Chapter 644: Formation of the Core (Part 2)

## Volume 5: Renowned Far and Wide

The woman surnamed Mu had just flown a dozen li when an inexplicable chill suddenly enveloped her. Then, the spiritual energy in the air abruptly churned into a chaotic mess, forming countless spiritual vortices in an instant.

This caught the woman off guard, causing her to stumble and nearly fall from the sky along with her magic tool.

Greatly alarmed, the woman surnamed Mu quickly channeled her spiritual power throughout her body, barely managing to steady herself amidst the surging spiritual energy. She then hastily looked around, and the sight before her left her utterly astonished!

Hundreds of feet high in the sky, she saw countless visible specks of spiritual light. These lights were multicolored, flickering between dim and bright, but each contained extremely pure spiritual energy from heaven and earth, appearing dazzlingly beautiful.

The woman surnamed Mu was extremely horrified; after glancing slightly into the distance, her face turned even paler.

Everywhere her bright eyes gazed, the vast sky was filled with boundless specks of spiritual light, as if there was no end in sight.

Heavens! What is going on?

Hovering in the air on her magic tool, the woman surnamed Mu stared dumbfounded at the bizarre situation before her.

In fact, this wondrous phenomenon of coalescing spiritual light permeated the entire area within a hundred-li radius centered around Han Li's cave dwelling.

At the same time the woman discovered the spiritual energy anomaly, thousands of other cultivators from the Falling Cloud Sect also sensed this massive change.

Cultivators within the hundred-li radius witnessed this marvel firsthand, just like the woman surnamed Mu.

However, the experience was not pleasant for these cultivators who were in the midst of it. Those in the Foundation Establishment stage and above fared better; besides physical discomfort and inner turmoil, they could still barely maintain their composure.

But the most numerous cultivators, those in the Qi Condensation stage, clearly felt an immense spiritual pressure. Without exception, they were slightly breathless, and those with shallower cultivation even found it difficult to breathe.

Terrified, these cultivators could no longer bother to ponder what this unusual phenomenon represented. Instead, they quickly sat down on the spot to meditate and regulate their breathing, trying their best to resist this unsettling anomaly.

As for cultivators outside the Falling Cloud Sect, although they couldn't witness this sight firsthand, they all more or less sensed the violent fluctuations in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Some extremely profound immortal cultivators, even from thousands of li away, cast astonished gazes towards the location of the Falling Cloud Sect.

Although most cultivators had never seen it and did not know what the appearance of this auspicious heavenly phenomenon represented.

But those who knew were either shocked or delighted – some horrified, some astonished – and even more so, filled with envy and extreme jealousy!

On the main peak of the Falling Cloud Sect, within a cave dwelling several thousand zhang high, a silver-haired elder sat cross-legged in meditation, his complexion ashen as he breathed, as if he had just recovered from a severe illness.

At the very moment the spiritual light appeared hundreds of li away, the silver-haired elder's long white eyebrows twitched, and his eyes suddenly opened in astonishment, revealing an expression of disbelief.

He almost instantly ceased his cultivation, immediately transforming into a white streak of light and flying out of his cave dwelling.

A moment later, the silver-haired elder appeared at the peak of the main mountain, standing on a towering boulder.

He gravely gazed in the direction of Han Li's cave dwelling, somewhat dazed, his expression shifting between solemnity and contemplation.

Just then, a streak of yellow light flew in from the sky, its trajectory precisely towards the silver-haired elder's cave dwelling. However, upon seeing the silver-haired elder already outside his dwelling, the yellow light immediately reached the elder's front, and after its radiance subsided, a sallow-faced middle-aged man appeared.

"Senior Brother Cheng, you sensed it too," the middle-aged man immediately asked the elder with astonishment as soon as he appeared, as if he still couldn't truly believe it. "I didn't get it wrong, did I? Someone in our Falling Cloud Sect is forming their Nascent Soul!"

"Mistaken? How could that be!" the silver-haired elder said with narrowed eyes, without turning his head. "You and I have both experienced this situation before. Indeed, someone within our sect is forming their Nascent Soul somewhere, and they have already reached the final stage; they'll soon complete it."

"This is indeed strange!" the middle-aged man muttered, his words lacking any confidence. "In our sect, only Nephew Feng and that spy surnamed Hu have reached the late Core Formation stage. But Nephew Feng was still striving for the Grand Completion realm two years ago; he can't even reach the Pseudo-Nascent Soul stage in a short time, let alone form a Nascent Soul. As for the spy from the Heavenly Fiend Sect, his cultivation has been mostly crippled. He has fallen several cultivation realms, so it definitely can't be him."

"Hmph! Don't you and I know the cultivation levels of those nephews well enough?" the silver-haired elder said calmly. "Although this cultivator is forming their Nascent Soul within our Falling Cloud Sect, they might not necessarily be one of ours. It could be some audacious individual who secretly infiltrated or sneaked into our sect. After all, Yunmeng Mountain is rich in spiritual energy, and it is indeed an excellent place for forming a Nascent Soul." With these few calm words, the silver-haired elder had already guessed Han Li's identity quite accurately.

