Chapter 113 : The Three Grades of Golden Core

"I, Exquisite Jiang, have always been one to love and hate with clarity. When I like something, why would I need a reason, and why should I care about the opinions of others?"

Exquisite Jiang suddenly turned to face Eldrin Chen, her eyes deeply reflecting his image. "If a reason is needed, it is true that you are the most handsome man I have ever seen."

Eldrin Chen: "…"

"Of course, your talent is also quite remarkable. A cultivator with Five Spiritual Roots who achieves Self-Achieved Foundation Establishment—your potential is far greater than you imagine."

"The potential of Five Spiritual Roots is great?"

Eldrin Chen's pupils contracted, and he couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by that?"

"Because a cultivator's Golden Core comes in three grades of quality…"

Exquisite Jiang turned slightly, gazing at the swirling wind and snow before her as she began to explain in a measured tone.

It turns out that when a cultivator breaks through to the Golden Core realm, the Golden Core they condense can be of three different grades, depending on the solidity of their foundation.

The first is achieved by relying on external aids to break through to the Golden Core Realm. For example, a cultivator who consumes a Five Elements Spirit Fruit to attain a Golden Core. This type of core is known as a Lower-Tier Golden Core and possesses the most ordinary combat prowess among Golden Core cultivators. Experience the full epic at audio-novel dot com.

Because the breakthrough to the Golden Core Realm was achieved with the aid of external resources, while it reduces the difficulty of the breakthrough, it also renders the cultivator's spiritual power more placid and their foundational essence less pure.

The foundation of such cultivators becomes relatively unstable and insubstantial. Without further external aid in the future, their chance of breaking through to the Infant Soul Realm is virtually zero.

Even for cultivators with powerful backgrounds who manage to break through to the Infant Soul Realm using external aids like the Nascent Soul Formation Pill, most can only ever reach the Infant Soul Early Stage.

The second method is to break through to the Golden Core Realm unaided by any external resources. Cultivators who achieve this are invariably endowed with exceptional talent. The Golden Core they condense possesses far greater potency and quality. Such a core is also known as a Middle-Tier Golden Core.

Cultivators who forge a Middle-Tier Golden Core have, even without external aids, a twenty percent chance of later breaking through to the Infant Soul realm. If they obtain a treasure like the Nascent Soul Formation Pill, their odds of becoming an Infant Soul True Lord rise to forty or fifty percent.

The third and exceedingly rare type is the Superior-Tier Golden Core. For a cultivator to condense a Superior-Tier Golden Core, they must not use any external aids for any major realm breakthrough, starting from the Foundation Establishment Stage onward.

Because advancing unaided all the way to the Golden Core realm is an immensely arduous path, cultivators who succeed in forging a Superior-Tier Golden Core are exceptionally rare.

Generally speaking, only peerless prodigies with a Heavenly Spiritual Root possess the slightest chance of achieving this. As long as such cultivators do not perish prematurely, obtaining a single Infant Soul Formation treasure grants them an eighty to ninety percent certainty of breaking through to the Infant Soul Realm.

Even without such a treasure, they typically possess a forty to fifty percent chance of breaking through to the Infant Soul Realm.

Legend holds that nearly all the Primordial Spirit Path Lord of the Purple Seal Realm once forged Superior-Tier Golden Core in their youth, each having been a renowned Golden Core Great Cultivator whose fame shook multiple nations.

"To forge a Superior-Tier Golden Core [the highest grade of core formation, representing immense potential] means that, barring an untimely demise, one's future achievements will most likely reach the level of a Infant Soul Late Stage [the advanced stage of the Nascent Soul cultivation realm] Great Cultivator."

Exquisite Jiang spoke, her gaze fixed upon Eldrin Chen, yet her tone suddenly shifted.

"I was born with a Heavenly Spiritual Root [a supreme-grade spiritual root granting unparalleled cultivation talent]. I achieved Self-Achieved Foundation Establishment [Foundation Establishment without external aids] at fifteen, and by twenty-eight, without relying on external objects like the Purple Sun Jade [a rare jade that aids in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks], I broke through to the Violet Sanctum Realm [the realm following Foundation Establishment]."

"Yet, two hundred years have passed since then. Do you know why I have remained at the Violet Sanctum Realm?"

Eldrin Chen's heart trembled, struck once more by profound astonishment.

The world spoke of Patriarch Jiang's astonishing mastery in every field—Alchemy, Formations, Artifacts, Talismans [the four great auxiliary arts of cultivation: pill refining, array formation, artifact forging, and talisman crafting]—proclaiming her a true genius of heaven-sent talent. Yet, likely no one could have imagined she had reached such heights.

At this moment, he understood completely: the origins of this peerless beauty before him were far more formidable than he had ever dared to imagine.

Suppressing the shock within, he could not help but voice his thought: "Could it be... to condense a high-quality Golden Core [the solidified spiritual core formed after the Violet Sanctum realm]?"

Exquisite Jiang nodded, her voice calm as she explained: "Legend speaks of a Golden Core even more astonishing than the Superior-Tier Golden Core. That core is named the Great Encompassing Golden Core [the mythical, perfect-grade Golden Core]. Once forged, it bestows the Banished Immortal's Bearing [the destined aura and potential of a celestial being cast down to the mortal realm]."

"And the Great Encompassing Golden Core has another name: the Five Elements Primordial One Great Encompassing Golden Core [the Great Encompassing Golden Core perfected through the unity of the Five Elements]."

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Eldrin Chen's pupils snapped open, instantly contracting to pinpoints.

"Yes, precisely the kind you are thinking of."

