The energy whirlpool lasted for half an hour before disappearing. Zhan Chen had a reluctant look on his face as he saw the energy whirlpool of heaven and earth vanishing.

No matter how much he wanted to continue to swallow the pure energy of heaven and earth, it couldn’t be helped. It was already a miracle that an energy whirlpool lasted for half an hour. The energy whirlpool of ordinary cultivators could last for ten minutes at most. From it, one could imagine how heaven defying the talent that Zhan Chen had possessed.

Kai Min was still looking at Zhan Chen with wide eyes. Zhan Chen flashed a smile at her and walked towards her.

“Beauty, how much longer are you planning to stare at me? Even with the thickness of my skin, I would blush if you not stop”, Zhan Chen teased Kai Min.

Kai Min blushed after hearing the teasing voice of Kai Min. She hurriedly closed her mouth and a shy look appeared on her enchanting face.

“Congratulation, you are now a True essence realm cultivator”, Zhan Chen smiled at Kai Min.

“It is all thanks to you. Also congratulation for breaking through to Core Condensation realm”, Kai Min spoke. She was genuinely happy for Zhan Chen.

Zhan Chen very much wanted to gave her a kiss after seeing her beautiful expression but he stopped himself from doing so. His body was feeling itchy everywhere as the impurities of his body had come out after absorbing the heaven and earth energy.

“Looks Ike I have to take bath first”, Zhan Chen thought to himself. He told his plan to Kai Min but contrary to his expectation, she choose to keep cultivating.

Zhan Chen could see her determination. So, he didn’t insist her to go with him. He came out from the cave and walked towards a certain direction. His footsteps were unhurried but with every step, he covered a distance of ten feets. His movement technique came from the same Ethereal cloud steps and what he was using was it’s second stage, the wind chaser technique.

Zhan Chen had already discovered a stream after spreading his soul consciousness. He walked towards it and jumped into the water after taking off his clothes.

Zhan Chen bathed for a good half an hour. Then grabbed his clothes and washed them in the stream. It was nothing new to him as he had gone to the wild for practicing his sword in his past life. Even if he was a prince, he knew how to take care of himself.

Zhan Chen dried his clothes with his soul flame. If his conduct was witnessed, then many alchemists of the world would die in envy. His control over his soul flame was exquisite as he managed to dry his clothes without damaging any part of it.

While bathing, he was checking his surrounding with his soul consciousness. What grabbed his attention was the fact that there was not a single cultivator present in the zone of his soul consciousness.

Although the prowcess of his sage soul yet to restore completely but his soul consciousness could still cover the area comparable to the limit of a peak sixth stage cultivator.

Zhan Chen tried his best but even after some time, he didn’t manage to detect a single soul in the range of his soul consciousness. Zhan Chen became suspicious of the matter but he still didn’t go to investigate it.

He had gone to many ancient remnants in his past life. So, he could tell that the gate to the outside wouldn’t appear in a short time. So, he decided to focus on cultivation first as there was still half of the true essence energy remained in the divine yin Yang diagram even after he reached the Core Condensation realm.

He didn’t disturb Kai Min after his return. He sat crosslegged in a distant corner and closed his eyes. His goal was to push for the second stage of Core Condensation realm which was attainable with the available pure essence energy available inside the divine yinyang diagram.

He operated the Celestial yin yang sutra and streams of pure essence energy came out from the divine yin Yang diagram. Unlike the True essence realm, the true essence energy did not distribute itself in the various parts of his body rather all the true essence energy flooded towards his dantian.

After absorbing many streams of pure essence energy, the core inside his dantian swelled a little. If it was True essence realm then he would have improved by a stage after absorbing such an amount of pure essence energy but in the Core Condensation realm, he could only manage to improve the size of his core slightly.

Zhan Chen cultivate tirelessly and after another six hours of absorption, he managed to reach the peak of the Core condensation realm. His core was bigger at this point and was looking more refined after the tireless cultivation of Zhan Chen.

Improving in Core condensation realm was not easy and it wouldn’t be a surprise even if one took some years to reach the next stage. But Zhan Chen managed to improve his cultivation after some hours of cultivation. It was the advantage of cultivating divine yin Yang sutra.

Zhan Chen didn’t stop even after reaching the peak of first stage of Core condensation realm. His goal was clear which was to push his cultivation to the second stage of Core condensation realm.

After another hour of cultivation, the core inside the dantian of Zhan Chen lit up suddenly. An indescribable link with heaven and earth was set as a blurry line appeared around the middle of the core of Zhan Chen.

Zhan Chen increased the pace of his cultivation as streams of pure essence energy came out from the divine yin Yang diagram. Zhan Chen absorbed the pure essence energy rapidly as streams after strrams of pure essence energy poured into his dantian.

The blurry line which was orbiting the central axis of his core gradually became clear. Zhan Chen cultivate ceaselessly and blurry line became clear after an hour of cultivation.

A satisfied look appeared on the face of Zhan Chen as he felt a clear connection with the heaven and earth. The amount of energy he could absorb from the surrounding became double suddenly as the ring on the middle of his core lit up.

Success!

Second stage of Core condensation realm!

Zhan Chen opened up his eyes as a light smile appeared on his face. Compared to the three basic realms, the progress in Core Condensation realm was more satisfying.

Zhan Chen could feel that his strength had risen greatly and with his battle experience, he could even battle those at peak of Core condensation realm.

Zhan Chen looked at Kai Min and could see that she was not far from second stage of True essence realm. Zhan Chen didn’t disturb her as he choose to take a stock of various herbs he had gathered from the herb mountain.

He had gathered many herbs and there was no empty space left inside his storage bag and Kai Min’s.

Zhan Chen took another look at all the gathered herbs and found thirty two level five herbs among them. Without his soul fire, he couldn’t have gathered so much of them.

It was an astonishing number which could even rival the herb mountain of an ancient sect. Those above level five herbs were rarity and it would be great if a supreme sect had had two or three of level six or above stage herbs.

Zhan Chen skipped the level five herbs and his gaze involuntarily went towards the Nirvana water lotus and Purewood green peach.

He had yet to refine the green peaches. So, he chose to skip the Purewood green peaches for now. Instead he picked up a jade bottle where he stored the essence liquid of the Nirvana water lotus.

The essence liquid of the Nirvana water lotus was completely translucent and a fresh aroma permeated inside the cave after Zhan Chen undone the cork of the jade bottle.

Kai Min’s nose twitched slightly even though she was still in her cultivation state. Zhan Chen smiled after seeing her reaction and gulped the entire liquid essence of Nirvana water lotus in a single go.

The nature of Nirvana water lotus was gentle.so, Zhan Chen had no worry of any backlash caused by the overbearing medicinal strength of a level six herb.

A cool sensation came to his mouth as Zhan Chen gulped the liquid essence of Nirvana water lotus. The liquid essence turned into boundless energy after it entered his stomach.

Without his guidance, the pure energy of Nirvana water lotus attracted to his soul. The Nirvana water lotus was basically a soul nourishing herb. So, it was no surprise that it would be attracted towards the soul.

The soul of Zhan Chen recovered in a visible speed as Zhan Chen absorbed the gentle energy of Nirvana water lotus like a dry sponge. 

His soul strength which was stagnated at the fifth stage, broke upon the barrier and directly entered the threshhold of a soul of sixth stage cultivator.

(To be continued……)