Gateway of Immortality

Qin Sang stood in the shadows, his gaze fixed on the grand array.

He stared at it for a long while, but still couldn't locate the array eye. The protective array of the Demonic Qingyang Sect had been constructed by a Spiritual Infant cultivator, and its profound intricacies left Qin Sang with a splitting headache and no leads at all. In the end, he had no choice but to give up.

Still, he knew full well that even if he found the array eye, it wouldn't mean he could break out.

If he wanted to leave, he had to wait for the Demonic Qingyang Sect to activate the array on their own.

Qin Sang quickly weighed his options.

His presence had already been exposed though the two who discovered him were now trapped and likely dead by the Ancestral Sacred Flame, unable to send out any warning.

But this delay wouldn't last long. Once that Core Formation Realm cultivator returned and rescued them, the truth would come to light. The sect would seal the mountain, and mobilize all their forces to launch a sect-wide manhunt. They wouldn't rest until they caught him.

Trying to repeat the old trick—lurking in the dark and waiting for an opening—was clearly no longer viable.

Once the sect locked down the area, it would be like catching a turtle in a jar. He would have nowhere to run.

Qin Sang was in a weakened state. Until he became fully attuned to the power of the corpse core, he had no means of charging into the azure light to silence those two.

In fact, Qin Sang even doubted that even with full control over the corpse core, provoking the Ancestral Sacred Flame without the aid of the Demonic Qingyang Fire would only bring disaster upon himself before he could kill them.

He had felt the Ancestral Sacred Flame's power up close and knew how terrifying it was. If those two hadn't cultivated the Demonic Qingyang Fire and been protected by that strange azure banner, they would've been reduced to ashes the moment the azure light surged.

That azure light, though not the true body of the Ancestral Sacred Flame, was a manifestation of its purest essence. Once unleashed, it was far more terrifying than the Demonic Flames of Nine Hells sealed within the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions.

What about using the Xutian Thunder?

Qin Sang considered it but quickly shook his head in denial.

The traces left behind by the detonation of Xutian Thunder couldn't be erased in a short time. He would still be exposed.

Xutian Thunder was his most dependable trump card. He couldn't afford to waste it. If it were spent without achieving its goal, it would only land him in greater peril.

After a moment of deliberation, Qin Sang decided to remain calm. Since he couldn't escape, the most practical option was to find a secluded place and familiarize himself with the corpse core. Once his strength was restored, anything he wanted to do would be within reach. It was better than sitting around fantasizing.

He had less than two hours.

Just earlier, Qin Sang had realized that his progress in mastering the corpse core far outpaced Yu Hua's. If he poured his full effort into it, he had a good chance of fully grasping the corpse core's power within that time.

By then, he would possess strength comparable to the flying yaksha, and with the ebony sword and Xutian Thunder in hand, he might not even fear that Core Formation cultivator.

That man was only at the early stage of Core Formation.

With that thought, Qin Sang glanced around, found a hiding spot not far from the entrance to the Demonic Qingyang Sect, then sat down cross-legged and entered a meditative state, single-mindedly attuning to the corpse core within him.

As time passed, Qin Sang's control over the corpse core became increasingly fluent. The more familiar he became, the more enlightenment dawned upon him.

His former spiritual power and the true essence produced by the corpse core belonged to entirely different classes.

Though the true essence lacked the intimate, seamless harmony of spiritual power, he could command it freely. It was a power truly his to wield.

To say that Qin Sang had undergone a transformation was no exaggeration.

However, this transformation existed only at the level of true essence. His spiritual consciousness and physical body remained unchanged. He had yet to undergo the full-body metamorphosis typical of a Core Formation cultivator, one that stirred the energy of heaven and earth and summoned storms as the body and soul evolved in unison.

This was his fatal flaw, unless Qin Sang accepted the irreversible consequences of corpse transformation. Only by lifting all restraints on the corpse core and allowing his primordial spirit and physical body to be tempered by its violent force could he proceed.

