Dao Companions Help Me Live Forever

Chapter 178 Farewell, Breaking through the Gold Core

One year later.

Shangyang City, City Lord's Mansion.

Chen Xiao suppressed his laughter, trying hard to pretend to be sad, but couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Sorry, sorry, I suddenly thought of something happy."

Chen Xiao waved his hand repeatedly towards Yu Xian.

Yu Xian sat on the side drinking tea, expressionless, and said,

"Big brother, you called me over early in the morning, is it just to make me see you laugh?"

Chen Xiao tried to suppress his smile and finally stopped laughing.

"Of course not, am I such an unserious person? I called you over because there's something important I need to tell you."

"I'm leaving."

Yu Xian's body stiffened, nodding slightly.

"I understand."

Chen Xiao wanted to see Yu Xian's shocked expression, but he didn't expect him to react so calmly. He couldn't help but repeat,

"It's me who's leaving, and Xiaoyi too. She has decided to return to the sect early."

Yu Xian smiled faintly, "Until we meet again."

"Hey, no, aren't you surprised or sad?"

Chen Xiao couldn't accept it himself.

Yu Xian asked in return, "If you were sad, would you stay?"

Chen Xiao fell into silence, without the mood for joking, and talked about the real matter.

"Xiaoyi said that after we leave, in about forty years, a new Nascent Soul cultivator will come to guard here.

During this period, there won't be any more beast tides in the Wan Yao Mountain Range. The previous two beast tides have exhausted the potential of nearby monsters.

And a few days ago, an elder from Xuan Yang Sect had a fight with the Golden Peng Demon Emperor. The Golden Peng Demon Emperor suffered a big loss and has now retreated to his lair to recuperate."

Yu Xian pondered for a moment and said,

"So, you're saying that I will be the boss here for the next forty years?"

Chen Xiao smirked, "If you have the strength, and without me and Xiaoyi, if you can still suppress them, you can play however you want."

He didn't have Chen Yi's divine eye, nor did he have the true Gold Core realm, so he obviously didn't know Yu Xian's true strength.

Chen Yi naturally wouldn't boast about Yu Xian's strength everywhere.

So at this moment, Chen Xiao was looking forward to the show.

But he wasn't worried about Yu Xian's safety, because his sister had left him a life-saving treasure.

"Take this."

Chen Xiao took out a purple-gold talisman, just placing it in the air caused the surrounding spiritual energy to become silent, as if it had entered a vacuum environment.

"What is this?"

Yu Xian could sense the violent power contained in this talisman, even the talisman he had obtained from Zhao Laozu was far inferior.

"It's a fourth-grade Lingering Mark Talisman, containing the strike of a Nascent Soul late stage True Immortal. It's the life-saving trump card given to her by her master."

Chen Xiao's face showed a rare touch of sadness.

"I don't know what happened between you two, but I know Xiaoyi must still like you, otherwise she wouldn't even give you the trump card her master gave her.

So you better live well and not die easily.

If you die, she will definitely be very sad."

Yu Xian swallowed his saliva and wanted to refuse this parting gift with the dignity of a man, but his hand instinctively reached out to take the talisman.

How could a person give up their life for a little self-esteem?

"Thank Xiaoyi for me."

Yu Xian said very seriously.

With this talisman, he had three points of confidence even when facing a Nascent Soul cultivator. It was like having a second life.

Chen Xiao saw that Yu Xian opened his mouth but didn't refuse, and showed no expression, so he couldn't help but sneer,

"Don't you have anything to give Xiaoyi? You used to give her a wine gourd, and that thing turned into a top-grade spiritual weapon in Xiaoyi's hands, almost reaching the level of a magic treasure.

But it's strange, this time when you met Xiaoyi, the wine gourd is nowhere to be seen."

Yu Xian was stunned for a moment, he didn't dare to tell Chen Xiao that the wine gourd was in his storage bag, it was the first parting gift left to him by Chen Yi.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "The relationship between us is too materialistic, so I'll just give her my sincere heart, wishing her a smooth future without illness or disaster."

Chen Xiao almost couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, not giving anything is good too, so Xiaoyi won't have to think about it in the future."

As the saying goes, seeing an object reminds one of a person, having a gift makes it easier to miss someone.

He kindly reminded, but he didn't expect Yu Xian, this playboy, to suddenly lose his mind and not even know this trick.

Chen Xiao drank tea and saw Yu Xian off.

