Lith took deep breaths as his eyes lay half open.

Concentration was at its peak and he could see nothing but the crackling elemental energies around him.

Lith slowly closed his eyes and ventured deep into his Magic Core's world.

This thing was barren when he had ascended and now there was vegetation and a good landscape formed within.

The area was big enough to fit two Earths within it, but nowhere close to the area of Lith's current world.

Life was really primitive at first, but now there were grasses and trees. When actual moving life forms would develop, that was unknown.

The existence of life forms was directly linked to the understanding of the Life and Death elements.

The more Lith understood the Dao of Life and Dao of Death, the higher would be the chances of life to come up.

If he didn't understand them whatsoever, he could just go the normal route that everybody else takes borrow life forms.

Not everyone had the affinity to Life and Death elements, and not everybody would be able to make them appear within their core.

To solve this problem, they would simply purchase life forms from other cultivators and place it within their own core. To look after them was difficult, but that was the only way they could manage.

Many civilizations would develop and disappear within the span of minutes if one were to consider everyone's core.

People had no idea as to why life was developing or what the true essence of their Magic Core even was, but since they had been taught to develop them and look after them, they would do it.

Every person had access to their Magic Core and could go within it. Physically going inside wasn't possible and there were only two ways to do so.

The first one is looking at the core with their consciousness and manifesting it to appear inside that world. The second one is to form a soul projection and go inside.

The second method is the most difficult one since not many were aware of soul methods. Plus, it was highly risky and could cripple oneself in doing so.

Soul cultivation in its entirety was scrapped out due to how risky it was and only defensive techniques were passed down to protect oneself from soul attacks.

Lucy taught this to Lith during his training years and that's how he came to know.

His family naturally had everything even if things were outdated or not available. Though, not much emphasis was given on soul cultivation for now as his mother had mentioned that he could start it once he's an Emperor Rank.

Along with the body and mind, the soul grew strong as well. Since this world didn't have anyone cultivating in soul, there were naturally no attackers and people had completely left it out.

But, gates to other worlds have opened up now and problems may come up. Maybe people would start cultivating again in that aspect, who knows?

Whatever the case, Lith was doing good and had no trouble in this.

He had the soul cultivation techniques from both the Lust Sovereign's inheritance and the system's own world. He could start the cultivation anytime, but he trusted his mother and didn't give much importance to it.

Despite not cultivating in that, Lith could form a soul projection easily and even make avatars like Neo through rituals.

A soul projection was literally the same as a person. They could feel everything, do everything, and even access the main body's spiritual power and elements.

This helped people have a better grasp at their own cores and when tribulations would descend, they'd have an easier time than the ones who rely on their consciousness to go through it.

Immortal realms were totally hardcore and there was no mercy from the heavens while ascending.

A person would be fucked quite literally from both the outside and inside.

A tribulation outside then a tribulation inside the core, this was too much for many and they'd simply give up ascending after reaching Saint Rank as they cherished their life.

Those that did try to ascend, almost everyone would be wiped out and not many would be left by the Half King Rank.

It was exactly due to this that there were so few Emperors and so few Supreme Ranks. Heck, even Half Emperors were rare.

The total Emperor Ranks were something-something thousand in number. Each main race had ten to twenty while the rest blended in with the crowds and lived peacefully or simply went to another dimension for various reasons.

These guys had signed a pact to not interfere with the administrative affairs of the world and were lone cultivators, not associating themselves with any main race.

Just the Vampire Emperors alone were around a hundred to two hundred in number. Most lived in different parts of the Vampire Continent as normal mortals and barely troubled anybody. The same was the case with the rest.

While going inside the core and checking it was good, many misused it in the higher realms. They would have a total control of everyone's life and could do anything they wanted.

R*pes, tortures, and so on weren't uncommon. People were literal scums and nobody could do anything to stop them from doing what they wanted to do within their own cores.

Some people would think they were Gods due to this and would try to re-enact the exact same thing outside, only to be killed mercilessly by authorities and getting themselves enlisted in the dumb ways to die magazine.

This death was listed #47 and was quite high for some reason.

In any case, borrowing life forms and as such was something the common folks did.

The geniuses they were called geniuses for a reason and completely stood out from the rest.

Even if one didn't have Life or Death affinity, they could develop an extremely profound understanding of their respective elements and relate them to Life and Death cycle in such a way that life forms could literally develop.

A man can be made to come into existence just from Earth affinity alone and with the Fire and Water affinity, his body composition could be made.

Geniuses weren't called geniuses for no reason and were extremely rare.

Due to this thing happening, species were really diverse as anything could come up due to one's own imagination and understanding.

For example, Fairies, through their imagination alone, they made a completely new species of beings called Pixies.

They both live closely and although Lith had no idea as to what happened to the Fairies and Pixies of this world, he was sure that they definitely existed in the other worlds.

Thus, if Lith could have a great understanding, he could create a completely new race and eventually be able to use them and dominate the entire universe.

Though that was a pipe dream for now as life forms, the sentient ones, generally didn't develop until one was a peak Emperor Rank or a Supreme Rank.

He could worry about that later, for now, he had to focus on the tribulation that would come up.

First things first, in the immortal realms, ascension only began with the elemental energies being in their purest state of that respective realm. Meaning, the elemental energies of Lith's should be the purest Saint Rank equivalent ones.

When that was ensured, a person would just need to refine it further and that would initiate a chain reaction, that would eventually make the heaven know that a person was trying to ascend and send down tribulations.

While tribulations were harmful, they were needed. They brought forth the energy of the higher realm with them and using it, even if it is a slight amount, if the cultivator is able to incorporate a single tiny strand of pure energy of the higher realm, they would ascend.

Lith just needed one strand of pure Half King elemental energy to ascend, but for now, he had to give his elemental energies one final push to make them the purest they could be.

Due to having all affinities, he had to work on making all of them pure. Currently, only Light, Wind, and Dark elements had to be made pure.

While focusing on the Light element, Lith looked at the golden Light core revolving around his main core and the gaseous bridge it formed.

The core and the bridge were a bit less bright as compared to the other cores. The same was the case with Wind and Dark cores.

Lith recounted the things about Light and went into breath depths of it. He had spent enough time with Emilia and had a great deal of knowledge about the said element.

It took him just a few hours and the core shined as brightly as the rest.

Then, Lith went onto the Dark core and as it got fully concentrated, it turned as dark as the abyss.

Finally, Lith focused on the Wind core.

As the green core turned into a bright green, as if in confirmation, Lith heard a loud rumble above his head.

He exhaled and opening his eyes, looked up at the sky.

Cracking his neck, Lith took an attacking stance and said softly, "Come."