TL: Sword Shadow Splitting Light Technique -> Swordshadow Phantasm Technique, Azure Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword -> Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword

Chapter 398: Core Formation and Magic Treasures

The door to the secret room inside the cave residence had finally opened.

A silhouette slowly walked out of the room with their face covered by long, disheveled hair.

A yellow light then flashed to their side, revealing Crooked Soul with a stiff expression.

“Hehe, Core Formation! I’ve finally obtained Core Formation!” After looking at the exterior of the secret room and Crooked Soul, he heartily laughed towards the sky in awe-inspiring roars.

The gaps through the long, disheveled hair revealed the face of Han Li, who had undergone sixty years of secluded cultivation. However, his eyes revealed a refined spirit, and his every movement contained a vast pressure as if he had become a different person entirely.

After he finished laughing, Han Li looked at the scene outside of the hidden room with a sense of unfamiliarity. After ignoring the world for sixty years, he felt a great sense of change despite everything having remained the same. It was as if everything that had happened was but a distant matter.

Han Li didn’t stay still for long. Using his vague memories, he went back to his bedroom.

After the time it took to finish a meal, Han Li left his bedroom with a beaming smile. He had restored his original attire and appearance, that of a youth about twenty years of age.

Now wearing a cold expression, he calmly walked towards the insect room.

The Gold Devouring Insects in the room had undergone a massive change over the years. Not only had their numbers reached a frightening several tens of thousands, but their originally silver shells began to reveal spots of gold, causing them to appear even more sinister and savage than before.

Han Li didn’t reveal the slightest amazement. He had found out about this many years ago from his clone, Crooked Soul. The only change was that now he was able to see this with his own eyes.

Han Li hadn’t expected that his original flash of insight to test the Rainbow Skirt Grass on his Gold Devouring Beetles would unexpectedly resolve the problem of their breeding.

While he was in seclusion, Crooked Soul continuously fed the Gold Devouring Beetles stalks of Rainbow Skirt Grass with their leaves uncurled. These beetles became increasingly violent after eating the herbs. After four years of consumption, the Gold Devouring Beetles had undergone a transformation.

One day after they finished eating the Rainbow Skirt Grass, the beetles began to fight and cannibalize each other. A few days later, the original several hundred had been reduced to a mere dozen. However, the surviving beetles were now docile and more beautiful.

Soon after, the cannibal beetles began to lay eggs. They all slowly died after having laid about a hundred eggs each, leaving Han Li with over a thousand insect eggs.

The eggs hatched about a year later, and Crooked Soul continued to feed them the ripened Rainbow Skirt Grass, causing them to cannibalize one another and lay their eggs once more.

After several repetitions, the number of Gold Devouring Beetles started to frantically increase.

Were it not for the fact that the amount of Rainbow Skirt Grass he could mature was limited, he would’ve had the beetles cannibalize themselves much more often and ceaselessly increase their numbers.

But what was most surprising was how the offspring of the cannibal beetles became both stronger and more violent with each increasing generation. In addition, their silver shells began to show gold spots at an increasing frequency.

This made Han Li wonder if their grade would increase after their shells turned completely golden.

Standing outside the insect room, Han Li stared at the Gold Devouring Beetles with a spirited gaze for half a day in silence. He clearly understood that this method of breeding the Gold Devouring Beetles was definitely not the orthodox method used by the beast controlling cultivators of ancient times.

This was because he was certain that his small mysterious bottle was unique in its effect of accelerated maturation. This method may perhaps be even better than the one used by his predecessors.

Han Li faintly smiled as he thought this. He then moved to the other insect room closeby that housed his two Bloodjade spiders.

Although Han Li had only instructed Crooked Soul to use a small portion of the green liquid produced to refine Spirit Feed Pills for the spiders, the amount of pills consumed over this long period of time had allowed the Bloodjade spiders to ascend by several grades. Now, they were peak grade four demon beasts.

They were currently exactly the same as the white spider he had fought in the underground cave. Their bodies were as translucent as jade, making for a beautiful sight.

The two spiders had clearly been made aware of Han Li’s arrival through the connection they had with Han Li’s mind. They immediately pounced towards the stone door, wishing to intimately play with Han Li.

Joyful, Han Li promptly opened the stone door, allowing the two Bloodjade spiders to pounce at him. Afterwards, they started to climb circles all around Han LI’s body.

Han Li caressed the backs of the two demon beasts for a moment while gazing in wonder at their sparkling, crystalline bodies. He then stored them in his spirit beast pouch before turning around and leaving their insect room.

