Page 66: Six days before

After two months of full blown training with occasional visits to the three companions, Long Bai was able to max out his martial skills to perfection stages. No matter what he does, the skills seemed to not evolve further. If his theory is correct, he would only be able to evolve his skills when he enters a new realm. Even the Heaven ranked <thunder steps> have stayed the on its intermediate success no matter what he does. Looking back on the past, he was only able to evolve the earth skills to sky rank skills due to the assimilation of the earthly essence. With this concept, he even tried to assimilate specific essence using his <5 elemental conversion> cultivation base technique. However the product were just some variants of the skill but was not evolved further. Although it was so, a new way of using his unique cores was discovered due to this event.

From what he learned, aside from absorbing unique essence sources, the 5 revolving cores can also be used to create specific essences.

These were the names Long Bai came up for the 5 unique cores around his main core namely; red, blue, green, yellow, and copper. If he uses the red core, he can imbue fire essence to his attacks. For the blue core, cold attribute is added, green adds poison, copper(brown) enhances the strength of the body or the weapon where it goes while the yellow was still unknown. He speculates that it might have something to do with non-physical enhancements. He even tried combining the essence two different cores and was able to successfully create one stronger attribute. Just like when he mixed the essence from red and blue cores, a violent purple lightning essence was created. However, with more than two cores, the system warned him of the great dangers due to its backlash so he didn't dare to try. He decided to do it when he reaches a new strength that would be able to withstand these dangers.

Right now, he just entered the Soul Tempering stage or commonly known as the core building stage. The name of the stage suggests that the soul which is the core acts as a shell to house the spirit or the essence which would manifest later depending on the cultivator's understanding. Some manifestation of spirits are based on beasts but the most famous ones are the spirit manifestation of sacred beasts like the phoenixes, golden crow, or even dragons. Although these are the wishes of most cultivators, only the ones blessed by the heavens can achieve it.

In addition, with the system's description, he was able to focus on what is needed for this layer. For the body tempering layers; flesh, visceral, and bone, their focus was to enhance the body so it would be able to withstand physical attacks and trauma while for the the Soul tempering stage, it is to enhance the essence core which would house the essence absorbed be stored as one grows.

In common understanding, common cultivators will just think that this stage is to enhance the capacity of the core to store essence however, for the knowledgeable and learned, this is the foundation to establish the essence sea.

During the early layers of this stage( core foundation), cultivators would absorb essence and try to assimilate more than what is needed. The trick was to use the essence to strengthen the core but when one fails to do so, the core will break due to its frail condition. This is why this first layer of the Soul tempering stage is called core foundation.

These were the notes Long Bai took from his understandings as the system occasionally gives him assistance:

Earth realm

1. Body tempering stage - strengthen the body

a. flesh strengthening layer

b. organ strengthening layer

c. bone strengthening layer

2. Core tempering stage - enhance the core properties

a. core strengthening layer

b. essence condensation layer

- concentrated essence absorbed forms essence mist on its early levels (1-3), essence drops forms during middle levels (4-6), a small reservoir of essence forms on the late stages

c. essence sea expansion layer

- imside the core, one tries to form an essence sea. Depending on the talent, essence seas will have capacities described as follows:

*essence pond

*essence lake

*essence sea

- only a few can reach the extent where the condensed essence can be called essence sea. Some reaches their limits even when they only formed an essence pond and tries to breakthrough to the next stage. A slightly visible ethereal spirit can be manifested.

3. Spirit tempering stage

- no info yet

Talking about spirit forming, one that manifests is a reflection of a cultivator's character and attributes. One can manifest living or non - living things. Some can have a spirit manifestation of a sword or spear, while others can have the forms of a mountain. According to some of his readings, manifestations can also be partial or complete. There are some where their manifested spirit are just claws of beasts, some are just head or some, just half of the upper body. The most revered manifestations are complete and at the same time, strong beasts.

After staying so long inside his place, Long Bai decided to go out and enjoy his free time. Anyway, he has alchemist Mo who is now taking care of their small business so he would just receive the earnings every month.

A few minutes away from the residence, Long Bai reached the central area and got to take a look around. Surprisingly, the city has become more bustling with people. Ages of different range fill the city and the noise has even more become loud that any words turned incomprehensible. This is the merchant city's pride compared to the other union islands. Because merchant city can attract a lot of people from neibouring cities, it makes the place richer compared to the other islands.

After strolling for a while, Long Bai decided to visit the alchemy tower and check on the things inside. He remembered her senior Zhang Li who would be her companion during the competition. A few days ago, she visited Long Bai and checked on his progress. She also asked Long Bai to visit her during his free time to explain the content of the alchemy competition.

Nearing the alchemy tower, the entrance was already crowded with people. Aiming the huge entrance, it took him a couple of minutes to enter the tower. He headed straight to their corner and saw alchemist Mo speaking with some customers. Decided to jot disturb him, he instead went to senior Zhang Li's area. On the selling area, there was a young helper who was watching for any potential buyers. When he was just about in front of the stall, the lady helper asked him what he was looking for but was then startled when she was able to realize who she was speaking with.

"I'm looking for sister Zhang Li. Is she inside?" Long Bai was pertaining to the small pill room behind the stall.

The lady helper nodded in a hurry and went to call her master.

"Lady Li, master Bai has come. He's looking for you.",

"Hmm? Oh. Let him come inside. I'll be speaking with him here. You go continue your work."

"Yes lady."

Long Bai was called to enter the pill room and there, his senior sister was waiting. After exchanging greetings, Long Bai immediately asked her about the competition which would be held six days from now. Zhang Li gave the necessary details Long Bai needed to know.

"The alchemy competition would require three days which is the same as the martial competition. During the first day, participants are tasked to list down names of herbs and give their properties. Although it sounded easy for you, only 10 from all who would try to apply will be legible for the second round. For the results, it would be posted in the afternoon. In the second day, the trial is about identifying real herbs from similar ones and only on the third day that pill creation will be held. Usually, more than 30 enters but at the end of the three day competition, only three are taken to compete with the other sects in the union islands."

"But senior sister, during the pill making, they are going to provide the materials right? And how will the victor be known during that time?"

"They will provide the materials but not exactly as you think. The judges will just open an herb vault and it would be you who would pick them. The judges will purposely mix extra herbs in the selection so adding the wrong herb would make your pill making fail. Of course, the challenge will start from making the grade 1 until grade 2. When there are still more than three left, that's the time that the participants would be asked to make the best pill they can create. That's how they choose the best among the rest."

Long Bai became silent for a while thinking how he would fare in the competition. If it was just identification, the system will do it for him but if the recipe is unknown, that's where he would have a problem. Unless they will allow trials during the competition, he might be able to discover it and make it without fail.

"Senior Li, another question. During the pill making, what if the pill in question is not that well known and no one knows the exact recipe, how would it turn out?"

"That's a nice question. Actually, they will provide herbs that are enough for three attempts. With that, you need to figure out the needed herbs for making the pill. If one has a good understanding of the herbs, you'll have a little difficulty in makimg it. Alchemy fights are always based on how much knowledge one has. As long as one is well versed of the vast herbs, one would be able to know the recipe for the pill."

Long Bai again thought about it. After a while of deliberation with himself, he thought of something. If he wanted to learn all the herbs out there, he just need the system to scan them and identify them for him.

He has already memorized the first two herbarium volumes which is the only available book for reading. He is sure that they would definitely pick herbs from the next volumes which they kept only for this competition. After learning a lot, Long Bai has now able to set how he would tackle the competition.