In the living room, after checking her grandson's cultivation, Ding Yun immediately opened the global weather forecast and began to look it over, wondering if there was anywhere that had thunderstorms today.
And then, the thunder couldn't be too big.
Normal thunderstorms would suffice. If they encountered a weather phenomenon of thunder striking with immense force, wouldn't that be sending her grandson on his way?
After selecting a suitable region, Ding Yun even specifically teleported there once to choose a suitable location within that suitable region, and only then did she return and bring her grandson over to undergo the Golden Core Tribulation. The entire process was said to be without danger. In less than half an hour, with Ding Yun's help, Guo Yuntao had safely and discreetly passed the lightning tribulation.
And successfully condensed a top-grade Golden Core.
Then he was brought back by Ding Yun.
By the time the relevant agencies in the vicinity sensed that someone was undergoing the Golden Core Tribulation and rushed over, Ding Yun and her grandson had already returned home and were starting to have dinner.
At the dinner table, everyone congratulated Guo Yuntao.
After giving him some gifts to celebrate his successful breakthrough to the Golden Core realm, they chatted amongst themselves, extending the topic from Guo Yuntao's breakthrough.
"Mom, Dad, Grandpa, what are your current realms? How long until you break through to Golden Core?"
In the past, during every New Year, it was the family who would ask him about his academic performance and cultivation progress. Now that Guo Yuntao had broken through to the Golden Core realm before everyone else in the family except his grandmother, he naturally wouldn't let this great opportunity pass, and he immediately chuckled and inquired.
Just as his parents and grandfather had asked him in previous years.
"You little brat, it's only been half a year, and you're already teasing your old man. Your cultivation speed is so fast, isn't it because Mom helped you improve your aptitude, and you lacked nothing in terms of spiritual pills and elixirs? Your foundation is better than ours.
If I had your conditions back then, I would have definitely broken through to Golden Core long ago, and perhaps I wouldn't have condensed a top-grade Golden Core, but a supreme purple golden core.
Can't even shut your mouth while eating, eat your food..."
It had to be said that Guo Haiqian was indeed a little guilty, because he had left home for a trip, claiming to be diligently cultivating during these past six months, but he hadn't cultivated much. Most of his time was spent sightseeing and enjoying himself. When he left home, he was in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, and upon his return, he was only in the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
Although his progress was much faster than ordinary people, compared to the various resources Ding Yun provided them, his progress was clearly due to being absent-minded and not diligent.
And his wife was similar.
When you're having fun, who remembers cultivation? After all, cultivation isn't as easy and comfortable as lying around and playing!
"Yun Tao is just asking out of kindness, why do you have so much to say in response? If you feel guilty, then admit it. Why are you scolding the child? In terms of foundation and age, I'm not as bad as you two. When you left home, I was only in the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and now I'm at the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment realm.
Theoretically speaking, I will definitely break through to the Golden Core realm either before or after the New Year. What about you two?
You said you'd quit your jobs and cultivate diligently.
And this is how you cultivate?"
Compared to the guilty Guo Haiqian, Guo Jing, who was supervised by Ding Yun, was much more confident. For his age, to achieve such a feat in such a short period, he had truly put his heart into it and worked hard. He had the right to scold them.
"You two should also settle down. In the future, your parents' cultivation will be higher than yours, and your son's cultivation will also be higher than yours. You two will have the worst cultivation. How dare you say anything? How are your artifact refining and formation array studies going?
Forget it, I estimate they aren't good either.
From now on, all of you will stay at home and cultivate diligently.
Don't even think about leaving until you break through to Golden Core.
No wonder they always say wealth doesn't last for three generations, the kindness of a gentleman fades after five generations. With your character, how many generations can you last?"
Since her husband and grandson had brought it up, Ding Yun decided to chime in. She didn't dare to aggressively increase her influence too much at the moment because her family members' cultivation was too low, and she needed to consider their safety more.
Only when they had enough cultivation to protect themselves would she be able to feel at ease and increase her influence more boldly.
Guo Haiqian could retort loudly when his son spoke to his parents, but when his own parents spoke to him, and more importantly, his parents' cultivation far surpassed his, how could he dare to say anything more?
He could only lower his head aggrievedly.
After dinner, Ding Yun specially custom-made a "black room" formation for her son and daughter-in-law. They had to cultivate in the black room for six hours every day before they could come out. If their cultivation time was insufficient, they would be locked in the black room formation indefinitely, with no food, no drink, complete darkness, no other colors, and no sounds.
To prevent them from developing psychological problems due to prolonged exposure to the black room, Ding Yun also specially added an illusion formation for them. This illusion formation would immediately pull their souls into an illusion and "beat them up" if the formation detected any instability in their mental state.
Thousands or hundreds of cultivators of the same realm would gang up on them.
This method, while seeming like abuse on the surface, was actually for their own good. The black room was to urge them to cultivate diligently, and the illusion formation was to temper their combat capabilities and skill level. Nowadays, many cultivators only have cultivation but little actual combat experience, making their practical combat skills terrible. After a few hundred or a thousand refinements in the illusion formation, they would be enough to sweep over eighty to ninety percent of cultivators of the same realm in reality.
Could this not be for their own good?
Those with self-control can learn normally without issues. For those without self-control, this is the only method.
Otherwise, what else could be done?
You can't just keep them as useless people forever, can you?
That would be such a waste!
This was how Ding Yun treated her son and daughter-in-law. As for her husband and grandson, Ding Yun was much gentler. In addition to providing them with the illusion formation for refinement, she also promised them that once they broke through to Nascent Soul, she would take them to travel in space, to travel on the moon.
Good heavens, with such a promise.
The grandfather and grandson were like they had been injected with chicken blood, cultivating diligently.
And so, the New Year passed swiftly amidst a couple forced to cultivate diligently and a pair of grandfather and grandson cultivating with the fervor of chicken blood. As for their daughter, she didn't come back.
She sent a text message saying that the weather was a bit cold this year, and the roads were difficult to travel, so she wouldn't be coming back.
Anyway, it wasn't the first year their daughter hadn't returned, and besides, she was married far away, so the journey back was indeed long. Thus, the family could accept it. They connected via video call, sent a red envelope, and the year passed.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Guo Jing successfully broke through to the Golden Core realm.
On the day of the Dragon Head Raising festival, Guo Haiqian and his wife, Fu Yayun, finally broke through to Golden Core under the combined supervision of Ding Yun's black room formation and illusion formation, and were thus freed.
And as soon as they were freed, they quickly held hands and ran away.
Saying they were going to work elsewhere, lest their neighbors and relatives suspect they were unemployed or something!
Everything seemed to have remained relatively low-key.
It didn't arouse much suspicion from the surrounding people.
Perhaps only the department responsible for monitoring cultivators undergoing tribulations was a bit perplexed, because in the past two months, there had been four more Golden Core tribulations whose specific sources could not be traced.
Adding the one Golden Core tribulation and one Nascent Soul tribulation from a few months prior, theoretically speaking, in the past year, there had been five Golden Core cultivators and one Nascent Soul cultivator who had gone beyond their control.
And disappeared to who knows where.
This data was more than the total number of unknown Golden Core tribulation cultivators discovered by their department in the many years since the spiritual energy resurgence. The higher authorities had initiated an accountability process, and it was estimated that their department would have a lot of headaches to deal with in the coming days.