Inferior Stage: normal cultivators at this stage amassed as much Qi and Spiritual Energy as possible. Once they reached their limit would be the moment they achieved the peak of the Inferior Stage.
There were two ways to breakthrough this bottleneck: the first was arguably faster but had its shortcomings, and that was to directly absorb Qi Strands of a higher level into one's own Qi River. This, however, would leave behind flaws in one's cultivation base, as there would be Inferior Stage Qi Strands left behind, which would limit progress until one fixed the underlying problem. The longer the flaws had existed for, the harder it would be to fix them, so much so that it would sometimes be more efficient to scrap the entire cultivation base and restart from scratch.
The universally acclaimed method, on the other hand, would leave behind a perfect Cultivation Base: it was to slowly refine Inferior Stage Qi strands into Basic Stage strands by weaving the Qi Strands together, turning quantity into quality. This would be done over and over, until one's limit would be reached again.
The way to do this was through repetitive usage: using a martial skill mobilized the Qi River, and just like a muscle would tear after exerting a lot of force and then grow back stronger, the Qi River would condense and grow thinner, yet denser, moving around faster and faster in the sea of consciousness…
Once even a single main strand turned from Inferior to Basic, one would be of the Basic Stage.
Similarly, when every single strand of Qi in the river had turned into Basic Qi and no more strand could be added in, then one would have reached the peak of the Basic Stage.
Cheng Hao's method, however, was slightly different…
After all, unlike others, he had a Pseudo Core that automatically absorbed impure Qi discarded from the main cultivation base! Simply by placing it in the middle of the Qi Sea not only kept the whole mass stuck in place, making it easier to condense into a true Core later, but it also automatically ate up Inferior Stage Qi with each rotation! This would eventually leave behind space for Basic Stage Qi to seep in as the initial strands evolved themselves.
Perfection!
Now, of course, that would have been the case if it weren't for a single problem: Cheng Hao's Supreme Qi could not be randomly absorbed, as its only sources were the rings of golden light of the Immortal Ascension Tower.
No matter what he did, he still couldn't divide the rings into smaller parts for him to absorb at various intervals. Unfortunately, the separated strands of Sovereign Qi would just collapse back together.
Furthermore, the current Inferior Qi mass was extremely thick already, so heavy it was unbelievable. So, to grind it down and promote it qualitatively, normal methods would not be enough.
For that reason, he had to find a way to make the two ends meet. And fortunately, a forbidden scripture helped him out this time, exciting the Pseudo-Core to rotate at inhumane speeds, not without its fair share of danger.
Eventually, under the purification ability of the supercharged Pseudo-Core, the Inferior Qi got all turned into Basic Qi. Then, the space left behind in the 'river' was further filled by the Supreme Qi of the Basic Stage from the light ring of the Tower.
Right now, he was at the peak of the Basic Stage already: once again, all that was left was to gather enough Spiritual Energy to fuel the process that would promote him to the Advanced Stage.
Obviously, Xiao Wu wouldn't have as stringent requirements as him. She would not need to go through such a tedious process and could simply use the normal method available to Pseudo-Core cultivators. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, the tiny bead that had such an unassuming name was actually extremely useful in Cheng Hao's eyes.
And that was coming from the one that had once found a way to mass-produce Aura Martial Ways starting from the Inferior Stage!
A genius that had once modified the Heaven Devouring Dragon's exclusive technique into a fearsome skill that could change the tides of a war!
A prodigy that managed to fuse the dragon-fire from the Long-Huo gems of two Immortal Realm Tyrant Dragons with the flames of his own Soul, thus creating the second strongest flames in the world, only inferior to those of the Primordial Blaze Emperor, the beast that birthed all flames!
And yet, even among those great accomplishments, the Pseudo-Core had to remain his proudest achievement. This feat was one he had accomplished through his effort alone, studying the flaws of cultivation and exploring them with the eyes of a mortal youth untainted by the views of so-called experts.
Nighttime, on the seventh day of closed-door cultivation.
Within a room encased in a golden film, Cheng Hao laid comfortably on the floor and played around with his Martial Way. The air around him seemed to be trembling as sparks of all hues would occasionally flicker, like many fireflies: they were manifestations of strands of all kinds of Qi, berserk after having been stimulated by a forbidden cultivation technique that should have been remained buried and forever lost. Eventually, however, even they dispersed.
