"Not enough time."
On a secluded island in the Sea of Chaos, Yaoguang frowned.
He had originally planned to cultivate straight to the Void Piercing Realm in one continuous push. Little did he expect that the qualitative leap from an Incandescent White Golden Core to a Deep Blue Golden Core would cost him three entire months, even with his abilities.
Although the breakthrough itself had been smooth sailing without the slightest setback, it had demanded a far greater expenditure than anticipated.
As a result, having started with only 1.05 million Pure Yang Great Pills, the process of forming the Deep Blue Golden Core had consumed an extra 500,000 pills right out of his reserves.
Now...
Following his breakthrough, only 200,000 Pure Yang Great Pills remained.
This quantity of pills was clearly insufficient to allow his Deep Blue Golden Core to steadily evolve into its second form.
"At least I've achieved a Deep Blue Golden Core. If I try collapsing it into a chaos cavern now, transforming my Dharma Idol into a True Spirit, refining the illusory into reality, uniting the void and the real, and evolving a grotto-heaven, my chances wouldn't be small—maybe not a hundred percent, but easily seventy to eighty percent. However..."
Yaoguang paused. "Since evolving the Deep Blue Golden Core to its second form—the middle stage of the Deep Blue Golden Core—can raise the breakthrough's success rate to a full hundred percent, why should I take that risk?"
Feeling the Golden Core within him, continuously compressed and radiating deep blue light—a luminescence so intense from his recent breakthrough that it seeped through his flesh, projecting outward and causing the surrounding temperature to spike violently—Yaoguang took a deep breath.
Continue.
He had no intention of letting the remaining 200,000 Pure Yang Great Pills go to waste either.
With a thought, a divine beast Kunpeng seemed to manifest within his body, using the power of a companion chaos cavern to devour the Pure Yang Great Pills he ingested.
Compared to when he possessed an Incandescent White Golden Core, this refining efficiency was not merely a step faster—it was incomparably quicker.
"Not only is the Kunpeng Sky-Devouring Technique significantly more efficient, but wielding the Swimming Dragon Sword and the Boundary-Crossing Ruler has also become effortless. Sky-Cleaving Strike and the Nine Transformations of Heavenly Walk are even more second nature."
Yaoguang sensed the changes within himself.
He knew these were all advantages brought by the Incandescent White Golden Core's transformation into a Deep Blue Golden Core.
An Incandescent White Golden Core was merely the maximum form of a standard star.
The Deep Blue Golden Core, however, shattered the limits of quantity upon that maximum concept, transforming it into a supergiant star.
Such immense mass naturally exerted a far greater influence on its surroundings.
If executing a supreme divine ability before had been somewhat like deflecting a thousand jin with four liang, then now...
It was at least in the realm of deflecting a thousand jin with four jin.
Supreme divine abilities that had previously felt slightly cumbersome to execute were naturally far smoother and more natural to employ.
"Previously, to unleash a Sky-Cleaving Strike, I had to rely on my Child of the Void talent to sense spatial ripples, then drive those ripples with the Swimming Dragon Sword before finally unleashing the supreme divine ability. But now, the energy of the Deep Blue Golden Core alone is enough to shake space. While not as effortless as a Void Piercing cultivator's chaos cavern, it already meets the standard required to execute supreme divine abilities..."
Reflecting on this, Yaoguang finally understood why top immortal sects usually only allowed true disciples to cultivate supreme divine abilities.
When disciples at the Incandescent White Golden Core level faced supreme divine abilities, setting aside whether they could even master them, actually unleashing them was extraordinarily difficult.
Rather than that, it was better not to waste precious time cultivating supreme divine abilities and focus on condensing a Deep Blue Golden Core first.
"Still, supreme divine abilities aren't of immense use to me. The reason such arts are so alluring is partly their sheer might, but more critically, a perfected supreme divine ability acts like a primer to initiate cultivation in Dao techniques. Yet so far, I've only obtained thirteen Dao techniques—my selection is far too narrow. For now, there's no need to waste effort on more supreme divine abilities; the few I have are enough."
Calming his mind, he continued to refine all the remaining Pure Yang Great Pills with the Kunpeng Sky-Devouring Technique.
In less than half a year, the 200,000 Pure Yang Great Pills were completely refined away by the Kunpeng Sky-Devouring Technique.
The Deep Blue Golden Core inside him grew slightly thicker and denser than before.
However...
"To make the Deep Blue Golden Core transform into its second form requires roughly two million Pure Yang Great Pills. There's still a deficit of 1.8 million pills."
This figure was by no means small.
Yet considering his current strength, gathering this 1.8 million pill deficit might actually be faster than collecting the one million pills he had needed to advance from the Incandescent White to the Deep Blue Golden Core.
He cast another glance at the Swimming Dragon Sword in his hand.
During this period of cultivation, he had also used the Spirit Nurturing Technique and Treasure Refining Technique to forge materials such as the Flowing Void Crystal obtained from the Xi clan into the flying sword, enhancing its foundation even further.
He was fifty percent confident that the Swimming Dragon Sword could successfully Enter the Dao.
However, because he had no other handy weapon besides this flying sword, it wasn't convenient to attempt its Dao breakthrough just yet.
He could only wait until he acquired a replacement flying sword before trying.
With a shift of his body, he flew straight out of this undersea cave dwelling that had nearly been destroyed by the overflowing energy during his breakthrough.
The moment he departed, the cave dwelling collapsed without his maintenance, and the island spanning one li around it caved in as well, disappearing completely into the boundless sea.
Emerging from the cave abode, Yaoguang did not leave immediately. Instead, he fully unleashed his divine mind, sweeping it around several times. After confirming no other cultivators were present, he turned his hand over, and the Heaven-Sealing Stele materialized in his grasp.
