If refining the Variegated Core was like breaking through a blocked passage, then at the very beginning, the blockage sealing that passage was the imprint left behind by Nine Infants, its former owner.
You Die had spent enormous effort erasing the imprint Nine Infants had left behind and replacing it with her own. When her imprint replaced Nine Infants's and filled the passage, the core would change hands.
If anyone else wanted to refine the core afterward, they would have to repeat the same process, expending no less effort than You Die had.
Yet beneath the Life Chain, Lu Ye's power could easily replace the imprint You Die had left behind and turn it into his own.
This was truly a cuckoo occupying the magpie's nest.
That was how the plan had been made, but Lu Ye did not know whether it would truly succeed. After all, he had never done such a thing before, and even an old monster like Nine Infants had only made an inference.
Fortunately, everything was proceeding smoothly.
His Dao power continued to drain away as the ownership of the Variegated Core slowly transferred.
Outside the Ruins, atop the Sacrificial Altar, You Die was directing the armies of the Insect and Blood Races when her expression suddenly changed.
Even though she had been cast out of the Ruins, her connection to the Variegated Core had not been severed. Yet as Lu Ye refined it, she clearly sensed that her close connection with the Variegated Core was gradually weakening.
This left her utterly shocked, with no idea what was happening.
She once again wildly urged her Dao power, attempting to enter the Ruins and investigate, but she could not find a way in at all.
As time passed, she discovered in despair that her connection to