Chapter 104: The Might of the Golden Core

At first, there were only a few faint sounds of phoenix cries and elephant trumpets, intermittent and barely audible. But within a few breaths, the sounds sharpened into clear, thunderous roars that shook the surrounding sea of clouds, causing mountains and rivers alike to tremble.

Master Huaiwu of the Grotto rose in terror from his ritual altar, retreating two steps, his face drained of color as if he had witnessed the impossible.

Within his line of sight, high up in the distant firmament, a ten-zhang-tall celestial palace suddenly manifested. Adorned with strings of jewels and radiating brilliant, auspicious light, it was of exquisite and dazzling craftsmanship.

"The Sima clan... the Purple Essence Eight-Directions Palace of the Tangting Sima clan?"

Behind Master Huaiwu, the Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon glanced at the sky, and from the depths of her ancestral memory, she recognized the origin of the flying palace, her spirit nearly shattering in fright.

"It is not the Ai clan... it is the Tangting Sima clan?" She gasped, crying out, "Since when has the Ai clan become entangled with the Sima clan? And where is Ai Yuan? Where is she?!"

"It has nothing to do with Ai Yuan, Liu Niang. I fear we have been targeted..." Master Huaiwu managed to steady his mind, casting a deep, somber look at Chen Heng before speaking with a bitter, strained voice: "We have fallen into a trap, caught in a web, and marked by someone."

A Golden Light Divine Talisman—

A treasure of this caliber, capable of purging essence and eliminating evil, was something even an ordinary Primordial Spirit Master would treat as a priceless gem, a hidden trump card kept at the very bottom of their chest.

Why would such a supreme talisman be wasted on a mere Qi-refining practitioner? And why had that youth specifically come to listen to his lecture?

He had been hiding and fleeing for two hundred years, living in seclusion for two centuries. Why, only after meeting this youth, had his tracks been exposed and his hunters come calling?

As he pondered this, Master Huaiwu felt he had caught a glimpse of the threads of fate, yet the path ahead remained obscured in mist. A strange, absurd sense of desolation washed over him. With a cold sneer, he ceased his internal debate, took a deep breath, and steeled himself for what was to come.

Suddenly, the "Purple Essence Eight-Directions Palace" descended. The barrier Master Huaiwu had meticulously set up to seal the area was struck by the flying palace with a deafening "crack," shattering instantly. Spiritual energy surged outward in all directions, whipping the water into massive, shore-crashing waves.

The scale of this disturbance must have carried for countless miles, yet, chillingly, not a single person across the vast Floating Jade Lake dared to take flight to investigate, nor did anyone come to offer aid.

A sudden, heavy silence fell.

Master Huaiwu wore a bitter smile, sighing deeply in his heart.

"A Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon—an excellent demonic familiar and a fine material for refining. Splendid! Truly splendid! This creature is meant for me, Sima Lingzhen!"

The brilliant light suddenly retracted. A handsome young Daoist stepped out into the void, tipped his Hunyuan cap, and the massive "Purple Essence Eight-Directions Palace" instantly shrank into a glowing star, vanishing into his headgear.

Around him, five-colored mists coalesced into the shapes of dragons, tigers, lions, and elephants, as if all creation were bowing in reverence. His aura was terrifyingly formidable, fierce and violent, as imposing as a towering mountain.

Sima Lingzhen glanced at Chen Heng with a flicker of sharp light in his eyes, seemingly lost in thought. After a few beats, he turned his gaze toward Master Huaiwu and the demon behind him, offering a faint, mocking smile.

"A boorish village rustic, and you’ve actually taken a Heavenly Demon as a consort? You truly have no standards. If you had chosen a Hwa-Pearl Demon or a Lust-Inducing Demon, at least there would have been some aesthetic appeal." Sima Lingzhen scoffed. "But a Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon? You have truly never tasted fine meat in your life."

Master Huaiwu’s face remained as still as water; he did not respond easily.

A Golden Core cultivator—a true Immortal Master!

From the demon’s earlier shriek, he knew this person was of prominent lineage and hostile intent. This aura! He had condensed the Great Dao Golden Core! He was in the realm of unified essence and heaven-bestowed divinity!

Though he did not know the exact rank, even the lowest grade of the Nine-Grade Yellow-White Golden Core was far beyond what a Grotto-Mystic master could hope to resist. One wrong step, and it would mean the total annihilation of body and soul.

