Jian's eyes widened at Jinghua's pronouncement. Core disciples were the heart of the sect's strength, the wellspring from which the future leaders of the sect would be drawn. It was beyond rare for a disciple as young as Meirong to be elevated to such an exalted position. Jian was hardly privy to all the comings and goings of the major sects, but he did recall that when the Profound Mysteries Sect had elevated a core disciple at the age of twenty nine, it had been considered a bold, unusual step.

"I'll have to prepare a congratulatory gift," he said, doing his best to keep the shock out of his voice.

Jinghua held up her hands. "No need, no need. I'm sure your sincere congratulations is all that senior sister could ever want."

Jian nodded. Of course, nothing he could buy would ever enter the eyes of a core disciple.

No wonder the Heavenly Sword Sect had been so active in trying to remove him from her life as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Each core disciple was a future pillar of the sect. To have one tied to an albatross like him wasn't just an embarrassment for the individual, but for the whole sect.

At least he could be confident that Meirong would agree to come with him to ask her grandfather to set aside the engagement. It was impressive that she had managed to get so far with such an anchor weighing her down. Once it was set aside, she would be free to soar to the heavens to the limit of her ability.

Jian made small talk for a bit longer before he excused himself, but his thoughts were dwelling on this latest shocking revelation. He suspected Jinghua would tell that he was preoccupied, but she was too polite to make anything of it.

He wandered back to his empty workshop, still debating within himself how he should react to the news. He took a look at the untouched block of marble and sighed. Nothing in here had changed. Meirong's future didn't have anything to do with him. He just had to keep doing what he was doing and focus on detaching himself from her life as smoothly as he could.

For now, he decided to while away the rest of the afternoon studying the living jade. He didn't think it would make much difference to their duel one way or the other. If Meirong was qualified to be a core disciple, then she would be well above him even if he could manage to scrape his way through to the Core Formation stage. In the long run, though, he could live a happier, healthier, and wealthier life the farther he could get in his cultivation. He couldn't spend every minute of every day focusing on matters that would lead to short term profits and neglect the long run.

He held the living jade in his hand and let his spiritual energy slowly engulf it. As always, he had the sense that the small lump of rock was full of profound mysteries that lay just beyond his ability to grasp. Instead of trying to force his way to comprehension, he settled in for an extended moment of quiet contemplation.

He already knew that making a heart out of living jade wasn't a simple matter of inscribing the proper formations in the proper order and then hiring a doctor to change out one heart for another. If the problem he was facing were purely mechanical, then he would have been able to form a heart out of less precious materials. It would be difficult to adjust the formations to let the heart do its job properly, but now that he had a working prototype he would be able to get there eventually. That would help him fight in the short term without risking an immediate loss of consciousness, but it wouldn't address the underlying problem.

In order to reach the Core Formation stage, a cultivator had to systematically refine the major systems of the body. First their skin, then bones, then tendons, then muscles, and finally organs. Jian had finished refining his skin and was working on refining his bones. Both of those minor stages offered significant improvement in durability. Refining his bones would also result in refining his blood, which ought to help soften the problems caused by his prototype heart.

For now, Jian could take his cultivation step by step and proceed smoothly down the well worn road that so many elders had mapped out. He could even move faster than most thanks to the years he had spent improving his control of his spiritual energy while he was stuck in the earliest stages of cultivation. Once it came time to refine his organs, though, he would face an insurmountable barrier: his heart, the most important organ of all, was artificial. It couldn't be refined, at least not the same way as a biological organ could be.

Jian was unsure what the consequences would be. If every other organ in his body was refined and he simply replaced his heart with an upgraded version, would he still be able to begin forming his core? He didn't know of any examples of cultivators who had been forced to replace their internal organs and then continued along the road of cultivation. Even in myths and legends the most extreme examples that he had heard of involved men who replaced organs with parts they had scavenged from demonic beasts. Jian wasn't sure how such a thing would work, but at least in that case the cultivator was still using a biological organ, even if it was an unconventional one.

In order to secure a guaranteed path to the Core Formation stage, Jian needed to secure a heart that could be refined just like a normal heart could be refined. Living jade offered such an opportunity, at least according to its reputation.

As far as the actual item sitting in Jian's hand, he still thought it was too soon to say. The material certainly wasn't eager to take his directions. It would absorb his spiritual energy, up to a point, but the absorbed energy was taken beyond his control. It didn't at all feel like infusing spiritual energy into a device. There, his energy would be used according to the formations to produce a specific effect. Here, the living jade almost seemed to be feeding on his spiritual energy.

Jian was a little worried that he had acquired the foundation for a future pet rather than a future prosthetic organ. Of course, pets usually showed affection to their masters and at least made an effort to follow orders. The living jade did neither of those things, content to sit like a lump in his hand and absorb the energy he provided.

He didn't detect any sort of consciousness inside the little lump of material. He would have been shocked if he had. True consciousness was the realm of mythical craftsmen, building the sort of devices that even the Guo family would have a hard time purchasing. On the other hand, there was something about the living jade he was holding. Not conscious thought, not really, but perhaps something like a set of instincts.

If he could figure out a way to tap into those instincts, then perhaps he could guide the jade in the direction that he wanted it to go. First, he'd need to figure out how to communicate with the thing.

He set aside the stone with a sigh as his stomach rumbled. Stepping out of the workshop, he found a small meal had been left outside. The city lord's servants, unlike Shan, were terrified of the reputation of Master Zhou and didn't dare to disturb him while he was hard at work. Jian appreciated the courtesy, even if it was a little lonely.

He ate the small meal by himself and washed it down with a glass of water. As he took a drink, his mind drifted to Shan's predicament. He could only imagine what kind of debauchery his friend was being forced to partake in so that he could be accepted into Huiliang's circle. At least he had the background for it. Shan could borrow a bit of his grandfather's high status, while his life of service to his grandfather provided a plausible explanation for why he was seeking out Huiliang: it was only natural for a young man to chafe under the constrictions of a life of servitude.

Over the next several weeks, Jian fell into a comfortable routine. He would tinker on his weapon, meditate over his living jade, and diligently attempt to refine his bones. Meanwhile, Shan came back late, woke up hungover, and did his best to recover before heading out to go drinking again. He was gradually working himself into Huiliang's good graces, but it was a slow process.

All in all, Jian felt like he was making decent progress every day. Three weeks after his discussion with Jinghua, she came to call on him at his workshop. He welcomed her with his head held high, confident that he had been doing his part and curious to hear what she had discovered out there in the trackless jungle.