Vessel of Worlds

"HAAA!" A man's long cry burst from the dwelling—shaking the heavens, and saturated with agony.

As though summoned by that cry, the five-colored cloud shuddered—then collapsed into a pillar of five-colored light a zhang thick, plunging straight down into the dwelling's shrouding mists.

Within half an incense stick's time, the whole cloud had drained into the dwelling and vanished.

With the heaven-sign gone, clear skies returned for a hundred kilometers around. The unlucky Qi Condensation cultivator pinned down by the pressure finally regained his feet, dusted himself off, and fled with fright still on his face.

Not far off, the early-stage girl Chen Shuiyi gazed at the churning mists over the dwelling with open envy. She had heard it said: the crux of the breakthrough was drawing the heavens' energy into the body. Succeed there, and one was in essence already a Core Formation cultivator—there remained only the inner demons, and the settling of the new realm.

Fail, and the five-colored cloud would burst in the sky, scattering back into the five energies of heaven and earth—the whole assault undone at the final stroke, and any second attempt harder than climbing to heaven.

So—seven or eight parts in ten, the man in that dwelling is now a Core Formation cultivator. What grievance lies between him and Elder Ma, that the elder set us juniors watching this place in shifts for thirty years, wave after wave of us? Now that he's formed his core—does the watch go on? If this Core Formation senior ever discovers we've been spying on his every movement and his anger rises... we Foundation Establishment juniors could never bear it! The girl's heart skittered like a fawn's as the worry turned in her.

Within the dwelling, Andy sat in grave-faced meditation.

He was passing through the fabled ordeal of the inner demons. But by the miraculous grace of the Heart-Cleansing Pill, the visions that should have stabbed into the deepest seams of his heart unfolded before him instead like a fire watched from the far bank. Every image was the thing he most feared, the ending he least could bear to see—each one seamless and utterly convincing—yet the pill held a thread of clarity always lit within him, whispering without pause: all of this is illusion born of the demons. Terrible as they were, they could not truly touch him.

For him, the hardest step had been drawing the heavens' energy into his body.

After twenty-odd years of the second Primal Unity cycle, he had begun his second assault on the bottleneck two years ago.

This attempt had gone unexpectedly well. After absorbing vast tides of the five energies, he had pressed them toward solidification in his dantian—and after some months, the true essence had shown its first faint tendency to set! Overjoyed, he had refined on without rest, converting and compressing, until on this day he solidified the whole of his true essence—raising the heaven-sign of Core Formation and gathering the world's energy for a hundred kilometers into the five-colored cloud.

At that moment his dantian hung hollow and echoing, the newly set essence poised at every instant to evaporate back to liquid. He needed the flood of energy now—

Yet cycle the technique as he might, in mounting agony, the five-colored cloud would not descend.

When the pain in his dantian passed bearing and the long cry tore out of him, on the very edge of despair—the flood came. The cloud broke into pillars of five-colored light that poured down upon him, the greater part of it drawn into his dantian. With that vast infusion, the crisis dissolved.

This content has been misappropriated from NovelFire; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With consummate skill he transmuted that compressed, utterly pure energy of heaven into his own true essence—and soon, within his dantian, there condensed a purple core a cun across: the Primal Unity Golden Core of the jade slip's records.

Then, hard upon it, the ordeal of the inner demons began.

Armored by the wondrous Heart-Cleansing Pill, Andy passed through with relative ease—and formally became one more Core Formation existence in the cultivation world.

The dream of long decades, achieved at last—to say he was wild with joy would understate nothing.

Yet he did not leave the dwelling to wander and exult. He remained in the chamber, cultivating on.

The Primal Unity Technique warned: a newly condensed Primal Unity Golden Core was less stable than an ordinary single-element core. Without two or three years of further meditation to anchor the realm, he could not so much as spar with a cultivator of his own new rank.

So he took up the technique's seventh layer and began the practice of early Core Formation. He still held Essence-Consolidating Pills refined from rank-five cores—of little effect now at his realm, but better than nothing—and with those peak-grade pills and his high-grade stones, he cultivated in patience.

Dozens of kilometers from his dwelling, the fresh-faced early-stage girl Chen Shuiyi was bowing before a middle-aged man—early-stage Core Formation, the crown of his head more than half bald—reporting all she had seen. Around her stood seven or eight other cultivators, young and middle-aged, none above mid-stage Foundation Establishment.

When she finished, displeasure crossed the bald man's face. He issued a few curt instructions; the girl and the others accepted them with visible reluctance.

Then the bald man departed. The Foundation Establishment cultivators left behind traded long sighs—helpless, resentful, and not daring to say a word of it aloud.

Andy, naturally, would never know that these quiet years of cultivation had let him step past a great deal of trouble without ever seeing it.

Five years later, from a certain dwelling banked in thick cloud on Jade Clarity Peak's middle terraces, a beam of blue light a chi thick suddenly shone forth. The churning sea of cloud rolled apart in perfect order, opening a passage a zhang wide.

A refined young man in purple robes walked slowly out—Andy, his long seclusion ended.

At last he stepped beyond the dwelling that had held him for over thirty years.

He drew one deep breath—and was seized by the feeling of having crossed between lifetimes.

Thirty-five years! How many stories of right and wrong, how many partings and reunions, had slipped silently past in a single seclusion! Truly, in cultivation there are no years!

He was about to streak away as a bolt of light when his brow tightened—his spiritual sense caught a Foundation Establishment cultivator a dozen kilometers off, flying toward him.

He turned. A woman in fluttering white robes approached from afar, calling loudly: "Senior, please wait! This junior has a request!"

Her voice was pleasant enough, and in his curiosity Andy did not refuse—he stayed where he was, giving nothing away.

The girl halted dozens of zhang off and dipped in a graceful courtesy. "A moment, Senior! Our sect has an Elder Ma who dearly hopes to make Senior's acquaintance! We beg Senior to wait but a little—our elder will arrive directly!"

Andy searched his memory and confirmed he had never known any cultivator surnamed Ma. He said coldly: "I have no acquaintance with your Elder Ma. I accept his goodwill in spirit—but kindly tell him I have pressing business and cannot linger."His form swayed faintly, on the point of flight.

The girl panicked and bent low. "Please, Senior—only a moment! If you leave now, this junior will be harshly punished! I beg Senior's mercy!" Distress and fear chased across her delicate, unworldly face; her bright eyes brimmed with unfallen tears—a sight to move pity in any heart.

"Which sect are you?" Andy asked flatly, caution winning out.

"This junior is of the Sea Confluence Gate. We are only a minor sect—it would be no surprise if Senior has never heard of us!" the girl said, bowing—then added hastily: "Elder Ma bade me say he has a matter to discuss that holds a hundred benefits for Senior and not one harm!"

"The Sea Confluence Gate!" At those words Andy's expression shifted; the corner of his mouth curled in a smile that was not quite a smile. "Very well. I will wait here a short while—but no longer than half an hour. If your Elder Ma has not come by then, I will not stay."

The girl lit with joy, her face flowering, and bowed her thanks. "Half an hour is more than enough! Thank you, Senior, for your understanding!"

Andy waved a hand, excusing her from further courtesy.

Rising, the girl found the young-looking senior before her regarding her with a gentle gaze—and colored, dropping her head in silence.