"Senior Brother, what do we do now!" the middle-aged man said, furrowing his brows with a hint of reluctance. "Do we just watch them successfully form their Nascent Soul?"

"Exactly, Junior Brother, you're right," the silver-haired elder said, his face pale but his demeanor calm. "We should do nothing but quietly wait. Although we don't know if this person can endure the final stage of the heart demon's backlash, interfering now would be pointless. The process of enduring the heart demon seems to last for months or even years for the one forming the Nascent Soul, but for us, it's merely a moment. Junior Brother Lu, have you forgotten the scene of enduring the heart demon when you formed your Nascent Soul?"

"Forget it? How could I!" the middle-aged man surnamed Lu shivered, his face instantly turning extremely grim, visibly paling at the mention. "I really don't want to recall that situation again. The heart demon's backlash is such that whatever you fear most, whatever terrifies you most, will manifest as illusions in your mind. If I hadn't taken a Spirit-Stabilizing Pill when I formed my Nascent Soul back then, I definitely wouldn't have survived that torment of mental refinement."

"Exactly," the elder continued. "If this person doesn't survive the final trial and fails to form a Nascent Soul, then how to deal with them will naturally be up to us two. Why be hasty! But if they truly manage to enter the Nascent Soul stage by luck, it would be too late for us to stop them now, and there's no need to offend them. It's better to observe quietly and wait for the outcome. Furthermore, if this person successfully forms a Nascent Soul, it's not necessarily a bad thing for our Falling Cloud Sect. We might even be able to befriend this person, or even recruit them into the sect!"

"Senior Brother, do you mean to say that this person is actually a rogue cultivator?" The middle-aged man was visibly moved.

"Mm, there's an eighty to ninety percent chance that's the case!" The silver-haired elder smiled slightly, turning to speak to the middle-aged man. "If they were a cultivator with a family or sect, why would they risk forming their Nascent Soul on our Yunmeng Mountain? Otherwise, even if they were doing poorly, there should still be a large number of high-level cultivators protecting them. Do you still remember the solemn actions taken within the sect when you and I formed our Nascent Souls?"

"How could I not remember?" The middle-aged man recalled the events of those years and couldn't help but chuckle as he spoke. "During the several months I was forming my Nascent Soul, the entire sect went on full alert, sealing off the mountain and even activating the sect-protecting grand formation. Looking at it this way, this person truly might be an unaligned rogue cultivator."

"If this person forms a Nascent Soul as a rogue cultivator, we naturally must try to win them over and not easily offend them," the silver-haired elder said slowly. "After all, cultivators who form Nascent Souls as rogue cultivators seem to have a more difficult path than we did, but once they succeed, each of them possesses considerable divine abilities and should not be underestimated. Moreover, these cultivators are not burdened by sect affiliations; compared to us who come from sects, they have fewer scruples and are very prone to holding grudges. That old monster, Heavenly Hatred, isn't he someone none of us wishes to provoke easily? A large part of that is because this old monster's cultivation is profound, far surpassing cultivators of the same realm, but his unrestrained methods are also what many great sects in Tiannan deeply fear."

The middle-aged man nodded silently, seeming to agree with the elder's statement.

"It's beginning!" A glint flashed in the elder's eyes as he suddenly blurted out in a low voice.

The middle-aged man was startled and hurriedly cast his spiritual sense into the distance.

At this moment, above Han Li's cave dwelling, more and more spiritual light appeared, gradually coalescing into a single expanse.

After a short while, the sky within a hundred-li radius was filled with boundless five-colored ethereal light.

Within the ethereal light, the sounds of wind, rain, and thunder intensified, and patches of colorful clouds churned and rolled with the thunder, then swiftly converged from all directions towards the center.

Above the small stone mountain where Han Li's cave dwelling was located, a giant sphere of light, approximately a li in diameter, formed, blindingly bright with shimmering radiance flowing within it, making it impossible to look directly at.

Suddenly, an earth-shattering clap of thunder sounded from nowhere, and the entire stone mountain violently shook.

Following that, a pillar of green light shot out from within the stone mountain, directly into the light sphere high in the sky.

Dark clouds immediately gathered around the giant sphere of light, accompanied by wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.

The sphere of light began to gradually contract and deform within the dark clouds, while the five-colored spiritual light flickered, becoming even more dazzling and blinding.

Some cultivators who were relatively close by had already rushed to the vicinity of the small stone mountain. Staring at the astonishing celestial phenomenon in the sky, they exchanged glances, unsure of what to do.

Not long after, the giant sphere of light, under everyone's astonished gaze, condensed into a fist-sized, crystalline orb. The immense and terrifying spiritual energy contained within it caused the faces of the nearby cultivators to change dramatically, and no one dared to make any rash moves.