After his eyes darted back and forth, he suddenly stepped off the altar. Without hesitation, he prostrated himself on the ground. "This Honorable Master... may I redeem my life with wealth?"

"My Lord?!" The Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon cried out in shock, but Master Huaiwu ignored her, remaining prostrate.

"Redeem your life?"

Sima Lingzhen was not surprised. He laughed, "How much wealth could a mere itinerant cultivator like you have that would be worth a life? Do not make me laugh."

"Sunflower Water True Essence. I have a vial of Sunflower Water True Essence stored in a secret chamber; I am willing to offer it to you, Honorable Master." Master Huaiwu’s voice was low. "I am also willing to serve you, to be bound by your restrictions, and to face death without complaint!"

"Sunflower Water True Essence? The kind that can assist in cultivating the Profound Dark True Water? A pity... a pity. I am currently studying the Dragon-Transformation True Fire; the path of magic values refinement over quantity, so this stroke of fortune is not meant for me." Sima Lingzhen paused, shaking his head with genuine regret.

However, even if he had no intent to divert his energy toward the Profound Dark True Water, the essence was a rare material. Even if not for his own use, it would make a fine gift to trade for favors. He knew several disciples in his sect were in desperate need of it. If he could trade the essence for their gratitude, gaining their support in the future struggle for the true inheritance, it would undoubtedly be a profitable deal.

Seeing that Sima Lingzhen’s expression had softened, Master Huaiwu was overjoyed and bowed heavily once more.

"You are willing to give up all this just to save your life?" Sima Lingzhen asked with a smile.

"Not for my own life, but for the life of my wife." Master Huaiwu lowered his head. "I beg for your mercy, Honorable Master. Spare her life and allow her to leave this place, and I shall be eternally grateful!"

The demon heard this and was momentarily stunned, then filled with overwhelming joy.

"A lovesick fool, are you? Is this truly your wish?"

"I beg for your mercy!"

"What a pity..." Sima Lingzhen stood with his hands behind his back, watching Master Huaiwu for a long time before laughing slowly. "It is a pity that a single vial of Sunflower Water True Essence is not enough."

"Honorable Master—"

"Senior Brother Xie happens to be refining a furnace of Lesser Five-Yin Pills. Your wife is the perfect ingredient for the cauldron. As for the Sunflower Water True Essence and your assets—" Sima Lingzhen narrowed his eyes. "After I kill you and scour your soul, won't it all be mine regardless?"

"You!" Master Huaiwu jumped up in rage. "Are you playing with me?!"

"Scum like you, low-born rogue cultivators, are all the same—fearing power but lacking virtue. Living within the Xu Capital, you only sully the true nature of this world. Back in the Western Plain Province, I loved giving people like you a sliver of hope, watching your tear-filled eyes as you begged, only to shatter your expectations. Tell me, isn't that fun?"

Sima Lingzhen sighed lightly and clapped his hands. "It is a pity that after joining the sect, the rules—"

Before he could finish, Master Huaiwu let out a sharp cry. A miserable, bloody blade-light flew from his sleeve, reeking of gore, aimed directly at Sima Lingzhen’s face!

Behind him, the Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon also reacted, her face twisted in savagery. She pushed her demonic energy to the limit, and thousands of ghostly shadows erupted like a swarm of locusts, filling the air and clawing frantically at him. A gust of dark wind arose, and the room was filled with the shrieking of ghosts.

Sima Lingzhen merely laughed, making no move to dodge.

When the blade-light struck his face, it was caught firmly by a surge of spiritual power, unable to advance even an inch despite the master's desperate efforts.

Seeing this, Master Huaiwu was struck by mortal terror. As he tried to employ other techniques, Sima Lingzhen’s expression suddenly hardened. With a tongue like rolling thunder, he shouted into the air:

"Begone!"

Beams snapped, walls crumbled, tiles shattered, and the hall groaned!

With that single sound, the thousands of ghostly shadows froze mid-air before exploding into pools of blood.

The thunderous sound did not stop there; it shattered the entire massive palace. Dust and debris billowed into the sky, turning the world a murky brown!

Master Huaiwu felt his mind reel as if struck by a giant hammer. His spirit was on the verge of scattering, and his body was thrown uncontrollably through the air.

When he finally crawled up from the ruins, bleeding from his seven orifices, Sima Lingzhen flicked his finger. A thin streak of white light appeared, circling and driving the Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon back, step by step, until she could no longer resist and was on the brink of death.

