Refining his Lotus Core using the red mist extracted directly from his Marrahva Crystals, Alexander suddenly halted the process for a moment.

'According to the books I have, this is the Soul Aesthetic Core Stage. Meant to modify the Lotus Core, giving it a new shape and color based on one's life.'

'I am one who always tried to be the purest human to exist, to be free of other's ideals and beliefs, forming my own with each opportunity. Though I am nowhere near the level I hope to one day claim, I am neutral, to say the least, a bit of everything some would say.'

'!!'

Resolute, Alexander's was suddenly struck by lightning out of nowhere, the Heavenly Lightning infecting his Lotus Core along the red energy he had gathered from the Marrahva Crystals.

The next scene expanded his horizon however, as the lightning started to taint the energy along his Lotus Core.

Now taught a heavenly lesson, Alexander tried to do the same.

'So if I have enough willpower and understanding along life experience, I can conquer it?' Taking out a new Marrahva Crystal from his internal world, Alexander's aura infused itself within, the Marrahva Crystal suddenly turning a silver color.

Taking another one out, Alexander forcefully infused his understanding of life, causing it to turn a bright green.

'Wait, so why is it red then? The books doesn't say anything about that...' Skipping his theories, he shook his head firmly, regaining clarity.

'I should not bother with this.' Closing his eyes, alone between water and wind, sea and clouds, Alexander started to claim the gathered energy from all of his previously placed Marrahva Crystals bit by bit.

The red mist turning silver, it crackled with lightning, having fused perfectly with the Heavenly Lightning.

'Guess it's part of the process, a welcoming gift of sorts.' The energy absorbed by his Lotus Core, this same core started to tremble, his internal world's sky slowly becoming silver instead of blue, even tainting the previous red shade it possessed.

'Removing just one spot of red sky inside my internal world clearly reduced this annoying feeling of unease I had ever since... Seems like I dodged a bullet this time!'

The process extremely slow, Alexander's body endured storms and rain, blazing heat and drowning humidity throughout years.

Now three years into this process, Alexander opened his eyes, their silver luster much clearer than ever before.

'Haha! I am now a third stage Blooming Lotus Realm cultivator! However, my internal world is still not fully submerged in silver...' Analyzing his now round Lotus Core, its silver color matching Alexander's attire and features, Alexander truly felt happy with the results, turning his lotus shaped core into a regular bead.

And to his expectation from learning more about his current realm, Alexander sensed his Divine Sense alter, going from its original fifty meters of radius to a hundred and fifty meters. But such a change did not come without questions.

'It clearly is one hundred and fifty meters, not a hundred... The books all say it is a hundred meters... is it because I already had a Divine Sense, so this new 'Celestial Sense' ended up boosting it? I guess that's great because I refuse to call it Celestial Sense, my Divine Sense is a Divine Sense and nothing else!'

'Alright, now that this is settled, I apparently need sixty-three thousand Marrahva Crystals for the next stage... And I still don't know how much is needed for the Primordial Harmonization Realm, if any.'

Taking out a map made out of beast leather, Alexander made sure to be on the right path.

'Now that I have a better map, I can see most of this continent with better accuracy, and seeing this spot right here... it might not be a bad idea!'

Following his eyes, one would spot a place on the left of the Demonic Land Region, that was still within the Tuzim Region's territory. This place was strangled by the Phortar Region on the left, Demonic Land Region on the right and Valgrand Region above.

'It would be so easy to make a mess here, since I could just run into different regions so easily in case I need to.' His path planned, Alexander's body started to float, before shooting straight ahead at insane speed.

After a few months of travelling, Alexander had managed to find multiple cultivators, some dirt poor while others somewhat rich. Having collected over ten thousand Marrahva Crystals, he felt gracious of Tuzim's lowly cultivation standards, barely seeing anyone at the Cloud Immortal Realm and above.

Under the snowy fog of pure whiteness, walking slowly on thick snow, his long silver hair fluttering from the screaming and sharp icy winds, Alexander marched forward steadily.

His silver eyes shining through the mist, many creatures left in fear, Alexander's otherworldly aura not an easy one to endure.

Losing all momentum, Alexander stopped, his feet sinking under the heavy snow. Taking out an old, scarred manuscript, he read its content once more.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

'It should be here though... is there an illusionary array somewhere?' Questioning reality, Alexander struck forward with power, a powerful palm print sent flying into the dense fog.

The loud sound of something shattering resonating, the chaotic and cold environment simply vanished, only the spruce-like trees left behind.

His head held high, Alexander saw a tower of cobblestone pierce the sky, its shape warped the higher it went, as if bending, on the verge of snapping.

The sky turned green and blue, filled with something similar to aurora borealis.

Putting away the manuscript he had obtained from a random man a few months back, Alexander resumed his momentum, entering the towering spear-like structure soon after.

Closing behind the dark brown door, its size small, Alexander did not find anything anywhere he looked, be it valuables or danger.

Frowning, he could only go up, taking the stairs again and again for three days and three nights.

Tired of always heading straight up, Alexander struck the ceiling with all of his current might, blasting through multiple floors in one go, flying through the openings he created soon after.

After two days Alexander narrowed his eyes, seeing the ceiling above shattered, a carbon copy of his previous handiwork.

'Again with the tricks!' Fuming, Alexander released his [Qi Overload], causing the entire tower to creak in response.

