Wu Long stood among the burning forest that was showered by the heavy rain, a giant crater from the explosion not far away steaming as the raindrops evaporated not touching the scorching hot melted stone.

The storm was still going strong, but showing first signs of weakening, and the winds that raged before have suddenly disappeared, leaving only the sound of rain.

He raised his hand and Gu Zhen’s Spatial Ring flew up into it, and as he raised his eyes to the furnace bound by glowing chains, he made a wry smile.

“This would make a great alchemy furnace for Fairy Yu Huan…

Though the design is a bit…”

He chuckled, not only did this artifact look a little gaudy and over-decorated, but was also very obviously belonging to the Alchemy Association, its emblem engraved on the most visible spot.

Any outsider using the furnace would only bring enormous trouble.

“Well, it is not like she would be using it in battle, if its only for Alchemy then it should not be a problem using it for a bit before finding a better one…”

Wu Long shrugged his shoulders with a light smile as he flew up to the furnace.

While he could mask the emblem by reforging it, his skills in artifact refining were not that high, and there was a chance of ruining this true Profound Grade treasure.

After all, he did not have the Forging Fire in his Dantian.

It was one thing using his workaround methods to refine high-level materials and turn them into weapons that had no abilities and were only used to directly wield in hands, and completely another to create artifacts like this which could move independently and sometimes had special powers.

“Hmm, I forgot how inconvenient it is not having a Forging Master on retain…

Haa~, then again, none of the Forging Masters I helped and supported in the past should be alive by now, and those that are should be nowhere near Boundless Mortal World or even the Boundless Profound World”

He sighed, once more realizing that the vast majority of connections that he made when he was rising in his past life were no longer relevant.

Wu Long quickly subdued the now ownerless artifact using the Formation, and at that time received communication jade messages from various battlefields.

The only ongoing battle at this point was at the capital of the Azure Eagle Empire, but without Gu Zhen’s support, it was only a matter of time for the Spiritual Beasts to prevail.

So while the others assembled at the Mansion in the Fantian Kingdom, he took a direction to the North, as there was one place left for him to visit before the Azure Eagles could, the headquarters of the Alchemy Tower.

On the way there he revisited his battle with Gu Zhen in his mind.

‘Heh, as expected, this is the real start…’

His lips curled up as he felt like he could finally breathe a little, arriving at the real starting line of his cultivation path, a new horizon in his view.

This time he did not need much strategy or aligning conditions for batle, even though he prepared a few measures in the Supreme Grand Formation operated by Lian Zhiqiu just in case.

He did not even need to exceed the capabilities of his current self using more force than he could handle, coming out of this battle with plenty of strength to spare and no injuries, made by enemy or otherwise.

Granted, Gu Zhen was not a fighter.

He was, after all, an alchemist. But his strength was still higher than many ordinary cultivators in his Cultivation Realm like Zhao Xieren.

The reason for Wu Long’s giant leap in strength was threefold.

First was obvious, his advancement to the Core Formation Realm, crossing a dividing line between practitioners in the Nine Mortal Realms.

In this Cultivation Realm, practitioners combine the Foundation Crystals they formed before into a spherical shape, and then gradually connect them together until they form a complete spherical core.

This was a fundamental part of any practitioner’s cultivation base and had tremendous effects on the future.

A flaw during this stage of cultivation greatly influenced the chances of the practitioners to advance in higher Great Realms.

Much like forming the Foundation Crystals, the internal structure and composition of the Core varied from practitioner to practitioner, and there were no two absolutely identical ones throughout the entire history of the Seven Boundless Worlds.

And thus while experienced cultivators could give guidance, they usually could not instruct their disciples on the exact process of forming a core.

Though Wu Long was able to come infinitely close to being able to give very precise instructions, and thus was able to perfectly guide anyone to create a flawless core.

Naturally, the quality of the Core was also heavily dependent on the quality of Foundation Crystals.

And while Wu Long could not say he saw every Core that ever existed, he could proudly say that the Core he created was superior to any that he had ever seen, a masterpiece.

