Core

Spark!

A flash of light appeared from the pitch blackness. As fast as the flash came it left, leaving behind the pitch black world.

Spark!

Once more another spark appeared as if someone was trying to turn on a lighter but failing each time.

Spark!

"Swoosh!"

Once again the spark appeared, however, this time instead of leaving behind pitch blackness, it left behind a strange white cloud. This cloud was almost translucent as the blackness was almost visible through it.

The cloud then began to move slowly towards the blackness. It moved in a graceful manner almost like a fast time lapse of a normal cloud moving across the sky. As it moved other translucent white clouds began to appear from the blackness as if they were uncovered treasures. These clouds all moved towards the same direction in the same graceful manner.

If any cultivator was watching this they would identify this strange cloud as World Qi, whilst the blackness around it, the Soul Space.

This was Lester's Soul Space and he had just successfully identified the World Qi. Just finding this Soul Space alone took him hours. He was becoming worried as he was unable to identify the Soul Space within himself, however, after clearing his mind searching with tranquility and patience he found it. If it took him that long to find the Soul Space, he had no clue how long it took him to find these clouds.

This was such a strange sensation to Lester, it was as if he was in a whole different world. He knew nothing of the outside world back on Earth as if he was no longer aware of anything there. There were no feelings or anything, he lost it all. Currently, his consciousness was floating in a black world full of clouds.

These gentle elegant floaters were exactly how Patrick had described them. If it wasn't for Patrick he would've taken much longer to identify these things, however, due to Patrick's explanation on how he found it, Lester was able to find it without any difficulties. He was grateful for Patrick as guidance like that was extremely rare in this world. Unless you were being mentored by a cultivator, you would move forwards in cultivation blind which is extremely likely for you to become a cripple.

The slow moving clouds begin to lose their elegance as they speed up. Their movements were almost the same as they were being sucked into a center of some sort. It was as if there was a string tied to the end of each cloud and it was being pulled towards one common direction, or as if there was a black hole sucking things in.

As the clouds got closer together they began to mold like clay. The clouds entered one another as if it was becoming one, and slowly but surely a strange shape was appearing from the clouds.

An unknown amount of time has passed and Lester was witnessing something amazing. The clouds had truly moved together and were taking the shape of a bowl or half a sphere. The outside was smooth and the walls were thin, however, something was wrong.

The core that was being formed was on track to be a sphere, and to Lester's surprise he could control the clouds as they moved. Although it was difficult to move them, he was still able to create half a sphere. The problem lied in one of the sides of the semi sphere. It was too thin!

Lester was beginning to panic because if one side was thinner than the others there was a high risk of cracking or breaking. As Lester was going to act upon this with panic, he then remembered Patrick's words about being composed in this process. He was halfway through, failing here would be disappointing.

Calmly, Lester began to move a few clouds towards the thin area, to reinforce it. The clouds attach themselves to the thin area and make it the same size as the others. It looked extremely simple, however, it took a huge amount of concentration.

This process of creating the core went on for an unknown amount of time as he was immersed in this activity. The core was almost taking shape and it looked like a beautiful translucent sphere. Lester felt proud of his work and ecstatic at the fact he was actually going to become a cultivator! His dream was coming true!

Despite this, he still felt weird. The creation of this core did not take too long to create, was he a genius? Patrick took over a month, whilst to him, it felt like it took hours. How could this be?

Creating a core was the easiest part of all, it was the beginning of every cultivator. The hard part was gaining a cultivation book and cultivating.

"Swoosh!"

The core was finished! It was a perfect sphere! There were hardly any problems while creating the core which greatly surprised Lester. Was it because of the environment he was in?

A clean, translucent sphere stood tall on his Souls Space. This was a sight that Lester wished to see in his lifetime, however, he never thought he would be using it like this!

Lester's consciousness begins to return to his body as if it was being pulled out of the Soul Space.

Lester who was sitting in a lotus position slowly opened his eyes, and as he examined his surroundings, he was filled with shock.

Around him there were spider webs as well as a few bugs here and there, making him question his time creating a core.

His stomach was in immense pain and his mouth was so dry he wanted to cough

He quickly moved his weak body towards the small kitchen to fetch something to drink or eat. Then he moved towards his computer to see how long he had been creating the core for, and as soon as he found out, his jaw dropped.

Almost two months!