txolops Chapter 340 Refining the Golden Core
Chapter 340 Refining the Golden Core
Having made up his mind, Luo Ming no longer hesitated and returned to the secret chamber for refining weapons, which was equipped with powerful protective restrictions.
Forced by circumstances, he had no more time to hesitate or find a safer approach.
The Ghost King within the Myriad Souls Banner is poised for a breakthrough, like an arrow on a bowstring. If he doesn't want to face the desperate situation of being devoured and possessed in a few years, he must act ruthlessly now, crippling this Ghost King with immense potential, whom he has painstakingly nurtured, causing him to fall from his cultivation level, or even have his soul scattered.
Alternatively, one could only take a risk and try to increase one's strength, especially the most crucial divine sense, to a level sufficient to suppress the Ghost King before it breaks through.
Dethrone the Demon King?
Luo Ming rejected the option almost without hesitation.
This not only meant that the significant gains from his trip to the Void Heaven Palace were greatly diminished, but it was also tantamount to cutting off his own arm and abandoning the powerful trump card, the Myriad Soul Banner. He was unwilling to accept this.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the spirit-gathering array, adjusting his breathing to bring himself to his best condition.
On her left wrist, she wore a bracelet made of soul-nourishing wood, which had a calming and soul-stabilizing effect, and it exuded a faint cool fragrance.
On the right, the Zhiyang Bird withdrew its usual dazzling crimson-gold light and transformed into a small bird with a body as smooth as warm jade and lively eyes, ready to spew its unique pure yang spiritual fire that could burn and purify the soul at any time.
After making these preparations, Luo Ming took a deep breath and took out a foot-long cyan jade box from his storage bag.
The jade box was opened, revealing a dozen or so longan-sized jade pieces arranged neatly on the surface. Golden pills, golden in color, radiating pure spiritual energy fluctuations of varying strengths!
These golden cores were spoils of war he had accumulated, which he originally intended to keep as aids when his spirit beasts broke through to higher realms.
"Hoo..." Luo Ming looked at the golden cores in the box, which symbolized the lifelong hard work of other cultivators and now lay quietly here. His eyes were complicated for a moment, then became calm and still.
In the cultivation world, the strong prey on the weak, and he had little psychological burden in taking what he wanted. However, using this method to cultivate was ultimately a deviation from the right path.
At this moment, the voice of Tianjing Sanren, tinged with barely concealed caution and worry, slowly echoed in his mind: "Young Luo, if this method succeeds, your divine sense may advance by leaps and bounds, breaking through the two-hundred-mile threshold, and suppressing that Ghost King will be a piece of cake. But fortune and misfortune are intertwined; whether this method will bring you fortune or misfortune remains to be seen..."
Tianjing Sanren's concerns were not unfounded. He worried that once Luo Ming tasted the "sweetness" of rapidly improving his divine sense, he might become addicted to it, thus changing his mindset and resorting to any means to obtain more Golden Cores, even actively hunting down other Core Formation cultivators.
If this is true, this move would be tantamount to pushing Luo Ming into the abyss of demonic cultivation. Once the news leaks, he will become the target of public criticism, attracting a joint attack from both the righteous and demonic paths, with unimaginable consequences.
Luo Ming sensed the worry in Tianjing Sanren's words and slowly said, "I understand your concerns, senior. If things become unbearable, or if I sense any signs of demonic possession, I will stop."
"I hope so..." Tianjing Sanren sighed softly, saying no more. There was no point in saying more now.
"Let's begin."
Luo Ming cleared his mind of all distractions and focused his gaze on the jade box. After a brief sensing, he selected one of the golden cores whose spiritual energy fluctuations were relatively weak and whose original owner's cultivation level appeared to be around the early stage of Core Formation.
When trying something for the first time, it's natural to start with the "weakest" one, as the risk is relatively small.
He extended his index finger and gestured from a distance. The chosen golden pill flew out of the jade box, traced an arc, and landed steadily in the Spirit Gathering Cauldron in the center of the secret chamber.
"boom!"
Seeing this, the nearby Zhiyang Bird, without Luo Ming's command, flashed its crimson eyes, slightly opened its sharp beak, and silently spat out a thin line of fire, as fine as silk, with a reddish-gold color and radiating the purest yang energy, which enveloped the entire cauldron.
The temperature inside the Spirit Gathering Cauldron rose sharply! The golden pill that had been thrown into the cauldron seemed to have been thrown into a furnace in an instant. Its original quiet state was broken, and it began to tremble violently, emitting a low "buzzing" sound. It spun around inside the cauldron, as if trying to break free from the terrifying heat.
Luo Ming narrowed his eyes. In his divine sense, the surface of the golden core began to melt under the terrifying high temperature. Strands of pure spiritual energy mixed with some gray-black impurities were evaporated and expelled.
More importantly, within the Golden Core, the fragments of divine consciousness and residual will belonging to the original owner, which were already broken and chaotic but still stubbornly existed, instinctively drew upon the magical power within the Golden Core, attempting to resist the erosion of the external spiritual fire and protect the core of the Golden Core.
However, these struggles seemed futile and weak in the face of the pure yang spiritual fire of the Zhiyang Bird, which specifically countered yin and evil spirits.
Seeing this, Luo Ming felt no joy; instead, his brows furrowed tightly.
"No!" His heart sank.
"The spiritual fire of the Fat Sun Bird is too powerful. It does have a purifying effect; those chaotic divine thoughts are indeed being rapidly cleared away… However, this spiritual fire seems… indiscriminate. With a flick of its finger, it instantly transports you to the exciting world of Chapter 340, 'Refining the Golden Core.' Even the most core and precious wisp of 'divinity' within the Golden Core is being burned and consumed!"
