Chapter 239: Twin Golden Core

In the clear lake, a graceful figure swam with light and agile movements, her hands parting the surface like a leaping fish, utterly beautiful. The figure then lay in the lake, drifting with the current and enjoying the moment of leisure.

On the shore, Lu Yang wore a helpless expression. "Immortal Fairy, could you please not swim here?"

"You're going to control my swimming? Pfft!" Immortal Fairy pouted, bringing her hands together. A jet of water shot out from between her fingers towards Lu Yang, who easily dodged it.

"I naturally can't control your swimming," Lu Yang said with a sigh of helplessness, "but please don't swim in my mental space. It makes it seem like my brain is full of water." He didn't know why, but ever since the Fairy returned, she had developed a particular fondness for playing with water, even manifesting a lake within his mental space.

"Go, go, go, continue your training and don't bother me," Immortal Fairy said, forcefully ejecting Lu Yang from his mental space as if she were its true owner.

Lu Yang was indeed in the midst of a training exercise. He was currently besieged by three Golden Core stage wild boars, while Meng Jingzhou and the Five Eagle Mountain Heroes stood on a tree, watching the spectacle.

The wild boars charged relentlessly, possessing immense strength. Lu Yang attempted to avoid their direct assault and attack from the flank, but the three boars coordinated flawlessly, denying him any opportunity for a side strike.

Boom— Lu Yang was struck squarely by one of the boars, sent flying a considerable distance as dust billowed around him.

"Wild boars, go for it! Gore him!" Meng Jingzhou shouted gleefully from the sidelines.

"Is Young Hero Lu alright? I see one of those three wild boars is at the mid-Golden Core stage, and the other two are at the peak early Golden Core stage, aren't they?" The Five Eagle Mountain Heroes, being more conscientious, voiced their concern for Lu Yang's safety.

"It's nothing, nothing," Meng Jingzhou said, waving his hand dismissively. "If he can't even defeat this, what kind of top talent of his generation is he? Perhaps I should take his place instead?" Last time, Lu Yang had kicked him off a tree to face the challenge; this time, the roles were reversed.

The three wild boars intended to press their advantage, but as the smoke dispersed, Lu Yang's figure was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the wild boars grew alert and tried to dodge, but it was too late. A cold gleam erupted from beneath the earth, and a three-foot green-edged sword pierced one of the boars' abdomens.

That boar attempted to resist, but Lu Yang flicked his wrist, changing his sword stance, and lightly uttered, "Slash." With that, he cleaved the wild boar down the middle, splitting it in two.

With a single sword strike, the mid-Golden Core stage demonic beast perished.

After several days of training in the dense forest, Lu Yang had already engaged with over a dozen different types of Golden Core stage demonic beasts. His biggest realization was how different it felt compared to sparring with his seniors and senior sisters in the Dao Inquiry Sect – the Golden Core stage cultivators outside were remarkably easy to deal with. From now on, if he needed to boost his confidence, he shouldn't seek it within the Dao Inquiry Sect, but rather out in the world.

"I told you all along, you have the ability to challenge those above your level! It's just that the opponents you encountered before were too abnormal!" the Immortal Fairy declared, protesting her case from within the mental space. When she had first revived, she had wanted to use Lu Yang's body to display her prowess and show him what it meant to challenge those above one's level. Who would have thought that the cultivators from the Dao Inquiry Sect were each more outrageous than the last? They could have ranked among the top even in the ancient era, which was brimming with geniuses; she simply couldn't defeat them. Fortunately, relying on her extraordinary wisdom, she later used Lu Yang's body to challenge and defeat a Soul Transformation stage cultivator, thereby salvaging her reputation.

The other two wild boars, seeing their leader dead, fled in a panic.

"Pursue them, don't let them escape!" Lu Yang reminded Meng Jingzhou.

"I know, do you need to tell me again?" Meng Jingzhou retorted, leaping down from the tree. He and Lu Yang split up, each pursuing one wild boar. These three wild boars were demonic beasts that had been roaming freely and ambushing human cultivators. Countless human cultivators had fallen victim to them, so Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou absolutely could not let them escape.