Within the Heaven-Sealing Stele, Heavenly Dao Sect true disciple Xuan Shuang was vividly visible.
Although suppressed by this Dao artifact, he was not dead and could still vaguely perceive the outside world.
After all, back when Yaoguang had an Incandescent White Golden Core, he could not guarantee a hundred percent chance of slaying this Deep Blue true disciple.
But now...
The Swimming Dragon Sword transformed into golden light and soared straight into the clouds. Empowered by the terrifying energy of the Deep Blue Golden Core, it instantly stirred spatial ripples, whipping up a spatial tsunami several times fiercer than when he had been at the Incandescent White stage.
Once the force of the void tsunami reached its absolute peak, guided and propelled by the sword's edge, it crashed straight down toward the Heaven-Sealing Stele.
At that exact moment, Yaoguang opened the Heaven-Sealing Stele.
The power suppressing space abruptly withdrew.
Xuan Shuang, sealed within, struggled furiously and broke free.
The instant he appeared, he pushed his Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body to its utmost limit.
"Yaoguang, I am a true disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect! If you kill me, the sect will—"
Unfortunately, his words did not sway Yaoguang's will in the slightest. Before his divine mind could even fully transmit the message, the fully poised Swimming Dragon Sword, already primed, crashed into the Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body that Xuan Shuang had not yet fully unfurled, carrying the full might of Sky-Cleaving Strike.
Boom!
Flames erupted violently.
Endless blaze and radiance exploded outward from the body of this Heavenly Dao Sect true disciple.
The true disciple's divine phoenix body shattered on the spot with a thunderous roar, like a cosmic battleship struck head-on by light-speed particles.
"Yaoguang!"
Even with his body shattered, Xuan Shuang did not die instantly. Instead, he let out a furious roar.
The shattered Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body burned furiously, flesh transmuting into blazing fire as the scattered flames reconverged in a nirvanic rebirth!
It showed every sign of reconstituting his divine body.
"Hm?!"
Yaoguang frowned.
The power of the Heaven-Sealing Stele flared once more.
Invisible ripples sealed the Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body just as it was about to complete its nirvanic rebirth.
Simultaneously, the Swimming Dragon Sword, clad in golden light, drove the spatial ripples again. Like a vessel parting crashing waves, it swiftly coalesced the spatial ripples into a second Sky-Cleaving Strike.
The moment the Heaven-Sealing Stele's power receded once more, Xuan Shuang, whose rebirth remained incomplete, was struck squarely by the force of the Sky-Cleaving Strike.
"Spare me..."
Vaguely, an unwilling plea for mercy seemed to transmit from the true disciple.
Yet this divine message did not slow Yaoguang's blade in the least.
Boom!
As the second Sky-Cleaving Strike landed, the Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body, which had painstakingly gathered into fire attempting to reconstitute itself, was completely obliterated, exploding into boundless flames that scattered in all directions.
This time, the flames could burn no longer. Though the blistering heat had scorched the sky and boiled the sea, after persisting above the water for a brief moment, it finally dimmed and died.
Yaoguang flashed forward, and a spatial artifact along with a war saber were already in his hands.
The reason his first Sky-Cleaving Strike had not dealt an outright fatal blow while the Heaven-Sealing Stele was suppressing Xuan Shuang was specifically to avoid overkill that would destroy everything on his person.
Who could have guessed...
The Red Gold Divine Phoenix Body could actually undergo nirvana once.
Fortunately, Xuan Shuang in the midst of nirvana had clearly been unable to destroy his storage treasure or war saber. Although it had required a bit more effort, the objective of preserving the spoils of war was accomplished.
Taking the war saber and inspecting it...
"Decent quality. Quite a bit of room for modification."
The war saber was not the highlight.
The highlight was...
His divine mind swept into Xuan Shuang's spatial treasure immediately.
Instantly, massive heaps of Pure Yang Great Pills and numerous cultivation resources filled his sight.
"Truly worthy of a true disciple—extraordinarily wealthy! No fewer than one million Pure Yang Great Pills, and the total value of the various resources exceeds another million. Factoring in the war saber... with a bit of fencing, the total haul will easily surpass three million Pure Yang Great Pills."
What did it mean to strike it rich?
This was what a sudden windfall looked like.
"True disciples," Yaoguang murmured.
True disciples of top sects...
Were truly rolling in wealth.
No wonder everyone wanted to become one.
However, considering that the death of any true disciple would prompt their sect to assemble a team led by at least a Void Piercing elder to investigate to the very end, Yaoguang dared not let his guard down.
The Swimming Dragon Sword swept in a circle through the void, kicking up further spatial ripples as it continuously built up and channeled its momentum.
After several full breaths, a Sky-Cleaving Strike several times more formidable than before crashed down with a roar. And this time, its target...
Was this very stretch of space.
As the sword struck, the supreme divine ability lived up to its name, tearing through the void and causing tens of li of surrounding space to collapse completely.
Countless particles and streams of vital energy were pulverized into nothingness.
Terrifying spatial ripples and energy shockwaves surged grandly in every direction, rippling out over a thousand li and shredding everything within that radius.
The sea below churned into towering tidal waves—tsunamis massive enough to bring about an apocalypse on a small planet swept through the surrounding waters without pause.
Once the shockwave subsided, it was foreseeable that the violent spatial disruption would trigger catastrophic meteorological disturbances in the region.
These natural phenomena would be enough to erase ninety-nine percent of all traces.
Afterward, unless a Supreme Elder in the Void Shattering realm who had comprehended Daos related to tracing or investigation personally intervened, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to find any useful clues.
Having finished all this, Yaoguang wasted no more time and summoned the Longxiang Flying Boat once more.
As the flying boat accelerated, it swiftly rippled through space, and before long, vanished completely from the battlefield.
Chapter 304