Jacen shuttered uncontrollably, racked with agony as another flood of energy pulsed from within himself.

"Haaaaaaaagh" he'd scream out using the wave of energy to force himself to begin breathing again. Although his body trembled, seized and leaked blood from his pours Jacen forced himself into the lotus position with a great deal of effort. He had no clue how long it had been since the vile sigle had been placed in his abdomen but his body had gone through vast changes.

His body almost looked hollow, drained and skeletal, his once impressive physique crafted through thousands of hours of training brought to ruin. A normal mortal would be on death's door and in fact most cultivators would have passed out from trauma but somehow he persisted.

Morgan had called him into his office and Jacen had expected it to be about the foundational champion's tournament. He was half correct in that Morgan wanted him to compete though not only that, he actually intended to sponsor Jacen. Apparently Morgan needed someone who could take out specific members of the competition and Jacen would be his instrument.

Originally Jacen wanted to refuse as it already sickened him lowering himself to working for a man like Morgan but being his puppet in such a public event was just too much. He had a change of heart when Morgan brought up a name he was all too familiar with.

" help knock out a few of my targets and upset some of the favorites in this tournament and I'll give you a way to get back at Pryor" Morgan said with that sly slimy look he had knowing he'd won.

He'd agree to fix the tournament for Morgan and in exchange He'd arrange the bracket to allow Jacen to face Pryor's fighters towards the end of the tournament. " if you accidentally kill one or two no one would blame you" Morgan's smile grew as he continued "and with his team slaughtered the verdant path corporation would be forced to expel him in order to save face".

That's what led him to this horrid state. Morgan had supplied him with an unorthodox formation consisting of two parts, one half was an energy gathering and refinement formation one might use for a treasure. That was strange but some of the black turtle manuals did call for meditation in similar formations to consolidate foundations after training techniques but nothing like the second part was mentioned. A focusing stone with a sigle carved onto it that had to be swallowed. Once ingested it would consume and refine the body from the inside while causing the outer formation to empower what remains as a natural treasure.

Despite his body being in such a terrible state his energy pathways and foundation had reached new heights. He was at the peak of the nineth foundational realm. Normally anyone would be overjoyed to reach such a realm and begin building their core of choice or even a second core if they had the skills and energy control necessary. Jacen had a major problem however as his energy levels continued to build and he didn't have the outlet of core formation leaving him a choice to make.

Nineth step wasn't technically the end of the foundational realm as you could continue to ten, eleven and higher. Legendary tales as high as seventeen occasionally get told in taverns yet according to his sect records each step after nineth is an order of magnitude harder to break through to core formation. It seemed that if he decided take that tenth step he'd likely never reach core formation.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He could simply use his energy to crush the focusing stone inside himself halting the formation. He had gained a lot of power but with the great damage to his body he was unsure it would be enough.

With an anguished sigh Jacen guided his energy to circulate and broke through to the tenth step foundational realm. His power swelled yet changed in an almost imperceptible way, it had become denser, heavier and more resistant to manipulation. What it lost in flexibility it gained in sheer power and depth. Jacen could easily see why it would be difficult to delicately control the flow of energy in core formation even after a single extra step. Deciding to end things their Jacen focused inward intending to grind away the agony in his stomach.

The energy he had gathered crushed the sigle in an instant startling Jacen with the power and ferocity in which it responded to his mental prodding. A wide grin split his skeletal face as he wondered what he could do with his newfound power.

"Carefully, lower him down carefully" Hayden Pryor directed Dimitri as Tang set everything up for the ice bath. Apparently Markus had not only drained all his energy reserves with that outburst of frost but triggered a breakthrough. If that wasn't bad enough Pierre had knocked Markus out unconscious with that freaky technique. The man in question stood to the side with an unreadable expression talking softly with him crew. Occasionally he'd stare intently at Markus while touching the back of his injured hand.

As soon a Markus had hit the ground Tang had rushed over sensitive to the fluctuations in the man's power. "We need to get him in the bath right now" Tang said quickly after assessing his vitals. "Wait, don't we need that for the tournament" Hector Vale said somewhat in a panic " we don't have much of a choice". "It should be fine for a single use but if we don't hurry he might not survive" Tang stood and started organizing everything as fast as he could.

As Dimitri lowered Markus into the tank he was quickly hooked up to the alchemy equipment. "Calvin" Tang shouted without looking up "yes boss" the old inn keeper turned alchemist Apprentice appeared at his side. "Get me the morning grass and the thunder yoke extract I've we've refined this earlier" the old man rushed off surprisingly quickly at alchemist Tang's words.

Hayden Pryor just watched on trying to observe everything that was going on without asking too many questions and looking clueless. He had started to learn a thing or two about cultivation from studying the tournament team, reading the few tomes the verdant path corporation had on hand and making educated guesses with his twenty first century experience with medicine and pop-culture but that could only take him so far. One saving grace was that it seemed even most cultivators didn't have a great understanding or education about this sort of thing.

Sure he guess core formation cultivators and higher probably knew a lot more but at least for the foundational realm you didn't really need to understand what was happening as long as you had the resources and a method you could cultivate. "Very impressive" Hayden jumped a little as Pierre appeared directly beside him. The man moved so quietly and smoothly Hayden had no clue he was their until he spoke.

"The fighting style is strange and a little bit awkward but effective" a pensive look came across Pierre's face. "Who's brat is he?" "Excuse me" Hayden said not really following the other man's line of thought. "If you don't want to say or ain't allowed I can understand that but you need to get a lot better hiding it" Pierre shock his head " that much raw speed, power, durability and not to mention blasting me this that aura even if he over drew himself". "Anybody with a brain could tell only a noble from a powerful bloodline could be so powerful as a first step foundational cultivator" Pierre said rolling his eyes.

"Technically he should be second step here soon" Hayden Pryor and Pierre watched as Tang with the help of Calvin combined alchemy ingredients and tempered his blood as he shivered in the bath. It didn't seem as violent as the first time but Dimitri stood by ready to hold him down if necessary.

"This is going to be one interesting tournament Mr Pryor" Pierre shook his head "interesting indeed".