Chapter 1290: The First Bite of Core Formation 2

Dark-golden radiance now appeared beneath his skin, outlining bones from skull to feet as the marrow inside them began to boil. The process forced impurities outward from places Phei had never imagined could contain any. Black-red vapor seeped directly through bone, entered his bloodstream and was carried toward the surface before being expelled from his pores.

The cloud above the pool thickened.

Phei opened his eyes long enough to see it.

For perhaps the first time since entering, genuine disbelief passed across his face.

’Molting Card, my ass.’

Another wave struck before he could continue insulting his previous purification.

His heart stopped.

Phei’s eyes widened.

The dark-golden elixir invaded the silent organ once more.

Its flesh loosened under the pressure, old fibers breaking apart before immortal essence soaked through them. Primordial Blood flooded in immediately afterward, carrying so much vitality that the chamber trembled faintly when the rebuilt heart finally contracted.

THUMM.

The pool shook.

Steam burst outward from Phei.

His second heartbeat travelled through the floor.

THUMM.

Sienna felt the pulse from beyond the chamber.

The third was heavier still, pushing blood through newly tempered vessels at a pressure that would have ruptured Phei’s old circulatory system from end to end. His veins and arteries were already changing, their walls strengthened by every passing surge while Primordial Blood flowed through them with increasing ease.

The marrow inside his bones responded to the stronger heart.

New blood formed; it was richer, denser!

Each crimson cell carried more vitality than what came before, only for Primordial Blood to continue refining even that, forcing the entire cycle upward again.

Dark-golden essence entered his lungs next through every breath and washed through the delicate tissues. Old mortal weakness burned away while microscopic scars left by poisons, exhaustion and injuries vanished under the tempering. By the time the lungs rebuilt, Phei’s next breath drew far more than ordinary air.

Mana moved with it and loose spiritual energy followed.

Phei did not consciously cultivate any of it and his lungs simply began taking what the world offered.

His liver, kidneys and lesser organs were washed in turn.

Every hidden weakness was exposed, every old residue the Molting Card had once been too shallow to reach was pulled out; everything he had consumed these weeks earlier were reduced to nothing, remnants left from old bodily transformations were purified and even tiny flaws produced during rapid growth were torn open and corrected before Dragon Regeneration sealed them beneath a stronger pattern.

Then the spring reached his meridians again.

Phei’s face finally changed.

His fingers drove harder into his thighs as the newly cultivation pathways swelled at once.

A major meridian ruptured, dark-golden essence burst into the surrounding flesh, another split near his shoulder, three more tore around his abdomen. Pain flashed through Phei’s eyes strongly enough that Sienna knew precisely when he considered swearing aloud.

He swallowed it.

The destroyed meridians were not repaired in their ’new’ shape.

The elixir widened them, tempered their walls and strengthened the spiritual tissues surrounding each channel until torrents that would previously have strained Phei’s cultivation could pass without leaving injury behind.

New smaller meridians began opening next; these had been newly rebuilt only as narrow dormant branches, others had never properly connected during his mortal growth. Dark-golden essence burned through each obstruction, carving new circulation paths between major channels while his bloodline stabilized them before they could collapse.

The new accupoints began awakening across his body; there were no dramatic individual explosions, instead, dozens new ones appeared beneath his skin in succession adding to the new ones from before, faint points of dark-golden light spread from his chest across his back, limbs, neck and head.

Each opened another pathway through which essence could enter, circulate and return.

The entire network inside him became more complete.

His energy responded; Void stirred first.

The reservoir that had once seemed impossibly deep for a Master Sovereign cultivator since had already been expanded once by the Great Immortal essence. His organs, blood, meridians and every part of his foundation that had already endured its refinement were seized once more, the previous changes becoming the starting point for another round of brutal expansion.

Now the same essence was doing it again.

Dark-golden power poured through the same pathways it had already carved and forced them wider. It sank into bones it had already tempered and drove its radiance deeper into the marrow.

The Great Immortal essence returned to that work now as it moved through places that had already been expanded before, found meridians that had already been widened, blood that had already been strengthened and flesh that had already learned how to endure far more than it once could.

Instead of creating that room for the first time, the dark-golden essence forced those same foundations deeper, reopening new limits and pushing them farther than the previous tempering had managed.

Channels that had once seemed vast were stretched again. Blood that had already become unnaturally dense was refined until even that earlier state began to feel crude. His bones, organs and deeper foundation were revisited one after another, each carrying the memory of what had already been done to them and being forced to endure it again at a far higher level.

His Void had spread once when his body first gained enough room to contain more of it, and now that process repeated on a scale that made the earlier transformation feel almost like preparation. The darkness inside him pressed outward through the newly deepened foundation, occupying spaces that had existed only moments before and then demanding more as soon as they were filled.

Primordial Blood followed.

The internal pressure Phei had long grown accustomed to began easing once again, not because the power inside him had diminished, but because his body was being remade to hold more of it without strain. The same imbalance that had existed before was returning in a more extreme form.

His foundation deepened, his capacity widened, and powers that had once pressed against their limits suddenly found those limits retreating ahead of them.

His body was gaining room again.

The elixir recognized it and just as it had before, it rushed to fill every new depth the instant that depth appeared.

The entire pool sank faster.

Sienna’s expression finally shifted.

This was no longer the gradual tempering she had prepared.

The spring had been meant to refine Phei over time, allowing his already transformed foundation to absorb the Great Immortal essence in controlled stages while the three feathers dissolved according to that pace. The earlier tempering’s had already rebuilt him once but this stage was supposed to deepen what remained unfinished, strengthen what had already been changed and let the essence settle into him without forcing another violent reconstruction.

Phei’s body apparently disagreed with the concept of moderation.

The liquid nearest him began rotating hard enough to drag the entire surface into a deepening whirlpool around his torso. Dark-golden radiance streamed toward him from every corner of the basin, sinking through his skin and immediately seeking out places the earlier tempering had already touched. The three colossal feathers bent subtly inward as larger portions of their barbs began dissolving, their essence feeding into a body that was not experiencing this process for the first time and therefore knew exactly how to devour it.

The spring was no longer teaching Phei how much he could contain:

It was like it was discovering that every limit it had helped create before was being broken open again.

Sienna’s lips moved faintly. "Greedy Dragon."

The man in question remained too busy having his body destroyed to appreciate the accusation.

His skin began changing again.

Tiny portions split and peeled away under the tempering before being replaced by new layers with a subtle luster that had nothing to do with his earlier immortal-like beauty. The flesh beneath became denser while retaining its softness and flexibility, physical strength compressed into every line instead of swelling his physique unnecessarily.

His muscles sharpened.

His shoulders broadened by the smallest degree.

The lines across his chest and abdomen grew cleaner and more potent, carrying strength that no longer matched what his cultivation stage claimed.

Even his bones changed in ways ordinary sight could not perceive.

Deep within them, faint patterns appeared.

They resembled the overlapping traces of scales, tiny Dragon-like small scales hidden inside him before they disappeared again.

Sienna saw all of it. ’He’ll soon be able to transform, won’t he?’

Then something else happened.

Far away, inside another chamber, the ’Core’ beat.

THOOM~!!!