Free Web NovelChapter 247: The Truth
A blinding flash of light illuminated the starry sky.
At the instant Yaoguang collided with the planet, spiderweb-like cracks erupted at the point of impact.
Countless fissures, some just several kilometers wide, while others dozens or hundreds of kilometers wide, were torn open across the planet’s surface. They spread outward at an unimaginable speed, stretching for thousands and thousands of kilometers.
The planet’s crust and mantle were ripped apart, causing magma to burst out from within. In the blink of an eye, the entire planet became a flaming sphere riddled with fractures.
However, that was not all.
As the force of the collision continued to propagate, the planet’s inner layers were completely torn apart, shattered, and blasted outward.
Countless masses of rock, mountain ranges, and even continental plates weighing hundreds of millions of tons were ripped from the planet and flung into outer space.
As the outer layers were gradually stripped away, the planet lost its surface, finally revealing its core. At its center lay a radiant stellar core, over five hundred kilometers in diameter, shining brilliantly.
"The true essence of this planet..." Yaoguang murmured.
But what truly stirred him was that he had shattered an entire planet with his own strength, a planet thirty thousand kilometers in diameter, even larger than the world he had lived in during his previous life.
Even though he had once commanded the Sea Guardian Institute, whose combined might could easily unleash sword light capable of tearing apart thousands of kilometers of land and possessed the power to destroy planets, that borrowed might could not compare to this moment.
So this is how strong I’ve become... Yaoguang thought.
From a fragile body that could not even withstand bullets, he had cultivated step by step, growing until he could now destroy a planet through sheer physical force.
It felt like yesterday that he had reached the third realm of body refinement in the Yaoguang World. Yet, looking at his former self now, it was no different than looking at an ant he could crush at any moment.
The gap was even greater than that between a human and an ant.
If he could easily shatter this planet, he could just as easily destroy the entire Yaoguang World. And when doing so, the grandmasters and martial paragons from back then wouldn't even be worth a second glance from him.
This kind of power was truly terrifying.
If I were to kill my past self, I wouldn’t even feel anything... I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t care, and I wouldn’t even notice. Even though I’m destroying a lifeless planet now, what if in the future, some greater existence seeks a high-quality stellar core, and, like me, ignores the life and civilization that may have developed on that planet, tearing it apart to extract its core? Yaoguang pondered.
Maintaining his star god body, Yaoguang reached out and grasped the planet’s stellar core, then turned back toward the Great Cangwu World.
Because of the existence of the Void Psychic World, and because the top immortal sects of the Great Cangwu World all sought to unify it and thus needed to maintain their image, they still had to consider reputation and face before acting. As a result, it was rare for high-tier cultivators to slaughter ordinary people indiscriminately.
But in worlds where communication was underdeveloped, where ordinary people and low-tier cultivators had little access to information, high-tier cultivators could act without restraint.
"Morality? Law? Conscience? None of it exists!" Yaoguang took a deep breath. "To high-tier cultivators, ordinary people and low-tier cultivators are no longer even the same species. Let alone star gods and ordinary people; even star lords or Foundation Building cultivators are separated from ordinary people, as if they were completely different lifeforms... When a human pours boiling water over an ant nest, do they feel guilt? Do others judge their morality?"[1]
At this moment, his understanding of life reached a new level. Only beings of the same level would regard each other as true lifeforms worthy of acknowledgment.
All these years, what he had pursued, considering it "personal safety", was, in truth, to prevent the day when someone might destroy a world filled with life and civilization, just as he had destroyed this planet. He didn't want to be on that planet, without even the qualification to be noticed.
A low hum resonated as he activated the Star-Devouring Technique.
The energy within the stellar core was continuously drawn out and poured into his star god body.
As the 108 major acupoints within his body shone with starlight, the four closest ones in his hand were gradually filled.
Without the aid of other high-energy resources, refining stellar cores through this crude method was the only way for a star god to fill their acupoints.
One day later, Yaoguang sensed the slightly dimmed radiance of the stellar core.
"It's slower than I expected... It will probably take one to one and a half months to fully absorb this stellar core." He calculated.
The core of a planet thirty thousand kilometers in diameter was still not enough to completely fill a single acupoint.
The capacity of one acupoint was roughly equivalent to the core of a planet over fifty thousand kilometers in diameter. The exact amount depended on the quality of the stellar core.
"It's probably because I’m still not proficient enough. My Star-Devouring Technique has already reached perfection. Compared to other star gods refining stellar cores, I’m at least ten times faster. For others, without secret techniques to assist them, refining a single primary star's core through brute force would likely take over a year. Just filling the 108 acupoints of a third-tier star god would take more than a hundred years." That number made him sigh.
"To fill all 1080 acupoints would take over a thousand years... and that’s just filling them, not counting the time needed to open them. If I take that time into consideration, obtaining a fifth-tier star god body could take almost two thousand years."
It would take almost two thousand years to cultivate a fifth-tier star god body. But what about refining the psyche until it reached perfection of the Dharma Form? Or cultivating qi to the Golden Core Realm? All of it required time.
