Chapter 20: 20
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Krune, of course, still doesn't know about this awesome nickname.
The lightning struck Krune's six Spiritual Energy Meridians, immediately they started to work at full power, but there was too much energy to be absorbed and converted, if this continued like that, he wouldn't be able to hold back anymore.
'I have to redirect the energy somewhere, but the problem is, the Heavenly Tribulation is targeting me, it definitely won't go anywhere else.'
Sparks flew everywhere, Krune energy body was almost disappearing and his core would soon to be affected, suddenly, Krune had an idea.
'I need to send the energy somewhere but it can only target me, then, what if I send it direct into my universe without waiting for conversion? Other than the planet itself, my universe is basically void, there should be no problem in releasing all the tribulation power there, after all, the void is considered to be myself.'
Krune didn't have time to ponder about the pros and cons, he had to act now, Krune immediately stopped the converting of energy process and opened his meridians fully to let all the energy pass through, all the lightning seemed to have found a path which it could follow and rushed inside, as soon as the tribulation lightning appeared inside his universe core, it started to rampage around, fortunately, it was all void, there was nothing to be destroyed to start with.
Krune kept absorbing more lightning and a few moments later, all the energy of the tribulation was now flashing right and left, up and down, all around his universe foundation, Krune knows that this is just the start, he can't simply leave the tribulation lightning moving around freely in his universe, this is a Heavenly Tribulation, made purely of spiritual energy, it won't simply disappear, it will keep running around until it finds a target.
Krune focused inside his universe foundation, here, he is god, when the lightning first struck, Krune had initially used his energy meridians to convert it into spiritual energy, although he opened his channels and let the lightning go through later, he had already restored almost all his spiritual energy before that.
Krune pondered for a bit, unless the tribulation lightning finds a target, it won't go away, and there is only one thing that can be used as target in his universe foundation, his planet!
'But this shouldn't be a problem, I don't need to guide the entire tribulation at once to strike my planet, I can do that slowly.'
And so he did, with the spiritual energy available to him in his core, he started to bait the tribulation lightning everywhere until it got separated in various small tribulations, slowly, he guided one of them to his planet.
'This is the moment of the truth'
The lightning tribulation seemed to have smelled something and rushed straight to planet, the planet wasn't big to start with, even though the interior of the core space is warped so it is much bigger than the appearance from outside, it had it's limit, so Krune's planet wasn't much bigger than a few kilometers, the tribulation lightning struck it directly, immediately, the entire planet seemed to have lightning sparks running all around it's body.
Krune's soul wasn't having a good time either, lightning element, specially one made of pure spiritual energy, is very effective against soul forms, with this one single strike, the pain that Krune felt wasn't the least bit inferior to when he first started breaking his core down, fortunately, it was still bearable.
After a few minutes, the lightning finally lost it's power and disappeared, Krune was feeling bitter, this was only the first one, he had over a hundred strands of lightning that he left running around in his universe, but he quickly made his mind, he needs to get over with it soon, otherwise, the tribulation might find it's way to his planet and strike all at once, there won't be even a trace of Krune's soul after that.
Lightning after lightning struck the surface of Krune's little planet, but this situation wasn't without rewards, Krune's soul is being tempered even further, every time a lightning struck, he would go through an unimaginable amount of pain, but he could feel the power of his soul strengthening bit by bit, he was familiar with this feeling from when he was breaking down his core.
Five lightnings, ten Lightnings, twenty lightnings, fifth, eighty, a hundred, Krune was already on the verge of fainting when finally, the final strand of tribulation lightning was guided to his planet, Krune put a strong front and faced the last lightning head on, that's right, Krune knows that the lightning also helped his soul tempering, so he decided that the last one would fall directly in his soul.
"I said I was going to eat you, and I will keep my word."
This time, Krune really felt he was going to die, but it wasn't long bfore the lightning power finally ran out, Krune left a sigh of relief.
'It's finally over.'
Just as he was about to start meditating to recover himself, that feeling of being one with the world returned.
'This... That's right, the golden core formation.'
Krune was right, he could feel the energy of the world again, something different from any other energy, even spiritual energy. It started to congregate in the place that he had prepared for his future golden core, but suddenly, something unexpected happened.
