Chapter 217: Breakthrough Golden Core Middle Stage

Chapter 217: Breakthrough Golden Core Middle Stage

After swiftly salvaging his Storage Ring, Xiao Chen didn't forget to collect the scattered spiritual artifacts lying on the ground.

There was one Bright Silver Red-Tasseled Spear, one Brocade Mountains and Rivers Seal, one Dragon-Engraved Gold-Splitting Sword, and one Narrow-Bladed Spirit-Fusing Knife.

Xu Gongtong’s spiritual artifact couldn’t be found at the scene—likely because he hadn’t managed to deploy it.

The reason all these artifacts were offensive types was because defensive items like spirit shields or protective robes had inevitably been destroyed during the battle.

Although Xiao Chen couldn’t use many spiritual artifacts at once due to his limited true mana reserves, these items were still valuable. At the very least, they could be exchanged for spirit stones.

Of course, it would be unwise to sell them directly in Nanlao Sea. It would be safer to wait until reaching the open ocean. This would prevent local cultivators from recognizing the artifacts and raising unnecessary suspicions.

With this in mind, Xiao Chen didn’t linger on the island’s refinementstorage Ring. Instead, he left immediately to avoid being spotted by any passing cultivators.

However, halfway through his flight, a sudden surge of spiritual energy swept across the sky.

The heavens darkened, and within moments, the surrounding thousands of miles of ocean grew ominously dim.

Massive volumes of seawater, as if pulled by some invisible force, began converging toward the southwest.

The heavenly qi in the air also reversed course, flowing back even faster.

“What’s going on?”

Xiao Chen felt a flicker of surprise. Adjusting his direction slightly, he followed the energy flow toward the disturbance.

Such a massive phenomenon, spanning tens of thousands of miles, ruled out the possibility of a mere cultivator duel.

Though the sky had turned dark, there were no signs of thunderstorms or lightning strikes, so a maritime storm was also unlikely.

If that was the case, this might not be dangerous at all—perhaps even a fortunate event.

“Could it be a Relic emerging?”

A spark of excitement flickered in Xiao Chen’s mind. His foot pressed down on his Flying Sword, accelerating forward.

After flying another five thousand miles, he finally saw thick mist spreading across the ocean’s surface.

This fog had gathered over the sea, covering an area spanning thousands of miles. It was already over sixty meters high and still rising, expanding outward continuously.

Approaching cautiously, Xiao Chen found the white mist so dense that visibility was nearly zero.

He extended his spiritual sense. The outermost thirty li showed nothing unusual, but for a fog this vast, that range was negligible—like a drop in the ocean.

He hesitated briefly, but the mist expanded another half kilometer in his direction, nearly engulfing him.

“Should I rush in before other cultivators arrive?”

Xiao Chen retreated a safe distance. “But wouldn’t that be too risky?”

Opportunity and danger often walked hand in hand.

Choosing correctly meant great fortune; choosing wrongly could mean death.

“Screw it, I’ve got my hex. Why gamble?”

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Chen suppressed his curiosity.

Though he sometimes seemed impulsive, he usually acted only when he had a solid safety net.

But now, with no knowledge of what lay inside the mist, rushing in recklessly could lead to disaster.

Even with his night’s blade, the commotion would soon attract other cultivators.

Someone like a nearby golden core True Sovereign might already be on their way.

Better to wait outside for now, keeping his ace in the hole ready for emergencies.

As it turned out, Xiao Chen’s caution was justified.

Though the inter-sea was sparsely populated, the initial spiritual energy surge spanning tens of thousands of miles had successfully drawn many nearby cultivators.

They were simply slower, arriving a bit later.

Within two quarters of an hour, Xiao Chen spotted a sword beam approaching from seven hundred li to his left.

The cultivator, facing the strange mist, didn’t hesitate and charged directly into the white fog.

Another quarter-hour later, a white-robed youth arrived from over a hundred li to his right.

After cautiously sizing up Xiao Chen, the youth deliberately kept his distance, then cautiously tested the mist’s edges. After a moment’s thought, he activated his protective body aura and plunged inside.

“Why are they all so brave?”

Watching others act, Xiao Chen felt a flicker of self-doubt. “Am I being too cautious?”

Thankfully, another sword beam approached from behind, drawing near.

“Fellow cultivator, greetings. I am Jade Talisman Sanren of Nanlao Sea. This situation seems suspicious, but I cannot discern the cause. Might you enlighten me?”

Xiao Chen turned to look.

The man appeared middle-aged, with black hair tied atop his head with a simple wooden hairpin. His prominent nose and thick eyebrows framed a neatly trimmed goatee. He wore a yellow robe embroidered with intricate golden runes—clearly no ordinary garment.