The air flow, on the other hand, was still weird: it was slightly chaotic, as if strong winds had been blowing just until a short while ago and had yet to completely disperse.
Cheng Hao's efforts had eventually borne fruit as, deep within his Sea of Consciousness, lay a massive body of Qi like a gargantuan galaxy. Deep within was a golden pill, occasionally turning and spreading ripples across the ocean of Qi. Were it not for the gravitational pull of the Pseudo Core, the ocean would lose its shape and begin flowing, turning into a great river that traversed the consciousness. The ripples, on the other hand, were caused by the motions of the bead as it rotated: so long as it wasn't exerted for too long a time, the Pseudo Core would not send out those disturbances and keep the Sea from collapsing, thus leading to the formation of an actual Core.
However, that would require a few weeks' time, which Cheng Hao didn't have right now.
This was the 'Qi Sea' that Cheng Hao had once lectured Xiao Wu about, a mass of Qi and Spiritual Energy ready to pounce at any given point.
Cultivators at the Basic Stage would usually condense the Sensed Qi into the Qi River, a barreling mass that couldn't be slowed down without focused effort and certain methods. Even then, this would take months, years.
Pseudo-Core cultivators, on the other hand, would produce Qi Seas and they would breakthrough in a week at the fastest, in a month if they were unlucky, and they only needed to leave the whole system alone to do its thing.
Hom!
An inverted pagoda tower was hovering above the golden-eyed child's palm, letting out bright rays of light that lit up the room. The first floor, freed from the chains and the locks that kept it close, had been available ever since he stepped into the Inferior stage... Now, with his newfound cultivation at the peak of the Basic stage, he could make an attempt at the second floor!
"Immortal Ascension Tower, second floor..." The image of 'that' majestic pair of wings, a pair rumored to have flown across all lands, immediately came to mind. It leaped out like a fish in the sea that was his consciousness, extremely eye-catching. He reminisced about the past and sighed, "Old friend, even after all this time, this guilt I feel makes it so that I still find it difficult to talk to you face to face."
A few moments of silence passed as the Immortal Ascension Tower shed light onto the child's beautiful features. His golden eyes finally closed as he put away the peerless treasure.
"Just a little bit more. Give me a little more time. It wouldn't be right to meet you, embodiment of all that is pristine under the canopy of Heaven, anytime soon. After all, tonight, my hand is forced to slaughter the innocent." A fierce expression appeared on his face as his eyes grew cold and killing intent filled the room.
He got up and wore a black robe from his pouch before secretly coming out of seclusion.
Looking around at the room that had only a sleeping Wang Fuyin inside, he chuckled to himself. With a tap of his index finger, a stream of information left his fingertips and entered the unconscious youth's forehead. There, it told Lu everything about his intentions for the following morning, when the Zi Clan members would attack.
As for how he knew about that particular piece of information… it was thanks to him making full use of Te Rin's permit as a Sect Protector's disciple! With it, let alone having access to a lot of the inner workings of Western Continent, even dispatching several spies to far off lands was as quick as glib one was with their tongue!
Of course, Te Rin had noticed a few things after the first few nights, but she acted as if it truly had been her to order all those missions from the Sect's underground corp. The missing memories from that night and the knowledge that she had a mysterious helper was a reason good enough for her to believe this was her 'outside' person acting from the shadows to accomplish their goals…
And indeed, Cheng Hao's mind had been crunching numbers all along, concocting plot after plot to increase his personal strength, his reach in this world, and the number of his allies. Te Rin, needless to say, was right there on the list of his highest priorities.
As for right now, of course, he was heading to the Zi clan mansion, to erase the only immediate threat to Xiao Wu that kept him from being able to leave her side to this day.
"Let's go." Cheng Hao motioned, and Blindlight shrank down until it was just palm-sized and slithered into one of the youth's pockets.
Although the youth would be resolute in carrying out his carnage, as an unwilling executioner, he still wore pitch-black clothing: down to his attire, he was already mourning his victims, whose greatest sin had been that of being on the wrong side of a conflict endangering the future of his loved ones…