52: Chapter 52 Golden Core

In the years following the closure of the Taihuang Secret Realm, the Southern Wasteland cultivation world was in a complete uproar.

The name Li Han, like a storm, swept across dozens of large and small cultivation nations.

Major sects and reclusive families issued extremely lucrative bounties, and countless Foundation Establishment Stage and even Golden Core Stage cultivators searched everywhere for him. Yet, this rogue cultivator seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

Not only was he not captured, but news occasionally surfaced of a grand elder from a major sect, who had been hunting him, being killed by him instead, with their treasures seized. Li Han grew stronger with every battle during the pursuit.

During this period, he became the undisputed protagonist of this world, and the brilliance of this child of destiny was unmatched.

After returning to the sect, Chu Tiankuo and Lin Wan'er hastily handed in their mission reports and immediately announced they were going into closed-door meditation.

Their Dao hearts had been frustrated, but it did not completely destroy these two peerless geniuses. On the contrary, the humiliation of watching their opportunity being snatched away by an ant turned into the most obsessive driving force within their bones.

They swore that they would not emerge from seclusion until they had formed a legendary top-three grade Golden Core.

Forming a Golden Core is an extremely strict watershed in the cultivation world.

Golden Cores are divided into nine grades.

Grades seven to nine are inferior, granting an additional one thousand years of lifespan, but with no hope of reaching the Nascent Soul Stage.

Grades four to six are mediocre, granting three thousand years of lifespan.

Grades one to three, however, are the true superior-grade Golden Cores.

Not only do they require massive amounts of resources, but they also demand a profound Comprehension Ability and resonance with the laws of heaven and earth.

Without supreme Comprehension Ability, forcing oneself to pursue a top-three grade Golden Core will only lead to becoming possessed by the devil during repeated backlashes of the laws, resulting in death and the dissipation of one's Dao.

Chu Tiankuo and Lin Wan'er were Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, so they had the capital and confidence to endure and comprehend. Because even if they missed out on the inheritance, the sect's resources would still be tilted in their favor.

In the blink of an eye, thirty years passed. Su Yu had barely stepped out of his cave dwelling.

Within the Cangxuan Sect, in an inner sect cave dwelling, the seventy-year-old Su Yu sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

Thanks to quietly making a fortune on the outskirts of the Taihuang Secret Realm back then, he had earned terrifying resources that would make ordinary Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators green with envy.

His cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection with extreme stability. The next step was to form a Golden Core. However, concerning taking this final step, Su Yu had long hesitated. Deep down, he had no confidence in forming a Golden Core.

During the sixty years since joining the sect, Su Yu had witnessed too many cases of failed Golden Core formation.

In the Cangxuan Sect, Qi Refinement cultivators were as common as dogs, and Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators were everywhere, but there were only a hundred or so Golden Core Stage cultivators in total! Thousands of Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection cultivators were trapped at this step for their entire lives.

Just a few years ago, Senior Brother Liu from the Internal Affairs Pavilion and two senior sisters from the Scripture Transmission Hall had died at this threshold.

They had been stuck at the Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection for a full hundred years. Seeing their bodily functions irreversibly approaching senility, they had no choice but to attempt to force the Golden Core formation.

Su Yu was in the sect at the time and had clearly felt those violent spiritual energy fluctuations. Drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to flood the body, forcibly compressing and solidifying the vast, ocean-like liquid true essence in the dantian—this was an extremely brutal and irreversible process. Once it began, there was no turning back.

The results were, without exception, fatal. The true essence completely spiraled out of control at the critical point of extreme compression, and the violent spiritual power rebounded and rampaged within their bodies.

The three senior brothers and sisters didn't even have time to let out a scream before their dantians were blasted into massive, bloody holes. Their bodies shattered inch by inch, and their souls were completely shredded in the spiritual energy storm. A hundred years of hard cultivation ended in death and the dissipation of their Dao.

This cruel mortality rate was completely different from the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Back at Hidden Dragon Manor, Su Yu, bearing the lowest 9th Grade Spiritual Root, had dared to attempt to break through the threshold of the Foundation Establishment Stage. Because there was a path to follow for Foundation Establishment.

A genuine foundation establishment pill could not only provide vast and pure medicinal power but also contained the laws to nourish meridians and protect the dantian. Even if the breakthrough failed, as long as one dissipated their power in time, it usually resulted in serious injury, not immediate death.

But with the Golden Core, a tiny deviation meant eternal damnation. Everything had to be borne by the cultivator's own physical body.

Even those gifted geniuses were walking a tightrope before the gates of hell when facing this threshold. There were precedents of geniuses with high aptitude, like 1st or 2nd Grade Spiritual Roots, who failed to cross it and were reduced to ashes. Even the brilliant and talented Chu Tiankuo and Lin Wan'er were no exception.

Su Yu had been at the Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection for some years now. Yet, there had been no news of those two peerless geniuses of Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment forming a Golden Core.

Although they were constantly honing their foundations and comprehending the laws in pursuit of the legendary top-three grade Golden Core, this also indirectly confirmed just how difficult the Golden Core threshold was to cross. A slight carelessness, and even a genius would fall into the mud.

Even those with the best resources and the highest talent had to tread on thin ice. For ordinary cultivators, wanting to form a Golden Core was akin to betting their entire fortune on a game with a nine-in-ten chance of death.

Su Yu sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion, calmly calculating all of this. He was very clear about his disadvantages. His Comprehension Ability was mediocre. This was an insurmountable hardware obstacle. Wanting to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth to form a top-three or even mid-three grade Golden Core was simply an unrealistic fantasy for him.

