Remember Professor Wei Tao's instructions, be sure to make every step perfect.
There is only one chance to break through 1st Rank and condense a Spiritual Core!
Lin Chuan read the method manual over and over again, and with Wan Wan's Assistance, ensured he correctly and accurately understood every sentence, every word, and every punctuation mark within it!
Then, Lin Chuan began to arrange the relevant ritual site using the resources from his storage bag.
The ritual site was chosen to be the underground Meditation Room in the manor.
This place was sufficiently sealed and quiet, almost able to isolate all interference factors.
The ritual site.
It was arranged with a 4th Rank Illusion Attribute Demon Core as the core, supplemented by various Illusion Attribute resources.
Lin Chuan only recognized one or two of these materials, but with Wan Wan, the walking encyclopedia, it immediately educated Lin Chuan, letting him know the specific name, origin, and price range of each one.
A bottle of dreamlike ink, used for drawing the ritual array spirit patterns.
According to Wan Wan's introduction, this is called Xuan Guang Ink, a high-grade spirit pattern item refined from a drop of Mystic Qilin blood, combined with many other precious materials.
Mystic Qilin, a Kirin of the Qilin Clan that primarily possesses the Illusion Attribute.
Next, there are dream stones used to arrange the spirit pattern nodes, which play a special role in activating the ritual array. These are high-grade spiritual minerals that can only be produced in certain extremely dangerous Illusion Attribute restricted areas.
There are more than a dozen such materials.
According to Wan Wan's estimate, the total price is 300 million star rock coins!
And this is just the lowest price!
Many of these materials are priceless and unavailable on the market. If not within the Sixth Academy, one of the Eight Great Academies enjoying the Star Rock Federation's top-tier resources, but in the outside world, the price to buy these materials would at least double.
Lin Chuan clicked his tongue.
This price is indeed outrageous, which means it's destined to be used only by a very small number of gifted elites.
And the Sixth Academy is really generous, providing breakthrough resources for every student for free.
This benefit is truly unmatched.
Is this what it means to be one of the Eight Great Academies enjoying the Star Rock Federation's top-tier resources?
Truly, it's incredibly extravagant!
Lin Chuan completely entrusted the arrangement of the ritual site to Wan Wan.
Wan Wan, only 13 centimeters tall, actually took one day to complete the arrangement of the ritual site.
She even used a magnifying glass and calipers, checked it ten times repeatedly, confirming there wasn't even a millimeter of error.
And what about Lin Chuan?
Naturally, he was preparing for the breakthrough.
According to the instructions in the method book.
The first step is to adjust one's physical and mental state, allowing oneself to be in a state of absolute fullness of essence, qi, and spirit.
Even one's mood must be in a calm, waveless state, neither happy nor sad.
Thus, Lin Chuan completely relaxed, zoning out and resting for a day. When Sleeping, he even had Sakura and Fruit play him an Expert Grade Grass Flute tune every two hours, giving him better sleep quality than a baby.
Just like that, by the time Wan Wan finished arranging the ritual site, Lin Chuan had also just entered the Great Sage mode, with his essence, qi, and spirit full and his mood calm and waveless.
Lin Chuan, in his Great Sage state, was not suitable for being distracted by other things. He had to focus his mind entirely on the matter of breaking through and condensing a Spiritual Core.
Thus, the subsequent steps of the ritual were taken over and directed by Wan Wan.
The second step is to purify the foreign attribute energy within the body. For Lin Chuan, this was the Wood Attribute energy in his body.
This step required Sakura's Assistance.
The ritual site had a total of 3 effects.
The first effect was to assist in purifying the foreign energy.
The ritual array overall looked like three concentric circles. Of course, between the concentric circles were various spirit patterns and dream stones embedded in the node devices.
Lin Chuan sat cross-legged in the innermost small circle of the ritual array, which was the main position.
Sakura was in the second layer of the concentric circles, on a special spirit pattern symbol position drawn with Xuan Guang Ink.
This was the No. 1 auxiliary position, and also the most crucial position besides the main one.
