“Xue’er!”

“Oh, Big Brother Shen. I cooked us some food. Let’s eat.” Xue’er sweetly smiled but it froze after looking at Shen who came out of the hut.

“Late Qi Condensation!”

“Big Brother Shen, what did you do?!”

“Hmm, I discovered a good method for absorbing spiritual power, hehe. Give me another couple of days, I’ve got this figured out!” Shen triumphally exclaimed. He was not aware of what he did, reaching late Qi Condensation from nothing in an hour.

Of course, the chaos beast with no common sense probably would not think much of it even if he was told that he accomplished something that took geniuses and sons of heaven at least five years in a mere hour.

“Figured out? Figured out what?! Big Brother Shen… Ah never mind. Let’s just eat.”

Xue’er knew her Big Brother Shen was unusual but she did not think it was to this degree. However, she eventually gave up. It was probably ok if no one else found out about it.

A white shadow suddenly escaped from the forest and landed on the table outside the hut. “Little White, you’re back!”

“Sister Xue’er, I found some good spirit herbs, look!” The snow fox was quite excited. “Oh, food!”

Shen sat down opposite Xue’er and the couple with one magical beast ate together.

After eating.

“Xue’er, I’m going to take a quick look at the egg. I’ll be right back.”

*Whoosh*

Shen disappeared from the spot. In one minute, Shen had reappeared in front of Xue’er.

“The egg is still there but it has gotten a bit brighter. It seems to be absorbing the heat from the volcano. The temperature of the magma has gone down by a bit.”

“Maybe it’s trying to hatch using the heat from the volcano?”

“Sounds plausible. I guess we will see whether it hatches. Xue’er I’m going back to cultivate. If you need me, send me a sound transmission.”

“Ok Big Brother Shen, I will go explore the forest with Little White.”

Shen headed back into the hut and resumed his cultivation.

Two days passed by peacefully.

Xue’er and Little White had collected many spirit herbs around the island. Shen was not a late Formation Building cultivator.

Every time Xue’er saw him, she would be quite shocked at his speed. It was probably a good thing that Shen did not tell Xue’er that he could have formed his core within a few hours if he wished to.

Only drawback being that he would empty the spiritual power in the surrounding few tens of thousands of miles if he were to do so. As they were still relatively close to the Sky continent so he did not want to draw unwanted attention.

Shen was still experimenting with forming new cultivation techniques. His fleshy body, formed using chaos power, was very similar to a human body. The difference was that he could control his body in any way he wished.

Shen had opened all his meridians and widened them as much as possible, resulting in a ridiculous cultivation speed.

‘Xue’er is still playing around in the forest. The speed that I can draw in spiritual power has increased significantly. I’ll find a different location.’

Shen spread out his Divine Sense outwards the surrounding sea.

‘Found it!’

The area occupied by water on this planet was huge. There was a large expanse of water with no large land mass in sight for hundreds of thousands of miles.

Shen disappeared from his hut.

‘This place is perfect, there’s no human cultivators or strong magical beasts in the surroundings.’

Shen was currently on top of a small island. It only had a radius of a few miles.

‘Let’s form a core.’

Shen sat down and started to draw in spiritual power wildly. A white vortex of dense spiritual power started to gather with Shen as the centre.

The liquid mass in Shen’s dantian started to form into the shape of a sphere. The sphere became smaller and smaller as time went on. Finally, the sphere solidified and reduced to a mere bean size.

Shen did not stop and continued to cultivate. The core in Shen’s dantian continued to increase in size until it showed signs of cracking, at which point Shen finally decided to stop his cultivation.

It had taken a short three hours for Shen to form his core and advance to the peak of Core Formation stage.

“Time to go back.” As Shen stood up, the white vortex of spiritual power slowly dispersed and the world spiritual power around the small island started to restore to its normal state.

Shen reappeared in the small hut. The scent of roast fish could be smelled as soon as he arrived.

“Xue’er!”

“Big Brother Shen. You’re back, where did you go?” Xue’er glanced at Shen. Little White was fixatedly staring at the fish being roasted.

“Ohh, that smells really nice! I went to an island far away from here to form my core. I’m a Core Formation stage cultivator now!” Shen proudly declared. He was rather pleased with his progress.

Xue’er froze a bit upon Shen’s declaration. She noticed that Shen was already at the peak of Core Formation.

“Ha…why doesn’t this surprise me anymore…” Xue’er just continued with her roasting.

“Xue’er, tell me what to do next! I can’t cultivate anymore, otherwise the core will burst.”

“Big Brother Shen, you want to keep going? There is only 4 days until the competition starts.”

“It’s alright, I’ll breakthrough before we leave here!”

“Hmm, ok. Let’s eat first. I will teach you afterwards.”

In the hut.

“Big Brother Shen. Nascent Soul stage precisely involves bursting your core. But you have to gather the pieces straight away and use your Divine Sense to construct your Soul Avatar!

It is a very important step in cultivation. A lot of cultivators get stuck and either become crippled or cannot advance another step in their whole lives! You must be careful.

Your Soul Avatar can be anything. Like a weapon or a magical beast. Some cultivators even have a Divine Flame! Mine is a Gold Dragon just like my father. Before you burst your core and attempt to condense your Soul Avatar, you must know what you want to form, since it will affect the innate magic art you can use in the future!”

“My Soul Avatar’s innate magic art is a physical enhancement type. Most magical beast Soul Avatars are the same. The weapon shaped Avatars enhance attacking power when used with a suitable magic art. Flames help in refining and attacking with flame type magic arts.”

Shen pondered over the information silently. “Ok, I have to think what kind of Soul Avatar I want to have.”

*BANG!!*

As the couple sat in the hut, an explosion sound can be heard from the centre of the island. Shockwaves of the aftermath could be felt all the way to the outer edges of the island as the hut started to shake.

Shen used his new cultivation to protect the hut as he and Xue’er stepped out of the hut and looked towards the volcano.