"To forge a Great Encompassing Golden Core [the most perfect and powerful form of the Golden Core cultivation stage], one must not only refrain from using external aids like the Foundation Establishment Pill [a pill that forcibly elevates a cultivator to the Foundation Establishment stage] or Purple Sun Jade [a rare spiritual jade that aids cultivation] to break through all the way to the Golden Core Realm [the third major stage of cultivation where spiritual energy condenses into a solid core], but one's Spiritual Root [the innate spiritual affinity that determines a cultivator's elemental aptitude and cultivation speed] must also encompass all Five Elements [the fundamental forces of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth]."

Exquisite Jiang gave a slight nod, her voice calm as she continued, "Once a Great Encompassing Golden Core is forged, both combat prowess and latent potential will far surpass that of peers at the same cultivation stage."

"In my pursuit of forging a Pure Lunar Great Encompassing Golden Core [a supreme variant of the Great Encompassing Golden Core aligned with lunar essence], for two centuries I have been diligently completing my own Spiritual Root. From a Heavenly Spiritual Root [a single-element spiritual root of the highest purity] to my current state of possessing four elemental Spiritual Roots, only the final step remains." Support the author by reading on site: audio-novel.com.

After speaking, her gaze settled firmly on Eldrin Chen.

"And you... you were born with all Five Spiritual Roots [a complete set of spiritual roots for all five elements, often considered a hindrance due to slow cultivation speed]. Furthermore, you achieved Self-Achieved Foundation Establishment [reaching the Foundation Establishment stage through one's own efforts, without external pills] in your early twenties. From this point onward, as long as you continue to break through to the Golden Core Realm without relying on external aids, you can forge a Primordial Solar Great Encompassing Golden Core [a supreme variant of the Great Encompassing Golden Core aligned with solar essence]."

Only then did Eldrin Chen understand. The Five Spiritual Roots he possessed were not the cumbersome burden he had imagined, but rather a hidden key, a rare opportunity on the path to immortality.

The pity was that cultivation with Five Spiritual Roots was notoriously slow; most cultivators would exhaust their lifespan before ever breaking through a major realm. Although he possessed Five Spiritual Roots, he had used the Primordial Chaos Violet Aura [a primordial energy of creation that can refine one's foundational constitution] to elevate his innate foundation. His cultivation speed now surpassed that of an ordinary Five Spiritual Roots cultivator by more than tenfold.

A cultivator with the Five Spiritual Roots [a spiritual root constitution considered the lowest potential for cultivation] who lacks a powerful backer would likely exhaust their natural lifespan without even reaching the Vital Essence Refinement Mid Stage [the middle stage of refining one's vital life force], never touching the threshold of Foundation Establishment [the realm where a cultivator establishes their foundational dao core], let alone breaking through to the Golden Core Realm [the realm of the solidified golden core] without relying on any external aids.

Without using external resources to break through realm barriers, a Five Spiritual Roots cultivator would need decades just to temper their foundation at the Vital Essence Refinement 9th Tier [the ninth and final tier of the Vital Essence Refinement realm]. I fear that even if a Primordial Spirit Path Lord [a supreme expert at the Primordial Spirit realm who has comprehended a Path] were to devote all their efforts to nurturing one, it would be exceedingly difficult to produce a Great Encompassing Golden Core [the highest grade and most perfect form of Golden Core].

"The first time I saw you, I understood that you were born different," she said.

"We are the same kind of people. Only people like you and I can walk the path to its very end."

She gazed down upon the ever-changing world below, her eyes seeming to reflect the churning tides of the Mortal Dust [the mundane, secular world of ordinary humans]. "And only I can walk beside you all the way."

Eldrin Chen listened quietly, suddenly sensing a profound loneliness in Exquisite Jiang's silhouette.

An inexplicable ache stirred in his heart, compelling him to ask, "What truly happened back then, that made you leave the Eastern Sea Coast [the coastal regions of the Eastern Sea] and come to the Eastern Region Great Wasteland [the vast, desolate lands of the Eastern Region]?"

A subtle silence hung in the air. Exquisite Jiang stood motionless in the snow, her umbrella held aloft, offering no answer to his question.

She resembled a solitary Wandering Soul [a lost, restless spirit], standing silently upon the earth as if in quiet remembrance of those who were gone.

An immeasurable length of time seemed to pass. Only when the wind and snow began to abate did she finally speak, her voice carrying a distant, melancholic tone.

"Those people and those past events are already buried within the passage of years."

"With your current level of cultivation, you should not yet know of such things."

Eldrin Chen fell silent, watching her solitary figure and recalling a scene from several years prior.

That night, upon suddenly hearing the news of Second Elder's death, he had played his zither in the wind and rain, while she held an umbrella for him, shielding him from the storm throughout the long night.

Back then, he too had been like this, akin to a solitary Wandering Soul. They truly were alike, as if cut from the same cloth.

In a flash of insight, Eldrin Chen understood his own heart. He met her gaze with profound intensity.

Somewhat impulsively, yet unable to restrain himself, he spoke.

"No matter what lies ahead on the path, no matter what kind of existence you must face."

"I will walk beside you, all the way to the end."

She looked at him, at the peerlessly beautiful figure reflected in the depths of his eyes.

Goose-feather snowflakes fell in a silent, ceaseless cascade, blanketing the boundless Great Wasteland in a thick, pristine layer. She stood atop a solitary peak, a solitary figure amidst the wind and snow, her form frozen into a painting of profound stillness.

The Great Path is a solitary journey; the road to immortality is long and arduous.

The past was like an endless night; former days seemed but a dream.

Lost in the recollection of bygone events, she remained silent for a long while. Then, a faint, solitary smile blossomed at the corner of her thin lips.

"I am the last of the Kiang Clan. From now on, with you by my side on this path, I need not walk it in loneliness..."

"I believe it will be good." Find this and other novels at site: audio-novel.com.