The tower unable to contend with Alexander, its spatial and illusionary arrays were blasted apart. But his power ever increasing, it ended up being too much for the tower's structure itself to sustain, the gigantic tower breaking apart, sliced in half from Alexander's rampaging Celestial Qi. His current floor's walls blasted away dozens of meters into the distance.

'Did I go too far?' Exiting the tower from its now lacking walls, Alexander watched the tower fall over, crashing onto the snow and trees with leisure.

Ignoring the loud rumble, Alexander flew straight to the tower's former peak, tearing its walls away with ease, snatching all of the treasures it contained.

'Surprisingly there are over thirty thousand Marrahva Crystals in there!' His wealth soon enough for him to breakthrough once again, Alexander rushed his pace.

'If I can gather around sixteen thousand more then I can reach the Perfected Lotus Core Stage!'

Unlucky in his search, Alexander had to wait an entire year to find someone.

Staring into the distance, Alexander had spotted an old man in meditation sitting cross-legged on a thin and irregular stone pillar. Surrounded by trees far below, the sky calm, the old man's aura, while tame, could not trick Alexander's eyes.

'Blooming Lotus Realm! This old man is actually a peak Blooming Lotus Realm cultivator!!' Licking his lips in greed, Alexander's figure blurred.

'?!' Opening his eyes wide, the old man stood up in a heartbeat, shouting to the sky up above.

"Who goes there?! This old master won't forgive you if you do not give this old master an explanation!" The old man's previously tame aura bursting out in killing intent, Alexander smirked, reappearing to the old man's right side, his palm ready to strike.

"So what if I don't?"

"You!!" Cursing in his mind, the old man had barely enough time to evade, sending a counter attack right after, not missing this opportunity.

Witnessing the old man's palm strike closing in, Alexander frowned.

'That's why not having my Fleeting Dreams at my level of power is annoying! If it was at a higher tier I wouldn't need to bother myself with this old looking shit.' Harrumphing, Alexander easily dodged the far palm, kicking the old man's spine.

Hitting the old man's [Qi Shield], Alexander snorted.

"Lucky!"

'!!' Raising his left arm, the old man blocked an incoming punch, his forearm already numb.

Watching attentively the old man's movements, Alexander only needed a few minutes of intense fighting for his opportunity to arrive.

'As I thought! That's where my battle experience is so useful, with intense fights like these!'

Normally, cultivators would not be confident in using martial arts, secret techniques and the likes in the middle of close quarter combat. Since the paths of Qi in the meridians were different, a small mistake of positioning, which happened all the time during such fights, would cause immense internal damage from the backlash.

Therefore, cultivators capable of doing so without trouble like Alexander needed millions of years to do so, and hundreds of thousands of years of continuous combat as well!

Since Alexander had fought for over a million years without stop during his Grand Macrocosm Trial of Ascendency, he had bettered his already monstrous battle experience and potential, now able to nullify all backlashes from interrupting techniques, though it required immense skill and knowledge, as Alexander could not simply erase his energies from reality.

And so, now fully aware of his advantage, Alexander stopped holding back, fighting while executing marital arts with speed just to cancel them right after, completely ignoring the backlashes they created to use these techniques as simple feints.

'??!!' As if realizing what was happening, the old man was terrified, an unknown expert now looking like a demon straight out from hell.

'What kind of crazy demon is this?! Who would keep cancelling their attacks without a care-'

"Aaarghhh!!" Coughing blood, the old man had been struck on his right ribs, already broken. The reason was obvious, Alexander had simply struck forward with a martial art fast enough to force the old man into blocking it. To do so, the old man would need something of at least equal power, and even with his stronger cultivation, it was impossible to do so without using martial arts of his own.

So when the old man started to circulate his technique, without the possibility of backtracking, Alexander had cancelled his own, using movement techniques to move places, using another martial art just after. And the old man unable to move away was hit without resistance.

"You're crazy!" Spatting through gritted, bloodied teeth, the old man had no time to think as Alexander kept feinting his offensives, forcing the old man to use martial arts himself.

Once again, as the old man started to circulate Celestial Qi to his right arm's meridians, he could only try a new approach, cancelling his technique as well!

*Cough!*

Blood dripping from his mouth and nose, the old man had hollow eyes.

'I can't do anything!' Understanding, not without pain, that doing the same as Alexander was impossible for him, he could only give up, his casual cultivation session interrupted by a random man, causing his death.

'Why me?!' Cursing deeply, the old man's body fell from the sky, crashing head first on sharp rocks below.

Laughing, Alexander retrieved the old man's space ring, not forgetting to inspect his internal world.

'Older cultivators understand how much safer it is to have things stored directly in their internal world, even if your world's native steal stuff, where can they run to?'

'Oh~! While his internal world had nothing much, his space ring actually had over 400 000 Marrahva Crystals!! And what's this?' Taking out a light-blue, clouded marquise shaped crystal. The size barely fitting inside his palm, Alexander felt strong spiritual waves oozing out from it.

'Is it soul related?' Storing it carefully, Alexander wondered if the old man had relatives nearby. To attract them, he simply decided to breakthrough at the same spot the old man was cultivating at.

'Since that old man had already cleared the surroundings, no one should even bother me.'

Sitting cross-legged on that same spot, Alexander closed his eyes.

'With so many Marrahva Crystals... I might be able to reach the Primordial Harmonization Realm!'