Chapter 537: I Think I’m a Gold Core Too

In the brief exchange between Zhang Yu and Wuying, the ground beneath them had already shattered layer by layer from their collisions.

The terrifying force twisted and pulverized the earth with every impact, sending clouds of dust surging skyward and spreading in all directions until the entire battlefield was engulfed in haze.

Several bursts of blood mist exploded from Zhang Yu’s body in succession. Though he was repeatedly injured, he managed to endure it all through the formidable defense of his Earth-Wood Saint Body.

“Oh?” Wuying’s eyes widened slightly as he watched the scene, saying with some surprise, “It seems that subduing you without killing you will take me a bit more effort.”

Zhang Yu’s gaze deepened, his whole being turning into a silent abyss.

He knew that to fight a Gold Core cultivator while still in Foundation Establishment was hopeless.

Just like how a Qi Refinement cultivator could never beat one at Foundation Establishment, the gap between realms was simply too vast.

Even in every fundamental aspect, his opponent’s stats far exceeded his own. And if the opponent added the special means of a Gold Core cultivator into the mix, Zhang Yu would have no chance of victory at all.

A few exchanges were enough to confirm this truth.

“I have to use the Divine Spirit Root,” he thought grimly. “Otherwise, I won’t last much longer.”

“This is already a path of no return.”

The dust around him spread wildly under the control of his Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might, cloaking the battlefield layer after layer.

“If I’m going to use the Divine Spirit Root,” he thought, “then using this storm of dust and martial qi as cover should conceal it as much as possible…”

Although the Spiritual Realm connection was cut off and Zhang Yu hadn’t sensed any monitoring through the Evil God’s Detection Ritual, the presence of so many people — and so many eye-nodes watching — meant he had to conceal himself as best as possible.

At the same time, his plan for the coming fight had already formed clearly in his mind.

“Use Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might to control the shattered ground and dust, then combine it with martial qi and the Divine Spirit Root to stall for as long as possible.”

“At the same time, focus on damaging the surrounding terrain — that’ll give us a chance to retreat.”

“After all,” Zhang Yu mused, “I’m better at construction and environmental modification than I am at head-on combat.”

In his mind, structural blueprints appeared one after another — the same diagrams he’d memorized while working on levels 666, 667, 668, and countless others.

Though the floor was different now, the general structure of the University City’s layers was identical.

To his eyes, the battlefield’s weak points were as clear as day.

“If I can just create a chance to retreat, once everyone scatters, I’ll be far more flexible alone.”

As Zhang Yu made up his mind to use the Divine Spirit Root, the others nearby felt their hearts tremble as they watched him — a Foundation Establishment cultivator — still fighting a Gold Core head-on, refusing to yield.

Yu Xinghan bit his lip, forcing himself to suppress his fear of the demonic Gold Core before them.

Looking at Zhang Yu still battling to the death, he felt admiration, envy, and a deep shame toward his own fear.

“This guy… where does he get that kind of courage? He’s just Foundation Establishment like me, yet he dares to stand in front of us all. Isn’t he afraid of dying?”

“With no Spiritual Realm support — if he dies now, he’ll really die. His soul will scatter…”

For a moment, Yu Xinghan saw once again the same figure he’d once watched in a livestream — Zhang Yu standing against Director Wang — charging forward without hesitation.

As the fight raged, he quickly understood their situation.

“If even one of us joins the Demon Sect, the rest will either be silenced or forced to join too.”

“It’s either death, or conversion. This Gold Core of the Demon Sect will give us no other choice.”

Join them? Abandon all he’d built and worked for to become a demon?

Yu Xinghan’s heart screamed in protest.

He had sacrificed so much, spent so much money, devoted everything to reach this point — how could he give it all up now?

Then Zhang Yu’s voice echoed faintly from within the storm of dust: “I’ll do my best to create an opening. Once you see it — run.”

Even as he spoke, he thought to himself, “Once they’re gone, I can use the Divine Spirit Root more freely…”

Those words struck the others like a thunderclap.

Yu Xinghan froze, staring at Zhang Yu’s silhouette before the demonic Gold Core. Something inside him ignited.

Then, in his mind, he roared: “Screw it! Let’s fight!”

Empowered by his Three-Eyed Divine Sight, Yu Xinghan learned techniques extremely fast.

When he massaged upper-year students from the Civil Engineering Department — like Shi Huaiyu and Su Yanyang from the competition team — he’d sensed through his ability the subtle strains and shifts of their muscles and mana.

As his Three-Eyed Divine Sight improved, his sensitivity grew sharper — until he found he could faintly comprehend their martial techniques just by feeling those changes, techniques he shouldn’t have been qualified to learn at all.

He had carefully kept this secret, never telling a soul.

Until now.

As Zhang Yu bled and fought before him, Yu Xinghan unleashed his long-hidden trump card.

