"Glug~" Fei Luo tipped his head back and swallowed the Foundation-Cultivating Pill.
Even though this wasn't his first time taking a pill, Fei Luo still savored its fragrant sweetness.
The spiritual pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, filling his lips and teeth with a rich fragrance as its pure medicinal power instantly spread through every limb and bone.
Boom!
At that moment, the sea of qi inside Fei Luo seemed to be stirred by an invisible force. His surging spiritual energy turned into a vortex and began to spin rapidly.
A few breaths later, Fei Luo sensed that the vortex still hadn't grown any larger, so he tipped his head back and swallowed a Heaven Origin Soul Gathering Pill.
The pill, which could unconditionally raise one's cultivation by a single tier in the Foundation Establishment Realm, now turned into a dense stream of spiritual power and flowed into the vortex.
Not enough!
Keep swallowing!
"Glug~"
"Glug~"
After swallowing three pills in succession, Fei Luo began to feel full. It was because spiritual energy was piling up inside him.
"Gather!" Fei Luo focused all his attention on controlling the vortex within him. The liquid-like spiritual energy began to spin at tremendous speed.
The vortex was made entirely of liquid spiritual energy. As long as he kept condensing it until it shrank to a singular point, his core would be formed.
After half an incense stick's time, Fei Luo felt waves of emptiness.
He tipped his head back and swallowed more pills.
If anyone else had witnessed this scene, they would have been scared half to death.
Even Golden Core cultivators had a limit to how much magical power their bodies could hold in this Age of Declining Dharma. Yet Fei Luo had downed six Heaven Origin Soul Gathering Pills in a row—a quantity equivalent to the peak magical power of two Foundation Establishment cultivators.
And Fei Luo's own foundation of magical power was at least ten times greater than that of a regular cultivator. The more one thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
The bottle in front of Fei Luo was gradually emptying.
"Three left. Gather!"
By now, the vortex inside Fei Luo had reached an astonishing speed, its fearsome power like a mountain flood and a raging sea. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed the last three Heaven Origin Soul Gathering Pills in one go.
At that moment, the spiritual energy within Fei Luo reached its peak.
Golden strands formed from the Foundation-Cultivating Pill's medicinal power kept flowing into the vortex. The vortex seemed to be gilded, a dazzling golden light swirling around it.
"Gather!"
Fei Luo let out a thunderous shout, and the vortex inside him rapidly contracted.
"Whirring~"
Fei Luo wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned his attention inward.
Good heavens! Fei Luo saw the inner core inside his body and exclaimed silently.
"It's actually a supreme False Core. The moment it formed, it was golden." Fei Luo was secretly astonished.
He had read the Maoshan records, which described many secrets of the Golden Core Realm.
In the False Core Realm, the lowest grade was gray. Most people's False Cores had a gray sheen, and ghost cores were the same.
Above gray, white was revered; above white, pale yellow was king.
And above pale yellow, light gold was the absolute emperor, looking down upon all living things.
Fei Luo's False Core, however, was deep gold.
This...
Fei Luo furrowed his brow. "Could the Golden Core Realm also be affected by Ten Thousandfold Amplification? The amount of magical power I contain is probably a hundred times that of an ordinary person."
Fei Luo murmured to himself. He didn't know how things were for others, but judging from the difference between his own magical power and Uncle Nine's when they were in the Foundation Establishment Realm, he had been ten times stronger than an ordinary person back then.
Now that he had reached the Golden Core Realm, the gap was even greater: a hundredfold.
Fei Luo had guessed correctly. Ten Thousandfold Amplification wasn't limited to the system's automatic cultivation. When the host cultivated through his own efforts, it was amplified ten thousandfold as well.
Even if other people had magical power, they wouldn't use it as recklessly as Fei Luo did to subdue demons. They tried to conserve every bit they could.
Why?
Because in the Age of Declining Dharma, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was thin. Waste even a sliver of magical power, and one would have to spend several times the effort drawing spiritual energy into the body and condensing and transforming it into magical power.
Fei Luo, an aberration among cultivators, had no need to worry about any of that. His body was constantly operating the Yin Energy Body-Forging Art on its own, absorbing spiritual energy from the world. On top of that, subduing demons and eradicating evil earned him rewards. As for pills to replenish his magical power, Fei Luo had never worried about running short.
That was just how extravagant Fei Luo was!
This Age of Declining Dharma had no effect on him whatsoever.
All he had to think about was how to subdue demons, eradicate evil, bring blessings to the people, and earn rewards.
"If I were to face Dong Xiaoyu now, I wouldn't need to go through all that trouble. One sword would be enough to kill her." Fei Luo sensed the new changes within his body and murmured to himself.
An increase in cultivation was also an evolution in the level of one's life. That was an unchanging truth through the ages.
As one's cultivation grew, so did the abilities one could gain. One's lifespan would also increase without one even noticing.
Zhang the Perfected One could live for three hundred years during the Ming Dynasty precisely because he cultivated the Dao.
"Is it already midnight?" After examining the changes in his body, Fei Luo looked up at the window. The moon had long since drifted toward the edge of the sky, and he knew it was already late at night.
Yet Fei Luo wasn't sleepy at all.
Golden Core cultivators could abstain from food. Even if they went ten days or half a month without a drop of water, they would be completely unharmed. The same went for sleep.
At this level of cultivation, one could truly be said to have undergone a complete transformation.
In high spirits, Fei Luo shifted his gaze, entered the system space, and took out an item.
It was a ring that looked as if it had been made of platinum. Clouds were engraved across it, and its craftsmanship was beyond the reach of even the finest sculptors of later generations.
"A storage ring? Do I need to drip blood on it to claim ownership?" Fei Luo grinned. He hadn't expected to obtain such a treasure.
Drip.
With a thought, Fei Luo forced a drop of blood from his fingertip and let it fall onto the ring.
In some mysterious way, Fei Luo felt a connection form between himself and the ring.
"Open!"
With a thought, a space ten zhang wide and ten zhang long appeared before Fei Luo, invisible to ordinary people.
Fei Luo shifted his gaze to the pillow beside him.
As if by magic, the pillow appeared inside the ring's space at his command.
"What a treasure. With this, I'll never have to worry about not having my personal belongings with me when I travel the world." Fei Luo smiled. "I should give you a name. I'll call you the Flowing Cloud Ring."
There was one thing Fei Luo had never understood. When those heroes wandered the martial world, didn't they change their clothes? Didn't they change their socks? Didn't they bring toiletries?
With this treasure, he could keep all kinds of everyday necessities inside and carry them around with ease.
As for weapons like the Flowing Cloud Sword, it was already in the system space and could be taken out or put away at will.
Even after reaching the Golden Core Realm, Fei Luo's outlook hadn't changed much.
At the end of the day, he was still a person.
A person had to maintain some standards, right? When traveling away from home, surely he couldn't wear the same outfit every day of the year?
One had to pay attention to one's appearance. Even while subduing demons and eradicating evil, one still had to look presentable.
Looking at the clouds engraved on the ring, Fei Luo smugly gave it a name.
But the ring was lifeless. It didn't respond to Fei Luo at all.
He slipped it onto his index finger. As if it had a spirit of its own, the ring automatically shrank to fit him perfectly, then settled gently around his finger.
Then Fei Luo turned his attention to the final reward: the Void-Breaking Sword Art, the sword art he had been looking forward to the most.
"This is..."
After only two glances, Fei Luo's pupils contracted. He was utterly shocked.
Before you continue