Over a year later, Maria was sitting on the ground surrounded by a golden cocoon. A few minutes later, the golden cocoon burst apart, and the pressure of someone at the Peak of the Foundation Realm erupted from her!
If one were to look inside her body, one would see a golden aurora rippling inside her body with several Rays of Light flashing around.
Maria clenched her fist, feeling more powerful than she did when she was at this Realm over a year ago before she cultivated the Primordial Heavenly Lights technique. She used her Light Transference ability; it felt at least 50% easier to use and was over twice as efficient as before!
She was happily surprised by this discovery and felt like, with her current strength, she could fight two of herself before she cultivated this technique!
Then she thought of how much stronger she'll be after breaking through to the Core Formation Realm and grew excited.
Sage Aila, who was watching over Maria, was also satisfied with her successor's progress and talent.
"Great! Now, let me give you the materials needed for the Core Formation Recipe I came up with specifically for this cultivation technique." Sage Aila said and was about to start taking out the materials before Maria interrupted her.
"No need, Sage Aila. I already have my own Core Formation Recipe that should work just fine!" Maria said confidently.
"Hmph! Brat, don't joke with me. I'm the one who created this technique. How could you have a Core Formation Recipe better than mine?!" Sage Aila countered, offended.
"I'm not lying! Here, let me write it down for you so you can take a look!" Maria quickly wrote down the recipe and handed it to Sage Aila.
Although she was skeptical, Sage Aila decided to humor this unfilial successor of hers, but when she began reading the recipe, her skepticism turned to shock. When she finished reading, her shock quickly turned to fear and reverence.
"W-W-Where did you get this recipe, Maria?! Why do the instructions for using this recipe specifically mention the Primordial Heavenly Lights cultivation technique?! This technique isn't even known to anyone other than you and me! How could anyone else learn of this?!" To be honest, Sage Aila was terrified right now.
Although the recipe was something greater than she could ever hope to come up with, that's not what she was worried about.
"Hmmm? Ah! That recipe actually changed to what it is currently right before I started cultivating this technique. I'm guessing it has something to do with my friend, but I'm not willing to say more." Maria said lightly, not thinking about it too much. She was hoping Mira would tell her about it when she felt ready.
Sage Aila took a few minutes to calm down. She realized that her successor knew more about this than she did and didn't look worried about it at all, so she decided to think about this later.
"Well, we can talk about this later. For now, you must use this recipe! This thing perfectly matches my cultivation technique! If you were to create this Core, you would be a one-of-a-kind genius in the Mortal Cultivation World!"
Maria nodded, but inwardly she shook her head thinking that Mira would still be more talented than her even with this cultivation technique and Core Formation Recipe.
Sage Aila and Maria quickly pulled out all of the materials needed for Maria to form her Core according to the recipe. Don't look down on Sage Aila's treasure vault. She's an ancient genius who was once at the peak of the Mortal Cultivation World! The number of treasures she possesses might surpass that of a medium-sized or even a weak Top-grade Sect! Naturally, she should have all the materials Maria needs for her to form her Core according to the recipe.
Maria then spent the next few weeks clearing her mind of all thoughts, preparing for her breakthrough. This was a changing point in her life, and she didn't want anything to go wrong.
After a few weeks, Maria was finally ready to begin her breakthrough! However, Maria didn't have an Orb of Limitless Death and Infinite Life to refine the various treasures for her. Instead, she had Sage Aila refine the treasures into a pill for her to refine. Well, this was also included in the instructions for the Core Formation Recipe.
When Sage Aila finished creating the pill, Maria immediately devoured it and began her breakthrough according to the instructions.
A burst of energy erupted from her stomach, and Maria's breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm began!
Her body was shrouded in a golden light as various changes started to take place in her mind, body, and soul!
Her meridians were being coated in liquid gold. Her dantian was slowly turning into a Golden Core. A small white star was formed in the center of her dantian. A whitish-gold substance flowed through her veins, and her heart turned spherical and changed from fleshy red color to a dense white color.