His handprints changed — and the Small Threefold Harmony activated.

The earth surged with a deafening rumble. Like a furious dragon, it rose beneath the duststorm, crashing toward Wuying.

Shi Huaiyu was the first to react.

As an upper-year student who had practiced the Small Threefold Harmony for years, she instantly recognized the familiar tremor.

The moment Yu Xinghan unleashed it, she looked at him in shock.

She hadn’t expected Yu Xinghan to secretly master the first three Absolutes of the Civil Engineering Seven Absolutes — nor that he would dare to use them openly.

Even with the Spiritual Realm disconnected, even facing a demonic Gold Core with no retreat left — and even with Zhang Yu blazing so brightly ahead…

“This is copyright infringement!” she blurted out reflexively.

But Yu Xinghan didn’t care who noticed anymore. He shouted, “What are you all standing around for? There’s no Spiritual Realm! No monitoring! If you don’t fight now, you really planning to join the Demon Sect?”

Shi Huaiyu gritted her teeth, glaring at the demonic Gold Core. “Fine! Then screw it!”

Her palms changed forms as she struck toward Wuying through the storm of dust.

A crushing Earthfiend Gravity surged forth — like an invisible giant hand grabbing Wuying in place.

As a seventh-year student, disciple of Tu Lishan, and member of the competition’s top Civil Engineering team, Shi Huaiyu had long been a key figure of the department’s War Faction.

Five times class first-place, two passes through the Seven Trials — she had recently mastered the final art of the Civil Engineering Seven Absolutes.

And during that last training process, working on-site day after day, she began to notice faint connections between the Seven Absolutes.

Through endless repetition, those links grew stronger — until one day, a trace of Earthfiend Gravity arose within her.

Terrified, she dispersed it immediately, afraid of being discovered. Without a military license, she dared not attempt to activate the Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might.

But as her last Absolute deepened, the feeling only grew stronger.

She’d stopped training, afraid her talent would ruin her. Even so, the Heaven Kunlun power inside her never faded — it only kept increasing.

She could feel that terrifying strength, yet she’d been forced to suppress it, to bury it under exhaustion and fear — day after day of overwork and overtime.

Until now.

Now, with a roar, Shi Huaiyu finally unleashed the Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might within her.

The violent Earthfiend Gravity surged forth, carrying all her pent-up rage, frustration, unwillingness, and fear.

“Hm?”

Feeling his body caught by two separate Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving forces, Wuying glanced toward Yu Xinghan and Shi Huaiyu in surprise.

At the same time, he caught sight of Shi Yunxiang and Ying Xin darting away, furiously digging into the ground on either side.

“So — two are trying to run, while the rest plan to fight me head-on?”

“You can’t even gauge the gap between our strengths… how did any of you get into the Ten Major Academies?”

With a deafening boom, the ground Yu Xinghan had raised coiled around Wuying like a dragon.

Seeing the two of them giving it their all to hold the Gold Core down, Zhang Yu roared, his golden-and-crimson martial qi erupting once again as he activated the Mountain-Moving Giant.

The Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might he had accumulated through the Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force burst forth in full.

His twin palms slammed forward — one channeling the white comet of the Ten Planetary Forms atop the Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force; the other pure, devouring Earthfiend Gravity from the Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might, forming a dark abyssal domain.

Nine Heavens Mountain-Moving — Comet Bomb x Stardust Bind!

With an earth-shattering crash, Yu Xinghan and Shi Huaiyu’s restraints shattered as Wuying’s body was thrown backward, his head snapping up.

One step. Two steps. Three steps…

He stopped, dusting off his clothes, and said calmly, “So. Now you understand the gap between us.”

“The difference between a Gold Core and Foundation Establishment isn’t something you can cross.”

“Now then — have you thought about joining us?”

As he spoke, Wuying extended a finger toward Zhang Yu’s right arm.

A blast exploded. Blood mist burst out as bones cracked audibly.

But before Wuying could follow up, Zhang Yu’s figure vanished into the smoke — his presence completely gone.

“Hm?” Wuying frowned. “What is this movement art? A function of a Law Husk or artifact?”

As he turned to disperse the smoke, an overwhelming aura forced him to look elsewhere.

Xiao Qingxuan’s mind flashed with the days they’d all shared in the dorm — Zhang Yu’s figure standing before the demonic Gold Core — Yu Xinghan and Shi Huaiyu’s defiance.

He sighed to himself. “Tch. That ancient ghost’s ideals are rubbing off on me again.”

“Damn it… I really am crazy.”

“I should’ve destroyed that Gold Core when I had the chance…”

He popped a golden pill into his mouth.

A terrifying pressure burst out from within him, his body wrapped in blazing martial qi so thick his face was no longer visible.

Under Wuying’s astonished gaze, Xiao Qingxuan said quietly, “Almost forgot.”

“I think I’m a Gold Core too.”