Beyond the Seal

Hao Nhien raised his head immediately.

The Western Wastes.

That thought sent a chill down his spine.

A true Golden Core cultivator could not exist within this land.

He did not know whether the seal would forcibly suppress the core formation, reject him from the region, or trigger something even more dangerous.

And he certainly could not use the thousands of people gathered around the square as an experiment.

Hao Nhien immediately forced the Soul Art to slow and used his intent to stabilize the True Qi gathering in his dantian.

But the process had already begun.

Lieu Thien Van, standing nearby, quickly noticed the change in his expression.

“Hao Nhien, what is it?”

Hao Nhien turned toward him.

His voice was low but urgent.

“City Lord, please explain things to everyone for me.”

Lieu Thien Van frowned immediately.

“Explain what?”

“I need to leave the Western Wastes.”

Hao Nhien looked directly at him.

“Right now.”

Lieu Thien Van paused.

Then his eyes changed instantly.

“Golden Core?”

Hao Nhien nodded.

No further explanation was needed.

Lieu Thien Van understood the seriousness immediately.

He was about to speak when a flying sword appeared beneath Hao Nhien’s feet.

Spirit Wings unfolded at the same time.

“Don’t let everyone panic.”

That was all Hao Nhien had time to say.

A burst of wind exploded over the platform.

His figure shot into the night sky.

The flying sword became a streak of light heading directly east.

Spirit Wings erupted again, rapidly increasing the distance between him and the square.

Everything happened too quickly.

The people below had still been applauding and celebrating the Alliance Leader’s return.

Now they could only watch a streak of sword-light tear across the night and vanish into the distance.

The voices gradually stopped.

Luu Thanh immediately stepped toward the platform.

“City Lord, what happened?”

Lieu Thien Van continued staring east.

“Don’t panic.”

“He encountered a change in his cultivation.”

“He needs to leave the Western Wastes immediately.”

Quan Lam had already understood that something was wrong.

He stared in the direction Hao Nhien had disappeared, his expression turning serious.

“Could it be…”

“Golden Core tribulation.”

Lieu Thien Van said the words quietly.

Those three words alone were enough to change the expressions of everyone standing nearby.

Lanh Hoa asked nothing.

A flying sword appeared under his feet at once.

He shot into the air and pursued Hao Nhien.

Luu Thanh was about to follow when Lieu Thien Van stopped him.

“Stay!”

“There is no need for all of you to go.”

“The Clan Chief is alone—”

“Lanh Hoa is enough.”

“If this truly is a Golden Core tribulation, getting close will only put you in danger and may distract him.”

Quan Lam reached out and stopped Luu Thanh.

“Listen to the City Lord.”

“This isn’t something more people can solve by gathering around him.”

Luu Thanh clenched his teeth.

In the end, he forced himself to remain.

At the outer edge of the square, Tieu Nhan stood silently staring into the sky.

She had heard the exchange near the platform.

She could also see Hao Nhien’s sword-light disappearing at an astonishing speed.

After a while, she sighed.

“Again…”

That afternoon he had promised to take her back to Cat Loi.

He had not even been home for one full night.

And he was already gone again.

Lieu Thien Van watched until the two streaks of sword-light had nearly vanished.

Then he turned toward the restless crowd.

“There is no need to worry too much.”

“Hao Nhien was not attacked.”

“Nor is Hoa Van in danger.”

The old man paused, his expression carrying a trace of helplessness.

“It is simply that brat…”

Lieu Thien Van shook his head.

“…is about to break through again.”

The entire square became silent.

One breath passed.

Then another.

And then the voices erupted.

“Another breakthrough?”

“Didn’t the Alliance Leader only just reach Foundation Establishment layer nine?”

“Could it really be Golden Core?”

“But how can a true Golden Core exist in the Western Wastes?”

“That’s why he had to leave!”

Discussion exploded everywhere.

Some were shocked.

Some excited.

Others looked toward the east with worry, even though the sword-light had already disappeared.

Lieu Thien Van offered no further explanation.

He understood that if Hao Nhien truly crossed that threshold, the cultivation road before him would no longer be the same.

But right now, that was not what worried him most.

