The Golden Core Realm represents 'perfectness'. The entire soul is nurtured inside the Golden Core. The physical body evolves from mundaneness to 'perfectness', having jade bones and golden blood. The spiritual consciousness increases exponentially, having a wide range of 10,000,000 kilometers for the peak stage.
The combination of the three grants a unique temperament for each Golden Core cultivator. Add to that Shi Tian's numerous supernatural powers, Tao Heart, and job specializations, it becomes a lethal attack to mortals.
Even Elysia was helpless during their first meeting. He is also far stronger now, making his temperament even stronger.
Fortunately, Elysia was there to awaken them. They sat silently on their designated chairs.
In this suppressive atmosphere, nobody dared to speak first…
Aside from one.
"Lemon pudding! It tastes even better."
"You can't eat those second grade dishes yet. Become stronger and you'll be able to taste them."
"Uhm. Ywes."
Pardofelis' prior image in their minds was broken. All that's left is a greedy and gluttonous cat.
Shi Tian looked at Elysia and found she was eating her desserts in smaller bites. He almost could not hold back his laughter. He faced the other trio with a smile.
"You need to know something first."
Between acting mysterious and being straightforward, Shi Tian chose the latter.
"This world is a Bubble World. Earth's Previous Era had long fallen. I, along with the other few, came from the Current Era. That is roughly fifty thousand years later."
Nobody could speak for a while… except for an eccentric girl.
"I knew it. Nothing good happens out of nowhere."
The Expert Vill-V shook her head as she clicked her tongue.
"Did I live until the end?" She asked.
"No. But she did."
He gestured his eyes towards Fu Hua. The latter was surprised upon hearing this.
"So she died?" Vill-V pointed out to the silent Mobius. "That's very surprising."
Mobius did not have any notable expressions.
Shi Tian saw this and decided to transmit something to her mentally.
'You killed yourself... at least that's the simplified version.'
'..!'
He disregarded her shock. Shi Tian proceeded to talk with Fu Hua first.
"So, have you come to ask about the technique? That's something you can ask your present self with. She gave me the technique. I improved upon it."
"The present me…"
Fu Hua does not know what to say. Everything feels surreal—from their entry up to their talks.
"Blade Mantra exists to utilize the honkai against the honkai. It is an interesting thought, I must say, but it is limited. Hence I added the principles of immortal cultivation."
Shi Tian showed the original [Blade Mantra] to her. He used it as a comparison to the [Blade Mantra 2.0]. Their ten minutes of talks answered a lot of Fu Hua's confusions.
He left her to digest her realizations.
"You are up next, Miss Genius."
"I am flattered."
Vill-V shrugged her shoulders as she asked.
"What is the future of this world?"
Shi Tian was surprised to see her ask this.
"I thought you would be more interested in hearing about your future."
"...What happened has happened."
'She's really apprehensive of her other half.' Shi Tian thought. 'There is a reason why she nerfed herself.'
Originally, the complete Vill-V possessed untold talents. She is enough to change the world itself. But, she has admitted that it is not the future she likes. Even before Aponia's discipline came, she split herself into several parts, with half of her serving as the Evil Vill-V—the catchbasin of her pent-up resentments.
It was done more thoroughly with Aponia's power. The reason she gave out is her fear of being so talented she could not live life itself; that she wouldn't be Vill-V had she not cut herself to pieces. It was a complex internal struggle that Shi Tian remembered up until now.
"Once my power grows stronger, I will turn back time itself. This Bubble World will serve as an aid… a time anchor of sorts. The people of this Bubble World will be resurrected in the truest sense while the few who survived up until now will assimilate with their present selves. Oh, they are Grandpa Su, Kevin, and Fellow Daoist Jingwei."
Hearing Shi Tian speak of reversing time so casually caught her off guard.
"What else can't you do?"
"A lot. For example, the place outside the solar system. Numerous worlds are housed within the Imaginary Tree's leaves. They, just like Earth, are influenced by the will of gods known as Aeons."
The lecture to the Star Rail's background swiftly fascinated her. Vill-V did not mind her worldview being shattered consecutively. Knowing that such a wider world exists made her eyes light up like a kid during winter holidays.
It was mainly Vill-V who asked and Shi Tian who answered. Elysia accompanied Pardofelis in munching on desserts. Fu Hua's eyes have a comical spiral due to her sheer confusion.
Only Mobius followed through on the talks between the two.
Finally, she herself spoke up.
"Immortal cultivation. What should I do to learn that?"
"You can't. The people of this Bubble World are flawed in nature. You will have to wait until I bring you back to become 'complete' again. The best option for now is to study this."
He threw a jade slip in her direction. Her snake-like eyes followed its trajectory and caught it on her palm.
"Place it on your forehead. You will memorize its entire contents."
The cold touch of the jade slip was ignored by Mobius. She directly placed it onto her forehead without any hesitation.
A dozen seconds later, her eyes snapped out of her daze.
"An information transmitter that involves nothing but touching it? That's ingenious…"
"Take these."
Shi Tian also gave Vill-V a pair of jade slips. One is for the [Blade Mantra 2.0] while the other is all about first grade artifact refining. He is excited to see the results of two geniuses' efforts in immortal cultivation.
"You cannot become a true immortal cultivator yet. You can take some inspiration from it first."
"Yes. I will make sure to send the results to you."
"Mail it to her." Shi Tian pointed to Pardofelis.
"Mhm?"
Pardofelis looked at Shi Tian before at Vill-V. She gave a thumbs up gesture to the latter. Her mouth remains stuffed with strawberry chiffon cake.
"Here is some useful knowledge for you, Miss Mobius."
He did not forget to hand out the knowledge about demon beasts, spiritual plants, and a cultivator's physical body. Mobius caught all the thrown jade slips with ease.
"It's better not to use it here. It'll take a long time to process them all. The tea will run cold."
Just like that, another tea and dessert session was successfully held.