Deep within the Hyuga Clan Compound, a courtyard shrouded by a Formation seemed to exist independently of the entire Ninja World, forming its own pure land—or rather, a patch of Chaos giving birth to a startling transformation.
Hyuga Hinata had been in seclusion here for over a month.
All her energy and accumulation were dedicated solely to overcoming the first true chasm on the path of the Circumference of Heaven Star Art—condensing a Golden Core!
The Foundation Establishment Stage involves condensing a Dao foundation and liquefying Spiritual Energy, marking the first leap in life's evolution.
The Golden Core Stage, however, involves extremely compressing and refining that vast spiritual liquid, blending it with a sliver of comprehension of the Laws of Heaven and Earth and one's own Divine Soul Origin to forge a 'Seed of the Origin of All Laws' within the Dantian—the Golden Core! This is a Heaven-Defying act that seizes the creation of heaven and earth and invades the mysteries of the sun and moon. Once successful, one's Lifespan skyrockets, Spiritual Energy undergoes a qualitative change, Divine Abilities manifest naturally, and the difference from the Foundation Establishment Stage is as vast as the clouds and the mud.
At this moment, within Hinata's Dantian, it was no longer a Qi Sea, but a vast and boundless sea of Star Spiritual Liquid! Pure Spiritual Energy flickered with star-like specks of light, surging and roaring with immense power.
She swallowed several Medicinal Pills in succession, which she had exchanged for in advance specifically for this Breakthrough.
At the center of her spiritual sea, an invisible gravitational singularity was spinning frantically, swallowing all the surrounding spiritual liquid and forcibly compressing it again and again!
The Cultivation Technique runes of the Circumference of Heaven Star Art shone brightly in her Divine Soul, acting like a map of the celestial stars, guiding the Spiritual Energy to circulate along incredibly profound trajectories.
Her Divine Sense was highly concentrated, as if she had become the'singularity' itself, feeling the terrifying pressure and majestic energy that made even the Soul tremble.
Several times, the compression of Spiritual Energy went out of control, nearly bursting her Meridians; her Divine Soul power was overextended, and her consciousness almost scattered.
Hinata endured immense pain, yet she gritted her teeth and persisted. Had her Dao Heart not been so firm, she would have long since perished.
But all these hardships were now transformed into fuel for shattering the Bottleneck!
"Buzz..."
The rotation speed of the singularity in her Dantian reached its limit, stirring the entire sea of Star Spiritual Liquid into a giant vortex that collapsed frantically toward the center! Under that extreme pressure, the color of the spiritual liquid gradually shifted from brilliant blue to a deep dark gold, and its texture became as heavy as mercury.
Hinata held her breath and focused, knowing the most critical moment had arrived.
She operated her Cultivation Technique with all her might, her Divine Sense acting like the most precise carving knife, slamming hard into the nearly formed embryonic Golden Core!
"BOOM!!!"
A massive roar, like the creation of the world, exploded deep within her Soul.
It wasn't a physical sound, but the Sound of the Great Dao—an announcement of a life form breaking through its barriers!
At the center of the collapsing spiritual liquid vortex, a point of golden light—utterly pure, dazzlingly bright, and seemingly containing the mysteries of an entire miniature Universe—suddenly lit up!
This speck of golden light was like the first light at the birth of the Universe: stable, eternal, and carrying an unquestionable majesty and perfection!
With the appearance of the golden light, the massive vortex of spiritual liquid seemed to find its core. Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, it converged, fused, and solidified toward that golden point with even greater speed and order!
The condensation of a Golden Core is a relatively slow process. But in Hinata's perception, it felt like an eternal moment.
She felt the golden point gradually absorb the spiritual liquid and star power, growing from an insignificant speck into something round and full... finally, it transformed into a golden pill the size of a longan fruit, perfectly spherical, golden and bright, its surface covered in countless tiny star-vortices naturally flickering in and out of existence, rotating slowly as if it had a life of its own!
The Golden Core was formed!
The moment the Golden Core was fully formed, her body also underwent a transformation.