"The hell?! This thing isn't golden at all!"
Krune had heard from Ruik that his own future golden core was also golden from the start, its just that the golden color it had was very weak, from what Ruik heard from other demon beasts, this is the normal process, the higher your stage in the Foundation Establishment, the the stronger the golden color in the golden core becomes, it seems that when you arrive at the 9th stage, the golden core will be completely golden, showing that you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm.
The problem is, Krune's future core wasn't golden, in fact, it didn't have just one color, his future golden core, which isn't golden at all, looked more like a rainbow.
"Maybe the heavens felt pity of me brought some candy for me to eat."
Of course, that was just some bullshit Krune thought in the pass, there was no way such thing could happen, but still, why is his core so... colorful? But it wasn't over yet, just as the core was about to be completely formed, Krune felt the power of the tribulation lightning again. Turns out that his planet was struck by lightning so many times that it had kept some of it in it's interior, just a moment before his future 'rainbow' core was finished, that strand of lightning hit it.
Krune was alarmed, as soon as it was struck, it started tremble and jump all over like it was popcorn, Krune started to pray in his heart.
'Please don't break, please don't break, please don't break...'
If his future rainbow core broke, his Foundation Establishment breakthrough would most likely be considered a failure, and his core destroyed. Only death awaits for him if that happens.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, it stopped jumping around, it regained it's rainbow like color and the world energy finished it's formation, it was now lying quietly in the center of his planet core, but there was something different about it now, one could see some lightning sparks running around it.
"What kind of situation is this? First I get a child's candy as my future golden core, well, not golden anymore though, and now this candy has lightning running around it, I might as well pretend to be a clown and give it to the first kids I find beside the streets, even if the lightning don't let them eat it, it will still look like a funny toy."
Of course, such thought was basically done because of Krune's gloominess, he couldn't really give his future core away like that, it's just that he had to go through so much shit to complete his Foundation Establishment breakthrough that wanted to vent somewhere.
'It might have something to do with my foundation, the spiritual energy in my little universe is also rainbow like, so this is probably the reason.'
Krune put those thoughts behind his mind, he looked at the rainbow core and it seems that it won't do anything for the time being, so he decided to go back to the spiritual vein lake for the time being.
On the way, he met with Ruik and Lakin.
"Master, you survived! That's great!"
Ruik also comented.
"Now then, you have finished your breakthrough, so our contract is over, I think a wisp's foundation is pretty good for cultivation too, so why don't you give yourself to me?"
Krune just laughed it out.
"Give myself to you? Does it mean you fell in love with my awesomeness? I'm sorry but I have a fiance already."
Ruik went red from anger.
"Scram!"
He turned back and entered the cave again.
Both Lakin and Krune laughed even harder, Lakin looked back at Krune and asked.
"Master, is everything over? Is there something you need help with?"
Krune was happy with his concern.
"I'm okay, except for the fact that I feel like a pile of shit, I'm pretty much fine, let's go back to the spiritual vein lake, I need some time to recover."
After returning to the spiritual vein lake, Krune went to find Ruik straight away, Lakin followed out of curiosity too, he then explained about his situation and how his future core looked like some rainbow candy with lightning around it.
Lakin didn't know much about it to start with so he just listened, as for Ruik, his eyes looked like he was seeing an anomaly.
"I know quite a few Foundation Establishment beasts, but all of us have the same type of golden core, the only difference is how much golden they are depending on our cultivation stages."
Ruik pondered for a bit and then continued
"But you must remember that Katiu Forest isn't a big place to start with, there is way too many things out there that we don't know, there might be some other Foundation Establishment cultivators with a situation like yours. It was the first time I've heard about a Heavenly Tribulation falling before the Core Formation realm, but due to the lack of information we have here, it is very possible that it could have happened outside."
Krune agreed with his train of thought, there is now one more reason for him to leave, he then went ahead with another question.
"So, how this 'nurturing the golden core' works? Do I need to simply cultivate normally or is there some secret to it?"
Lakin also paid attention to this question, thanks to his master, he really has a chance at the Foundation Establishment too, Ruik looked at him and answered.
