Song Shuhang felt a feeling of fullness coming from his original dantian. The fat whale illusory core grew larger and larger, and it even seemed like it would soon fill up the entire dantian.

Sage Monarch Melon Eater was a Profound Sage at the peak of the Eighth Stage Realm, so when he went through the ‘body abandoning’ ceremony, huge amounts of his power would spread all around him. Nonetheless, due to his special cultivation technique, the power that spread out was very pure and refined.

In order to give Song Shuhang the strongest foundation for the Fourth Stage, the Great Northern Emperor adjusted the formation so that the center which Shuhang was at would receive the power extracted from Sage Monarch Melon Eater to the greatest extent.

As such, merely a few breaths of time after the formation was activated, Song Shuhang’s fat whale illusory core had already received an amount of spiritual power that was equivalent to several months of painstaking practice plus support of the Sage Seal.

The fat whale illusory core simply swelled like a balloon, and eventually really did fill up the entire original dantian.

Song Shuhang’s belly inflated as a feeling of fullness overcame him… He faintly got the feeling that he had to pee. To get such a feeling at such a critical time, it truly felt quite awkward.

Of course, this feeling was completely a psychological illusion that Song Shuhang got.

The original dantian existed at the lower abdomen position of a person, but in fact, its existence was very mysterious—when cultivators cultivated, the capacity of the original dantian would constantly expand with the continuous improvement of their power.

The capacity of the original dantian of a Fourth Stage cultivator was more than 1,000 times that of a Second Stage cultivator. If normal logic was applied, the entire body of a Fourth Stage cultivator should become filled by their original dantian, making it impossible for the body to contain it.

However, the changes in the size of the original dantian could only be detected by one’s ‘inner sight’. When one no longer used their ‘inner sight’, the size of the original dantian would not appear to have changed at all.

In short, the original dantian was just like a spatial bag. The space within it could be increased through upgrades, but its appearance would not change, which was actually very interesting.

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Above his head, the Great Northern Emperor kept an eye on Song Shuhang’s physical condition.

It’s really interesting that his illusory core could actually expand to such an extent, the Great Northern Emperor thought to himself. The larger the illusory core, the more spiritual energy it would be able to contain!

The fact that it could contain more spiritual energy meant that its master would also have more spiritual energy to use to form the golden core dragon patterns once he reached the Fifth Stage Realm. Although the amount of one’s spiritual energy was not the only factor that determined the number of dragon patterns that their golden core had, the more spiritual energy their illusory core could contain, the better their chances for more patterns.

Several breaths of time passed.

Song Shuhang’s fat whale illusory core was still inflating; it even seemed like his original dantian was going to burst. Cold sweat began to flow down his body as his dantian began to send signals of sharp pain.

One should know that his original dantian was already much larger than that of ordinary cultivators.

When he had reached the Second Stage, Venerable White had used on him the ‘Qi Storage Expanding Technique’, which increased the capacity of his dantian. After that, he experienced a series of fortuitous encounters, practiced several kinds of body tempering techniques, and even took the demodragon medicine. Then, when he reached the Fourth Stage Realm, he even experienced the divinity show, the Profound Sage Speech, and condensed a Sage Seal, all of this caused his dantian to grow even further.

Although he had just reached the Fourth Stage, the size of his original dantian already surpassed that of peak Fourth Stage Realm cultivators’, approaching that of a Fifth Stage Cultivator.

However, even if this were the case, his original dantian felt like bursting right now.

No, if I continue this way, my original dantian will really be done for… Song Shuhang thought to himself.

If his original dantian exploded, his life as a cultivator would come to an end.

As such, he tried to interfere with the fat whale illusory core to prevent it from further expanding.

But at that same moment, a strange aura came from the ‘formation center’, arriving at Song Shuhang’s body. This aura skillfully entered his body and squeezed into his original dantian.

“Don’t be nervous and calm down. I will be at the side protecting you.” In his ear, the voice of the Great Northern Emperor echoed.

At the same time, that strange aura showed its true appearance.

It was the aura of a divine beast that had been refined by the formation. It appeared to originate from the aura of Sage Monarch Melon Eater’s ancestor, the ‘divine whale’.

After this aura entered his original dantian, it quickly merged with Song Shuhang’s fat whale illusory core. The fat whale illusory core finally stopped expanding, and it began to evolve, becoming more and more lifelike.

At the beginning, it was still an illusory core, just that it had some very small details which set it apart from the others. But now, every scale and every strand of hair of the fat whale illusory core became extremely vivid and detailed.

This was what the Great Northern Emperor meant when he told Song Shuhang that his luck was quite good.

Song Shuhang practiced the [Huge Whale Chapter] of the Thirty Three Divine Beasts’ Technique. The original dantian within his body had yet to be fully formed, but he ended up encountering Sage Monarch Melon Eater, who had the bloodline of the ‘Divine Whale’.

If no one had intentionally set it all up… it could only be said that Song Shuhang’s luck was truly heaven-defying.

However, the Great Northern Emperor felt that it was more likely that someone had set things up—he believed so due to Song Shuhang telling him about that strange ‘divinatory stick’ when he was explaining what had happened between him and Sage Monarch Melon Eater. It looked like someone had been secretly guiding Sage Monarch Melon Eater to approach Song Shuhang at just the right time.

If this was the case, the Great Northern Emperor felt that it might be the doing of his ‘death-seeking friend’, Slow-Witted Song.