After Yu Xian left, he let out a sigh.

The path of immortality is difficult, and he does not have a method to extend his lifespan. In a hundred years, his soul will surely scatter, turning into a living dead puppet of a Dao soldier.

This parting, even if they were to meet again, they would probably only see his Dao soldier body.

"Take care."

...

Three days later.

Chen Yi and Chen Xiao left quietly without a sound.

From beginning to end, Chen Yi never saw Yu Xian again.

Perhaps they didn't know what to say when they met again, or perhaps not meeting was a way to leave a memory for each other.

In any case, they came back for Yu Xian, and now that their relationship has soured, there is no benefit in staying.

This place with scarce spiritual energy is ultimately not suitable for cultivation.

Chen Yi will not deliberately slow down and wait for Yu Xian. Since she has already made her choice, she will instead make the greatest effort to move forward.

If Yu Xian really surpasses her and becomes stronger, she will be able to let go of her pride without any worries.

After Chen Yi left, Shangyang City remained the same.

Although Lord Chen Xiao was no longer there, a new martial god general appeared and temporarily took over as the city lord.

This martial god general is also powerful. On the first day of his appearance, he called several ancestral elders of the noble families to accompany him in performing a ritual.

The ancestral elders did their best, but they couldn't break through the defense. They were all sincerely convinced.

So everyone calmly accepted the appearance of the new city lord.

The new martial city lord is even more mysterious than Lord Xiao.

He is always shrouded in a black robe, with an attitude that no one should approach. He usually cultivates in the mansion and never accepts invitations or seeks enjoyment. None of the maids in the city lord's mansion have ever been touched by him.

When Chen Xiao was the city lord, he couldn't help but indulge occasionally and have some friendly activities with a few maids.

But this martial city lord is pure and uninterested, not showing any interest in men or women, whether they are beautiful or ugly.

With the top combat power suppressing, and everyone being used to Yu Zhenren's absence, Shangyang City did not undergo much change due to Chen Yi and Chen Xiao's departure.

Life went on as usual, calm and uneventful.

And so, five years passed.

On the mountaintop of Shangyang, there was a real person's palace.

In the third-level gathering spirit array, there was a sturdy wooden carved bed, surrounded by hazy white gauze, with faint spiritual light flowing.

This turned out to be a bed of magical artifact level.

Yu Xian was bare-chested, sitting cross-legged on the bed, with a tired Yulan behind him.

In order to help him cultivate, she used secret techniques to transform into a cauldron, just to help him take the final step in the Foundation Building realm.

At this moment, rich spiritual energy enveloped his body, and with each breath, strands of magical power were generated in his dantian.

"Finally, finally reached this step."

Yu Xian let out a breath and looked at the green panel in front of his vision, where the cultivation points slowly increased to the last point.

[Name: Yu Xian]

[Cultivation: Early Gold Core (1/600000)]

[Soulmates: Yulan, Luo Han (2/3)]

In an instant, Yu Xian's body and mind trembled, and the surging spiritual energy continuously gathered.

Speaking of which, even if there is a third-level gathering spirit array, a second-grade superior spiritual vein cannot guarantee the breakthrough of a Gold Core cultivator.

Previously, Chen Yi was able to successfully break through, mostly relying on the spiritual energy provided by the treasures she carried, rather than the external spiritual energy.

But just as Yu Xian felt that the external spiritual energy was about to run out, countless spiritual energy and magical power poured out from an unknown dimension.

These spiritual energies made up for the lack of environment, allowing him to continue to break through smoothly.

Soon, Yu Xian looked inward at his dantian and saw that the nearly semi-solid 288 drops of Foundation Building magical power were emitting a strange red light, without any bloody or demonic aura, only the purest vitality.

In the center of the dantian, an invisible vortex appeared, and the Foundation Building magical power fell into the vortex like raindrops.

One drop, two drops, three drops... 288 drops!

The invisible force continuously solidified these Foundation Building magical powers, transforming them into crystal-clear solid magical powers.

But the Gold Core was still nowhere to be seen.

Yu Xian remained calm, refining the solid state mana that had already reached the limit of its current realm.

Suddenly, he felt a blessing in his heart, and a divine consciousness separated from his sea of knowledge and entered the vortex in his dantian.

It was like adding tofu to brine.

The previously silent mana vortex suddenly became violent, and the solid state mana began to explode.

Boom! Boom! Boom!!!

