64 AFTER SEVEN DAYS, HE FINALLY SETS OFF AT NIGH (1/2)
Inferior Stage: normal cultivators at this stage amassed as much Qi and Spiritual Energy as possible. Once they reached their limit would be the moment they achieved the peak of the Inferior Stage.
There were two ways to breakthrough this bottleneck: the first was arguably faster but had its shortcomings, and that was to directly absorb Qi Strands of a higher level into one's own Qi River. This, however, would leave behind flaws in one's cultivation base, as there would be Inferior Stage Qi Strands left behind, which would limit progress until one fixed the underlying problem. The longer the flaws had existed for, the harder it would be to fix them, so much so that it would sometimes be more efficient to scrap the entire cultivation base and restart from scratch.
The universally acclaimed method, on the other hand, would leave behind a perfect Cultivation Base: it was to slowly refine Inferior Stage Qi strands into Basic Stage strands by weaving the Qi Strands together, turning quantity into quality. This would be done over and over, until one's limit would be reached again.
The way to do this was through repetitive usage: using a martial skill mobilized the Qi River, and just like a muscle would tear after exerting a lot of force and then grow back stronger, the Qi River would condense and grow thinner, yet denser, moving around faster and faster in the sea of consciousness…
Once even a single main strand turned from Inferior to Basic, one would be of the Basic Stage.
Similarly, when every single strand of Qi in the river had turned into Basic Qi and no more strand could be added in, then one would have reached the peak of the Basic Stage.
Cheng Hao's method, however, was slightly different…
After all, unlike others, he had a Pseudo Core that automatically absorbed impure Qi discarded from the main cultivation base! Simply by placing it in the middle of the Qi Sea not only kept the whole mass stuck in place, making it easier to condense into a true Core later, but it also automatically ate up Inferior Stage Qi with each rotation! This would eventually leave behind space for Basic Stage Qi to seep in as the initial strands evolved themselves.
Perfection!
Now, of course, that would have been the case if it weren't for a single problem: Cheng Hao's Supreme Qi could not be randomly absorbed, as its only sources were the rings of golden light of the Immortal Ascension Tower.
No matter what he did, he still couldn't divide the rings into smaller parts for him to absorb at various intervals. Unfortunately, the separated strands of Sovereign Qi would just collapse back together.
Furthermore, the current Inferior Qi mass was extremely thick already, so heavy it was unbelievable. So, to grind it down and promote it qualitatively, normal methods would not be enough.
Eventually, under the purification ability of the supercharged Pseudo-Core, the Inferior Qi got all turned into Basic Qi. Then, the space left behind in the 'river' was further filled by the Supreme Qi of the Basic Stage from the light ring of the Tower.
Right now, he was at the peak of the Basic Stage already: once again, all that was left was to gather enough Spiritual Energy to fuel the process that would promote him to the Advanced Stage.
Obviously, Xiao Wu wouldn't have as stringent requirements as him. She would not need to go through such a tedious process and could simply use the normal method available to Pseudo-Core cultivators. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, the tiny bead that had such an unassuming name was actually extremely useful in Cheng Hao's eyes.
And that was coming from the one that had once found a way to mass-produce Aura Martial Ways starting from the Inferior Stage!
A genius that had once modified the Heaven Devouring Dragon's exclusive technique into a fearsome skill that could change the tides of a war!
A prodigy that managed to fuse the dragon-fire from the Long-Huo gems of two Immortal Realm Tyrant Dragons with the flames of his own Soul, thus creating the second strongest flames in the world, only inferior to those of the Primordial Blaze Emperor, the beast that birthed all flames!
And yet, even among those great accomplishments, the Pseudo-Core had to remain his proudest achievement. This feat was one he had accomplished through his effort alone, studying the flaws of cultivation and exploring them with the eyes of a mortal youth untainted by the views of so-called experts.
Nighttime, on the seventh day of closed-door cultivation.