Krune was looking at the spirit stones beside the spiritual vein lake. He had almost two thousand of them now, and among them, nearly 300 were Rank Two ones.
'This should be more than enough to breakthrough. According to Ruik, usually, the part that spends the most spiritual energy is breaking the core interior. The more thoroughly the core is broken, the easier it is to model it after. After pondering, we got to the conclusion that the final part, which is to fulfill the 'universe' with spiritual energy, will spend just as much.'
Krune first calmed down and made sure he was at his peak. When he starts breaking down the interior of his core, he doesn't know what he will feel since his own soul is one with the core, after all. But it's certain to be really painful.
Krune started the process, and the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to gather around him. There is plenty of spiritual energy in the air because of the spiritual vein beside him. It will help save quite a lot of spirit stones. Once enough spiritual energy was gathered at the center of his core, Krune forced it into a rampage, barely keeping the control.
"Crack"
As soon as Krune heard the sound of the core cracking, he almost fainted.
Painful!
Extremely painful!
Wisps really have it hard, it felt as if what was breaking wasn't his core but his soul instead. Fortunately, he was prepared for it and managed to keep control over the spiritual energy. But Krune noticed one thing.
'Ruik was right. You can only feel it after you start the process. I can tell that my core is barely holding up from splinting apart. You must have a peak 9th stage Qi Condensation to be able to go through it. Otherwise, the core or dantian won't be resilient enough to resist.'
It turns out that if someone tried to start the breaking down process before reaching the peak of the Qi Condensation stage. The core would immediately break completely. If it didn't, there would be some who would try to enter the Foundation Establishment much earlier. Of course, if such a thing was possible, this cultivator would have a very unstable foundation, so very few would try it anyway.
Crack by crack, Krune kept breaking the core's interior. Every time he used spiritual energy to smash it, he would feel like he wanted to die. An ordinary cultivator would be much faster in this process since even though it would hurt, it was just the core or dantian pain. But Krune is hurting his own soul in the process. He must always wait some time to stabilize his state of mind before continuing the process.
'Ruik said that his breaking down process only took him three days, but the way things are going, I definitely will take much longer than that.'
There is no helping in it. Not only Krune need to stop every time he breaks it, Krune's plan was to keep smashing its interior until he felt that it couldn't be broken any further. His universe foundation is bound to be very difficult to model, so he can't take any chances even if it kills him.
Slowly, an entire month went by.
Inside the spiritual vein lake room, one could hear a grunt coming from a wisp every now and then. Krune had kept at it until now, and he got great harvests.
First, his core interior was truly smashed to powder now. Even though he hasn't finished, the process is going much more smoothly now.
Second, all the pain had tempered his soul to an unbelievable degree. If he tried to use his Divine Sense now, it definitely would be further than a kilometer radius. And that is considering that he is still in the Qi Condensation stage! He couldn't help but think of the old saying.
'With great risks, come great rewards. I already don't need to stop anymore between every break, it still hurts, but it's not unbearable. Also, I feel like I understand now.'
What Krune found out is that he can measure how well broken his core interior is according to the pain that his soul feels.
'If my conjecture isn't wrong, my core's interior will only be perfectly broken when I feel no pain in my soul anymore. That is when I will know that I achieved perfection in the first part of my breakthrough.'
Krune was right, that was an unexpected gain for him. This use of the soul pain to measure the breaking down process is something that only wisps would ever be able to use. But how many wisps out there have tried to enter the Foundation Establishment before? It's bound to be very few and far between. This fact would help Krune achieve something that only great clans and sects can do, which is a perfect foundation.
Those great clans and sects would never divulge their secrets of how to do that. Each one of them had their own ways to ascertain if the core's or datian's interior was perfectly broken. But for someone to use the pain of their souls to find out about that? Only wisps are able to! The impressive thing is that wisps don't even know about the perfect breaking down process.
So the very few wisps who had tried to breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment would go as far as to keep breaking their cores until there is no more pain. They just wanted to get over with this painful process as fast as possible. Because of this, Krune could be said to be one of the firsts, if not the first himself, to ever achieve a perfect breaking down process among the wisps!