What mattered was whether Hao Nhien could escape the range of the seal before core formation became completely impossible to suppress.

Sword-light tore across the night sky, leaving behind low hills and rocky ravines scattered across the endless desert.

Hao Nhien pushed his flying sword close to the highest speed he could sustain.

Spirit Wings erupted in short bursts, allowing him to cross difficult terrain or cut through directions that would otherwise have required the flying sword to make broader adjustments.

NovelPhoenix is the author's publication venue for this chapter, but its presence here was not authorized.

He did not dare slow down.

The spiritual liquid inside his dantian was still rotating outside its normal pattern.

Each revolution tightened.

True Qi continued being drawn toward the center.

A tiny nucleus had begun forming there.

It was not yet a Golden Core.

But Hao Nhien knew the process had truly begun.

Even as he deliberately suppressed the speed of transformation, it continued.

He needed to leave the sealed region as quickly as possible.

Then he needed somewhere suitable to finish the process.

If he delayed too long, the conflict between his natural True Qi circulation and his deliberate suppression might damage his own meridians before the tribulation even arrived.

Wind screamed past his ears.

Hao Nhien looked ahead.

Then his gaze paused.

A region of gray mist had appeared along the horizon.

At first it seemed only a thin line lying between distant mountains.

As he approached, however, he realized it covered a vast area.

The mist did not move with the wind.

Nor did it fade beneath the moonlight.

It resembled a curtain that had hung there for countless years.

Hao Nhien slowed slightly.

He remembered something Luu Van had once told him around the time he chose Mac Ta as an opponent.

To the northeast, near the boundary of the Western Wastes, stood a mountain range few people visited.

Mist covered it throughout the year.

Demonic beasts tended to avoid it.

Cultivators who tried entering deeply sometimes vanished without leaving a trace.

No one knew whether they had died, been captured, or encountered some other danger.

U Minh Mountain.

A place rumored to be connected to the Yin Soul Sect.

Hao Nhien looked toward the gray curtain and rapidly considered his options.

He needed somewhere isolated to form his core.

If this was merely a desolate mountain exaggerated by rumor, then its remoteness made it suitable.

If the rumors were true, then at the very least he might finally confirm the location of a Yin Soul Sect stronghold he had never before been able to identify.

More importantly, the mountain lay near the direction he already needed to travel to leave the sealed region.

Hao Nhien looked northeast.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

“Looks like there’s still one place worth visiting before I leave the Western Wastes.”

The flying sword accelerated.

He flew directly into the mist.

The moment he entered, Hao Nhien sensed something strange in the air.

The cold here did not come entirely from temperature.

It felt like an absence of vitality.

Spiritual energy circulated heavily.

Even the sound of the wind and flying sword seemed weakened by the thick layers of mist.

He spread his spiritual sense.

Cliffs, ravines, and terrain appeared one after another in his perception.

But the deeper he went, the more difficult observation became.

His spiritual sense was not completely suppressed.

Instead, faint disturbances repeatedly distorted his perception of distance and position.

Hao Nhien changed the direction of his probing several times and quickly realized the phenomenon was not uniform across the entire mist.

Some areas remained relatively clear.

In others, objects only several dozen zhang away became indistinct.

He did not force his way through the distortions.

He simply memorized the unusual locations and continued deeper.

Soon, the mountain range gradually emerged.

U Minh Mountain was not especially high.

But it stretched through layer after layer of complicated terrain.

Gray-black stone covered the slopes.

There were almost no trees.

Deep ravines cut across the cliffs bearing marks difficult to explain through nature alone.

Some sections of mountain had been sliced perfectly flat.

Some cracks resembled the path of a sword that had once split straight through the stone.

Other areas appeared to have melted and then hardened again into distorted shapes.

Despite the unknown number of years that had passed, many of those scars remained visible.

Hao Nhien slowed.

His expression became more serious.

He had heard that during the period when the Firmament invaded Ling Van, the borderlands here had witnessed great battles.

Countless people had died.

Powers far beyond his current cultivation had once collided in this region, leaving wounds even time had failed to erase completely.

The seal over the Western Wastes might have been formed or strengthened during those events.

