It was common knowledge in the Cultivation World that when cultivators broke through a realm, they would induce heavenly tribulation in the form of lightning strikes.
The prevalent explanation was that cultivators plundered the fortune of heaven and earth during their cultivation journey. Cultivators were like fleas to heaven and earth, thieves and robbers, parasites. Thus, the Heavenly Dao would punish them.
How would it punish them? By striking them down with lightning at the moment of strength growth - an apt punishment for cultivators. As lightning was extremely rigid and yang, it was best suited to discipline cultivators.
However, Qin Ran felt such an explanation was too metaphysical, unscientific. He proposed a scientific perspective.
He believed: Heaven and earth were impartial, viewing all living beings as straw dogs. In truth, heaven and earth had no subjective will, no thought of meting out punishment. Cultivators being struck by lightning upon breaking through a realm was merely an objective law, similar to conservation of energy, the invariability of the speed of light, and such.
He conjectured:
When cultivators advanced realms, they would absorb a lot of spiritual energy at once. Such drastic spiritual energy changes would cause meteorological changes. These changes would result in clouds gathering above the cultivator's location due to the spiritual energy, then collide to produce lightning. As the cultivator sat at the exact center, they would be struck.
Based on this theory, he proposed many methods to cross the tribulation, like Faraday Cages and lightning rods borrowed from Earth, or using clones to substitute his true self at the tribulation's center...
So he was not worried about the tribulation. Of course, he was not worried about forming his golden core either. What concerned him was the 0.2% chance of failure, possible accidents.
Converging his sea of qi's power to form a golden core was very simple for Qin Ran. His control over his body's power could be compared to how easily he could flip his hand over.
Qin Ran sat cross-legged atop a giant boulder, closed his eyes, and activated his cultivation technique to start forming his core. His sea of qi whirlpool spun, driving his massive ocean of power along. His foundation was extremely thick - his sea of qi was like a true sea.
As his power spun with the whirlpool, his entire sea of qi moved. Its momentum was spectacular, the sound propagating outside his body with the crash of tidal waves. It could be heard from very far, even on the Snow Mountain.
The sound grew ever louder and more intense, initially like waves stirred by a gentle breeze. Soon, the breeze intensified into a storm, then a hurricane and a tornado. Listening to it evoked the imagery of hundreds-of-meters tall waves surging forth to overwhelm the earth. It was a true earth-overturning, mountain-toppling spectacle.
Qin Ran's eyebrows suddenly furrowed. His sea of qi's power seemed to exceed his estimates, though not yet beyond his control. Yet keeping it in check was somewhat strenuous. The time required to form his core might end up slightly longer than planned...right?
As the night darkened, the sun rose from behind the Snow Mountain. The piercing reflected light shone upon this place. Qin Ran sat motionless atop the boulder. With the fading darkness, a little white tiger emerged beside the boulder. It crouched there, head tilted in puzzlement as it watched Qin Ran.
"What is daddy doing?"
The sun crossed the sky as the moon rose. In the darkness, a black shadow pounced onto the boulder, carrying a snow hare in its jaw. It lowered its head and bit into the hare...
"Bleh! Not tasty. I'll save it for daddy." It brought the hare next to Qin Ran.
The moon set and the sun rose again. The white Chasing the Wind sprawled lazily atop the boulder.
"So hungry! When will daddy wake up..."
That night, the starving Chasing the Wind ran off to hunt an unidentified bird. It returned with the bird in its jaws, plucking out feathers with its mouth one by one.
"Mmgh! Annoying! When will daddy help me pluck feathers?"
And at that moment, the wind suddenly picked up, surrounding the giant boulder!
The abrupt gale made Chasing the Wind jerk up its head sharply. Its glowing black eyes in the dark revealed a ferocious glare as it scanned its surroundings warily.
The wind grew increasingly strong, stirring the clouds above. The weather changed violently as black clouds swiftly gathered.
Within Qin Ran, after his sea of qi churned wildly for two days, things finally changed.
The central vortex abruptly stilled, sharply contracting to a single point - the origin point of his golden core and soul's resting place. It became the genesis point, the origin of the Dao that gives rise to all things. It became the primordial "One" that precedes the myriads of life, the one that the Dao originates from.
As that point formed, a profound ripple emanated out from it, propagating beyond his sea of qi and out of his body into the outside world. His sea of qi's power no longer spun but stilled, collapsing inward toward that central point...
The void left by his collapsing power activated his cultivation technique to automatically draw in heaven and earth's spiritual energy to fill the void.
As his internal power imploded faster, more spiritual energy was frantically absorbed, making the external winds strengthen.
Meanwhile, the ripple from his initial "One" point spread very very far. Ordinary people could not sense it, but any nearby high-level cultivators or demon beasts could detect something off.
For example, a certain five-tailed demon fox atop a snowy mountain.
"What's this?" She froze for a moment, sensing the arcane ripple. "Dao aura? A heaven-defying treasure has appeared?"
Excited, her five fluffy tails unfurled like a peacock's. She swiftly dashed toward the pulse's origin on all fours.
Drawing nearer, she saw the strange sight of inverted clouds and howling winds there. Within the churning dark clouds were purplish golden electric snakes.
"Tribulation lightning?" Her bewitching narrow fox eyes widened. "Has my predestined fortune arrived?"
She immediately rushed right into the storm without further thought.
There was also a certain vanguard team exploring within the Hengduan Mountains.
The leader was an austere middle-aged man who appeared in his forties. He was riding a cloud with six Immortal Sect disciples, investigating the Devil-Devouring Demon Willow's outbreak. Sensing the pulse, Elder Ning frowned and abruptly halted.
"Elder Ning, did you discover something?" A handsome youth promptly asked.
"Someone's forming their core!" Elder Ning said grimly.
"Forming one's core?" A peerless beauty laughed. "What's worth noting about that?"
"This person has an exceedingly deep foundation, beyond you lot!" Elder Ning sternly surveyed his disciples.
"Oh?" Interest piqued, the handsome youth replied, "For such a figure to appear in this secluded edge of the Land of Immortal Legacy, he's indeed worth meeting."
Elder Ning then led them by riding the clouds toward the pulse's origin.
Soon, they saw the bizarre sight of inverted leaden clouds with purplish golden electric snakes within.
"Purple Cloud Thunder Tribulation?" The peerless beauty laughed. "All this fuss for just a Purple Cloud Tribulation?"