A brocade talisman pouch hung at his waist, emitting faint mana fluctuations, clearly a spiritual artifact.

His appearance alone marked him as no ordinary figure.

While most solitary cultivators struggled, a rare few could rise above, rivaling even disciples from major sects.

Clearly, Jade Talisman Sanren was one of these exceptional cultivators.

“Greetings, Fellow cultivator Jade Talisman. I am Golden Light Technique Hermit.”

Xiao Chen bowed politely, then shook his head slightly. “Unfortunately, I arrived late as well and haven’t seen what’s inside the mist.”

“That’s why I’m waiting out here.”

As they spoke, seven more cultivators arrived from nearby.

Two of them rushed headlong into the mist, while the remaining five chose to stay outside.

After introducing themselves and exchanging information, they each retreated a safe distance.

For golden core cultivators, maintaining a separation of over six kilometers (a thousand zhang) allowed everyone to relax.

Xiao Chen now realized the truth.

Indeed, most cultivators were relatively cautious—this was the cultivation world he was familiar with.

The earlier two bold cultivators were likely risk-takers who often operated in this inter-sea region, where survival required a daring spirit.

By now, all nearby cultivators had gathered.

Xiao Chen noticed someone sending a message via Voice-Transmitting Spirit Sword, though he couldn’t tell which faction they belonged to.

But it didn’t matter. He was currently known as Golden Light Technique Hermit—no one could trace him.

Everyone patiently waited for about three hours.

The white mist, now over seventy zhang high and covering a sea area spanning ten thousand li, finally stopped expanding.

But it showed no signs of dispersing.

The next day, Lord Huo arrived first, accompanied by True Sovereign Mo Mei.

The two were even more cautious than Xiao Chen, stopping fifty li away from the mist and using their spiritual senses to observe from a distance.

They then cast distant probing spells, summoning a butterfly and a small snake to enter the fog.

After waiting in vain for a response, they calmly switched to other methods.

Not once did they show any intention of approaching.

Xiao Chen silently retreated, mimicking their caution and maintaining a fifty-li safety buffer.

This was getting eerie—why wouldn’t even golden core True Sovereigns dare approach?

Soon, True Sovereign Mo Mei seemed to detect something. Her lips moved as she whispered to Lord Huo.

With everyone keeping their distance, no one dared eavesdrop with spiritual senses.

Then, Lord Huo scanned the surroundings and declared loudly, “This anomaly has been confirmed as a Yin Spirit disaster. Everyone must retreat immediately and not linger.”

His words sent a collective shiver through the dozens of cultivators watching from the edges.

Xiao Chen inhaled sharply. Those who had rushed inside earlier were likely already doomed—this was the price of recklessness.

Though he couldn’t identify it at first, he had indeed heard of the Yin Spirit disaster before.

It was one of the Eastern Territory’s most infamous maritime calamities.

In ancient texts, Xiao Chen had read about ghostly mists and mirage-like phenomena.

The Yin Spirit disaster was a fusion of these two.

Legends said it often appeared before a Relic’s emergence, especially in the six months to a year preceding a new Relic’s appearance.

The two events didn’t need to be closely related—sometimes separated by millions of li—but would create a mirage-like illusion.

From the outside, it was easy to mistake it for a Relic’s activation.

But once inside, one would be swarmed by hidden Yin Spirits. Even golden core cultivators who entered recklessly faced near-certain death.

Though not an absolute death sentence, everyone knew some cultivators were heaven’s chosen, capable of turning misfortune into fortune.

That slim chance was reserved for the chosen few, not ordinary cultivators like himself.

Xiao Chen immediately turned and fled, quickly putting hundreds of li between himself and the mist before circling back to Nanlao Sea.

Along the way, he saw many cultivators from Hundred Grasses City heading toward the inter-sea in groups.

Returning to the city, he learned that all talismans and thunder pearls effective against Yin Spirits had been sold out, with even next month’s stock already reserved.

The Yin Spirit disaster was both a calamity and an opportunity.

The mist would expand two to four times before stabilizing, creating a clear boundary.

Once the mirage’s maximum range stabilized, cultivators could attempt to clear the mist’s edges, hunting Yin Spirits and collecting Yin Spirit Cores.

But this wouldn’t happen for at least ten days—no rush.

At his speed, returning would take only three days.

But first, he had something more urgent to do—return to his courtyard and inspect the Storage Ring.

Cracking the sealing formation on the five Storage Rings alone took him a day and a half.

Thankfully, the rewards were substantial.

First was a two-zhang-long, two-chi-wide Cloud-Piercing Spirit Shuttle.

The Xu Family’s custom model consumed thirty percent more spirit stones than standard shuttles but offered greater space, capable of carrying five people.

If Xu Gongtong’s plan had succeeded, the five of them could have returned together.