But Hao Nhien still lacked enough information to determine the exact connection.

What he did know was that the edge of the sealed region was extremely close.

Sure enough, after traveling several dozen more li, an invisible sensation that had always existed since he first entered the Western Wastes suddenly vanished.

There was no flash of light.

No barrier appeared before his eyes.

Yet his body and soul immediately recognized the change.

He had crossed beyond the seal.

At that exact instant, his dantian shook violently.

The spiritual liquid he had struggled to keep stable suddenly began rotating many times faster.

True Qi throughout his meridians was drawn toward the center at once.

The nucleus under formation became noticeably clearer within only a few breaths.

Hao Nhien’s expression changed.

“As expected…”

The earlier sensation had not been imagination.

The seal over the Western Wastes truly had been suppressing the transformation inside him.

Once he crossed the boundary, that suppression disappeared.

The tendency toward core formation immediately intensified.

Hao Nhien knew he had little time left.

He looked toward a mountain peak ahead.

There was a small flat area between walls of gray-black stone.

Mist surrounded it.

There were almost no signs of living creatures nearby.

If this truly was Yin Soul Sect territory, there might be formations or hidden structures below.

But for the purpose of facing tribulation, an isolated region far from civilians was vastly better than Hoa Van.

Hao Nhien lowered his flying sword and landed on the flat ground.

After scanning the surroundings once more with spiritual sense, he sat cross-legged.

He steadied his breathing and focused entirely inward.

Core formation had reached a stage that could no longer be postponed.

Spiritual liquid converged from all directions.

The vortex grew tighter and tighter.

At its center, a small point of condensation began drawing in the purest parts of his True Qi and gradually forming a more stable structure.

Hao Nhien could clearly sense how different this was from Foundation Establishment.

Previously, spiritual liquid had circulated and distributed itself throughout his dantian according to his control.

Now everything was slowly centering upon one point.

Like a great body of water gathering around the first nucleus of an entirely new structure.

He no longer forced it forward.

Nor did he continue suppressing it.

He simply kept his soul stable and allowed the transformation to proceed naturally.

The world outside began to change.

Spiritual energy from the surrounding mountains gradually gathered above the peak.

At first, it moved slowly.

Before long, however, the movement became strong enough that the layers of mist that had seemed almost motionless began to churn.

Wind rose.

Dark clouds appeared overhead.

Layer upon layer gathered and rapidly expanded, blocking the moon above U Minh Mountain.

Hao Nhien kept his eyes closed.

He did not feel as though heaven and earth possessed consciousness and were watching him.

Yet the process of forming a Golden Core had clearly touched some rule of the world.

For someone at Foundation Establishment to step into Golden Core, changing the True Qi within the body was not enough.

There was also a trial of heaven and earth to survive.

The first thunderclap sounded.

Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

A crack of light appeared within the dark clouds.

Lightning gathered in an instant and struck directly toward the mountaintop.

So quickly that Hao Nhien had almost no additional time to prepare.

But he had never intended to evade it.

He had deliberately exposed himself to lightning at Loi Te Mountain.

He had repeatedly used the Body-Soul Fist Art to adapt his muscles, meridians, and soul to extreme pressure.

This heavenly tribulation was not an environment where he could choose the intensity for himself.

But his earlier training was still a foundation he could rely on.

BOOM!

Lightning struck his body directly.

The impact threw Hao Nhien off the ground.

Small cracks tore across the skin of his shoulders and back.

His spine shook violently.

The smell of scorched flesh spread through the air.

He clenched his teeth and kept his soul steady.

The Body-Soul Fist Art began operating at once.

External lightning passed through his muscles and meridians, causing countless small injuries as it traveled.

Hao Nhien adjusted the adaptive routes, directing the force through areas that could endure it better before allowing it to leave his body.

At the same time, True Qi protected his internal organs and critical meridians.

He did not try to keep the lightning inside.

What he needed was for his body to survive and adapt to the pressure of the tribulation without being destroyed before core formation was complete.

But this force far exceeded anything he had endured at Loi Te Mountain.

There, he could decide how deep to go.

When to stop.

When to recover with pills before continuing.

A heavenly tribulation offered no such choice.

