Original Core! Original Core!

The sky was clear, and the red sun had just risen.

Inside a Nine-Story Alloy Tower, all the direct members of the Jiang Family had gathered together.

Today was the sixteenth birthday of the youngest third-generation member of the Jiang Family—Jiang Zhe. According to family rules, it was also the day he could officially begin martial arts training.

Martial arts training here meant being permitted to practice all kinds of combat techniques.

Before this, the focus had been on nurturing the body and gradually improving Physical Quality, supplemented by reading the Fist Scripture to cultivate one's temperament and broaden one's knowledge.

On Earth in this world, the Cultivation System required one's Physical Quality to meet the standard before becoming a Pre-Martial Warrior, rather than teaching someone to unleash ten parts of power from one part of strength.

"Punching force: 790 kg!"

"Speed: 22.4 m/s!"

"Neural Reaction Speed: Average!"

"Congratulations, Young Master Zhe!"

"You're only a step away from becoming an Advanced Student right at the Starting Point of your martial arts journey. Young Master Zhe will surely have a place among the War Gods in the future!"

After announcing the results, Old Wu, the butler in charge of the assessment, praised him sincerely.

Only a behemoth like the Jiang Family, one of the top families of the HR Alliance in Hanxia Nation, had butlers confident enough to make such certain declarations.

As for the protagonist of the occasion—Jiang Zhe—even though he had been mentally prepared, he still clenched his fists tightly upon hearing the results, unable to suppress the excitement in his heart.

He had been here for sixteen years already.

He had been born in 2030, and it was now July 26, 2046. There were still ten years before the curtain rose.

The Great Nirvana, martial warriors, 2056...

That was right. This was Devouring the Starry Sky, a premium world in the eyes of countless transmigrators.

Here, martial arts were the Path to Heaven. Almost anything one wanted could be achieved through overwhelming strength. Law Comprehension was the backbone of martial arts, and those with poor comprehension had no future in this world.

"At sixteen, I'm already half a step into Advanced Student. This is a very good beginning. How far will I be able to go in the future?"

Jiang Zhe was filled with lofty ambition.

Thinking of the vast universe described in the book, recalling the might of World Masters, Immortals, and Venerables, his heartbeat could not help accelerating, and then—

His pulse rose rapidly!

120... 130... 140... 155...

180!

200!

The bright red numbers surged wildly!

The communication watch that monitored his health let out a piercing alarm.

His heartbeat sped up violently, and his vision blurred. Everything happened so quickly that Jiang Zhe did not even have time to react.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

His heart was like something being hammered, as though it were about to leap from his chest.

As his body's power source—the heart—continuously expanded and contracted, a massive amount of blood surged through him, and an almost imperceptible energy rushed into the depths of Jiang Zhe's mind.

A sharp pain immediately erupted from his brain—

"Ah! Ah!"

Jiang Zhe let out a pained roar.

He staggered two steps, trying to find something to support himself with, but fell to the ground. He curled into a ball and rolled around while clutching his head in agony.

"Little Zhe? What's wrong?"

"Brother Zhe? Brother Zhe!"

"A headache? Is Little Zhe about to awaken?"

"Doctor! Go get a doctor!"

Only a few breaths had passed since the headache began.

Jiang Zhe's eyelids grew heavy, and his vision went dark. The frantic cries of his Relatives gradually faded from his ears.

Before losing consciousness, Jiang Zhe had only one thought—

Psychic Power...

Was it about to awaken? Or was this only a temporary fluctuation?

Jiang Zhe was certain that he possessed Psychic Power. The inexplicable headaches he had suffered over the years, as well as the abnormal increases in Physical Quality after those headaches, were the best proof.

Luo Feng had only been an Intermediate Student when he joined the Limit Martial Hall at sixteen, through the gradual awakening of his Psychic Master Talent.

He had been stronger than Luo Feng in the early stages.

Psychic Power stimulating the body was one factor, but more importantly, he had been influenced by his parents' bloodline and boosted by an excellent upbringing, allowing him to come within a hair's breadth of Advanced Student.

Jiang Zhe did not know how talented the original owner of this body had been in the original timeline.

He only knew that he was special. The origin of his transmigrated soul had been naturally robust, and after being nurtured and transformed by Earth, his Psychic Master Talent could not possibly be poor.

