Chapter 557: Initial Formation of the Golden Core

Within the gray-white space.

Under Su Ming's relentless questioning, the figure of "Inner Demon·Lin Yu" began to blur slightly at the edges. The edges of that soul body, which had been as solid and real as a living person, started to ripple like a sand painting being swept away by the wind. But he quickly stabilized his form, his originally cold and detached expression twisting as his voice turned sharp and piercing.

"Foolish!"

"Inner Demon·Lin Yu" violently flicked his sleeve, and the gray-white fog rolled and churned with his movement.

"Do you think those trashy, low-grade states could ever catch my eye?

What is the most taboo thing about soul-snatching? It's the rejection between the physical body and the soul!

When you first began cultivating, your body was as fragile as paper; at Iron Wall Pass, your meridians were completely destroyed; even after arriving at the Central Continent, your Dao foundation was riddled with cracks, like a leaky broken bucket!"

"Inner Demon·Lin Yu" stared fixedly at Su Ming, a venomous light flickering in his eyes.

"I spent countless efforts teaching you formations and guiding you to find the Heaven-Mending Pill, all just to repair this vessel to its most perfect state!

The moment the Golden Core takes shape, your old divine sense will be reshaped and reorganized. That is when your soul is most defenseless, and when your physical body's vitality is at its peak!

How do you know he isn't waiting for this single, best opportunity?!"

This argument was logically airtight and flawless.

It perfectly aligned with the dark principles of the cultivation world, where everything is a calculated scheme.

Su Ming stood in place, silent.

The gray-white space was so quiet that only the rustling sound of the rolling fog could be heard.

"Inner Demon·Lin Yu" looked at the silent Su Ming, a triumphant sneer slowly returning to his twisted face.

But in the next breath, Su Ming slowly shook his head.

"Your scheme is perfect."

There was no despair in Su Ming's eyes, only a clarity that saw through the illusion.

"You have insight into all my memories and magnified all my fears about this cruel world. But in the end, you are just an inner demon born from the evolution of the Heavenly Laws."

Su Ming looked at that familiar face, his voice turning gentle.

"The Heavenly Laws only understand gain and loss, only the calculations of taking over a body versus being taken over. But you simply don't understand him."

In Su Ming's mind, the image of that old man with his dimmed soul body surfaced once again.

"He doesn't need to wait for any best opportunity.

Not because this body isn't perfect enough, nor because he lacks the means to seize it.

It's because he is my master."

The corners of Su Ming's mouth lifted slightly, revealing a genuine smile tinged with a sense of relief.

"It's not that I call him 'Master' because I need him.

It's because, outside that dilapidated temple, when I was waiting to die like a stray dog, when I was at my most destitute and had nothing left to lose…

He didn't set any conditions, nor did he make me swear any vicious oaths."

Su Ming looked at the illusion before him, his voice growing firmer with each word.

"That weak voice just said to me, 'Old man will teach you a way to live.'"

From beginning to end, behind that teaching lay the compassion of a soul from another world for another struggling life, not a long-planned act of body-snatching.

Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.

But beyond those cold calculations, there is always a warmth that an inner demon can never understand and can never imitate.

"Boom!"

The moment Su Ming finished speaking, the entire gray-white space began to tremble violently.

A look of extreme terror and disbelief appeared on the face of "Inner Demon·Lin Yu." He opened his mouth, as if to spew some kind of vicious curse.

But before his voice could escape, his face began to twist and collapse wildly.

That originally solid and dense soul body, like smoke swept up by a gale, began to disintegrate piece by piece from the edges.

There were no screams, no resistance.

Before an absolutely flawless Dao Heart, an illusion woven from fear was too fragile to withstand even a single blow.

Su Ming stood quietly in place, watching the illusion rapidly dissipating into the void.

He did not rush to leave. Instead, facing the clump of gray mist that was about to completely dissolve, he slightly bowed his head and solemnly spoke his final words.

"You are my master."

"You were never my tribulation."

"Crack—"

A crisp sound of shattering echoed from the deepest part of the gray-white space.

Immediately afterward, countless dazzling cracks, like a spiderweb, spread across the entire void space.

"Bang!"

Accompanied by a loud noise like a piece of glass breaking, the gray and murky space exploded with a roar, shattering into countless motes of light that dissipated.

The suffocating deathly stillness instantly receded.

In that moment, the faint orange lamplight inside the cave dwelling, the icy touch of the cold jade bed, and the surging spiritual energy racing through his meridians all came flooding back into Su Ming's perception at the same time.

His consciousness had completely returned to his physical body.

"Hum—"

Su Ming's eyes snapped open.

Inside the cave dwelling, the originally calm and flowing spiritual energy suddenly seemed to be pulled by some terrifying force, crazily pouring into his body.

Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately sank his divine sense inward to examine his Dantian.

Upon that translucent, bluish-jade-colored Dao foundation, the once azure-blue spiritual lake of energy had completely vanished.

In its place was a perfectly round pill of pure golden color.

It hung silently in the very center of his Dantian, rotating with a mysterious and slow rhythm, radiating a gentle yet unfathomable light.

Su Ming looked closely.

This Golden Core was completely different from the ordinary ones recorded in the ancient texts.

On its smooth and flawless surface, it was densely covered with countless slender lines. These lines were not carved afterward but seemed to have been born naturally, like the principles of formations.

This was the imprint of the "Like Water Art" cultivation method and the tangible manifestation of Su Ming's lifelong understanding of the path of formations.

The flexibility of water, the unyielding nature of water, the defense of arrays, the killing power of arrays.

Everything, everything, at this moment, had been perfectly forged into this single Golden Core.

Su Ming slowly withdrew his divine sense and turned his attention to the changes in his physical body.

He casually raised his right hand and clenched his fist with force.

There was no sense of inflated, floating power after suddenly gaining immense strength. The quality of the spiritual energy flowing through his meridians had been condensed more than tenfold compared to his peak at the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

Every drop of spiritual energy felt as heavy as mercury, yet it moved at his will, as if it were an extension of his own arm.

It was a solid feeling, a sense of fulfillment from having both feet planted firmly on the ground.

He closed his eyes again and extended his divine sense outward.

"Swoosh—"

The divine sense, like an invisible giant net, instantly pierced through the five layers of defensive formations outside the cave dwelling, spreading toward the surroundings of Gazing Star Cliff.

One hundred feet, two hundred feet, three hundred feet…

It expanded all the way to a limit of a full nine hundred feet before the edge of his divine sense finally felt a noticeable resistance.

The range had doubled entirely.

Moreover, within that nine hundred feet, even the trajectory of a falling leaf, or the crawling of an ant in the crevice of a rock, were all crystal clear in his perception.