Slaying a Golden Core

Spiritual power flowed through the triangular battle formation, forming a golden barrier that trapped Lu Chen within.

The three outside the formation seized the chance to form hand seals, and three chains shot from the void, coiling around Lu Chen's limbs.

"Petty tricks." Lu Chen sneered as the Myriad Manifestations Furnace rose from his dantian.

With a single draw from its mouth, the chains melted away like ice and snow, turning into pure spiritual power that was devoured completely.

The instant the formation wavered, he drove the Wind and Thunder Steps to their limit, ghostlike as he circled behind the cultivator at the formation's core and slashed with his blade.

Crack!

The formation-core cultivator's neck snapped, and the light barrier collapsed with a thunderous crash.

The remaining cultivators were frightened out of their wits and scattered in flight, only for Lu Chen to catch and kill them one by one.

In less than half an incense stick's time, more than twenty corpses lay strewn through the forest. Blood seeped into the rotting earth, startling swarms of bloodthirsty insects into shrill cries.

"Trash!" At the edge of the dense forest, Luo Mingyuan, the Luo family's Third Elder, shouted coldly.

The Trace Seeking Crane in his hand trembled violently. He pointed ahead. "All of you, follow me in!"

Lu Chen enlarged the phantom of the Myriad Manifestations Furnace until it was as large as a millstone, sweeping every corpse on the ground into the furnace.

"Refine!"

Furnace flames surged, transforming Corpse Bone and flesh into pure energy that flooded into his sea of qi and dantian like a tidal wave.

His depleted qi and blood recovered by more than half in an instant.

Roar—

A demon beast's roar suddenly rang out nearby, interwoven with Luo Mingyuan's curses and the booming of spells.

Unfortunately for them, those pursuing Lu Chen had encountered an attack by demon beasts.

Lu Chen's eyes lit up. The other side had tangled with the demon beasts in the forest. Could it be...

He looked up at the Trace Seeking Crane in the sky, the corner of his mouth curling upward.

He climbed to the treetop, then abruptly sprang up. His bone blade cleaved through the air, its blade light like a waning moon as it slashed toward the Trace Seeking Crane!

Clang!

The bronze crane frantically beat its wings, barely avoiding the blade. Green light flared from its eyes, and it actually fired two chains toward Lu Chen.

"I was waiting for you!" Lu Chen neither dodged nor evaded, allowing the chains to bind his right arm.

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace shot out of his body. Its mouth opened wide and swallowed the Trace Seeking Crane, chains and all, in a single gulp!

"Shatter!"

Baleful flames churned within the furnace. The bronze crane gave a mournful cry before exploding completely.

Lu Chen turned and pounced toward the chaotic battle ahead.

Luo Mingyuan smashed the charging Ironclad Rhinoceros with one palm, when his heart suddenly lurched—the Trace Seeking Crane's aura had vanished.

"Withdraw!" he bellowed, only to see a figure charge fearlessly out from the beast horde. Blade light, like a bloody rainbow piercing the sun, cleaved straight for his face!

"You little wretch, you seek death!" Luo Mingyuan laughed in extreme fury. The pressure of the Golden Core Realm erupted, and the spiritual power around his body condensed into tangible golden armor.

He was a first-level Golden Core Realm expert of the Luo family. Had Lu Chen not caused such a tremendous disturbance, he truly would not have wanted to come out.

Blade aura struck the golden armor, spraying a string of sparks.

Luo Mingyuan flipped his palm and struck out. A massive golden seal came crashing down like a mountain pressing upon the crown, forcing Lu Chen back more than thirty yards as ancient trees along the way shattered one after another.

"A mere Qi Surge Realm cultivator dares contend with me?" Luo Mingyuan stood in the air, looking down arrogantly. "Hand over the furnace treasure, and I'll leave you an intact corpse."

Lu Chen wiped the bloody froth from his lips and suddenly grinned. "Old dog, what are you so pleased about?"

The moment his words fell, he stomped heavily. The Myriad Manifestations Furnace lurking underground suddenly rose, its mouth aimed at Luo Mingyuan as it spewed boundless black flames.

They were the utmost yin baleful flames extracted by refining the Trace Seeking Crane and nearly a hundred corpses!

"Petty tri—" Luo Mingyuan raised his sleeve to block it, only to discover in horror that the instant his spiritual power touched the black flames, it vanished like a clay ox entering the sea. His golden armor melted away at terrifying speed.

He hastily retreated in shock, but Lu Chen had long calculated his escape route. With a flash of the Wind and Thunder Steps, his bone blade, wrapped in Qi and Blood Protective Aura, stabbed toward Luo Mingyuan's back!

Puchi!

The blade tip pierced through a gap in the golden armor and emerged from his chest.

