Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula: The Cost Can Be Reversed!

The instant that throbbing sensation appeared, several lines of text surfaced in his sea of consciousness.

[Gu Qingfeng]

[Age: Seventeen]

[Remaining Lifespan: Six Years and Eighty-Six Days]

Looking at that information, Gu Qingfeng could not help but say in surprise, "Only a little over six years of lifespan left? That's not right. This body still feels quite young. Could cultivating this Golden Core method have reduced my lifespan?"

He thought that was very possible.

He felt that his physical condition was excellent, that he was young. There was no reason for him to croak shortly after turning twenty.

The only variable was the Core Branch and Golden Core that had suddenly appeared.

Immediately afterward, another passage of information surfaced.

[Record Name: Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula (Part Two)]

[Record Type: Cultivation Method]

[Record Description: Ninety years ago, Ba Mountain Wood Daoist Zhao Yimu passed away in meditation within the Ba Mountain Mysterious Hanging Coffin. He died at the age of three hundred and sixty-eight and had once borne the title of "Earthbound Immortal." Later, when the hanging coffin was exposed to the light, there were no remains inside. Only a stained incomplete copy of the Yi-Wood Golden Core Immortal Formula and a dark-golden tree seed remained, which fell into the hands of a tomb robber.

Over the following years, several neighboring villages on Wanqu Continent saw hundreds of villagers stiffen overnight, staring westward as they breathed their last. Coroners cut open their bodies for examination and found only that their hearts had turned to wood, tinged with dark gold. Only one villager born with divine strength retained his final breath, saying that the entire village had crazily cultivated a secret manual called the Yi-Wood Golden Core Formula, which could condense the Golden Core Dao. Later, yamen runners dug three feet into the ground, yet found no trace of the manual.

Ba Mountain Wood Daoist's name as an Earth Immortal was by no means empty. The Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula came from the incomplete copy of the Yi-Wood Golden Core Immortal Formula and indeed possessed the wondrous use of condensing a core and entering the Dao.]

[Cost: This cultivation method was born from the incomplete copy of the Yi-Wood Golden Core Immortal Formula and deliberately tampered with. Cultivating only the second volume would turn one's vital blood and lifespan to wood with every circulation, until the vital blood and lifespan condensed into a Yi-Wood Dao Fruit for the originator of the method to consume and refine.]

[Status: The cost can be reversed.

Note 1: Reversing the cost of this cultivation method would transform Yi-Wood attributes in reverse into Geng-Metal Power, producing a mutually restraining effect. The cultivator could use this to escape the "Yi-Wood Human Core" attribute, condense a Geng-Metal Dao Fruit, and extend life.

Note 2: A Geng-Metal Dao Fruit contained Geng-Metal Power, incomparably sharp and capable of slicing gold and severing jade. Taken out alone as an external core and steeped in liquor, it could scrape away poison.

Note 3: If the cultivation method could be completed, one could condense a Geng-Metal Golden Core through the Dao of Geng-Metal and achieve the status of an Earthbound Immortal.]

Holy shit!

Seeing this, Gu Qingfeng's body, originally stiff as a tree, nearly sprang into the air.

In other words, if he reversed the cost, then the more he cultivated the Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula (Part Two), the less likely he would be turned into a Yi-Wood Dao Fruit for that demonic master, the Golden Core Celestial Venerable, to consume. Instead, he would cultivate a Geng-Metal Dao Fruit carrying Geng-Metal Power.

If this Geng-Metal Dao Fruit was cultivated to fruition, not only would it not reduce his lifespan, it would extend it. It could even become a true path of condensing a core and ascending to immortality.

This was equivalent to turning a crooked cultivation art meant for people to be harvested and eaten into an immortal method capable of condensing a core.

Awesome!

The immortal achieved through it was called an "Earthbound Immortal," but an Earthbound Immortal was still an immortal!

Don't mistake a bean bun for nothing but dry rations. That Ba Mountain Wood Daoist had lived three or four hundred years.

And Gu Qingfeng's lifespan was now down to just six years.

This was simply a future twice as promising!

But he now faced a thorny problem.

The result of reversing the cost was naturally divine beyond divine, but after reversing it, would his master, the Golden Core Celestial Venerable, notice something amiss and then turn against him?

With his current cultivation, even if he reversed it into the Geng-Metal attribute that restrained Yi-Wood, he could never possibly be a match for that fiend, the Golden Core Celestial Venerable.