"There is, in fact, this isn't a secret, you would find out about that sooner or later, the core in the center of the foundation can be nourished by sending spiritual energy directly into it, once it feels the presence of spiritual energy, it will absorb the energy by itself, you just need to keep applying more spiritual energy until it stops absorbing, that is when your future core is ready to breakthrough to the next stage of the Foundation Establishment. Of course, you can't neglect your foundation either, try to remember what I said about my island in the lake foundation."
Krune pondered a little and found this memory, Ruik had said before that the lake holds the spiritual energy, it then is used to strengthen the island foundation, when the island gets sturdy enough, you can breakthrough to the next stage, he then waited for Ruik to continue.
"You can think about it as preparing the foundation for a natural calamity, the breakthrough of each stage will come followed by a huge explosion of spiritual energy, if you future core or your foundation can't resist it, it will break apart. Your planet foundation is definitely a top ranked foundation, so it should take even longer to improve it due to it's size."
After hearing that, Krune asked again.
"So, which one should I nurture first, the foundation or the core?"
Ruik answered straight away
"The core should be first, the reason is because it is very fast, the planet will take a long time, but as far as I know, the future cores only absorb the necessary spiritual energy and they don't need you to stop to stabilize it, different from your foundation, which needs to be stabilized together with your cultivation. My future golden core for example, it kept absorbing spiritual energy for an entire week without stop, but after that, it never accepted spiritual energy again, if you want, you can do it even faster, you just need to gather more spirit stones and suck then dry, as long as the future core have enough space for spiritual energy, it will accept everything."
"If I calculate the total spiritual energy that I used to fill up my golden core, I guess 200 to 300 Rank One spirit stones of middle or high quality should be enough."
Krune mentally noted down all this information, it wasn't that complicated in the end, basically, nurture the core, then nurture the foundation, then breakthrough to the next stage.
After conversing for a little while more, Krune went to the side of the spiritual vein lake and started to recover himself, he decided to take a few days break to relax a little and think about his next steps.
---
After a week, Krune was at peak condition again, he decided that he will first gather some spirit stones from the nearby spiritual veins and get over with the first stage of his rainbow core, Krune had completely given up the idea of using only the natural spiritual energy to feed his rainbow core or his planet foundation, he is a wisp, even thought he is at the Foundation Establishment now, he only got another ten years of life span. He is four years old at moment, which means that he only has another sixteen years to breakthrough the Core Formation realm bottleneck.
He also wanted to try out the differences of being in the next realm, exactly how stronger have he got? How better can he control his spiritual energy after the last tempering of his soul? His Divine Sense is out of the charts, no one at his level has a Divine Sense as powerful as his, so he wanted to test if beasts at the same cultivation level as himself can detect it. Finally, he has to stabilize his cultivation too, he can feel that the rainbow like spiritual energy in his 'universe' isn't flowing smoothly yet.
What else is better to achieve all of that other than battle?
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Krune, of course, still doesn't know about this awesome nickname.
The lightning struck Krune's six Spiritual Energy Meridians, immediately they started to work at full power, but there was too much energy to be absorbed and converted, if this continued like that, he wouldn't be able to hold back anymore.
'I have to redirect the energy somewhere, but the problem is, the Heavenly Tribulation is targeting me, it definitely won't go anywhere else.'
Sparks flew everywhere, Krune energy body was almost disappearing and his core would soon to be affected, suddenly, Krune had an idea.
'I need to send the energy somewhere but it can only target me, then, what if I send it direct into my universe without waiting for conversion? Other than the planet itself, my universe is basically void, there should be no problem in releasing all the tribulation power there, after all, the void is considered to be myself.'
Krune didn't have time to ponder about the pros and cons, he had to act now, Krune immediately stopped the converting of energy process and opened his meridians fully to let all the energy pass through, all the lightning seemed to have found a path which it could follow and rushed inside, as soon as the tribulation lightning appeared inside his universe core, it started to rampage around, fortunately, it was all void, there was nothing to be destroyed to start with.
Krune kept absorbing more lightning and a few moments later, all the energy of the tribulation was now flashing right and left, up and down, all around his universe foundation, Krune knows that this is just the start, he can't simply leave the tribulation lightning moving around freely in his universe, this is a Heavenly Tribulation, made purely of spiritual energy, it won't simply disappear, it will keep running around until it finds a target.