The flying yaksha's strength lay in its physical body.

Its ghost-like speed and the ability to contend with opponents of the same realm came from enduring constant tempering by the corpse core during its transformation into a corpse.

Qin Sang refused to undergo corpse transformation. His body remained mostly unchanged—essentially giving up the flying yaksha's greatest advantage.

Strictly speaking, his combat strength should have been inferior to that of the flying yaksha.

But as time went on, Qin Sang was astonished to discover that although he hadn't yet gained full control of the corpse core, the true essence it unleashed already surpassed that of Yu Hua, who had a far stronger physical body!

Qin Sang estimated that once the corpse core became entirely his, his strength might not be much weaker than a genuine early-stage Core Formation cultivator!

When one door closes, another opens.

This was something Qin Sang had never anticipated.

Is it because I have used a Golden Core that still retained its vitality, or is it the fusion of Earth Malevolent Qi and Celestial Gale Qi that has triggered this metamorphosis?

Perhaps it is a combination of both.

The discovery filled Qin Sang with immense joy and greatly boosted his confidence.

However, he soon noticed that his corpse core was entirely different from Yu Hua's. The composition of its true essence was unusually strange. It stemmed from the power of the Golden Core itself, fused with Earth Malevolent Qi, Celestial Gale Qi, and corpse qi.

Spiritual power made up only a negligible portion of it. The true foundation lay in the union of Celestial Gale and Earth Malevolent Qi.

After the corpse core's power was depleted, it could absorb spiritual qi from the heavens and earth to slowly replenish itself but the recovery rate was painfully slow, almost useless in the midst of battle. Even absorbing spirit stones did little to improve the situation.

If he wanted to recover quickly during combat, he would have to devour both Celestial Gale Qi and Earth Malevolent Qi simultaneously.

The Earth Malevolent Qi was manageable, but Qin Sang had no means of carrying Celestial Gale Qi with him.

In other words, no matter how powerful he became, he could only sustain a short burst of strength. Before his true essence ran dry, he would need to either kill his opponent or find a way to escape.

Why does this feel so much like the legendary External Cores?

Qin Sang furrowed his brow in thought.

In the world of immortal cultivation, there was no shortage of legends about External Cores—an ideal that countless cultivators dreamed of.

Yet no authentic secret art for crafting External Cores had ever been widely passed down.

Even so, it wasn't hard to imagine.

External Cores were still cores. The secret art to refine them certainly couldn't be easier than forming a true Golden Core. Perhaps it was even more difficult.

It was said that only cultivators at the Core Formation Realm had the strength to refine External Cores.

Whether Shaohua Mountain possessed a secret art for them, Qin Sang wasn't sure. He had never been qualified to access secret arts at that level. But back on Treasure Tower Peak, he had once browsed a fragmented ancient manual of unknown origin, which included a few scattered lines about External Cores.

What it described bore a striking resemblance to the corpse core within him now.

Thinking back on the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art's method for refining a flying yaksha, isn't it essentially equipping a refined corpse with an External Core?

In the damp depths of a ditch...

At some point, Qin Sang had already awakened from his meditative state. He opened his eyes, deep in thought.

Then he slowly shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside for now.

After all, he had only just acquired the corpse core. There hadn't been enough time to fully explore its intricacies. There were bound to be things he'd missed. Only after reaching safety could he contemplate and draw any firm conclusions.

With that thought, Qin Sang stood up from the ground. He now had a good level of control over the corpse core, and it had taken even less time than expected—just an hour and a half.

The Core Formation cultivator from the Demonic Qingyang Sect had still not returned.

Qin Sang decided not to wait any longer. He would return to Divine Gale Peak and stir up some trouble for the Demonic Qingyang Sect.

He couldn't take the Qingyang Gale Essence with him, but he could destroy it. If the Ancestral Sacred Flame became unstable, they probably wouldn't have the time or energy to come after him.