Chapter 318 : The Golden Core's Hidden Hunger

If a Golden Core [the condensed essence of a cultivator's power, forming the foundation for higher realms] lacks nourishment from Creation Power [a primordial force that fosters growth and imbues spiritual essence], it is akin to a malnourished embryo. Even if its cultivation base grows, its spiritual nature will remain deficient, making it difficult in the future to gestate a Nascent Soul [the spiritual infant formed within the Golden Core, representing a higher state of being].

Just as the essence, energy, and spirit of a Purple Mansion Cultivator [a cultivator who has opened the spiritual palace within their dantian] must be perfectly harmonized, a cultivator's Golden Core must be brimming with creation to reach the threshold for attempting a breakthrough to Nascent Soul.

After obtaining the Spirit Peach [a mystical fruit that greatly enhances cultivation and longevity], Lyra Jiang and Eldrin Chen remained on Spirit Isle Lake to enter seclusion and refine the Fourth Rank Spirit Peach.

She was not far from breaking through to the Golden Core, Mid Stage. After refining one of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Peach [a supreme-grade Spirit Peach containing the essence of heaven and earth], her cultivation finally reached perfection, allowing her to touch the threshold of the Golden Core, 4th Tier.

This brought her great joy. Typically, a cultivator with Two Spiritual Roots [an affinity for two of the five elemental energies] would require one full Jiazi-time [a sixty-year cycle] to advance a single minor realm within the Golden Core Realm.

Lyra Jiang, now possessing Five Spiritual Roots [affinity for all five elemental energies] and having forged five Life-Bound Magical Treasure [magical treasures bound to one's life force, sharing growth and power], naturally faced a significantly slower cultivation speed.

Were it not for her Lunar Immortal Physique [a rare innate constitution attuned to lunar and yin energies, granting exceptional cultivation aptitude], it might have taken her two hundred years to advance a single realm. However, with the advantages of her physique and the cultivation acceleration provided by the Fire Spirit Fruit Tree, she could still reach a pace of one realm advancement every four or five decades.

Compared to most Golden Core Cultivator who struggle with insufficient resources—often failing to advance a single realm in a century, or even becoming stuck at a Golden Core, Mid Stage bottleneck for two Jiazi-time—her speed was remarkably swift.

Now, with the aid of the Spirit Peach, she estimated she could break through a realm every thirty years. By this calculation, she would likely touch the threshold of Nascent Soul in another two hundred years or so.

Returning to the main thread, after Lyra Jiang finished refining the Spirit Peach, her cultivation base became perfectly rounded and flawless. She promptly consumed an Origin-Returning Tribulation-Breaking Pill [a precious pill that aids in overcoming cultivation bottlenecks and tribulations] and smoothly broke through to the Golden Core, Mid Stage. For uninterrupted reading, go to audio-novel.com.

He then began to simultaneously advance his Life-Bound Magical Treasure while standing guard for Eldrin Chen.

Meanwhile, after consuming the Heaven and Earth Spirit Peach, Eldrin Chen instantly felt a surge of immense energy flooding his being.

The energy contained within a Fourth Rank Heaven and Earth Spirit Peach was extraordinary. Even a cultivator at the Purple Mansion Great Perfection realm would find it difficult to refine, marking it as a treasure truly meant for the Golden Core Realm.

Fortunately, Eldrin Chen's spiritual sense, physical body, and the purity of his mana had all reached the threshold of the Golden Core realm, allowing him to meet the prerequisite for refining such a treasure in advance.

He spent a full seven years, yet had only refined fifty percent of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Peach. Even so, his mana had become perfectly harmonious and flawless, utterly reaching the absolute limit his body could contain.

"At this very moment,"

"I should seize the momentum to break through."

Sensing the burgeoning power within him, Eldrin Chen murmured to himself.

To avoid wasting the precious Heaven and Earth Spirit Peach, Eldrin Chen began to channel its remaining power to assault the realm of Core Formation.

He gathered all the mana from throughout his body, channeling it from his hundreds of meridians to converge within his Inner Core field.

He focused his divine sense [a cultivator's spiritual perception] inward, descending into his dantian [the lower energy center in the body where cultivation energy is stored]. There, he marshaled his vast and peerless mana [the cultivated spiritual energy used to perform supernatural feats], drawing it inward like a colossal whale inhaling the sea.

Under his precise control, this boundless mana began to glow with a hazy, five-colored radiance. It swirled relentlessly at the very core of his dantian, gradually coalescing into a single, infinitesimal point of light.

That point of light blazed with unparalleled brilliance, spinning with a frantic, stellar fury. It voraciously devoured the surrounding mana, forming a dazzling, luminous halo around itself—a nascent sun within the void of his being.

Eldrin Chen could not help but marvel inwardly. The spectacle of condensing a Golden Core bore an uncanny resemblance to the birth of a primordial star in his previous life's understanding.

Suppressing this wandering thought, he continued to channel his mana, fueling the relentless spin of that brilliant point, allowing it to draw in ever more power.

This process persisted for an entire month. Finally, all the mana within his body converged, solidifying into a single, ethereal, and illusory Golden Core.

"The False Core Realm," he murmured to himself.

Eldrin Chen's eyes flickered, a look of profound gravity settling upon his features.

For many cultivators, reaching the False Core Realm in a single attempt without external aids was a significant challenge. Yet, given the unparalleled solidity of his foundation, this step was not difficult for him.