Krune focused inside his universe foundation, here, he is god, when the lightning first struck, Krune had initially used his energy meridians to convert it into spiritual energy, although he opened his channels and let the lightning go through later, he had already restored almost all his spiritual energy before that.
Krune pondered for a bit, unless the tribulation lightning finds a target, it won't go away, and there is only one thing that can be used as target in his universe foundation, his planet!
'But this shouldn't be a problem, I don't need to guide the entire tribulation at once to strike my planet, I can do that slowly.'
And so he did, with the spiritual energy available to him in his core, he started to bait the tribulation lightning everywhere until it got separated in various small tribulations, slowly, he guided one of them to his planet.
'This is the moment of the truth'
The lightning tribulation seemed to have smelled something and rushed straight to planet, the planet wasn't big to start with, even though the interior of the core space is warped so it is much bigger than the appearance from outside, it had it's limit, so Krune's planet wasn't much bigger than a few kilometers, the tribulation lightning struck it directly, immediately, the entire planet seemed to have lightning sparks running all around it's body.
Krune's soul wasn't having a good time either, lightning element, specially one made of pure spiritual energy, is very effective against soul forms, with this one single strike, the pain that Krune felt wasn't the least bit inferior to when he first started breaking his core down, fortunately, it was still bearable.
After a few minutes, the lightning finally lost it's power and disappeared, Krune was feeling bitter, this was only the first one, he had over a hundred strands of lightning that he left running around in his universe, but he quickly made his mind, he needs to get over with it soon, otherwise, the tribulation might find it's way to his planet and strike all at once, there won't be even a trace of Krune's soul after that.
Lightning after lightning struck the surface of Krune's little planet, but this situation wasn't without rewards, Krune's soul is being tempered even further, every time a lightning struck, he would go through an unimaginable amount of pain, but he could feel the power of his soul strengthening bit by bit, he was familiar with this feeling from when he was breaking down his core.
Five lightnings, ten Lightnings, twenty lightnings, fifth, eighty, a hundred, Krune was already on the verge of fainting when finally, the final strand of tribulation lightning was guided to his planet, Krune put a strong front and faced the last lightning head on, that's right, Krune knows that the lightning also helped his soul tempering, so he decided that the last one would fall directly in his soul.
"I said I was going to eat you, and I will keep my word."
This time, Krune really felt he was going to die, but it wasn't long bfore the lightning power finally ran out, Krune left a sigh of relief.
'It's finally over.'
Just as he was about to start meditating to recover himself, that feeling of being one with the world returned.
'This... That's right, the golden core formation.'
Krune was right, he could feel the energy of the world again, something different from any other energy, even spiritual energy. It started to congregate in the place that he had prepared for his future golden core, but suddenly, something unexpected happened.
"The hell?! This thing isn't golden at all!"
Krune had heard from Ruik that his own future golden core was also golden from the start, its just that the golden color it had was very weak, from what Ruik heard from other demon beasts, this is the normal process, the higher your stage in the Foundation Establishment, the the stronger the golden color in the golden core becomes, it seems that when you arrive at the 9th stage, the golden core will be completely golden, showing that you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm.
The problem is, Krune's future core wasn't golden, in fact, it didn't have just one color, his future golden core, which isn't golden at all, looked more like a rainbow.
"Maybe the heavens felt pity of me brought some candy for me to eat."
Of course, that was just some bullshit Krune thought in the pass, there was no way such thing could happen, but still, why is his core so... colorful? But it wasn't over yet, just as the core was about to be completely formed, Krune felt the power of the tribulation lightning again. Turns out that his planet was struck by lightning so many times that it had kept some of it in it's interior, just a moment before his future 'rainbow' core was finished, that strand of lightning hit it.
Krune was alarmed, as soon as it was struck, it started tremble and jump all over like it was popcorn, Krune started to pray in his heart.
'Please don't break, please don't break, please don't break...'
If his future rainbow core broke, his Foundation Establishment breakthrough would most likely be considered a failure, and his core destroyed. Only death awaits for him if that happens.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, it stopped jumping around, it regained it's rainbow like color and the world energy finished it's formation, it was now lying quietly in the center of his planet core, but there was something different about it now, one could see some lightning sparks running around it.