But for Xiao Chen, the shuttle wasn’t particularly useful.

His escape technique was just as fast as a Spirit Shuttle, without requiring spirit stones—saving money.

Still, it had its advantages, providing a space for meditation and rest during long journeys.

Then came the spirit stones: a total of 378,000 lower-grade and 2,200 middle-grade spirit stones.

Among them, Ge Dongyan alone contributed over a third.

It was precisely the Xu Family’s lack of spirit stones that had driven Xu Gongtong to scheme, ultimately leading to his downfall.

“Wait, not a single demon core?”

Xiao Chen scanned the Storage Ring with his spiritual sense, feeling slightly exasperated. “So it was a complete scam from the start.”

Clearly, from the beginning, they hadn’t intended to trade fairly.

Luckily, although there was no demon core, there were four Return Yuan Pills, two Supplement Yuan Pills, and one Winter Grass Yuan Gathering Pill.

The Winter Grass Yuan Gathering Pill shared the same effect as the Supplement Yuan Pill, both capable of helping cultivators rapidly condense true mana. However, its potency was about three times stronger, and its price was five times higher.

"Without a demon core, I'll just use these instead. Though each bottle only contains three pills, combining them with Supplement Yuan Pills should work."

Xiao Chen wasn’t a picky eater—he’d eat anything. He’d only taken demon cores before for cost-effectiveness, not because he couldn’t cultivate without them. Now that he had the Winter Grass Yuan Gathering Pill, he still had hope of reaching the Golden Core Initial Stage before departing in May.

"Ah, there’s even a cultivation manual?"

After putting away the pills, Xiao Chen discovered two thin booklets. Curious, he flipped them open—Golden Yuan Pill Summary and Four Key Techniques for Refining Return Yuan Pills.

"Wow, does a Third-Stage pill formula really need to be this complicated?"

Compared to low-tier pill formulas, which crammed dense instructions onto a single page, a Third-Stage formula clearly needed more space. The former spanned four double-sided pages, while the latter, complete with illustrations, filled nine pages. However, after reading them, Xiao Chen realized the lengthy explanations were mostly theoretical. The formula itself only required a few additional spirit herbs and wasn’t drastically more complex. In fact, the detailed instructions could help lower-tier Pill Forging Masters learn more easily.

Besides this, after sorting through the Storage Ring’s clutter, two Spirit-Containing Treasure Boxes remained. Xiao Chen always had patience for treasures. After a full day and night dismantling their intricate sealing formations, he inhaled deeply.

"Open!"

With a flick of his hand, the first box revealed a Dao Crystal nestled inside. Within its translucent body, faintly visible arcane runes shimmered. Xiao Chen examined it closely—it was different from the one he’d previously encountered. This was a good thing; collecting Dao Crystals of varying attributes increased his chances of finding a wood-attribute one.

Rubbing his hands together, he reached for the second Spirit-Containing Treasure Box. "Open!"

"Ah!"

Inside lay another Dao Crystal, distinct from the first two. But Xiao Chen’s gaze quickly shifted beneath it. At the bottom of the box, a thin, nameless biography lay hidden.

The book had no title and was written in a haphazard, informal style—clearly a cultivator’s casual memoir. It detailed how different runes within Dao Crystals corresponded to specific attributes and mentioned a peculiar location—the Sea of Darkness.

From what Xiao Chen knew, traveling east from Jingkong Sea for roughly 1.2 million kilometers would lead to the Sea of Darkness. It was said to be a chaotic, lawless region. The memoir described a uniquely shaped island in the southeastern quadrant of the sea, resembling a sunflower when viewed from above. The island was massive, stretching over 1,000 kilometers at its longest and no less than 800 kilometers at its shortest. Towering mountains dotted its landscape, their slopes riddled with hot springs and caves. These caves intertwined in a labyrinth—some connected, some plunged into the seabed, and others brimmed with dense malevolent qi. The fire-attribute Dao Crystal from the second Spirit-Containing Treasure Box originated from one such cave.

"Malevolent qi?" Xiao Chen fixated on the term. For him, collecting malevolent qi was the primary goal of his journey to the Eastern Territory. Could the Sea of Darkness actually harbor malevolent qi? The location was even clearly marked—such a large island should be easy to find.

Xiao Chen’s eyes sharpened. He’d definitely need to investigate. The Sea of Darkness lay beyond the Inner Sea, but he’d already agreed to join the Three Immortals Sect in early May to search for a new relic in the open sea. After that, he could conveniently detour to the Sea of Darkness.

Besides, the Poisonous Sea was conveniently located at the edge of the Inner Sea, even closer to the Sea of Darkness than Nanlao Sea. After leaving the Sea of Darkness, he could head northwest straight to the Poisonous Sea.