He had taken the path of Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment. He relied on the pure accumulation of resources and the powerful physical body brought by the Savage Dragon Tyrant Body Art.

This meant that he could only choose the most brutal method of forming a Golden Core: forcible compression. Using his extremely powerful physical body as a container, he would force the liquid true essence into a Golden Core.

This approach was extremely dangerous, and the probability of failure was shockingly high. Moreover, even if he succeeded, it would only be the lowest-grade 9th Grade Golden Core.

Yet, deep in Su Yu's heart, there was not a shred of fear or retreat. Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment granted a lifespan of four hundred years. He was only seventy years old now.

If he stayed safely in the sect or returned to the Qianlong Su Family on the border of the Yue Kingdom, he could comfortably live as an ancestor for over three hundred more years, enjoying wealth and glory that Mortal could not enjoy in several lifetimes. The vast majority of cultivators who lacked confidence would choose this path. It is better to live in misery than to die. But Su Yu had no intention of being content with the status quo.

Cultivation is, in itself, fighting against heaven for one's life. Others fear death because they only have one life. But he was different. This was only his third life.

Even if he truly failed on the path to the Golden Core and ended up dead with his Dao dissipated, he would have no regrets. Just like when he forcibly swallowed the top-grade foundation establishment pill in his previous life.

Using one life to map out the threshold of the Golden Core for the next life, to feel the limits of his meridians and dantian when the liquid true essence solidified. This trade was not a loss. Only by experiencing it personally would he have absolute confidence the next time he stood before this threshold.

Having thought this through, Su Yu closed his eyes, no longer hesitating, and began to guide the vast liquid true essence within his Qi sea to collapse crazily toward the very center of his dantian.

The moment the liquid true essence began to collapse, the violent rebound of spiritual power arrived as expected. An extremely sharp tearing sensation emanated from his dantian.

If an ordinary cultivator could not suppress it at this stage, their dantian would instantly shatter. But Su Yu's physical body had been tempered by the blood essence of over a hundred Rank 2 demonic beasts and three Rank 3 great demons. The powerful defense of the Savage Dragon Tyrant Body Art played a decisive role at this moment.

His extremely tough meridians and sturdy flesh and blood forcefully contained this deadly rebound of spiritual power. He was like a person trying to crush a raging flame with his bare hands. Lacking the Comprehension Ability to organize the laws, he used the purest strength to forcibly suppress it.

Suppress, rebound. Suppress again, rebound again. Su Yu was completely trapped in this tug-of-war with his own true essence. This approach was akin to taking a walk on the edge of a cliff. He was at the critical point of his dantian about to explode at every moment. A slight carelessness would result in being smashed to pieces.

Time passed in this extremely dull and dangerous high-pressure state. One year. Five years. Ten years.

Su Yu was like a stone statue that had lost all signs of life, sitting rigidly cross-legged in the secret chamber. He poured all of his divine sense and power into the suppression of his dantian. There were no sudden enlightenment, no profound mysteries. This was an extremely long physical labor. It was also a cruel slow torture of his will.

Another ten years passed. On the Welcoming Peak of the Cangxuan Sect, batches upon batches of new disciples had already been replaced. The aftermath of the Taihuang Secret Realm had also gradually subsided with the disappearance of Li Han.

Finally, twenty-nine years had passed. Cangxuan Sect, inner sect cave dwelling. The ninety-nine-year-old Su Yu suddenly opened his eyes.

Inside the dantian, that mass of liquid true essence, which had been suppressed for twenty-nine years and had reached a terrifying density, finally let out an extremely crisp cracking sound at this moment.

Quantitative change led to qualitative change. That extremely dense true essence suddenly collapsed inward. A speck of solid matter emitting substantial golden light slowly formed in the center of the Qi sea.

Immediately after, the surrounding liquid true essence, as if seeing the center of a vortex, madly attached itself to it. Solidification, forming a Golden Core!

Su Yu lowered his head, his divine sense peering into his dantian. A Golden Core, the size of a longan fruit and perfectly round throughout, was quietly floating in the center of the Qi sea.

On the surface of the Golden Core, there were no complex Dao patterns symbolizing the laws of the Great Dao. There were only eight extremely dim lines, proving its grade. An 8th Grade Golden Core.

It was not even considered mediocre and belonged to the absolute bottom tier of the Golden Core Stage. However, in the depths of Su Yu's eyes, there was not a shred of disappointment or unwillingness.

He had survived. Without any fortuitous encounters, without any sudden enlightenment. Relying solely on a powerful physical body and extreme patience and meticulousness, he had forcibly squeezed out a Golden Core.

No matter how low the grade, this was the genuine Golden Core Stage. In this region spanning hundreds of thousands of miles, a Golden Core meant stepping into the threshold of high-level cultivators. He was no longer a bottom-tier disciple who could be used as cannon fodder at any time.

Su Yu brushed off the dust that had accumulated on his robes for nearly thirty years, pinched a spell, and opened the stone door of the cave dwelling.

Thirty years of closed-door meditation felt like a lifetime. Su Yu stepped out of the cave dwelling. He did not deliberately restrain his aura, and the pressure belonging to the early Golden Core Stage spread outward quite naturally.

The two Foundation Establishment Stage stewards guarding the mountain path felt this spiritual pressure, and their bodies shook violently. When they saw who it was, they hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

"Welcome, Martial Uncle Su, on your successful emergence from seclusion!"

There was obvious awe in the steward's voice. In the Cangxuan Sect, once one formed a Golden Core, their seniority automatically rose by one level. Even an 8th Grade Golden Core was still a Golden Core Master! Every Golden Core Master was a true foundation of the sect and a figure of real power.