"What kind of situation is this? First I get a child's candy as my future golden core, well, not golden anymore though, and now this candy has lightning running around it, I might as well pretend to be a clown and give it to the first kids I find beside the streets, even if the lightning don't let them eat it, it will still look like a funny toy."
Of course, such thought was basically done because of Krune's gloominess, he couldn't really give his future core away like that, it's just that he had to go through so much shit to complete his Foundation Establishment breakthrough that wanted to vent somewhere.
'It might have something to do with my foundation, the spiritual energy in my little universe is also rainbow like, so this is probably the reason.'
Krune put those thoughts behind his mind, he looked at the rainbow core and it seems that it won't do anything for the time being, so he decided to go back to the spiritual vein lake for the time being.
On the way, he met with Ruik and Lakin.
"Master, you survived! That's great!"
Ruik also comented.
"Now then, you have finished your breakthrough, so our contract is over, I think a wisp's foundation is pretty good for cultivation too, so why don't you give yourself to me?"
Krune just laughed it out.
"Give myself to you? Does it mean you fell in love with my awesomeness? I'm sorry but I have a fiance already."
Ruik went red from anger.
"Scram!"
He turned back and entered the cave again.
Both Lakin and Krune laughed even harder, Lakin looked back at Krune and asked.
"Master, is everything over? Is there something you need help with?"
Krune was happy with his concern.
"I'm okay, except for the fact that I feel like a pile of shit, I'm pretty much fine, let's go back to the spiritual vein lake, I need some time to recover."
After returning to the spiritual vein lake, Krune went to find Ruik straight away, Lakin followed out of curiosity too, he then explained about his situation and how his future core looked like some rainbow candy with lightning around it.
Lakin didn't know much about it to start with so he just listened, as for Ruik, his eyes looked like he was seeing an anomaly.
"I know quite a few Foundation Establishment beasts, but all of us have the same type of golden core, the only difference is how much golden they are depending on our cultivation stages."
Ruik pondered for a bit and then continued
"But you must remember that Katiu Forest isn't a big place to start with, there is way too many things out there that we don't know, there might be some other Foundation Establishment cultivators with a situation like yours. It was the first time I've heard about a Heavenly Tribulation falling before the Core Formation realm, but due to the lack of information we have here, it is very possible that it could have happened outside."
Krune agreed with his train of thought, there is now one more reason for him to leave, he then went ahead with another question.
"So, how this 'nurturing the golden core' works? Do I need to simply cultivate normally or is there some secret to it?"
Lakin also paid attention to this question, thanks to his master, he really has a chance at the Foundation Establishment too, Ruik looked at him and answered.
"There is, in fact, this isn't a secret, you would find out about that sooner or later, the core in the center of the foundation can be nourished by sending spiritual energy directly into it, once it feels the presence of spiritual energy, it will absorb the energy by itself, you just need to keep applying more spiritual energy until it stops absorbing, that is when your future core is ready to breakthrough to the next stage of the Foundation Establishment. Of course, you can't neglect your foundation either, try to remember what I said about my island in the lake foundation."
Krune pondered a little and found this memory, Ruik had said before that the lake holds the spiritual energy, it then is used to strengthen the island foundation, when the island gets sturdy enough, you can breakthrough to the next stage, he then waited for Ruik to continue.
"You can think about it as preparing the foundation for a natural calamity, the breakthrough of each stage will come followed by a huge explosion of spiritual energy, if you future core or your foundation can't resist it, it will break apart. Your planet foundation is definitely a top ranked foundation, so it should take even longer to improve it due to it's size."
After hearing that, Krune asked again.
"So, which one should I nurture first, the foundation or the core?"
Ruik answered straight away
"The core should be first, the reason is because it is very fast, the planet will take a long time, but as far as I know, the future cores only absorb the necessary spiritual energy and they don't need you to stop to stabilize it, different from your foundation, which needs to be stabilized together with your cultivation. My future golden core for example, it kept absorbing spiritual energy for an entire week without stop, but after that, it never accepted spiritual energy again, if you want, you can do it even faster, you just need to gather more spirit stones and suck then dry, as long as the future core have enough space for spiritual energy, it will accept everything."
