The Stormstone split apart and dissolved into nothingness. In its place was what looked like a blue tinted piece of dry ice surrounded by a swirling vortex of blue vapor. The tiny maelstrom flew up next to the Seed of Life and joined the other unusual objects. Four strange items floated around the seed in the center. A dark stone eye, cyan sphere, white ember, and a blue ice stone. Each of them positioned equidistant from each other around the Seed of Life in the center. They seemed to reach a sort of equilibrium and Sage finally felt the drain on his body slow to a halt. Nearly every source of power that his body could call upon had been strained to their utmost.

As if the Seed of Life knew exactly how much it could take from him, it stopped exactly as he was on the verge of death. Within his dantian were only those five strange objects, the Seed of the Life in the center and the other four around it like points on a compass. Nearly everything within Sage’s storage ring that contained energy had also been dissolved to feed it, which made him somewhat regretful. Even if he survived this ordeal he had lost a great fortune. As if to further dash his hopes, Sage even lost control of his cultivation technique. He no longer felt himself in control of his own aura and the circulation of Connecting Heaven and Earth. His energy seemed to be moving of its own volition and he couldn’t do anything to stop or influence it.

At least I can still watch. Things have come to this point, I can only hope for the best.

Since he’d become a vessel for these unusual powers to make use of, there was nothing left for him to do but watch and hope. Sage steadied his breathing and gave up all resistance, a spectator for the changes in his body. The familiar pathways followed for Connecting Heaven and Earth started to shift. Things weren’t completely different, but it was nonetheless a foreign route. His aura began to undergo a shift, the crown that reached towards the heavens and roots that sunk into the earth were no more. Instead his aura seemed to exude a crushing presence, an all encompassing field to overwhelm all things. Distant and unending, uninvolved in the struggles of mere mortals.

Sage slowly learned this new route of energy circulation, wondering where this technique originated from. Time slowly passed, this new technique constantly drawing in energy and unlike before it wasn’t all absorbed. The four strange objects continued to feed the Seed of Life while the new energy no longer entered his dantian like a waterfall. Instead it trickled in from all directions, the tiny droplets seeping towards the center where the Seed of Life floated. As the hours passed, the tiny droplets grew denser, and that once empty space was now filled with bright glimmers. The previously green liquid energy had lost its color, instead appearing like tiny flickering stars.

When Sage thought the specks of light were about to start combining and forming into a sea once more, there was another change. The Seed of Life in the center started to slowly rotate in place, which seemed to be a signal to everything else to join in. The Eye of the World along with the other three unusual objects also started to spin in place. The rest of the energy in his dantian took a different path, all those motes of light started to move. The cloud of liquid energy droplets became a slow moving vortex. The speed of motion gradually building, those tiny drops of energy became a rotating nebula around the star in the center.

Marvelling at the amazing scene within his dantian, Sage was surprised to learn that the outer edges of the vortex actually flung energy out of his dantian. Those tiny droplets of energy spread through his meridians and brought a warm feeling to his severely drained body. The liquid qi was like water in a drought, bringing much needed nourishment to his devastated cells. More astounding was that this new energy caused massive changes to his body, the new liquid forcing out impurities and then filling them with new strength. Muscles, tendons, nerves, bones, scales and even his internal organs were transformed, improved, and upgraded.

Wait… isn’t this the signs of reaching a new rank?

Sage could only go along with the ride for the next few hours and endure the slow process of transforming his entire body from the ground up. Finally, the chaos within him was brought to order and Sage regained control of his energy. After spending hours watching he was already very familiar with this new cultivation technique even if he had no idea what its name was or where it came from. It seemed similar to Connecting Heaven and Earth, but it was on another level entirely. Sage finally felt stable and in control so he put on a big cloak and left the Sunfire Pagoda.

Heading back to his house, he felt itchy all over and locked himself up in the courtyard, slithering over some thick gravel and curling around the largest tree in the yard. He felt it was somewhat embarrassing, but a few hours later he finished molting his first snake skin. It wasn’t a foreign process as the Twin Ringed Serpent, essentially a second life for him, had done it many times. If anything it was sort of just an uncomfortable bodily function. He stored the molted scales within his Storage Ring and also frowned at the aftermath of his advancement. Nearly every last spirit stone and spirit jade had been taken along with nearly ninety percent of all the other materials he kept stored inside his ring. On the plus side none of the weapons or clothing from the Soul Taming Abode had been destroyed, nor had any of the memory spheres, technique manuals, or formation plates.

Sage coiled up his tail beneath himself and looked inward, examining the changes that had come over him. He had most definitely entered the fourth rank and became an official Foundation Building Cultivator. At the same time, Sage had never seen or heard of this cultivation technique before, so there was no telling how he was going to advance in the future. In the center of his dantian the Seed of Life slowly rotated in place with the four other objects slowly orbiting in, spinning on their own axis like tiny moons. All the energy that had once collected into a giant sea were instead floating around like innumerable stars, swirling and spinning around the Seed of Life like a dense nebula of stellar particles.

As Sage experimented and circulated the cultivation technique on his own the swirling of the nebula sped up. The energy was drawn in through his aura like an immense gravitational field, cycled through his body and refined before being pulled into his dantian and entering the swirling nebula. As the energy finally drew in to the center it stuck to the outside of the Seed of Life, slowly covering it like a thin shell. Sage’s guess was that once the shell grew large enough it might become a golden core, or at least something equivalent, but he had no way of knowing.

Regretfully, without any guidance he had no way of trying to force himself into a higher level of cultivation. This was a shame, but at the same time it would remove the temptation and therefore the hidden danger. If a cultivator were to push forward too quickly it could easily weaken their foundation and leave a problem for future advancement. With no idea of where he was going, he could only follow the natural progression of his cultivation technique and like a cup that was filled too full, his energy would have to spill over into the next level on its own.

I’ll have to come up with a name. Since the Seed of Life caused this, I’ll just name it ‘Life Nebula’ until I come up with something better.

Sage went and took a shower, washing away the residue of old scales along with a thick oily black residue that was expelled from his pores when his internal body was transformed. After that he put a new Human Seal on his forehead, having to spend a few hours in meditation to completely understand all the changes and differences in himself now as compared to before. His own crux had undergone a slight change and so he had to compensate and start anew. With the seal back in place he dressed in a fresh set of clothing and went to tend to his insects. He made sure to take another harvest from the Silverbees and Steel Silk Webspinners, he was completely broke now and had to start earning again!