As the solid state mana exploded, countless strands of mana scattered and filled the entire dantian, causing it to gradually expand.

At this moment, a glimmer of light appeared in the spiritual vortex, a pure golden light.

Buzz! Buzz!!!

The exploding mana gathered around the light, merging together, and the light grew from the size of a grain of rice.

Until finally, all the mana disappeared.

Only a Gold Core the size of a longan remained in the dantian, but it still seemed semi-solid and could dissipate at any moment.

Yu Xian felt another blessing in his heart, and his blood and qi surged. The powerful force of blood and qi poured into his dantian.

The Gold Core seemed to breathe, absorbing all the blood and qi, gradually gaining a metallic texture.

The Gold Core was complete.

Yu Xian saw his dantian rapidly expand. If it was the size of a basin before, now it was the size of a bathtub.

Not only was it more spacious, but also stronger.

Solid state mana, as solid as a diamond, dripped from the Gold Core.

Each strand of mana was like a diamond, with a color resembling chicken blood ruby.

Plop! Plop! Plop!!!

One, two, three... two hundred and eighty-eight!

Two hundred and eighty-nine!

The limit of high-level magic power was successfully broken.

When the five hundred and seventy-sixth strand of mana fell, the diamond-like solid state mana surrounded the Gold Core, shining like a starry sky.

Then, strands of gaseous and liquid mana began to form around it.

The entire dantian was now as beautiful as a galaxy.

"Twice the mana, no, even more. The capacity of a Gold Core-level solid state mana is almost equivalent to ten times that of liquid state mana, and it is of higher quality.

This is twenty times!"

"Wow, such a huge difference. How did Chen Yi challenge higher realms?"

Yu Xian suddenly had a deeper understanding of challenging higher realms.

An ordinary Gold Core cultivator, relying solely on the abundant mana in the dantian, could easily crush ninety-nine percent of Foundation Building cultivators.

When the refinement of mana was complete, a faint aura rose from the lower dantian into the sea of knowledge.

Yu Xian felt his thoughts shining brightly, and a faint light appeared in his pitch-black sea of knowledge. His divine consciousness began to extend outward continuously.

Five hundred zhang, six hundred zhang...

One thousand zhang...

One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six zhang...

Nearly ten li in radius, everything was within his mind, and countless information flooded into his brain.

What used to overwhelm his mind was now absorbed effortlessly. In just a few breaths, he constructed a three-dimensional map with Yangshan as the center, covering a radius of ten li.

If he wanted to, he could even see an ant at the foot of the mountain.

As for his physical body, under the refinement of Gold Core-level mana, it became even stronger. Perhaps in a short time, he would be able to withstand the attack of magical weapons with his physical body alone.

It should be noted that he hadn't specifically cultivated his body. The strength of a cultivator was comprehensive, even if they were weak in one aspect, it was relative.

At this moment, the first half of breaking through the Gold Core stage was considered complete.

"Indeed..."

Seeing this scene, Yu Xian couldn't help but smile.

Everything went smoothly.

Whether it was the need for Nascent Soul spiritual objects or anything related to forming a Gold Core, it was completely unnecessary. Just follow the feeling, and breaking through was a simple matter.

"Now, it's time to engrave the divine abilities."

The newly formed Gold Core was very fragile, and it was the easiest time to engrave the divine ability patterns.

The so-called divine abilities, also known as innate spirit arts, could be seen as a kind of instant-casting spiritual art unique to Gold Core cultivators.

By engraving divine abilities on the Gold Core, they could form innate divine abilities, greatly reducing mana consumption and allowing for instant casting.

With a thought, the divine abilities were at their strongest.

From the lowest ninth-grade divine ability to the highest first-grade divine ability, there was a huge difference in power with each grade increase.

A Gold Core cultivator with a high-grade divine ability could defeat a Gold Core cultivator whose realm was higher than theirs.

The easiest time to engrave divine abilities was right after breaking through, when the Gold Core was constantly circulating mana and becoming stronger.

By the time one wanted to engrave divine abilities later on, it would require ten or even a hundred times more effort than now.

However, Yu Xian did not have any spiritual objects or resources that could enhance his abilities, which was one of the reasons why there was a growing gap between independent cultivators and those with inheritances or sects.

It was not just a difference in cultivation techniques, but also a difference in resources.

Ordinary independent cultivators could only seek resources for refining the soul after breaking through to the Gold Core stage in order to slowly cultivate their abilities.

