Chapter 229: The Eldest Senior Sister's Method of Forming a Pill

"Do you really want to know?"

"Really, really." Lu Yang nodded vigorously, like a pecking chick.

Yunzhi weighed the pros and cons and decided that telling him wouldn't hurt. It would satisfy her junior brother's curiosity.

"Alright, since you want to know, I'll tell you. But I stand by what I said: just listen, don't imitate me."

"Definitely not," Lu Yang promised.

The Immortal Fairy was also very interested in Yunzhi's Core Formation. She wanted to hear what kind of core this junior had formed—could it possibly be stronger than her own Invincible Core?

"That was hundreds of years ago..." Yunzhi fell into a state of reminiscence.

Lu Yang blurted out, his tone full of undisguised surprise: "Hundreds of years ago?!"

His senior sister was a stunningly beautiful, aloof woman who appeared to be in her twenties. When she and Lu Yang walked together, they looked like siblings. Moreover, Yunzhi's attitude toward Lu Yang wasn't like that of an elder, but more like the concern of a mature peer. This always gave Lu Yang the misconception that his senior sister was around his own age.

Now that his senior sister was talking about her Core Formation story from hundreds of years ago, Lu Yang realized that she was the most senior disciple, and her true age was far greater than he had imagined.

How old was his senior sister, exactly? A few hundred years old? Could she be close to a thousand?

The mental journey described above seemed complex, but it all happened in a flash, as quickly as lightning.

These thoughts flashed through Lu Yang's mind so fast that he didn't even have time to think before shouting out his true feelings.

The moment he spoke, Lu Yang had a feeling he was doomed.

Yunzhi's gaze slowly fell on Lu Yang's shoulder. For a split second, Lu Yang felt a gleaming blade across his neck; he was walking on the edge of death, just one thought away from it.

Fortunately, the feeling came and went quickly. His senior sister withdrew her gaze, no longer dwelling on Lu Yang's excessive curiosity, and continued her story.

"Hundreds of years ago, I cultivated to the late Foundation Establishment stage and prepared to form my core."

"At that time, my master saw that my talent was exceptionally rare and that I could shoulder great responsibilities in the future. So, he told me some secrets to prepare me for what was to come. Among them was the fact that an ancient nameless being refined stars into continents, and most of the stars we see today are mere illusions; the actual stars lie beneath our feet."

It was widely accepted in the cultivation world that only cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage were qualified to know that the stars were illusory. The general public and ordinary cultivators were simply to believe that the world was peaceful.

Otherwise, the public and ordinary cultivators might wonder: if an ancient nameless being could once refine stars into continents, would they now refine continents into stars?

This would only cause unnecessary distress, so it was better not to tell everyone.

"I believe I told you that I grew up in a secret realm and only left it later to come to Wen Dao Sect."

Lu Yang nodded. His senior sister had indeed mentioned it, saying she had lived in a secret realm since childhood, interacting only with cultivators. It was the same after she came to Wen Dao Sect. Because of this, she didn't understand mortal habits and didn't know that mortals couldn't bathe in boiling water.

This was the explanation she gave when Lu Yang's skin was red and swollen after a boiling water bath, and she applied medicine for him.

"There was no night sky in the secret realm. When I left it and came to the outside world, I saw the twinkling stars under the night sky and found the scene incredibly beautiful."

"During my leisure time from cultivation, I often lay on the grass, watching and counting the stars."

"When my master told me that there had actually been no stars in the sky for a long time, I didn't show it outwardly at that moment, but I felt disappointed."

"The stars I saw daily were merely illusions left from three hundred thousand years ago. The moment I realized this, I no longer found the night sky beautiful."

"As I pondered what kind of Golden Core to form, I read in 'Treatise on Golden Cores' that 'gold refers to something firm, hard, and eternally indestructible; a core refers to something perfectly round, pure, and flawless.'"

A ridiculous thought vaguely surfaced in Lu Yang's mind: *Senior Sister, you wouldn't do something so outlandish, would you...?*

Yunzhi continued, "At that time, I thought, 'A Golden Core is flawless and indestructible—isn't that exactly like the stars in my mind?'"

"Since there were no stars, why couldn't I use Golden Cores to replace them and recreate the magnificent night sky of antiquity?"

He thought to himself, "As expected, Senior Sister really did think that way."

"Among Golden Cores, first-grade is the best. So, I formed cores according to the stars in my mind, creating a new type of first-grade Golden Core, which I called the 'Brilliant Star Core.'"

"In the beginning, my core-forming technique was a bit rusty, but as the number of cores increased, my core-forming speed also improved."

"Throughout my entire Golden Core stage, my main activity was continuously forming cores, making their number as numerous as the stars in the sky."

Lu Yang gasped, *Senior Sister, you truly dare to think and act!*

"It was difficult to replace stars with Golden Cores during the Golden Core stage. When I broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, I shattered one Golden Core to form a Nascent Soul, while the other Golden Cores remained within me."

"Later, when my cultivation achieved success, I took all the Golden Cores from within my body, replacing the illusions in the night sky with physical objects, replacing the stars."

"Unfortunately, there were simply too many illusory stars in the night sky. Even though I diligently formed cores, I couldn't match their number; the quantity of my Golden Cores was far less than that of the illusory stars."

"But having some is better than none, wasn't the original hardship of forming cores for the purpose of replacing the illusory stars with Golden Cores?"

"So now, some of the stars in the sky... are your Golden Cores?" Lu Yang's tone became involuntarily cautious. There was no other reason; his senior sister's actions were so outlandish that Lu Yang couldn't help but feel respect.

"Only a small portion."

"...Even a small portion is quite a lot," Lu Yang said, at a loss for words.

His senior sister, still uneasy about Lu Yang, repeatedly cautioned him: "My method of forming a core is different from ordinary people's. Don't find it strange and try to imitate me."

"Absolutely not."

If Lu Yang's previous promise not to imitate her had been perfunctory, his current answer was his genuine thought.

If this could be imitated, it would be too outrageous. Just thinking about it, he knew that the core-forming process was by no means as simple as his senior sister described.

"The more cores formed, the faster the core-forming speed"—did that even make sense?

No wonder his senior sister wrote in her core-forming experience notes: "My core-forming method has no reference value whatsoever. Do not imitate. Those who learn from me die; those who resemble me die."

Sometimes, Lu Yang felt the gap between people was greater than the gap between humans and dogs. Everyone cultivated immortals, so why was she so incredibly outlandish?

"Fairy, can your Invincible Core compare to Senior Sister's?" Lu Yang secretly asked.

The Immortal Fairy scoffed, "They're just a pile of Golden Cores. No matter how many useless Golden Cores there are, they're still trash. As the second-in-command of the Immortal Lineage, you must remember that our lineage has always valued quality, not quantity. That little girl has many cores, but my Golden Core is of high quality. There's no comparison between the two."

"Would you dare say that to Senior Sister's face?"

"No," the Immortal Fairy replied with righteous confidence.

Lu Yang felt that with his senior sister and the Immortal Fairy as his two great patrons, his cultivation journey should be smooth.

Now it seemed that neither of these two patrons could be relied upon. Speaking of which, just how old was his senior sister?