Wan Wan looked at Sakura, and after confirming that Sakura was fully prepared, she activated the first effect of the ritual array.
The spirit pattern symbols on the innermost main position where Lin Chuan was, and the No. 1 auxiliary position where Sakura was, bloomed with mesmerizing guang (light) and colors.
Invisibly, it was as if two chains, or rather energy pipelines, formed an '8' shape, connecting Lin Chuan and Sakura.
The Wood Attribute energy in Lin Chuan's body, under the effect of the ritual site's spirit patterns, flowed towards Sakura through one of the ethereal energy pipelines.
When Sakura received this Wood Attribute energy, she immediately decomposed it into the most basic extraordinary factors within her body, and re-condensed and transformed it into Illusion Attribute energy, which was then transmitted back to Lin Chuan through the other energy pipeline.
Perhaps someone might be puzzled at this point.
Why not directly infuse the scattered Illusion Attribute energy from the ritual site into Lin Chuan's body?
Or, why doesn't Sakura directly infuse her own Illusion Attribute energy into Lin Chuan?
The idea is straightforward, but it doesn't work like that.
The energy a Beast Master can accept must be energy generated by their contracted Spirit Beast and fed back through the contract. This energy carries the contract imprint.
Energy from nature has an corrosive effect on humans.
For example, Wood Attribute energy can cause human bodies to fibrose, hands and feet to grow bark, physically turning them into vegetative states.
Although energy generated by a contracted Spirit Beast is more stable than natural energy, it still has a certain degree of corrosiveness.
Perhaps direct input into a Beast Master's body can help them quickly increase their level.
However, it will gradually block the Beast Master's future path, making it more difficult for future Beast Masters to break through, even creating bottlenecks, causing the Beast Master to be completely stuck at a certain level, unable to advance even an inch.
Energy generated by a contracted Spirit Beast and fed back through the contract is like being repeatedly purified countless times, completely imprinted with the Beast Master's own mark, like a completely tamed wild beast.
Generally, such energy will not have any negative effects on the Beast Master's body.
Of course, if the Beast Master courts death and performs some strange operations, bad situations can also occur.
Just like this, energy continuously circulated between Lin Chuan and Sakura.
Outputting Wood Attribute energy, inputting Illusion Attribute energy.
After 3 hours.
All the energy in Lin Chuan's body was completely transformed into the purest Illusion Attribute energy.
Wan Wan, who had been watching closely, immediately noticed the situation.
Purification is complete, so it's time to start the third step, which is the final step of the breakthrough!
To raise Lin Chuan's Beast Master level to 10, condense a Spiritual Core, and officially break through to 1st Rank!
In this step, there is a crucial point that must be noted!
If not handled properly, everything will be in vain.
This step requires Fruit to first level up to 20, break through to 2nd Rank, evolve into Flower Spirit, form energy feedback, and push Lin Chuan's Beast Master level to 10.
This is not a problem!
The problem is that the feedback energy is Wood Attribute energy!
If directly fed back to Lin Chuan, it will inevitably contaminate the Illusion Attribute energy currently in Lin Chuan's body.
Therefore, this energy cannot be directly fed back to Lin Chuan.
It must be with the Assistance of the ritual site, allowing Sakura to act as a relay, transforming the energy into the Illusion Attribute before transmitting it to Lin Chuan.
This means Lin Chuan just happened to have two Flower Leaf Leaves, and Sakura is exceptionally gifted, coincidentally primarily Illusion and secondarily Wood Attribute. Otherwise, this step would be very troublesome.
Otherwise, to perform this ritual, he would have to contract a new tool pet.
Regarding this point, the Sixth Academy has relevant arrangements and solutions.
If a student has decided on their future path and chooses to condense a Spiritual Core of an attribute they originally did not possess energy for.
Taking Lin Chuan as an example, if Lin Chuan did not choose the Illusion Attribute but chose another attribute, such as Wind Attribute.