"Liu Niang!" Master Huaiwu screamed.

Sima Lingzhen glanced at him coldly. Master Huaiwu felt a searing pain in his mind and was thrown back again, coughing up blood. In his panic, he brought out a spiritual pill to protect his soul, narrowly avoiding the total rupture of his cranium.

He watched in horror as the protective treasure cracked and dimmed.

"A Golden Core Master! A Golden Core Master! How can the gap between a Grotto-Mystic and a Golden Core be this vast?! My teacher was a Golden Core Master; I have seen him fight, but it was never this terrifying!"

Before Master Huaiwu could recover, Sima Lingzhen stood motionless as a radiant divine light emerged above his head. It spanned a hundred yards in an instant, sweeping down toward Master Huaiwu.

He scrambled to summon a cauldron-shaped high-grade talisman tool, but the moment the divine light touched it, he lost all connection to the artifact, vomiting blood as his heart felt suddenly hollow.

"This is..."

While Master Huaiwu exhausted every means to survive, the situation on the demon’s side was even more wretched.

The thin white light Sima Lingzhen had released was a manifestation of his spiritual power, as sharp as any flying sword. Every time it circled the demon, a layer of her physical form was shaved away. The light spun faster and faster; in just a few dozen breaths, nothing remained of the demon but a vague, flickering shadow, her screams fading into nothingness.

She had no chance to use her own abilities. Every time she tried to fight back, the white light would sweep in and shatter her momentum.

...

"It seems there really was no bloodline of the Heavenly Demon nobility here. Just an ordinary Wicked-Wrath Yin-Slaying Demon. A fine material, but not a top-tier one."

Seeing the demon’s vitality fading, Sima Lingzhen sighed in disappointment and finally lost interest in playing. With a flick of his finger, the white light transformed into a rope, binding the dying demon and pulling her into his sleeve.

Seeing this, Master Huaiwu’s rage boiled over. Just as he was about to ignore everything and detonate his own artifact—the Huaiwu Grotto—to level the entire Floating Jade Lake, a ball of Dragon-Transformation True Fire flickered from Sima Lingzhen’s hand, burning through his layered protective Qi.

The moment it touched him, he didn't even have time to scream before he was reduced to charred bone.

"Fool. Do you not know that the difference between cultivators is greater than the difference between a man and a dog?"

A few breaths later, a flickering soul escaped from the charred remains, trying to flee into the void. With a flick of his fingers, Sima Lingzhen caught it.

"I am a clansman of the Tangting Sima, and I have now joined the Yuchen Sect. And you? A savage from the Southern Territory! How dare you try to contend with me, Sima Lingzhen?"

The soul, bearing the terrified face of Master Huaiwu, was tossed into a piece of ancient soul-nurturing jade. Sima Lingzhen looked around coldly.

The island was a scene of utter ruin. The maids and servants were fleeing in terror. In the distance, the Green Pearl, now a Red-Makeup Demon, clung to the neck of a Strength-Alien Demon, both fleeing in a blind panic.

"A small demon den indeed. Wiping you out should be enough to earn a small merit at the Hall of Merits."

Sima Lingzhen pulled a small copper bell from his sleeve and rang it three times. All the demons nearby had their heads explode instantly. Whether they were disciples, maids, children, or other demonic familiars, all were extinguished.

Thus, the entire influence of the Huaiwu Grotto was wiped out by Sima Lingzhen.

He looked down to the ruins, where Chen Heng was pushing aside a copper pillar to stand up amidst the dust. Seeing the thin layer of golden light protecting Chen Heng, Sima Lingzhen frowned. Unable to see through his background, he finally relaxed his fingers.

"What rank, using the same talismans as me." He sneered inwardly.

He shook his sleeve and shouted, his voice rolling like a thousand galloping horses, echoing throughout the vast Floating Jade Lake:

"Sima Lingzhen of the Yuchen Sect has purged the demons here. All masters, come to see me at once!"

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of miles away, at the Chiming Sect’s Deer Terrace Mountain, an old Daoist with long eyebrows paused, his hand hovering over the chessboard. He looked up at the person across from him and smiled slightly.

"The purging is complete. It seems the Daoist Lord’s scheme has finally come to fruition. Senior Sister, what shall we do next? Should we summon our sect’s true disciple back to the mountain? It is time for her to go into seclusion and condense her Golden Core."