On the other hand, those with sects or senior disciples already had resources for refining the soul when they broke through.

This created an instant gap between the two.

Originally, Yu Xian wanted to use the essence blood collected from the blood sacrifice array to engrave a classic technique from the Blood Demon Path, a fifth-grade Gold Core technique called Blood Shadow Doppelganger.

Being able to create doppelgangers using one's own essence blood was a good choice for both combat and escape.

Although the grade of the Gold Core technique was not high, it was a Gold Core technique that did not require the consumption of other resources.

However, after listening to Chen Yi's advice, Yu Xian gave up on this decision and instead decided to engrave his own comprehension of the Deceiving Heaven Technique onto his Gold Core.

Gold Core techniques could be upgraded.

Even if it started as a low-grade ninth-grade technique, through continuous refinement and understanding, and by finding suitable spiritual objects to strengthen it, it could be cultivated into a top-grade first-grade technique.

Of course, this was just a theory.

For most Gold Core cultivators, being able to raise the grade of their techniques by one level was enough to be proud of among their peers.

Yu Xian believed that he had some talent in the Deceiving Heaven Technique, and since he didn't have any suitable techniques or spells, he might as well use the Deceiving Heaven Technique.

Although it was weaker and didn't enhance his combat power, it suited him well.

The key point was that it was cheap to cultivate in the early stages.

With a single thought, Yu Xian began to recall the various key points of the Deceiving Heaven Technique. Gradually, his aura became weaker.

Lines appeared on his Gold Core.

Slowly, the Gold Core became ethereal, and finally, a peculiar character flashed and disappeared, leaving behind a fine line on the Gold Core.

The Gold Core technique was complete!

With a single thought, the Gold Core reappeared, and with another thought, Yu Xian disappeared on the spot.

"A single-line technique, a third-grade secret technique equivalent to a high-level spiritual technique, and it's only a ninth-grade technique."

"But it's not bad. I can move instantly with almost no consumption. Now I can use the Deceiving Heaven Technique anytime, anywhere."

"And I feel that the power of the Deceiving Heaven Technique engraved on the Gold Core has become even stronger."

Previously, it was already a third-grade secret technique. With the Gold Core activating the technique, it was probably close to the fourth grade. Without the Nascent Soul realm, it would be impossible to see through my concealment.

No, even Chen Yi couldn't detect the previous Deceiving Heaven Technique, and her divine sense was already comparable to the late Gold Core stage.

Now that the Deceiving Heaven Technique has advanced further, even an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator might overlook me if they're not careful.

Yu Xian's figure reappeared in the original spot.

After playing around for a while, he suddenly remembered something very important.

He concentrated his mind and prepared himself.

However, a stick of incense's worth of time passed, and nothing happened.

Yu Xian carefully put on a layer of spirit armor, a low-grade spiritual weapon that was the best defense he found in Shangyang City.

Then, he left the palace and went outside.

The night was pitch black, with few stars visible. Although it wasn't very clear, there were no dark clouds in sight.

Yu Xian rubbed his chin and muttered to himself,

"What the hell, where's my tribulation?"

He broke through the Gold Core stage, but he didn't see any tribulation. You should know that even Jiang Laozu, a third-grade puppet, was rewarded with a first-grade tribulation by the heavens.

But he, who had genuinely broken through, didn't even see a single cloud.

What would happen if a Gold Core cultivator didn't undergo tribulation?

I'm asking online, quite urgently.

Yu Xian stood in the night breeze for a while, not calming down but becoming somewhat impatient.

He always went with the flow, so since everyone else was undergoing tribulation, why shouldn't he?

Could it be that breaking through with external help didn't count as a real breakthrough and wouldn't be recognized by the heavens?

Or is it that the heavenly dao simply can't see him?

A ridiculous thought flashed through Yu Xian's mind, and yet he felt like he had found the correct answer.

After a while, Yu Xian took off the spirit armor and turned back to his room.

"Not being struck by lightning is also a good thing. Although I have a third-grade puppet helping me and have set up formations to resist, it's still just an ordinary level. I might be struck dead."

"But after the tribulation, my mana will become more refined, and it will also have the effect of enhancing my spiritual strength."

Why wasn't I struck? Am I not bad enough?

Yu Xian returned to the gathering formation and saw Yulan, who was sleeping, and his voice paused for a moment, revealing a faint smile.

"Never mind, contentment brings happiness. Let's go to sleep."

(End of this chapter)