74: The final calm, how powerful is the golden elixir?

Rong City.

A small room in an old high-rise building.

Ye Chun, a former professional player of the competitive game 'Age of Glory', sat with headphones on, quietly watching the news on the screen.

["Xuanhuan World" receives a brand new update, with a massive map spanning tens of millions of square kilometers, potentially revolutionizing the industry!]

[The server-wide event "Golden Core Tomb" is in full swing, with massive cash prizes for top-ranked players!]

[Exclusive report: The power of the Golden Core is likely far beyond imagination!]

[Latest information: There are powerful "Outstanding Talents" among the native NPCs, and soul transmigration cannot possess them. This might be a version trap.]

"Xuanhuan... World?"

Ye Chun chewed on these four words.

He was a veteran professional player of 'Age of Glory', having played for seven years, but was eventually replaced by a newcomer. Furthermore, due to a non-compete agreement, he couldn't work in related fields for a year.

Originally, he planned to rest for a year and then start anew.

But now, a new game appeared before his eyes.

Ye Chun checked some information and muttered to himself:

"Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Golden Core, talisman drawing, incantations, Formations, Immortals..."

One fantastical scene after another flashed through Ye Chun's mind, making his heart pound with excitement.

After some preparations, he lay down in the VR pod and entered the character selection interface.

He saw a name at the soul transmigration option that was hard to look away from:

["Sect Leader Xiang Qing of Void Severing Cave" (Early Golden Core)]

"Golden Core?"

If it were an ordinary player, upon seeing this Rank, they would probably choose it immediately. Even if they were exposed upon entry, they could still get free reincarnation points to facilitate a body transmigration start.

But Ye Chun, recalling the news he had seen earlier, pondered deeply.

"Truly powerful natives are considered Outstanding Talents, and players cannot soul transmigrate into them. A Golden Core Sect Master, no matter how you look at it, should be an Outstanding Talent, yet he's inexplicably an option for soul transmigration. There must be a trap in this description.

"Moreover... if I, Ye Chun, don't start a game from scratch, what's the point?"

With a light chuckle, Ye Chun unhesitatingly chose a body transmigration start. He didn't even use a Golden Finger and immediately entered the game.

Opening his eyes, he found himself in an open field. White clouds circulated in the sky, the ground felt solid, and he could see wheat fields not far away, with farmers vaguely tilling the land.

"It truly is a next-generation game; the texture is better than Age of Glory..."

Ye Chun nodded secretly, then looked into the distance, but abruptly stopped his gaze.

He saw a Cultivator in blue robes in the distance, treading on a gourd, soaring freely in the air. He made hand seals, and soon dark clouds gathered in the sky, slowly bringing down a fine rain. This delighted the farmers on the ground, who knelt in gratitude without delay.

'The area isn't large, and it's not conjuring rain from nothing, but merely moving dark clouds. This should be a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.'

Ye Chun mused, realizing that Cultivators were not just vicious individuals with astonishing destructive power, but could also use various Spells and Divine Abilities to benefit Mortals.

He now understood why the Xuanhuan World was so dark: Mortals were crushed to death by Cultivators at will, yet they sprouted up like wheat in a field, one crop after another.

It turned out that Cultivators supplemented productivity, preventing Mortals from truly starving to death.

'It seems the society of the Xuanhuan World is quite interesting.'

Ye Chun did not rashly approach the Cultivator, nor did he jump around looking for the Efeng Mountain Range. Instead, he followed the novice tutorial, subtly gathering information from his surroundings.

He quickly figured out that this was within the borders of Yue Kingdom, where authority was almost entirely controlled by the Sect, Heshui Prefecture. This Heshui Prefecture was considered the Righteous Path, treated the Mortals under its rule very well, disliked killing, and had Cultivators descend the mountain annually to take on disciples.

The tricky part was that his current location was precisely in the new map opened by the new version, extremely far from the Efeng Mountain Range, about several thousand li away.

'It seems this Golden Core Tomb event will likely have nothing to do with me.'

Ye Chun had already accepted this situation and was preparing to find a job to earn money. But before he could walk much further, he saw farmers running towards the center of the village, shouting about an Immortal Opportunity.

Ye Chun looked around. The center of the village was an open space, and there were no Cultivators at the moment, only some farmers. They had all retrieved pickaxes, axes, and sickles from their warehouses and were eagerly looking eastward, as if waiting for something.

'Are Cultivators coming?'

Ye Chun cautiously watched for a long time but saw no Cultivators descend. So he quietly found a farmer and asked, "Is something big about to happen?"

The farmer looked confused: "I don't know either. The clan elder said an Immortal Opportunity would appear, so I gathered my things and came here."

He asked several more farmers, young and middle-aged, and all of them were unaware.

It wasn't until he found the clan elder, who was so old he looked like he might turn into bones, that Ye Chun finally understood what was happening:

"The Immortals of Heshui Prefecture have sent word: a Golden Core Tomb will open several thousand li away, and we should prepare. An Immortal Opportunity will descend at that time."

Ye Chun was utterly confused.

The Golden Core Tomb was several thousand li away. In game terms, it was on another map, completely unrelated to his small village in Yue Kingdom.

Why would they need the farmers to prepare to welcome some Immortal Opportunity?

The clan elder looked solemn:

"A Golden Core Cultivator is a true Immortal. With every move, they wield great Divine Abilities. When one dies, heaven and earth shake, auspicious light fills the sky, and their Qi spreads across the sea. Their entire cultivation transforms into countless treasures, and there are continuous anomalies. Even if we Mortals only absorb a tiny bit, we will have a chance to grow a Spiritual Root and thus step into the Immortal Gate!"

At this point, the clan elder was completely infatuated. It turned out that at his age, with one foot in the grave, he still fantasized about cultivating Immortality and longevity.

"A Golden Core Cultivator is so astonishing?"

Ye Chun's heart skipped a beat.

He suddenly remembered the description of the Golden Core in the Realm introduction:

[Golden Core, a true Immortal]

A brief sentence, yet it left much to the imagination.

'According to the forum data, the Realm descriptions we have are common information spread by Baixiaosheng. Things like the strength of an Immortal Foundation Foundation Establishment Cultivator are not included. So, is the information about the Golden Core also not exhaustive?'

Ye Chun's mind churned, and he asked again:

"But this time, it's just the opening of a Golden Core Tomb, not the fall of a Golden Core. How could there be any anomalies or treasures appearing?"

The clan elder looked stunned and murmured, "The Immortals of Heshui Prefecture said there would be anomalies and treasures. How could they be wrong?"

Ye Chun frowned, looked up towards the east. The Golden Core Tomb was several thousand li away. Even a natural disaster wouldn't sweep such a long distance.

When the tomb opened, would there really be anomalies here, and would treasures appear out of thin air?

Ye Chun thought carefully for a moment:

"Alright, since treasures might appear in Yue Kingdom, there's no need to rush to the Efeng Mountain Range for an Opportunity. It's better to get settled here first, find a chance to join Heshui Prefecture, which would count as entering the Righteous Path of cultivation. That would be a good start."

He was calm on his side, but in the true eye of the storm, the Efeng Mountain Range, chaos had already erupted.