"No!" His heart sank.
"The spiritual fire of the Fat Sun Bird is too powerful. It does have a purifying effect, and those chaotic divine thoughts are indeed being cleared away quickly... However, this spiritual fire seems to... indiscriminately burn and wear down even the most core and precious wisp of 'divinity' in the Golden Core!"
If divinity is burned away, leaving only spiritual power, what difference is there between a golden core and a spirit stone? It would be impossible to achieve its original purpose!
As the golden light of the golden core faded under the scorching of the spiritual fire, and its core divinity was about to be completely destroyed, a fierce glint flashed in Luo Ming's eyes!
"We can't wait any longer! If we wait any longer, this golden core will be ruined!"
"go!"
Luo Ming gave a low shout, and the wisp of divine sense wrapped in pure Yang spiritual fire, like a nimble fire snake, "whoosh" and ignored the barrier of the Spirit Gathering Cauldron and the high temperature inside the cauldron, directly entered the golden core that was being burned and trembling by the spiritual fire!
"boom--!!"
Just as Luo Ming's divine sense, carrying a wisp of pure Yang spiritual fire, forcefully entered the deepest part of the Golden Core, his mind was suddenly shaken violently! It was as if he had instantly fallen into a vortex abyss filled with endless chaos, resentment, fear, unwillingness, madness and other negative emotions!
Countless broken, twisted, and malicious fragments of divine consciousness, like piranhas that have smelled blood, surged wildly from all directions, trying to tear apart, devour, and assimilate Luo Ming's "foreign" divine consciousness!
"Hmph! A mere remnant spirit, its Golden Core has already changed hands, yet it still dares to cause trouble?" Luo Ming sneered.
He endured the discomfort caused by the impact of countless negative emotions on his divine sense and fully activated the Divine Forging Technique. At the same time, the pure yang spiritual fire surrounding his divine sense suddenly surged!
"Hiss hiss hiss—!"
The restraining power of the Pure Yang Spiritual Fire against soul-type beings was now clearly demonstrated. The chaotic fragments of divine sense that rushed forward frantically, upon contact with this layer of crimson-gold flame, immediately melted and vaporized like ice and snow meeting boiling oil, emitting a harsh "hissing" sound, turning into wisps of green smoke.
At the same time, outside of the Golden Core, Tianjing Sanren was also manipulating twelve Xuan Yuan Pearls, using the power of Xuan Water to temper Luo Ming's divine sense.
Decades later, Luo Ming once again attempted to cultivate the Water and Fire Golden Core Forging Technique, which he had unintentionally created years ago, but now he was using someone else's golden core.
Time slowly passed amidst intense focus and perilous struggle.
Luo Ming sat cross-legged on the spirit-gathering array, his body as still as a stone sculpture. Only his slightly furrowed brows, which trembled occasionally, showed the immense pressure and danger he was experiencing.
Unlike last time when he only needed to temper his divine sense, this time he also needed to purify the resentment of the original owner inside. If he accidentally got even a trace of it, Luo Ming would need to spend a lot of time slowly removing it.
One day, two days... ten days, half a month...
In the blink of an eye, two months have passed quietly.
On this day, in the center of the secret room, Luo Ming, who had been sitting quietly like a clay or wooden sculpture for two whole months, suddenly twitched his closed eyelids.
Then, he slowly and somewhat stiffly opened his eyes.
A hint of confusion flashed in Luo Ming's eyes at first, but he quickly regained his composure. He took a deep breath and slowly withdrew the wisp of divine consciousness that had been lingering and being tempered within the golden core of the Spirit Gathering Cauldron for two whole months.
The moment his consciousness returned to his sea of consciousness, he clearly felt that the total amount of his consciousness had increased significantly! The range covered by his consciousness had extended outwards by a considerable distance!
He immediately calmed his mind and carefully sensed the surroundings. After a moment, an uncontrollable smile of relief and joy appeared on his face.
"It's done..." Luo Ming muttered to himself, his voice tinged with weariness but filled with the satisfaction and excitement of success. "The range of my divine sense's detection has increased from 150 li to 155 li! That's a full five li more!"
A range of five li may not seem like much to his current vast spiritual sense base, but it should be noted that the spiritual sense range of a typical late-stage Core Formation cultivator is only about thirty li.
"This 'Water and Fire Golden Core Forging Technique'... combines the Spirit Gathering Cauldron and the Spirit Fire of the Fat Sun Bird, and then uses one's own divine sense to forcibly absorb and refine the divine essence of another's golden core... This method is indeed feasible!" Luo Ming's eyes gleamed.
Although the process was extremely dangerous, mentally taxing, and time-consuming, the result was gratifying. This proved that his approach was correct, and that he had found a "shortcut" to rapidly enhance spiritual sense during the Core Formation stage.
He looked down at the Spirit Gathering Cauldron. Inside the cauldron, the once golden elixir had now become a dull gray crystal, no bigger than a thumb, just like his own original elixir.
Luo Ming put it away and examined it carefully. Although he felt that this item might have some special function, even the Heavenly Mirror Hermit was not very clear about it, so he had no choice but to give up and leave it for later.
After all, the cultivation world is filled with all kinds of materials, and it is difficult for a cultivator to see even one or two of them in his lifetime, so it is not surprising that he does not recognize them.
"A Golden Core at the early stage of Core Formation increases the range of divine sense by five li..." Luo Ming silently calculated, his gaze sweeping over the remaining dozen or so Golden Cores in the jade box, his eyes becoming profound.
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