A stream of Life Energy entered his dantian and engulfed the core, under Rex's control the core trembled then its surface layer started to rapidly turn into highly concentrated Qi and filled his dantian to the brim in a matter of few seconds.
Rex divided his consciousness into two parts, the first was used to manipulate the excess high-quality Qi in his dantian and spread it to his whole body and the second was in his sea of consciousness.
The stable foggy sea of consciousness was now trembling, the power of Dao was both destroying and recreating it at the same time. It was like someone was digging a pit to make a pool out of it.
Just when Rex guided the rich Yin and Yang Qi in his whole body, big wormholes like cracks appeared in the foggy inner world, then a stream of familiar rich energy flowed in, soon it was followed by a different type of energy, both the energies stared to nurture the transforming world in the next second.
Rex was shocked but he didn't stop it, from what he knew the inner world would use either his purified spiritual Qi from the golden core, his flame essence, or maybe both to build the foundation of his inner world.
But now the energies it was absorbing was non-other than Psychic Energy and Life Energy/Exp.
One's Dao helps them build their inner world while the energy absorbed is used as an input to nurture it. If the inner world is taken as a building in construction then the Dao is the head engineer responsible for the quality of the building made, the energy is the raw material like bricks and cement, finally the blueprint of the building, it is something that the host subconsciously made while cultivating so far.
Rex was only surprised for a moment then his surprise soon turned into joy, although he had no idea what the result would be like but he knew it wouldn't be bad because whether it was Exp or Psychic Energy they both were unique to himself, and both of them were in no way inferior to Spiritual Qi or his Flame Essence from Scarlet Heavenly Flame and Nebula Blue Flame.
Inner World, a cultivator who has reached the Core Breaking stage regardless of the path used can condense the inner world based on their reals self. An inner world of a person can tell a lot of things about them.
No matter how strong a cultivator is at birth, they cannot be born with a pre condensed inner world. One needs to find their Dao Path before even thinking about doing it.
Theoretically, it isn't impossible to condense Inner World without comprehending Dao but it will be like a commoner is trying to beat down an armed black commando using a pencil.
P.S.- Not everyone is John Wick~
The inner world is closely related to its host, for example, an Alchemist would usually have a Flame World inner world that will increase the power of their flames and resistance against other flames, it will also help them in comprehending flame related laws faster.
A person who likes to be quiet and is calm can gain Calm World inner world, where they can feel relieved.
A person with a high affinity with water elements can have a Deep Sea World or Blue Ocean World like inner world.
The inner world can be similar in types but every inner world is unique to a cultivator and because of its preciousness to them, asking about someone else's inner world is taboo just like asking about their cultivation technique. The size of the inner world is not fixed, depending on the host it can change, a normal person has an inner world big as a village but there are also peerless geniuses whose inner world is big as an ocean.
Normally, people take it as - the bigger the inner world is, the higher its potential. Although the inner world grows with the host but if there is one person whose inner world as big as a city and there is another person who is just equal to a small village in size, both of their inner world grows with them then will the difference decrease? No, moreover it might increase if no unexpected situation occurs. The bigger inner world will likely go at a faster rate than a small inner world.
A person can enter their inner world easily as a soul avatar if the inner world is strong enough then they can even let other's soul avatar enter their inner world but an inner world is not only the strength of a cultivator but also their weakness, just like soul damage inner world damage is lethal or sometimes... irreversible so if a foreign party sneak attacks their inner world and damage it then they their situation will be same as a bird who lost her wings.
Rex was following multiple cultivation paths so after reaching the Core Breaking stage his inner world will naturally be a little strengthened but the gain was not that high so most won't go through that much effort to do that, it was better to find a pill that could do that.
After making sure everything is going alright in the pseudo-Inner world, Rex examined his body which was going through an intense tempering at the moment. Unlike before when Qi flowed through his whole body he could feel a cold sensation deep within... it was his soul. He could feel the connection between his soul and sea of consciousness was going through big changes, it was a feeling he never got before even as a soul cultivator, his soul was highly sensitive at the moment.
Rex condition was the same for the next 6 hours, the golden core kept supplying purified spiritual Qi until it crumbled into pieces and completely turned into formless Qi moistening his whole body.
[Level Up]
[Congratulation! You have advanced to Core Breaking 1st stage]
Rex slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of impure air. At the moment, his whole body was covered in sweat, all his clothes were wet, steam was rising from his hot skin like someone has just roasted him in the oven but even after being in such a pathetic state, there was a blissful smile on his face because... he succeeded.
