The return to the real world was a jolt, a violent slap of existence after the primordial silence of the Guardian's sanctuary. One second, their souls were floating in a void of ancient power and knowledge; the next, WHAM!, their boots splashed into frozen mud, and the air smelled of pine, damp earth, and the distant, familiar oppression of the Umbral Ridge. The Guardian's energy had deposited them with the delicacy of a sack of rocks, not in a tranquil forest, but on the outer foothills of the mountain range, barely a few hours' march from the sect's rendezvous point. A final act of its infinite benevolence.
Lin Feng staggered to his feet with a groan that echoed in the forest's stillness. His first conscious thought was that cosmic teleportation was surprisingly similar to being trampled by a herd of Black-Tusk Beasts, only with less screaming and a headache of celestial proportions. Every muscle, every meridian, every bone protested with a dull agony. But beneath the pain, there was something new. A solidity. A resilience that wasn't there before. He felt as if the weak, brittle noodle that had been his body had been forged and tempered in the heart of a star, emerging as a noodle made of stone. A definite improvement.
Beside him, Xiao Lan was already on her feet, her dark blue robes immaculate and her face a mask of cold serenity. But Lin Feng, with his heightened perception, could feel the ocean of power now burning quietly within her. She had reached the legendary Gold Core Realm, a level the sect's brightest geniuses dreamed of touching in their thirties or forties, not in their teens. And all thanks to a nightmarish ritual with the most useless disciple in the sect's history (him) as the indispensable catalyst. The situation was so ironic it was physically painful.
"What a shame about the Hydra's core," Xiao Lan said suddenly, her voice breaking the silence. Though her tone was calm as always, Lin Feng detected an unmistakable undertone of a hunter's frustration at having lost the most valuable part of her kill. "With all the chaos during the battle and the unexpected teleportation, there was no way to retrieve it. It was worth a fortune in cultivation resources."
Lin Feng shrugged, a movement that sent a painful crack through his back. "Hey, don't complain. We survived the end of the universe, defeated a nightmare creature, leveled up like crazy, and saved ourselves a two-week trip. I'd say, all in all, it's been a good day!" His attempt at optimism sounded more sarcastic than he intended.
Just then, he felt a familiar, gelatinous movement in the inner pocket of his robe. Glob, his small, secret slime pet, who had been very quiet since the teleportation, slid down his leg to the muddy ground with a soft, wet plop. It looked a little dizzy, its dark body pulsing weakly. It shook itself once, twice, like a wet dog, and then, with a final spasm that seemed to require considerable effort, it spat something out at his feet.
It was a nearly perfect sphere, the size of a grown man's head, of a bluish-white color that seemed to absorb the surrounding light. It pulsed with a Yin energy so pure and cold that the grass and mud around it instantly froze, covered in a delicate layer of frost. It was the perfect, unblemished core of the Glacial Ice Hydra.
Glob, now visibly a bit smaller and paler, vibrated with a frequency Lin Feng immediately recognized as pure, smug pride. It rubbed against Lin Feng's ankle, like a cat bringing a dead mouse to its master, awaiting its praise.
Lin Feng stared at the legendary treasure on the ground, then at the small, quivering slime. A huge, genuine, awe-filled grin spread across his face. He crouched down, ignoring the ache in his muscles, and gave its surface a gentle pat. "Glob, you little genius. You're the best adventuring partner in all the universes."
Xiao Lan, who had been observing the strange scene, froze completely. She blinked. Once, twice. Her jade eyes, normally as calm and cold as a winter lake, widened into saucers. For a second, the ice goddess's facade melted away, replaced by the pure, greedy joy of a dragon who has just found a mountain of legendary gold.
"Incredible…" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "The… the core. You had it the whole time." Her gaze shifted from Glob to Lin Feng, and then back to Glob, as a new, profound layer of astonishment and calculation was added to her already complex perception of them.
The walk to the rendezvous point at Condor's Peak felt short after that. Their spirits, now lifted by the recovery of the incredible treasure, lightened their steps. There, on the wide platform, the scene was grim. A sour-faced elder in gray robes, whom Lin Feng recognized as Elder Liu from the Hall of Discipline, was overseeing the submission of loot. His favorite pastime, it was rumored, was finding fault in the disciples' reports and reveling in his authority.