A small star-shaped tattoo appeared on her forehead that emitted waves of light. Maria also felt her soul take on a golden hue, though the changes there were much lesser compared to the changes she felt in her body.
On her back, two angel wing tattoos formed, giving Maria the appearance of an angel from Heaven. Though, she didn't actually sprout wings.
The breakthrough continued for a few more hours until her dantian had completed its transformation into a Golden Core, thus signifying the end of her breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm!
Maria opened her eyes after she broke through and clenched her fists, feeling the vast amounts of power flowing through her entire body.
She felt several times more powerful than she did before. Not only that, but the world around her seemed clearer. She felt like she could more easily perceive the mysteries of her Light Dao.
Maria wished she could fight Mira right now as she felt she could beat her up as long as Mira hadn't broken through as well.
A bright smile appeared on her face at that thought, though for some reason, this smile seemed much brighter than before.
Sage Aila inspected her successor and nodded with a satisfied expression on her face. She felt that, with Maria's current power, she should be able to fight Stage 5 or even Stage 6 Core Formation Realm cultivators just based on aura alone.
That's before Maria even consolidated her cultivation! After she consolidates her cultivation, who knows how strong she'll be.
"It seems that Core Formation Recipe was even better than I thought it would be. You must thank that friend of yours for giving you this opportunity, Maria. I'm sure she'll be incredibly surprised by your current power now that you've broken through. Maybe she'll be the one relying on you now instead of the other way around!" Sage Aila said.
Maria's smile changed into a scowl as she shot Sage Aila a disdainful look.
"Tch! You know nothing! I'm sure Mira will be at least as strong as me when she forms her core! She's way more talented than me when it comes to cultivating and fighting. I just hope that when you eventually see her, you won't fall in love with her," Maria spat.
"Hmph! Me? Fall in love with a junior? What nonsense are you saying now? You do know that I'm just a spirit, right? My physical body has long since died! I've been in this state for thousands of years, it won't be much longer until my spirit eventually vanishes from this world! How could I possibly fall in love given my circumstances?" Sage Aila scoffed.
"Bleh! What do you know? My Mira is so beautiful that she can even charm gods and demons with her looks alone! You know what, forget it. You'll be able to see her in a few months anyway." Maria said before inspecting her body.
After giving her body a thorough scan, she nodded her head with a smile and then turned to Sage Aila.
"Alright, I think it's about time I leave this place. Is there anything you need to do before we leave?" Maria asked.
"Yeah. I'm going to transfer this entire inheritance space into a spatial Ring so you can take me and my inheritance with you on your journey." Sage Aila said, and Maria nodded her head as they had already talked about this before.
Sage Aila didn't say anything else and teleported Maria out of the inheritance space. Then she unleashed what little power she still had to move the inheritance space inside a spatial ring.
On Maria's side, she appeared inside the Luminescent Ridge Forbidden Zone, where she found the inheritance space.
Suddenly, the space in front of her shook, and her surroundings changed! Now, instead of there being stairs in front of her, all she saw were trees. Then, she noticed a small spatial ring drop to the ground in front of her.
She hurriedly picked it up and sent her consciousness inside of it before releasing a sigh of relief. She saw the stairs, the golden palace, all of the materials that the inheritance contained, and finally, she saw Sage Aila sitting on her chair with her eyes closed like she was resting.
Maria also noticed that her transparent body just became a bit more transparent and knew that she had used up the rest of her power with that last action.
Maria wanted to say something, but she decided to wait until Sage Aila was in better condition, so instead, she felt like now was a good time to test her strength. After testing her newfound strength a bit, she'll go back to Peacemaker City, then begin heading back to Lunar Fox City to meet up with her parents and wait for Mira to pick up Dominque.
A beautiful smile appeared on her face thinking about Mira, and with butterflies in her stomach, she ran off to test her strength.