Of course, as he was still in the 2nd level of the Core Formation Realm, it was yet to be fully formed, the Foundation Crystals only bound to each other by two thin connecting parts.

But the power it gave him could not be understated.

He now could release far more Spiritual Qi at the same time,and his control over incredibly large volumes of Spiritual Qi outside his body was now possible without using any tricks or workarounds.

At the same time there was the precision of control, as the cultivation base was now concentrated in one core, it allowed for much finer and minute manipulation of Spiritual Qi.

For someone with Wu Long’s skills in controlling Spiritual Qi, this was the difference between heaven and earth.

If drawing a comparison, it was akin to the tools of a sculptor.

A great sculptor could do wonders with the simplest and roughest of tools, but there was no denying that the work could be even more sublime and at the same time would take far less effort if that great sculptor was given a wider variety of tools which were also of higher quality.

But more than anything, a Core consolidated and stabilized Spiritual Qi of the practitioner, its flow becoming smooth and even, without fluctuations and flaws inherent in the natural state of Qi.

Meaning that any technique used by a Core Formation Realm cultivator would become two to three times stronger than of any cultivator below that realm, even if all other conditions were even, including but not limited to quantity of Spiritual Qi used and its potency, as well as skill of manipulating.

Second reason for his newfound prowess was his increased control over his Dao Runes.

When he first formed his Core, he felt that all Dao Runes in his body, even the Cold Rune he had yet to find the way to use, were attracted to it.

He carefully allowed the Water Rune, the most tame and under his control of the Dao Runes to approach as an experiment, and it started orbiting the Core, directly receiving his Spiritual Qi from its source and basked in it, at the same time allowing him greater control over its powers.

As he gradually guided all the other Runes to the Core, they all assumed their own orbits around it, even the Cold Rune, which powers he could now use.

The reason Wu Long’s water could suppress Gu Zhen’s fire which was fed by Profound Qi, was that he cooled it down to near-freezing temperatures at all times, vastly increasing its effects.

He was not yet proficient in combining the powers of the Runes, and thus could not yet control ice even if he could produce it by the individual powers of the Water and Cold Rune. But he was well on his way there.

The third and final reason for his current strength was also the additional reason his women were now far superior to anyone in their realms, it was practicing techniques that could not be practiced before reaching Core Formation Realm.

While his strength in previous life relied on his use of varying skills, knowledge, tactics, comprehension, as well as Concepts and Laws, there were other people who could fight far above their Cultivation Realms without any of those.

Only, in their case, the reason was very often linked to superior legacy.

Supreme Cultivation Methods, that allowed one to be as strong as someone far higher in Realm than them without any tricks or real skill to speak of, simply by the virtue of how powerful and overbearing those Cultivation Methods were.

Most of those techniques were discovered in ruins of ancient times and were kept as the most secure secret of every major power in the Seven Boundless Worlds.

The main skills of the Eternal Sun Temple and the Eternal Moon Garden were also one of those techniques.

And while most of those ancient techniques were very mysterious, not possible to analyze or study even for Wu Long, those two belonged to the minority of techniques that were not veiled.

By the time Wu Long had the strength and opportunities to learn such techniques, his cultivation was far too high to start practicing them.

While he learned methods to restructure his cultivation, with his talent and amounts of resources that would be required to overwrite his progress at that time, it was virtually impossible for him to start over.

But now, he could finally taste the power that came from practicing those techniques.

And while his women practiced one each, compatible with their individual characteristics, Wu Long took advantage of a third Chaos technique in his arsenal apart from Chaos Refining Body Tempering Art and Chaos Origin Eyes, the Chaos Harmonic Nexus.

It allowed him to combine the otherwise incompatible and even conflicting cultivation methods, but required a lot of skill to use.

Currently he combined a technique of Evil Dao, the Slaughter God Tyrant Vortex Art, which he received as a kind donation from the previous holder of his God of Slaughter title, and the Sublime Heavenly Sequence of one of the most prominent Sects of Righteous Path, the Great Immortal Mountain Sect.

There were also techniques he could only start cultivating upon reaching Essence Awakening Realm, some that would fit his newfound Elemental Attributes.

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