The Five Eagle Mountain Heroes waited in place. Within minutes, the sounds of battle echoed from nearby, coming quickly and fading just as fast. By the time the five came back to their senses, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou had already returned, each dragging a wild boar.

"Tonight's dinner is settled."

Night fell, and the Samadhi True Fire rose, casting a warm, ruddy glow on the faces of the seven individuals. One wild boar was slowly roasting over the flames, sizzling and dripping oil. As the oil dripped onto the true fire, the flames leapt high.

"To think that we would get to eat food roasted with true fire in this lifetime! All thanks to Young Hero Lu," the Five Heroes exclaimed, surprised that Lu Yang, at such a young age, had already mastered a true fire.

While Lu Yang was grilling, the Five Heroes dissected the other two wild boars. Inner cores, hides, tusks, and even bones were all valuable commodities that could fetch a high price at Demon Suppressing Pass. Inner cores could serve as primary ingredients for alchemy, hides could be refined into magical artifacts, tusks could be used as decorative symbols of status, and bones could be boiled for rich bone broth.

"Look quickly, this demonic wild boar has twin Golden Cores!" one of the Five Eagle Mountain Heroes exclaimed.

"What? Such a thing exists?" The hawk-nosed leader immediately walked over to investigate upon hearing this. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou became interested and put down their work. They had only ever seen twin Golden Cores within the Dao Inquiry Sect and had never heard of such an extraordinary individual outside the sect capable of forming two Golden Cores.

On the ground lay two Golden Cores: one shimmering golden, the other pitch black. They seemed to represent two extremes, one light and one dark, imbued with a subtle resonance of the 'Dao'. The more Lu Yang pondered, the more he felt these two Golden Cores were extraordinary, imbued with infinite principles. What a treasure.

"To think that I, too, would one day be able to defeat a demonic beast with twin Golden Cores," Lu Yang mused, marveling at his own growth. Meng Jingzhou also found it astonishing; he had never heard of anyone possessing a black Golden Core. Golden Cores are categorized into nine grades. Grade one is the brightest, shimmering golden, while grade nine is the lowest, dull and lusterless, yet still golden. This unassuming wild boar, capable of forming a black Golden Core – did it possess an ancient bloodline, or did it have some extraordinary fortuitous encounter?

"This wild boar is a descendant of the ancient Mountain-Bearing Boar, a creature capable of carrying two large mountains on its shoulders. As far as I know, Mountain-Bearing Boars are full of courage but lack intelligence, so their status among demonic beasts isn't particularly high," the hawk-nosed leader mused. Having lived in the dense forest for a long time, he was highly knowledgeable about demonic beasts.

"So, it must have had some other extraordinary encounter then?"

Meng Jingzhou speculated, "I've heard there's a rare heavenly treasure in the dense forest called the Twin-Lotus, whose seeds are one bright and one dark. Consuming them can invert Yin and Yang and alter one's physique."

"Could it be that this wild boar, in its lifetime, unintentionally found the Twin-Lotus and, after consuming it, formed these black and white twin Golden Cores?"

The hawk-nosed leader nodded, agreeing with Meng Jingzhou's speculation: "If that's the case, this wild boar truly had incredible luck. How many people came to the dense forest specifically to search for the Twin-Lotus, only to find nothing, yet this boar simply ate it!"

Everyone's hearts burned with excitement. Was there any Twin-Lotus left? Was it possible to find clues from this demonic boar, follow them, and locate more Twin-Lotus?

"Fairy, what are your thoughts? Can you discern the origin of these two twin Golden Cores?" Lu Yang secretly asked the Immortal Fairy.

"Twin Golden Cores? Isn't that black one just a gallstone?" The Immortal Fairy was utterly bewildered. She mused, "Didn't this Mountain-Bearing Boar, being full of gall, simply secrete bile for so long that it accumulated and solidified into a gallstone?" She had witnessed such occurrences countless times in ancient times. "What were these people rambling about for so long? Where did these 'twin Golden Cores' even come from?"

Lu Yang was speechless.