"If I calculate the total spiritual energy that I used to fill up my golden core, I guess 200 to 300 Rank One spirit stones of middle or high quality should be enough."
Krune mentally noted down all this information, it wasn't that complicated in the end, basically, nurture the core, then nurture the foundation, then breakthrough to the next stage.
After conversing for a little while more, Krune went to the side of the spiritual vein lake and started to recover himself, he decided to take a few days break to relax a little and think about his next steps.
---
After a week, Krune was at peak condition again, he decided that he will first gather some spirit stones from the nearby spiritual veins and get over with the first stage of his rainbow core, Krune had completely given up the idea of using only the natural spiritual energy to feed his rainbow core or his planet foundation, he is a wisp, even thought he is at the Foundation Establishment now, he only got another ten years of life span. He is four years old at moment, which means that he only has another sixteen years to breakthrough the Core Formation realm bottleneck.
He also wanted to try out the differences of being in the next realm, exactly how stronger have he got? How better can he control his spiritual energy after the last tempering of his soul? His Divine Sense is out of the charts, no one at his level has a Divine Sense as powerful as his, so he wanted to test if beasts at the same cultivation level as himself can detect it. Finally, he has to stabilize his cultivation too, he can feel that the rainbow like spiritual energy in his 'universe' isn't flowing smoothly yet.
What else is better to achieve all of that other than battle?
Krune, of course, still doesn't know about this awesome nickname. The lightning struck Krune's six Spiritual Energy Meridians, immediately they started to work at full power, but there was too much energy to be absorbed and converted, if this continued like that, he wouldn't be able to hold back anymore. 'I have to redirect the energy somewhere, but the problem is, the Heavenly Tribulation is targeting me, it definitely won't go anywhere else.' Sparks flew everywhere, Krune energy body was almost disappearing and his core would soon to be affected, suddenly, Krune had an idea. 'I need to send the energy somewhere but it can only target me, then, what if I send it direct into my universe without waiting for conversion? Other than the planet itself, my universe is basically void, there should be no problem in releasing all the tribulation power there, after all, the void is considered to be myself.' Krune didn't have time to ponder about the pros and cons, he had to act now, Krune immediately stopped the converting of energy process and opened his meridians fully to let all the energy pass through, all the lightning seemed to have found a path which it could follow and rushed inside, as soon as the tribulation lightning appeared inside his universe core, it started to rampage around, fortunately, it was all void, there was nothing to be destroyed to start with. Krune kept absorbing more lightning and a few moments later, all the energy of the tribulation was now flashing right and left, up and down, all around his universe foundation, Krune knows that this is just the start, he can't simply leave the tribulation lightning moving around freely in his universe, this is a Heavenly Tribulation, made purely of spiritual energy, it won't simply disappear, it will keep running around until it finds a target. Krune focused inside his universe foundation, here, he is god, when the lightning first struck, Krune had initially used his energy meridians to convert it into spiritual energy, although he opened his channels and let the lightning go through later, he had already restored almost all his spiritual energy before that. Krune pondered for a bit, unless the tribulation lightning finds a target, it won't go away, and there is only one thing that can be used as target in his universe foundation, his planet! 'But this shouldn't be a problem, I don't need to guide the entire tribulation at once to strike my planet, I can do that slowly.' And so he did, with the spiritual energy available to him in his core, he started to bait the tribulation lightning everywhere until it got separated in various small tribulations, slowly, he guided one of them to his planet. 'This is the moment of the truth' The lightning tribulation seemed to have smelled something and rushed straight to planet, the planet wasn't big to start with, even though the interior of the core space is warped so it is much bigger than the appearance from outside, it had it's limit, so Krune's planet wasn't much bigger than a few kilometers, the tribulation lightning struck it directly, immediately, the entire planet seemed to have lightning sparks running all around it's body. Krune's soul wasn't having a good time either, lightning element, specially one made of pure spiritual energy, is very effective against soul forms, with this one single strike, the pain that Krune felt wasn't the least bit inferior to when he first started breaking his core down, fortunately, it was still bearable. After a few minutes, the lightning finally lost it's power and disappeared, Krune was feeling bitter, this was only the first