"Next," he grunted, not looking up from his jade register.
A trembling boy, his arm in a makeshift sling, placed a handful of Shadow Wolf cores on the table.
"Pathetic," the elder pronounced after a quick glance. "A scavenger's haul. Next!"
One by one, the few surviving outer disciples presented their meager rewards: broken fangs, low-level beast hides, and pea-sized cores. It was the loot of those who had hidden to survive, not those who had fought.
Finally, Elder Liu looked up, boredom etched on his face. "Is that it? Anyone else with their trash?" His eyes fell on Xiao Lan, and his tone became slightly more respectful, though still condescending. "Ah, Sister Xiao Lan. I see your expedition was successful, as expected from a genius of your caliber." Then his gaze fell on Lin Feng, who stood a step behind her, carrying the sacks. The contempt returned to his face in full force. "And you, useless? Still alive? I suppose Sister Xiao Lan, in her infinite benevolence, let you carry the bags."
Lin Feng said nothing, keeping his face humble and expressionless. Xiao Lan gave him an almost imperceptible glance, a flash in her eyes that said: Do it.
With a theatrical slowness that was almost painful to watch, Lin Feng approached the registration table. He ignored the bag containing the small fox cores and other minor materials. Instead, he reached both hands into the larger canvas sack and, feigning great effort, hauled out the grand prize.
He walked toward the table, the weight of the icy orb making his arms tremble. The other disciples fell silent as they saw the size and aura of the object he carried. Elder Liu glared at him, irritated by what he considered a cheap attention-grabbing stunt.
THUMP!
Lin Feng dropped the Glacial Ice Hydra's core onto the sturdy stone table. The impact was dull, but in the absolute silence that had fallen over the platform, it sounded like a thunderclap heralding judgment day.
The core, immense, a bluish-white that seemed to drink the very daylight, settled on the table, radiating a cold so intense that a layer of frost instantly formed on the stone's surface. Its power was overwhelming, a spiritual pressure that felt like an invisible mountain crushing everyone present.
Elder Liu, who had been about to spit out another insult, was left with his mouth agape, the words dying in his throat. His eyes bulged. He approached slowly, not daring to touch the frozen sphere. All the color drained from his face, turning from the red of irritation to the chalky white of absolute shock.
"That… that energy… those natural ice runes on its surface…" he stammered, his voice turning into a croak. Suddenly, as if zapped by lightning, he shot to his feet, knocking his chair back with a clatter. He pointed at the core with a trembling finger, his entire body convulsing, and shrieked, his voice breaking with an incredulity that bordered on madness:
"THE CORE OF A GLACIAL ICE HYDRA! A LEGENDARY BEAST AT THE PEAK OF SPIRIT FOUNDATION!"
The silence shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Impossible!"
"A Hydra?! I thought that was just an old wives' tale to scare new disciples!"
"Sister Xiao Lan killed a Hydra! She's not a genius, she's a goddess of war!"
The crowd erupted into a clamor of awe, fear, and overwhelming reverence. All their meager treasures combined were not worth a single sliver of that frozen jewel.
But as everyone stared greedily at the core, Elder Liu's attention shifted, his cultivator's mind finally processing the deeper implication. Trembling, he looked up from the treasure to its owner. He used all his power, his entire spiritual sense, to gauge the cultivation level of the young woman who had achieved the impossible.
And then, his face transformed.
Awe turned into a breath-stealing shock. Shock turned into abject panic. And panic turned into absolute terror—the terror of someone witnessing something that fundamentally breaks every rule of the universe they know.
He went pale as a ghost and stumbled back, tripping over his own chair and falling to the ground in an undignified heap. His bulging eyes no longer saw a mere genius. They saw an aberration, a miracle, a monster.
In a choked voice, barely heard on the mountaintop, Elder Liu, pointing at Xiao Lan with a quaking hand, cried out, his mind fracturing under the weight of the revelation:
"N-no… it's not just the core… Your power! Your cultivation level!"
He paused, as if choking on his own words, his face a mask of terror and astonishment.
"GOLD CORE! SHE'S A GOLD CORE REALM EXPERT!"
The final scream was so sharp, so filled with disbelief, that it silenced even the mountain wind. And this time, the silence that fell upon the platform was not one of awe. It was one of absolute dread.