As for the Gold Devouring Beetles, Han Li still had little intention of using them. He planned to first have them reproduce through a few more generations until their shells turned fully gold before putting them to use as his hidden ace.

Next, Han Li walked through his cave residence before returning to his bedroom in high spirits. After lying down on his bed, Han Li thought about his Core Formation in the hidden room.

Being able to so quickly achieve Core Formation greatly went against Han Li’s expectations. He didn’t cultivate to the third revolution of the Three Essence Revolutions Technique. Instead, he spent an entire thirty years to cultivate to the second revolution.

By relying on medicine pills to cultivate the Three Essence Revolutions Technique, his cultivation speed was far quicker than he had anticipated. He originally believed that completing the third revolution of cultivation was certain to be strenuous to the point of impossibility; it would consume far too many years of his lifespan to succeed. But by completing his second revolution in a mere thirty years, he had more than enough lifespan left to cultivate through the third revolution.

But after some thought, Han Li decided to not place all his hopes of Core Formation on the Three Essence Revolutions technique.

After all, this cultivation art was merely theorized and had never been tested! It was said that completing the third revolution would only allow a fifty percent chance of success in Core Formation. To put it into other words, even if he completed all three revolutions, he still had a fifty-percent chance of failing.

This caused him deep worry at heart, and he couldn’t help but pick a more flamboyant method to increase his chances of Core Formation.

Before Han Li had killed him, he recalled the former young master of the Thousand Bamboo School, Senior Martial Brother Li[1. Last appeared in chapter 232. He had attempted to possess Han Li’s body but was punished as a result.], had previously said that cultivating the Great Development Technique to a deep layer was able to increase his odds of Core Formation. Therefore, after some careful deliberation, he had decided to cultivate to the third layer of the Great Development Technique.

Han Li’s reasoning at the time had been: ‘Regardless of whether or not he was lying, there is no harm in cultivating it!’

As expected, the third layer of the Great Development Technique took far more time to cultivate than the second layer. It took Han Li about twenty years before painstakingly making a breakthrough and succeeding. As for the fourth layer of the Great Development Technique, Han Li had no thoughts to cultivate to it. At the time, he simply didn’t have the time to spare for it.

Afterwards, Han Li took all sorts of supplementary spiritual medicines and began his next several year long attempt at Core Formation.

To tell the truth, Han Li didn't hold much confidence in Core Formation with his second revolution, given his crushing failure during his first attempt of Core Formation at his first revolution. He merely held the notion of only spending a few years just to give it a try. But while Crooked Soul’s Core Formation only took four years, Han Li’s  unexpected success had occurred in five years due to his poor aptitude.

Although he had sensed the Heaven-Earth Spiritual Qi in his body run frantic, Han Li felt like it was a dream when a thumb-sized four-colored pearl formed after his body’s true essence made desperate rotations in his Dantian.

‘I’m going to enter Core Formation Stage like this?’ He didn’t dare to believe it! Han Li hadn’t prepared himself in the least, nearly allowing this huge fortune, the still unstable golden core, to crumble. Frightened, he hurriedly concentrated on calming his heart so that he wouldn’t cause a great disturbance and undergo the great misfortune of returning to Foundation Establishment.

Having recalled his brush with disaster, Han Li couldn’t help but raise the corner of his mouth, forming a trace of a faint smile.

Han Li let out a deep breath before sitting up on his bed and then standing up.

Although it had been a while since his Core Formation, he was currently unable to calm the increasing excitement in his heart and couldn’t stay still.

Now that he had entered Core Formation, not only was he considered a senior expert in the cultivation world, but his lifespan had been increased to a frightening six hundred years. This increase in longevity would allow him to later cultivate with peace of mind.

But most importantly, he was finally able to make use of his Core Flame. He could now polish and refine his own magic treasure.

With regards to magic treasures, Han Li had two in his possession. The Immemorial Bowl had already been refined by Crooked Soul. As for the Green Brilliance Dagger, he would use it to protect himself for the time being.

Ultimately, he would want to refine the long coveted magic treasure that was described by the golden page[1. Han Li acquired the golden page from his former master, Li Huayuan, in chapter 240], the “Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords”.

These swords were refined as a set. After refining them, his strength would massively increase, and he would be capable of sweeping away any cultivators of a similar rank. In addition, now that he had reached the seventh layer of the Azure Essence Sword Art, he could make use of the divine ability, “Swordshadow Phantasm Technique”. This caused him to excitedly look forward to his upcoming journey through the cultivation world as a Core Formation cultivator.

He now wanted to hurriedly collect the materials for the magic treasure, Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword, so that he could create this magic treasure and begin strengthening it with his Core Flame and primal soul.