Inside the quiet cultivation chamber.
After a simple cleansing, Luo Chen sat cross-legged, his gaze blazing like torches, while a jade slip hovered before his forehead.
Characters poured forth like a cascading waterfall.
Looking at those words, so familiar he could recite them backward from memory, Luo Chen finally made his choice after years of hesitation.
"A five-colored core is the hallmark of forming a core with all five elemental spiritual roots.
"Though dominated by the verdant cyan of the wood element, the secondary fire spiritual power also accounts for twenty percent.
"Judged by longevity, by ease of breaking through realms, or by difficulty of entry, I should stay primarily wood-aligned and choose the *Huaqing One Heart Art*.
"Yet longevity is not immortality. Before attaining a realm where one shares a lifespan with heaven and earth, without sufficient strength, any amount of lifespan is mere vanity!"
It had to be said.
After experiencing the Wither-Bloom Fire devouring his vitality and causing his maximum lifespan to plummet, his understanding of longevity had grown increasingly lucid and sober.
Especially after his successful Core Formation, his maximum lifespan of two hundred years had instantly surged to four hundred.
Bursting with vibrant life and vigor, even ninety percent of his previously graying hair had returned to a healthy black.
This allowed Luo Chen to view so-called lifespan with even greater clarity.
No matter how high the ceiling, without powerful arts to protect one's path, it was difficult to live peacefully until that time in this cruel cultivation world.
In contrast, within a relatively safe lifespan range, making oneself stronger was undeniably a smarter and more correct choice.
He did not merely want longevity; he wanted to stay alive!
"Having refined the Wither-Bloom Fire, I possess a source true fire, but my utilization of it remains quite low; normally, I only use it for pill concoction.
"The method I developed to incinerate living beings and plunder vitality was a pleasant surprise.
"Yet the potential of this fire surely does not end there.
"If I wish to push it to its utmost limit, transitioning to a fire-attribute cultivation method is imperative.
"However, I cannot simply abandon my original wood spiritual power so easily either.
"Therefore!
"*Burning Wood True Art*, it is you!"
The number of Tier 3 cultivation methods Luo Chen possessed had steadily grown.
Originally, he had three. After killing Helian Yun's trio in the Great Snow Mountain, he had spent some time undoing the seals on the storage bags of Helian Yun and Xiao Sanren in order to obtain the Mingyuan Pills on them.
Madam Yousha's legacy had not been recovered.
She had self-detonated in Myriad Python Cave, and her storage bag had not survived.
A pity for the Mingyuan Pill inside.
However, the inheritances of Helian Yun and Xiao Sanren had indeed given Luo Chen a pleasant surprise, neither too large nor too small.
The overall value of Xiao Sanren's estate was not high, totaling merely a hundred-odd thousand spirit stones.
Rogue cultivators!
That was just how it was.
Even if one appeared to have a lofty cultivation realm, more often than not, they had exhausted a lifetime's worth of savings to push themselves to where they were.
Leaving behind a hundred thousand or so was already no easy feat.
The surprise he gave Luo Chen was a divine-soul attack technique—*Immortal by the River Melody*.
Infusing sound with soul, it unleashed attacks on the divine soul through sound waves.
This sonic spell was best executed with a zither, followed by other musical instruments, or at the very least integrated into everyday shouts and roars.
When Luo Chen formed his core, the divine resonance that chimed several times from within his body had drawn on a fraction of this sonic spell's surface mechanics.
Helian Yun's legacy, on the other hand, was well worth mentioning.
As master of the Lianyun Merchant Alliance, his accumulated wealth over many years was extraordinarily substantial.
Even though pressed for time, Luo Chen had not inventoried everything in detail, but a rough estimate put the spirit stones alone at over a million.
Certain rare materials among them, once properly appraised when time permitted, would surely multiply that value several times over.
Yet after obtaining the Mingyuan Pill, what Luo Chen paid the closest attention to was Helian Yun's collection of Tier 3 cultivation methods.
He alone had collected two complete Tier 3 arts: one water-attribute and one earth-attribute.
Presumably, this evergreen pillar of Tianlan Immortal City had prepared them as his natal cultivation methods after forming his core.
As a result, this turned out to be a boon for the Luotian Association.
The reason this was considered a boon for the Luotian Association rather than Luo Chen himself lay in the fact that he had little use for these two complete methods; down the road, they could only serve as heritage arts once the Luotian Association transitioned into a sect.
