Fang Shu withdrew his gaze and thought to himself:
For now, I must not reach beyond my grasp. The path of refining spirit is still a flower in a mirror, a moon reflected in water to me.
For him, the most pressing matter was taking the step into Golden Core—and he had to form a true core.
Otherwise, even with this spirit-refining method in hand, it would still be useless.
Fang Shu closed his eyes in contemplation, the five thousand characters of Mystic Script swirling ceaselessly through his mind.
He began carefully sorting out how to form the true core described in the Great Method of Yin-Yang, Life and Death, Corpse Liberation, and Linked Forms.
According to the method, the great elixirs formed through the Mount Lu Orthodox Lineage came in various kinds: true cores focused on the internal organs, true cores focused on the limbs and hands, and others focused on other corresponding parts of the human body.
Each kind of true core offered some possibility of reaching refining spirit. After forming the core, one only needed to slowly supplement and assemble the other major parts until they formed a complete human body, which could then be used for Corpse Liberation and ascension.
Yet clearly, such a process carried rather too much of the acquired, postnatal quality.
Moreover, having witnessed the leaders of the Five Sects of Mount Lu being forced to merge into one, Fang Shu deeply suspected that this method of building the whole from smaller parts was not a good path.
Thus, his sights were set on the most orthodox true core described in the Mount Lu Elixir Code.
Leaving aside its grade and the qualities of its core energy for the moment, the cultivation process for this true core began with the two principles of