184 Essence Cores (1/2)
After coming back from the slum, Cao Mao sat on his bed, staring at the two essence cores.
The two palm-sized balls had the value of 2,000,000 refined stones. Yet, Cao Mao was unhappy.
The existence of these items showed that another higher tier of currency was circulating in the market. Then, top sects should also have many of these essence cores.
Therefore, the bid for the mural might be fierce. Several top sects might gun for it, and Cao Mao would never have enough cash to compete with them.
'Do I have to give up the mural piece?'
Cao Mao closed his eyes. He tried to put himself in a protagonist's shoes and think of an idea to obtain the mural.
Stealing it from the auction or bidding for it was impossible.
Then, how about robbing it from the auction winner?
Still, snatching something from a top sect or clan would be suicide. Unless he was a protagonist with unreasonable plot armor and OP skills, he and his family might have to face the wrath of all villains.
'If only a protagonist can have it…'
Cao Mao thought of Ma Moxi's face. He chuckled.
'Should I let him have it? Nah, he will probably empty his piggy banks for whatever items he wants for his grandfather, and he will get it one way or another. Some idiot son of a sect master will eventually find trouble with Ma Moxi, and that fucker will get all items from the dead rivals.'
As Cao Mao semi-gave up pursuing the mural piece in the auction event, he stored essence cores and various pills into his system inventory and fell asleep.
.
Isolation Training Space
Cao Mao brought out both essence cores from his system inventory. Then, he absorbed its energy.
An invisible flow of energy rushed into his arms, torso, and legs. Cao Mao's dantian also absorbed all flowing essence water like a whirlpool in the middle of a river.
Ding
\u003cYou have absorbed 1,514 liters of life essence.\u003e
\u003cYou have absorbed 1,321 liters of life essence.\u003e
\u003cYou have absorbed 1,259 liters of life essence.\u003e
\u003cYou have absorbed 1,537 liters of life essence.\u003e
System messages came out non-stop, but Cao Mao had no time to pay attention to the screens around him. He focused on directing the flow of essence into his dantian, so they could merge with his essence pool.
Normally, cultivators had to extract either yin or yang energy from the life essence to use. But for Cao Mao, his constitution could directly absorb life essence, so he did not need to go through a conversion hassle.
Twenty minutes later, the essence cores ran out of energy. They disintegrated into dust.
Moreover, the ”Core” within the pool grew larger. Although it was still glowing in green light because of the wood element, it looked resemble the ”Essence Cores” that Cao Mao had just absorbed.
Cao Mao had a deep frown on his face as he wondered why the dantian's ”Essence Core” was called that way and where the physical ”Essence Core” came from. He had a disgusting theory, but he didn't want to acknowledge it.
'Is it possible that an essence core is a cultivator's actual ”essence core” in their dantian!? If so, how does it contain life essence instead of yin or yang essence?'
Ding
\u003cEssence cores that you have consumed are different than essence cores in the dantians of local cultivators.\u003e
”Oh?”
The system was surprisingly kind today. It revealed some information without Cao Mao asking it.
\u003cThe essence cores in this world are the refined dantians of the dead cultivators from the primordial time. In the ancient past, people cultivated life essence instead of yin and yang essence, and they went through ordeals that you went through so far, including how they condensed their essence core by using the same standard as you did.\u003e
”Wait, what!?”
The tale sounded cliché, but Cao Mao had several questions in his mind.
How did the system sponsor know? If the system sponsor knew, was he someone from the ancient era?
What was the purpose of this system? What was the purpose of the system sponsor for nurturing him?
\u003cWhen a cultivator condenses a sea of life essence, that person's essence core will be truly born. This type of essence core can only contain 50,000 liters of life essence. Your sponsor and the people in the ancient time called this type of core a rank 1 core.\u003e
”So, there are higher tiers.”
\u003cCorrect. You can get 50,000 liters of life essence from a rank-one core, but you will get 500,000 liters from a rank-two core.\u003e
\u003cBut before we go into the details, shouldn't you start solidifying your ”Core”?\u003e
Now that the system reminded Cao Mao, he discovered that the life essence water in his dantian floated around. They did not gather in one place as the gravity power from the essence core was lacking.
Cao Mao manually moved the water droplets and bubbles of life essence water to the pond. Yet, it did not stay in one place. Some of them flocked toward the lightning cloud on the top of his dantian and got consumed by the residual element energy.
He had the urge to ask the system for help, but he recalled something regarding the element power and its cores.
The wood element crystal had merged with the essence core when he first broke through to the half-step 4th-stage, and the system used to give it an evaluation.
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Element Crystal Levels
Wood (Primary): 1/3
Lightning (Secondary): 2/2 (MAX)
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