Chapter 641 - 55: Like a Butterfly Struggling to Break Out of its Cocoon

Chapter 641: Chapter 55: Like a Butterfly Struggling to Break Out of its Cocoon

The light was so brilliant, so pure, so vast that it instantly outshone the countless stars in the sky and the distant lights below.

It even overshadowed the eternal, imperishable glow emanating from the Ironspine Duke—a radiance that existed on the plane of unobservable matter and spiritual perception!

The entire night sky was dyed gold!

"A Golden Core!"

For the first time, the Ironspine Duke’s voice lost its composure, laced with an indescribable shock.

To mortals, gold is a symbol of immortality.

It never fades, never rusts, and retains its original luster for thousands, even tens of thousands of years.

That is why the Cultivators who pursue eternal life named the first Dao Fruit they condensed on this path the Golden Core.

Murphy didn’t understand the Yin-Yang Law right now, so how could he break through to the Golden Core stage?

The reasoning was quite simple—

The earliest Cultivators didn’t understand the Yin-Yang Law either.

In the primordial era when the world was new, in a distant past before Daoist Skills were systematized, the first sages to walk the path of Cultivation had no scriptures to study, no masters to follow, and no inherited experience to draw upon.

So how did they achieve their breakthroughs?

They did nothing more than convert the last of their observable matter into unobservable matter.

It was a pure, instinctual, and nearly self-destructive leap.

Like a seed breaking through the soil, growing upward with reckless abandon.

Like a butterfly struggling out of its chrysalis, unfurling its wings with all its might.

There was no need to understand the Yin-Yang Law, no need to know about gravitational wells, no need to comprehend the interaction between Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

All it took was a single thought—

Forward.

Ever forward.

Forward, no matter the cost.

So what if it lacked the gravitational well of a true Golden Core to halt the Great Rip?

If it wasn’t there, it wasn’t there.

Then let the Great Rip spread, endlessly increasing one’s own power.

Let the torn, disintegrating, and dissipating self transform into the purest Energy, releasing the most brilliant light in the instant of destruction.

Like a star that, at the moment of its death, erupts with a light brighter than its entire lifetime.

This was another kind of "Golden Core."

A primitive Golden Core.

A Golden Core that used the self as fuel and destruction as its price.

A Golden Core destined to be ephemeral, yet dazzlingly brilliant.

This was how Murphy had managed to kill the Ironspine Duke ten years ago, by risking everything.

Back then, he didn’t understand the Yin-Yang Law, knew nothing of gravitational wells, and comprehended nothing of the balance between Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

He had simply poured everything—his Mana, his will, his life, his future—into that single strike.

He had succeeded.

The Ironspine Duke had died.

He should have died, too.

But he had survived.

Because someone had traded their life for his.

This time, however, was different.

This time, something inexplicable had appeared in his mind.

Knowledge of the Golden Core, insights into the Yin-Yang Law, the principles behind the construction of a gravitational well—it all surged into the depths of his consciousness like a tidal wave.

He didn’t know where any of it came from.

But regardless of the source, the result was the same.

He had a better understanding of how to break through.

A better understanding of how to contain his power.

A better understanding of how to maintain a final thread of clarity amidst the tearing.

That knowledge allowed him to perform better in this "replay of the past" than he had ten years ago.

That knowledge allowed him to walk further down the same path of destruction.

And so, the golden light now erupting from the cracked sword was even more brilliant, more pure, and more vast than it had been ten years ago.

However—

"But so what if it’s a Golden Core?"

The Ironspine Duke’s voice rang out again, his composure now restored.

It even carried a hint of mockery.

"Did you think I don’t know what you’re doing?"

He stood with his hands behind his back, the eternal, imperishable glow around him remaining perfectly stable under the reflection of the golden light.

"Your Dao Transformation Level is insufficient. Your comprehension of the Yin-Yang Law is lacking. You haven’t truly forged a Golden Core at all."

"You’ve merely forced the conversion of your last bit of observable matter. You’re just using the same old trick from ten years ago, pushing yourself to the brink of annihilation to unleash this momentary burst of power."

"This isn’t a Golden Core."

"It’s a final flare-up before death."

His voice grew louder, echoing across the golden sky.

"Did you think I couldn’t see through it? Did you think a trick like this could fool me?"

"You could risk your life ten years ago because you had an escape route. Someone traded their life to keep you alive, and that’s why you survived."

"But what about now?"

"Who else is there to save you?"

A cold smile touched the corners of his lips.

"This time, after you expend everything on this strike, will you still be alive?"

"Will anyone still be there to save you?"

"No one can save you."

"Once you unleash this strike, you’ll be gone."

"And then what?"

"What will happen to the people you’re protecting?"

"Taymer Palace will lose you, the Holy City will lose you, the entire Continent will lose you."

"I will be reborn. I will be resurrected in the future."

"Everything you’ve worked so hard to build will, bit by bit, return to the ’proper order’ under my control."

"The people you saved will fall back into despair."

"The hopes you ignited will be extinguished once more."

"And you?"

"You’ll be like a shooting star, streaking across the night sky only to disappear completely."

"No one will remember you."

"No one will know that someone once stood here, giving their all in an attempt to protect something."

"Because I will return everything to the way it was meant to be."