A perfect plan!

"Phew, but first things first—I should focus on cultivation."

Xiao Chen tucked the memoir away and took out a Winter Grass Yuan Gathering Pill. He swallowed it, then began circulating his cultivation manual to refine true mana, followed by a Supplement Yuan Pill.

This continued until May 2nd, when he finally condensed his 333rd true mana strand, reaching the minor bottleneck of Golden Core Middle Stage.

Xiao Chen attempted to condense more true mana, and as expected, he felt a faint resistance. Most cultivators would stall here for years, even decades. Especially those using mystic-rank or yellow-rank cultivation manuals, breakthroughs were notoriously difficult.

He promptly retrieved the Bai Zhuan Xuan Dan he’d exchanged earlier. Like the Nine Luminaries Mysterious Pill, the Xuan Dan bore intricate pill patterns, indicating it was crafted by a Fourth-Stage Pill Forging Master.

He swallowed it. The pill dissolved into a spiritual elixir that seemed to possess awareness, rushing to his Flawless Golden Core and enveloping it. After roughly two hours, it gradually seeped into the core.

During this process, Xiao Chen felt no obvious change in his core, but his true mana count increased by one strand. He rested for two hours before taking a second Bai Zhuan Xuan Dan, then a third. His total true mana now reached 336 strands.

Don’t underestimate this change—cultivators’ three treasures were essence, qi, and spirit. True mana quantity represented the "qi" aspect. Similarly, vital energy concentration corresponded to "essence", and spiritual sense intensity to "spirit." Thus, increasing true mana directly aided breakthroughs. Likewise, boosting vital energy concentration also helped.

Xiao Chen retrieved the Elusive Sika Deer’s heart’s blood from his Storage Ring. He uncorked the bottle and drank it in one go.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

As the blood took effect, Xiao Chen heard his heartbeat grow louder, more intense. The Elusive Sika Deer was a Fourth-Stage beast, and its heart’s blood was its life essence. An ordinary Golden Core cultivator drinking it directly would likely explode from the strain.

But Xiao Chen practiced dual cultivation of body and techniques. He immediately activated his Life-Essence Core to assist in refining the blood, while channeling the Nine Transformations Dragon Ascension Formula’s heart sutra. His 108 acupoints worked in unison, circulating vital energy to ease the burden.

Soon, his entire body turned crimson, like a boiled shrimp, emitting wisps of white vapor as he transformed into a living furnace. Though potent, the Fourth-Stage beast blood was already unclaimed, allowing the furnace to rapidly refine it into dense blood energy. This energy was then gradually absorbed by his surging vital energy.

"Phew!"

Xiao Chen’s eyes snapped open, exhaling a turbid breath that ignited into fierce flames, engulfing the room.

"Shoot, not again!"

Cultivation always risked damaging furniture—this wasn’t the first time.

"Ah!"

Instinctively, he moved to extinguish the flames but paused. The room’s Nine Aperture Linked Formation contained the fire, shielding the furniture.

"Good thing I was prepared. That formation was a wise investment."

Xiao Chen waved away the lingering embers, then adjusted to his newfound strength. Seizing the moment of vitality, he charged at the Golden Core Middle Stage bottleneck.

And predictably, he failed.

But failing a minor bottleneck had minor consequences—just a slight depletion of vital energy, easily replenished with rest.

"This isn’t right. My essence, qi, and spirit are sufficient. Why did I fail?"

Sitting cross-legged, he meticulously reviewed his breakthrough process against the cultivation manual. "Could it be... my comprehension of the Dao?"

Reflecting, he realized his weakest point was his grasp of the Wood Dao. Indeed, cultivators at the Golden Core stage needed to choose a Dao path—not deeply, but at least fundamentally.

Though cultivators who formed a Golden Core were rare prodigies, why did many stall at Golden Core Initial Stage for decades? The answer lay in Dao comprehension.

Xiao Chen retrieved the Dao Crystals from his Storage Ring. His luck held—besides the fire-attribute one, he had earth and wood-attribute crystals. Three out of five weren’t wasted.

He took a Purple-Gold Bodhi Fruit, using its enlightenment to channel his spiritual sense into the Dao Crystal, comprehending the Wood Dao.

Six hours passed before the fruit’s effect faded, and he snapped back to reality. Though he couldn’t articulate his newfound insight, the moment he returned, a sudden clarity struck him. He immediately circulated his heart sutra.

This time, he successfully broke through to Golden Core Middle Stage!

(Note: Readers may have noticed an earlier miscalculation in Chapter 214. Ten demon cores from the Spirit-Fungus Soul-Cleansing Pill were forgotten, making the true mana total 307, not 267. This chapter’s numbers have been corrected accordingly.)

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end