Inside the cave abode on Purple Sky Peak, the spirit spring had frozen solid. Cold mist coiled like dragons and snakes, forming frost-flower totems on the bluestone floor. Han Li sat cross-legged beside the spring, pale blue ice crystals suspended in the air within three feet of him-a sign that his water-origin spiritual power had been compressed to its utmost limit.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, his silver-white golden core spun rapidly. A star chart formed from the Big Dipper and magnetic patterns shone with almost tangible brilliance. At its center, the North Star blazed with dazzling silver light, illuminating his dantian like a miniature firmament.
[System notification: Seclusion begun. Objective: Break through to the Core Formation Middle Stage.]
Three quarters into the midnight hour, the surface of his golden core suddenly cracked!
Within the spiderweb fissures, water patterns surged like emerald waves, while magnetic patterns stabbed like clusters of steel needles. The two kinds of spiritual power raised towering waves inside his golden core. Han Li grunted, a sweet, metallic taste rising in his throat—the backlash caused by his golden core's insufficient quality felt like ten thousand ants gnawing at his heart. Through the agony, he recalled a passage from the incomplete Magnetic Essence Nascent Soul Art: "The North Star Heart-Settling Position is not achieved in a single day's effort, but is the foundation of ten thousand tribulations."
"Let magnetism guide, and water serve as the medium!"
Gritting his teeth, he activated the Purple-Gold Nascent Soul Rune deep within his sea of consciousness. As the rune flickered, seven rays of light shot out, piercing precisely into the cracks in his golden core. The magnetic patterns were forcibly smoothed into warp and weft, while the water patterns wound around them like threads. Under the rune's suppression, their