Who Let Him Cultivate?!

At the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion, he bumped into Senior Sister Zhou Lulu whom he hadn’t seen since she took him to the cafeteria to buy weapons.

“Senior Sister Zhou Lulu, long time no see.”

Engrossed in her book, Zhou Lulu looked up upon hearing Lu Yang’s voice and laughed, “It’s Junior Brother Lu, it’s you who haven’t seen me in a while. When you were the sect leader a few days ago, who hadn’t seen you?”

Lu Yang laughed awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

He couldn’t very well tell her that it wasn’t actually him who wanted to be sect leader, but the sixteen-year-old fairy inside him.

“You haven’t visited the Scripture Pavilion for two or three months. Are you looking for a particular book?”

“I want to find a book about how to form a golden core.”

Zhou Lulu had a sudden realization, “Oh right, you’re in the late stage of foundation establishment now, it’s time for you to consider forming a golden core.”

“How did Senior Sister Zhou form a golden core?”

Senior Sister Zhou recalled her past experience, saying, “It was a rainy day. I was reading under the eave, and before I knew it, the words in the book started to jump off the pages and enter my mind. The words traveled from my mind, passed through my internal organs, and arrived at my Dantian. From there, my spiritual essence transformed from mist into liquid, became a trickling stream, and merged with the words to form a golden core.”

“Senior Sister Zhou, you’re so gifted!” praised Lu Yang. He had heard that among those with exceptional talents, the formation of a golden core was a natural process that did not require much focus. Some geniuses even managed to accomplish it while taking a nap.

For example, Huang Dudu, a famous genius from ancient times, had formed his golden core during a nap.

Zhou Lulu waved her hands in embarrassment, “Junior Brother Lu, you shouldn’t say that. In our sect, there are many senior brothers and sisters with greater talents than mine. They experienced a lot of difficulties when forming their golden cores. We shouldn’t judge talents solely based on how easily one forms a golden core.”

“I heard that Senior Brothers Dai Bufan and Ji Hongwen had to make a lot of preparations and received the sect’s assistance to successfully form their golden cores.”

“You can find the book you need on the easternmost bookshelf on the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion.”

Lu Yang thanked Senior Sister Zhou and walked into the Scripture Pavilion. However, he was a little perplexed. The Scripture Pavilion is rather large, with countless bookshelves against its walls. Whenever he needed to find a book in the past, Senior Sister Zhou would always tell him the exact row and column. So why was she so vague today?

Lu Yang soon discovered the reason.

The entire east wall of the Scripture Pavilion was lined with books about golden core formation experiences—some were external while the majority were the accumulated wisdom of the Seek Dao Sect over hundreds of thousands of years.

Books from a hundred thousand years ago were not displayed here—they were reproductions.

“Fairy, do you have any suggestions for forming a golden core?” Lu Yang decided to ask Fairy Eternity, who claimed to be one of the Five Immortals of the Ancients.

“In ancient times, I once saw a golden core that was acclaimed as the strongest First-Grade Golden Core. Even my golden core pales in comparison.”

“There’s such a golden core?” Lu Yang was surprised. Fairy Eternity is usually quite stubborn, never admitting that she’s the least accomplished among the Five Immortals. It’s unexpected that she would willingly admit her inferiority this time.

Moreover, different golden cores have different focuses. How can one be deemed the best?

“Before anyone managed to become an immortal in ancient times, there was intense competition among the geniuses. They competed in terms of techniques, resources, talents… During that era, I was undoubtedly the best. Immortals like Yingtian and Jiuchong were inferior to me, and I beat them till they fled in disarray.”

“At that time, there was a genius who was extremely lucky in love. When he was forming his golden core, he was accompanied by seven beloved women, who were renowned talents, witches, and saintesses of the time. The man and his seven beloved women formed their golden cores together, each achieving a First-Grade Golden Core. The man’s golden core was the main force, and the seven women’s golden cores served as secondary forces, forming a Seven-Star Arc position. In battle, that genius could convert the women’s golden cores for his own use, boosting his combat power by at least sevenfold.”

“This is the strongest golden core I know.”

“Thank you, that’s not helpful at all.” Lu Yang rolled his eyes. He just treated it as listening to a story from Fairy Eternity. Where was he supposed to find seven beloved women?

I mean, is he supposed to gather the Seven Dwarfs or something?

“I also heard of another extremely powerful golden core, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to it since it happened before my time.”

“During ancient times, there was a couple who were cultivators. Nothing was out of the ordinary when the wife formed her golden core—it was just a regular First-Grade Golden Core. However, as days went by, her golden core grew increasingly larger, and she appeared pregnant.”

“The wife was ‘pregnant’ for three years until the golden core left her body automatically, shattered, and transformed into a Nascent Soul outside of her body.”

“What happened next?”

“The wife then realized that it wasn’t a Nascent Soul, it was her son.”

“… Fairy, if you’re fine, just go back to sleep.”

“All these are the secrets of the ancients, which I don’t usually tell people!” Fairy Eternity was quite displeased with Lu Yang’s indifference.

She, the proclaimed head of the ancient immortals, the keeper of the Eternity Dao Fruit, was telling him information of an exorbitant value! He should be grateful!

Considering Fairy’s unreliability, a consistent theme throughout his impression of her, Lu Yang decided not to take any shortcuts and began to diligently read the golden core formation experiences written by Elder Brother Disciples and former sect members.

“Single Golden Elixir, First-Grade Golden Elixir. The golden core is like a great sun, upright and unyielding. Settling in the center of the Dantian, it governs all directions, guards against evil spirits and prevents them from approaching. If it comes into contact with a female’s charm, the golden core will be destroyed and the person will perish.”

Lu Yang was quite lucky; merely flipping through a few pages of a book he randomly picked up, he found information relevant to Meng Jingzhou’s golden core.

Lu Yang closed the book, noticing the cover read, “Comprehension on forming Golden Elixir —Authored by Daoist Shen Du”.

Daoist Shen Du was the elder from the Cultivation World who named the Single Body Spiritual Root. This elder cultivator lived during the early period of the Great Yu dynasty. It’s unclear whether he passed away from natural causes or buried himself, planning to resurrect when the Great Era arrived.

As Lu Yang continued reading, he realized that despite being marketed as a guide to golden core formation, the book read more like a litany of Daoist Shen Du’s complaints.

“Damn you, Single Body Spiritual Root! Why do I have such an unprecedented spiritual root?”

“Am I being punished for sins I committed in my past life, or is it because I had too many wives in my previous life, and this is somehow creating balance?”

“Isn’t cultivating all about having a wives and concubines? Why am I the only one who’s different! What’s the point of cultivating then!”

Lu Yang silently closed the book, put it back in its place, and acted as if nothing happened before moving on to the next book.

“Oh, this is the guide to golden core formation by Eldest Senior Sister?” Lu Yang felt like he had found a treasure. The thick book recorded the golden core formation methods and experiences of his senior brothers and sisters.

Naturally, the Eldest Senior Sister’s experience was listed first.

He tried to contain his excitement as he read on, only to find his Eldest Senior Sister’s words:

“My method of forming a golden core holds no reference value. Please do not imitate. Those who learn from me will die, those who mimic me will die. To prevent people from imitating my golden core formation process in the future, I will not disclose my method.”