one, he had over a hundred strands of lightning that he left running around in his universe, but he quickly made his mind, he needs to get over with it soon, otherwise, the tribulation might find it's way to his planet and strike all at once, there won't be even a trace of Krune's soul after that. Lightning after lightning struck the surface of Krune's little planet, but this situation wasn't without rewards, Krune's soul is being tempered even further, every time a lightning struck, he would go through an unimaginable amount of pain, but he could feel the power of his soul strengthening bit by bit, he was familiar with this feeling from when he was breaking down his core. Five lightnings, ten Lightnings, twenty lightnings, fifth, eighty, a hundred, Krune was already on the verge of fainting when finally, the final strand of tribulation lightning was guided to his planet, Krune put a strong front and faced the last lightning head on, that's right, Krune knows that the lightning also helped his soul tempering, so he decided that the last one would fall directly in his soul. "I said I was going to eat you, and I will keep my word." This time, Krune really felt he was going to die, but it wasn't long bfore the lightning power finally ran out, Krune left a sigh of relief. 'It's finally over.' Just as he was about to start meditating to recover himself, that feeling of being one with the world returned. 'This... That's right, the golden core formation.' Krune was right, he could feel the energy of the world again, something different from any other energy, even spiritual energy. It started to congregate in the place that he had prepared for his future golden core, but suddenly, something unexpected happened. "The hell?! This thing isn't golden at all!" Krune had heard from Ruik that his own future golden core was also golden from the start, its just that the golden color it had was very weak, from what Ruik heard from other demon beasts, this is the normal process, the higher your stage in the Foundation Establishment, the the stronger the golden color in the golden core becomes, it seems that when you arrive at the 9th stage, the golden core will be completely golden, showing that you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm. The problem is, Krune's future core wasn't golden, in fact, it didn't have just one color, his future golden core, which isn't golden at all, looked more like a rainbow. "Maybe the heavens felt pity of me brought some candy for me to eat." Of course, that was just some bullshit Krune thought in the pass, there was no way such thing could happen, but still, why is his core so... colorful? But it wasn't over yet, just as the core was about to be completely formed, Krune felt the power of the tribulation lightning again. Turns out that his planet was struck by lightning so many times that it had kept some of it in it's interior, just a moment before his future 'rainbow' core was finished, that strand of lightning hit it. Krune was alarmed, as soon as it was struck, it started tremble and jump all over like it was popcorn, Krune started to pray in his heart. 'Please don't break, please don't break, please don't break...' If his future rainbow core broke, his Foundation Establishment breakthrough would most likely be considered a failure, and his core destroyed. Only death awaits for him if that happens. Fortunately, after a few minutes, it stopped jumping around, it regained it's rainbow like color and the world energy finished it's formation, it was now lying quietly in the center of his planet core, but there was something different about it now, one could see some lightning sparks running around it. "What kind of situation is this? First I get a child's candy as my future golden core, well, not golden anymore though, and now this candy has lightning running around it, I might as well pretend to be a clown and give it to the first kids I find beside the streets, even if the lightning don't let them eat it, it will still look like a funny toy." Of course, such thought was basically done because of Krune's gloominess, he couldn't really give his future core away like that, it's just that he had to go through so much shit to complete his Foundation Establishment breakthrough that wanted to vent somewhere. 'It might have something to do with my foundation, the spiritual energy in my little universe is also rainbow like, so this is probably the reason.' Krune put those thoughts behind his mind, he looked at the rainbow core and it seems that it won't do anything for the time being, so he decided to go back to the spiritual vein lake for the time being. On the way, he met with Ruik and Lakin. "Master, you survived! That's great!" Ruik also comented. "Now then, you have finished your breakthrough, so our contract is over, I think a wisp's foundation is pretty good for cultivation too, so why don't you give yourself to me?" Krune just laughed it out. "Give myself to you? Does it mean you fell in love with my awesomeness? I'm sorry but I have a fiance already." Ruik went red from anger. "Scram!" He turned back and entered the cave again. Both Lakin and Krune laughed even harder, Lakin looked back at Krune and asked. "Master, is everything over? Is there something you need help with?" Krune was happy with his concern. "I'm okay, except