Then, the College/Academy would provide Lin Chuan with an artificial tool beast of Wind and Wood dual attributes to contract, helping Lin Chuan complete the purification and transformation of attribute energy.
The principle of so-called artificial tool pets is very complex.
In short, they are Spirit Beasts that don't possess any intelligence and have a lifespan of only 1 day. They can't even be called Spirit Beasts, only temporary intelligent AI machines created, although their cost is outrageous.
They are byproducts that emerged alongside the continuous development of the Human Beast Taming Civilization, the birth of artificial mechanical Spirit Beasts, and the birth of the Beast Master branch profession, Mechanic.
The aforementioned Professor Wei Tao, he is a Beast Master on the emerging Mechanic path, and also a professor specializing in researching artificial mechanical Spirit Beasts.
Getting back to the main topic.
In the third concentric circle of the ritual array, Fruit stood within the circle of spirit pattern symbols drawn with Xuan Guang Ink. This was the No. 2 auxiliary position.
Fruit completely absorbed a top-tier Wood Attribute resource, Ten Thousand Grass Essence Liquid, through Expert Grade Rooting.
Then, she used Expert Grade Growth!
To completely activate her own energy, providing it for her body's development.
In an instant.
Fruit broke through the critical point of level 19, and her level increased to 20.
The Spiritual Core within Fruit's body pulsed like a heart.
Circles of emerald green Wood Attribute energy rippled out from Fruit's body, but were sealed by the ritual array spirit patterns beneath her feet, firmly confined within the one-meter radius space around Fruit, not affecting Lin Chuan in the slightest.
Fruit's Spiritual Core suddenly expanded by a circle, then suddenly contracted again. This repeated, as if undergoing tempering by some unknown force.
After 2 minutes, the Spiritual Core within Fruit's body finally stabilized, becoming more crystal clear, more verdant green, and full of vitality.
This is a 2nd Rank Spiritual Core!
This also means that at this very moment, Fruit has already broken through from 1st Rank to 2nd Rank.
The next second!
Starting from this 2nd Rank Spiritual Core, endless green guang (light) full of vitality spread out from Fruit.
This is the guang (light) of evolution, the guang (light) of life's transformation.
However, these were still firmly locked around Fruit by the glowing spirit pattern symbols on the ground, to the extent that the intense Wood Attribute energy was almost forming tangible mist.
The scene was similar yet different from when Sakura evolved.
Sakura evolved early with the Assistance of the Spring Flower Ritual, while Fruit evolved naturally.
Sakura's evolution had more stage presence, while Fruit's evolution was more natural.
Swish swish swish, the sound of wind.
The sealed Meditation Room actually echoed with the sound of wind!?
Even though the energy was locked and unable to dissipate into the surrounding space, the constant flushing, collision, and friction of high-concentration energy still produced the sound effect of wind.
Fruit's body, within the endless green guang (light) and amidst the sound of wind, slowly grew larger.
A supremely beautiful Spirit Beast appeared, with two pure white sacred flowers on its head, its body covered by layers of leaves full of vitality like an emerald green dress, resembling a human child of 7 years old – Flower Spirit!
At this moment, one should have celebrated, should have cheered.
However, it was not the time! Celebration and cheering would be left for later.
At this moment, the most crucial part was coming!!
Wan Wan, who had been standing by in full readiness, clenched her fists and immediately reminded loudly:
"Sakura, pay attention!"
At the same time, Wan Wan activated the second effect of the ritual site.
Transformation!
Leveling up, breaking through, evolving, bloodline enhancement transformation.
The feedback energy surging like a tsunami should have originally been directly infused into Lin Chuan through the contract across the air.
However, under the influence of the ritual array, and the combined effects produced by the numerous dream stones.
Between the contract between Lin Chuan and Fruit, it was as if a node was added, a relay was added, and the feedback energy actually first surged towards Sakura.
Already standing by in full readiness, and with Wan Wan's reminder, Sakura dared not be distracted in the slightest.