And just like that, Krune kept at it, smashing until he couldn't feel even an itchy. After Forty-Five days, Krune suddenly stopped.
'Hum? Did I feel nothing? Other than the rumble of spiritual energy, I couldn't feel anything else after this last smashing with spiritual energy. Anyway, let's try it a few more times.'
Krune gathered spiritual energy and tried to use it to break the interior. Still, he couldn't feel anything at all. It was as if the spiritual energy flowed around his core without any obstacle. His core interior couldn't even be said to be powder anymore, it looked like clay instead.
'Seems like this is it. I can't wait longer anyway. According to Ruik, once you have decided that the core's interior can't be broken any further, you must start the modeling straight away. Otherwise, it will lose its balance, and the process will fail.'
Krune then started the modeling process, and he had thought about it hundreds of times. He would first open the space that was supposed to be his small universe. By removing the clay-like interior out of the way, it didn't take long for him to create a void in between his core-shell and what will come to be his planet foundation later on. One must understand that once the breaking down process is concluded, the core or dantian shell will increase in size. This is a matter, of course. Otherwise, the cultivators would not be able to model anything since there would be no space to do so.
To form the void was the easy part, there was nothing to be modeled there. After that came the hard one, to use his spiritual energy to model a world. A whole world with everything it had. Of course, at a much smaller scale, and with fewer things on it. But even so, it's bound to take a lot of time anyway.
Krune wasn't sad though, after all the pain of the breaking down and the tempering of his soul as a reward, Krune was very ecstatic. He could feel that he was a step closer to the Foundation Establishment. Krune then started the modeling process. First, the planet itself, leaving just an area big enough to store his soul and his future golden core.
After that, he started to model the surface. First, he created the atmosphere since it is necessary to hold the air, regulate the seasons, and stop things like the ocean to evaporate to the universe. After that came the seas, almost all life came from water, so the seas and oceans came second. Terrestrial life forms need land to walk, so the continents came in third. Energy is necessary to give birth to life. Usually, it would be provided by the sun.
Still, Krune didn't have one, so he used his rainbow-like spiritual energy that he had thought before to nurture the seas and lands. As for that rainbow-like spiritual energy alone, he spent almost 1000 spirit stones. After all, his enclosed universe was much bigger than something like the island in the lake foundation.
Then came the life forms, forests, animals, so on and so forth, this planet modeling would take a very long time. Still, Krune didn't care, he paid attention to every detail, and revised them several times. The time isn't a problem, Krune had just recently become 4 years old, he is still quite a young wisp.
It had already been three months since the start of the planet modeling process. By now, Krune had already finished his little planet. He spent the last two weeks revising it and making corrections here and there. Time seemed to have no meaning for Krune anymore. All that matters is his foundation. But today, Krune finally arrived at the conclusion that he can't do anything further to his little planet.
'I revised it hundreds of times, and I can't find anything else to fix. At most, I would just change the position of some places. That wouldn't be because they are wrong, but because they would look better in the eyes. Still, I won't do that, a planet isn't something born to look good. It is a balance, as long as the key points are there, the planet itself wouldn't care about how it looks like. If I do that, my planet might even be rejected by the heavens instead. One must remember that even heavens isn't perfect, let alone a planet. My chances will be better if I keep it as close as possible of the real thing.'
'Now then, its time to created a home for my soul and my future golden core.'
Krune had heard from Ruik that when you breakthrough the Core Formation stage, your core will be golden like. But Ruik only heard about that himself too, so he isn't sure about the details.
'Also, my soul feels like it had been vagrant all around inside my core. This feeling of not being attached really makes me feel uncomfortable, so I hope everything goes as planned. I intended to build the planet core to be compatible with what my soul had before my breakthrough process. But I will only know if it was a good idea after I finish it.'
In fact, the core of the planet would be quite easy to finish since it was going to more or less be a copy of what his core was before. The only difference is that at the very center is the place where his future golden core will be nurtured. The idea is that his soul will live together with his future golden core. Krune doesn't know if this is a good idea or not, but he decided that it is worth a try.