Luo Mingyuan lowered his head in disbelief and saw blade qi spreading from the wound. In the blink of an eye, his five viscera and six bowels were shaken into powder.

"You... how dare you..."

"Golden Core Realm? Nothing more than that." Lu Chen twisted his blade, and Luo Mingyuan's body exploded with a bang.

The Myriad Manifestations Furnace swept over him, devouring the scattered Golden Core, flesh, and everything else cleanly. The blood patterns on its body abruptly lit up, feeding back a surge of pure energy.

Lu Chen closed his eyes and regulated his breath. When he opened them again, the blood-red color had faded from his eyes, leaving only icy clarity.

His figure flickered as he charged toward the others.

The east turned the pale white of a fish's belly. He shook the blood from his blade and vanished into the mountains through the morning mist.

At Qingshi Town, thirty miles east of Cangwu City, Lu Chen sat atop a hill outside the town, wrapped in a coarse cloth cloak.

A Golden Core the size of a pigeon's egg rested in his palm.

Fine cracks covered the Golden Core's surface. A streak of golden light swam within it like a serpent—it was the Golden Core Luo Mingyuan had painstakingly cultivated for a hundred years.

"The essence of a Golden Core cultivator truly is extraordinary."

He activated the Myriad Manifestations Furnace. A sweep of dim light from its mouth drew both the Golden Core and the bronze short ge he had found on Luo Mingyuan's corpse into the furnace.

The furnace flames instantly turned from red to gold, while the sound of refinement rumbled like muffled thunder.

Half a day later, the furnace body gave a hum. Three objects floated out: a mass of golden liquid, a fragment, and iron essence condensed from the melted bronze short ge.

The golden liquid entered his stomach, and Lu Chen felt as though his limbs and bones had been soaked in a hot spring. The blood-colored furnace within his sea of qi suddenly expanded by a full circle, and his cultivation stabilized at the peak of the second level of the Qi Surge Realm.

His strength increased by another one hundred and forty-four Bull Strength.

The moment that fragment touched his palm, it transformed into a stream of light and burrowed into the bone blade.

Clang!

The bone blade shook violently. Spiderweb-like patterns emerged across its body, and an abstruse message flooded into his divine sense: "Spirit artifact newly formed."

Lu Chen lightly swept his blade. A bluestone in the distance silently split into two, its cross-section smooth as a mirror.

"A low-grade spirit artifact, the Soul Severing Saber, just like that?" Lu Chen's heart shook violently.

What this meant went without saying.

Forging a spirit artifact was not something just anyone could casually accomplish.

Even King Yanbei could not produce a handful of them.

Yet he had made one merely by using a Golden Core. This...

Was unbelievable!

He put away the bone blade, spread his hand, and half of a somewhat "plump" broken blade made from Qi and Blood Protective Aura appeared in it.

Then he threw it out. Boom!

The broken blade shot into the ground, blasting out a pit three meters deep.

"It counts as the lowest level of Qi and Blood Protective Aura. I still can't condense it into a Gang Soldier, but the power of this sudden eruption..."

Lu Chen blinked.

It was no weaker than one of his brute-force strikes.

He had gained another means of attack.

At noon, he entered Qingshi Town's only tavern, the Drunken Dust Residence.

A few Rogue Cultivators sat scattered around greasy wooden tables in the hall. The proprietor was arguing with a gray-clothed man.

"Zhou Yan, if you delay this month's wine money any longer, don't blame me for throwing all those junk formation disks of yours outside!"

"Give me three more days! Once I sell this batch of talismans..." The gray-clothed man clenched a faded formation diagram, his knuckles white.

The proprietor sneered and lifted a hand, overturning the wooden box in the man's arms.

More than ten inferior fire talismans scattered across the floor. The edges of their talisman paper were blackened and curled, clearly from losing control of the heat during refinement.

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes—the gray-clothed man might be down and out, but a damaged black iron formation disk hung from his waist. Faint lightning patterns flowed across its surface. It was definitely no ordinary item.

"I'll settle his debt." He flicked out a spirit stone with his finger and casually set the bone blade on the table.

The pressure of the spirit artifact spread out. The proprietor immediately fell silent, backing away with a fawning smile.

Zhou Yan looked up in astonishment. The person before him had an ordinary face, yet his gaze was as deep as an abyss. He hurriedly cupped his hands.

"Thank you, brother. But Zhou possesses nothing of value and cannot repay this favor."

"No need to repay it." Lu Chen lifted the wine jug and took a sip. "I only want to ask if you know about the Luo family's blood sacrifice in Cangwu City?"

This was intelligence he had obtained during his prolonged battles with the Luo family.

But he only knew of their blood sacrifice; the details remained unclear.

That was also the main reason he had shown himself—he wanted to inquire about it.

Zhou Yan's pupils contracted. He lowered his voice. "This is not the place. Please follow me."