Things were indeed as Jiang Zhe had expected, yet they were not entirely as he had expected.

What he faced was far more dangerous than the awakening of Psychic Master Talent. Within his Sea of Consciousness, a "war of plunder" was underway.

In a boundless, mysterious place, immense amounts of mist churned endlessly. At the center of the mist floated a golden sphere, slowly rotating like a star.

At the same time, the golden sphere continuously released wisps of mist, causing the mist lingering throughout that mysterious place to increase without pause.

If Jiang Zhe had been able to look inward at that moment, he would certainly have recognized the golden sphere as solidified Psychic Power, representing his formidable Psychic Master Talent.

If he had continued looking inward for a little longer, he would have discovered that the gaseous Psychic Power being released was not increasing. Instead, it was becoming thinner and thinner, gradually making the Sea of Consciousness seem empty.

This exposed the "Stone Sphere" hidden within the mist, which was continuously devouring it.

The Stone Sphere's surface was mottled, and its aura ancient. It was roughly the same size as the golden sphere and drifted about throughout the Sea of Consciousness.

Everywhere it passed, the mist was cleared away.

After consuming every last trace of scattered mist, it fixed its gaze on the golden sphere suspended at the center of the Sea of Consciousness and slammed into it—

The imagined collision between two powerful forces never happened.

The golden sphere actually became intangible, merging directly into the Stone Sphere along with Jiang Zhe's soul!

Absurd as this situation was, viewed through the lens of cultivation, it was actually quite reasonable, because it was strikingly similar to the state of a martial warrior breaking through to become a Domain Lord!

The most important organ of a cultivator in the Devouring system—the Life Core—had appeared, drawing the Soul Crystal into itself and forming the renowned Undying Body of a Domain Lord-level powerhouse.

If the ancient Stone Sphere that had suddenly appeared was not a materialized cheat, then it was most likely a Life Core that carried a Soul Crystal.

Or rather, a more accurate term would be an Original Core.

When Jiang Zhe regained consciousness, he found himself in a strange world.

The surroundings were enveloped in Chaotic Mist, leaving only an open space roughly ten meters long and wide. At the center of the clearing grew an ancient tree more than a meter in diameter. Its rugged branches stretched into the mist, preventing him from seeing the full extent of its enormous canopy.

Beneath the tree stood a stone table and stone stools. Resting atop the table was a thick-backed Woodcutting Axe.

"Only my consciousness came here... Where is this?"

Jiang Zhe quickly figured out his own condition.

He swept his gaze around. The clearing of more than a hundred square meters was visible at a glance, when Jiang Zhe's consciousness suddenly froze as information from this space entered his mind.

"Chop down the tree?"

"Me? Pick up the Axe on the table and chop down the tree?"

After a brief moment of surprise, memories buried for sixteen years gradually resurfaced, and Jiang Zhe roughly guessed what was happening.

"My cheat has arrived..."

That required going back to his suicidal habits before transmigration.

That night, after getting off work late, he had been soaking his feet in front of his computer desk. His phone was plugged into a power strip as he tried out a mini-game recommended by his browser. When he bent down to add hot water, he tugged on the charging cable and pulled the power strip off the desk, straight into the footbath...

The past was too painful to revisit. If not for the keyword "chopping trees," Jiang Zhe would never have connected the two.

"Chopping trees"—that had been the gameplay of that mini-game.

Before transmigrating, anyone who browsed the internet could not possibly have missed advertisements for that mini-game—reincarnate, begin as a demon, chop trees for treasures, cultivate immortality and overcome tribulations. It boasted, "One axe fells a thousand-year tree; one step reaches the peak of the immortal path"...

Jiang Zhe's vision darkened. Even transmigration couldn't free me from the domination of that ad. The stupid game followed me here and is even going to strike as a cheat.

"Forget it. At least I have a cheat. As long as it works, that's enough. I'll try it first."

Jiang Zhe had no physical body here, only consciousness wandering through this space, so he tried using his thoughts to control the Axe and chop down the tree.

He failed.

"Do I need to find a way to bring my body here? But how do I get back now?"

The moment that thought arose, Jiang Zhe felt his consciousness grow heavy and plummet rapidly, as though he had fallen from a cliff.

His mind swayed, and his five senses returned.

