Calculating My Way To Immortality

A week later, Yu Tian and Xueling sat across from each other.

They weren't in direct contact like when they cultivated together before, but qi swirled around them in visible currents.

Over the past week, they'd been attacked several times by cultivators from the Dark Moon Hall. But thanks to Xueling's combat power at the peak of Golden Core Realm - boosted by her breakthrough to the eleventh layer of Body Refining - they'd easily defeated every enemy sent their way.

Lately, the attacks seemed to have slowed down. Yu Tian guessed the Dark Moon Hall was focusing more on the other forces for now, since every group they sent this way simply vanished without a trace.

Well, thanks to that breathing room, Yu Tian and Xueling could finally start preparing for their breakthrough.

Yu Tian observed his own condition. He'd already undergone his second rebirth, entering the twelfth layer of Body Refining. This allowed his combat power to match Xueling's peak Golden Core strength.

Another change was that his Mind had finally advanced to level five. He was still getting used to the benefits of the level up and planned to explore it more thoroughly after the breakthrough.

For now, he glanced at Xueling seated before him. She appeared to be under heavy strain. He closed his eyes and continued instructing her telepathically.

She'd entered the fourth level of the Mind Realm a few days ago, and he was now helping her reach the fifth level. After all, breaking through to the Golden Core Realm required at least level five Mind.

Yu Tian's qi cultivation had also advanced over the past week. Now he stood at the ultimate peak of Core Formation. Although it was hard to measure his exact combat ability after all his upgrades, his calculation ability showed he should be able to match a Golden Core ultimate peak cultivator in combat.

As for actually winning against them? That was another matter entirely.

As they fought off enemies, Yu Tian hadn't forgotten to loot their bodies. He'd also collected the cores of fifteen Core Formation cultivators. As for Golden Core cultivators, he'd been unable to retrieve their cores.

Probably because when someone entered the Golden Core Realm, their core usually transferred into their spiritual sea. Still, with what he'd gathered, he felt confident he could form the Absolute Core and advance partway into the Golden Core layers.

Three days later, Xueling opened her eyes. She'd finally advanced to the fifth layer of the Mind Realm.

"How does it feel?" Yu Tian asked.

"It's hard to explain. But if I had to say... it definitely feels more real than before," she said.

Yu Tian nodded. He felt the same way. Although it wasn't quite at the level of the outside world, the space inside the spiritual sea definitely felt much more real now. This was probably why it was required for Golden Core Realm - cultivators needed to move their core here.

Speaking of, the actual spiritual sea had now opened. The space inside the Mind Realm was generally referred to as the "spiritual sea," but Yu Tian hadn't seen an actual sea inside before. Now, after reaching level five, the sea had started forming.

Well, for now, it was more like a spiritual pool.

…

Some time later, Yu Tian and Xueling sat in an open clearing a few miles away from the Snow Heaven Sect. This was the place they would attempt their breakthrough to the Golden Core Realm.

"Here's the plan," Yu Tian began, and Xueling paid close attention.

Yu Tian was planning for both of them to trigger their breakthrough, causing the Heavenly Tribulation to be summoned. After that, he would also trigger his rebirth breakthrough. Before, he'd already calculated that it would take three rebirths to upgrade his spiritual root to high grade.

Yu Tian wanted to take advantage of this to alter his spiritual root entirely.

During the rebirth, the spiritual root would become like hot iron - easy to mold before it hardened again. His plan was to have Xueling produce extreme yin energy while he gathered extreme yang from the heavenly lightning.

He would then condense these extreme energies into his spiritual root during the rebirth. When the rebirth ended and the iron hardened, it would take on the properties of those two energies, giving him a high grade Yin-Yang spiritual root.

With this spiritual root, he would gain access to all ten elements. The basic five: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. The three mutated elements: ice, lightning, and wind. And the two extreme yin-yang elements: light and dark.

"Is that even possible?" Xueling asked. She'd never heard of such a thing.

"Well, it should be possible," Yu Tian said.

"Should be?" she questioned.

"Well, don't worry about it too much. I've already made all the necessary calculations," he said.

Although the chances weren't all that good, that was without accounting for his Path to Heaven method, which would allow him to circulate the incoming extreme yin and extreme yang energies and balance them out during the rebirth.

If he accounted for this, success was pretty much guaranteed.

"Alright," Xueling said. Since Yu Tian said that, then there was nothing to worry about.

"Let's begin," Yu Tian said.

The two interlocked their hands and closed their eyes, beginning to stimulate their energy and forcing it toward a breakthrough. As they did this, dark clouds began gathering in the sky. As time went on, the dark clouds accumulated more and more, and small sparks of lightning began crackling within them.

These sparks continued intensifying until random lightning strikes began appearing in the distance.

Usually, the lightning had a systematic strike pattern - delivering a certain number of strikes according to one's foundation. But since the two of them were going against the heavens by choosing to face the tribulation together, their tribulations weren't just added together...

The lightning strikes continued growing more and more intense. Even the air around them became electrically charged, crackling with power. But this wasn't all. As the two reached the critical point in their cultivation, the heavenly lightning finally began raining down on them.

That's right - raining.

They weren't being struck one strike at a time, but rather facing a continuous lightning rain descending upon them without pause.

Yu Tian retrieved Su Qing's core. It was time to form his Golden Core.