Soul Returns to Heaven and Earth, Body Dies and Dao Dissipates!
Inside the cave abode.
Yun Tianfan sat cross-legged on the futon, his mind calm and his breath steady...
"The Golden Core has three stages."
The first stage: the Spiritual Power Trial. Gathering the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth, the Spiritual Qi is infused into the body, compressing all the spiritual energy into a liquid state and continuously gathering it in the Dantian.
The second challenge: Absorb a Heaven and Earth Qi Dynamic and Heaven and Earth Qi Dynamic into oneself to stabilize one's Dao Path.
The third stage: condensing the Golden Core, which involves fusing the Heaven and Earth Qi with spiritual liquid to form the Golden Core. Only when the Golden Core is firmly established can one truly break through.
These three stages of Core Formation are increasingly dangerous.
For Yun Tianfan, the second hurdle was a life-or-death struggle...
Yun Tianfan stopped thinking about it and began to circulate his Cultivation Method.
The spiritual energy cultivated within his body for over a hundred years began to circulate at an accelerated pace.
One hour later.
The first challenge: Condensed Spiritual Energy.
start.
Outside the cave abode.
Yun Du sat cross-legged on a rock, facing the stone gate, motionless.
Shi Jian hung in the air, equally silent.
Time passed little by little.
One hour, two hours, three hours...
The fluctuations of Spiritual Qi within the cave abode were becoming increasingly intense.
It took a full twelve hours to gather this spiritual energy.
At this moment, the Spiritual Qi within a hundred miles was drawn in by an invisible force and poured into the cave abode. A vortex of Spiritual Qi gathered in the clouds and continuously poured into the mountain.
Five hours later.
The fluctuations stabilized, the Spiritual Qi surged immensely, and the aura continued to rise!
Yun Du slightly opened his eyes. "First test, passed."
Shi Jian gave a low "hmm".
The first stage isn't too difficult for cultivators who have reached the Foundation Establishment Perfection; as long as their foundation is solid, they can generally pass it.
The real Ghost Gate Pass is yet to come.
Another half hour passed.
The Spiritual Qi within the cave abode surged once more, signaling the start of the second trial.
Absorb the energy of heaven and earth!
At that moment, the celestial phenomena changed abruptly.
The sky above the cave abode suddenly darkened.
A grayish-white cloud gathered from all directions, forming a huge vortex directly above the cave abode.
This is not a Thunder Rank event, but a Core Formation Core Formation phenomenon triggered by Core Formation!
At the center of the vortex, Spiritual Qi poured down like a waterfall, flooding the cave abode, and the sky instantly radiated a dazzling golden light...
Thousands of clouds gathered, and the aura of the Cloud Dao gradually rose!
Xia Xiu might see this as a sign of success, but for someone like Shi Jian, who had reached the Core Formation, it was quite clear.
Although the Spiritual Qi gathered in this world is abundant, it is a scattered and disordered spiritual force.
If the Qi is too scattered, it cannot gather the Heaven and Earth Qi.
Without that crucial wisp of heaven and earth energy, the Core Embryo cannot be catalyzed to condense, and the Golden Core cannot take shape, ultimately resulting in failure.
A muffled groan came from inside the cave abode; it was Yun Tianfan's voice.
He's just putting up with it.
Using his more than 100 years of cultivation, he continuously gathered the Heaven and Earth Qi Dynamic and earth, attempting to forcibly condense the Heaven and Earth Qi from between them!
At this moment, Shi Jian sighed silently, while Yun Du's expression was solemn...
Inside the cave abode.
Sweat streamed down Yun Tianfan's forehead...
Within his Dantian, milky-white liquid spiritual energy spun wildly.
It spins very fast, extremely fast.
But it just won't solidify and take shape!
Whenever spiritual energy is about to converge into a single point, it will disperse again due to the lack of that crucial "catalyst".
The Heaven and Earth Qi.
That was a key.
Without the key, the door cannot be opened, and the Golden Core cannot be formed!
Yun Tianfan knew this.
He knew it from the day he decided to try.
But he had to try.
He's two hundred years old, and he only has twenty or thirty years left to live, or even, to put it more bluntly, just over ten years...
When will the Cloud Dao Blessed Land of White Peak Cloud Gorge take shape?
That would take at least two or three hundred years!
He can't wait.
"Again!"
Yun Tianfan bit his tongue, Essence Blood sprayed onto his Dantian.
The blood transformed into strands of red thread, binding the liquid spiritual energy and attempting to forcibly bind them together.
It took a little effort.
The rotation of spiritual energy began to slow down, slowly, slowly, moving towards the center.
A nascent shape, about the size of a fist, was faintly visible in the center of the Dantian.
Core Embryo form!
Yun Tianfan desperately channeled his spiritual power to keep the nascent form from dissipating.
His face was as white as paper.
Blood was seeping from all seven orifices.
