The Master and His Wealthy Fiancée

Li Zhixuan was still in a daze long after Chen Dong had left. He could have refined the great treasure himself, yet he had given it to him.

Li Zhixuan didn't believe Chen Dong's excuse about not knowing how to harvest it for a second.

Li Zhixuan sighed deeply. "I owe him a huge favor for this."

With that, he sat down and began to refine the Five Senses Calming Flower. 'Chen Dong was right. If a Nascent Soul from the Cyan Sky Sect shows up, the two of us would never be able to hold on to a treasure like this. I'd better refine it quickly!'

Chen Dong strolled through the black mist.

Mu Qingzhu asked, "I can understand not knowing what it was at first, but now that you do, are you really okay with just giving it away?"

"Don't ask. I'm heartbroken over it!"

Others might have believed him, but Mu Qingzhu didn't buy it for a second. She was sharing his body and senses, yet she hadn't felt the slightest bit of reluctance or heartache from him.

She was finding it harder and harder to understand Chen Dong. 'If it were me,' she wondered, 'would he have been willing to give up such a great treasure?'

Mu Qingzhu couldn't find an answer, but she knew one thing: she had not placed her trust in the wrong person for her rebirth.

Just then, through the left eye empowered by the Great Divination Art, Chen Dong saw a gleam of black light within the black mist.

That's right—in a world of absolute darkness, he saw a streak of blackness that was shining. If not for the Great Divination Art's ability to "see through" the essence of matter and discern its nature, it would have been impossible to notice this peculiarity.

Chen Dong walked toward the gleam of black light, but it dodged away. He used the Great Divination Art to give chase. The streak of light was incredibly fast, and Chen Dong pursued it through the black mist for quite some time. If it weren't for the Great Divination Art's ability to predict the future, the black light would have escaped.

Just when he thought he had it, the unexpected happened—again. The instant the light made contact with Chen Dong, it merged directly into his body. He still had no idea what it was.

Chen Dong felt it was like a wisp of energy. Suddenly, Spiritual Power began to surge madly from his Dantian—and it was Spiritual Power of the highest purity.

Spiritual Qi is generated between heaven and earth and must be refined by a Golden Core Cultivator to be converted into Spiritual Power. Chen Dong's Inner Realm cultivation could only produce True Qi. But now, Spiritual Power was erupting from his Dantian without any need for refinement, gushing out in an explosive torrent.

Immediately after, his upper, middle, and lower Dantians all began to ache and swell. His meridians could no longer contain so much Spiritual Power, and his original True Qi was being forced out of his body.

'Am I going to explode?' The sensation was unbearable. Chen Dong hastily asked, "Qingzhu, do you have any idea what that light was? This is too bizarre!"

There was no answer from the Jade Embryo. Chen Dong suddenly realized he could no longer sense Mu Qingzhu's presence.

'What's going on?' Cold sweat beaded on Chen Dong's brow. He was supposed to be sharing a body with Mu Qingzhu. She had been using his body to perform the Great Divination Art, and the technique was still active, yet she had vanished. The Jade Embryo was still in his Dantian, but her presence was gone.

'This shouldn't be happening. It's completely wrong. When sharing a body and senses, our souls should be intertwined. How can I be completely unable to sense her existence?'

Chen Dong couldn't explain his current condition. Everything was simply too bizarre. He felt as if the Spiritual Power was inflating his entire body like a balloon.

Chen Dong gritted his teeth, forcing his body to frantically absorb the Spiritual Power to strengthen itself, but the rate of absorption was nowhere near the rate at which the Spiritual Power was surging. He felt as if his body was on the verge of being torn apart. It was then that he vaguely sensed the strange black light again. It was right inside his Dantian, just as he'd thought—a single wisp of energy.

He watched as the wisp of black energy completed a single rotation in his Dantian, generating an immeasurable amount of Spiritual Qi. Simultaneously, his Inner Realm Barrier was effortlessly shattered, and he reached the Eleventh-Layer Foundation Establishment!

The pressure on Chen Dong instantly eased, but the swelling pain immediately returned, consuming his entire body. He was full to bursting again!

The cycle repeated. The black energy rotated once more—Extreme Dao, Twelfth-Layer Foundation Establishment!

Chen Dong was both shocked and overjoyed. He hadn't managed to break through to the Extreme Dao even when he'd grasped the intent of the Martial Dao on the brink of death, yet this black energy had done it with ease.

The Spiritual Power continued to emerge in a mad torrent, seemingly endless and inexhaustible. Suddenly, Chen Dong felt a celestial premonition: the Golden Core Tribulation was coming!

Everything was happening too fast. If it weren't for the constant, agonizing pain of his body being on the verge of collapse and the successive blooming of the Spiritual Golden Lotus in his sea of consciousness, Chen Dong would have been certain that some mighty expert had invaded his Divine Sense. But it was all real. The Floating Mountain in his sea of consciousness was also constantly absorbing the energy and growing stronger.

This filled Chen Dong with both overwhelming joy and a profound sense of fear toward the black energy.

'What in the world is this?'

But Chen Dong had no time to ponder it. As his meridians, Dantian, and physical body once again reached their absolute limit, a pea-sized Golden Core condensed within his Dantian.

Chen Dong's bottleneck was shattered once more. He had reached the Ninth-grade Golden Core.

Chen Dong was stunned, his mind unable to process what was happening. 'Where's the Thunder Tribulation? Where is it?! My celestial premonition couldn't have been wrong! I haven't undergone a tribulation—there weren't even any tribulation clouds! How can I have a Golden Core?'

Everything that was happening shattered Chen Dong's understanding of cultivation. Most bizarre of all, he didn't even need to operate his Cultivation Technique; his Spiritual Power now circulated on its own in a perfect cycle.

As the Golden Core formed, the black energy began to revolve around it. One revolution, then two... the energy seemed to be slowly merging with his body, and with the Golden Core itself.