168. Early Stage of the Golden Core (First Update - Seeking Subscriptions and Recommendations)

Chen Fengyun had already acquired 460 attribute points. As for the Yama Ghost King, its soul had been completely consumed, leaving behind the divine dragon belonging to Ma Dingdang. Although the earth dragon had not gained any direct benefits from its trip out, it had longed to emerge for a very long time, so Chen Fengyun temporarily did not recall it.

"Netherworld Book, submit to me!"

With a single thought from Chen Fengyun, the originally boundless and gigantic Netherworld Book began to shrink rapidly, ultimately returning to the size of an ordinary book. At the same time, the death aura radiating from it was completely retracted, transforming it into a sleek black volume.

"No wonder there was nothing inside the Ten Halls of Yama. It turns out they were all stored by the Yama Ghost King within the Netherworld Book."

After refining the Netherworld Book, Chen Fengyun was overjoyed. The book possessed a vast internal space stacked with numerous items, including ghost cores, various materials brimming with yin, death, and netherworld qi, as well as many belongings of human cultivators.

Presumably, over the millennia, the ghost race had killed countless human cultivators during their wars, including powerful beings at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realms. Their possessions were of little use to the ghosts, so they had been gathered and stored uniformly, only to fall now into Chen Fengyun's hands.

Indeed, Chen Fengyun discovered over a hundred storage bags inside the Netherworld Book, alongside mountains of other items. Because of the passage of time, most of these things seemed to have lost their spiritual energy, and whether they were still useful would have to wait until Chen Fengyun had free time to sort through them thoroughly.

"Boom..."

Once Chen Fengyun put away the Netherworld Book, they noticed the subterranean space beginning to collapse downward. Chen Fengyun hastily carried Ma Dingdang and flew on his sword, while the earth dragon led the way by plowing through the soil layers. Eventually, they emerged outside the original Fengdu County town in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, only to see the surrounding terrain caving inward for dozens of miles.

"Once the divine dragon finishes digesting its meal, my strength will probably increase further. By then, we can boldly go wreak havoc in the West," Ma Dingdang said excitedly after returning to the surface, automatically drying her clothes with her powers.

"I might still have some good things here, but I'll have to sort through them slowly when I have free time before sharing them with you," Chen Fengyun said without hiding anything, letting her know that there were still treasures within the space of the Netherworld Book.

"Take your time sorting them. Just give me whatever I can use, and forget it if there's nothing. I've already gained quite a bit this time, so I shouldn't be too greedy. Enhancing your strength is what matters most," Ma Dingdang replied with a nod.

The next day, Ma Dingdang returned to the capital, while Chen Fengyun continued to assist his supervisor with archaeological excavation work. Thanks to his nimble movements and flawless execution, he quickly became a celebrity among the archaeological team.

While other researchers exercised extreme caution to avoid damaging artifacts buried in the soil layers—slowly clearing away dirt bit by bit in hopes of preserving every single relic—Chen Fengyun had his spiritual sense to guide him. He knew precisely where the soil ended and where the artifacts lay. Consequently, not only did he unearth every single item without missing a single one, but he also did so without causing the slightest damage, earning high praise from his professor and the supervising officials.

Moreover, although Chen Fengyun only worked half a day, he managed to complete tasks that would take others several days. When he requested to take half-days off, the leadership actually approved it.

During his time off, Chen Fengyun would lock himself away to sort through the contents of the Netherworld Book's space. There were simply too many items, and even so, it took him more than half a month to process the majority of them.

There were numerous half-ruined magic tools, treasures, and even spiritual weapons. Chen Fengyun absorbed all the energy contained within them, reducing them to piles of raw material for crafting artifacts, which he stacked in a corner for future use.

In addition, Chen Fengyun discovered a vast quantity of pills. Instead of consuming them directly, he absorbed them all to convert them into attribute points. Combined with what he had absorbed from the Yama Ghost King, he accumulated a staggering 1,868 attribute points, leaving him wild with joy.

Equally thrilling was the discovery of numerous cultivation manuals inside the storage bags of those powerful beings, including texts that could lead one up to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realms. He promptly spent 150 attribute points to elevate his own cultivation technique to the Earth-rank peak. As long as he had enough attribute points, he could now directly advance his cultivation all the way to the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

Of course, Chen Fengyun did not possess that many attribute points right now. Raising his mental power to the early Mysterious-rank had already cost 300 attribute points, and he estimated that advancing his cultivation realm would require just as much.

However, his spiritual root was merely at the Yellow-rank peak, which initially prevented him from directly boosting his cultivation realm. Fortunately, he subsequently discovered a golden spiritual herb inside the storage bag of a Nascent Soul-stage expert. Though he did not know its exact name, it was capable of upgrading his spiritual root, raising it directly to the Mysterious-rank peak.

Following that, Chen Fengyun spent 300 attribute points to elevate his cultivation from the peak of Qi Foundation Establishment to the early Golden Core stage. A massive surge of heaven and earth spiritual energy surrounded him like water, continuously compressing the ocean of spiritual energy within his dantian until it finally condensed into a purplish-golden spiritual core the size of a fingertip.

The moment the Golden Core was formed, the aura of Chen Fengyun's entire body shifted instantly, radiating a detached and ethereal quality. This was an evolutionary leap in the hierarchy of life; from then on, he would be able to live for over a thousand years.

Being able to upgrade his spiritual root, cultivation technique, and realm could be considered the greatest harvest of Chen Fengyun's trip to the netherworld—alongside the spiritual weapon known as the Netherworld Book and tens of thousands of spiritual stones.

Within the netherworld space, Chen Fengyun had discovered tens of thousands of spiritual stones. The vast majority of them were the most ordinary kind, but there were also others of varying colors holding much denser spiritual energy, which he had categorized and stored separately.

Next, Chen Fengyun upgraded his Indestructible Vajra Divine Body, array techniques, artifact-crafting arts, flying swords, and the Profound Yin Mirror all to the early Mysterious-rank. However, his attribute points were consequently reduced to a mere handful.

Looking at the multitude of skills and magic treasures that still required enhancement, Chen Fengyun felt that he was still desperately short of attribute points. No matter how many points he acquired, they were always consumed instantly, proving entirely insufficient.

"It seems that during the New Year, I really must go abroad with Dingdang, find some old fellow who is an eyesore, and pull off another job. Relying on such windfall gains is definitely the fastest way to get rich," Chen Fengyun muttered to himself, his gaze flickering as he plotted against those foreign old monsters.

Ultimately, Chen Fengyun destroyed all the useless items while sorting and storing the useful ones. He even selected two magic treasures for Ma Dingdang: one was a garment capable of flight and defense, and the other was a phoenix hair clip that could transform into a phoenix mount, boasting a speed far exceeding the speed of sound.

After deep consideration, Chen Fengyun decided to give Ma Dingdang a batch of spiritual stones so she could switch to practicing true cultivation methods. Not only was her constitution and talent well-suited for it, but he also held deep affection for her and hoped she could accompany him on the path of cultivation, sparing him from millennia of solitude.

As for Ma Dingdang, she had long since displayed her affection for him, though he had consistently tried to evade it. Yet, after sharing life-and-death trials together so many times and experiencing so much, he felt he should finally face his inner feelings, accept her affection, and walk with her down a path entirely different from that of ordinary lovers, becoming dao companions on the quest for the Dao.