Thus, while Luo Chen seemingly possessed as many as five Tier 3 cultivation methods, the ones he could actually cultivate remained the original three:
the Yan Alliance's *Blazing Sun True Scripture*;
the *Huaqing One Heart Art* bestowed by Master Canglong;
and an incomplete Tier 3 method gathered by the Luotian Association, the *Burning Wood True Art*.
To make use of the Wither-Bloom Fire, the *Huaqing One Heart Art*, the simplest of the three to cultivate, was naturally ruled out.
Between the remaining two, after weighing them for years, Luo Chen ultimately chose the *Burning Wood True Art*, which cultivated both wood and fire.
Though incomplete, this art only lacked the Late Golden Core chapters and its matching spells and secret arts.
Luo Chen did not mind the latter; as long as he had wealth, he could acquire all manner of formidable spells through proper channels.
As for the former?
Other cultivators might avoid it like venomous serpents and scorpions, but for Luo Chen, it was not an insurmountable issue.
"As long as I raise this art's proficiency to Great Perfection before the Late Golden Core stage, the system should be able to patch up some of it.
"Furthermore, this method originates from the Five Elements Divine Sect.
"That sect loves delving into profound methods and wonderful arts, occasionally putting some up for sale in Lingyuan Studio.
"Given the opportunity later on, I can simply pay a price to purchase the complete *Burning Wood True Art* from them."
From the present to the future, Luo Chen considered every aspect thoroughly.
Moreover, a massive amount of impure heaven and earth spiritual energy had accumulated in his qi sea, which urgently required a cultivation method to refine.
The Foundation Establishment chapters of the *Ageless Evergreen Scripture* were too inefficient.
Only a Tier 3 method could absorb it rapidly and convert it swiftly into dharmic power, a tier above spiritual power.
Therefore, once his mind was made up, Luo Chen immediately set about cultivating the *Burning Wood True Art*.
...
It had to be said that with Luo Chen's talent for spellcraft, delving into cultivation methods yielded miraculous results.
Coupled with his years of prior study, he was already intimately familiar with the manual.
In merely four or five days, he successfully initiated into the *Burning Wood True Art*.
With that, the vast spiritual energy swallowed into his qi sea during Core Formation began to undergo continuous refinement.
Throughout this process, Luo Chen's divine soul steadily merged into it, imbuing every strand of spiritual power with the aura of his soul.
One year later.
Within the immortal's cave, Luo Chen halted his cultivation, an expression of sentiment surfacing on his face.
"No wonder Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators in the cultivation world are as numerous as carp crossing a river, yet the number of Golden Core cultivators never rises.
"The difficulty of breaking through realms is one thing, but the sheer complexity of cultivation at the Golden Core stage is another entirely."
During the Qi Refinement stage, cultivation primarily revolved around simply taking in external spiritual energy.
Upon reaching Foundation Establishment, every stage required ceaselessly purifying and refining spiritual power, liquefying it so that the limited space of the qi sea could hold an ample amount.
Once a cultivator broke through to Golden Core, cultivation became vastly more intricate.
Regarding external spiritual energy, three steps had to be accomplished: intake, refinement, and fusion!
One took in external spiritual energy, refined and purified it, and finally wrapped and stained it with one's divine sense to achieve a rudimentary fusion.
Only in this manner could one complete the full transition from spiritual energy to spiritual power, and ultimately to dharmic power.
Cultivation of such complexity, even aided by a Tier 3 method, consumed an immense amount of mental energy.
Because of this, one could understand why Golden Core cultivators possessed such an insatiable demand for Tier 3 spiritual lands.
Purification and fusion alone were already so exhausting; how could they afford to waste excessive energy merely on drawing in ambient spiritual energy?
A Tier 3 spiritual ground was an indispensable resource for a Golden Core cultivator's practice!
Realizing this, Luo Chen could not help but show a look of helplessness.
He could not occupy this Jia-3 Immortal's Cave forever.
Whether the other Golden Core cultivators of Tianlan Immortal City would permit it was one issue; whether his financial resources could sustain it was another.
Even before his Core Formation, he had already exceeded his rental period.
It was Gu Caiyi forcefully collecting payments from the various branch shops, combined with Sima Huiniang mobilizing the Luotian Association's liquid capital, that managed to scrape together the three million spirit stones needed for those extra three years.
Doing so had already cut deep into their reserves, easily risking a cash flow crisis.
