Chapter 479 - 452: Those Whose Golden Cores Were Dug Out

On Thunder Strike Ridge, Song Ciwan followed the Spirit-Seeking Mirror’s guidance directly to the location of the Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Li Wood.

The good news was that there was indeed Thunderstruck Li Wood on Thunder Strike Ridge. As for the bad news... there was none.

The Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Li Wood grew in a crevice on a sheer cliff. That it could endure a millennium of lightning strikes without toppling or being burnt to ash showed that this Li Wood’s origins were anything but ordinary.

In fact, amid the constant lightning strikes of the past millennium, the wood had even sprouted new shoots from amidst its charred, withered trunk.

Though the new shoots were young and tender, hidden beneath the scorched trunk, they appeared extremely fragile at first glance, as if at risk of being destroyed at any moment. But... they had grown out, after all.

And the very finest Thunderstruck Wood required precisely this spark of life born from the brink of death.

Withering and flourishing coexisting, life and death advancing in parallel—this was Top Grade Thunderstruck Wood!

Just as Song Ciwan landed before the Thunderstruck Li Wood, in the far distance, Martial General Wang Cheng, who was carrying Ye Sheng, happened to glance in her direction.

Song Ciwan sensed it instantly.

It would have been impossible for her not to.

Now that her Body Refining cultivation had broken through the Flesh and Blood Slaughter realm to reach Opening the Universe, the veil that had once clouded her five senses suddenly lifted.

Without needing to use her Spiritual Sense, divine consciousness, or the Eye of Cyan Nether, she could perceive so much more with her naked eye alone.

The same was true for her other senses. All of them had been intensely magnified.

Furthermore, beyond her original five senses, her sixth sense had also been greatly enhanced.

This enhancement allowed her to have a deeper sense of her own fortune and misfortune, as if guided by an unseen hand. When making certain choices, she might even be able to vaguely glimpse a sliver of a possible future—

Why call it a ’possible’ future, rather than a ’definite’ one?

Because the Celestial Calculation Dao itself contains infinite variables.

What people call ’destiny’ is never set in stone; it consists of innumerable changes, countless possibilities!

As Song Ciwan’s practice of the Great Derivation Birth Skill deepened, her understanding of these principles grew ever more profound.

This was also why, despite possessing one of the world’s finest Divination Techniques, she rarely ever truly used it.

Destiny isn’t something to be calculated; it’s something you forge yourself!

Song Ciwan much preferred to use the Great Derivation Birth Skill as a Strange Technique for obscuring celestial secrets.

But now, the sixth sense born from her Opening the Universe breakthrough had led Song Ciwan to an even deeper level of understanding regarding fate and causality.

While fate should not be lightly divined, the instinct to pursue good fortune and avoid calamity was very much to Song Ciwan’s liking.

Her only fear was that destiny could sometimes be misleading...

Song Ciwan looked back toward Wang Cheng on the distant mountain peak, lost in thought for a moment.

Their gazes crossed hundreds of miles, meeting for an instant under the deep cyan sky before they each looked away.

Wang Cheng left, carrying Ye Sheng.

In truth, Song Ciwan had deliberately spared Ye Sheng’s life. He wasn’t dead yet.

Song Ciwan still remembered the scenes she had witnessed on the Demonized Jian Wood.

First, there were the Insect Eggs growing within their Golden Cores. Then, later, when the people of the Ancient Human Race were confronted with these eggs inside them, they had, one after another, dug out their own Golden Cores—

Setting aside the immense shock this heroic feat had given her, Song Ciwan later focused on another crucial piece of information.

Among those who had their Golden Cores removed, some failed in the extraction and died on the spot!

Some succeeded in extracting the Golden Core, and also died on the spot...

But there was also a very small minority who, despite having their Golden Cores removed, did not die!

Not only did they survive, but they even went on to walk a completely different path, one utterly distinct from that of the Golden Core.

Among these, perhaps, was Qi Blood Martial Arts, and perhaps there were other paths as well.

For example, there was the time when Song Ciwan’s Lifespan first broke through a major epochal threshold. Her spirit had soared into the mysterious void, where she caught a fleeting glimpse within the Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Amid those endlessly chaotic visions, she had vaguely seen a figure. Though its Dantian was hollow, as if its Golden Core had once been gouged out, the figure was nonetheless incomparably majestic and overwhelmingly powerful.

Her Dantian was shattered and ruined, yet her body was covered in various mechanical limbs. Powerful quivers were mounted upon her, rotating mechanically—a bizarre, dazzling sight that felt like a fusion of fantasy and science fiction.

’Could this... be another path for those who have lost their Golden Core?’

’What kind of path is it?’

’How can it be achieved?’

The glimpse was fleeting, more blur than clarity. Afterward, Song Ciwan often found herself wondering if the vision had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

But every time she ruminated on it, turning it over and over in her mind, she would reaffirm her belief: she hadn’t been mistaken. It had to be real!

In the Ancient Era, the Human Race, despite being at an absolute disadvantage, had disregarded life and death to mount a desperate counterattack, willing to pay any price to fight the Ancient Divine Insect Race to the very end.

Even those whose Golden Cores had been removed, people who seemed to have been crippled, would fit themselves with mechanical limbs, ascend to the heavens once more, and battle the Ancient Divine Insect Race to their very last breath!

These scenes had a profound impact on Song Ciwan.

This was why she had spared Ye Sheng’s life.

Ye Sheng was Ye Lingguan’s most beloved Closed-door Disciple. Only if he remained alive would Ye Lingguan exhaust every possible means to find a new path of cultivation for him.

Song Ciwan wanted to see something. The Ancient Human Race had used the path of machinery to allow those whose Golden Cores were removed to cultivate again.

So, what method would the Human Race of today use to help a crippled cultivator start anew?

’I hope Ye Lingguan won’t disappoint me.’

After all, not everyone who entered the Spirit Realm Secret Realm deserved to die.

If a new path could be pioneered, the threat of the Ancient Divine Insect Race would be drastically diminished.

These thoughts flashed through Song Ciwan’s mind. Once she had sorted through them, she pushed them aside.

Her attention returned to the Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Li Wood.

It was worth noting that this Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Li Wood she had found not only embodied both decay and growth, life and death, but because its life force was not yet extinguished, the Li Wood had even developed a faint Spiritual Sense.

In other words, this Li Wood had the makings of a demon!

Perhaps before long, the tree would be able to undergo Transformation and become a Li Wood Demon.

But now, as Song Ciwan stood before the Li Wood, the weak Spiritual Sense within it trembled delicately—a nascent, fawning quiver.

Beneath the scorched, dead wood, the small cluster of new shoots moved its leaves in unison, its stalk bowing with all its might.

Though the tree could not speak, its every subtle movement clearly indicated its submission.

’Is it begging me not to uproot it?’

Song Ciwan, however, wasn’t so tyrannical.

She gently stroked the Li Wood’s scorched trunk and said, "Seeing as you possess a spirit, how could I possibly take from you by force? In that case, how about I trade one tael of Yuqing Dew for a piece of your dead branch?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the tender shoots began to nod frantically.

Song Ciwan then formed a blade with her fingers and sliced off the most scorched section of the Li Wood’s branch.

Then, with a flick of her fingertip, tiny droplets of Yuqing Dew flew out and sprinkled onto the new shoots.