Chapter 308 - 301: The Human Race Will No Longer Refine the Golden Core

Song Ciwan stood inside the tree hollow, dazed for a moment.

But soon, her mind broke free from the torrent of emotions.

An excruciating pain flared in her chest. The wound from before had yet to heal. While the Ganlin Spell had eased the agony, it seemed powerless to close the injury.

There was no doubt something peculiar about the Gourd Treasure that had wounded her.

It possessed a strange, destructive power that prevented her wound from closing!

Although the Purple Ribbon Level Foundation Establishment Pill she had just obtained by selling the Blood God Seed was extraordinary, it had no healing properties and was useless against her current crisis.

The problem of her grievous injury remained unsolved.

’What should I do?’

’Should I leave this tree hollow, leave the Demon Realm, and go back to the Spirit Realm right now?’

’No, that won’t work!’

’If I return to the Spirit Realm this badly injured, won’t I just be a sitting duck? Besides, that Second Young Master’s Gourd Treasure has vanished in this passage, and I can’t just leave without finding it.’

’As long as that thing exists, it’s a threat. Since I’ve already killed the Second Young Master, I have to completely eliminate anything that carries his lingering aura!’

Her thoughts raced as she continued to extend her senses.

Soon, she discovered that the tree hollow was permeated with an indescribable, gloomy aura that made everything around feel deathly still.

Outside the tree hollow, the Demon Realm had been teeming with all sorts of creatures.

Those creatures were bizarre, chaotic, dark, and terrifying, but for all their negative traits, they were ultimately alive and vibrant.

But this tree hollow contained nothing but a single, withered passage.

There were no creatures of the Demon Realm, no plants or leaves, no chaotic human voices or demonic sounds... Inside the passage, everything was deathly quiet.

For a moment, Song Ciwan felt as if the entire world had been reduced to this single passage, and within that passage, she was the only person left.

A strange melancholy crept over her. It was a feeling of standing alone in a vast and empty world. ’When all other life in the world has vanished, leaving only me behind, what is the point of living forever?’

Unconsciously, lost in this melancholy and clutching her wounded chest, Song Ciwan wandered deeper into the tree hollow.

As she descended deeper, the dry, silent aura in the tree hollow grew more intense. Suddenly, a jolt shot through her chest, and her heart skipped a beat.

Jolted from her sorrow, Song Ciwan suddenly came to her senses. ’Wait, what was I trying to do just now?’

’Oh, right. I wanted to see if I could use the Heaven and Earth Scale to absorb the Death Qi in this tree hollow.’

But she had been inexplicably drawn in by the Death Qi, forgetting her true objective and instead wandering dazedly much deeper into the hollow.

Song Ciwan immediately summoned the Heaven and Earth Scale and tried to absorb the surrounding Death Qi. But she discovered that the method was ineffective; the Heaven and Earth Scale couldn’t draw out the Death Qi from the tree hollow.

...

Song Ciwan wasn’t discouraged. She felt she had been thinking about it all wrong. ’Why am I trying to absorb the Death Qi from the tree hollow?’

’I should be trying to absorb the Death Qi from my own wound! If I can’t absorb the external qi, surely I can absorb the qi on my own body?’

Following that thought, Song Ciwan placed her hand on the wound on her chest again and directed the Heaven and Earth Scale to absorb the stagnant energy clinging to it.

Sure enough, this time she succeeded.

Soon, a mass of qi appeared on the Balance Plate: [Starlight Death Qi, Death Qi generated by an injury from a Celestial Star Aurora-type Treasure. Weight: one jin and five taels. Available for trade.]

So that was what it was! The strange aura pervading her wound was called Starlight Death Qi!

Once the Heaven and Earth Scale absorbed the mass of Death Qi, the heavy feeling pressing down on her body suddenly dissipated.

It was as if a heavy shackle had shattered and fallen from her. Song Ciwan straightened up and cast the Ganlin Spell again. A gentle, healing rain fell upon her, seeping into her injuries. All over her body, her wounds began to heal at a visible rate.

The piercing wound in her chest, in particular—the most severe of all her injuries—healed even faster than the minor scrapes and cuts!

In just a few dozen breaths, Song Ciwan went from being on the verge of death to completely healed.

She stood up straight. Her recovery was one pleasant surprise, but an even greater one was that through this ordeal, Song Ciwan had discovered a new way to use the Heaven and Earth Scale.

With her grievous injuries healed, Song Ciwan’s confidence surged. A sense of clarity and vigor sharpened her thoughts.

She cast the Great Derivation Birth Skill once more. This time, she chose to burn ten years of her Lifespan to perform a Divination for the location of the Second Young Master’s Magical Treasure.

As her Lifespan burned, the power of the Great Derivation Birth Skill skyrocketed. The hazy, sluggish feeling, as if something had been obscuring her perception, vanished in an instant. Song Ciwan immediately followed her Spiritual Sense and continued deeper into the tree hollow.

The Divination had not been in vain; at the very least, it had put her mind at ease.

Song Ciwan’s pace started slow, then quickened, until she once again transformed into a wisp of wind, shooting straight down the tree hollow.

The wind swept through the silent tree hollow, traveling on and on, past several miles, then dozens of miles... even hundreds of miles, until the distance was simply impossible to measure—

Just as Song Ciwan was beginning to believe the tree hollow was a bottomless Abyss, the muffled sound of voices drifted up from the depths.

Song Ciwan instantly halted, hovering ethereally at a bend in the darkness.

The muffled conversation was chaotic, as if many people were shouting something in unison.

"From this day forward, the Human Race will not refine the Golden Core, but only temper the self!"

"Though the heavens collapse and the earth gives way, though the Jian Wood falls and the path to immortality is severed!"

"From this day forward, the Human Race will not be puppets, but be their own masters!"

"Though mountains and rivers wither, though eons fade and long life is no more!"

"From this day forward, the Human Race will not revere Immortal Gods, but only revere the self!"

"Though we face eternal damnation, though the ages wither in silence, though the path of the Dao itself may crumble!"

"From this day forward..."

The voices called out, one after another, at first muffled and indistinct, then gradually growing clearer, and finally, swelling with impassioned fervor.

Finally, the voices seemed to traverse endless ages, ringing in Song Ciwan’s ears with heroic, impassioned grandeur.

It compelled her to round the bend in the darkness, where she was met with the sight of a pile of grayish-white debris—of course, the debris was not the first thing to capture her attention.

Her gaze traveled upward to a mass of light and shadow shifting and changing above the debris.

Within the light and shadow, it was as if a vast world had been condensed.

There was a boundless sea of clouds, endless flashes of lightning, mountains sweeping by, lakes and oceans stretching across the land, vast deserts with raging sands, and endless green fields...

But beneath the lightning, mountain ranges collapsed, lakes and seas ran dry, and the desert sandstorms rose up to bury fleeing humans, one after another.

Some fell amidst cries of despair. Some gritted their teeth, turned, and fought back. Some stood against the mad deluge of thunder, raising their hands as if to hold back the collapsing heavens.

And still others formed a vast human array, their very bodies of flesh and blood forming a gigantic axe, which they aimed at a colossal, heaven-piercing tree and brought down with a thunderous CRASH!