It was a move akin to tearing down one's own ramparts.
Yet there was no other choice; no matter how large the Luotian Association grew, it could not outweigh Luo Chen's breakthrough.
Now that he had succeeded, his reputation as a Golden Core Master would presumably ease the strain to some extent.
However, reputation might resolve an immediate crisis, but it could not serve as a permanent meal ticket.
During their brief meeting last time, Luo Chen had handed over all his remaining savings—three million spirit stones, plus a batch of materials worth several million—to Sima Huiniang.
Combined with the association's revenues, this would temporarily cover the rent for the Tier 3 cave over the coming ten years.
Yet what about after ten years?
Luo Chen stroked an iron thumb ring on his thumb.
This object was actually a storage treasure.
It had belonged to Qin Tairan of the Yan Alliance!
As Law Enforcement Elder, after the Yan Alliance met with calamity, Qin Tairan had essentially become its master in all but name.
Presumably, within his thumb ring lay an immense inheritance!
For the next nine years, what Luo Chen needed to accomplish was plain and simple.
First and foremost: temper and stabilize his current realm.
Given the massive commotion he caused during Core Formation, once he thoroughly refined the colossal store of spiritual energy in his body, he could advance straight to the first layer of Golden Core.
This was identical to what Chu Kui had said back then.
Cultivating a superior-method Core Formation secret technique was exceedingly difficult, but it brought commensurate benefits.
One was that forming a core was relatively easier.
The other was that cultivation progressed comparatively faster during early Golden Core.
After all, before Core Formation, one had already touched upon Golden Core practices; the fusion of spiritual power and divine-soul power had long surpassed that of ordinary early Golden Core cultivators.
The second task was grinding away the lingering divine sense imprint on Qin Tairan's iron thumb ring.
Luo Chen was well-versed in this.
Along his journey, it was hardly his first time doing so.
In fact, he still carried a batch of unopened Foundation Establishment cultivators' storage bags on him.
When the time came, he could open all these blind boxes at once.
Perhaps they would alleviate his current financial plight.
As for the third task?
That concerned two techniques Luo Chen had created himself:
*Convergence of Myriad Paths* and the *Tiny Dust Origin Technique*.
The former was a Tier 3 body refinement method following the ancient desolate beast lineage, boasting boundless potential.
The latter was a Core Formation secret technique Luo Chen synthesized by drawing on diverse strengths, appraised by the system as a "supreme method."
Even so, during the breakthrough process, Luo Chen had still detected various shortcomings within it.
Taking advantage of his fresh Core Formation insights, he could polish and complete it thoroughly.
...
In the outside world.
The Jade Cauldron Domain!
The war of reclamation had commenced!
A fifty-year preparation window had been set, but things could not wait until that exact moment.
As the twenty-seven large and small sects participating in this war converged, certain preparations could be undertaken ahead of schedule.
Clearing out the demon beasts entrenched within the Jade Cauldron Domain.
Fully opening several routes leading to the Howling Moon Mountain Range.
Establishing temporary outposts outside the Howling Moon Mountain Range to serve as future war fortresses.
Dispatching agile scouts into the Howling Moon Mountain Range in advance to survey the terrain and the gathering of demon beast factions.
With all of this bolstered by vast manpower and material resources, the coalition led by the Falling Cloud Sect slowly set into motion.
Just as the Far East cultivation world was growing increasingly fervent, Luo Chen emerged from seclusion!
At the Jia-3 Immortal's Cave on Tianlan Peak.
The mist veiling the cave had dispersed, and the main entrance stood wide open.
Luo Chen stood at the threshold, waiting quietly.
Before long, a streak of light flew in from nearby.
As the glow of dharmic power dissipated, the face of the Falling Cloud Sect's Golden Core cultivator came into view.
Luo Chen clasped his hands in salute. "Fellow Daoist Qu, long time no see. I trust you have been well."
Qu Xibai smiled faintly and was about to speak when an unusual light flashed in his eyes as he looked at Luo Chen.
Surprised, he said, "Fellow Daoist is truly extraordinary. Having formed your core a mere ten years ago, you have already contained your dharmic power and united the three treasures as one. Dare I ask what realm you have reached..."
Luo Chen nodded. "First layer of Golden Core."
Receiving the expected answer did not lessen the shock in Qu Xibai's heart.
Ordinarily, after advancing to the Golden Core stage, cultivators spent several years simply stabilizing their realm.
Yes, merely stabilizing it!