Once the force descended, he had to survive it.

When the last traces of lightning faded, Hao Nhien braced one hand against the stone.

His breathing had become heavy.

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

The burns across his shoulders still throbbed.

But his mind felt even clearer than before.

He rapidly checked his body.

Most of the damage remained concentrated in skin, muscle, and bone.

His meridians had been shaken but showed no sign of catastrophic rupture.

“Body…”

Hao Nhien murmured softly.

The first wave had felt almost like a trial of physical endurance.

He had barely begun adjusting his injuries when the dark clouds above twisted again.

Another vortex formed.

Hao Nhien raised his head.

“No rest?”

Thunder answered immediately.

BOOM!

The second wave descended.

This time, much of the force tore through his external defenses and struck directly into the meridian system.

Hao Nhien’s body curled involuntarily.

The True Qi gathering in his dantian shook at the same time.

Pain spread through his entire body.

Meridians already stressed during the first wave developed further cracks.

He immediately circulated True Qi to protect critical points while adjusting the pathways so the lightning would not be concentrated through a single route.

Electric light passed through his body and escaped outward again, leaving violent disturbances throughout his meridians.

His True Qi did not carry lightning.

But the sudden pressure changes caused by the tribulation forced his entire circulation system to adapt continuously.

Inside his dantian, the forming nucleus was affected as well.

The spiritual liquid gathering around it was compressed more tightly.

Each cycle made the internal structure purer and more stable.

Hao Nhien could feel the transformation continuing.

But he did not dare place all his attention on the dantian.

If even one critical meridian were destroyed by lightning, everything he had accumulated could become meaningless.

He had to protect his body and keep core formation stable at the same time.

The lightning continued for some time before finally weakening.

When the second wave ended, Hao Nhien had dropped to one knee.

Both hands pressed against the stone.

His breathing was much heavier than before.

He checked his dantian.

The nucleus was more than half formed.

Yet several areas remained incomplete, while the surrounding spiritual liquid continued rotating at astonishing speed.

Hao Nhien took out a pill and swallowed it immediately, helping his body recover from the accumulated damage.

Then he suddenly raised his head.

Someone was there.

Three auras had appeared from different directions within the mist.

He did not know exactly when they arrived.

The strange disturbances in the area still made spiritual sense unreliable at greater distances.

But now all three had deliberately entered the range where he could clearly sense them.

Moments later, three figures appeared on rocky outcrops not far from the peak.

All three wore loose black robes.

Their bodies were thin.

Their complexions unnaturally pale.

The aura around them differed from ordinary cultivators.

Heavy Yin energy clung to them, making the mist itself seem colder.

Hao Nhien looked over them once.

The Yin Soul Sect.

So the rumors surrounding U Minh Mountain were not entirely baseless.

The man in the center appeared older than the others.

His eyes were deep and cold.

He studied Hao Nhien before giving a hoarse laugh.

“Quan Hao Nhien.”

“You really know how to choose a place.”

The man to the left narrowed his eyes.

“Facing tribulation directly above us.”

“Did you come here looking for a path to survival, or did you deliver yourself to the Yin Soul Sect?”

The man on the right seemed less interested in conversation.

He looked toward the dark clouds continuing to gather.

“Don’t rush.”

“Wait until he survives the tribulation.”

“Even if he succeeds, he’ll have half a life left.”

“Capturing or killing him then will be much easier.”

The three exchanged glances and remained where they were.

None entered the range of the tribulation.

Hao Nhien noticed immediately.

These men were not foolish enough to attack while heavenly tribulation was still underway.

They understood that interfering could draw them into the trial as well.

So they intended to wait for him to weaken.

Hao Nhien said nothing.

He looked upward.

The dark clouds were being dragged toward one point by an invisible force.

The pressure this time was vastly greater than before.

Not only his body and meridians.

Even his sea of consciousness had begun to tremble faintly before the lightning descended.

Soul.

Hao Nhien understood.

The first wave had tested the body.

The second had struck heavily at the True Qi circulation system.

And the final wave seemed destined to touch the soul directly.

If he survived it, the Golden Core nucleus might become complete.

If he failed…

then everything he had cultivated until now might end here.