Mid-Golden Core... peak Foundation Establishment... late Foundation Establishment...
His cultivation ultimately fell to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment before finally stabilizing.
Chen Ye reached out and beckoned. The cluster of Golden Core origin drifted lightly into his palm. He didn't absorb it himself. Instead, he turned and offered the energy, containing the essence of a Golden Core cultivator's century of arduous cultivation, to the female corpse.
"Ji, eat it."
The female corpse named "Ji" mechanically opened her mouth. Though small, it wasn't a mouth in the ordinary sense. Within it was a deep, swirling darkness.
The golden orb entered, vanished without a sound, and was gone.
Ji's body shuddered slightly. Deep in her hollow eye sockets, a faint, satisfied glow seemed to flicker.
Having finished, Chen Ye couldn't even be bothered to look at Liu Qingfeng again, as if he were nothing but trash to be discarded after use. He turned toward the endless darkness deeper in the cavern.
"Let's go. It's time to retrieve the real 'sacrifice.'"
His voice was soft, carrying a trace of barely perceptible... urgency.
Ji nodded silently and turned into a shadow, merging into the darkness behind him.
It was as if Chen Ye had been the only person here from the beginning.
Only Liu Qingfeng remained, collapsed on the ground, his cultivation utterly destroyed and his Dao Heart shattered, struggling to survive amid endless darkness and humiliation.
The darkness was like viscous liquid, swallowing the light and the sound.
As Chen Ye walked through it, his footsteps were absorbed completely. In the shadow behind him, Ji followed soundlessly, like a curse that could never be shaken off.
The deeper they went, the stronger the smell of blood and decay in the air became. It was mixed with something older, heavier, like an ancient tomb