What Kind of Ghost Are You

"This isn't right at all!"

"What on earth is going on?!"

On the same night, on the same isolated peak, in another quiet room, Lü Shenliang muttered to herself.

She had already pulled her beautiful hair into a messy bird's nest.

Even without knowing the cause and effect, anyone seeing her state would immediately understand that she was stuck on something important, unable to figure it out, and extremely anxious.

However, it was more likely that they would be scared away immediately.

Before her, a Golden Core floated!

The aura of this Golden Core was exactly the same as hers. With her breaths, the Golden Core seemed to breathe along, absorbing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

A Golden Core cultivator's Golden Core could only leave their body after reaching at least the Fifth Level of Golden Core.

The vast majority of cultivators in the Lesser Jade Continent knew that she had failed in Foundation Establishment and Core Formation, resulting in a crippled Golden Core.

In the Cultivation World, a crippled Golden Core meant a disabled Golden Core. The difference between a crippled Golden Core and a Golden Core was like the difference between an artifact fragment and a complete artifact.

How could the power of an artifact fragment compare to the power of a complete artifact?

Normally, a Golden Core cultivator at the average level, upon reaching the Fifth Level of Golden Core, would have a Golden Core about the size of an adult's fist when it left their body.

The reason it was called a Golden Core was that it was entirely like pure gold, shining brilliantly. The pure golden light intertwined with profound principles of Vital Energy.

The Golden Core was a creation of cultivators defying the heavens, a seed for the future Nascent Soul, and besides being profound, it could often only be described as majestic and graceful.

But her Golden Core could be described as ferocious and bizarre.

Her Golden Core was as large as a child's head. Even for most Golden Core cultivators up to the Ninth Level of Golden Core before forming a Nascent Soul, their Golden Cores might not be as large as hers.

Her Golden Core had mottled gold, but it wasn't uniform. At first glance, it looked like many shattered golden fragments were stuck together by Vital Energy of other colors.

More accurately, her Golden Core looked like it had cracked many times. After each crack, countless terrifying wounds formed, which then slowly healed, scabbed over, and left horrifying scars. But when it cracked again later, these scars would split open, scab over, and scar again.

Simply put, it was like a person's face being cut countless times, and after healing and scarring, being cut again and scarring again.

After dozens of such occurrences, scars would pile up, and the intact flesh would become mere tiny specks embedded in these horrifying scars. Her Golden Core was now covered in scars, each scar containing countless more scars from cracks, and each scar was filled with an unstable aura, completely different from the harmonious and stable aura of a normal Golden Core. It seemed as if the energies within these countless scars would collide and tear at each other, as if new wounds might split open at any moment.

The Core Qi of this Golden Core felt incredibly chaotic. However, this chaotic Core Qi circulated around the Golden Core. The mottled Core Qi clashed, dispersed, and then gathered, gradually forming a unique and profound Core Qi manifestation around it.

The core light around it eventually formed nine points of light of various colors. These nine differently colored points of light, like nine stars, revolved around the Golden Core in fixed orbits.

This phenomenon was not unfamiliar to Lü Shenliang. These nine star-like core lights had existed for a long time. But the crucial point was that a wisp of gray Vital Energy had now inexplicably appeared between these nine stars.

If one were to judge purely by appearance, this wispy gray Vital Energy looked like a nebula entwined around the Golden Core and these nine stars.

It was this inexplicably appearing wisp of gray Vital Energy that was driving Lü Shenliang crazy.

In fact, given the chaotic state of her Golden Core, any further Golden Core manifestations appearing out of nowhere would be normal. But no matter what kind of Golden Core manifestation it was, it would still have a fundamental connection to her Golden Core and be a part of it.

But the problem was, although this wisp of gray Vital Energy appeared within her Golden Core's Core Qi and was clearly integrated into her Golden Core, she couldn't seem to touch it. It was as if it was there, but it had nothing to do with her.

If she hadn't clearly recalled Wang Li's previous conversation in her mind, and if she didn't have a strong intuition that this wisp of gray Vital Energy was related to the anomaly in Wang Li's cultivation method and the gray Dao Palace that had formed within him, she might have been tempted to self-detonate her Golden Core just to make this gray Vital Energy disappear.

Gray!

It was all gray, there had to be a connection!

"Wang Li!"

She couldn't take it anymore and let out a sharp cry.

"What's wrong?"

Wang Li's figure flickered out of his stone hut where he had been cultivating, and he saw Lü Shenliang, her hair as messy as a bird's nest.

Then he saw Lü Shenliang's red eyes and furious expression, and his face immediately fell. "Senior Sister, I don't accept this!"

"It's no use if you don't accept it. Do you think my mind is playing tricks on me right now?"

Lü Shenliang's chest heaved violently. She gritted her teeth and said, "What exactly are you?"

Wang Li was stunned. He had a feeling that his Senior Sister didn't seem to have a confused mind at this moment, but he had no idea why she was so upset.

"What am I?"

He didn't dare not to answer his Senior Sister's question, fearing he might agitate her further. So, with a troubled expression, he said, "At most, a lustful ghost? Or a gluttonous ghost?"

"Get lost, you big dummy!"

Lü Shenliang said fiercely, "I'm talking about your gray Dao Palace."

"Senior Sister, let me tell you, my gray Dao Palace is amazing today." As soon as he heard Lü Shenliang ask about the gray Dao Palace, Wang Li's eyes lit up. "I listened to you and actually went in to try it out. As a result, there were five more things like firelight inside. These five firelights are like artifacts. As soon as I activate my True Essence, they're like five great doors, and inside are all those gray-robed cultivators I told you about."

"Is that so?" Lü Shenliang's expression became impassive. "Explain it more clearly."

Wang Li became even more animated. He recounted in detail how he had tried the five firelights, still feeling proud and joyful. He couldn't help but continue, "Senior Sister, think about it. The cultivators in the first few firelights are at the Second and Fifth Levels of Qi Refining. These opponents are a bit weak for me. But the last firelight is densely packed with all sorts of cultivators at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining. These cultivators at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining can completely help me stabilize my realm. And when I fight them, besides familiarizing myself with various combat techniques and methods, I might even learn a lot of their skills."

"Is that so?"

Lü Shenliang said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Why do you think those cultivators in the front are useless? Since you could awaken one of them, have you tried to see if you could awaken more?"

Wang Li froze.

It took him a full breath to recover, and he once again admired his Senior Sister's thinking. "Senior Sister, you're amazing. It seems I really should try."

"That's why I say you're incredibly stupid, and you still won't admit it." Lü Shenliang sneered. "This gray Dao Palace in your body, from the moment the first gray-robed cultivator appeared, was clearly meant to help you develop stronger combat and survival abilities in brutal killing formations through these trials. Therefore, the tribulation targets it chooses for you each time, even if not the cream of the crop among cultivators of each level, are definitely some special existences. But a truly brutal killing formation wouldn't be purely one-on-one duels. So, when your realm improves to a certain extent, it will naturally evolve, and it will require you to have the ability to fight against many with few and survive in extremely chaotic and brutal killing formations. You think a cultivator at the Second Level of Qi Refining is a pushover now, but what if there are dozens of them against you, or hundreds attacking you all at once?"