With the exception of the Eye of the World, which he only collected, Sage’s other Heavenly Materials basically refined themselves. That is to say, they weren’t really refined by him, but forcibly taken control of by the Seed of Life. First Light, Stormbreath, and the Sovereign Stone were never actually refined or even collected by him. They were in protective casings of various types and the Seed of Life had freed them all and wrangled them. At the moment, they seemed excited to be nearby another Heavenly Material, but the Seed of Life itself wasn’t making any big moves.

His only guess was that the Seed of Life had enough support now that it wasn’t acting out immediately in pursuit of more. So, Sage figured he just had to refine the Blue Icesilver himself and then it would naturally join in with the others. Or so he hoped. It was quite the gamble he was making. It was less of a gamble than it would be for others, considering he could be reborn. On the other hand, he would lose many years of time to recover his cultivation level again.

There’s also no telling if Tao Ba will be as nice as he was last time. He may not take pity on me again and make me suffer for even longer as a beast.

Not wanting to be stuck as a mindless beast for an unknown amount of time was a pretty good motivator. Sage focused his Spirit Power upon the Blue Icesilver, it was like a mass of partially translucent molten metal. Spreading out within his body like a squid with no head and thousands of tiny tentacles. Those small tendrils of flowing metal slid through his meridians, spreading and branching out, filling his body slowly. At the same time, the mass in his stomach kept growing larger and larger, stretching his body. He was being overwhelmed both in his physical and internal energy systems.

He formed his Spirit Power into a spike and stabbed it into the center of the Blue Icesilver. Then he sent his Qi through that spike of Spirit Power, injecting it into the core of the Blue Icesilver. Like a syringe, his energy spread into the Blue Icesilver slightly tinting it a lighter hue. He had to completely spread his own influence into the whole of the Blue Icesilver in order to refine it. That Beast Core he found in the center must have been the previous owner, and upon its death the Blue Icesilver no longer had the energy it required and became corrupted battling with the Beast Core’s fading will. That or the Beast turned the Blue Icesilver into a casket, using other materials to hide its nature. Or maybe it wasn’t burying itself, but buying time for something else. There wasn’t a good way to tell, though it meant that Beast Core was something of a danger if there was a Beast Soul still slumbering inside it.

It's the wrong time to be worrying about those things. Focus!

Sage called upon the vortex inside his Dantian. Tiny droplets of liquid energy floated around in multicolored clouds. Swirling around a central core like a nebula. The central core was shining brightly, but looking closely would show four Heavenly Materials orbiting around a fifth, the Seed of Life. He wasn’t supposed to be forcing the Life Nebula, he didn’t have much control over it after all. If he drove the Life Nebula too hard it could shatter his Dantian. At this point though, if he failed, he'd have to rebuild it again anyways, so he made a calculated risk.

The Nebula swirled faster, spinning with a higher pace. As it did, little drops of energy were flung outwards and when they collided with the walls of his Dantian they spilled over into his Qi channels, spreading outwards and supplying him with energy. These little energy droplets originated from the star in the center and were always drifting outwards, all he was doing now was making it spin faster and spill more energy. He used that influx of power to feed the spike of Spirit Power, pouring it into the Blue Icesilver. It kept growing larger and larger, dispersing and diluting his energy with its greater volume.

It was like trying to dye a pond fed by a river. He had to add ink at a faster rate than the river added more water. Sage’s body was already soaked with sweat, straining to channel more and more energy into his body. He was glad he’d been doing Ebb and Flow training for so many months, otherwise his Meridians would not be strong enough to handle the rush of energy and the invasion of the Blue Icesilver for this long.

This isn’t good. I can’t keep up, its expanding too fast!

Things were growing dire, Sage reached into his Dantian and tried to get the Seed of Life and the other Heavenly Materials to help. They fed each other power constantly, and emitted just enough to temper his Dantian and expand his cultivation as fast as his body could handle. As he feared, there was no response. They must already be releasing as much as his body could handle.

Maybe they even want the Blue Icesilver to win. Hah, I’m so stressed I’m even talking about objects like they’re conscious. Time for drastic measures.

With the Blue Icesilver growing so large, his whole body was struggling. While he could use a rapid influx of Qi to slow the expansion inside his Meridians and Qi Channels, there was no such help in his physical body. The meridian and Qi system existed inside the body, but they occupied a sort of other realm. Like another dimension overlaid upon the physical world. They interacted with the many energies of the world and inside the body and could only be seen with a cultivators special inner perception and felt with Spirit Sense. The Blue Icesilver wasn’t just a physical or energy construct, just like a cultivator it had a physical and energy component. The energy component overran his meridian system while the physical component was expanding his stomach.

It was already threatening to burst, stretching larger and larger like he had an overdue baby in his belly. He bit his lip, feeling pain as he diverted a sliver of energy into the Universe Ring to summon out a small dagger. Breathing hard, he moved his hand towards his midsection and slowly spun his wrist. Turning the tip of the blade towards himself, he pulled open his robes and placed the sharp point against his bloated abdomen.

He let out a strangled roar, screaming for courage and stabbing the dagger into his body. Carefully placing the dagger to avoid his other internal organs and intestines, he gave it a push. Piercing his stomach and then giving the dagger a slight sideways pull to widen the hole. He carefully pulled the blade out, gritting his teeth to fight the pain. Even mentally prepared as he was, it was a terrible shock and he almost lost control of his Spirit Power. The liquid metal spilled out from the hole, Sage focusing with all his might to maintain the spike of Spirit Power. If he lost focus he would lose progress. Metallic blue liquid spilled onto the ground, forming into a puddle beneath him. It looked like a blue and icy version of slowly flowing magma. A very murky and thick frosty liquid. At the same time, bright red blood mixed into the blue spill, creating quite the brilliant contrast.

I can’t even heal it, or the pressure will just build up again!