Rex led on his back, closed his eyes, and went into a deep sleep.
He succeeded but he was too tired to check how his inner world looks like.
On the other side, in a hidden cave...
Zakiya was sitting cross-legged on her bed, suddenly she opened her eyes and sighed in relief.
'I knew that brat can make it without using any external support, it was the right decision to not tell him about external preparations,' Zakiya thought.
She told Rex that if other's support him anyway then it will influence him in breaking through and it was true but he could himself make things that will help him breakthrough as long as she provided him with enough information.
There was a reason that the number of Core Breaking stage expert in the whole middle realm was far lesser than the number of Golden Core stage expert.
If Rex had used those methods as other people do then it would have been way easier for him to breakthrough and they wouldn't have influenced him as much as when taking someone else's help do but... the influence is influence even when it was only a little.
When Rex tried to achieve breakthroughs on his efforts which in return removed the slightest possibility of being influenced.
Although Zakiya believed that Rex might still choose this way even when he knew the truth but in that case, he would know that there is a way out his confidence might have suffered a debuff so she kept quiet.
If it was not for that then would someone like Rex get in such a pathetic state just after one Level Up?
It was a test of will power too, Rex hadn't lived for hundreds of year and even after going through Zakiya's life and death training his will power won't reach that level like his instincts in such a short period but he had his strong points... whether it was multitasking or remaining calm in near-death situations, he could do both.
Building an inner world without any external effort is something even the geniuses from the higher realm won't dare do... unless they were the madman that came in the Evil Doer category.
Zakiya was such a madma- madwoman that's why she let Rex enter the category too albeit without him knowing it.
'Hmm... his cultivation base is increasing at such speed, as a teacher I should give him a reward, let's see what is he lacking most right now...' Zakiya thought for a few seconds then her lips curled in a grin, she had decided on a gift for him.
Next Morning.....
Rex woke up on the cold floor, he sat up and stretched his arms. After waking up the first thing he did was to confirm that he succeeded yesterday and relaxed.
'Rosie~ how is my baby inner world?' Rex asked. He was excited to see his newly obtained inner world.
He wanted to see if it was big as an ocean, tall as ozone, and majestic as seven wonders.
[Well, why don't you see for yourself,]
Rex was delighted after hearing those words, he thought that his inner world might be too grand for Rose to define in few words.
He closed his eyes as he quickly urged and summoned his soul avatar in his inner world.
When a cultivator posses a sea of consciousness they can take a peek inside but it's like a first-person view in a game. But when it turns into an inner world, a small part of the cultivator's soul is severed to make a soul avatar that can experience everything inside the inner world like the person in question is using a game pod and nerve gear. A soul avatar is like a small nascent soul clone that can be controlled at will.
When Rex opened his eyes again, the world view has completely changed.
He first checked himself and found out that he was the same as before, he was wearing the same dirty clothes which gave of a sour smell. He didn't bother with them anymore and looked around to check his newly obtained inner world.
Rex looked in front, then at his right, left, back, below, and finally top. He blinked his eyes a few times then inhaled a lot of air in his lung and shouted.
"Why The Fukkkk's It's So Small," Rex shouted at the top of his lungs after making sure he was standing inside a while cubic room with no windows or door.
In fact, the room was not small, it looked like it was around 50 meters long and because it was cubic, all sides had the same length.
If it was a normal room then it was of course not small and was even bigger like a warehouse alas it was his inner world. From his knowledge, Rex knew that even an average person has an inner world as big as a village but he was even smaller.
'Have I created the record of obtaining the smallest inner world? No, this might be a bad dream. or maybe I am just standing in one of the thousand or even ten thousand of rooms present inside my inner world,' Rex tried to remove all the negative thoughts from his mind and fill it with positive ones but he forgot he wasn't alone.
[Nah, it's just a cubic room with sides 100 meters each,]
Rex's eyes started to tear up as he looked at the empty white room which didn't even have a speck of dust in it.
Rex got on his knees and punched the ground with his fists then he looked at the white ceiling.
'I know heavens are jealous of my beauty but is it really fine to play with me like this? Don't tell me that corruption reached even Heavenly Dao and Heaven's headquarter?' Rex said.
[Well, don't be that sad, it's small but is strong and sturdy, although we never actually saw any inner world so it's hard to appraise it but this one is definitely not weak,]
Rose's consoling words just made him more pitiful, because the 'But' he was expecting didn't come.
'Should I just stop being a cultivator, go back to the lower realm, and open a farmhouse in one of the corners to spent the rest of my life in peace?' Rex thought.
[...]