After all, he was only a rookie who had just transmigrated here. Look at "Number Three Lin Qingxia"—a mere description of the Golden Core Celestial Venerable's methods had frightened him so badly that he dared not come.

After pondering for a while, Gu Qingfeng decided that he had to keep seizing the time to cultivate the Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula (Part Two), but the reversal would have to wait!

First, the harder he cultivated now, the better the effect would be when he reversed it. Second, reversal depended on timing.

If he seized the right moment to reverse it, this would become a trump card capable of turning the situation around.

He would have to play that card, perhaps very soon, but not now.

For the moment, the safest course was still to call for a hero.

After that, Gu Qingfeng cultivated even more diligently, to the point of forgetting food and sleep.

He truly felt as though he was about to cultivate himself into a tree.

Because the urge to grow roots from his legs and sink them into the earth was becoming ever stronger.

The effects were obvious as well. His "Golden Core" had grown a little larger and turned a little yellower.

That was a sign that the "Golden Core" was gradually ripening.

[Gu Qingfeng]

[Age: Seventeen]

[Lifespan: Six Years and Twenty-Six Days]

Sure enough, the price of ripening this Golden Core was a reduction in lifespan. He had cultivated for only most of the night, yet sixty days of lifespan had already vanished.

Sixty days of lifespan—surely they had not been lost just from staying up late?

Within the Golden Core Immortal Sect, a relatively mature Golden Core could prevent one from becoming "human material," but if it ripened too much, one became food. Like the senior sister who had been beside him earlier—she had been hollowed out.

And within Gu Qingfeng's fragmented memories, there were quite a few fellow disciples who had originally cultivated well, only to suddenly disappear. They said their master had taken them away to enjoy good fortune.

How could there possibly be any chance to enjoy good fortune here?!

Moreover, after thinking it over carefully, Gu Qingfeng discovered another terrifying point.

The Golden Core Immortal Sect had almost no senior disciples. Aside from Eldest Senior Sister and the four inner disciples, those currently here had basically entered the sect less than a year ago.

No—in his hazy impression, even those who had been here longer than half a year were extremely few.

Did that mean that in merely half a year, the Golden Core Immortal Sect's disciples would be replaced by a new batch?

Just like crops in a field. After half a year, they ripened, so it was time to harvest and eat them, then plant new crops.

At that moment, Gu Qingfeng felt a chill spread through his entire body.

His predecessor had already been here for over a hundred days. Did that mean he and these fellow disciples were all approaching this so-called "maturity"?

The Golden Core Celestial Venerable drove them so hard because he wanted to force them to mature faster, then eat them and welcome a new batch of disciples?

Gu Qingfeng looked anxious.

More anxious than before.

He now possessed the ability to reverse the cost. His future could be called extraordinarily promising.

But the prerequisite for that promise was surviving!

He hurriedly gathered his thoughts and stopped cultivating. The Core Branches that had emerged slowly withdrew as well.

As usual, he plugged the three holes on his body with cotton cloth before Gu Qingfeng left the cultivation chamber.

Tonight, he had to find out information related to the location of the Golden Core Immortal Sect!

The night was already deep, and a drizzling rain had begun outside.

He had been too absorbed in cultivation earlier to notice those changes at all.

At this time, faint golden light had appeared around the cultivation chambers.

Those were fellow disciples extending their Core Branches and using the "Golden Cores" atop them for illumination.

The sight of those fellow disciples walking through the rainy night beneath human-skin umbrellas, borrowing the dim glow of their Golden Cores, truly carried an eerie, sinister air.

Just then, Gu Qingfeng spotted an "acquaintance."

After transmigrating here, he had lost most of his memories and had very few acquaintances within the sect.

If he absolutely had to name two, then this junior sister with peach-blossom eyes certainly counted as one.

After all, during the day, he had been kicked and made to carry a corpse alongside her.

The peach-blossom-eyed junior sister stopped beneath her human-skin umbrella and said, "Senior Brother Gu, didn't you bring an umbrella?"

Gu Qingfeng nodded.

"Then come with me."

Just moments ago, he had been wondering how to ask this junior sister for information "casually," yet this opportunity had delivered itself right to his door.

Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives!

Without another word, Gu Qingfeng ducked beneath that human-skin umbrella.