Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 202: Golden Core Formation Phenomenon

“We dare not!”

“Good.” Wang Hao nodded, tossing two Storage Bags to the group. “These contain daily necessities. Go excavate your own cave dwellings. Keep them clustered together; if you spread out too much, support will be slow to arrive in an emergency.”

Wang Hao sent the others off to dig their cave dwellings, leaving only Wang Wenyuan behind.

“Fifth Brother, do you have specific instructions for me?” Wang Wenyuan asked respectfully.

Wang Hao handed Wenyuan several more storage bags. “There are a little over a hundred Tang family mortals confined in the caverns. They know about the mine, so we cannot let them go. But we cultivators cannot simply kill mortals, either. They must continue mining here. Keep an eye on them.”

“Mortals need plenty of supplies. I have prepared enough for two years, and the clan will send more afterward.”

“Understood, Fifth Brother,” Wang Wenyuan said, storing the bags.

“There are pills as well. As the Foundation Establishment elder here, give the other clansmen a few each month and urge them to cultivate. Also make sure they do not steal from the mine. If anyone does, punish them severely as a warning to the rest.” Wang Hao had watched these young people grow up, but some might still put their own interests first.

“I understand,” Wenyuan said gravely. He knew the warning applied to him too. The clan had raised and supported him; harming its interests would ruin his own future.

“That is all. Go and dig your own cave dwelling. I am leaving.” Wang Hao paused. “The clan leader once promised Wenjiang and the others they could leave. We have kept them here for secrecy. Make sure they are treated well.”

Wang Wenyuan nodded again. He escorted Wang Hao to the exit and waved goodbye.

Wang Hao watched the defensive array seal the entrance. He checked it one last time, ensuring no leaks, before turning away.

The mine lay a hundred zhang below Rubble Slope. Few people visited the area, and even a powerful cultivator flying overhead would struggle to discover it without deliberately searching.

The greater danger was the Tang family members who had escaped. If any knew the mine’s secret, the Wang family had no way to deal with them.

But they had been quiet for too long. Either they didn’t know, or they were biding their time.

There was no use speculating. Wang Hao shook his head and sighed. “What we need is a Golden Core cultivator.”

In a small room of the Pill & Talisman Pavilion in Wanxiang City, a white-haired old man sat cross-legged.

His eyes were shut. Each breath caused a visible ripple in the surrounding spiritual energy.

Inside his body, the turbulence was far more violent. His brow furrowed intermittently, and beads of sweat gathered on his forehead.

Wang Guang’an had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment. His true essence was exceedingly thick, but forming a Golden Core still required an opportunity.

Advancing from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment changed spiritual power from gas to liquid, allowing the limited dantian to hold more of it. It was the first qualitative transformation of the energy within.

Advancing to Golden Core required another transformation, from liquid to solid. Forming a core meant just that: condensing spiritual power into a sphere.

It sounded simple. It was anything but.

The process was fraught with mortal danger. A single mistake meant death and the dissipation of the Dao. Most cultivators spent their lives gazing at this threshold, never crossing it.

Wang Guang’an had once planned to make a desperate attempt when his lifespan neared its end, with less than a ten percent chance of success. Wang Hao had found him a Gold Essence Fruit and a Dustfall Pill, raising his chances to sixty percent.

Even so, he had spent two years in quiet meditation, refining his true essence until it was exceptionally pure. He now felt confident he could defeat a cultivator at the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment with a single strike.

The final wisp of spiritual power settled into his Dantian.

Wang Guang’an’s eyes snapped open.

“It is time.”

His gaze was iron-hard. He extended his left hand, revealing two white jade bottles: the Nine-Elixir Golden Liquid and the Dustfall Pill.

He put the Dustfall Pill aside for later and uncorked the Nine-Elixir Golden Liquid.

A rich medicinal fragrance spread through the entire cave dwelling.

He was fortunate to have the liquid. Many cultivators struggled all their lives without obtaining even one resource that could help them form a Golden Core.

He briefly reviewed his life, then drank the Nine-Elixir Golden Liquid in one gulp.

As the liquid entered his stomach, its abundant spiritual power seeped through his body and into his meridians like spring rain.

He shut his eyes again and concentrated his spiritual sense, guiding the medicinal power toward his dantian.

As more of the golden liquid gathered there, the pressure and pain grew steadily harder to bear.

Wang Guang’an gritted his teeth. After everything he had endured over the years, he would not give up over pain.

At last, two months later, he had refined all the Nine-Elixir Golden Liquid into his dantian.

Golden liquid occupied more than half his dantian, with a layer of his original true essence around its edge.

As he circulated his technique, the liquid began to turn. A vortex formed, compressing the surrounding spiritual power toward its center.

Three days later.

In the eye of the vortex, a pale golden sphere, no larger than a bean, materialized.

The embryonic form of the Golden Core.

The fledgling core was still weak and could disperse at any moment. Wang Guang’an was not yet a Golden Core cultivator. He kept it rotating, drawing in spiritual energy to make it grow.

As it absorbed his spiritual power, his dantian and meridians were gradually drained, and he began drawing in energy from outside.

Now it was time for the Dustfall Pill.

Wang Guang’an swallowed the Dustfall Pill.

Outside spiritual energy had not been compressed and was insufficiently pure. The Dustfall Pill would spare him that process.

As soon as he swallowed it, spiritual energy rushed into his body.

A vortex formed outside his cave dwelling.

It drew in spiritual energy from across Wanxiang City.

Before long, many of the city’s cultivators noticed the phenomenon.

Wanxiang City was guarded by a Nascent Soul cultivator and had perhaps dozens of Golden Core cultivators. But most of its cultivators were still at Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining. To them, someone forming a Golden Core was momentous.

To witness it in person would be a rare stroke of luck and a tale to tell for years.