for the fact that I feel like a pile of shit, I'm pretty much fine, let's go back to the spiritual vein lake, I need some time to recover." After returning to the spiritual vein lake, Krune went to find Ruik straight away, Lakin followed out of curiosity too, he then explained about his situation and how his future core looked like some rainbow candy with lightning around it. Lakin didn't know much about it to start with so he just listened, as for Ruik, his eyes looked like he was seeing an anomaly. "I know quite a few Foundation Establishment beasts, but all of us have the same type of golden core, the only difference is how much golden they are depending on our cultivation stages." Ruik pondered for a bit and then continued "But you must remember that Katiu Forest isn't a big place to start with, there is way too many things out there that we don't know, there might be some other Foundation Establishment cultivators with a situation like yours. It was the first time I've heard about a Heavenly Tribulation falling before the Core Formation realm, but due to the lack of information we have here, it is very possible that it could have happened outside." Krune agreed with his train of thought, there is now one more reason for him to leave, he then went ahead with another question. "So, how this 'nurturing the golden core' works? Do I need to simply cultivate normally or is there some secret to it?" Lakin also paid attention to this question, thanks to his master, he really has a chance at the Foundation Establishment too, Ruik looked at him and answered. "There is, in fact, this isn't a secret, you would find out about that sooner or later, the core in the center of the foundation can be nourished by sending spiritual energy directly into it, once it feels the presence of spiritual energy, it will absorb the energy by itself, you just need to keep applying more spiritual energy until it stops absorbing, that is when your future core is ready to breakthrough to the next stage of the Foundation Establishment. Of course, you can't neglect your foundation either, try to remember what I said about my island in the lake foundation." Krune pondered a little and found this memory, Ruik had said before that the lake holds the spiritual energy, it then is used to strengthen the island foundation, when the island gets sturdy enough, you can breakthrough to the next stage, he then waited for Ruik to continue. "You can think about it as preparing the foundation for a natural calamity, the breakthrough of each stage will come followed by a huge explosion of spiritual energy, if you future core or your foundation can't resist it, it will break apart. Your planet foundation is definitely a top ranked foundation, so it should take even longer to improve it due to it's size." After hearing that, Krune asked again. "So, which one should I nurture first, the foundation or the core?" Ruik answered straight away "The core should be first, the reason is because it is very fast, the planet will take a long time, but as far as I know, the future cores only absorb the necessary spiritual energy and they don't need you to stop to stabilize it, different from your foundation, which needs to be stabilized together with your cultivation. My future golden core for example, it kept absorbing spiritual energy for an entire week without stop, but after that, it never accepted spiritual energy again, if you want, you can do it even faster, you just need to gather more spirit stones and suck then dry, as long as the future core have enough space for spiritual energy, it will accept everything." "If I calculate the total spiritual energy that I used to fill up my golden core, I guess 200 to 300 Rank One spirit stones of middle or high quality should be enough." Krune mentally noted down all this information, it wasn't that complicated in the end, basically, nurture the core, then nurture the foundation, then breakthrough to the next stage. After conversing for a little while more, Krune went to the side of the spiritual vein lake and started to recover himself, he decided to take a few days break to relax a little and think about his next steps. --- After a week, Krune was at peak condition again, he decided that he will first gather some spirit stones from the nearby spiritual veins and get over with the first stage of his rainbow core, Krune had completely given up the idea of using only the natural spiritual energy to feed his rainbow core or his planet foundation, he is a wisp, even thought he is at the Foundation Establishment now, he only got another ten years of life span. He is four years old at moment, which means that he only has another sixteen years to breakthrough the Core Formation realm bottleneck. He also wanted to try out the differences of being in the next realm, exactly how stronger have he got? How better can he control his spiritual energy after the last tempering of his soul? His Divine Sense is out of the charts, no one at his level has a Divine Sense as powerful as his, so he wanted to test if beasts at the same cultivation level as himself can detect it. Finally, he has to stabilize his cultivation too, he can feel that the rainbow like spiritual energy in his 'universe' isn't flowing smoothly yet. What else is better to achieve all of that other than battle?