The true trial lay ahead: transforming this ethereal False Core from illusion into substance, forging it into a genuine, tangible Golden Core. This was where the real difficulty began.

Generally speaking, this step is exceedingly perilous, for by the time one has coalesced a False Core, the spiritual energy [the vital force cultivated by practitioners] within most cultivators is already depleted, and their spiritual sense [the extended perception of a cultivator] and even their physical bodies have reached their limits.

In truth, after reaching this stage, a cultivator's essence, energy, and spirit are all severely depleted, requiring a period of Nurture for a Sixty-Year Cycle to recover.

The greatest marvel of the Golden Core Formation Pill, aside from assisting in the coalescence of the Golden Core, lies in its ability to stabilize and nourish the body's essence, energy, and spirit, thereby drastically shortening this recovery time.

However, the price of failing a Golden Core breakthrough while using a Golden Core Formation Pill is also significant. Even if one manages to enter the False Core Realm, their foundational vitality will be grievously wounded, necessitating three decades of recuperation to heal.

Furthermore, after using a Golden Core Formation Pill, the three treasures of essence, energy, and spirit within the body become biased towards a gentler nature. While this tamer spiritual energy is easier to control for condensing the Golden Core Formation Pill, the resulting Golden Core loses a measure of its inherent dominance and purity, its quality inevitably relegated to that of an Inferior Golden Core.

Eldrin Chen's spiritual energy was vast and exceptionally pure. Though he had formed a False Core, his reserves of spiritual energy, vital blood, and spiritual sense remained abundant. This content originates from audio‑novel.com. Please respect copyright.

He had tempered his energy with five Fourth Rank Lifebound Magical Treasure, ensuring it lacked the instability common to most cultivators at this juncture. Indeed, in terms of sheer purity, it already rivaled that of a true Golden Core Cultivator.

Now, as he continued to channel and fuse his spiritual energy into the ethereal Golden Core, the False Core grew increasingly solid and tangible, a transformation occurring almost imperceptibly.

Time lost all meaning. Within his body, the nascent Golden Core devoured the last vestiges of his spiritual energy. That final strand of power merged into its core, acting as the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back, triggering a staggering metamorphosis.

In that moment, the convergence of supremely refined spiritual energy gave birth to a capacity for self-containment, a profound inner alchemy.

In that instant, they converged upon a single point. Within his dantian [the core energy center in the lower abdomen], the basketball-sized Golden Core began to spin wildly, shrinking rapidly as the quality of his mana [the cultivated spiritual energy used to perform arts and techniques] became instantly more refined and condensed.

Reaching this stage signified a successful breakthrough. The Golden Core had now irreversibly taken form, making any further mishap nearly impossible.

Once the Golden Core had established its own self-contained structure, the next step was the conversion of mana—a process that would be considerably more protracted.

Eldrin Chen spent two months on this task. Only when the Golden Core within him, now gleaming with a five-colored immortal radiance, had fully solidified did a smile of profound satisfaction finally grace his features.

He expelled the Golden Core from his body. It then began to voraciously draw spiritual energy from the Spirit Vein, replenishing the core's internal reserves.

This continued until the Golden Core achieved a state of flawless, seamless perfection. Only then did he release a breath of Primordial Essence, causing the Great Luo Golden Core to blaze with dazzling light, faintly shimmering with an innate spiritual luminescence.

"At last, it is complete."

Gazing upon the Great Luo Golden Core before him, Eldrin Chen allowed a wave of joy to wash over him.

Standing nearby, Lyra Jiang spoke with palpable excitement. "Having forged this Innate Great Luo Golden Core, we shall surely ascend to immortality together in the days to come."

Eldrin Chen nodded, taking Lyra Jiang's hand in his. "Yes. From this day forward, we walk the path side by side. One day, we will both prove our Dao and attain immortality."

In the sky, the Tribulation Clouds [ominous clouds that gather during a cultivator's heavenly trial] began to converge. At this moment, it was clearly not the time for lengthy discussion.

Eldrin Chen's brow furrowed slightly, and he spoke, "Conceal this breakthrough for me. It would be wiser to keep this advancement hidden for now."

"Understood."

Well-prepared, Lyra Jiang raised her hand. The formation runes within the Earth-Fortress Earth Origin Disk [a treasure disk that manipulates earth essence for defense and sealing] surged forth, enveloping the void and completely sealing off the surrounding hundreds of Li-lengths [one Li-length equals five hundred meters]. The profound mysteries unfolding within Spirit Isle Lake were thus veiled from sight.

After her breakthrough to the Golden Core, Mid Stage [the middle stage of the Golden Core realm, where one's spiritual core is solidified and refined], the first Magical Treasure [an enchanted artifact used by cultivators] she chose to upgrade was precisely this Earth-Fortress Earth Origin Disk.

This artifact was a Formation Tool Magical Treasure [a magical treasure specifically designed to create and control formations], possessing wondrous uses such as defense, suppression, and spatial lockdown. It could seal the void and restrain other Formation [structured arrays of energy used for attack, defense, or utility]. Upon its advancement to Fourth Rank High Grade [a high-grade treasure of the fourth rank, suitable for Golden Core cultivators], its power had become truly extraordinary. This novel is serialized on http://www . audio-novel.com. Visit for updates.