Under the rampage of spiritual energy, the meridians developed numerous cracks.
He doesn't care.
As long as the Core Embryo condenses, even if it's only for a moment, there's still hope. Even if he can't gather the Heaven and Earth Qi, he will still try to Core Condensation!
But that nascent form, after maintaining its shape for thirty breaths, began to tremble.
It's unstable.
Lacking the Heaven and Earth Qi as its core, the Core Embryo lacks a "core."
Just like building a house without a foundation, no matter how much you build on top of it, it will collapse sooner or later.
"No... give me just one more incense stick's time..."
Yun Tianfan frantically squeezed all the spiritual energy out of his body, leaving not a single drop.
He ignited everything he could, accumulating his Essence Blood, lifespan, and spiritual cultivation.
No matter how fiercely the fire burns, it can't turn two pieces of wood into a piece of iron.
boom.
The Core Embryo shattered.
It's not just a collapse, it's utter shattering!
Like a mirror, it cracked open with countless lines in the middle, then scattered and shattered.
The shattered Core Embryo suffered a backlash.
Countless fragments of spiritual energy poured into Yun Tianfan's meridians.
His body swelled violently at that moment.
Beneath the skin, a spiritual light flickered, like countless snakes writhing between the flesh.
"Cough--!"
A mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth.
Then came the second, the third, until blood gushed out like a fountain...
The Dantian collapsed as well, and everything was overturned!
"I..."
Yun Tianfan opened his eyes and stared at the dome of the cave abode.
it's over.
He felt his life force draining away at an unstoppable speed; his Dantian shattered, and his spiritual energy dissipated...
A cultivator without Dantian is like a bowl with a broken bottom.
It can't hold anything anymore...
"What a pity..."
Blood and foam trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
He remembered many things.
I recall the first time I stepped into the gates of White Cloud Temple when I was young. At that time, White Cloud Temple was already a gateway to the Golden Core Realm.
However, it couldn't be called a new peak, although cultivation was rather bland and tasteless at that time.
Yet it was also a rare peaceful day in his life...
He recalled when his cousin was young, Yun Du had held his hand and said, "Tian Fan, come with me and we'll make this sect thrive!"
"We will cultivate our Core Formation together, and together we will see these thousands of mountains and rivers!"
I recalled those years when he worked day and night to handle sect affairs, allocate resources, appease disciples, and mediate between various parties.
Recalling the shocking scene when I first met Shi Jian, a bear demon with such a grand presence, coexisting with his White Cloud Temple.
I also recall how White Cloud Temple grew stronger step by step, from its near collapse to my cousin's Core Formation, and now to the Ming Province Northern Protectorate.
He was involved in all of this.
Every brick and every tile reflects his hard work and dedication.
"Brother... I'm sorry."
Yun Tianfan's voice grew softer and softer, and his body began to become transparent.
This is a sign that the cultivator Dao Dissolution.
When the Dantian is completely shattered and the spiritual power is completely dissipated, the cultivator's physical body will be recycled by the Principle of heaven and earth, turning into Spiritual Qi to nourish heaven and earth.
Those who cultivate the Tao come from Heaven and Earth, and will ultimately return to Heaven and Earth.
"I originally intended... to help my cousin hold on for a few more decades..."
He raised his hand, looking at his fingertips that were gradually becoming transparent.
The fingertips transformed into wisps of white clouds, drifting away.
"White Peak Cloud Gorge... those spruce trees I planted... they need pruning next year..."
"The road outside the Return to Origin Sword Tomb... it gets slippery when it rains... have someone lay some stone slabs on it... so those kids don't slip and fall..."
"And... that girl Sun Yao... don't let her push herself too hard..."
The sound was intermittent.
Starting from his feet, Yun Tianfan's body transformed into clouds inch by inch.
White, golden, and pale blue clouds.
That was the spiritual power of the Cloud Dao that he had cultivated throughout his life, blooming in its purest form at the last moment of his life...
"This world... is truly beautiful."
He smiled.
Before his last wisp of consciousness faded, what he saw was not the dome of the cave abode, but that morning from his memory...
As a young man, he stood before the gate of White Cloud Temple, the rising sun casting golden light upon the mountains.
His cousin stood beside him, pointing into the distance and saying, "Tianfan, look, those mountains will be our home from now on..."
"Yes... they're all ours..."
"Home..."
Yun Tianfan's body completely transformed into countless clouds.
The clouds burst through the cave abode's dome, blooming in the sky like a blossoming flower, before slowly dissipating...
It falls upon every mountain peak, every Spirit Vein, and every inch of land of White Cloud Temple.
His cultivation, his spiritual power, and his more than a hundred years of accumulated experience—all of it was given back to the land he had protected for his entire life.
This is the Dao Dissolution of a cultivator.
When the body Death Dao dissipates, and the body and soul return to heaven and earth.