Although Core Formation cultivators in the North Sea Star system had longer lifespans than Golden Core cultivators of the Great Cangwu World, living up to a thousand years, that time was still far from sufficient to advance further into the Void-Piercing Realm, where one could distort the effects of time and obtain boundless longevity.
Since a thousand years were not enough to reach the Void-Piercing Realm, those who sought to become true great powers had no choice but to rely on external forces. That meant precious cultivation resources.
Based on that, it wasn't hard to imagine that the North Sea Star cultivation world would be far more competitive than the Great Cangwu World.
Forget it. There are still ten or twenty years left. When that batch of cultivators returns from the North Sea Star, I’ll understand the situation and make an informed decision. If the competition is too fierce and dangerous, I can stay in the Great Cangwu World. With my current level and the Star-Devouring Technique, I can slowly cultivate and still reach the Void-Piercing Realm within two to three hundred years.
Although the Void-Piercing Realm cultivators didn't stand at the pinnacle of the North Sea Star, unlike the Radiant Sun Golden Core Realm cultivators that stood at the pinnacle of the Great Cangwu World, each Void-Piercing Realm expert could still be considered a great power.
Even if, within the North Sea Star, they couldn't be considered to possess might equivalent to that of a Radiant Sun Golden Core cultivator in Cangwu—someone able to destroy the world they lived in—they could at least be compared to a Crimson Golden Core in terms of ranking.
***
Just as Yaoguang was refining the planet’s star core, the Nine Cauldrons Sect suddenly released an announcement. "Due to the outstanding contributions of Yaoguang, deputy hall master of the Profound Array Hall, Artifact Refinement Hall, and Inheritance Hall, it has been unanimously decided by the higher-ups of the Nine Cauldrons Sect to promote Perfected Master Yaoguang to the Supreme Elder Council, making him the second supreme elder of the sect after Perfected Master Li."
This was the official announcement. It was brief. Below was some basic information about Yaoguang. And among these details, the most eye-catching part was the description of his cultivation.
He cultivated essence, qi, and psyche simultaneously. His body cultivation was at the Star God Realm, qi cultivation at the Crimson Golden Core Realm, and psyche cultivation at the Dharma Form Realm!
Once this information was made public, both the other factions and some higher-ups of the Nine Cauldrons Sect themselves were left stunned.
Qin Yi, Bai Lu, Dong Liushui, Xu Kong, and Zhao He, all familiar with Yaoguang, immediately sought out his personal guard, Tang Fenghua.
"Star god? Crimson Golden Core? Dharma Form? What’s going on? Has a new Golden Core Realm cultivator appeared in the Great Cangwu World?!"
"Wasn’t Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang’s Dharma Form reliant on the Origin World and the Heavenly Dao Sovereign array to manifest? This Dharma Form... is real?!"
"He cultivated essence, qi, and psyche simultaneously, and pushed all three paths to their peak? Is he really the same Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang we know?"
Amid their confusion, everyone asked Tang Fenghua countless questions, who stayed by Yaoguang’s side and was bound to know the inside details.
"Calm down." Tang Fenghua smiled and gestured for them to settle. "I know what you want to ask. Now that the news has been released, I can naturally answer everything. All this information is true. Perfected Master Yaoguang broke through to the Dharma Form Realm long ago. After that, he refined an outer core and elevated his physique to the Star God Realm."
"It’s actually true..." Bai Lu’s expression turned dazed.
"This all happened ten years ago. Do you still remember the attack on the Immortal-Proving Tower headquarters of the Immortal Alliance? During that battle, both a mysterious Golden Core cultivator and a mysterious Dharma Form cultivator appeared..." Tang Fenghua smiled faintly. "By now, you should be able to guess who it was."
"Him?"
"Then the Immortal Alliance wasn’t wrongly accusing us after all..." Dong Liushui and Xu Kong muttered.
Meanwhile, Qin Yi, the star lord who had first come into contact with Yaoguang, showed a strange expression. "So all these years, we star lords, Foundation Building cultivators, and primordial psyche cultivators have been personally guarding a perfected master who simultaneously possessed Star God Realm, Golden Core Realm, and Dharma Form Realm strength?! Seriously, did he think that highly of us?"
"It was merely a temporary measure to prevent his strength from being exposed too early and causing unnecessary danger," Tang Fenghua replied with a laugh.
Bai Lu’s eyes flickered slightly. "Then now that this information has been made public..."
Tang Fenghua nodded, his expression turning serious. "Both Perfected Master Yaoguang and our sect as a whole have sufficient strength to protect themselves!"
As he spoke, he turned his head slightly, his gaze seeming to pass beyond the sea and the void, toward a distant horizon. "I’m very curious to see how those forces that once targeted and oppressed us will react after finding out about Perfected Master Yaoguang’s true strength."
1. Editor's thoughts: Yes. Yes, they do. Do not go pouring boiling water over ant nests, thank you. ☜