But it could not be ruled out that Song Shuhang truly had heaven-defying luck. It was possible that when the divinatory stick performed the divination, it only divined the opportunity for ‘Sage Monarch Melon Eater’ to ascend to the Ninth Stage, and it was just a coincidence that Melon Eater was close to Song Shuhang at that time.

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At this point, the fat whale illusory core had been completely reborn, and began to calm down inside Song Shuhang’s original dantian. However, as it was already the same size as his dantian, it wasn’t able to move at all.

Song Shuhang observed it by using ‘inner sight’.

A very suitable way to describe the changes that happened to the fat whale illusory core would be to make a comparison between a 240p video and a 4K video.

Now, I can finally be regarded as a genuine Fourth Stage cultivator, right? Song Shuhang thought.

Just as he was in thought, the head of the fat whale illusory core began to spray out water.

A whale spraying out water was nothing strange.

But the thing was that… this was an illusory core. An illusory core could spray out water?

The fat whale illusory core spewed out a very pure amount of spiritual energy. It was the spiritual energy that entered Song Shuhang’s body through the ‘Sage Seal’ and the ‘formation center’ under his feet.

After the spiritual energy burst out, Song Shuhang’s dantian began to expand and strengthen itself in a stable way.

The spiritual energy spewed out by the fat whale first integrated into Song Shuhang’s original dantian, strengthening and expanding it. After the expansion, it went on to strengthen itself again, then expand again, and so on.

It was a kingly expansion of territory.

This expansion method did not cause Song Shuhang to feel any pain, but rather actually felt very comfortable to him.

I wonder how much it will expand…

“Boom~”, Song Shuhang’s original dantian violently shook. The original dantian seemed to have broken through a certain boundary through its crazy expansion.

That was actually the boundary between the Fourth Stage Realm and the Fifth Stage Realm.

This meant that the capacity of Song Shuhang’s original dantian had forcibly expanded to the level of someone at the Fifth Stage Realm. At the beginning, his original dantian was already completely filled by the fat whale illusory core, and now it suddenly expanded to a size that could accommodate four fat whale illusory cores.

Furthermore, the expansion process had not stopped.

With the continuous influx of energy that came from the formation center below his feet and the addition of the spiritual energy from the ‘Sage Seal’, his original dantian expanded infinitely.

In Song Shuhang’s consciousness, the original dantian expanded to a size large enough to accommodate 10 fat whale illusory cores before it finally stopped growing.

This was the limit of his current body.

If the level of his ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯ were higher, and he took a few more vials of ‘demodragon medicine’ to strengthen his constitution, then his original dantian could continue to expand.

The fat whale illusory core had also finally stopped spewing out ‘water’.

In the next moment, the large formation and the Sage Seal were fully opened, and a continuous stream of refined spiritual energy came pouring into Song Shuhang’s original dantian.

Afterward, through the circulation of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts’ Technique❯, the spiritual energy was transformed into innate true yuan that belonged to Song Shuhang, which went on to fill up his entire original dantian.

Now, the fat whale illusory core was no longer stuck in place, and was able to float up and down within the innate true yuan that filled the original dantian.

Song Shuhang could not help but clench his fists. That long-lost feeling of ‘brimming with energy’ had finally returned.

At this time, he felt as if he had endless energy and could destroy everything.

The Great Northern Emperor looked at Song Shuhang, and couldn’t help but think to himself, Hmm, his appetite is really big.

At this time, the benefits of Sage Monarch Melon Eater’s body abandoning ceremony were just about to finish. With the huge amount of energy that entered Song Shuhang’s body, the Great Northern Emperor thought that he could have at least formed a few ‘immortal bones’.

Unexpectedly, the benefits were already almost over, but Song Shuhang was only able to finish condensing his illusory core, and most of the strength was used to expand his original dantian.

[Time is running out, so hurry up and try to condense an immortal bone!] the Great Northern Emperor said to Song Shuhang.

Cultivators at the Fourth Stage had to create nine immortal bones. This was the most crucial point for their ascension to the Fifth Stage. Each immortal bone had to be condensed with great care to provide them with a solid foundation.

The original intent of the Great Northern Emperor had been to use the formation to have Song Shuhang condense his first immortal bone.

Condensing the first immortal bone through the formation that possessed the ‘divine whale’ bloodline would definitely bring him great benefits in the future.

Right, the immortal bones were the objectives of cultivators at the Fourth Stage Realm.

After being reminded by the Great Northern Emperor, Song Shuhang jolted awake from that feeling of power.

He started circulating the fourth chapter of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts’ Technique❯ that had been modified by Senior White, and began to attempt consolidating his immortal bones.

Previously, because the fat whale illusory core had yet to be completely formed, most of the energy that entered his original dantian was absorbed by it, and stayed within the illusory core.

But now that the fat whale illusory core had completely formed, every time it sucked in spiritual energy, the spiritual energy could enter but also exit it.

The spiritual power would enter the fat whale illusory core and be turned into refined innate true yuan that belonged to Song Shuhang.

The condensing of the first immortal bone was going smoothly.

The first immortal bone emerged as Song Shuhang issued a command to his body to ‘condense an immortal bone’.

The crooked immortal bone that just appeared had a white color.

It was reasonable to say that the immortal bones that a cultivator would see using the ‘inner sight’ would be similar to human bones.

However, Song Shuhang found that his ‘immortal bone’ looked different: it was flat, long, and slightly curved.

My immortal bone can’t be a variant as well, right?