That final month seemed to take the longest, and when the third leaf finally reached its full size, there was a change. The three leaves started to glow a soft white light while the small veins upon their surfaces lit up with a gentle golden glow. With the golden light to distinguish them it was now apparent there was a different sort of pattern to them. The glow didn’t fade, but the small veins began to shift. With a subtle shift, they were now a pattern that Sage could recognize. Ancient Array Symbols looked like more complicated and exquisite versions of the common Array Symbols everyone uses. These symbols that were forming seemed to have a similar relationship with Ancient Array Symbols. Without his knowledge of Ancient Array Symbols from Tao Ba, Sage would not have so easily recognized them.

Hmm… that looks like: Heaven, Earth, and Man.

As he thought to this point, the veins stopped shifting and the three leaves glowed an even greater and brighter light. The Seed of Life split apart completely, the stalk carrying the leaves grew larger, and roots expanded from the rest of the seed, completely destroying its previous appearance. No longer a seed, should he call it Tree of Life, now? In the Daoist ideology, the Dao begets one. One begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things. Some claim it to be: Dao produces unity; unity produces duality; duality produces trinity; trinity produces all things. The energy of the heavens, yang, flows down to the earth, yin, which collects and sends it back up. This forms all of life, including all of humanity. So forms the trinity of heaven, earth, and man. Divinity, nature, and humanity.

The roots of the small tree continued to expand at a rapid rate, soon reaching the edge of the glowing light and extending past it. They didn’t stop there, his Dantian soon covered by a mass of roots, each small tendril branching into many more. When they reached the limits of his Dantian they sunk into the walls. Sage observed this new development very closely with his Spiritual Sense. Surprisingly, the tendrils didn’t extend into his meridians, nor did it move into his physical body. Instead, he felt the energy of his aura shifting. He could feel their influence there, but a few moments later they reached the edges of his aura.

The roots didn’t stop expanding. They were growing denser and denser within his Dantian. He began to grow worried at what might happen when they completely filled it. Would he have any room left to even store any energy? All of a sudden, the roots began to fade away. They weren’t being destroyed or moving, but they gained a sort of transparency. Soon, he couldn’t see them all. All the roots that had flooded his Dantian were gone. Did they enter another dimension? Were they illusions? Just invisible? The only thing they left behind was a strange root like pattern on the outer walls of his Dantian.

The fading traveled up the roots, making it to the trunk of the tiny tree. Soon, the only thing left was the three small leaves. Next, the brightness of the ‘Heaven’ leaf grew in intensity, shining like a tiny star. The light grew so intense nothing else could be seen. Then it was like something shattered, a detonation that couldn’t be seen with his internal perception, but he felt with his Spiritual Sense. The extremely dense energy suddenly dispersed from a single point out into the full size of his Dantian. The bright light faded away just in time for him to see the ‘Earth’ leaf expand and curl, taking on the shape of a small sphere, the stem hidden within it. The spherical leaf grew larger and larger, changing colors to earthy brown shades.

The ‘Heaven’ leaf was already gone, but around the ‘Earth’ leaf, many small motes of light had appeared. At this point the ‘Man’ leaf fluttered towards the brown sphere. When they touched the ‘Man’ leaf disappeared just like the other two and the whole of Sage’s Dantian shuddered. His senses were momentarily disrupted. After a few moments the disturbance ended and Sage sent his perception inward once more.

It formed! Is this the legendary Green Core?

Inside his Dantian there was a small sea of stars. At the center of these stars was a single large planet. It really didn’t look like much. From afar it had a sort of grey color, but as he sent his perception closer, he saw the planet underneath was pretty desolate. The soil was moist, but not very fertile. The planet itself had only a bit of algae, like it was only a step up from what he imagined Mars looked like. He examined the surface a bit more, and then sent his perception deeper, peering into the small planet. Soon, he reached the center and there was a green barrier. Sort of like a wall of translucent energy, one that slowed his perception but didn’t stop it. Within, he saw the tiny tree from before. It’s three leaves glowing softly, its roots spreading out into the green energy barrier, supporting it at the center of the small space.

Sage felt a tug. The small tree was calling out to him.

This must be it… my perception is connected to my mind, and the mind is controlled by the soul.

The first step of advancing into Core Formation was to collect the Sea of Qi into the foundation. That had formed the small tree of life. The second step was to create the core. The tiny tree had grown to full size and created this little planet and the core of energy within. If this little green barrier was truly his core, then all that remained was the third step, fusing the soul. Sage hesitated.

This was the moment of truth, and the only part that was truly dangerous for him. The technique he used to return from the dead, Soul Spawn, was the transfer of his soul into an egg. If his physical body was destroyed, as long as his soul survived he could be reborn. To complete his advancement, he would need to fuse his soul into the core. Failure at this stage could damage or even destroy his soul. It was rare, but it happened to other cultivators in the past.

It’s time, as they say, to go big or go home.

The options in front of him were to proceed with the third step, or destroy his cultivation and get rid of the Seed of Life. Since he’d already refined the Blue Icesilver, he could likely keep control over it, but the other Heavenly Materials would probably need to be sealed up. Most Cultivators could only control one of them. The most powerful and skilled would have special methods to allow them to control more, and usually only of the same type. Most likely if he lost the Seed of Life he’d lose all the other Heavenly Materials. Sage didn’t have any good methods to seal them up. If he was lucky, perhaps he could push them all into the Universe Ring and Tao Ba could do something about them.

I can’t allow myself to become complacent. I’ve had a safety net for quite some time now, but I can’t let that destroy my drive. I started out very weak, and the little courage I had got ground away into a will to survive. Those years were hellish until I finally found peace with the Holy Flame Sect. After a period of convalescence I mustered my courage once more and that led to great changes. The bad came along with the good, but that was when I gained the safety net of rebirth. Its led me to take some risks without worrying about the consequences, but now is a time I cannot falter.