Countless sensations from the outside world flooded in.

The faint smell of disinfectant; the flowing sensation in the veins on the back of his hand; anxious pacing; low murmurs deliberately hushed but filled with worry...

Jiang Zhe opened his eyes. The familiar ceiling came into view. He was lying on the bed in his own bedroom, an IV drip connected to his right hand, while the room was packed with people.

The most eye-catching among them was a young man built like a Black Bear Demon, pacing anxiously back and forth. The huge man, over two meters tall, made Jiang Zhe feel dizzy just watching him sway around.

"I woke up too suddenly. I'm seeing the Black Bear Demon sneaking in to steal a cassock. Better sleep a little longer."

Though he mocked his second brother, Jiang Wu, Jiang Zhe did not actually lie back down. He sat up and pulled the needle from the back of his hand.

Jiang Wu abruptly turned his head at the sound. Seeing Jiang Zhe pulling out the needle on the bed, he shouted excitedly in a voice as booming as a drum.

"He's awake! He's awake! Little Zhe is awake!"

His aunt and cousin hurried to the bedside.

Jiang Wu tried to squeeze over as well, but his younger sister shoved him away in disgust. He scratched his head foolishly and stood against the wall with a refined young man wearing glasses.

Jiang Wen and Jiang Wu, the eldest and second eldest of the Jiang Family's third generation.

Jiang Wen was very cultured, a refined young man with glasses. His focus was business, and barring any surprises, he would become the future Family Head of the Jiang Family.

Jiang Wu was very martial. At only twenty-three, he was already an Intermediate Battle General and had secured a spot in the Thunderbolt Martial Hall's Elite Training Camp.

Their cousin Jiang Sisi was a sharp and capable short-haired woman with the strength of an Advanced Warrior. She was softly asking Jiang Zhe about his condition.

Wenwu Sizhe were all the third-generation members of the Jiang Family. Their names had a distinctly clan-like quality.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. This has happened twice before, and we all know it's a good thing, not a bad one."

Jiang Zhe patiently answered his aunt and cousin's concerned questions.

When he was young, his head had faintly ached almost every day. After illness had been ruled out, it had already been determined that he possessed remarkable Psychic Master Talent.

In the eyes of a top family like the Jiang Family, Psychic Masters, a special group distinct from martial warriors, were not mysterious.

His aunt, Jiang Chengcheng, rolled her eyes at him and said resentfully, "How can we not worry? If the awakening fails, you could become an idiot, vegetative, or even bleed from all seven orifices and die!"

"We're not as carefree as your mother. She came to take one look, then ran off to play mahjong again. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were her stepson."

Jiang Zhe smiled helplessly and did not respond.

His mother truly was scatterbrained and unreliable.

It was also true that his aunt Jiang Chengcheng did not get along with her. She took every chance to badmouth her, and he really could not involve himself.

Jiang Sisi quickly gave her older brother a meaningful look.

Jiang Wu, despite looking like a Black Bear Demon, had a delicate mind. Understanding her meaning, he changed the subject. "Little Zhe, did you awaken completely this time?"

Jiang Zhe froze for a moment, then turned to stare at an ornament on his desk. He tried sensing his Psychic Power, tried moving objects, tried looking inward into his Sea of Consciousness...

In the end, fine sweat appeared on his forehead from the effort, but there was still no response at all.

No awakening. No Psychic Power.

Moreover, he had not yet cultivated Gene Primordial Energy, and without the pull of Cosmic Energy, he could not yet look inward.

But Jiang Zhe was stunned by a startling new discovery.

There was a stone inside his head?

It was an ancient Stone Sphere resting in his brain. Driven by his thoughts, it could travel throughout his body—between his brows, through his ear canal, down his throat, to his navel, the soles of his feet... and finally stopped at the Crimson Palace in his chest. It appeared to be only a few millimeters in size.

This seemed to be an Original Core?

Was this even a body structure I could have?

Wait, the Golden Horn Beast's life structure was not actually all that extraordinary. It merely possessed the life characteristics of Domain Lords and World Masters in advance, characteristics every martial warrior would eventually gain as their Life Level rose.

Becoming one of the lucky ones to possess a "Life Core" in advance was not too inconceivable.

"So... the place I just went to was the Inner World inside my Original Core?"