Chapter 310 - 303: The Unspeakable Secret of the Golden Core

Song Ciwan’s heart hammered in her chest. She fixed her gaze on the child who had just swallowed the red dot.

After swallowing the red dot, the child suddenly let out a long howl at the sky.

Amidst the endless natural disasters, a cascade of boulders suddenly tumbled down from a nearby slope. The people on the ground scattered in panic. But the child, after his long howl, suddenly stretched out his left arm. His arm changed shape, transforming into a tough tentacle several dozen feet long.

The tentacle whipped out like a long lash, and with a CRACK, it shattered a boulder rolling down the mountain.

The child then extended his right arm, and a row of slender, hooked legs quickly sprouted from beneath it.

But that wasn’t all. He leaped up in an instant, and as he did, his legs also transformed, becoming a pair of long, slender insect legs with incredible elasticity.

With a single light leap, he soared hundreds of feet into the air.

Boulders continued to roll down the mountain endlessly, but the mutated boy moved like the wind. He leaped back and forth through the mountains, SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH, his entire body seeming to transform into a streak of lightning.

Soon, his tentacle was a blur, smashing all the boulders to dust.

Below, the fleeing people noticed this and couldn’t help but turn back to look.

Someone cheered, "This is great! We’re saved!"

But others were wary and panicked. "No, wait! Look, take a closer look! Doesn’t the way the Yu Family’s Third Son has transformed look... familiar?"

Someone answered with a trembling voice, "Yes, it’s familiar... it’s like... like those... those..."

The speaker couldn’t finish their sentence, but everyone who heard instantly understood what they meant.

For a moment, every single person’s heart pounded with terror.

They couldn’t put a name to it, but not a single one of them wasn’t filled with fear, trembling.

Someone suddenly shouted, "Weren’t all those things sealed beyond the Celestial Gate? How can they be appearing here? And why has Yu Sanlang turned into... this? Ah—"

Before the person’s shout had even faded, Yu Sanlang leaped down from the opposite mountain in an instant.

His figure was faster than lightning, and with a SWOOSH, he landed in front of the screaming person.

Then, his mouth opened, and a long, thin, hollow tube shot out. The entire tube was blood-red, like a scarlet thread, and it instantly stabbed into the screaming person’s mouth.

The person immediately fell silent, their eyes wide with terror, struggling with muffled whimpers.

But it was no use. It all happened so fast. In less than the blink of an eye, the thin tube that had pierced deep into their throat sucked out everything from within their body—their Energy, their flesh and blood, even their Soul Spirit.

The next moment, the person was reduced to a pile of dry bones that CLATTERED to the ground.

The entire scene fell silent. Only Yu Sanlang, who had just drained another’s life, began to change shape once again.

His head grew pointed and protuberant. His once-human eyes instantly became insectoid compound eyes. His pale skin took on a grotesque dark green hue, and small, fragmented plates of armor began to grow on it.

Not to mention the segmented, insect-like limbs that burst forth from his chest, the crooks of his knees, his abdomen... from all sorts of strange places, like bamboo shoots erupting from the earth. SHKT! SHKT! SHKT!

From his back, a pair of thin, translucent insect wings sprang out with a WHOOSH.

At this point, Song Ciwan finally understood. That thin tube that had extended from his mouth—how could it be just a tube? It was clearly an insect’s mouthparts!

A thought crystalized from obscurity. Song Ciwan, who had felt that something was just out of reach, something she couldn’t quite grasp, finally felt as if she understood the truth.

She couldn’t help but mutter to herself, "So this so-called Golden Core... there’s an insect wrapped inside it..."

The word after "insect" hadn’t even fully left her lips when Song Ciwan suddenly felt a shudder wrack her entire body!

It was as if a great and terrible horror had descended from the distant Void Realm.

An indescribable gloom, chaos, and oppressive pressure, carrying with it an infinite Death Qi as heavy as thick ink, swept violently toward Song Ciwan’s location like a landslide and a tsunami. RUMBLE!

Deep within the tree hollow, everything trembled.

The "ground" was trembling, the massive, floating halo of light was trembling, and the pile of ruin-like fragments beneath it was also trembling.

Never before had Song Ciwan so clearly felt it: Death... was descending!

She immediately understood. The word after "insect" could not be spoken!

At least, not here, not now, not under these circumstances.

It was a taboo, a terror, a path to death!

She, of course, immediately shut her mouth. At the same time, she saw the trembling, massive halo of light shatter into nothingness like a dream’s bubble. POP.

As for the pile of broken fragments below, there was even less to say.

They were already in a state of utter ruin, and in that instant, they crumbled into dust.

Only a few objects higher up—a pale, cracked gourd; a rust-spotted turret; a door panel covered in a dark red, alien substance—remained.

These few items disintegrated slightly slower, not turning to fine powder in a single instant.

It all happened in a flash. Sensing the imminent danger, Song Ciwan brought out the Heaven and Earth Scale and, with a SWISH, swept the pile of dust and the few remaining fragments above it into the scale.

Immediately after, Song Ciwan took out the Pass Token she had prepared, and with a single thought, activated it.

BZZZZ—

The Token released a faint white glow that instantly enveloped Song Ciwan.

Song Ciwan’s figure flickered and vanished from the depths of the tree hollow.

She left too quickly to see what happened in the very next instant: a fierce wind whipped up out of thin air inside the hollow.

In the face of the gale, the once rock-solid walls of the hollow crumbled like scraps of paper.

It continued until, far below, a long, deep root was revealed, anchored firmly in the endless void.

...

「Spirit Realm」

A sharp pain shot through Song Ciwan, who had just used the Token to escape the crisis in the nick of time. She knew she had just brushed past a storm. Though the storm itself hadn’t managed to tear her apart, the mere aftershock of its passing was enough to leave her deeply unsettled.

Standing there, a slow-blooming fear began to grip Song Ciwan’s heart.

The truth of the Ancient Era had been right in front of her, yet it was so horrific it couldn’t be spoken aloud!

Song Ciwan’s eyes swept her surroundings. She saw that she had returned to the main hall on the first floor of the Seeking Immortal Tower.

The white glow from the Token of Two Realms faded from her body. She was standing slightly to the left of the hall’s center. A quick glance toward the middle revealed the familiar White Dragon Head and Black Dragon Head.

Song Ciwan immediately stood still and regulated her breathing for a moment. Once the discomfort subsided, she walked briskly forward, cupped her fist toward the Black and White Dragon Heads, and said, "Messengers, this junior has returned to complete the mission."