Advancing from having just stepped into Golden Core to mastering the first layer of Golden Core would take thirty to forty years of painstaking grinding.
Yet Luo Chen had skipped past that entire phase in a mere ten years, reaching the first layer directly.
Such speed of cultivation...
Qu Xibai shook his head. "Even with a superior secret technique for Core Formation, none have ever progressed this swiftly. It seems your foundation is far more formidable than I estimated!"
Hearing this praise, Luo Chen could only smile wryly.
At this simplest and easiest first layer of Golden Core, his progress had indeed been rapid.
Yet that was the advantage of a profound accumulation bursting forth all at once.
His subsequent cultivation, however, gave him no end of headaches.
His foundation was already ridiculously thicker than others', and after Core Formation he had chosen a dual-element method, making future advancement exponentially harder.
Honestly speaking, after stepping into the first layer of Golden Core and realizing how drastically his cultivation speed had slowed, a sliver of regret had surfaced in Luo Chen's heart.
If he had chosen the single-element *Huaqing One Heart Art*, would his progress have been faster?
However!
That sliver of regret was merely a sliver.
Compared to the drawback of slightly slower progress, the other benefits gradually manifesting from practicing the *Burning Wood True Art* far outweighed the sole flaw of speed.
His dharmic power was vastly more profound than before!
His mastery over the source true fire had grown increasingly adept.
Not only that, he had already completed refining and revising *Convergence of Myriad Paths*.
Next, he could normally use the Wither-Bloom Fire to temper his body!
The two briefly exchanged thoughts on cultivation before returning to proper business.
"Is it truly impossible to continue renting this Jia-3 Immortal's Cave?"
"At least for the next fifty years, it is out of my hands."
"Oh?"
Amid Luo Chen's puzzlement, Qu Xibai pointed toward the Far East.
That single gesture brought sudden enlightenment to Luo Chen.
The war of reclamation had already begun while he was in seclusion!
As a Golden Core cultivator of the Falling Cloud Sect, Qu Xibai had no reason to garrison the immortal city—especially when it was not their self-built Qianye Immortal City, but rather one co-built by the seven sects in the past.
"Regarding Tianlan Immortal City, our sect has come to terms with the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect.
"They paid a hefty price to buy back complete sovereignty over Tianlan.
"Not only our Falling Cloud Sect, but even the Ice Fort you rely on, along with Azure Pill Valley, Mount Ailao, and Hundred Blossoms Palace, will no longer be permitted to touch this city once this final ten-year rotation ends."
Listening to Qu Xibai's explanation, Luo Chen took on a solemn expression.
Just what massive price had the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect paid to reclaim total sovereignty over Tianlan?
From now on, the revenues of Tianlan Immortal City would no longer be divided among the various sects, but would belong solely to the Sword Sect.
Yet there were doubts here as well.
From what he knew, although this war of reclamation was nominally proclaimed as twenty-seven sects joining forces against Howling Moon, Azure Pill Valley and Mount Ailao were only contributing personnel and effort.
Even if the Howling Moon Mountain Range were conquered later, they would never relocate their sects there.
As for the Ice Fort, following Master Canglong's failed attempt to advance to Nascent Soul, it was unthinkable that they would move their sect headquarters into the Great Snow Mountain.
In other words, these sects would still have to make their living in the Jade Cauldron Domain.
Would they truly be willing to sell off a long-term revenue stream to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect in a single lump-sum buyout?
No one could answer these doubts for Luo Chen.
Nor would Qu Xibai.
His visit today was not only to inspect the cave, but also to say farewell.
"Our sect is about to launch an all-out assault on the Howling Moon Mountain Range. This place is no longer for me to linger. In three months at most, once the Sword Sect cultivators arrive, I will hand over the remaining affairs and head out to war."
Luo Chen nodded, offering words of good fortune.
Before leaving, Qu Xibai gave him a word of advice:
"Expending vast sums of spirit stones to lease a cave in an immortal city is no long-term solution. Fellow Daoist would be wise to choose a Nascent Soul upper sect to join and enjoy a naturally formed Tier 3 spirit vein. Or perhaps... take part in the war of reclamation, and with the blade in your hand, carve out a Tier 3 spirit vein of your own!
"In that vast expanse of a million mountains, high-grade spiritual lands are beyond count. Fellow Daoist, your vision must not remain confined to this pellet-sized corner of the Jade Cauldron Domain!"
Chapter 457