'From what I heard from Ruik, I must leave the place where my future golden core will be nurtured completely empty. It must have no obstacles and enough space.'
After another ten days, Krune had finally finished everything. Before concluding the process, he decided that it was better to attach his soul back to the core first. That's because he is afraid that he might not be able to go back when he finishes his breakthrough. His foundation might consider as if he wasn't supposed to be there. Different from other races, his soul must be part of the foundation itself, he has no other choice.
'Alright, everything is done. Now I just need to complete the process and wait for the heavens to check my foundation. I've been here for three and a half months, and Ruik said that the time spent to finish the foundation creation doesn't matter. Still, he also has never heard about anyone taking more than a month to finish it, let alone more than three.'
What determines whether the foundation creation is over or not is the flow of spiritual energy. That's also why Krune gathered so many spirit stones. If the flow of spiritual energy is interrupted before finalizing the modeling, the process will be considered a failure. So he had to be sure to have enough spirit stones available, and it was the same for everyone as well. At the same time, you need to stop the flow of spiritual energy by yourself after finishing the modeling. By doing so, the new foundation will try to gather spiritual energy by itself from heaven and earth, and the process will be finished.
The moment that the new foundation tries to gather the spiritual energy from the outside world is the moment that the heavens feel it's existence. It will then check if it's in according to its rules.
By now, during those three months of creation, Krune had already used almost all of his spirit stones. No more than a hundred were left in the end. Fortunately, he didn't damage his spiritual vein lake, after staying so long in this place, he couldn't help but feel a little attachment. It might be a low-grade spiritual vein, but it had helped him and his companions a lot. Krune calmed his thoughts and made up his mind.
'Alright, this is the moment. It all depends on whether the heavens like it or not.'
Krune cut the flow of spiritual energy and waited. Not long after, his foundation seemed to come to life. It started to absorb the spiritual energy from heaven and earth through his Spiritual Energy Meridians. Krune was also able to confirm one of his guesses from the past. Before, he couldn't use all his three Spiritual Energy Meridians at full power. He always thought that it was because his core was too weak, and turns out that he was right. As soon as the foundation started to absorb the spiritual energy, his Spiritual Energy Meridians started to work at full power. Krune felt relieved with that.
But he didn't have time to check, that's because soon, he felt as if the world around him disappeared. It was like there was only him left in the world as a whole. Suddenly, a comfortable sensation assaulted his soul. It was like all the laws of the world were at his grasp. He understood what was happening, the heavens had descended to check on his foundation. He could feel that every part of his core was being run by some kind of energy, and it was a very magical feeling.
It didn't last long, though. No more than a minute. In fact, Krune's check-up by the heavens already lasted much longer than it would for someone else. It's proof that his foundation is much more complicated compared to any other ordinary one. Of course, Krune didn't know that.
After that, that energy simply disappeared as if it had never been there. Krune checked his core foundation, and it didn't feel like it was going to break apart anytime soon. Not only that, it was fortifying as the seconds passed by.
'Does it mean that I succeed?'
Krune was just about to celebrate when suddenly, he noticed something wrong.
'Wait! Where is my future golden core?'
Once you enter the Foundation Establishment, your foundation will create a core that will be nurtured until you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm. It isn't a real core though, it's more like a pseudo core, but in his case, the core was nowhere to be seen.
He didn't have time to think for long, though. That's because suddenly, he could feel a lot of spiritual energy congregating above him. Krune is inside of the cave room, so he couldn't see what was happening outside. But it felt like the entire world itself was angry at him.
In the middle of the cave, Ruik was sleeping when suddenly, he felt the spiritual energy of the world starting to gather above the mountain range. He then immediately rushed outside to see what was happening. When he looked up to the sky, his heart almost stopped. He knows what it is because he had seen it happen before from a distance.
"How could that be?"
The more he looked at it, the more frightened he felt.
"Heavenly... Tribulation!"