A terrifying Spiritual Energy, more than a hundred times more majestic, vast, and pure than that of the Foundation Establishment Stage, erupted from the Golden Core like a volcano that had been dormant for ten thousand years, instantly sweeping through every inch of her Meridians and every single cell! Inside her body, a pleasant Daoist sound echoed, like the clinking of colored glass or the ringing of a jade chime!
The leap in life's evolution had begun.
Under the washing of the star spiritual energy, her bones became denser, glowing with a warm jade-like luster and reaching a hardness far exceeding refined steel. Her blood seemed to merge with starlight, flowing with faint silver specks and containing powerful vitality. Her Meridians were widened and reinforced, like silver rivers spanning the starry sky, capable of containing even more violent surges of energy.
Her internal organs were wrapped in a layer of faint starlight, their functions enhanced to a superhuman level.
The most significant change was her Lifespan! Foundation Establishment only extends life to two or three hundred years, but with the initial Formation of her Golden Core, her life source took a qualitative leap, and her Lifespan directly broke the five-hundred-year mark! Furthermore, as the Golden Core continued to be nurtured and improved, this number would continue to grow.
The external phenomena were even more astonishing.
Despite the isolation of the Formation, a resonance between heaven and earth—undetectable to ordinary people—was still triggered above Konoha Village.
In the night sky, the stars seemed to receive a summons, their light intensifying. Rays of incredibly pure star power ignored the clouds and distance, drawn by an invisible force field across the Void Realm to pour down and merge into the area of the Hyuga Clan Compound covered by the Formation! Had the Formation not weakened many of the fluctuations, such a phenomenon would have been enough to alarm all of Konoha.
Inside the courtyard, Hinata's seated figure was already completely submerged in dazzling starlight, looking like a humanoid radiance or a star deity descending to the mortal Realm.
Her pure white eyes suddenly snapped open. Within them were no longer human emotions, but the reflection of an infinite starry sky—deep, ancient, and indifferent, viewing all living beings as ants and all things as straw dogs!
She gently raised her hand, feeling the Golden Core within her body beating slowly like a heart, breathing in and out massive amounts of Spiritual Energy and star power with every rotation.
With a slight thought, and without any hand seals, a wisp of condensed flame naturally danced upon her fingertip.
This flame appeared mild, but its temperature was terrifyingly high and it could burn the Soul, far surpassing her previous Ninth Heaven Thunder Art: Introduction. This was merely the most basic application of Spiritual Energy in the Golden Core Stage.
Her Divine Sense, like spilled mercury, instantly broke through the ten-kilometer limit and was still slowly expanding! Her sensory precision reached an unbelievable microscopic level; within Konoha Village, the twitching of an ant's antennae, the patterns on a leaf, the subtle flow of Chakra within a Ninja, and even the sound of an ordinary person's blood flowing were all presented clearly before her eyes.
This was a comprehensive sublimation of the very essence of life!
Power! A sense of power that could control everything filled her heart, but her Dao Heart remained clear. She didn't lose herself to it, feeling only a sense of calm as if this was 'how it should be.'
She slowly withdrew her surging aura. The phenomena dissipated, and the small courtyard returned to peace, as if the world-shaking Breakthrough had never occurred.
Only the slowly rotating Star Golden Core within her, radiating an immortal Daoist charm, proved the reality of it all.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully condensing a Golden Core and officially stepping onto the Great Dao of the Golden Core! Your life level has undergone an essential leap, and your strength has achieved a dimension-level gap! Reward for breaking through a major Realm: 40,000 points!]
["A single Golden Core enters my belly, my fate is determined by me, not by Heaven!"]
[Current points balance: 64,050 points!]
Hinata looked inward at the Golden Core in her Dantian, which resembled the core of a miniature Universe, feeling the vast power within it that seemed capable of moving the stars.
The corners of her mouth curled into a smile, filled with absolute confidence.
She had now formed her Golden Core and stepped onto the true path of longevity.
From this point on, the distinction between immortal and mortal was as clear as day and night, separated by an eternal chasm!
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