next moment, the needles descended rapidly, and somehow I felt them pass through my core and into the dantian with ease. “It’s done.”

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