"I assumed you were going there to convince him to steal the orb? But you didn't do anything like that, instead, you stole something from him. Why?" Xun asked with a baffled expression as Long Chen relaxed on the bed.
"Nope, I didn't steal anything. I only borrowed some items. You saw what I borrowed from his room, right?" Long Chen glanced at her with a smile as he said.
"Yes, I saw it! While he showed you his clothes and accessories, you distracted him and placed a set of his clothes in your storage ring! You did the same for a pair of his shoes. Although he has enough clothes that he will never notice, I don't understand your reasoning," Xun said to Long Chen.
"It is actually very simple. You remember this, right?" Long Chen asked as he retrieved an object from his storage ring and revealed it to Xun.
"Of course, it is the Mask of Mischief you found," Xun said as she saw the mask in Long Chen's hands. She remembered that Long Chen had found it in the pond after killing Long Su.
"But what does it have to do with—oh! I understand now," she stopped midway as understanding dawned and she chuckled.
"It is good that you understand. At least you are smarter than you look," Long Chen said with a slight laugh.
"Of course, I am smarter than I look... Wait a minute… Did you just say that I look stupid?" she asked with an irritated look on her face.
"No, I mean that you look smart, but in reality, you're even smarter," Long Chen replied with a smile.
"Oh, it's good then," Xun said with a giggle.
"Since everything is ready, let's go steal it fast," Xun suggested.
"Not yet. The preparation has not yet finished," Long Chen replied.
"What's left to complete?" Xun asked.
"Strength! I need to become stronger and break through the Gold Core Realm! This world's Qi is really beneficial to me, and I am sure that I can breakthrough in a short amount of time," Long Chen told Xun.
"If you say so. I guess a short delay won't disrupt our plans," Xun stated.
Long Chen finished chatting and started cultivating. He cultivated for just over a day and had already reached the peak of the 9th stage of the Spirit Establishment Realm.
Just as he reached the peak, Long Chen noticed that his Martial Soul had, once again, changed a little. It became completely identical to Long Chen to the very last details.
The golden armor shined lustrously on its body, while the sword in its hands exuded destructive energy. The eyes of his martial soul were still closed. Long Chen noted that he had never seen the Martial Soul's eyes, but had assumed that it would be golden like his.
'Finally, I have completed Spirit Establishment Realm. Time to take the next step in cultivation and breakthrough to the Gold Core Realm,' Long Chen thought.
Long Chen was about to continue cultivating, when he remembered that he had to feed his Qi to the egg. Long Chen retrieved it immediately from his space ring and transferred his Qi to the egg.
'It happened again!' Long Chen thought as he suddenly felt the egg pulse.
'No need to waste time telling Xun as she wouldn't believe me anyway.' Long Chen decided as he recalled her response when he informed her the first time.
Though the egg ceased absorbing his Qi, Long Chen didn't put it away. He looked at it carefully, trying to see if there were any changes. But he couldn't see any differences. He finally put it back inside the ring and decided to return to cultivating.
Long Chen knew that the Gold Core Realm—as the name suggested, consisted of forming a golden core inside one's body. This golden core was formed inside the Martial Space of a cultivator and the Martial Space was where the Martial Soul resided. This space was only formed when someone first formed their Martial Soul. It was said that the quality of the Martial Soul and Martial Space affected how the golden core formed.
Long Chen resumed his cultivation, and after a short period of time, he finally saw a speck of light appearing in his Martial Space, which kept increasing in size with time.
Long Chen could see that the Qi in the atmosphere was entering his body and disappearing inside this light. Long Chen didn't know what it was as the color of this light was completely red, unlike the golden core that should have formed.
He thought about stopping and asking Xun about this phenomenon but dropped the idea because he felt that stopping at this stage was dangerous. There was a possibility that it might destroy his foundation if he held back.
This process continued for a long time. It had been two days since the red speck of light first appeared and an exorbitant amount of Qi had continually been absorbed by this speck of light. After two days of continuous absorption, this speck of light, which was only the size of a dust particle at first, had already increased by countless times and kept expanding.
At first, the red speck of light was absorbed Qi from a 100-meter-wide area around Long Chen. Then, it kept increasing—going from a hundred meters to a kilometer, and then ten. Now, it covered a hundred kilometers around Long Chen and the Qi in the atmosphere thinned.
Queen Mia had already sensed something wrong when she began her cultivation. She could see a sharp decrease in her cultivation speed and it grew worse as time passed. After a day, she was going crazy as she wondered what was wrong.
When she tried cultivating, no Qi was absorbed into her body. She couldn't think of a reason why it was happening. She could not see the direction the Qi was actually travelling in. Otherwise, she would have known that it headed towards Long Chen's direction.
It was doubtful what her reaction would be.
This phenomenon continued for five more days before stopping.
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