Chapter 420

I Can See Through Everything

The gray-robed man soared through the air, guided by the innate aura of the Precelestial Realm practitioner in his grasp. Suddenly, his expression shifted, and he came to a halt.

"Honored One, why have we stopped? This is Jizhou. Cangzhou is still ahead," said the Precelestial Realm cultivator curiously.

Over time, his fear of high altitudes had lessened, and he now spoke with noticeable fluency.

"No need. I already know the location. You may disembark here," the gray-robed man replied indifferently.

With a casual push, he sent the Precelestial Realm practitioner plummeting downward.

"Ah! Spare me, Honored One!"

The Precelestial Realm cultivator was overcome with terror as his body descended rapidly. He flailed wildly, screaming in panic. Just as he thought he was doomed to crash to his death, a mysterious force enveloped him, significantly slowing his fall.

He landed with a thud, battered and bruised, but alive.

"Thank you, Honored One! Thank you for sparing my life!" he cried, kowtowing in gratitude despite his injuries.

However, when he looked up again, the gray-robed man was already gone, his silhouette nowhere to be seen in the sky.

…

"Is the spatial fluctuation of the Mystic Realm Gate coming from that direction?"

The gray-robed man murmured to himself as he flew swiftly toward his destination, following the faint resonance of a Mystic Realm Gate.

It was at such a place that his junior brother had discovered a newly opened Mystic Realm. His junior brother had ventured to claim it but had perished there. The gray-robed man was convinced that this Mystic Realm was intrinsically tied to his junior brother's death.

His light sped across the skies, arriving over a secluded valley in no time. There, at the center of the valley, was a swirling black vortex—the entrance to the Mystic Realm.

"So, this is it. I can sense traces of my junior brother's presence lingering here," he said grimly as he descended.

…

Back at the Lu family residence, Lu Qing slowly opened his eyes, which gleamed with astonishment.

"This Golden Core Realm is truly vast and profound, far surpassing what I had imagined," he murmured.

The jade slip in his hands had disintegrated. Over the past days, he had painstakingly studied every jade slip left behind by the white-robed youth, downloading and simulating their contents. He had even delved briefly into the Chapter of the Great Dao gifted to him by the dissipating Thunder Tribulation Whirlpool. ṙ𝘢ƝȎβΕ𝓢

The jade slips contained several cultivation techniques and secret arts. However, all the techniques pertained to the Water Element and were capped at reaching the pinnacle of the Golden Core Realm. Higher realms of cultivation were conspicuously absent.

Lu Qing deduced that this limitation was likely imposed by the white-robed youth's sect. It seemed the sect only allowed disciples to access techniques suited to their current realm, thereby reducing the risk of sensitive knowledge being leaked.

Through this extensive study, Lu Qing had come to appreciate the profound intricacies of the Golden Core Realm. He now realized it was far more enigmatic than he had initially thought.

Golden Cores were classified into four grades: lower, middle, upper, and the Perfect Golden Core.

The realm itself was further divided into nine levels, famously known as the Nine Revolutions of the Golden Core. With each breakthrough, a cultivator's Golden Core underwent a transformation, resulting in a massive surge in power and an enhancement of the core's capabilities.

Each revolution was akin to climbing a celestial ladder, requiring the cultivator to continually refine their spiritual energy to the utmost purity, breaking past limits to achieve qualitative transformation. Such a process demanded unparalleled determination and willpower.

According to the techniques recorded in the jade slips, the grade of one’s Golden Core determined the limits of cultivation:

• A lower-grade core could only reach the third revolution.

• A middle-grade core could ascend to the sixth revolution.

• An upper-grade core allowed progress beyond the seventh revolution.

For this reason, Golden Core cultivators who reached bottlenecks in their cultivation often sought methods to refine and elevate the grade of their Golden Core, thus paving the way for further breakthroughs.

Lu Qing recalled a particular passage:

"Upon reaching the seventh revolution, the deity born within the Golden Core grows strong enough to attempt a breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm. However, the risk of failure remains high. Even a successful tribulation often results in a weak foundation, limiting the cultivator's potential within the Nascent Soul Realm."

"Only those who achieve the eighth or ninth revolutions can significantly increase their success rate in transcending to the Nascent Soul Realm. These individuals, with solid foundations, can walk far within the Nascent Soul Realm, weathering multiple tribulations and enduring through the ages."

The insights he gained filled Lu Qing with admiration for the white-robed youth, whose cultivation hailed from a far grander world. The youth's techniques were far superior to those passed down by the Li Huo Sect and offered a far more comprehensive understanding of the Golden Core Realm.

In comparison, the Li Huo Sect's core teachings, including the Five Elements Body Refining Technique, crudely divided the Golden Core Realm into three stages: minor achievement, major achievement, and perfection.

They made no mention of the Nine Revolutions of the Golden Core, let alone its higher subtleties.

"That said, while the techniques of the white-robed youth's world treat the ninth revolution as the limit of the Golden Core Realm, the truth is that the Golden Core Realm's ultimate limit extends to the twelfth revolution!"

Lu Qing's eyes sparkled with newfound clarity as he whispered to himself.

This realization was not mere conjecture. The Chapter of the Great Dao, passed to him by the Thunder Tribulation Whirlpool, explicitly described the twelve revolutions as the pinnacle of the Golden Core Realm.

However, only those with Perfect Golden Cores could hope to transcend the ninth revolution and approach this ultimate boundary. Lower grades of Golden Cores, including upper-grade ones, lacked the capability to break past the ninth revolution.

From this perspective, the white-robed youth's classification of the ninth revolution as the realm's apex was not incorrect. Perfect Golden Cores were exceedingly rare, with many worlds failing to recognize their existence.

Lu Qing knew he owed his own Perfect Golden Core to countless fortuitous encounters. It was only by breaking multiple limits and harmonizing the five elements during his Foundation Establishment that he achieved this flawless state.

Without any one of these opportunities, he would never have succeeded.

"Still, achieving the Perfect Golden Core comes at a price. My future path will undoubtedly be fraught with challenges."