24 - To Reforge a Golden Core

Taking her leave, Xia Fei made the long journey to the place she had forged her own Golden Core. She spent a month there thinking and cultivating and trying to make sense of the reason she had concluded on the point between Spirit and Fire being her place in the world. Some questions she answered, but others she didn't, and with more questions being drawn in her mind, she sought out an individual who for much of her upbringing had been a constant.

Doctor Ho Ling was a foremost expert on the Spiritual Plain and Cultivation Energies. She had studied the topics for years, and was passionate about it like no other that Xia Fei knew. The Doctor's own cultivation had been stunted halfway through the Profound Realm, but it had not stopped her passion for the subject.

The Doctor lived far removed from society on an old mountainside in a laboratory that had seen better days.

The arrival of Xia Fei was a surprise to the reclusive Ho Ling.

"Xia Fei?" Ho Ling had asked from where she was observing Elemental Energies in a specially constructed Chamber, "What brings you here?"

"I have had a revelation," Xia Fei stated, "And I hoped that you could help me to answer the questions that it has brought".

Ho Ling, happy to see her old friend again and struggling to find answers herself, poured a drink for each of them and Xia Fei proceeded to talk about the revelation she had had following a conversation with one of her students.

"The Golden Core is a representation of our place in the Cultivation World, our very own bridge between our individual selves and the Spiritual Plain, yes?"

"In the simplest terms, yes," agreed Ho Ling.

"Well, our place in the world is individual. We are born as individuals, yet once we forge our Golden Cores we follow the same techniques and methods of billions of other cultivators over tens of thousands of years. How is that a representation of our individual place in the world? How are we staying true to our Golden Cores? And if that is true, what if a natural limit is not simply a hunt for one's Dao, but a point at which we must at the very least realign ourselves with our initial values, and at most have to reforge our golden core that was initially forged with an incorrect belief of what our place was?" asked Xia Fei.

Ho Ling smiled, opening her mouth to argue that what Xia Fei claimed was ridiculous, only to pause in thought and consider it more seriously.

"It could explain why so few advanced further than the Foundational Realm…like everyone is simply a cog in a machine, a product of the thoughts and theories they have been exposed to. That their own free will and thought is suppressed in such an environment and thus their golden cores artificial and not able to withstand the immense raw and natural energies of the world in later cultivation realms…"

Ho Ling looked up at Xia Fei, "This is incredible, Xia Fei…if you're right then…it could shake the very fabric of the cultivation world".

"That's exactly why I need to be sure," Xia Fei reasoned, "Not just for the sake of my own cultivation, but for nearly everyone's sake".

Ho Ling turned pale, "If the Sects or higher Clans got word of something like this is could make their entire purpose redundant. That kind of power…it may very well mean war".

"Have you ever heard of anyone reforging their Golden Core before?" asked Xia Fei.

"The only time I have heard of anything remotely similar is in the ascension to Godhood. There is so little written on it, but one paper describes it as not so much as reforging as merging one's golden core with their soul. When one fully embodies their place and their Dao. It is the step between a simple defiance of nature, and a complete overriding of it," said Ho Ling, "I'm sure you have heard of the Lightning Tribulations? This is nature's way of punishing those who defy the circumstances of their birth in order to exist above nature. Like breaking the cage that has always kept you where you should be".

"So, I may have to go through a Tribulation of some kind in order to reforge my Golden Core?" asked Xia Fei.

"While I wouldn't say it's exactly the same, I certainly wouldn't say it's impossible either," said Ho Ling, "Xia Fei, you're not seriously thinking of going through with this are you? Risking all of your cultivation? Your life?"

"Ho Ling, I've been stuck at the edge of the Divine Realm for six years now. This one thought was brought to me by one of my students and it was like my entire reason for cultivating was brought into question. I've never felt so unstable or useless before, and the last month has only made me surer that I need to reforge my golden core. That my original golden core is the reason I cannot progress further," said Xia Fei, "I have to do this, Ho Ling, not because I'm willing to take the risk just to prove a point, but because I know that I will never progress further than I am now if I remain the way I am".

Ho Ling sighed, "Then you are prepared for it?"

Xia Fei pulled an envelope from her pocket, "If I don't survive, take my body back here".

"Your family?" asked Ho Ling.

"My Clan," Xia Fei corrected.

"You have a Clan now?" asked Ho Ling with a raised eyebrow, "Did you marry?"

Xia Fei smiled and shook her head, "It's a long story. I'm going to take three days to make sure I'm ready".

Ho Ling nodded, "Very well".

Sure enough, three days later, whilst heavily monitored in Ho Ling's laboratory, Xia Fei endeavoured to do the impossible, and reforge her own golden core.

Over the three days that she had used to prepare however, she had come to realise that she was not so much destroying and remaking her golden core as she was shifting its connections. Still, these connections were thousands if not tens of thousands of strands of energy strong thanks to her higher cultivation, and Ho Ling had to detach and reattach each of those connections individually.

It would take days of concentration and continuous pain and fluctuations in her own internal energy. But on the fifth day, Xia Fei not only succeeded, but also managed to break the natural limit she had been stuck at and advance to the Divine Realm.

Exhausted in every sense of the word, Xia Fei proceeded to pass out following her achievement.

Ho Ling, concerned for Xia Fei and what her Clan would think, proceeded to transport her back to the address she had been given. Ho Ling could not take Xia Fei to a hospital with the explanation that she had just reforged her golden core, they would think Ho Ling insane.

What Ho Ling found however, was not a manor nor a compound, but a simple family of five. Hei Hei knew of Doctor Ho Ling by reputation, but was unaware Xia Fei had known her. Hei Hei proceeded to check over Xia Fei with Ning Wei, and both concluded that Xia Fei was merely exhausted. Entering from his afternoon job of cleaning the herb storage, Kai Lan took a brief glance at Xia Fei and smiled, "She succeeded".

"Yes?" asked Ho Ling, looking at the eight-year-old boy that approached.

Hei Hei put a hand on Kai Lan's shoulder to warn him, but Kai Lan merely smiled up at him, "Xia Fei-Jie trusted her in her most vulnerable state".

Hei Hei sighed and released his grip before sitting back in the chair beside Xia Fei, "Then she found what she was looking for?"

Kai Lan smiled as he looked closer at Xia Fei, "She diverted all the existing pathways created from her Golden Core to the position more suited to her, and in doing so has advanced to the Divine Realm".

Hei Hei dragged a hand down his face, choking on a laugh of astonishment, "Unbelievable, this changes everything".

Kai Lan tilted his head, "It changes nothing. Xia Fei found a way past a natural limit, that is all".

Ho Ling frowned at Kai Lan's dismissiveness, "Child, I know you are young, but what Xia Fei has managed is unprecedented. It also proves that apart from an exceptional few, we have all been cultivating in the wrong fashion. If this was known to the wider community-"

"It won't be," said Kai Lan.

"Sorry?"

"This won't be published or known," said Kai Lan, "The implications of this knowledge are catastrophic, an entire upheaval of the Cultivation Worlds. Entire dynasties and ancient powers ripped out at their roots because someone realised that all their legacies have been holding back cultivation rather than advancing it? Besides, they won't accept the testimony of one individual".