Of course, it was being absorbed by Meng Hao, but they didn’t know that, and couldn’t figure out why it was happening. They searched the area, but came up with nothing. They didn’t even think to connect the phenomenon to Meng Hao. A year had passed, which in their minds was evidence that he had died.
The man who had lost his Spirit Snake that year would often look toward Meng Hao’s Immortal’s Cave with a cold sneer. The death of his Spirit Snake had left him with a deep hatred of Meng Hao.
He tried several times to break into the cave to collect Meng Hao’s treasures from his corpse. But he was never able to succeed.
Time passed, another half year. Meng Hao had now been in secluded meditation for a year and a half. One late night, his Core sea was again solidifying into a diamond-shaped crystalline rock. This was the one-hundredth piece.
A roaring could be heard, and the hundred diamond-shaped rocks suddenly began to fuse together. Slowly, they formed into a transparent, crystalline Dao Pillar!
Foundation Establishment Dao Pillar!
As soon as the Dao Pillar appeared, Meng Hao’s agitated breathing calmed down. His eyes grew dim, and the functioning of his internal organs slowed. He was motionless; even his blood seemed to stop circulating. His entire person seemed to be in a state of suspended animation.
Everything was completely still.
Meng Hao knew that this was the second phase in the process of reaching Foundation Establishment. This was Recuperation.
He sat there cross-legged, his mind echoing with the Qi Condensation Manual of the Sublime Spirit Scripture. He sank into a very strange state. Even though his blood and flesh did not seem to be undergoing any change, in actuality, they were. They were changing in a way that made it much easier to absorb spiritual power.
His Qi passageways enlarged. No spiritual power circulated through them. However, they grew tougher, firmer, and smoother. His bones were different as well, even crystalline in some places. He was transforming, becoming something other than mortal. These changes shook his entire body. His hair grew much longer and he became taller than before.
There was no Core sea within him anymore, but rather, a golden Dao Pillar. It was a flat, circular platform that did not shine, but rather seemed dark and somewhat lonely. It floated in the place where the Core sea had once existed. If you looked closely, you could see Meng Hao’s Demonic Core, right in the center of the Dao Pillar.
It sat there motionless, completely and perfectly fused with the Dao Pillar.
His heart did not beat, his blood did not flow. His Qi passageways were motionless, and his Qi had disappeared. Meng Hao sat there looking withered up. His Dao Pillar was in a similar state. All of his Qi had been sucked away.
He sat that way for another half of a year. Breaking through into Foundation Establishment had taken him two full years. Others would be shocked if they knew of this. Generally speaking, the longest amount of time a Cultivator needs to reach Foundation Establishment is half a year, often it will take only a few months. The amount of spiritual energy required was not immense either, nothing close to what Meng Hao had needed. The amount of time and spiritual energy wasted by Meng Hao was far and above the norm.