Sakura bore the feedback energy from Fruit, and immediately began to fully decompose and refine it into Illusion Attribute energy, then transmitted this energy back to Lin Chuan through the invisible energy pipeline.
It was precisely at this moment.
Wan Wan activated the ritual array's final, third effect.
At the center of the array, the 4th Rank Illusion Attribute Demon Core placed on Lin Chuan's cross-legged legs slowly floated up, suspending exactly at the position of Lin Chuan's forehead between his eyebrows, slightly forward, and then bloomed with ethereal and mesmerizing guang (light).
All the array spirit patterns drawn with Mystic Qilin blood glowed, and the dream stones placed at various nodes also shone brightly.
Illusion Attribute energy continuously surged out, more and more.
The sealed Meditation Room was quickly filled with high-concentration Illusion Attribute energy, forming a mesmerizing mist field.
"Master!"
Wan Wan shouted.
Lin Chuan immediately bit open and swallowed the pill he had already held in his mouth.
The moment after the pill was bitten open and swallowed, it immediately dissolved in Lin Chuan's throat.
This was a poison, a Five Senses Sealing Poison.
Lin Chuan gradually lost sensation throughout his body, and his five senses gradually disappeared.
Only his consciousness became increasingly clear!
Driven by the ritual array operating at full power with all effects activated.
Gradually, in the Meditation Room, the dense mist field of Illusion Attribute energy formed a vortex.
From outside inwards, the surrounding Illusion Attribute energy continuously converged and collapsed towards the center.
This Illusion Attribute energy did not enter Lin Chuan's body.
Instead, it was absorbed into the 4th Rank Illusion Attribute Demon Core suspended slightly in front of Lin Chuan's forehead between his eyebrows.
This was like the principle of river currents.
This invisible rushing force from outside inwards was simultaneously applied to the Illusion Attribute energy within Lin Chuan's body, causing it to surge towards the Illusion Attribute Demon Core outside Lin Chuan's forehead between his eyebrows.
However, before it surged out of his body, as soon as it converged at the position between Lin Chuan's eyebrows on his forehead, it was intercepted by Lin Chuan's infinitely clear consciousness, gained by sealing the sensation and five senses of his entire body, leaving only a layer of skin on Lin Chuan's forehead as the gap between it and the 4th Rank Illusion Attribute Demon Core.
The Illusion Attribute energy within Lin Chuan's body was continuously pulled, continuously intercepted at the forehead between his eyebrows. More and more Illusion Attribute energy accumulated, constantly squeezing and condensing.
If Lin Chuan had his five senses at this moment, he would probably have a splitting headache.
However, having lost his five senses, he could instead fully concentrate his mind and will on condensing the Spiritual Core.
10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, one hour.
The 4th Rank Illusion Attribute Demon Core could not withstand the collapse and infusion of so much Illusion Attribute energy. The Illusion Attribute energy overflowed, completely crystallized, and cracked with a snap, shattering into powder, losing its ability to induce the Illusion Attribute energy vortex and energy rushing effect.
However, at this time, between Lin Chuan's eyebrows on his forehead, the Spiritual Core had already taken initial shape and could continue to absorb the Illusion Attribute energy within his body on its own.
Finally, at the 1 hour and 20 minute mark.
The area between Lin Chuan's eyebrows on his forehead slightly bulged, as if something was about to break through the skin.
However, it was continuously suppressed by Lin Chuan's incomparably clear mental consciousness, and finally, it subsided.
At this point, at the Upper Dantian position, the Illusion Attribute Spiritual Core was successfully condensed!
The condensed Spiritual Core, guided by Lin Chuan's consciousness, no longer physically manifested but turned into nothingness, entering his sea of consciousness and spirit.
It was a shimmering, ethereal, crystal clear, transparent rhombic crystal.
From his graduation awakening, to the college entrance examination, and now.
In total, 3 months and 22 days.
He, Lin Chuan, reached Beast Master level 10, breaking through to 1st Rank.
The Illusion Attribute Spiritual Core was successfully condensed!
He, officially, stepped onto the true extraordinary path of Beast Taming!